ASSIGNMENT 1: CONTRASTS

                                           STILL


Fig 1: Still

 This was taken from the balcony of my apartment and it was one of the exercises to demonstrate shutter speeds. Taken at exposure time of 1/3000 secs, the subject even though its moving becomes stationary.
    
                                           MOVING

Fig 2: Moving

At a shutter speed of 1/45s , the motorcycle rider is blurred which conjures a sense of movement and speed.


                                         STRAIGHT


Fig 3: Straight

                                           CURVED

Fig 4: Curved

This picture was taken in a rural community in mid western Nigeria. Its a beautiful countryside with the locals occupation being mainly agriculture. Oil exploration and production has not impacted negatively in any way on the environment. On the contrary, it has brought much needed infrastracture such as the road shown in fig 3. This winds down leading to a curved  intersection.  Women are more active in the farms and use bicycles as mode of transportation as shown in fig 4.


                      

                                            HOT


Fig 5: Hot

 This is to show hot and cold contrasts. Fig 5 was at a local park on independence day October1, 2011. The man was so busy making popcorn from a hot stove that he did not really pay attention while i took his picture. I like the way steam is coming out of the black pot that appears to have seen better days. This picture is set against the croaker fish  removed from my freezer which portray cold.

                                      COLD


Fig 6: Cold

For the next picture, i attempt to show a photograph that demonstrates contrast in one picture. It was on Ed kabir day and i was out buying a ram when these two young girls passed by with their backs turned to me. I was fascinated because they were about the same age and were carrying plastic containers on their heads and chatting away.                                
                                       
COLOR CONTRASTS IN ONE PICTURE:

Fig 7: Contrasts in one picture

The contrasts are in the girls dresses. They are of the same design but different colors. Also note the contrasts in the color of the containers on their heads. I like this picture. Took two shots but accidentally deleted the best shot. I have still managed to portray some elements of design in this picture. You have pattern on the one hand shown in the manner the girls hands are holding the containers. Then you have contrasts in dress and container colors.


                                     LONG

Fig 8: Long

I took this picture from my hotel room in Lagos mainland an regretted not bringing my 70-300mm lens. I would have had a closer view of the third mainland bridge in Lagos. This picture illustrates my idea of long. It links the lagos island with the mainland and is about 11km long.

                              SHORT



Fig 9: Short

 I hope this contrast works. The swimming pool length is short compared to the long bridge.


                                           BROAD


Fig 10: A Broad building

Passing by a local fast food joint, i could not help but notice the neon sign colors on the building and how they contrast with the red colr of the building. The frontage of the building is broad.


                                         NARROW


Fig 11: Narrow

 Lagos is a city with over 12 million inhabitants and the mainland is densely packed with narrow roads cutting through as can be seen from Fig 11 above.



MANY


Fig 12: Many bats

                                    FEW

Fig 13: Few potatoes

For Fig 12, the bats caught my attention as they suddenly scattered from their tree abodes somewhere near the market. They are many in number as compared to the few potatoes seen in Fig 13.

I realise that i have to improve on my imagination and creativity to be able to take excellent pictures and push my photography to the point i want to see it. That obviously takes a lot of practice. I always try to squeeze that into my busy schedule.

The assignment in contrasts is helping my imagination. its not a fast process. But as i progress into the course, i hope my imagination improves. My wife recently made a point that she has noticed i observe things better since i started the photography course. I took that as a compliment and an indication that I am on the right track.

                                         ROUGH

Fig 14: Rough

                                         SMOOTH

Fig 15: Smooth

 The two pictures 15 and 16 illustrate my concept of rough and smooth. One is an untarred  road in the countryside and another a smooth tarred road.  Benin city can be seen in the backgound.

I have come to the end of part one of the course and will be sending it to my supervisor in Barnsley. While am not quite sure what he might think of my pictures, am at least upbeat that i have come this far and have the discipline to study through distance learning. I will need to get some fairly better equipment as I progress to help improve the quality of my pictures. I will also need to get me a good printer. My ultimate aim is to stage my exhibition someday. For now let me go through my blog, dot the i's and cross the t's and send off my assignment.

