Choosing Sets

I am now looking through all of my images and have decided that two pictures look better together than three.  I am going to try out a variety of different sets and see which ones I feel look the best together.  Thinking about it now I would like to display my images at around A1 size  so I think two would work better.

I have made sure that all my images were taken in raw files so I am able to enlarge them whilst keeping the quality.  

I have put an album of some of my favourite images on my flickr.

I prefer this set the best, the images came out really well and the depth of field worked out really well after using the spot focus.   I feel that these images turned out better than expected because I was using available light and at that point the sun had gone behind the clouds and went a bit dark, therefore creating more of a shadow in these images than in my previous ones.  They turned out not as warm and pink toned but colder with dark tones which adds to the pictures being more ambiguous.  I could possibly have 2 images of the darker ones then to contrast that have 2 images of the warmer toned ones.

Toolkit

 I learnt a lot about lighting from this project.  I learnt that with available light it can be tricky if the sun goes in and then I had to keep doing light meter readings, which got rather annoying at times but I like the effect of available light I feel more so than artificial.

I also learnt a lot about DSLR cameras and just how useful it is if you know how to adjust the ISO, aperture and shutter speed in 'manual' mode rather than just having it on 'auto',  As well as knowing how to spot focus on an object and how to change lenses correctly, and using a tripod.    Depth of focus was also something I learnt a lot about because I had a lot of trouble with it but trough that it helped me to learn what to do to fix it.

Coin Practice

From discovering that when using the 65mm macro lens the depth of field is so slim that not much of the pictures I was taking were in focus.  I decided to look up some tutorials on YouTube to see if there were any about focus squares and spot focusing, I found this video which was really helpful and after I watched it I decided to test it out on a coin.  I used a coin because its a small object and if I could focus on the scratches by using the spot focus on the camera then it would help me when taking pictures of the hands and skin.  Even though only a small section of the picture were actually in focus, the areas that are in comparison to my previous images the focus is much clearer.  I will have to keep working on it though in order to get more of the photo in focus. 

65mm macro

REMEMBER: Always shoot in raw. 

After shooting with available light I went into the studio and this time i was using a 65mm macro lens rather than a 50mm, so I knew that the depth of field would be even narrower but I had to test it out.

I took pictures of my set up with the camera on a tripod this time for extra stability which was handy because I could easily wind it up and down in order to help even more with the focus.

I had four separate constant lights on full beam and the lens at 1x zoom to begin with.  The lights were on full beam and so close to the hands because the more I zoom in with the macro lens the further the light has to travel up the lens and less time to reach the camera lens, which is why I had four lights instead of my original three point lighting idea.   

Books about lighting

Photographic Lighting Essential Skills - John Child, Mark Galer

Photographic FAQS Lighting  - Chris Weston

From looking at these two books I think I am defiantly going to take my next pictures in the studio and compare the difference between artificial lighting and available lighting. 

Macro photography lens starter

Just before I start shooting with macro lenses I wanted to firstly learn more in depth about lighting, ISO and the aperture, so I knew what would best suit the situation i was in.  I asked for help and I got told about the white balance scale and knowing that the depth of field when shooting macro photography is very slim.

Light Meter

White balance scale

Review of 3 Point lighting

From watching  'Opale - sparkles and wine teaser' video I can see just how affected the face and emotions can be just by simple lighting.   In the video the woman stays still and the the light around her is changing and moving positions, therefore making it appear as if she is changing facial expressions but she is not and I like how light itself is able to do such a simple thing.  Although I am not capturing faces I can still use a similar lighting technique used in this video.

Because I am using macro lenses and the light that is let in is very limited I have decided to use 3 point lighting using constant lights.  I may have to move the lights a lot closer to the hands I am photographing so the image is not so dark.

Key light - Shines on the subject from the front, acting as the main source of light.

Fill light - Shines on the subject from the side usually at the level of the face, creating shadows.  Not as bright as the key light.

Back light - Shines from the back, this light outlines the subject and creates a separation between the subject and the background.

Macro Photography

Macro photography is extreme close up photography generally  of very small objects where the size of the image turns out to be larger than the original size.
Macro lenses specifically designed for close up images, which is capable for of reproducing (reproduction) ratios that are bigger than 1:1.

