Excercise 1.8 Zone System in Practise.

August 31, 2019July 15, 2020 / michaelgreen515037 / Leave a comment

In this excercise I am tasked with demonstrating my understanding of the Zone system whilst showing I can take light readings.

In an earlier course I was asked to look at histograms from within the camera. I thought it may be useful to repeat this exercise but take light readings. So I took two photos separated by an hour. I looked for 10 different points within the photo then took light readings from each. I left the ISO at 100 to keep things simple.

Ansel Adams Great Dome in winter (Adams, 1938) Adams Gallery

Ansel Adams used 10 zones to capture his images. So the darkest black would be zone 1 and the lightest zone 10. The light in the bottom and the top of this scale are too distant from one another. So he aimed for exposure between zone 3 and zone 7. The aim of work in the digital is to get good exposure where nothing is over exposed or blown out or under exposed too dark. Plus getting the colour as it looks in the scene. Here in one of Adams photos called Half Dome he shows what can be achieved..

Our cameras use electronics to meter and expose for mid gray which for most people and most shots works just fine. However if we want to take our photography up a notch we need to think around the average reflectance of 18% our cameras are set to. Using the table below we can override our cameras to over or under expose to get the affects we desire.

Below is one of my final three showing how I set up the 10 zones in my head based on light and colour. You may not agree with it that doesn’t matter what matters is you are thinking deeper about your shots. You will see an change and the zone systems will get quicker and easier with practise I am sure.

Below I show the two photos along with readings I took.i have shown them in a spreadsheet as this enabled me to understand the facts shown. I took Lumens figures too and the difference in illumination in one hour is quite staggering.

Looking at the figures if I set my camera for a well exposed sky I would lose lots of detail in the room. If I set the camera based on the readings of the chest I would let the sky whiteout. Neither would be good. I would get a better photo if I looked around the middle settings so set the camera at F8 for 1/200ths of a second.

The first thing I noticed completing the second shot was The was lumens figure had shot up with the light. Colour will be brighter and therefore much easier to capture. However easier to lose detail if the camera is set up wrong. I would be setting at around F6 with a shutter speed of around 1/450th second.

These settings would give nearly the best exposure for across the shot. But once you start to think as an artist you see the zone system would allow you to make different parts of the scene the subject. Out in the landscape with more space this could really help to capture great exposures.

Below are three of my first attempts at using the zone system. The light was difficult as there was a mix of light sky and dark ground so I used my camera to take some light readings. Then I set the camera for the mid tones which meant I had to have the camera open at F1.8 the hard part was getting detail whilst capturing the colour in the sky.

References

Adams, Ansel. Great Dome in Winter. 1938. Silver Gelatin. https://shop.anseladams.com/collections/ansel-adams-exclusives2/products/half-dome-merced-river-winter-3?variant=31415622008899.

Eftaiha, Diana. “Understanding & Using Ansel Adam’s Zone System.” Envatotut+, March 20, 2013. https://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/understanding-using-ansel-adams-zone-system–photo-5607.

Exercise 1.7 Assignment Preperation.

August 30, 2019September 7, 2019 / michaelgreen515037 / Leave a comment

This is the email I sent to my tutor outlining my plans for the first assignment of this course. I will add his response when it arrives.

Dear David

I hope you are well? I am finding the course very interesting and enjoying walking the hills around home taking photos and thinking.

I have some ideas for my assignment 1 work I would like to share with you.

I have been reading about and looking at works by Julian Bell, Joseph Wright of Derby, along with Burtynsky and Gurtsky. In looking at works with trees I found Paul Nash. His work before the first world war is something special. Then his work in WW! still using trees but to show the casualties is even more so.

I live in an area with many trees and want to show them in my work. However I don’t want to show individual trees I want to get up high and show the trees in the landscape. They make great features and also create lead lines into pictures.

I plan to get up high on a sunny day with clouds to add texture to the local landscape I want to create a picturly set of photos almost like postcards. However they must have great clarity with focus front to back. I think at this part of my learning this is what i must achieve before I start to try other things.

Being up high will help me record the land at present as building is beginning so the landscape is going to change in the coming years. I can document this change.

For this first submission I plan to put it on my learning log at pixel count of 3000 with a setting of 300pi to ensure detail for you to see.

I trust this meets with your approval and look forward to your input if you would like a different way to see the photos please just ask.
Yours Sincerely

Michael Green.515037.

Exercise 1.5 Visualise Transitions.

August 26, 2019September 9, 2020 / michaelgreen515037 / Leave a comment

A number of years ago I was walking down a leafy country lane near Warter in East Yorkshire when a car approached me driving very slowly. The car had a very odd bull horn on the front. The apparition approached and past at a snails pace. I glanced in the car and thought I recognized the passenger.

Turns out this was David Hockney making a piece of film for the Royal Acadamy. The strange apparatus on the front was in fact a rack of cameras. Nine in total all catching a different perspective of the same scene which when combined fools your brain into seeing one image.

Hockney then presented the video on 36 55 inch screens. I don’t have those resources so will have to change my version.

