Assignment Five; People
and place on assignment
Object of assignment five
For this final assignment the choice of subject is mine.
The only proviso is that the subject should be one from this course; - people
and/ or the places they inhabit.
I have to first decide on a notional client, which could
be a manufacture, a magazine, newspaper or a book publisher etc.
Then choose the purpose of the assignment which could be,
educational, informational or promotional and finally, how the images will be
used, to illustrate a story or to sell a product etc.
I then need to imagine what the basic brief would be,
which will mean thinking form the other side of the fence – what someone
commissioning a photographer might want and write myself a brief so that I can
refer back to it.
Once I have assigned myself the brief, I need to complete
it and submit 8 – 12 images accompanied with a short written assessment.
My choice of subject – People and activity
Notional client – Advertising agency
Purpose of assignment – Promotional
Client briefing/my brief
To compose a set of images fit for publishing to include
the venue, guests and place. To be able to achieve an overall feeling of what
the venue has to offer, with well composed, creative and intriguing images,
which are well focused and colour managed.
Statement of planning - People and place on assignment
– People and activity
I decided to photograph the Pizza Express Jazz Club. For
which I received permission from the event organizer/promoter.
I really wanted to achieve the brief that I wrote for
myself and show the Jazz Club as a diverse yet comfortable setting. Including my
own vision, whilst portraying the musicians in the best possible light.
Taking in to account my tutors previous comments and
Steve McCurry’s lecture about time, I decided to shoot this assignment for well
over a month. Some of the performers were playing for a series of days and
weeks, so it helped me to get a plethora of different images of the same band.
When shooting the musicians and club I was very conscious
of not upsetting the paying customers, so I dressed in dark colours to blend in
and quietly manoeuvred around the venue. I was not allowed to use a tripod as
it would get in the way of the customers and waiters, which was understandable.
For the most part I planned to lean against the pillars, tables and chairs, so
I could be as steady as possible and made sure I had enough memory cards and
spare batteries.
Whilst the performers are playing you are not allowed to
use flash photography, so I knew I would need to do quite a few test shots at
the beginning of each show first to see what camera settings I would need.
I also planned which musicians I would photograph as I
wanted a diverse range of musicians, so to show the different facets that the
Jazz Club has to offer.
I have included the ISO in the technical picture
information to show how high it had to be to be able to capture the images. I
also had to take all of the photographs with a low aperture, again due to the
light and to be able to keep the shutter speed as fast as I possibly could.
On reading an article in the April issue of Digital Photo
Magazine, photographer Julian Hayr who
is commissioned to photograph musicians and actors, inspired me to choose the
subject for this assignment.
As I was thinking
about it, I came to the conclusion that photographing actors on a small stage
would be difficult due to the nature of theatre, you are usually sat still
throughout the whole show.
Whereas when you have musicians playing on a small stage,
people are up and about and dancing. Which lent itself for me to be able to
move around a small stage, without hardly any fuss.
In my opinion Julian creates images that fit the person
or event, which is something that I am trying to aspire too when photographing
people.
Here
is a collage of his images which inspired this assignment and hopefully I
captured a similar essence.
Bibliography;
·
Concert and Live Music Photography: Pro Tips
from the Pit: by J. Dennis Thomas; (This was quite
helpful to see what other people do when photographing live music events and
how they go about it. Each image in the book has information about the kit that
was used, as well as the settings used, which was fantastic. It really opened
my eyes as to what I should be doing and the fact that I probably need some
more money for camera equipment!)
·
The Jazz Image: Masters of Jazz Photography; by
Lee Tanner; (This book is all in black and white and
represents images of Jazz musicians over a period of four decades. It was
really useful to see how he composed his images and used the lighting to his
advantage. With strong contrasting images and some purposefully made “noisy”,
this book was a really great find and made me think about how to compose my
images)
·
Digital Photo magazine: Editor John Adams; (This magazine has been a massive help to me with my
photography, as mentioned in my learning log, how to free transform images,
dodge and burn, as well as the post production work)
Websites used
for this assignment;
http://julianhayr.com/-
(To research Julian Hayr and examine his photography)
http://www.tom-horton.co.uk/-
(To research Tom Horton and examine his photography)
http://skipbolen.photoshelter.com/gallery/Jazz-More/G0000RUexPx6B6go/-
(To research Skip Bolen and examine his photography)
http://www.pizzaexpresslive.co.uk/jazzList.aspx
- (To research the club and see what images they had on their website)
http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/home
- (To see what exhibitions they had and images on their website)
http://deutsche-boerse.com/dbg/dispatch/en/kir/dbg_nav/corporate_responsibility/33_Art_Collection/25_photography_prize
- (To see research the winner and runners up)
I wanted to show the process of elimination with the following
images, also to show the thought process behind what I was doing at the time of
creating these images.
