Michelle Kwong Photography: January 2011

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Architecture

Detail - Nordstrom

Big Picture - Uknown Building in SF

Big Picture - 2436 Liberty Court

Interior - 2436 Liberty Court

Detail - 2436 Liberty Court

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Landscape Photographer Biographies

Classic: Ansel Adams

Born on February 20, 1902, this American photographer & environmentalist died on April 22, 1984. Famous images of his include Moon and Half Dome and Yosemite National Park, California. In 1916, Adams received his first camera, a Kodak Brownie box camera. That winter he learned basic darkroom technique working part-time for a photo finisher in San Francisco. As an avid reader of photography magazines, Adams attended camera club meetings & went to photography & art exhibits. In 1921, Adams' first photographs were published. Best's Studio began selling his Yosemite prints in 1922. Even then, his photographs showed careful composition & sensitivity to tonal balance. In the mid-1920s, Adams played with soft-focus, etching, Bromoil Process, and other techniques of the pictorial photographers. Staying away from hand-coloring, he used a variety of lenses to get different effects. Rejecting pictorialism, Adams went with a more realistic approach that relied more heavily on sharp focus, heightened contrast, precise exposure, & darkroom craftsmanship. Adams is most famous for his black-&-white photographs of the American West--particularly Yosemite National Park. Through his beautiful photographs, Adams was not only able to share the beauty found in this national park with others, but he was also able to use that beauty to keep destruction from harming this park.

Moon and Half Dome

In Glacier National Park

The Tetons and the Snake River

A photographic element in this photograph is value. Traces of pure whites can be found in the river & in the clouds. True blacks creep in the shadows of the mountains & are made by the silhouettes of the trees. Since the river is prominently the lightest part of this composition, the viewer's eyes see it first. The viewer's attention follows the line of the river & is brought to the mountains. The form of the mountains is emphasized against the lighter background. The line of the river helps bring the viewer's attention through the entire image.

Contemporary: Carr Clifton

This master landscape photographer was born on Clifton is famous for his distinctive & artistic landscapes of remote regions. His photographs are known to be vibrant and alive with saturated colors that really show the happy side of nature. To get the best shots, he explores the endangered, wild landscapes unknown to many. He is also best known for his 5 exhibit format books that showcase his work. In 1977, Clifton went into photography after seeking the advice & inspiration from his mentor & neighbor master landscape photographer Philip Hyde. He got a degree in Commercial Photography from Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Famous images of his include shots from varying places like New York & New England. There appears to be no titles given to his photographs that come up on the Internet. I can, however, offer you some titles of his very impressive portfolios such as Sacred Headwaters, Boats and Harbors, and Boats and Harbors II. His birthday remains a mystery seeing as there is very little on this guy that can be scavenged for on the Internet.

The principle of color also creates the element of emphasis in this photograph. Against the black background, the boat & its rope are emphasized. The form of the boat against the dark background create a line. Clifton frames the subject of this photograph in such a way that the viewer might not immediately realize that the subject is a boat. A sense of abstract photography comes into play here as well.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Blog Notes: Ch. 9 Landscapes (p. 208-217)

landscape photography characterized by maximum depth of field

stop down lens as far as possible (f/16, f/22, f/32)

longer shutter speeds

tripod is necessary

professional landscape photographs just after sunrise & just before sunset because of excellent light quality

low angle of the sun = shapes & textures emphasized by side lighting
light color is warm gold = particularly beautiful for color photography

easier to deal with direct lighting for distant subjects that for closer subjects

creates highlights & shadows = 3D landscape
overcast days for closer views

100 ISO with 35mm cameras to capture all details
B&W photography shows value, line, shape, texture, & pattern
wide-angle lenses used to capture more of the scene and include really close objects & distant ones in the same shot (greater sense of depth)
telephoto lenses used to concentrate on details/areas in the distance

capture scenes & objects that are too far to get to

macro lenses are useful for getting really close-up images

capture details & small objects
create abstract images of bark & rocks

yellow filters used to bring out clouds
red filters used to get look of deep black skies with stark white clouds
red filter + polarizer (darkens blue sky) = ultimate black skies with maximum contrast
Grand Landscape - "big view" for pictures of the great outdoors, wide-open expanses that showcase majesty of natural world, always include large expanse of the scene

horizons should be placed either 1/3 from the top or bottom

light meters designed to create exposure that makes medium/middle gray out of the scene being metered

with lighter values, you'll need to compensate by opening up f-stop/slowing down shutter speed for longer exposure

Abstracted elements - images composed of lines, shapes, values, & textures

get really close to your subject & photograph only a small part of it
macro lens = as much depth of field as possible

Brett Weston, Dunes and Mountains, 1945

Grains of sand in foreground & distant mountains are in sharp focus

Huntington Witherill, Great Sand Dunes National Monument, 1975

Luminous white clouds & sand dunes contrast with deep black sky.

Craig Barber, Succulent Gate

Every object is in sharp focus.

