Reference Page - The final image

Antoni, J. (2009), Inhabit, Photographs. The Photographers' Gallery, London.

Bate, D. (2009), Photography: The Key Concepts, Bloomsbury Academic 2012, 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B, 3DP.

Bielaski, J. (2014), Jonathan Bielaski - Environmental Portraiture [Online] Available at: http://www.jonathanbielaski.com/ (accessed on 8/2/2014).

D'Oliveira, R. (2012), An Introduction to Dark Website Design [Online] Available at: http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/introduction-dark-website-design/ (accessed on 8/2/2014).

Goto, J. (2013), Lovers’ Rock: An Interview with John Goto [Online] Available at: http://theoxfordculturereview.com/2013/12/23/lovers-rock-an-interview-with-john-goto/ (accessed on 2/2/2014).

Goto, J. (2002), 'Dr. Donald Meltzer' 2002 [Online] Available at: http://www.johngoto.org.uk/portraits/Meltzer/pages/Dr%20D%20Meltzer.htm (accessed on: 2/2/2014).

Guijarro, A. (2010-2013), Momentum [Photograph] In. British Journal of Photography (October 2013), Aptitude Media Limited, 9 Beaumont Gate, Shenley Hill, Radlett, Herts, WD7 7AR UK, Pages 44-55.

Jones, H. (2010), Whitespace: The Underutilized Design Element [Online] Available at: http://webdesignledger.com/tips/whitespace-the-underutilized-design-element (accessed on 10/1/2014).

Loag, C. (2012), Chris Loag Photography [Online] Available at:  http://www.chrisgloag.com/2012/#/HOME (accessed on 10/1/2014).

Newman, A. (n.d.), Newman's Gift - 60 Years of Photography [Online] Available at: http://museum.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/newman/ (accessed on 12/3/2014).

Newman, A. (2006), Arnold Newman Archive [Online] Available at: http://www.arnoldnewmanarchive.com/content/portraits-0 (accessed on 12/1/2014).

Önder, T. (2014), Tuna Önder Street Photography [Online] Available at: http://www.tunaonder.com/ (accessed on 20/1/2014).

Ramos, J. (2014), José Ramos - Nature and Landscape Photography [Online] Available at: http://www.joseramos.com/ (accessed on 10/1/2014).

Roberts, S. (2013), Simon Roberts [Online] Available at: http://simoncroberts.com/?homepage=1  (accessed on 8/2/2014).

Sanschagrin, G. (2011), 10 Secrets to Successful Online Photo Portfolios [Online] Available at: http://blog.photoshelter.com/2011/01/10-secrets-to-successful-online-photo-portfolios/ (accessed on 10/1/2014).

Struth, T. (2010), Thomas Struth - Photographs 1978-2010 [Online] Available at: http://www.thomasstruth32.com/bigsize/index.html (Accessed on 8/2/2014).

Trevor, P. (1975), William Henry Street, Everton, Liverpool, 1975, [Photograph] In aperture (Winter 2013), Aperture Foundation, 547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor, New York, N.Y.10001, Page 62.

My Proposed Personal Project - Assignment 5, Digital Photographic Practice - Daydreaming While at Work

I have managed to arrive at a concept for the final assignment for Digital Photographic Practice that is both feasible technically and poses what I thought was a pertinent question about society nowadays, specifically:

   What do people (in this case people personal to me) do in their own workplace when they're not working, which they would find desirable to do outside of the workplace? In other words, what do these people daydream of when they should be working?

   The reason I thought this question was pertinent was because I was aware that people's minds wander when they shouldn't and particularly nowadays, when there is so much to do outside of the workplace, this would be particularly relevant. In my experience at least, there is usually something most people would prefer to be doing and I intended to capture a person in their working environment, daydreaming of their ideal way of spending time.

   I aimed to accomplish this by including 'graphic marks on a flat piece of paper' - Bate (2009), which would be a photograph, within the 'main' frame. This flat picture within a picture would aim to serve the purpose to 'signify a 'reality'' - Bate (2009); namely to show what the person in the 'main' photograph was daydreaming of at the time.

   In order to make the picture-within-the-picture 'fit in' better, I would endeavour to use pre-existing flat surfaces and use these to place the picture-within-the-picture over or amidst, where possible . Also I would probably convert the images to black and white to keep a sense of realism, if I felt it made the picture within the picture 'belong' with the rest of the scene.

