Photo Book Review

As part of the second assignment in our course, the Photobook, we have been asked to review a published photo book.

I have chosen Night watch, by Noel Kens.

Noel starts his book with the quote “If I could say it in words, I wouldn’t need to Photograph”. What a wonderful quote. This quote belongs to the renowned documentary photographer Lewis Hine.

The quote is probably true for many a Photographer.

Noel Kerns’ fascination with old buildings started at an early age, he was 13 when he found an abandoned building with all the owner’s artefacts still in place.

This fuelled his fascination and the mystery surrounding the deserted building stayed with him.

Noels book, Night watch contains over 200 images of various locations throughout the United States and serves as a snapshot of history, as many of the locations and buildings have now been demolished.

The layout is fairly standard in it's approach with the number of photographs per page ranging from 1 to 3. The author has also chosen to add a few words to several of his images to explain what each or set of compositions represent. This adds to the overall professionalism of the book.

Noels signature technique is to take his images using long exposures, using the moon and other additional light sources to capture his images.

He explains that he insists on manipulating his images as little as possible, so all the light he adds to his photographs is done with flash light and strobe.

Although the book doesn’t explain in detail how each shot was made, you do get the sense of the simplicity of each shot, as the main light source for each image is the moon. Each shot has been taken on or around a full moon, so that the amount of light for the shot is at its maximum.

When looking at the photographs contained in the book, it certainly gives you a sense of how many forgotten buildings there are in America, usually abandoned in the name of progress, from abandoned petrol stations because of the motorway’s (or highways) being moved, to entire ghost towns where the whole population of a town has moved.

His photographs portray scenes of desolation, brought back to life in that brief moment where he adds light and life to the room or building.

The Photo Book certainly allows you to have an insight into what can be achieved with the most basic of tools.

A Camera, tripod, flashlight and to add that extra punch, some gel’s and a strobe, plus and old building or two is all that is needed to produce this type of image.

A book well worth a read for anyone who is interested in night and light photography.

Noel Kerns (2013). Night Watch. Great Britain: Carpet Bombing Culture. p01-340.

Building the book.......

The main output from this BTEC level 3 course, apart from the qualification of course, is a complete and printed photo book.

There are a number of ingredients that go into making this Photo book, and these all need to be assembled ready to be put in the mix.....

Firstly and most importantly...... Photographs......., well I have these, not all of them yet, but my target is to get at least one per week over the next few weeks to finish off the amount I will require.

Is there a set number? well, I would like to produce a book that at least takes a few minutes to read through and digest, so I am thinking, 20 images at least...

What else?

Well a book printer would probably be useful!!!!!

I have chosen Blurb......

http://www.blurb.co.uk

There interface is user friendly and they offer good value for money....

Next, an introduction and quote.



Some research is called for here, my introduction is going to be about photography and light. I think this will be appropriate as my photo book images are going to be based on painting with light...

The quote, well something light orientated.....

Above is two pages from the initial book draft, as I am starting to piece together the final work.


Anything else?

A Book Title......

Something that is informative but punchy. I have decided on A "Light" Read, I think that works well.....

Image titles....

Do I number the pages or use the image titles as information for the contents page?

If I go with titles, then something descriptive and funny will be the way to go, I think..

The above two images are called a spot of "light" gardening and mines a double. Again, these two images are show in the draft copy of the book....

Another two images above shown in the draft copy of the book.

I need to spend some time working on layout and titles as well as my thank you's and introduction.

I'll keep you posted on the progress.....

"Light" Reading

The experimenting continues.......

I took the opportunity last night of setting up a few different artefact’s into a scene.

I borrowed some old books, a skull, a quill, a pipe and a candelabra and built, what I thought was a reasonable composition.

I then set up some studio lights and lit the scene as a further experimentation into working with light.

I also decided to ditch the studio lights and light paint the scene too.

The reason for this was that I could make a comparison between the two and decide which one which one was best.

 

I took a series of 32 images, 29 of which were with studio lights and various artefact’s, and when I was happy with the composition and finished with the studio lights I decided to light paint the scene with a torch.

 

These were the 3 final images on the contact sheet.

 

 

The 2 final images that were used were DSC_6789 and DSC_6814

 

 

DSC_6789

 

Firstly, this image turned out quite well, it's well lit and there is separation between the candelabra and the background, the composition works well overall, the lighting is well balanced.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, there isn't enough detail in the skull's eye sockets and nose. This is caused by the angles of the studio lighting.