Scott Hamilton
First up is Scott Hamilton. This was a four piece band,
however Scott was the main attraction for this particular show.
I initially wanted to have all four band members in the
final photographs for the assignment, however on second blush not all of my
images were up to scratch.
I tried to take images of the Bass player, unfortunately
he was in a difficult location on stage for me to take a decent image and the
above was the best I could achieve.
Image 9520 of Scott playing the Saxophone was one of my favourites
and a difficult one to eliminate. In the end I had to take it out of the
assignment due to a customer’s head being in the way and no matter how I tried
to crop it, it did not look right.
With regards to the two images at the bottom, I have
included different versions in the final images of my assignment. I liked these
images but chose not to include them due to the composition, the first one with
the piano and Scott does not tell as clear of a story as I would have liked. Even
though the clarity of Scott is amazing, the piano joint is cutting his
saxophone in half and it is too tightly composed.
In the image where you can see the audience, you can also
see the stage and band very well. However I felt the lead in lines were not as
strong as I would have liked and it lacked a certain atmosphere.
Brian Culbertson
I got a myriad of different angles for Brian’s shows, as the
piano was taken away and replaced with a couple of keyboards. Which made it a
lot easier to shoot as a piano was not blocking everything on stage.
I love the black and white images that I made, but I rejected
them as I felt the assignment as whole fitted better in colour. Some of the
shows were vibrant in the way they performed and I wanted to portray this in my
final assignment images.
The problem with both of the black and white images is
the chromatic edging, I tried to eliminate this in the raw images on Photoshop
but it did not work well on the final images.
The two images at the bottom were rejected due to the
composition and clarity. It was difficult to get the composition how I wanted
it as Brian’s shows were sold out every night and even though I wanted to
include the audience, I also did not want to encroach on their experience.
The image on the bottom right hand side was initially in
the final selection, however the woman who is sat just behind the man on the
left hand side, is badly lit from the house lights. She looked extremely odd
and no matter how much I tried dodging and burning in Photoshop I could not get
her to look natural.
Martyna Wren
Martyna’s show was very calm and really suited the black
and what imagery. My favourite image is 0712, I love how the light is silhouetting
her and the clarity of focus on the trumpet player, but one strong image does
not a set make. The same goes for the other black and white image, but again I
could not justify making the whole assignment in black and white solely for
these two images.
I also love the image in the bottom right hand corner, as
I feel it tells a story of the lone pianist, with Martyna calmly listening and
watching. Alas her head was turned and I felt it would make a better
publication if she was facing forward, on inspection when I looked at the other
images where she was facing forward, she was not as well lit.
I wanted to include the rest of the band in one of the
images and I like the top left image, but the right hand corner was to dark and
the base player was in an awkward position on the stage again.
David Benoit
This was a fun show to shoot as David, the guitarist and drummer
was very charismatic. I really like image 9905 due to the expression on
guitarists face and the composition of the reflection of the keys in the lid of
the piano. I chose not to include it in the end as I knew what the series of
images was about, however as a standalone image it would not have fitted in to a
publication as it is slightly confusing.
I also really like image 9935, again due to his facial expression
and I was in two minds as to whether to include it or not, ultimately I chose
not to as the microphone was not in full view and you could not see him
playing.
The top left image has fantastic clarity, but he was only
talking in to the microphone and not singing. Which I feel is portrayed in the
image, it did not speak to me a much as the other images I included in the
final set for the assignment.
I really like the composition of the drummer, I feel I
did really well in making this image, but his facial expression is really off
and looked really depressing, hence the reason for not including it.
Photographs
for the assignment
Here are the final images chosen for my assignment, there
are four sets of musicians that I chose to include, with three photographs in
each set.
Scott Hamilton
First image
1; 1/13 seconds at f/4.0 –ISO 400 - Lens EF-S
18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
This is one of my favourite images in this assignment. I
love the clarity of Scott and the reflection on the side of the piano.
This image was inspired by Julian Hayr, I love the way
the colours in Julian’s work are so vivid and directional. This is what I
wanted to portray in this image, with the soft spot light on Scott and the
coloured lights on the pianist, as well as the piano.
I focused on Scott playing the saxophone as I wanted the
left hand side of the image to be in focus and due to the light “glowing” off
of the pianist, I wanted to keep him in a soft focus.
As I said previously and with all of my images in this
assignment, due to the low lighting I had to use a low aperture, to be able to
capture all of my images, so I had to make sure I was focusing on the correct
area of the image at all times.
I feel this image would be good for publication due to
the story it tells and the refection of the Jazz club lights, unfortunately,
the lights shown in the image are all I could fit in to the reflection off of
the piano.
First image - Contact sheet
As with all of the images in this assignment I took a lot
of photographs, not because I did not take my time with the shots, but solely
due to the amount of movement the musicians were making. I really wanted to
capture the correct mood and expressions I was trying to portray.
