DPP Assignment Five (Personal Project)

I have created two documents to support this assignment submission.   As I have done for the previous assignment submissions,  I have incorporated my self assessment against the analysis criteria detailed in the course work in a document along with the required images.

The original document was created with two page colours – white and grey (white text on grey page can be found HERE (note – now amended) and black text on white page can be found HERE (note – now amended).  Supporting Blog (Reflections) entries can be viewed by clicking the links HERE and HERE

A REVISED submission based on the tutor feedback (see below) has been prepared:

a) White text on grey page can be found HERE

b) Black text on white page can be found HERE

Assignment Five Tutor Feedback Report, including covering email text, is extracted below and can also be seen HERE:

DPP Assignment Five (Personal Project) Tutor Feedback

DPP Assignment Five (Personal Project) BoW Mike Nott 510717 FINAL 28Aug15 – with tutor comments (marked up version of the original submission that has subsequently been updated)

Tutor Feedback Covering email:

Hi Mike

I am attaching my final report and an annotated version of your supporting text.

I have been pretty nit picking but that is for a number of reasons.  The work shows promise I feel and so pointing to the areas that could be improves should be of advantage to you whereas just going on about the good bits…well you know what is good yourself!  The assessors might well point put things like the possibly derivative nature of the work, I know I would, but remember these are early days in your degree and there is no reason why you shouldn’t move on to a highly personal take on this as you progress.

Even if you are marked down a bit for this (and I am not sure that you will be but just in case) don’t be discouraged, see it as a spur, there is much to be pleased with in your work.  You have expressed some reserve about finding your own voice at this stage and your ‘artistic’ standing; creativity is expressed in different ways by different people and you will find your niche I am sure.

Extract from Tutor Report and my thoughts/comments on them:

I have been pretty nit picking but that is for a number of reasons. The work shows promise I feel and so pointing to the areas that could be improves should be of advantage to you whereas just going on about the good bits…well you know what is good yourself! The assessors might well point put things like the possibly derivative nature of the work, I know I would, but remember these are early days in your degree and there is no reason why you shouldn’t move on to a highly personal take on this as you progress.

Even if you are marked down a bit for this (and I am not sure that you will be but just in case) don’t be discouraged, see it as a spur, there is much to be pleased with in your work. You have expressed some reserve about finding your own voice at this stage and your ‘artistic’ standing; creativity is expressed in different ways by different people and you will find your niche I am sure.

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity

Most of what I want to say is in the comments I have appended to the copy of your supporting notes but just a few points here.

First of all let me urge you not to mount the prints for assessment. You have printed them with sufficient borders to make any mounting superfluous for assessment purposes. And the overall weight increase is really not worth the bother. Submitting your work in the usual clamshell presentation box (like these from Silverprint, expensive but will serve you well throughout your BA and beyond) is just what the assessors like as it is very straightforward to look at and so gives them the maximum time to assess the images. Added to which it is the ‘professional’ solution.

COMMENT: The time taken to add the border as part of the preparation for printing was well worth it. With regards the option for mounting (or not), it was mentioned within the written submission as the intended ‘display’ outcome as I felt that the monochrome nature of the images would benefit from the final mounting, but I understand better now what the assessors are expecting.

You could do a lot worse than to discuss in your blog the status of digital monochrome work based largely on the work of practitioners working with film. Is it desirable or even feasible to work this way or should monochrome work be done using film? There may well be no ‘right’ answers to these things but there does need to be discussion about them and a personal position taken and the reasons for this position explained. Take a look at the difference between Gregory Crewdson’s colour work with its high production values, movie style sets and crew and made on large format film and his black and white work with no lighting or crew and made using medium format (?) digital cameras. (see links below) In the colour work I suggest he is creating a fantastical world using the real world locations and in the second he is making a real world out of the fantastical world of the disused film studio…contradiction upon contradiction and the choice of medium is central to this.