David Hockney’s Four Seasons 2011 http://www.hockney.com

This experience came back to me when I read the brief for this exercise. We have a very picturesque wooded lane near to where we live. This lane appears to be stable so I would be interested in its transition through the year. A year which will be massive in Europe’s history. Whatever happens within our exit from Europe the lane will stay the same.

I spend my spare time Diving and doing so we use transits to ensure we return to the correct area of seabed. I can use these to ensure I take my exposures from the same place. I took three transits and noted them in my notebook.

Landscapes are usually 3:2 ratio so if I take my shots as square it will give a unit of 1. So 3 along the top with 3 along the bottom will give the 3:2 ratio required. Each completed photo will take 6 exposures. I aim to completed one every month so 12×6=72 photos to complete the set.

Whilst they are of the same scene they are not a stitch so wont be exact. Hopefully this will make the brain fill in the scene giving a similar effect to the one Hockney achieved in his work.

Thinking about presenting the work for assessment it may work in a high quality photobook format. Printed as large as possible. I usually put captions with my work however it may be interesting to use the headline of the day to record what happened in the media on the day each exposure was completed.

So below is my first attempt at this work eleven to go.

References

Hockney, David. Four Seasons 2011. 2011. Digital Colour Video. Royal Academy London.

Exercise 1.4 What is a photographer?

August 14, 2019July 14, 2020 / michaelgreen515037 / Leave a comment

Marius De Zayas(1880-1961). “Photography is not art, but can be made to be art”.

What did he mean by this? At first read I was affronted by this statement however reading on I got to understand De Zayas thoughts and found myself seeing my photography thought process in his work.

This essay comes from a piece he wrote for issue 41 of Stieglitz led magazine Camera Work in 1913.

De Zayas was allied to Gallery 291 in New York this gallery is so named as it was on 5th Avenue in New York at number 291. It was know as the little galleries of the phot secession. Stieglitz created and managed this gallery.

After reading the essay I understood that De Zayas was saying there are two types of photography, 1 Photography and Art Photography.

I shall consider the two, first Photography. This shows form in its true state, the camera is placed in front of the subject and it records what it sees. You could say it is showing knowledge. The photograph is mainly produced right in camera. Little alteration in post processing.

Secondly Art photography, this show different conceptions of form. The truth(subject) is their but you have to work a little harder to understand what is being shown. Form is suggested to you. You may need more research to help you think, see and understand. This type of photo is for pleasure.

This thought process was evident in John Szarkowski exhibition Window and Mirrors when he explored truth and manipulated photographs in 1970s art.

Both work and neither is over the other, I use both to show my work to my viewers.

When De Zayas says “The first is the fixing of an actual state of Form, the other is the representation of the objectivity of Form.” It makes me think of rock art I have seen. Both are depicting the form of man however one shows the form in a straight here’s a man way. Whilst the second shows the impression we leave if we blow pigment on our hand. The shape is left behind but I know both are showing a human.

My thoughts on this are confirmed later in the work when the writer says this “Subjectivity is a natural characteristic of man. Representation began by the simple expression of the subject. In the development of the evolution of representation, man has been slowly approaching the object. The History of Art proves this statement”.

Both are photography both can be art, a camera is only an instrument like a twig dipped in pigment.

Feelings at the start of Landscape Level 2.

July 29, 2019August 29, 2019 / michaelgreen515037 / Leave a comment

I look forward to this course I have been fortunate enough to travel to Antarctica and have seen some astounding things whilst there. Looking through the course workbook I see many new things where I know I will learn new things and develop new skills.

I have always loved and been inspired by the work in Antarctica of Herbert Pontin and Frank Hurley. Pontin went on Scotts expedition and took many photographs working in Landscape, Scientific and even early advertising photography. Frank Hurley did much the same but was with Shackleton when Endurance sank and recorded the disaster and the rescue.

Hurley had taken over a thousand exposures on glass plates during the Shackleton voyage. I cant imagine his disappointment when he had to sit with Shackleton and break 900 plates sat on the ice. They are still out there somewhere.

I have been inspired by the work of Ansel Adams and Sebastiao Selgado, Both present detailed work with stunning clarity. I have tried to do the same I look forward to trying again with new skills gained in the coming months.

So I thought I would show 12 of my landscapes from the South to show where I start from. I must say they have been captured over the last five years and all before I started the landscape 2 course. I hope you enjoy seeing them.

Let me introduce myself.

June 24, 2019August 29, 2019 / michaelgreen515037 / Leave a comment

My name is Michael Green I live in Yorkshire England and am studying with the Open College of the Arts for a degree.

I enjoy diving and have done this all over the world in places such as Bikini Atol, Palau and Antarctica. My favourite place is still the UK waters and her shipwrecks.

My degree will be a Bachelor of the Arts and I am just starting Level 2 with the module Landscape.

I live just outside the Yorkshire Dales National Park and so I look forward to exploring this place to complete work for this part of my studies. However I am findings lots of interesting potential for projects right here on my doorstep.

I enjoy all aspects of Photography however I am developing a real interest in the old techniques used in the past to produce pictures of light. I am learning Cyanotypes at the moment and will post some, soon.

If you like my work let me know, if you are learning too let me know. I enjoy working with others and if you are doing something else I would love to hear about it.