Trying to achieve the correct composition was difficult
with this shot, as I had to do a lot of bending and crouching, however I am
really pleased with the final result.
2; 1/13 seconds at f/5.0 –ISO 800 - Lens EF-S
18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
This is another favourite image of mine I like everything
about it, the composition, the clarity, the detail of his saxophone, the
notable make of the piano and the microphone.
I really wanted to include the power of his saxophone
playing in the image, which I feel I have captured. I positioned myself well as
there were no customers in the way of this image and I captured the singular moment
that brings the whole series of images to portray Scott’s playing.
Second image - Contact
sheet
For the image I wanted to capture above, initially I was
in a different position and at the time I was not happy with them.
It goes to show by changing just one element of what you
do to create an image, can change the whole tone of a photograph.
Third image
3; 0.4 seconds at f/4.0 –ISO 400 - EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
On looking at Tom Horton’s images (see learning log
connected to this assignment) he tends to include the audience/crowd, with some
amazing results. I wanted to do the same and include different people, other
than the band. Although this image is not a striking as Tom’s work, I feel I
have captures the colour and tone of the event well in this photograph.
I wanted to have an image that included the audience, which
proved to be a tricky task. For this image I positioned myself high up, with my
wide angle lens to include as much as possible and angled my camera down.
I had to use a really slow shutter speed to light up the
audience, which in turn unfortunately made the band a lot, lot brighter.
In saying that, this is the best out of the images that I
took, due to the lead in lines and lighting near the top left hand side of the
image.
Third image - Contact sheet
Unfortunately I had to take a lot of images to achieve
the final image. Firstly due to experimenting with the lighting, but the main
problem was that one of the customers kept staring directly at me for nearly
all of the images.
It does not help that my camera is quite loud, which I
think drew his attention to me. In the end he started to look away and I
managed to create the image I wanted.
Brian
Culbertson
First image
1; 1/20 seconds at f/5.6 –ISO 800 - Lens EF-S
18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
I feel that this is not one of my stronger images, I
included it however due to the strength it would have as a publishable image. I
wanted to include an image that had the saxophonist in and the distinctive
Pizza Express sign. I like the clarity of the saxophonist and the blurred
emotional face of Brian. I think this image does portray Brian’s playing and
band, hence the reason I included it.
First image - Contact sheet
I repositioned myself from the first image 0281, as I
could not get the Pizza Express sign in to the frame. It was defiant luck that
Brian put his head back at the time that I took the shot above.
I had to reject the others due to the clarity and
lighting.
Second image
2; 1/8 seconds at f/4.5 –ISO 800 - EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
I wanted to include the audience again, but from a
different angle this time. I chose a seated position to be able to achieve this
shot and used my wide angle lens to be able to incorporate Brian playing the
keyboard. I also chose my wide angle lens to be able to include as much light
as possible, to highlight the audience.
I focused in on Brian and hoped that the audience would
still be in relatively good focus. I feel I managed to achieve the look I wanted
to get.
As with the previous image of the audience, I had to use
a slow shutter speed to bring in as much light as possible to the audiences
faces.
Second image - Contact
sheet
As with the other image of the audience, this was a
difficult one to achieve due to not being able to control where people look or
what they do.
In a few of these images, the man with his camera thought
it would be funny to take photographs of me whilst I was taking photos. Not his
fault as he did not know what I was doing, but it rendered quite a few of the
images obsolete.
I also decided against having the guitarist in the left
hand corner, as his white shirt drew a lot of attention to that side of the
frame.
Third image
3; 1/20 seconds at f/5.6 –ISO 800 - Lens EF-S
18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
This is another one of my favourite images, I had to get
as close as I could and zoom in the rest of the way. I used a faster shutter
speed for this image as there was a lot of movement going on. I also used the
highest ISO that my camera would allow without incorporating too much noise.
The only problem I had with this image was with the
funnel end of the trumpet. Brian’s trumpet was an off white colour rather than
silver, so it looks slightly strange and dominates the frame. I tried to burn
the highlights out of it, but this is the best I could do with what I had to
work with.
Third image - Contact sheet
As I said previously, there was a lot of movement at this
moment of the show.
Actually, there was a lot of movement throughout the
whole of Brian’s show, this was a difficult set of performances to photograph
with my cameras limited capabilities. So I ended up going with the image that
had the best clarity on his face and that had the best composition.
Martyna Wren
First image
1; 1/15 seconds at f/4.0 –ISO 800 - Lens EF-S
18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
For this image I wanted to have the audience in the frame
as well, but this time from a different angle and in silhouette form, I also
wanted to incorporate the whole band.
For this image I focused on the trumpet player and used a
moderately quick shutter speed for my surroundings, so that I could create the silhouettes
of the audience and not have the stage lights overpower the whole image.