COMMENT: The discussion re film vs. digital for monochrome will be a lengthy one and probably one best left for a more considered assessment, however I feel the need to make a comment here based on my tutor’s feedback. The unknown variable here is the type of camera/film option is to be considered against digital methods. Clearly digital sensors have developed immensely over the last few years and now equal or exceed the equivalent 35mm film comparisons in terms of overall resolution (previous 35mm slide film I have used in my younger days included Fuji Provia 100 and Velvia 50 – and the general view is that the resolution is 7MP and 16MP respectively); my Canon 5D Mark III is a 24MP sensor. If we are to consider medium or large format camera’s, then it’s a whole new ball game. Some research (http://petapixel.com/2014/12/18/comparing-image-quality-film-digital/) suggests that some medium format camera/high-resolution film combinations could reach between 150 and 400MP!

We also need to consider how the image is produced (i.e. electronically or optically) as there can be a great variation in the overall resolution and sharpness in terms of the level of detail, especially if large-format negatives are used – just think of Ansel Adams and the near 3D quality of his printed work from the 1930’s and 40’s and that they continue to match what is possible today.

Digital camera design and construction also limits the effective production of monochrome images; the colour-filter array used on many cameras and Bayer interpolation can significantly alter the overall achieved resolution by as much as 50% when converted back into monochrome – and monochrome work is best used for showing shape, form, texture and tone. I have used black-and-white film many years ago and spent a period of time processing and printing my images using chemicals and enlarger; it was fun and the results looked good, but it took a lot of time and was error-prone and it’s difficult to see what the real benefits are when comparing to the convenience and ease that digital now offers. I would have to go back and re-use black and white film again and look at the various options for printing before I could really comment and make a personal ‘position’ on the pro’s and con’s. It’s a good job I still have my 35mm Olympus OM4-Ti and Canon EOS30 kicking around somewhere that I can use – but perhaps experimenting with a medium/large format camera and film is where I need to be looking towards!

The size and quality of the printing is right for the purpose (I am not damning with faint praise here!), even the slight green cast does not detract from the images for my taste.

COMMENT: I was not aware of a green colour cast (and I’m still not sure I can see one), so my eye needs to be better ‘tuned’ into the nuances of visual assessment!

Am I right in assuming that these are commercially made prints? In my experience, unless one has access to very expensive professional printing machines, digital black and white printing is fraught with dangers, unpredictable colour and a tendency to a restricted tonal range being only some of the frustrations. So going down the commercial route is almost the only way.

COMMENT: Yes, I elected to use a commercial print service for this exercise and a lot of my own ‘personal’ print work. My home office is small and I don’t have the space for a high-end A3+ printer (it isn’t a money issue) – I need a multi-function print/scan for my work and that has to take priority. I may reserve the right to change my mind though at a future date – as I do like the immediacy of printing directly!

Assuming this is the case then my objection to having the text on the image may not be possible for you to do much about in the time left (not to mention the cost!), but you should talk about it at least in your blog. It would be so much better if you had left the text off and put a label on the back of the print with the name, number, photographer’s name etc. I think there should be nothing on the face of the image that doesn’t have to be there.

COMMENT: OK, this is a lesson-learned. Due to the time pressures of submitting my work for assessment I will be unable to send away for re-printing, so the assessors will have to grade accordingly on the inclusion of the name, student number etc. on the printed side. Also, if we look at the longevity of the printed work, will attaching a label using tape (?) have any affect re archival purposes? I happily attach labels to mount board as there is no direct contact with the print.

There are some very high standard images here so what I am going to say from her on in is intended as a discussion of how to make ‘good’ into ‘very good’; if you see what I mean.

It could be said that you have got very close to restaging existing images in at least some of these; your Lettuce 1 and Weston’s Cabbage leaf for example. It is difficult to see how one could photograph vegetables without this being a possible criticism but you need to be prepared for it.

COMMENT: This was always going to be a fine line – to be derivative or be utterly unique? Within the selected images I included two of ‘internals’ (plates 2 and 10) based on previous tutor comments to ‘explore’ the subject. This would have given me a differentiator when compared to the photographers researched in support of this assessment, but perhaps I should have only included ‘internal’ or ‘cut’ subjects rather than try and mix the two together within the set of images. Conversely, I could remove these two ‘internal’ images and replace them with other images to make the overall set more coherent. This is in fact what I will do and submit an amended series of images (replace plates 2, 10 and 11). I have a number of printed images that I can select from for final assessment, but I have far more images that I could have chosen from, but I don’t have the time to print them up before submission. It’s a judgement call on my part – and a slight compromise I feel.