I do like the scene, but I think the scene can be improved by better lighting.

DSC_6814

Ok, this one is lit by torch light. The first thing that hits you when compared to the first one is the increased darkness of the image. This is caused by moving a single source through and over the image. i.e. the torch.

I think the dark image creates a much more atmospheric shot, with pools of light forcing you to look at each individual item within the shot, but returning to the many focus which is the centre of the image and the book.

I also like the increased detail in the skull, as the light having been directed into the eye and nose sockets shows detail and depth.

The pools of light separate both the candelabra and the skull from the background and there is a nice shadow cast by the torch light.

I am very happy with the final image and the composition, is there anything I would change about this one? Well no, I don't think so.

Camera details ~ Nikon D7000, Nikon 18-200 f3.5~ F5.6 Vr Lens, Tripod, 30 second exposure at f16, 100 ISO and auto white balance.



Some "Light" Exercise

Continuing to experiment with different set ups, I decided to try and capture a scene with my daughter on an exercise bike, lit by torch light.

Obviously one of the issues with this type of photograph is keeping still, so that the subject doesn't become blurred.

I took a series of 10 shots, first lighting the subject, then the surrounding area, taking note of Eric Curry's advice from his book, "Painting with Light".

The fist two were not used in the final image as they were of my son originally as the subject, but he couldn't keep still enough and found the whole thing a bit of a giggle....

My daughter then said she would be the subject..

The final image below worked quite well.

I am very pleased with the outcome of this image, it's has I envisioned. The floor area is well lit as is the subject.

I managed to get the foreground and background well lit, and the subject is standing proud of both.

I do think the image could be improved however.

1. The face of the subject is a little blurred and maybe if I had lit the face first as a single exposure, this would have elevated this.

2. I would have liked to see a little more light on the back of the subject, a little rim lighting would have helped removed some of the shadow along the subjects back.

I do like this image though and I will probably include it in my Photo Book.

More practice will only improve my technique.

I will endeavour to keep trying different set ups and locations to help achieve this.

"Light"ning fast dual Processors

As this course is all about experimental Photography and my chosen book subject is painting with light, I have tried to come up with various ideas of scenes or senarios that I could experiment painting with light.

"Light"ning fast Dual processors was an idea I had of both my teenage children sitting at the kitchen, using a laptop table whilst I painted them with light.

I only have one laptop, so I decided to do one section of the scene first, then move the laptop, and then paint the second section of the scene, I then decided that I would blend these images together in Photoshop.

I took 6 photographs (above), firstly lighting my son and laptop, then the chair and surrounding area, then the kitchen units. I then moved the laptop and proceeded to copy the process for my daughter.

I then blended these together in Photoshop.

 

 

The arrangement worked quite well, both subjects are lit as I intended and they both appear to be using laptops at the same time, although there is in truth only one laptop.

 

There are a few things about this image though that could be improved.

 

1. Both subjects faces are a little blurred, maybe if I shortened the exposure time to a couple of seconds on each subject and concentrated on the head first, then continued with a separate exposure for the body, that might improve or removed the blurriness.

 

2. There isn't enough detail under the table. I could have removed both subjects and chairs after painting them with light and shone the light under the table for better effect.

 

3. The background of the image, again could be improved further I think by lighting that separately.

 

Will this image make it into the final photo book. Probably not, I could however re-stage and re-shoot it, as I think it can be improved to a point that it will make it into the book.



Star Struck.......

Well, true to their word, the weather men that is, we did have clear skies on Thursday......

We also had a very bright moon........

I was determined to at least produce a star trail to get some practice. I have included all the photographs I took in the contact sheet below.

After converting them from raw files to Jpgs, using Photoshop, I ended up with 67 shots that I wanted to use.

 

 

Loading these images into Star Stax, I compiled the images into one image.

 



I then produced the following image.

As a first attempt it fulfils my brief of producing a star trail.

There are a number of improvers though that I would like to incorporate to improve my next star trail image.

1.       The foreground is too light; I think that taking the foreground using a different aperture would improve the image. The star trails were caught at maximum aperture f2.8 and a focal length of infinity. I think stepping down to f11 would not only improve the crispness of the foreground. But let in less light, in order for me to light up the foreground with more control using a torch, as the foreground was basically lit using ambient light.