First image - Contact sheet
I took a few shots of this scene as I wanted to get the
composition right and the whole band in the right stance at the right time. I
think in the final image I managed to incorporate everything that I wanted to achieve.
Second image
2; 1/13 seconds at f/4.5 –ISO 800 - Lens EF-S
18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
I wanted to show something a bit different in this set of
images and when I was standing at the bar considering what image I was going to
make next, I looked at the pictures on the wall and saw the trumpeter’s reflection
in the glass of one of the frames.
This was an extremely difficult photograph to create. I
had to try and get the right angle from behind the bar, so that I could get the
composition how I wanted it. This was to include the other images on the wall
so that you can see what is happing in the frame. I had to get the timing right
for when he lifted up his trumpet, to fit on the reflection of the glass. Also
I had to have the right camera settings so that I could “freeze” him in the
image and gain some sort of clarity through the fuzziness from the reflection.
I think I managed to achieve it, but I am not 100% happy
with it, if there were more lights in that corner it would have been easier to
have captured it without the noise.
Second image - Contact
sheet
As you can see, I took a multitude of images to get the
one that I was happy with.
You can see from the bottom row, I tried to solely focus
on the glass of the picture and not the surroundings, to see what kind of image
it would produce.
They were good images, but from an outsider’s perspective
it would just look like a strangely distorted image, which would not look like
a creative photograph in the slightest.
Third image
3; 1/20 seconds at f/3.5 –ISO 800 - Lens EF-S
18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
Martyna’s show was a sombre one and this made me think of
Skip Bolen’s work (see learning log connected to this assignment).
No matter what the musicians are doing, Skip seems to
capture the relaxed atmosphere at the right moment, with the correct lighting. I
wanted to capture Martyna and her band in the same way, as it was a very
chilled out performance.
For this image, I focused in on the piano keys and Martyna.
I wanted to incorporate the rest of the band as much as possible, without losing
focus on Martyna.
I feel I managed to achieve this and capture a nice
moment of her singing as well. Luckily the stage lights were quite high on this
occasion and as she was not moving much, so I captured the clarity that I need
to make a good image.
Third image - Contact sheet
I took a few slightly different compositions as I wanted
to capture a good emotion from Martyna.
As you can see from above, the stage lights were altered
slightly through her performance and her movement also changed the lighting in
the image.
These images were not as focused as I would have liked,
hence the reason for choosing the photograph above for the final image.
David Benoit
First image
1; 1/15 seconds at f/5.6 –ISO 800 - Lens EF-S
18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
As I said previously with my rejected images, this band
were very charismatic and I wanted to include the image of David playing the
piano.
With this image, you get a definite sense that he is
playing. I really like the blur of the hands, but the sharp focus of the
concentration on his face.
I used an ever so slightly higher aperture as I wanted to
have his body in focus as well as his face and I used a slower shutter speed to
blur his hands as much as possible.
First image - Contact sheet
As you can see I took quite a few images in this sequence
and changed the composition a couple of times, to achieve the look and feel
that I wanted.
I ultimately chose the image above due to the clarity, as
in most of the other photographs, his face was blurred due to his movement and
the adjustments of my settings.
Second image
2; 1/13 seconds at f/5.0 –ISO 800 - Lens EF-S
18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
I wanted to include an image that felt like you were part
of the band, seeing it from their point of view. I situated myself behind the
drummer for this photograph.
I like that I managed to get all three of the band
members in the image, however I feel that there is a bit too much negative space
in the top right hand corner. This could not be helped as I wanted to get a
full frame, although if you look at it another way, it leads your eye down the
middle of the frame.
Second image - Contact
sheet
This was a difficult image to achieve, as you can see I
tried many different compositions.
I did primarily like the vertical images with the table
at the bottom of the frame, however I felt it took away from the rest of the
image and highlighted the bottom of the frame too much.
I also tried over the shoulder shots but it did not look
quite right, so I situated myself at a lower level and tilted the camera up slightly
instead.
Third image
3; 1/20 seconds at f/5.6 –ISO 800 - Lens EF-S
18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
As I said in my rejected images, I was really happy with
the composition of the drummer, but felt his face had an odd expression.
This composition is just as good and I really like his
facial expression here. I feel it really lightens the whole image and it looks
like he is having fun.
I used a slightly higher shutter speed and ISO to freeze
his movement as much as possible, then I concentrated the focus on his face.
Third image - Contact sheet
I took a lot of images for this particular shot as he had
an expressive face and I wanted to capture the right moment.
I altered the composition slightly however I think I knew
I had the angle I wanted, to correctly frame the image, but I wanted to try
different focal lengths to see if it made a difference.
Which
it did, but I defiantly prefer the composition I was comfortable with, which is
in the image above.
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