One could argue that the tonal range is a little variable. Take your Cabbage and Cauliflower images for example. The Cabbage has a higher contrast look about it, making it feel sharper, more vibrant; whereas the Cauliflower feels softer and quieter. The result of this may be what you were after or it might seem to upset the unity of feel in the set of images (all these things you can make reference to in a blog post in response to this report.)

COMMENT: I really wanted to create a ‘set’ of images of different vegetables and fruit for each image; in practice, I didn’t achieve this. Each has their own characteristics in terms of texture (smooth, shiny, contrasty, detailed, reflective or not) and with hindsight, I do agree with my tutor that there is a range of contrast across the images. Was this deliberate? The answer is ‘yes’, but rather as an indirect consequence of the image taking, lighting used and post-processing rather than a deliberate action. I would have to select a smaller number of subjects, resulting in variations of the same to achieve a degree of consistency in terms of contrast.

One of the results of this variability is the impression that some images are sharper and more detailed than others. One might even think that the focus isn’t as pin sharp in, say, the Sliced Avocado as the Cabbage. Again be prepared for this to be questioned…do you think the focus is spot on? If not why include the image? And similar questions.

Depth of field comes in here as well. Particularly in close-ups we are always fighting this problem. One needs to use a small aperture; however, particularly with digital SRLs, small apertures lead to the loss of sharpness due to diffraction effects. (Take a look at this article). One of my tutors at college (we spent much of the first year fighting with 5×4 cameras in the studio) was insistent that is you couldn’t get the whole subject in focus (in close ups that is) you should make sure that the closest point was just in focus and let the most distant parts take care of themselves. Also it is worth remembering that depth of field is distance dependent so that only one third of it is between the point of focus and the camera and the other two thirds on the other side of it. So you should start off by focusing one third of the way into the main subject. Things were made easier for us with depth of field scales on the lenses but hey! Things are made better by using more expensive lenses and those who specialize in close up and macro work very expensive, slightly long focus lenses to maximize depth of field and sharpness.

COMMENT: I studied the avocado image carefully – both on the screen and print prior to inclusion into the final set of images. I knew when I took a knife to it the fleshy part was rather slimy and would ultimately come across as ‘soft’ in the final image. However, that is different from being out of focus. The stone/seed in the middle was pin sharp at the time of taking (I used Liveview and zoomed in to set the focus and use the depth-of-field preview to check) and I am confident that I did as much as possible to achieve focus (taken at f/13, 8 seconds with 100mm macro lens – selecting no higher an aperture than f/13 because of the known diffraction issue).

I wonder if Lettuce 2 wouldn’t be better the other way up in this set. It looks more uncomfortable than the rest.

COMMENT: The orientation was deliberate rather than accidental, but I do agree that when considered within the overall set of images, it may seem to be ‘different’ in feel. I guess it is a matter for personal preference. My problem is that I can’t get a print created with the image rotated 180 degrees in time for inclusion within the set of printed images. Any adverse markings from the assessor will have to be taken on the chin!

I am not entirely happy with the composition of the Bananas. Going out of the frame like that makes then so different from the other images.

COMMENT: Again, this was a deliberate inclusion to offer up something different from the (arguably) derivative nature of the overall set of images – so I will replace it with another image to maintain consistency.

Ok, so what am I saying overall? This is a good set of images, generally good technical quality and a good homage to the photographers, Weston in particular, you have researched. They could be said to be somewhat derivative but on the other hand it has to be remembered that you are only in the middle of the equivalent of your first year so this might not be unexpected. There is room for improvement of course but that is to be expected (I suspect that all images can be improved)…this is a learning process after all and you have made a strong statement here.

COMMENT: I was surprised with the overall positive feedback from my new tutor (my previous tutor resigned from OCA when I submitted my Assignment Four material). I do agree that the work could be considered as ‘derivative’ by some, but there are only so many ways that you can take photographs of vegetables and fruit within the overall scope and approach that I had originally planned. I did learn a lot from this personal project that I hope I can use further to develop my photography in the future. In summary, I will be replacing three images (plates 2, 10 and 11) and include three new images that are more in keeping with the set as a whole, accepting that this may further support the ‘derivative’ viewpoint.