2.       The moon was too bright, allowing the sky to remain rather light at such a large aperture, picking a clear night with little or no moon would improve the image further.

3.       Waiting until a little later at night. Again due to the moon light and dark only just descending there was still too much light in the sky to produce a really dark image.

4.       Line up the camera better so that Polaris was a little more central.

5.       Maybe taking the ISO down a little as well from ISO 500 to 400 or even lower will let a little less light in. The shutter speed I would remain set at 30 seconds.

That said however, the image is quite effective and some individuals actually like the graduated sky. Personally I would have liked it a bit darker.

I guess it’s a waiting game now, I need all the elements to come together to produce an image more akin to what I envisage. No or very little moon and clear skies........

Photography is never easy...........

 

 

 



 

Photobook Intensions.

During this course on experimental Photography, I have leaned towards two genres.

1.     Long exposure of water.

2.     Painting with light.

I already use the long exposure technique for some of my landscape photography, so producing a Photobook of long exposure landscape and water, for me, wouldn’t be pushing my photography in another direction.

Having read Eric Curry’s Book “Painting with light” and viewing many of his photographs as encouraged me to delve deeper into this genre.

Eric isn’t the only person who I have researched for this genre however and another two Photographers that produce images that have inspired me are Andrew Whyte for his “light painted” vehicle shots, as well as Michal Iwanowski for his photography project called “Ne”, in which he “light paints” scenes incorporating individuals, whether it be internal or external locations.

The result of a well performed light painted photograph brings out a completely different image from one that is photographed in the day.

The torch light brings out different details in a light painted photograph than the same scene would offer if photographed during the day.

It’s this difference that encourages me to produce a photobook of images shot at night using torch light.

My intension is to produce a professional Photobook of some 20 photographs from different locations, incorporating different objects and light, taking inspiration from the three aforementioned photographers.

It's layout will consist of an image per page, incorporating maybe a double page spread if any of my images allow. This will be assessed nearer the time of completion.

A "Light" Trig-er

Having visited the Trig point once, I wanted to visit it again to try and complete the star trails.

Unfortunately, this is Wales and when I got up to the location, you never guess what!!!!!! it clouded over!!!!!!!!

Not to waste the walk and return without and photos, I decided to practice lighting up the trig point again.

This time I changed the vantage point slightly.

The contact sheet below is of the photographs taken to make up the final image.

 

Again, the images were stacked in Star Stax and then manipulated further in Photoshop.

 

Below is the final result..

 



 

I like this second version, as there is more lead in to the Trig point with differing depths of light and shade.

 

The rocks are well lit and sharp as is the actual Trig Point.

 

There is also colour in the sky which I think adds colour to the image.

 

I do think however that the image can be improved further by cropping some of the  foreground as there isn't a lot of interest in the immediate foreground.

 

 

Below is the cropped version, which I think is an improved image.

 

The image was taken with my Nikon D7000 and Tokina 11-16mm f2.8, set at ISO 200 and @ f5.6

The good new is that apparently clear skies are due on Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th March, so I may just complete a Star Trails image yet!!!!!

Watch this Space!!!!!!!



A “light” trek up the Blorenge Mountain

Another fine night, so I decided to walk up to the local Trig point on the Blorenge Mountain for another light painting session.

I would have loved to try and do a star trails image too, but there was too much cloud about, when I reached the Trig Point.

Below is the contact sheet that includes the photographs that I used to make up the final image.

As you can see, I have removed a portion of the sky that did have a little of the star trail in, as this I believe offered nothing to the image.

I combined the images using a program called Star stacks this time, as I wanted to use a different piece of software, partly to broaden my knowledge of different types of software and partly to see what difference using this software would make to an image, compared to my normal Photoshop.

The screen grab below is of the software in progress, assembling the photos into a single image.

 

I then imported the single image into Photoshop for some final adjustments.

Below is the final image.

The idea was to try and get some foreground detail into the image by using my Tokina 11-16mm DX lens, coupled to my Nikon D7000.

I quite like the effect of the grass and stones leading up to the trig point in the centre of the image.

I would have liked to improve the image even further by having a clear night and including circles of stars emanating from the top of the Trig Point.

This is for another day (or night)

The image won’t win any awards, but I believe it shows the effect of light painting quite well.

