Photographic Education

                                                           Photographic Education

October 2008 day one at Park Lane College...

The nerves kicked in as they always do when I start a new venture but nevertheless I was there and quickly introduced to a group of people I’d never met before.  As with all first days we did the “get to know you games” and went through the subjects we’d be covering throughout our time at college.

Things moved on fairly quickly and over the next few months I quickly learnt the basics of camera techniques, lighting and developing. We spent the first semester covering different photographers and producing a journal of work showing what we’d learnt and produced a set of images as a finale.

The images below are some which I chose as my best for the final set I'd to produce. 

Photoshop was introduced and quickly became the bane of my existence, having never worked on a computer I struggled immensely, managing to make images look worse rather than better. I completed a SWOT analysis and clearly remember Photoshop being top of my list of Weaknesses.  I look back now at my original SWOT and although I see Photoshop as a weakness still I have definitely improved dramatically.  I remember working on Photoshop with Matt and having no understanding of how the layers worked, he showed great patience and a eureka moment for me was when I finally realised what a layer did and how to move from one layer to another to edit whichever section you wanted. 

One ofthe first photographs I edited using photoshop layers was one I’d taken of a group of kids at a youth club. I needed to removed the background leaving them on a white background. As  you can see from the two images below, I removed all the background and placed the image onto a new white background. This was a inspiring moment for me as I'd struggled so much working out Photo shop. 

image prior to editing

Final after editing

 The hours I put into cutting them out, trying to remove the background without rubbing out their feet  it was an absolute nightmare. But..i did it and I think that moment I saw that finished photograph, although it wasn’t anything special to most people for me it was proof to myself If I percevere I would be  able to master this huge hurdle Photoshop.

I had very little confidence  in that first year at college, although I felt reasonably ok about my written work I  still felt my photographic work wasn’t up to the same standard as other peoples. Also the fact I has barely any IT skills really didn’t help boost my confidence. I’m actually amazed how much betetr I’ve got with using the pc, initially I basically only knew how to type, email, possibly save a document. After only two full years at college I’d now consider myself to be about average for someone my age on the pc.  Ok so I still can’t work as quickly and effectively as some fo my peers but computers weren’t something I really had any contact with until starting thie course so I guess that’s to be expected.  It’s remarkable really how without even being taught anything you pick up skills from just watching others, I’ve definitly done this with IT and other programmes we have been involved with on the computer.

I had concerns about not being very apt at numeracy and finding the time to actually complete the assignments in my first SWOT but funnily enough neither of these became a problem. There was hardly any numeracy involved and all my work was submitted on time.

 Learning about High and Low key photography was also a revelation to me, I'd never realised it depended on the lighting whether an image had a dark or light background. I assumed it was about the colour of background you were using. Where the shadow fell across the subject because of how you had set up the lighting...wow all these new techniques i was in awe at how different an image could look just because of a set of studio lights.

I loved fiddling with the lights to create different styles of image. Some I took I was really pleased with and they are probably some of my favourite photographs to date. 



This image created by using low key lighting is still one of my favourite photographs I've taken.

I'm not going to pretend that everything at college was great and that there was never a time when I've felt like jacking it all in but one thing I learnt throughout my time there is that no matter when things feel like there is no point going on it is always best to be upfront and express your concerns to a tutor.  One of the most difficult periods for me was when we were asked to produce a website for our up and coming business. As previously mentioned I had basic IT skills and this particular project felt like impossibility to me. With absolutely no idea even where to begin I felt like I was drowning in an extremely deep pond.

Ok, so I couldn’t grasp the idea of HTML’s and elaborate web design but after several weeks of trial and error I did manage to complete a working website using a web design program.  It wasn’t the greatest of websites and was fairly basic although the design and concept of using a quick witted and memorable logo made it interesting and it worked which is what the assignment had required. I was chuffed; pleased I’d succeeded and created the website myself without giving up.  This was one moment throughout the course I realised I was able to keep up with my peers even if it did take me slightly longer to grasp certain aspects than those who already had a great deal more knowledge about  how to use a computer.

Year two of the course brought forward my interest in people and their situations. I believe that this is where my talent photographically really is. I took photographs of people…people who were homeless in both the UK and America and I loved it. I began looking at the documetary photography work of John Angerson, I loved the way he captured the angst and slightly innocent appearance of his subjects. We began communicating via email and then moved on to speaking on the telephone. He helped me with many of the projects I completed for college and also after I began my photographic career.
Another photographer who's work I found exciting to look at was a guy named Gary Austin, he worked in documentary photography mainly concentrating his work on street photography. Whilst working on ym documentary images on the homeless I emailed him for some guidance, his response to my work is below.

Hi Danielle,

Ok first off, consider this as constructive criticism and in the context that I am not familiar with what you are trying to achieve.

First of looking at them as an overall set:

The first image is a tad darker than the rest, a good strong opening image which says what's in the tin. 

The sequence is good, but the image with the flower, is the odd one out, although we get the message, it might work best at the end...its very close up and shows no people and being at the end it may show the frailty of being homeless, the current last image I would move to the middle, near the sofa picture to hold the attention, midway through, perhaps after or after the fifth image...its not all sitting around in comfort!