The images presented in the assignment submission are displayed below (A3 prints have also been provided to my tutor).

DPP Ass 5 Down-Select Contact Sheet

DPP Ass 5 Plate 1 Lettuce

DPP Ass 5 Plate 2 Cabbage 1

DPP Ass 5 Plate 3 Cabbage 2

DPP Ass 5 Plate 4 Pepper 1

DPP Ass 5 Plate 5 Cos Lettuce

DPP Ass 5 Plate 6 Avocado

DPP Ass 5 Plate 7 Cauliflower

DPP Ass 5 Plate 8 Artichoke

DPP Ass 5 Plate 9 Lettuce

DPP Ass 5 Plate 10 Pepper 2

DPP Ass 5 Plate 11 Melon

DPP Reflections 37 – Harry Callaghan

Harry Callaghan (1912 – 1999). American photographer who had no formal photographic training or education, but was an active member of the Chrysler Camera Club and was heavily influenced by Ansel Adams and was ultimately invited to teach photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago by László Moholy-Nagy.

Callaghan’s work is predominantly monochrome, or certainly that which is publically available from the Internet for viewing, although he did work in colour.

I researched Callaghan’s imagery as part of my Assignment Five personal project.

“….To be a photographer, one must photograph.  No amount of book learning, no checklists of seminars attended, can substitute for the simple act of making pictures.  Experience is the best teacher of all. And for that, there are no guarantees that one will become an artist. Only the journey matters…”

DPP Reflections 36 – Imogen Cunningham and Bill Brandt

Peter, my new tutor, pointed me in the direction of Imogen Cunningham and Bill Brandt in support of my Assignment 5 submission.

Cunningham (1883 – 1976) American photographer is best known for her monochrome botanical photography (many taken at home in the garden when she was looking after her young children).  Interesting work and worthy of more attention.

“….I can’t recreate my feelings about how I happened to do this or that, because a lot of my stuff was done without any motivation, more than just what I call having a good time fooling around.”  Imogen Cunningham, Dialogue With Photography by Paul Hill.

She seems to have a very casual attitude like William Egglesworth!  See here.

Bill Brandt is from closer to home, born in Germany but with a British father and German mother and disavowed his German heritage to live in England from 1933 onwards;  Brandt (1904 – 1983) is best known for his landscapes and nudes.  To be honest, I struggled to find any work (i.e. still life, fruit/vegetables) that supported by ideas for Assignment 5, but having said that, I have found another source of inspiration for more monochrome portraiture and nude model work should I do it again!

“But I did not always know just what it was I wanted to photograph. I believe it is important for a photographer to discover this, for unless he finds what it is that excites him, what it is that calls forth at once an emotional response, he is unlikely to achieve his best work.” – Bill Brandt, Camera in London, The Focal Press, London 1948

DPP Reflections 35 – Tutor Feedback on Assignment 4

My tutor feedback on Assignment four submission has been received…and it was rather critical of my effort and work as there were “…many reservations about the colour one”.  Worthy of mention here are:

• Given the assignment title was ‘Real or Fake’. then clearly my submission was so obviously fake as the use of silhouettes takes away any possibility of a faked image;
• Chopping my body off at the knees didn’t work – better to have them ‘growing’ out of the bottom of the frame;
• The silhouettes would be better moved to the right to centre them more – in order to reduce the space on the right and increase it on the left;
• The font used for the title lettering was too “1950’s True Horror comic” when used with the images – the visual references need to be constant.

I also need to include the following in my review of the assignment:

• The reasons for choosing the background colour in the (original) mono image and the type of colour used in the ‘birds’ version;
• Discuss the visual influences and what I think the various elements in the image(s) will mean to the viewer and why;
• Where I got the ideas from and why the typefaces were selected;
• Discuss why the use of silhouettes in the ‘birds’ image removes any doubt regarding the ‘real or fake’ aspects;
• As I progress though into the next levels, I need to think more about the theoretical background to my choices, influences, etc. – basically the comments are pushing me more in that direction

I also need to make the review of my assignments easier for the assessors; the supporting reflections pages in the blog should all be available on one scrolling page rather than having to navigate around the blog – the assessors have limited time to spend on each submission, and anything that slows them down will detract from the important time spent reviewing the submission and assessing the practical work.  This needs clearly consideration before final submission!

