In this post I’ve presented all the photographs that I submitted for assignment 2. Alongside each photo I’ve also added the notes that I sent to my tutor but with some amendments and additional information.
The purpose of this assignment was to illustrate the elements of design discussed in the text, through a particular type of subject. I chose “the raw materials of food”, from the suggested list of subjects. I thought it would be an interesting subject and a little bit of a challenge as I’ve never really done any still-life before.
It was a difficult decision to decide whether to present the assignment as a colour assignment or to stick with monochrome, the format I used for assignment 1. Or a mixture or black and white and colour. Black and white would perhaps seem to be the obvious choice given the nature of the assignment but then again with some of the subject matter it seems almost shame to not present them in colour. Whichever way I decided to go I had to make sure that the images I chose for the assignment as I went along would work equally well in either colour or in monochrome.
In the end I made the decision, rightly or wrongly I’m not sure just now, to use whatever format I felt was right. Often I find that a subject works well in colour, then it also works well in monochrome and then it may also work equally well using some processing I’ve applied. Ultimately, the choice reflects my own indecision.
Throughout this assignment I’ve kept the shots very sparse. There are no props used, the backgrounds are deliberately kept clear, being mostly plain white or in a few cases, black. I was looking for clean, minimal compositions where the only thing in each image was the subject chosen and nothing more.
The notes on each photograph are given in the order in which they appear in my presentation of those images rather than the order given in the text.
Feedback & Reflection
The feedback I received from the tutor was valuable for the insight it provided into my style of photography and also for the sense of direction it proivdes, alerting me to those areas where I need to improve. I have had suspicions about my style of photography and about my weaknesses. When you then have those suspicions confirmed in writing without any prompting or questioning beforehand then you know they must be true.
I don’t need to rationalize every decision I make, often it is better to go with your intuition rather than trying to think through something and come to a rational decision about it based on some sense of what is right or proper. So, for example I had this notion that if one photograph in the set was in colour then all the photographs should also be in colour, or they should all be in b&w. Or, if one had been toned then they should all be toned. It might give a surface coherency to the set but then that’s not always what really matters.
Looking at my photographs in the light of my tutor’s comments I feel that the tutor is right. I always, always have a tendency to try to distill, to pare down the images I take, to what I consider to be, their essential elements. Looking again at my previous assignment that same tendency towards a sparse, minimal approach is also very evident.
I am very interested in taking my photographs forward in terms of making them more relevant, more meaningful rather than being purely exercises in visual style.
My tutor also picked out the weaker images for some light criticism, some of the triangle shots I thought were quite weak but I had no choice at that point but to go with them as they were. There were some images that I felt were very strong and others that I could happily consign to the garbage. The orange peel / triangle shot, for example and the pomegranate and the spring onions image. I don’t think the idea behind them was necessarily bad but the execution was not the best.
I could have kept the style consistent, it was in my mind to do that, to go with the light selenium toning and the vignetting (where appropriate) but something kept me back, lack of confidence perhaps, or lack of faith in how well the images might have been received. Varying the style then was in a way a kind of insurance policy against rejection.
In conclusion, the comments from my tutor for this assignment have given me greater confidence in my skills. At the same time my tutor has also pointed out my weaknesses and the key areas that I need to work on. I can feel my tutor urging me very clearly to start trying to imbue my images with more meaning.
Several Points in a Deliberate Shape
(i) several points in a deliberate shape
Took so many photographs of these coffee beans in so many ways trying to find something that was satisfying but everything either looked awful or completely contrived or both. I was trying to achieve an arrangement that was both deliberate yet didn’t look contrive; I’m not really sure that I achieved that aim at all. I also wanted the image to be very minimal, hence the high intensity, plain white background; the coffee beans stand out in stark contrast. Added a vignette and toning in post.
The coffee beans are sitting on a sheet of plain white board, the kind you can buy in art supply stores, measuring 60 x 90cm (approx.). The coffee beans being so small necessitated using a macro lens (60mm micro-Nikkor). Lighting is from a single overhead softbox.
Combination of horizontal and vertical lines
(ii) combination of horizontal and vertical lines
The first of many photographs of pasta taken for this assignment. I had a lot of fun with the pasta, trying out different pasta shapes, using different arrangements from formal to random and trying out different lighting techniques. Backlighting the pasta, I found, works particularly well due to the translucent nature of the material. Actually, I realised, fairly late into the assignment that I could probably have shot the entire assignment based on pasta alone and I think if I were to do this assignment again that is what I would do.
This shot is of the contents of a packet of fettuccine, firstly laid out vertically then with another layer of pasta laid out on top, perpendicular to the first layer. It is one of my favourites, it doesn’t look like pasta at all anymore, which I think is down to the conversion to black and white and subsequent toning.
For this photograph I used a lightbox technique. I actually have a lightbox that I used when I used to shoot colour slide film and which serves very well for the technique used here. In the absence of an actual lightbox it is quite easy to construct your own lightbox. You need a light source (e.g. an off-camera flash) and a diffuse, translucent surface behind which or under which you can place the light.