Had this originally not been an attempt to capture star trails as well as painting the Trig Point and surrounding area with light, I believe moving the camera position higher, so that more of the surrounding landscape could be painted, would have further improved the image.

Making "Light" work of the Garden

Another dry night tonight, so I decided that there was no time like the present.

I went to my parents house to shoot some garden tools propped up against one of my fathers sheds.

I decided to try and illuminate inside the shed as well as the surrounding area.

Below is the contact sheet of the shots I took.

This image is made up of only 6 out of the 7 shots taken.

Step one was to illuminate the inside of the shed so that the detail inside could be seen.

Step two was to shoot the inside of the door as well as the tree.

Step three was of the tree, floor and ladder.

Step four was the Shed Front.

Step five was of the right hand side of the shed.

Step six was to light the roof of the shed.

All these images were then loaded into Photoshop as individual layers and combined into one image.

The final image was then exported as a jpg.

 

All the photographs used were taken on a Nikon D7000 camera with a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 wide angle lens.

Focal length was set at 16mm and f/11

Each photograph was exposed for 30 seconds using a 125 lumens torch.

I am quite happy with the final result. I think that taking what I have learnt from the two car shoots as well as reading Eric Curry's book has enabled me to make progress.

I could improve the image further though. I think the lighting on the front of the shed could be more even, as well as cleaning the window so that more was visible from outside.

The other shed next to the one I was painting could also have been lit, as the door is open and what is inside could have been included in the image.

Better planning would improve this image further.

I will say that I am thoroughly enjoying painting with light though.

Revisiting the Car shoot.

Having tried to paint my car with light a couple of weeks ago, I decided to give it another go..

I was hoping for a better sky as well and better definition and a better final image.

Below is the Contact sheet of the images taken.

This time I also had the addition of a late night orientierer walking past with a head torch, giving a squiggly line in the background.

Unfortunately I wasn't early enough to get a light sky and it was wet and getting colder, but I want to improve my skills and the only way to do this is practice.

After reading Eric Curry's book, practice will only improve my skills.

Below is the final image.

I am happier with this result as I think the interior is better, along with the bodywork being painted slightly better.

The light trails in the background of the photo are also much better and the addition of the passer by also adds another element to the image.

I think the foreground is better lit as is the road. The underneath of the vehicle is also better lit and there is better definition in the headlights.

Overall I think this image is an improvement on the first attempt.

Practice, Practice, Practice..... I think that's the mantra!!!!!!

A "Light" Read........

In my pursuit to improve my painting with light skills, I decided to purchase the "Painting with Light” book by Eric Curry, who in my opinion is one of the best at this genre of photography.

The book explains and details Lighting and Photoshop techniques for photographers who wish to improve their skills in this area of photography.

Eric included details of the equipment he uses, such as what lighting to use, as well as how he lit certain subjects, he also describes the use of low tech solutions such as painting poles with lights attached to light a scene from above. This enables him to produce an even light over a subject without creating hot spots.

Eric also recommends the use of mains powered lighting for larger projects of a few hours or more, however he also uses standard torches or flash lights such as a small AA Maglite for some scenes. It really depends on the scene and the complexity of the image your trying to produce.

What I like about the book is that he has also described how to recombine the images you take into a single photograph using Photoshop.

This is an important step in the production of the image and one that you need to get right to produce an image that you will be happy with. It’s not a step by step guide however, and some basic knowledge of Photoshop is required, but that is all that is needed.

Other useful information contained in the book is a few of his lighting plans. It seems that Eric has a plan in his head of how he is going to light the scene and that is put down on paper. This again is obviously important, as knowing what you want to get as a final image and producing the final image will depend greatly on how the scene is lit.

Also included in the book is a series of images of various photographs Eric has produced, showing how he has lit various portions or area.

This also enables you to understand what techniques are used to produce the final image.

Again it’s not a step by step guide but a series of illustrations meant to give you the tools you require to go out and try the technique.

All in all I am very pleased with my purchase, and believe that this book will give me a greater understanding of Eric’s painting with light technique, which in turn will hopefully enable me to produce better images.

Would I recommend this book to anyone interested in this genre of photography? Well the short answer is YES……

Packed full of information, pictures and instructions, as well as encouraging words, if your going to dip your toe into the world of light painting, there is no better place to start in my opinion.

A great “light” read……..

Eric Curry (2013). Painting with Light. Buffalo, NY: Amherst Media. p01-p159.