The blog content seems OK, ranging around the subject rather than simply recording the projects and assignments – and that is precisely what I should be doing.  The feedback ended on a positive point, well, it would be difficult not to based on the other comments.

Whilst this feedback seems somewhat harsh, on reflection all of it is aimed at improving my chances of a better submission grading.

Basically, I must try harder.

DPP Reflections 34 – Picasso’s Fingers

Robert Doisneau, Les Pains de Picasso 1952

I came across this image called Les Pains de Picasso (Picasso’s Fingers) by Robert Doisneau from 1952 – and I didn’t get it, at least not straight away.  It just goes to show that you need to look at an image carefully to understand it.  It made me smile.

 

DPP Reflections 33 – Change of Tutor

Pete, my tutor for this DPP module, resigned a few weeks ago.  I don’t think it is a big deal, but clearly I would have liked to have completed the entire level before changing tutor.  My new tutor is also called Peter.  Does the OCA have a stock of tutors called ‘Peter’?

I’ve had a quick look at my new tutor’s website (http://www.peterhaveland.co.uk/) and OCA profile (http://www.oca.ac.uk/profile/peter-haveland/) and I hope to complete the remaining and final assignment in this DPP module under his welcomed guidance.

 

DPP Project – A Web Gallery

A Web Gallery

Objective:

There is a project called ‘A Web Gallery’ just prior to the final assignment for the Digital Photographic Practice; its aim is to encourage the creation of a photographic website/web gallery.  I’ll be straight up and say that I do not intend to create such a gallery at this stage.  My primary reasons are that I feel that I lack a coherent body of photographic imagery (a portfolio) and that I have no intention to market my work.  That being said, I may change my find at a later date and that performing some research into what makes a successful photography website/gallery at this time would be prudent.

The primary aim of such a website is to display a portfolio of work; it is the interface with your intended audience and potential clients and should include:

1. your images
2. a blog (optional)
3. social media (an absolute must these days)
4. price list (including the option of printed output)
5. client ordering (i.e. a shopping cart and order fulfilment)
6. contact information (the geographic area in which you work)

The Internet is awash with photographers and their websites; it is a horribly competitive market within which to work, and where desired, make a living from. Clearly there are many different types of photographers working in numerous specialisms – landscape, portrait, wedding, wildlife, art, product, etc. and there are truly some great images out there and your photography website has to stand out from the rest of them if you are to successful.

These days there is no need for a photographer to be a computing wizz-kid and be able to design and code a website from scratch – there is an array of portfolio-building websites for photographers, including, but certainly not limited to, Photoshelter, Zenfolio, 500px and Smugmug.  Part of the portfolio-building selection process includes selecting an appropriate ‘style’ that will represent you and differentiate your work from others – and reviewing your photographic portfolio to derive common aspects and a style is a good place to start and will help formulate the personal ‘look-and-feel’ that you want from your website; solicit unbiased feedback from friends and family (but be aware that these people may lack a suitably critical eye or will not be viewing the work as a potential ‘buyer’ of your photographic wares).

Before we start going through the key areas to consider, remember that the intended audience may be using a variety of ‘end-user devices’ – traditional PC or Mac, but more so now, tablet or smart phone.  Whatever is decided, this is an important consideration.  Given that a significant degree of online browsing is now using tablets or smart phones, your website needs to be ‘friendly’ to them as well as the laptop or desktop devices.

Developing a ‘Brand’

If you are serious to make photography your business, then you need to start devising a ‘brand’ that differentiates you and your work from the rest (business name, logo, fonts and typeface, style of writing, etc.). Your website needs to reflect your ‘brand’ and the website address will be a key part of that.  It is worth spending the money to have your own domain name from the outset (i.e. mikenottphotos.com rather than something generic like my blog URL www.nott249.wordpress.com). Web-hosting services will often incorporate email services.

