Photographers (from left to right) Wolfgang Tilmans, Martin Parr, Laura Letinsky, Doug Aitken, Irving Penn portraiture & still life.
Great to see and meet you all on Wednesday night, I think it went as well as could be expected for an semi unplanned opener. You all seemed to successfully stretch the Auto control to full capacity, testing what can be achieved with very limited freedom but most importantly exploring how you can affect the brightness of the image using the light meter. In the coming weeks the light meter will factor even more significantly as you determine the most suitable exposure.
If you would like to recap on what we did please view the Monday entry as we did the very same activity.
From the introductions it was clear that most if not all you want to learn how to use the camera more effectively, you want to progress on from the Auto setting; take charge of the images that are being produced and maybe learn some compositional techniques along the way. So over the next few weeks we will focus on exposure, as I mentioned this includes the Shutter, Aperture and ISO. A good way of remembering them is by thinking of them within an exposure triangle, the reason for this, is, any adjustment made to one will almost always affect the other two.
As well as exposure there will also be opportunity to explore other functions on your camera such as white balance, resolution and flash. I would also like to touch on the subject of equipment and consumables, this should be useful if you are thinking of buying a camera, tripod, lens or memory cards where I could advise what and where to buy them. As I said though, you may suggest topics that you want to specifically look at - the course is flexible.
The image at the top of the page presents some of the photographs Chris and I showed you or referred to. The idea behind most of them is to represent how everyday objects and events, even the most mundane can be great subject matter to record, and often they work because they are photographed almost with an objective eye; keeping any content that may alter the meaning out of the shot. As Irving Penn's still life work shows, by keeping the background clean the focus becomes the object/s, the physical qualities; the texture and form. They have been elevated from the status of detritus to something quite beautiful, something sculptural (you may agree or disagree). Tilman's photograph of the trouser hanging on the door is also very simple in composition, it's a banal everyday action (depending on your level of tidiness of course) that has been brought to life through photography. And that's what is so great about photography, it gives us the opportunity to record our environment, all the nuances, lest we forget, sometimes to share and other times simply to reflect on.
So if you get a chance photograph a simple still life somewhere in or around the house, perhaps something to reflect you, a memory, a moment in time?
If you would like to recap on what we did please view the Monday entry as we did the very same activity.
From the introductions it was clear that most if not all you want to learn how to use the camera more effectively, you want to progress on from the Auto setting; take charge of the images that are being produced and maybe learn some compositional techniques along the way. So over the next few weeks we will focus on exposure, as I mentioned this includes the Shutter, Aperture and ISO. A good way of remembering them is by thinking of them within an exposure triangle, the reason for this, is, any adjustment made to one will almost always affect the other two.
As well as exposure there will also be opportunity to explore other functions on your camera such as white balance, resolution and flash. I would also like to touch on the subject of equipment and consumables, this should be useful if you are thinking of buying a camera, tripod, lens or memory cards where I could advise what and where to buy them. As I said though, you may suggest topics that you want to specifically look at - the course is flexible.
The image at the top of the page presents some of the photographs Chris and I showed you or referred to. The idea behind most of them is to represent how everyday objects and events, even the most mundane can be great subject matter to record, and often they work because they are photographed almost with an objective eye; keeping any content that may alter the meaning out of the shot. As Irving Penn's still life work shows, by keeping the background clean the focus becomes the object/s, the physical qualities; the texture and form. They have been elevated from the status of detritus to something quite beautiful, something sculptural (you may agree or disagree). Tilman's photograph of the trouser hanging on the door is also very simple in composition, it's a banal everyday action (depending on your level of tidiness of course) that has been brought to life through photography. And that's what is so great about photography, it gives us the opportunity to record our environment, all the nuances, lest we forget, sometimes to share and other times simply to reflect on.
So if you get a chance photograph a simple still life somewhere in or around the house, perhaps something to reflect you, a memory, a moment in time?