The third image I would move to the middle as it does not say the person is homeless, but in the middle there are pictures of people sitting around with nothing to do, and I think it would work better there, perhaps before the sofa picture. The second to last picture of the belongings I would move to the second place as there are to many people pictures in the beginning, so needs to break it up.

The best way to sort the order is to print them off and blue tack them to a wall and keep changing them around, walk along as if you are a viewer approaching them for the first time and stand back and look at them as an overall set. You need to see them printed and on a wall!

The images in general have a lot of detail centrally focused, and there is nothing wrong with that, but as the backgrounds are light in tonality the eye wanders of the edges of the picture, so my preference would be to add some edge darkening to hold the eye (use the vignette tool to darken the corners but not so much it looks obvious, if you use photoshop I have an action I run to do it for me, that I can send you)

Notes on individual images:

Image 1 darken the top edge with a gradient

Image 2 reduce the foreground darken background

Image 3 darken the sky, 

Image 4 same as above

Image 5 darken sky and crop away foreground and left edge

Image 6 crop right and reduce the foreground (remove the distracting pole leaving the frame)

Image 7 Fine, but strong in colour, maybe reduce overall saturation to tone down so fits with the rest

Image 8 Fine

Image 9 Crop away sky and left hand edge, darken sky

Image 10 Fine

Image 11 crop bottom and left edge

The sky is a problem as it is washing out, the flat white cloud is actually good for photographing in ( The East German School of Photography and the Becher's are a very good example as is fashion on location as its low contrast light) but because you have got down to their level, the sky becomes more prominent than if you were stood up looking down on them, so either use a gradient to darken the top edge, again this will help keep the viewers eye on the subject.

The cropping is needed for consistency, some are very close up and intimate, but others look like you are having doubts at being to close or not wanting to disturb, so crop in a little for more consistent visual. Image 4 is really good.

You are certainly on the way for developing a consistent voice, well done

Some things to think about, although you have shown the issue, you have not shown the cause

What happens at night?

How do they get money...begging, state, crime?

who is helping them, interaction from the public?

Just in case you get asked, but that's for you to look at next time :)

Any further help just get in touch

All the Best

Gary Austin

His advice gained me a really high grade in my final exhibition images in year two.

It was documentary photography and although I’d done plenty of portraiture I’d never got the buzz I got from working with the homeless. There was an element of fear whilst walking around the streets of downtown San Antonio asking homeless people if I could take their photograph but the adrenalin running through my body felt like the best feeling. I loved the idea of showing their lives through my images and I really felt this was the kind of photography I wanted to pursue in the future. Below are a selection of images taken in my second year at college. They show the homeless in San Antonio, Texas and some homeless people from St George's Crypt in Leeds. 

Some of the funniest moments I have been involved in happened during my college years…I remember once setting everything up for a major photo shoot , I’d hired models, paid for a venue and carried a ton of equipment across a muddy field to a forest where the shoot was to take place. It was wet, muddy and bloody freezing. I set everything up to find the lighting kit I’d brought was more complicated to use than I’d expected it to be and I couldn’t no matter how hard I tried get the lights to work. I felt like a complete buffoon and in the end I just had to apologise profusely and pretend the lights were broken. Luckily I managed to appease the situation with some quick witted humour and everyone involved saw the funny side. I’ll tell you what I didn’t make that mistake again, first chance I had I got some extra tuition on portable lighting kits so next time I’d succeed with shoot and not look like a complete plonker. I did manage to get some shots of the forest and models with no lights and they came in handy for the journal I’d to complete as part of the same module.

These are some of the images I did manage to get on that fateful "Oh no the lights are broken" day.  

One of the things that really sticks in my mind throughout my college days was how things creep up on you so quickly, not only deadline dates but the things you don’t realize you have learnt until suddenly it comes to you that you can pick out what is considered a good photograph.  One of the pivotal moments for me that this happened was when I’d done a photo shoot and could see that the image wasn’t completely in focus. Although it was really only very slightly out I could see it and actually remember thinking had l looked at that image two years earlier I’d have though it was a good photograph. 

There have been several times similar things have happened for example I belong to a networking group called “worldwide photography” and every week people submit online. These images have to fit the title of the weeks theme be it water, motherhood, glass, black and white etc. I’ve been a member for a few years and when I first joined I used to look at the content of the image only, now I vote for the one which shows the photographic skill.  The funny thing is if I vote early I see a lot of others voting for the same image as me which shows I have developed better skills at picking out what makes a good photo.  I know for a fact prior to the course there is no way I’d have looked at an image and thought about the rule of thirds, composition, clarity of image, contrast etc. 

My time at college was a huge learning curve for me, not only did I develop my photographic skills I also felt I’d grown as a person.  I gained confidence that had been buried deep inside my head somewhere and also developed a better understanding of other people’s failures and successes.  Leaving knowing I was ready to begin a career in the photographic industry was daunting yet full of excitement and I couldn’t wait to put in to practice what I’d learnt over the three years of my degree.

Bibliography 
http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/04spring/stimson_paper.htm
http://www.wix.com/danni1968/website


 Briot Alain,Mastering Photographic Composition, Creativity, and Personal Style, (2009)