Lars TUNBJÖRK

Beautiful humorous images by Lars TUNBJÖRK at Amador Gallery http://bit.ly/tsQVQ8

Taking inspiration from Vanessa Winship, the Winner of the HCB Award 2011

Winner of the HCB Award 2011:  Vanessa WINSHIP
I really like Vanessa Winship's work. Her photograph of two boys, superimposed on an image of what look like a backyard, is my favorite. Amazing how an accident could become a real winner!
HCB seems a great opportunity as it offers a real chance to a talanted photographer, it buys the most precious commodity in this life - time.
Here is the info about the HCB award as described on their website: Presented by the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, the HCB Award is a prize to stimulate a photographer’s creativity by offering the opportunity to carry out a project that would otherwise be difficult to achieve.
It is intended for a photographer who have already completed a significant body of work, a talented photographer in the emerging phase of his or her career, with an approach close to that of documentary. The prize is of 30 000 Euros and is awarded every other year.
Eighteen months after the reception of the prize, the winner will have an exhibition of his work at the Fondation HCB in Paris and a catalogue will be published.
http://www.henricartierbresson.org/prix/home_en.htm

Quote for the day: Friederich Nietzsche on interpretation

There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Some more reflections on Assignment 3: quotes, reading sources and images

Whilst working on the project I looked at the wide range of sources, mostly

philosophy and literature, for inspiration. Some helpful ideas were also found

in the classical and children’s literature, for example, ‘Moominland in Winter’

by Tove Jansson and ‘Dandelion Wine’ by Ray Bradbury. I also used

references from some photography-specific sources, such as Susan Sontag’s

“On photography”.

I looked at some images and work of other photographers (such as John

Blakemore) and painters though I tried not to spend too much time doing this

as it sometimes inhibits my own thought process.

Below is a selection of quotes that helped me to develop my ideas on the

theme.

The world remains ever the same.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

That though the radiance which was once so bright be now forever taken from

my sight. Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendour in the grass,

glory in the flower. We will grieve not; rather find strength in what remains

behind.

William Wordsworth

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and

so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear -

what remains? Nature remains.

Walt Whitman

Quotes, reading sources and images

Theme of assignment: The remains of sunny days

Final reflections and lessons learnt

The final assignment provided a valuable opportunity to use all the skills that have been developed and improved through the previous three parts of the course, including the following:

-       Practice and polish my personal digital workflow

-       Look critically at how different formats perform at different lighting conditions and how the image quality is affected

-       Practice working with Raw and TIF files

-       Get to know the software better: Camera Raw, Adobe Photoshop and  Adobe Lightroom

-       Perform black point and white point adjustments

-       Make intuitive colour, tone, contrast and brightness adjustments

-       Convert colour images to back and white

-       Experiment, break the rules where needed, not being be afraid to go beyond manuals.

Ansel Admas described photography “as a powerful medium of expression and communications” that “offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution”. I feel very fortunate to have access to this wonderful media that helps me to live, experience and express my feelings, share my thoughts and ideas with others around me.

Theme of assignment: The remains of sunny days

The process

This section gives a brief overview of my work on the digital images of the theme.

I followed my digital workflow (developed in the assignment 1) to download, assess and select suitable images. All images were exposed well so there weren’t any rejects on technical grounds. All images were colour. I started working on black and white conversions at a later stage (see Image 2).

Image 1: Adobe Lightroom, Library Mode, Grid View of the collection

Image 2: Black and white conversions and selects as part of the main collection

At this stage, I started selecting images for my collection. I tried to make sure that the images ‘balance out’ against each other and convey all the messages that I wanted to communicate. I also wanted to keep some kind of connection running through the theme so needed different object to ‘talk’ to each other in some of the images (this is why I included the images where the roses share the frame with cabbages etc).

Theme of assignment: The remains of sunny days

Working on the process

There are no moral phenomena at all, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena.

Friedrich Nietzsche

From the brainstorming session, it became apparent that:

1)    Format and tone: black and white or ‘turned down’ cold tone would suit the theme. I thought that the most suitable tone would be a very light hint of pink/ magenta, possibly with a hint of green in leaves. I felt that the ‘cold tone’ format would not only help from the technical point of view but also from the conceptual – as pink/ magenta tones are often associated with summer, warmth and innocence.

Theme of assignment: The remains of summer days

Ideas on the process (brainstorming)

Creative interpreting more important then rules, free spirit of summer - ignore rules if necessary, don’t play by the rules but contrast with rules being there – boxed up summer, accepting – resisting(?), need contrast, light and dark, chiaroscuro, also need to show maturing, fading, quieter, turned down, plane, subtle, so black and white, cold tone – faded colours when they just visible is even better, strong light, contained so possibly frame within the frame (wine box again?), indoors, subject: flowers, starfish, poppy, something to show lightness – bright tones, highlights – overexposed(?), some dark places at the same time – contrasting.

Theme of assignment: The remains of sunny days

Ideas on the theme (brainstorming)

Farewell summer; packing away summer, memories, flowers, sea, sand and the dry starfish, used up, dried, faded away, faded memories, crumbled, bristle, breaking, wine, wine boxes, wood, texture, light fading or strong light combined with dark shadows, natural way, season, change of seasons, coming and going, cycle of life and death, Dandelion wine, cold season approaching, cold and dark, the beginning and the end, maturing, time passing away, childhood ends, birth and death, joy and sadness, Moumin troll, midseason, midwinter, passing away, summer’s gone, summer passed away, wine box – coffin?, boxed up, free spirit of summer boxed up, rigid, dead, orderly, fading light, plain light, bottled up summer, end of light, beginning of dark, change, accepting change or resisting change, dream, accepting death.