Influences for Assignment 5 and More of My Most Coherent Thoughts Leading up to Assignment 5: Personal Project

Now that I had conceived a much more concrete idea for the fifth assignment, I realised that at least subconsciously, there were a few influences that I had discovered, which may well have helped provoke such ideas that led to this one, strong idea I described in the previous post: (A Selection of My Most Salient Thoughts Leading Up to Assignment 5: Personal Project for DPP).

   One of my main influences was Arnold Newman. This wasn't surprising to me since I had looked very closely at a lot of his wide-angle environmental portraits and the aspect that resonated with me most in much of his work was the sense of depth and extra information captured around the subjects, compared to usual portraiture. He achieved this while still effectively portraying the sitter's expression.

   Another, less obvious detail I garnered from Arnold Newman was actually a quote. He said in a quote I found that: '[Photography] is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world'. I discovered the quote when researching his work and the website I found it on was: http://museum.icp.org/museum/exhibitions/newman/ (accessed 12/3/2014). I found this interesting in that it backed up my conclusions I had been drawing, where photography is simply a representation of life, which the photographer has a degree of control over. I also found this quote helpful because my fifth assignment asked me to produce a project that was personal and I decided it would make sense to photograph people close to me in order for me to create my 'own private world' - Arnold Newman.

   Two more photographers' work that influenced me were: Alejandro Guijarro's 'Momentum' (2010-2013) project and Janine Antoni's 'Inhabit' (2009) project. They both for me challenged the frame but in almost opposite manner. Guijarro actually filled the frame fully each time, with a blackboard containing equations to do with quantum physics. This made the viewer challenge what they were seeing: was it a photograph or 'real life' and how should they interpret this concept?

   Antoni, in contrast had a seemingly more conventional photograph, with a mother in the middle of the frame and lots going on around her. Relevantly though, amidst this busy frame was a picture within a picture. Inside this picture within a picture was another scene altogether. The main photograph was printed so large in the exhibition that the picture within the picture could have been a standalone photograph itself, if viewed up close. This made the viewer question the contents of the photograph: how did the picture in the picture relate back to the main photograph?

   Another photograph I stumbled across in a photography magazine (Aperture - Winter 2013) was by Paul Trevor, called 'William Henry Street, Everton, Liverpool, 1975' and this again challenged the frame but also was very impactful because of the relationship between the frame and setting of the photograph, the literal frame the boy was holding and the boy himself; particularly his expression. I knew I liked this use of the frame but had been unsure how to incorporate into my own work in a different way.

   Lastly, I was reading about John Goto and found an interesting passage at: http://theoxfordculturereview.com/2013/12/23/lovers-rock-an-interview-with-john-goto/ (accessed 2/2/2014). The actual photograph can be found at http://www.johngoto.org.uk/portraits/Meltzer/pages/Dr%20D%20Meltzer.htm (accessed 2/22014). Here he digitally substitutes the window and also the painting on the wall with different things and it is carried out so well that the viewer (or at least me) wouldn't have known otherwise. I did consider digitally placing the picture within the picture  inside my main photograph but decided to manually place it in the scene at the time of taking each photograph. This was because I realised it could be placed almost anywhere in the scene realistically and look authentic.

   All of these influences undoubtedly for me changed how I approached the set of final photographs in terms of preparation and also how I conceived the main idea in the first place.

A Selection of My Most Salient Thoughts Leading Up to Assignment 5: Personal Project for DPP

I have gathered here my thoughts in preparation for my last assignment for Digital Photographic Practice. I have deliberated a long time over which theme I would start with as the concept behind my personal project. I have been juggling two most notable ideas; trying to decide which project was best to undertake. This reasoning consisted of feasibility and potential for creativity.

   The first idea revolved around the capturing of the vibrancy of the river Thames from evening to night. My methodology behind this would be to portray a sense of journey down or up the Thames during these 'twilight hours'. I would move further and further down or up the Thames, from bridge to bridge and as I moved further along the Thames, the time of day would apparently get later and later in unison. I say 'apparently' because I would take the photographs over a period of days, maybe targeting one bridge a day. The photographs would then be displayed sequentially offering a sense of progression through both time and space.

   The second idea was more loosely formed and basically consisted of a picture within a picture. This was primarily rooted from a previous Assignment I had undertaken: Assignment 3: Monochrome (the culmination of which could be found here ). Similar to Assignment 3: Monochrome, I would include people within at least the main photograph but I was unsure how these people would relate to the picture within the picture this time around.

   I eventually decided the second idea was more desirable for me, mostly because of the creative aspect this project would be more probable to provide. I felt this project would also be a more natural progression in relation to what I had been discovering during Digital Photographic Practice. However, the lack of 'concrete' ideas for essentially a rather basic concept based around a picture in a picture prevailed in my consciousness.