"Macro lenses of different focal lengths find different uses:

• Continuously-variable focal length – suitable for virtually all macro subjects
• 45–65 mm – product photography, small objects that can be approached closely without causing undesirable influence, and scenes requiring natural background perspective
• 90–105 mm – insects, flowers, and small objects from a comfortable distance
• 150–200 mm – insects and other small animals where additional working distance is required"

Lighting can be an issue when using macro lenses so close to the subject because the closer the lens is  to the object the less light there is on it, as it has further to travel to finally reach the shutter.   Therefore I will have to take this into consideration when taking my pictures and either make sure there is enough light so it can travel up the lens or I will have to alter the aperture and ISO in order for the images not to come out too dark.
Depth of field is also an issue when using macro lenses.  "A small aperture (high f-number) is often required to produce acceptable sharpness."  Due to this I may have to turn up the ISO. 

Canon 50mm macro lens

Canon 65mm macro lens

Oil Printing Workshop

I then took part in an oil printing workshop and thought that this was one of my favourites.  I got told about the different techniques and methods that are used when using oils these include:

Intaglio print - etching

Relief 

Mono-printing

Embossing

Photopolymer - intaglio 

The first method we tried was a simple text poster using the metal letters and a thin layer of ink.  This was quite fun because we had to lay out the letters backwards so they would appear the correct way when we turned the paper around.  The magnets are very strong and hard to move but we used them so that the letters would stay in place when we pulled the roller over it.  We used rollers and a very thin layer of ink on the letters and made sure that it was even, then we carefully places some paper over it and two other thick pieces so that there would be more pressure when rolling over it.  The first couple of prints weren't too great as some of the paint was patchy so we tried it again with another thin layer of paint and made sure it was more evenly spread the next time around.  After testing out this technique we tried some prints using a giant press machine, I really liked how these ones turned out, again we put a thin layer of ink onto a small transparent screen and layed out some fabrics.  Then I layed it out on the machine and out some tracing paper over it then the large fabric and turned the wheel.  When I took the fabric off of the screen there was a perfect print of it in the ink and after that I put the fabric with ink on and put it on a separate piece of paper and it printed it pattern of the fabric.  

Even though I really enjoyed the workshop I do not think there are many ways I could incorporate it into my images.

Bottom image is the printed version

Screen Printing Workshop

Screen Printing - "A technique that uses a woven mesh to support an ink blocking stencil to receive a desired image.  The stencil forms open areas so that the ink is able to pass through revealing the image."

Another workshop I took part in was for screen printing,  this workshop was very beneficial to me because this could be a technique that I use when it comes to printing my pictures, as a way to make them larger, which will contrast with the fact that they are macro shots.  Screen printing you also have to use a negative of something and then use the lightbox to transfer the picture onto the screen.  I found this workshop required a lot more preparation than when I did the cyanotypes, but the results from screen printing are a lot clearer rather than patchy areas of blue around the picture, with this method you are able to control the colours and the intensity of the image by using the squeegee.  The screens I used are silk-screens and using these is like a stencil method.  The whole of the screen is covered with emulsion and then the negative image is transferred on, so the the ink/acrylic paint (which we mixed with a gel to make it not as thick) is then pushed through the holes. One colour must be done at a time.

Silk screen

Cyanotype Workshop

Cyanotype is a printing process that produces a cyan-blue print using two chemicals - Ferric Ammonium Citrate and Potassium Ferricyanide.

I took part in a cyanotype workshop which I really enjoyed.  I took a few negatives on acetate with me and one positive so I could have one where I could compare which one worked the best.  

I liked this printing technique because I like how you are bale to control the texture of the background to either completely covered in the chemicals or where there are some areas left un-painted as well as some brush marks, leaving them white which leaves a nice comparison between the dark blue.  I think the cyanotypes that worked the best are the ones that were exposed to the ultraviolet light for 200 light units, because I feel that 400 light units was a bit too dark when we washed off the chemicals.  I think that I could use this method when I begin to print my images because the gaps in the paint and chemicals will add to the texture of the skin.