Interpretation

George Eliot said that “All meanings depend on the key of interpretation”. Through these images I wanted to express my experiences of the change of the season. I wanted to bring the summer feelings of quiet joy, warmth and lightness closer to the approaching autumn& winter’s long and cold nights.

Summer is a celebration of life and these images are about the desire to continue the gay season and prolong the joyful and carefree times.

It is about not letting go, not yet being ready to go into autumn – packing away the memories that are quickly fading away - what used to be sunlit and beautiful and is now becoming just a trace, a flash or a flicker of that summer light. It is also about life and death, the beginning and the end, and about the time passing away as fast the last summer. It is about acceptance and letting go.

Theme of assignment: The remains of sunny days

My theme for this assignment is ‘The remains of sunny days’

Generic and technical data:

The theme has been conceived, shot and processed this summer and autumn.

The equipment used for this assignment include: Canon Eos 5D Mark II; Canon EF 24 – 105 mm; Canon EF IS 70 – 100mm; Manfrotto tripod.

The settings for the camera, generally used for this assignment, are: ISO 50; AP; Custom White Balance; depending on the subject, f22 or f4 – f6.7. Although the theme was set to be black and white, I shot in colour to preserve the full tonal range of the photographed objects; I recorded raw and TIFF files and used Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop to process the images.

All images were taken indoors; some with artificial lighting (daylight bulbs) and others with natural lighting.

The concept

The concept developed naturally at the break of the summer season when I felt that the summer was slipping away and the cold season was approaching.

The feelings were intense and I felt the need to express them in my photographic work. The process I followed to develop this theme (described below) has been very valuable and I intend to use it again in the future.

Firstly, I jotted down any words, ideas and images that came to mind related to the theme. When the first wave of thoughts was exhausted, I did some research on the associated concepts, checked image libraries etc.

I also wrote down my ideas on the process and the way I wanted to work on the theme, as well as the feelings and ideas I wanted to communicate through the final images. I focused in turn on the senses of smell, sound, vision, touch etc.

Quote for the day: Charlie Chaplin

I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.

Charlie Chaplin

Lessons and reflections on the exercise 2: Colour into tones

Lessons and reflections on the exercise 2: Colour into tones

1. The images created through this exercise were similar and I was impressed with the quality of both prints. The direct black and white conversion worked well although I managed to increase the appearance of the fog in the second image.
2. What this exercise really shows is that a lot of experimenting is required to understand and make the best of the black and white conversion.
3. There are many different ways of converting colour images to back and white, but the easiest and the fastest do not necessarily deliver the best quality. Also, the end result often depends on personal preferences and creative interpretation – to achieve the best possible outcome is always worth considering other available options.
4. In Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, there are facilities to change a colour image (RGB) to black in white (Grayscale) by using Grayscale button/ command. The outcome, as M Evening explains, would follow a particular formula of blending the three main colour channels: 60% Green with 30% Red and 10% Blue. In my experience, the outcome is usually reasonably good but this might not always be the best solution.
5. Another way of converting a colour image to black and white would involve using a Lab mode conversion. I tried using this conversion in the past and always found it a bit combersome.
6. Both Photoshop and Lightroom now offer the ability to make individual adjustments to each of the three colour channels and blend them together in many different ways using individual interpretations.
7. Additionally, Photoshop has an Adjustment layers facility that could be used to apply any black and white changes to the image. This gives facility to quickly discard the changes if necessary.
8. With this exercise, I also experimented with the available black and white adjustment presents. These presets offer a quick way of checking how the image would look in different modes. They also help to understand how different colours react to adjustments and what effect this has on the whooe image. For example, I found that Blue filter makes vegetation almost black, whilst the Green and Red filters enhance the green without blowing out the detail. Infrared filter lightens any green areas of an image and might even make them white. Red filter also darkens the sky and the clouds.
9. The effect of the filters offered in the software packages is identical to the real photographic filters used in black and white film photography. My experience of black and white photography makes it easier to understand and apply these filters to dogotal images.

Exercise: Colours into tones 2

This exercise provided a useful opportunity to practice using the channel mixer tool to achieve special effects.

Out of the options available in the exercise brief, I’ve decided to work on a landscape image (option 1). I was tasked to use the tools available in my software package to emphasise the depth by strengthening the visual effect of haze.

Picture 1 Original image in Adobe Lightroom

I first converted the colour image to black and white using the available ‘Grayscale’ option. I saved the image for future reference.

Picture 2: Default black and white image converted using ‘Grayscale’ option

I then created the second image which I converted to black and white by using the HSL/ Channel mixer conversion tool.

Picture 3 Manual conversion using HSL/ Channel mixer tool

This method produced a similar image but gave me slightly more control over the results and also additional options to choose from. Through this exercise I found that adjusting individual colour/ tonal sliders could have a strong effect on the appearance of natural phenomena, such as haze and fog.

For example, I found that the appearance of fog intensified when the volume of Blue was adjusted – more so then with any other colour.

Picture 4 Manual conversion – effect of adjusting Blue channel

Quote for the day: Andy Warhol on interpretation

I suppose I have a really loose interpretation of "work," because I think that just being alive is so much work at something you don't always want to do. The machinery is always going. Even when you sleep.

Andy Warhol