CROPPING AND EXTENDING

Fig 1



Fig 1:cropped



Fig 2



Fig 2:cropped



Fig 3



Fig 3: Cropped

Cropping is a convenient way to edit pictures. You cut out segments that are,nt needed. It is also a way of zooming into a subject taken from a far distance though this comes with the resultant loss in image quality and sharpness depending on the lens quality.If all lenses were infinitely sharp and films were grainless or if there were an infinite number of pixels on camera sensors, we could easily get by with one wide angle lens and just crop to the image we really want. Unfortunately we do not have that luxury.(Bruce Barnhaum; The art of Photography, 2010). The image in Fig 1 was taken along a countryside road. I loved how  the road sliced through the dense vegetation.  By cropping it in Fig 2 I was able to cut off the sky and zoom closer to the cyclist seen at a far distance.
In Fig 2 I have cut the foreground and got a rather narrow view of the background. Fig 3 is an angular birds eye shot of kids in a swimming pool. By cropping this picture, I have narrowed down the view to only four kids inside the water. Someone seeing the cropped picture only would have no idea about othersin the pool but not shown in the picture.

LESSONS LEARNT:
1. Cropping a picture in digital format gets rid of unwanted areas of a picture.
2. Cropping enables the subject to appear closer in a picture but sometimes with a loss in image sharpness.
3. Cropping also alters the visual perspective of an image.
4. It is generally a convenient editing tool.

VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL FRAMES

For this exercise , i went out to see what images i can make of vertical and horizontal shots. What i did was to take vertical and horizontal shot of each subject.




Fig 1: Shopping Complex

 

Fig 2: Shopping complex

For this exercise , i went out to see what images i can make of vertical and horizontal shots. What i did was to take vertical and horizontal shot of each subject.

Fig 3: Palm tree

Fig 4:Palm tree

Fig 5: Road in Benin city

Fig 6: Road



Fig 7: Residential complex




Fig 8:Residential complex, vertical



Fig 9; Uncompleted building

Fig 10:Uncompleted building



Fig 11:Line of palm trees



Fig 12: Line of palm trees



Fig 13



Fig 14





Fig 15: Painting on the wall

Fig 16: Painting on the wall







Fig 17: Fish: Vertical



Fig 18:Fish, Horizontal



Fig 19: Satellite dish



Fig 20: Satellite dish

 There tends to be some differences in perspectives in vertical and horizontal frrames. The horizontal frame absorps more of an area. I tend to think that vertical shots are very good for portrait pictures. In some instances though with my lens zoomed in and very close to the subject, you need to look very well to observe the difference in the vertical and horizontal shots as in the image of the fish in Figs 17 and 18.

Horizontal frames seem to flow more naturally with the eye. In the Photographers Eye, it says our natural view of the world is binocular, so a horizontal picture format seems entirely normal. The horizontal frame influences the composition of an image, but not in an insistent outstanding way. It conforms to the horizon, and so to most overall landscapes and general views. (Michael Freeman, 2007).

For naturally vertical subjects, the elongation of a 2:3 frame is an advantage and the human figure, standing is the most commonly found vertical subject. (Michael Freeman , 2007). The image of the woman in dark dress in Fig 14 illustrates vertical effect on portrait.

POSITIONING THE HORIZON

For this exercise, two things or maybe three worked against me. One was the weather which was foggy when I went to shoot. The other was the difficulty securing a vantage point to take a picture of the ancient city of Benin in mid western Nigeria. And the third was either my inability to fully understand my Camera controls or the quality of my Lens. I  was not satisfied with the quality of the pictures. However for purposes of illustration, they are presented as shot.

Though it is said that it is not the equipment that takes good pictures but the imagination of the photographer, i believe that the quality of equipment determines to a considerable degree how a picture comes out. That is why i feel there is need to invest in better photo gear even though am only a serious enthusiast. Maybe when i do that coupled with my OCA learning, then i will start to feel good about myself. Right now am still struggling.





Fig 1: Low Horizon

 

Fig 2: Higher Horizon



Fig 3: Lower Horizon



Fig 4: Centered Horizon

From the images i have arranged, I am  more drawn to the image in  Fig1. The viewb of the city set against the skyline tends to draw my eye. Because there really was,nt any distinct features in the foreground except for some boring banana leaves, I think if the image in Fig 1 had better optical resolution, it would have been quite appealing. The most common photographic situation in which the frame must be divided cleanly and precisely is the one that includes the horizon line.(Michael Freeman, 2007).