Eliot Porter, Foxtail Grass, 1957

Abstracted element.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Blog Notes: Ch. 9 Landscapes (p. 202-207)

focus on natural world without presence of humans
tends to be more formal than other genres (i.e. photojournalism)
Carleton E. Watkins - capture grandeur of American West, Yosemite Valley
Ansel Adams - Yosemite Valley, capture experience of being in wilderness
Timothy O'Sullivan - photographed Civil War, principle photographer for Gardner's book, Photographic Sketchbook of the War, lead photographer on first U.S. gov't photographic survery of lands west of Mississippi River, Grand Canyon & Colorado River, Canyon de Chelly, Death Valley

New Topographics - search for a new way to capture landscape in photographs, Robert Adams & Lewis Baltz

composition & viewpoint = muy importante!

pay attention to where to position camera
explore: go as high as you can & as low as you can, right & left, closer & farther back
goal = achieve balance between unity & variety

value = tres important in B&W landscape photography

wider range of tones = more dramatic
narrower range = quieter & more contemplative

balance - how those objects relate to each other in size, value, color, & location

symmetrical
asymmetrical
radial
Rule of Thirds - results in more interesting images

Ansel Adams, Mount Williamson, 1945

Proportion used to add emphasis to closer boulders - visual balance maintained between boulders & distant mountains

Timothy O'Sullivan, Canyon de Chelle, 1873

Direct sunlight on canyon walls & rock spires give off dramatic 3D effect

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Powerpoint Notes: Architecture & Urban Landscapes

Architectural photographs - indirect portraits - The materials, style, & scale provide clues about who the people were & what their lives were like.
Surroundings = Context
Charles Negre - The Vampire - 1853
Builings don't move & they will always include elements & principles (i.e. line, shape, form)
Frederick H. Evans - "Try for a record of emotion rather than a piece of photography."

worked primarily in platinum papers (silver-coated paper overlayed in platinum... exposure to light causes chemical reaction... more detailed) BUT WWI caused platinum prices to skyrocket (bombs) SO he gave up photography forever

Ezra Stoller (1915-2004) - architect to photographer, focused on light, shape & form
Thinking Artistically...

What are the emotions of the space?
What is the idea of the space as a whole?
PERSONALITY & RELATIONSHIP

Patterns - bricks, fabric, wallpaper, columns, etc.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Blog Notes: Ch. 8 Architectural & Urban Landscapes (p. 194-197)

big views of interior shots - concentrate on presence of people who live in/use those rooms, wide-angle lens, challenge: photographer limited in where to place camera
looks better if everything is in focus = greater depth of field
4 ft. to 20 ft. away
f/11 to f/22
the closer you are to the subject, the more depth of field needed, higher f-stop

Blog Notes: Ch. 8 Architectural & Urban Landscapes (p. 190-193)

big view - wide-angle overall view, commercial architectural photography, shows the whole building
drawbacks of wide-angle lens: distortion (perspective distortion - strong converging lines in a building, sides of building angle in toward each other)
shooting straight from the front = flat & 2D
shooting slightly from the side = textures, forms, & shadows, 3D view, depth, height, width
detail shot - features individual architectural elements of building's interior/exterior, requires careful/observant eye, telephoto lens

Blog Notes: Ch. 8 Architecture & Urban Landscapes (p. 184-189)

as much image sharpness as possible, smallest details

smaller f-stop = greater depth of field = more of the scene into focus

35mm - f/11 to f/22, 4x5 - f/32 to f/64 (the bigger the camera format, the smaller the f-stop must be)

bigger camera format = most detailed images (bigger negative)
slower film (100 ISO or less)

value = muy importante with B&W photography

helps to determine shapes of objects
reveal forms & direction of image's light source
greater difference = more 3D look (contrast)
emphasis

contrast - high = more dramatic & powerful

low-key print - mostly darker values
high-key print - mostly lighter values

texture - tactile/"touchable" quality of surface, enhances 3D quality of photograph, defined by light/dark values
color films emphasize color & setting (commercial)
B&W films emphasize values, shapes, & textures (artistic)
lighting = tres important with interior architectural photography

incandescent lights (regular household bulbs) - slightly more orange
quartz lights (modern spotlights) - yellow
fluorescent lights - green

wider lens can be useful but more distortion
slow, fine-grained film & lots of depth of field = slow shutter speeds = need for a tripod
yellow/orange filter will separate clouds from sky & make clouds stand out, bring out textures in stone/concrete
polarizers can darken blue sky to increase separation between clouds & sky, reduce/eliminate reflections in shiny nonmetallic surfaces

"On High"

Blog Notes: Ch. 8 Architecture & Urban Landscapes (p. 79-83)

indirect portraits - can sometimes give off clues of lifestyles
architectural photography - can be formal/informal, 3 methods (big view, detail shot, interior view), popular from the start (slow films + stationary buildings)
Charles Negre - chose photography over painting
Frederick H. Evans - one of the greatest architectural photographers in history, ENG & FR cathedrals, emtion & light
Eugene Atget - Paris & surrounding towns, self-taught photographer
line can be used to lead viewer's eye through architectural image