   As I began to question deeper the semantics and implications of this 'picture in a picture' idea though, I found certain qualities started to crop up. One of these was depth. By including a secondary picture within the frame (a picture within a picture) it could effectively cancel out the moment of looking at the photograph in a skeptical/reserved way because it adds depth to the image and so, at least for a moment, the photograph takes on a reality.

   The content of both pictures however, was a recurring problem because there would have to be a link between the two pictures (including the person in the primary picture) for the whole image to make sense. I could have just produced a set of photographs with the same argument as Assignment 3: Monochrome but I was quite adamant I wanted to do something (at least slightly) different.

   It was obvious to me that the principle of an environmental portrait was what I wanted to base my project on but I couldn't justify the picture within the picture being included only to add extra 'depth' to the final photographs.

   I had been reading Bate's book: 'Photography: The Key Concepts' and found an interesting passage; typified by a statement in the book: 'the graphic marks on a flat piece of paper come to signify a reality' - Bate (2009). From this I garnered: if a (flat) surface in the scene of a photograph was covered by a portal into another world (a picture within a picture), then the reaction by a typical viewer to the photograph would be interesting as it would challenge their perception of reality as they attempt to justify its inclusion in a ‘normal’ scene.

   My breakthrough idea dawned on me unexpectedly by simply reading about the definition of environmental portraiture, while I was quite stuck for inspiration. After some time researching other environmental photographers, most notably Arnold Newman, I found that although technically these type of portraits were to be of the person in their natural environment, more often than not this was in their place of work. I started to imagine some of the appropriate settings Arnold Newman decided to use for the relevant subjects, replaced by similar settings but with people who I knew well personally - at work. For the several shots I picked out from Newman's archive there were large flat surfaces, which were ideal, in my eyes, to be replaced by the picture in the picture. This notion of replacing these flat surfaces, especially since I had just read what an environmental portrait consists of made me think about what the sitter would replace them with, if at work.

   The answer to this for me was that often, they might be daydreaming about something they would like to be doing, rather than what they were actually supposed to be doing. This ideal could be depicted by me in the form of a picture within each of these persons' workplaces; as a picture within a picture.

   I thought not only was this a very strong theme, which would be visibly evident; tying the final photographs together but a theme that had a strong, sound rhetoric. This rhetoric posed a potentially pertinent question to the eventual viewer - how do people function on a day-to-day basis in their respective workplaces and what would they typically be daydreaming of while they are working (or not working)? 

A Web Gallery

I have been designing a website to display my work. I was aware before starting that many photographers are trying to get their work 'out there' as well. Therefore I decided I would try to make my photography web gallery look captivating yet minimal, at least in the way it was presented.

   I have been scrutinising other photographers' websites (some famous and others not so well known) and I have tried to take what I considered the 'best' elements from each site and incorporate it into my own design; refining them where possible. It would be worth noting that while I primarily was visiting these websites for ideas concerning presentation, I often ended up coming away with inspiration regarding what kind of content/categories would work best in my own web gallery. For example: http://www.chrisgloag.com/2012/#/HOME (accessed 10/1/2014), incorporated a comprehensive content sidebar and an appropriate set of categories. The content (much of which I hadn't previously considered) would include: ongoing projects (rather than just separate photographs), contact details, links to this blog, an 'About' page and possibly older projects. The categories I intended to include  myself would be: portraits, seascapes, night landscapes and nature.

   In terms of navigation, I would endeavour to keep it as simple and uncluttered as possible. This was a key principle resonating in the guides to building a photography website, which I had also been reading online. For example, http://blog.photoshelter.com/2011/01/10-secrets-to-successful-online-photo-portfolios/ (accessed 10/1/2014) stated: 'Your photos are supposed to be the star of the show, so don’t clutter it up with useless design elements'. Starting from one of the most fundamental parts of the website, the theme, I decided a light theme would work better for my usage than a dark one. This was because light themes had the quality of minimalism and were also passable for looking at a variety of images/text for longer moments. In contrast, dark backgrounds were in my opinion more impactful for landscape images. For example: http://www.joseramos.com/ (accessed 10/1/2014), was an example of a nature/landscape photographers' website, which I thought worked very well because of the content it displayed). However, I felt since there was a fair number of my images that were not landscapes, a light theme would work better overall.