Website Style

You should only display you best photographic images on your website – and the supporting visual elements within the website design and layout needs to enhance rather than detract.  Many of the photographic portfolio-building websites will have a set of templates that can be used – reflecting different styles and/or themes.  Someone else, often with a more artistic/design flair, will have developed these using complementary colours/colour palette, backgrounds, typefaces/fonts, etc. – so why not consider them to get up and running quickly?  I used a similar approach when I selected by WordPress ‘theme’ for my blog – the only difference is that I used a freebie rather than paying for it (and that does come with compromises, so consider spending some money to achieve a better end result.  After all, if this is going to be the front-end of the future photographic business, then it needs to be spot-on and attract prospective clients to you and your work).

Images generally look better when viewed on a darker background rather than white.  This increased contrast helps bring out the colours within an image – making it more striking.  Try black and white and see what works best for you, your style and your portfolio.  Having a dark background to the website will mean that the appropriate selection of colour in the text, logo, menus etc. will be important.

As a design principle, try not to use Flash and use HTML.  Flash is somewhat dated now, can’t be read by Apple devices and search engines can’t read text inside a Flash website.  Your website search engine optimisation is wholly dependent on text and your potential clients may simply not find a website using browser searches if Flash is used. Not a good business strategy.

Design a cracking home page! 

This is the window into your photographic work and potential business; it needs to show only a limited subset of your best and strongest photographic work with the intention of making a favourable initial impact and lasting impression.  Less is more and all that – you will only have a few seconds to engage with the viewer before they click and move onto the next website.  Get the home screen layout right – the theme templates will usually have options for full-screen, column or slideshow displays.  Whatever is selected, it needs to make an immediate and lasting impression.  Search engines will use HTML text on the home screen to index and categorise your website, so make sure that the words selected are appropriate to your business and increase your chances of being picked up by Google et al.

Having an ‘About’ section/page will inform the viewer about who you are, where you work and the type of photography you work in, any awards or industry recognition, experience, etc.  This needs to be something ‘personal’ as this is the only place that your character/personality may be presented and will either attract or put off potential clients!  Having a separate ‘Contact’ section/page detailing telephone number, email address, social media links and postal address will allow a prospective client to get in touch with you easily.  A subset of this information could also be displayed in the header/footer of the website.  Setting up an e-mail contact form will increases the amount of people contacting you.

Also consider having a ‘Search’ field displayed on every page; it will make it easier to locate images within your website portfolio.  Keyword use and selection is key here.

The website design will include options for menu navigation and these will also be displayed on the home page – and it will be the primary means to move around your website to locate photographic content.  Menu navigation needs to be simple and straight forwards and only use single words/titles or short strings of words – as this has increased flexibility of where the menus can be located on the page.

Categorising Your Images and Presenting Them

Your portfolio of work (as does the website design/theme) needs to reflect your intended audience – that obvious, isn’t it?  If your collection of images is extensive, then hard decisions need to be taken to limit what is displayed on the website; having too many can slow down the website response times and can ultimately disengage the viewer. Be discerning and only display your best work.  I’ve said it before, usually ‘less is more’.  The viewer can always ask you for more work if needed/interested.

Categorise the photographs into meaningful groups – by date, by subject, by category, by location, by event etc., but clearly these will be largely dependent on your subject matter/images.

Your photographs need to be sharp, true in colour and be as large as possible – coupled with quick loading speeds and ease of navigation.  As mentioned at the beginning, large images need to be viewable on smaller format end-user devices such as tablets/phones, so having automatic resizing/scaling for these smaller screens is a great idea to factor in from the outset.

Use JPEG format (not TIFF) for your images, but try not to compress them too much as image quality degradation will be the end result – but a trade-off (compromise?) between quality and download speed needs to be considered and some decisions made.  If you are bothered about ‘protecting’ your higher-quality images from unauthorised copying/use, then there are other ways, such as watermarking, that might be a better solution to that issue.  More about that later….

Placing the strongest images at the beginning and/or the end of your portfolio is likely to have the most impact on the viewer – grab their attention at the beginning and leave them something to think about or remember at the end.