DIVIDING THE FRAME

BALANCE

Balance is at the heart of composition. True a good picture needs to have balance. Thats what i am trying to learn in this exercise. Balance is the resolution of tension, opposing forces that are matched to provide equilibrium and a sense of harmony. Its a fundamental principle of visual perception. (Michael Freeman, The photographers eye, 2007).

As i try to improve on my photography, this concept is one that i need to grasp well to be able to produce appealing pictures. In the last week i have read some books aimed at explaining elements of design.

1.The art of photography by bruce Barn baum
2. The Photographers Eye , by Michael Freeman.

By understanding these elements of design and applying them to my pictures, i reckon my photography well improve in leaps and bounce over the coming years.

fig 1

fig 2



fig 3





Fig 4



Fig 5



Fig 6



In Fig 1  the christmas trees have filled up about

FOCAL LENGTH AND DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS

So far I have been able to reflect on the exercises done so far. I have learnt quite a bit even though am just starting. Its interesting to see how perspectives do indeed affect an image.
In this exercise on focal lengths and different perspectives, i was struck to see that distance and focal lenghts do play a significant role in the final image impression. I took two pictures of the car. The first shot using my 18-105mm lens was at 105mm all zoomed in at maximum focal length as shown below.


  Observe the image very well and compare it to the 2nd image shot at very wide angle 18mm. I moved closer and closer until I filled the frame taking note of the edges in the first image. The 2nd image is shown below.



What was not captured in the first image is shown in the 2nd image;the surroundings.The angle of view has also increased making the roof more visible now.

The Photographers Eye (Michael Freeman, 2007)  discusses perspective as the appearance of objects in space, and their relationship to each other and the viewer. A heigthened sense of depth through strong perspective tends to improve the viewers sense of being there in front of a real scene. It makes more of the representational qualities of the subject, and less of the graphic structure.

Looking at the two images, I tend to prefer the second image because i think its stronger. it is more representative of the environment.

LESSON LEARNT: Perspectives and viewpoints strongly affect the message of the image.



VARIABLE FOCAL LENGTHS

This exercise was to show the effect of changing focal lengths . I used my 18-105mm lens to focus on a two story buiilding some 600 or 700 feet away. I have earlier read Michael freemans The photographers eyes on his discussion on the topic and filling the frame of the viewfinder. A  wide angle lens enhances linear perspective if used close to the nearest parts of the scene and can show a large foreground-to-distance ratio. A telephoto lens compresses these planes reducing linear perspectiv, if used from a distance.This weakens perspective (Michael freeman, 2007).



Fig 1: Shutter speed 1/3000s, Aperture F/9.5, Focal length 18mm

The Fig 1 above was shot with the lens set at 18mm widest angle. The two story building in the background appears distant with a large part of the area shown to the left and right of the frame.

Fig 2: Shutter speed 1/6000s, Aperture F/5.6, Focal length 32mm

At focal length of 32mm, the two -storey building begins to come more into focus. But the angle of view begins to increase. Notice that the wall in Fig 1 is no longer visible.

Fig 3: Shutter speed 1/6000s, Aperture F/5.6, Focal length 42mm



Fig 4: Shutter speed 1/6000s. Aperture F/5.6, Focal length 48mm

Fig 4 was shot at a focal ength of 48mm. . Notice the increasing angle of view with overhead tanks no longer in view.

Fig 5: Shutter speed 1/6000s, Aperture F/5.6, Focal length 62mm

 I am using an APC sensor camera with a focal length magnification of 1.5. This implies that the actual focal lengths should be x1.5. In the image above actual focal length is 62x1.5=93mm.



Fig 6: Shutter speed 1/6000s, Aperture F/5.6, Focal Length 80mm



Fig 7: Shutter speed 1/6000s, Aperture F5.6, Focal Length 92mm



Fig 8:Shutter speed 1/6000s, Aperture F/5.6, Focal Length 105mm

 The image 8 above was the maximum focal length achieved with my lens. But the difference in perspectives between the first and last images can be seen. In this last image , the storey building is clearly conspicious .