   One tip I found was not to use 'pure' white as the background with 'pure' black text for the content (or visa versa) but rather something in between. This was so that looking at the website didn't strain the prospective viewers' eyes: 'The first basic rule is to never use pure-white/black on the opposite color.' - http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/introduction-dark-website-design/ (accessed 8/2/2014).

   I also preferred an automated navigation system (but with a slideshow only for the home page) so the viewer was encouraged to enter  the rest of the website. Many photographers' websites followed this design trait on their homepage - a couple of examples being: http://www.tunaonder.com/ (accessed 20/1/2014) and http://simoncroberts.com/?homepage=1 (accessed 8/2/2014). However I would probably use a slow-changing slideshow speed just because in my experience the photographs had the habit of changing just when I was beginning to grasp a certain photograph's allure.

   So far as displaying the images was concerned, I imagined a simple gallery, featuring large, unchallenged photographs once opened. One reason for this was I felt, generally speaking, detail was a strength of my photographs and so a large displaying format would help to show this off. A layout trait of the website, backing up these large-displayed photographs would be that it featured generous amounts of 'white space' - a website design term that basically consists of how much 'empty' space there is between each element of the layout of the page. I read about this in an online article: http://webdesignledger.com/tips/whitespace-the-underutilized-design-element (accessed 10/1/2014) and was sure it would be a key feature to keep in mind. If I could try to make sure of sufficient white space between important parts, like the header and main photographs, I felt I could have an aesthetically pleasing website layout.

   Another website I looked at was an environmental portrait photographer's called Jonathan Bielaski (found at http://www.jonathanbielaski.com/ (accessed 8/2/2014)). While I would like to have more image separation than Jonathan Bielaski's homepage contained, again the white background seemed very professional and a good navigation system had been implemented.

   Finally, the last website I made notes about was the photographer Thomas Struth's (found at http://www.thomasstruth32.com/bigsize/index.html (accessed 8/2/2014)). With Thomas Struth's website I was impressed by how clean it looked but wasn’t too keen on the navigation system. On one hand I was inclined to look at each photograph for a longer moment because of the navigation system, where you had to click on the image itself to get back to the set. For my tastes though I would prefer my website to have a filmstrip for the relevant photos of the set beneath or behind the current selected image within the set.

   After implementing these points as well as I could I now have a web gallery up and running, with the url of: www.johnathanhallphotography.co.uk

   There still exists elements of the web gallery I would like to make more comprehensive or streamlined: for example the 'Portraits' section of the gallery could be bolstered considerably for content and the web gallery could be a bit more polished in terms of loading times for photographs and display quality on other media devices.

   However, I was pleased with the navigation within the different genres and I felt there were a few nice touches like the textured backgrounds so the viewer wasn't looking at pure white backgrounds and the sharing options evident could potentially increase the traffic to the web gallery.

Storing My Photographs and Sharpening for Print

Ever since completing the exercises leading up to the first assignment: ‘Workflow’ for Digital Photographic Practice, I have been keeping all my course photographs and also less serious photographs (which I still considered as important) backed-up on a separate external hard drive. I have also been keeping all of the course photographs and work on my computer, so that I have it in two separate locations.

   Furthermore, and because memory is relatively cheap these days, I have also (midway through Digital Photographic Practice) bought another external hard drive in order to archive my most important work and store the rest of my photographs in a more orderly manner. By orderly, I was referring to naming the folders conveniently so I could find the required photos if I needed to go back to them. Dating the folders was something I felt would make this process even easier. Having the work on two external hard drives meant there was less chance of both of them (and the computer) being damaged or stolen.

   I have (near the start of Digital photographic Practice) purchased a printer, which I have felt has made a startling impact with my work. This was because of the very faithful colour rendition of the prints compared to my old printer - provided I used the correct paper and settings for the printer profile. The colour rendition was very similar in my eyes to the colours on my (calibrated) computer screen and I must admit it was satisfying seeing the prints appear on the paper as I wanted them to. I was also pleased that (so far) my tutor had been quite satisfied with the prints too.

   So far as sharpening my images was concerned, I have become quite wary about over-sharpening images on jpeg files in-camera (the RAW files remain unaffected). This was because I had noticed how the over-sharpening of jpegs produced artefacts that looked unnatural (albeit at 100% on a computer screen). I was therefore very curious to discover how different degrees of sharpening affected an actual print compared to an on-screen image.

   My inkling for this exercise was that 'over'-sharpening for print would produce results that made the photographs more detailed, without being detrimental in terms of extra grain or artefacts. This inkling was due to my observation that prints seemed quite soft compared to on-screen images, even when choosing a 'low' sharpening setting option inside Lightroom 5 before print, which I had recently started doing.