Add Shopping Cart Capability

I’m not going to dwell too much on this aspect, but if the website is going to be used to market photographic images for sale, then having an online ‘store’ capability to allow purchases to made would be fundamental; this could include a secure payment system/checkout system integrated with all major credit cards and Paypal (plus all the backend sales tax/VAT, financial record keeping and email integration for regular communications with the buyer throughout the end-to-end process).

Maintaining Your Intellectual Property Rights

Having an online presence increases the chances of your displayed images from being copied and being used by someone else without your permission or potential payment.  This would be especially important if you were trying to run a photographic business where any lost revenue opportunity is something taken away from your profit.  Use of watermarks on your images is one way of protection, but there is the consideration that it may detract from the overall image, so it does need to be applied carefully.  A watermark is a faint/semi-transparent image or logo/company name applied over an image showing who the owner/creator is.  Images are your intellectual property from the time they are taken – you own the copyright and gives you full legal rights to do with it what you will (i.e. license for reuse, sale etc.).  Displaying a clear copyright notice with copyright symbol and year of publication and business name (where applicable) is key.

Add a Blog Section

To make your website more dynamic and to maintain a sense of ‘currency’, consider creating a blog section.  These are dynamic in nature, but it will need to be loved and maintained with high quality content!  Blog text can also be detected by search engines, increasing the potential for bringing people to your website.  Don’t use the blog to just upload new images – create new text and develop a narrative style, show your personality and approach to your photography, details of current commissions/projects etc.

Review of Selected Websites:

I’m going to select a few websites of professional photographers whose workshops I have attended over the last couple of years – and see how their websites stack up against my thoughts/considerations listed above:

Aspect2i (http://www.aspect2i.co.uk/)

Aspect2i Home Page

The home page displays a large image panel – using a slideshow capability to refresh the image.  There is a smaller panel of thumbnail images helping people to navigate to the relevant sections within the website.  The menu options are clearly displayed along the top of the page and includes an ‘About’ section (called Why Aspect2i – with sub-pages), a Contact Us option, plus additional pages for various aspects of their business/work.  Along the bottom of the page we have a clear copyright statement, terms and conditions/privacy policy, site map and a ‘Contact’ option with email capability.  There isn’t an online payment system option, but obviously they feel that the business can operate equally well without it (payment using credit card/cheque/bank transfer is explained elsewhere).

Black text on white background works well, with accent colours on buttons aligned with the corporate logo design.

Overall, a pleasing and intuitive website that presents the business and their imagery well.

David Noton (http://www.davidnoton.com/)

David Noton Home Page

Much like the Aspect2i home page, the David Noton website uses a large image as the primary point of visual engagement – using a slideshow capability.  Menu options are displayed along the top of the page, but also an additional sub-set of options are displayed down the left-hand side.  I find the over page ‘too busy’ and thumbnail images on the page somewhat distracting as the home page effectively spans two-screen depths.  The standard business pages for ‘Terms and Conditions’, ‘Privacy Policy’, ‘Contact’ etc. are shown at the bottom of the page;  a fully functional sales/payment system capability is integrated within the website, as is an image search function.  I’ve seen better webpages….

Guy Edwardes (http://www.guyedwardes.com/)

Guy Edwardes Home Page

Interestingly Mr Edwardes doesn’t have a Home menu option!  I found that mildly annoying when I was navigating around the site.  The dark background provides good contrast to the rotating home page image, bringing out the colour to those images quite nicely.  All the expected menu options are displayed along the top of the page (except the Home page!).  The Portfolio pages show the image library grouped by ‘Recent Work’ and a plethora of categories such as Birds, Landscape of the British Isles, Landscapes of the Rest of the World, etc.  The images include captions, showing location or other meaningful information – and with options for buying images as prints or from Getty Images.

 

 

 

DPP Exercise 24 – Sharpening for Print

Sharpening for Print

Objective:

Take an image that you have processed as the reference standard, with some edge detail and some smooth areas.  A portrait is ideal – with the eyes carrying wanted detail, and the skin smooth areas that you do not want to be over sharpened. For the reference image, make sure that you have applied no software sharpening.