(i) Go to your local glazier and have a sheet of clear glass cut (I had a piece of glass that measured 2 foot x 1.5 foot cut for a few pounds). Attach a sheet of paper (A4 printer paper will work for many subjects) to one side of the glass.
(ii) Instead of using glass, you could use a sheet of 15mm translucent white acrylic, which you can buy online very easily, in various fixed sizes or cut to custom dimensions.
(iii) Place your strobe (or whatever light source you’re using) underneath the glass / acrylic sheet (using books for example to prop up the surface like a table). Arrange your subject on top of the surface and take photographs, adjusting the exposure to achieve the effect required.
Pattern
(iii) pattern
An irregular pattern formed from penne pasta. Again, this has been converted to greyscale and toned. I find this has the effect of making the images more abstract, of distancing the subject matter from what it actually is. Rendered in colour it looks like pasta, but in black and white it becomes less like pasta and the toning renders the subject more abstract again.
It’s not as successful as some of the other images in this assignment. While the image is formed from the same shapes, and that is the basis of the pattern, it is the irregularity of the pattern formed that causes it to fail.
Rhythm 1
(iv) rhythm
Spaghetti, simply laid out and photographed, forming a series of repeating, parallel diagonal lines. This is one of several shots that could fall into more than one category for this assignment.
Implied triangle 1
(v) implied triangle
For these eggs, I started off just photographing the eggs using different arrangements, numbers of eggs and so on. I was interested in the idea of depth, conveying depth but not so much in revealing the eggs as what they are. Eggs have a very distinct shape, the barest detail gives them away but I was interested using their classic forms within the composition, just as shapes. I chose this shot, it’s very simple, three eggs in different orientations. There is very little depth of field, the outline of the egg in the foreground is sharp but apart from that nothing else is. I find it interesting what happens to forms as the depth of field becomes more limited.
Curves 1
(vi) curves
This tagliatelle pasta is nothing but a bundle of curves. Shot using the same lightbox technique as some of the previous pictures. From a strictly technical perspective the exposure for this shot is wrong, it is quite overexposed but this gives the kind of high-key effect that I was looking for, rendering the pasta as altogether more delicate.
Diagonal Lines 1
(vii) diagonal lines
Fettucine pasta simply tossed onto a surface and photographed. I’ve got quite a collection now of randomly organised pasta photos, this one I think is one of the better photographs. I find my eye tends to settle on the area around the upper right portion of the frame where there is a convergence of multiple lines, crisscrossing each other.
Diagonal Lines 2
(viii) diagonal lines
Again, fettucine pasta arranged and photographed. I like this for the variation in colour and tone of the pasta.
Distinct Shape 1
(ix) distinct shape
A red onion, sliced, and then photographed. It works very well in black and white as well but I love this for the colour and the different forms within this slice of red onion.
Distinct Shape 2
(x) distinct shape
This was made at a time when I wasn’t really sure about the assignment, I just knew it was going to be something to do with food. I was attracted by the intense colour of skin of the red onion and feel that it is only proper that I include these photographs in colour.
Single point
(xi) single point
A simple photograph of a pomegranate, a rather old one at that. The background is plain, black. The pomegranate is sitting on a sheet of black acrylic plastic. Black cardboard would not work for this subject as it gives off too much diffuse reflection, meaning that it would come out as dark grey rather than black.
I’m not entirely happy with this image. It’s quite dramatic, the explosion of colour against a black background but there isn’t enough detail visible in the shadows on the underside of the fruit and I should have corrected this.
Two points
(xii) two points
A pear in the foreground and another pear in the background, out of focus. The background is plain. The depth of field is extremely shallow really only the edge of the foreground pear is in focus. As with other photographs for this assignment I wanted the compositions to be minimal and unfussy, hence the plain white background.
Implied Triangle 2
(xiii) implied triangle
The peel from an orange laid out in a roughly triangular format. This is one of the weaker, actually it is probably the weakest shot of the whole assignment. I really didn’t do a good job in thinking this one through. I think there’s potential there but it needs more work and more thought.
Implied Triangle 3
(xiv) implied triangle
Spring onions, laid out simply in a triangular format. Like implied triangle 2 (above) it is a weak shot and I shouldn’t have included it in the assignment, at least not without reshooting it. The framing is wrong, it doesn’t balance well and I should have corrected that. This image and the previous image don’t show the same thought that has gone into most of the other pictures in the assignment.
A single small softbox overhead which gives nice soft, diffuse shadows.
Curves 2
(xv) curves
I saw these melons on sale at the grocery store, I liked them for their understated colouring and their very rich texture. I had formulated some notions about how I could use them but once I started working with them I realised I needed another two melons to create the images I had in mind.
Rhythm 2
(xvi) rhythm
The underside of a Portobello mushroom. As with many of the images I took for this assignment I took the macro photograph of this mushroom first then worked out how or if it was going to fit within the assignment. It’s a very graphic image. I like the slightly irregular rhythm formed by the underside of the mushroom. The curved edge of the mushroom is very strong in this composition and I was worried whether it competes too much.