Images 1 and 2 (No Sharpening and Minimal Sharpening)

   In short my inkling was not wrong and I was surprised how much sharpening could be applied before artefacts started appearing. With the first print (Image 1), I applied no sharpening and the print, I was not surprised to see, seemed soft; even in areas of detail like my subject's eyes.

   With the second print (Image 2), I decided to increase the sharpening by using the 'High' sharpening setting inside the 'Print' module's dialogue, where in the previous print 'no sharpening' had been selected. I was a bit surprised to find that the increase in detail was 'minimal' to my tastes. However, there was some more detail in the eyes when looking closely at the print. Soft skin areas were very similar to the 'no sharpening' version.

   For the third print (Image 3), I chose to increase the sharpening further by adjusting the sharpening sliders inside Lightroom's 'Develop' module to quite extreme values: including a '129' value for sharpening amount, which was more than I usually would have applied. I also applied the 'Standard' sharpening setting within the 'Print' module to further increase the sharpening effect. This time, the effect was more substantial, with extra, visible fine detail in the eyes particularly, compared to the previous two prints. Soft skin areas remained very smooth.

Image 3 (Significant Lightroom Sharpening)

   Lastly for Image 4, I decided to be very aggressive with the amount of sharpening applied, by using a different sharpening technique altogether, namely the 'high pass filter' inside Adobe Photoshop. I used a high setting of 6.6% on the filter, using the 'Overlay' blend mode on a duplicated layer from the original image, so the effect was strong (compared to the Soft Light blend mode). I also chose to apply the 'Standard' sharpening setting within the 'Print' module of Lightroom again, to further enhance detail. The reason I chose to be so aggressive with the sharpening in this final print was to see how much an effect this drastic sharpening would have on the print as the previous prints of the image had induced quite minor changes in terms of detail.

Image 4 (High Pass Filter Sharpening)

   I found that there was a dramatic increase in sharpening, which I had expected. However, there were not many artefacts, which was good to see considering the amount of sharpening. There weren't many artefacts in the on-screen image either though but crucially, the print of Image 4 looked a bit 'cleaner' than the on-screen image, while still retaining visibly more detail compared to the other three prints.

   If I had to choose a print to actually use out of the four printed I would probably choose the third image because of the slightly smoother skin seeing as the photograph was a portrait. If it had been a landscape however, I would choose the fourth image's sharpening values (although the degree would be a little less drastic).

   In conclusion for this sharpening for print exercise, I've found you can aggressively sharpen and retain more detail but at relative print size in relation to pixel density, without compromising in the form of perceivable artefacts. To add to that, depending on which processing software/printer you use, from my experience, the prints do not come out as sharp as seen on the computer screen. Therefore it is beneficial in my opinion to ‘over sharpen’ if the image is intended to be printed. This also means you have to be wary of not using the ‘print version’ for web use as the onscreen image appears sharper in my eyes compared to the corresponding prints.

Reflections After Assignment 4 for DPP - Real or fake?

I found this part of the course - Real or fake? to be thought-provoking in that it made me think outside the box, where I really began to question what made a photograph work, or even what a photograph should consist of. I found I had to really think about my ideas and then analyse them while I was carrying them out in order for the photographs to work well.

   The exercises were completed thoroughly, I felt and since each exercise grew in the amount of manipulation of each image, I challenged realistic rendition more and more. This increase in manipulation prepared me well for the assignment - not only in a practical sense, where I learnt a lot more about correcting and altering. As well as this, I was questioning my ethical limits and ascertaining where the assignment would fit for me amongst these questions of manipulation.

   I thought I created some well-composed images during the exercises and they built up nicely to the assignment where in my opinion my creativity was really apparent. My communication of my ethics was good all through 'Real or fake?', which I thought was crucial seeing as it would have implications for future projects and this assignment.

   I tried to keep the basics right for the exercises leading up to the assignment, as well as the assignment, while embellishing them wherever I felt I could. In the assignment and last exercise in particular I felt I was creative in how I went about making the final photograph for the assignment.

   I did carry out some research; although most was practical and only a little based upon concepts in photographic theory. If I was honest I would say this area could be improved on for the next assignment as I had been reading lots of material. In terms of critical thinking I had been reading books, one of which I had referred to in the assignment post, which helped make coherent my reasoning for including certain objects in the scene.

   Overall, I felt I met most of the criteria successfully but I realised that research was a key area to which I should pay more attention. However, I was pleased with the final photograph for the assignment and felt the exercise leading up to it was integrated well.