Make three more versions, each with a different degree of sharpening. There will be a certain amount of trial and error in this, but make sure that the weakest of the three is quite close in on-screen appearance to the unsharpened original, and that the strongest is noticeably aggressive.

Print all four (unsharpened original plus the three differently sharpened versions) at full size. Next, with neutral white lighting next to the computer screen, compare these prints with each other and with the 100% magnification images on-screen.

Write down the differences you see, and also your assessment of which degree of sharpening seems to your taste to be the most appropriate for the image in print form.

Setup and Preparation:

Find suitable image from my image library to work with.

Results:

I took an original RAW file and processed it in Lightroom, applying a square crop and minor adjustments to the shadow areas of the hat and highlights on the right arm and cheeks.  No sharpening applied and created a TIFF file (Baseline-6003.tif) from which to work from.

As instructed, I exported four files from Lightroom for printing and I selected the ‘Matte Paper’ option using ‘No’, ‘Low’, ‘Medium’ and ‘High’ sharpening options from the Export function.

Created a new blank page for printing (12×8) and added each image that had been sharpened to a lesser or greater extent to a new file and saved as a JPEG without further sharpening.

Re-opened each file in Photoshop and created new Adjustment Layer and applied a 20% brightness adjustment (prints tend to come out much darker than when compared to the same image on a screen).

DPP Ex24 No Sharpening

DPP Ex24 Lowest Sharpening

DPP Ex24 Medium Sharpening

DPP Ex24 Highest Sharpening

Observations and Comments:

When comparing the printed output against the same image on the computer screen, it is readily apparent that the screen is a lot ‘sharper’ and more texture and detail can be seen when compared with the same printed out image.

Only the images printed with ‘Medium’ and ‘High’ levels of sharpening come close to the detail seen in the on-screen image.  Areas of comparison are the skin areas on the nose and left cheek and the wide ribbon around the hat. My personal preference is the medium level of sharpening  for this particular printed image and selected paper type.

DPP Ex24 Sharpening for Print Comparison

Another useful exercise from which I have learnt from.

There is a good source of information on the general concepts of image sharpening, including output sharpening, on the Cambridge in Colour website

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/image-sharpening.htm

From a personal perspective, it has been unusual to start printing out photographs again in support of this course.  It was once the only real way of viewing and sharing images, but now electronic formats are preeminent with prints way behind in terms of popularity.  I have found that printing for camera club competitions has relied on an initial period of experimentation – as images often come out darker when printed when compared to projected or on screen displays.  Likewise, output sharpening – and the amount required – will vary greatly based on the type of image/image content, the paper type selected/available and the desired ‘look and feel’ of the final image. Regardless, the necessary amount of sharpening will still likely depend on the image content, type of paper, printer type and the look you want to achieve.   I hate to say it, but there is a fair degree of trail and error (and wasted print outs!) before a successful outcome is achieved.  This will (hopefully) be minimised in the future as I become more skilled in this activity.

 

 

DPP Assignment Four (Real or Fake)

I have created two documents to support this assignment submission.   As I have done for the previous assignment submissions,  I have incorporated my self assessment against the analysis criteria detailed in the course work in a document along with the required images.

This document has been created with two page colours – white and grey.

a) Black text on white page can be found HERE

b) White text on grey page can be found HERE

DPP Reflections 31 – Assignment 4 ‘work in progress’

I originally intended to produce a ‘coffee-table’ book for this assignment using images ‘in the style of’ Edward Weston that I captured at another studio day a few weeks ago.  Despite my liking for the two images, the initial feedback from my tutor indicated that they didn’t really meet the requirements of the assignment brief;  I needed something that was more of a ‘composite’ image.

Assignment 4 – Initial ‘Weston-esque’ cover

I completely binned this idea and decided to create a completely new book cover using images that I already had – and some created especially for the idea.  The first attempt was rather bland:

Assignment 4 – ‘Birds’ Cover with Colour Gradient

After several days thinking about the ‘bland’ image, I re-worked it using a more vibrant background:

Assignment 4 – ‘Birds’ with Vibrant Cover

I’ll await my tutor’s initial feedback before writing up the supporting words (or re-working or starting again from scratch).