P&P-Assignment Five; Feedback

Overall Comments

Miriam you have chosen a subject that appeals to a lot of photography students, however not many succeed in capturing atmosphere and compelling moments from the musicians without obstructions obscuring faces etc. The subject has difficult technical conditions and also a difficult working environment, you have produced a successful set of images that have captured both the atmosphere of the jazz club and some exciting moments from the musicians, well done. Generally the images are very good, some technical issues of which you reflect on and I will discuss later. For this assignment your prints are not as punchy or as detailed as the digital images, this is partly due to the high contrast and strong colours involved in the nature of the subject and the poor to average quality ink-jet paper you have used. A higher quality paper will print with more depth of tone and richer colours, especially if your printer uses the more advanced inks with a greater gamut (range of colours).

Some excellent research, both primary and secondary, has helped to inform your assignment and this is evident within your own practice and also in your reflective writing, well done.

On a personal note is this the Dean Street Pizza Express? I worked opposite it for seven years and knew the club well! During the 70’s I worked as an advertising photographer at the John Blackburn Design Partnership in Carlisle Street, opposite the Nellie Dean pub, and after a late nights shoot we would often end up in the Pizza Express basement and or Ronnie Scott’s.

Feedback on assignment

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity

Overall your images demonstrate variety in terms of subject and also format with a good selection of landscape and portrait formats, this is helpful from a magazine layout perspective. You also achieve good variety in terms of viewpoint and scale. Good to include your contact sheets which are indicating a sound rationale on your part in terms of discernment in final image choice.

You may wish to expand your client briefing slightly as this is a ‘bit thin’. Include a magazine or journal title, such as ‘Jazz Journal’ that the images are to be published in and then add some research concerning the type of images that the journal uses. A good decision not to mix black and white and colour in your image selection, one advantage of processing the raw images to colour is that you still have the option to supply black and white from your processed full colour images if required. A note here about this conversion process – it is best practice for the photographer to supply the converted black and white images as you then control the process rather than a publisher who may not convert them with the same visual flare and vision that you as photographer would.

Scott Hamilton
First image uses the reflection in the piano to good effect but it overpowers visually too much, it is well seen and captured but consider toning it down in post-production. I do like your framing of the sax player with the piano structure. Generally you are using wide apertures to enable shortish exposures with reasonably high ISO’s which is the correct combination for this type of work. Your lenses seem to only open to f 3.5 which is OK but ideally much faster lenses will be a lot more helpful here, so f1.8 or f1.2 even would really help and would also allow you to achieve shallower depths of field. I realise this is down to budget and affordability though! The Canon ‘Nifty Fifty’ may be worth considering as it has good reviews opens to f1.8 and is a relatively affordable prime lens at around £70.00, several of my full time students use it.

Second image is great, some tension in the player, the piano logo and hint of the audience make this work well, depth of field also works well here.

Third image describes the intimate nature of the club and is atmospheric, I feel you could crop this tighter, still retains the audience but eliminate the foreground chair. Do you have one of these where the band is still playing? I can’t tell from the contacts as they are too small to see?

Brian Culbertson

First image, some good emotion captured here with the sax player and background musician, good rationale including the Pizza Express logo.

Second image uses a different viewpoint and low camera position which is excellent in capturing variety, do any of your images show all the audience engaged as the man in the foreground is looking down? Again the contacts are small and dark so I can’t tell?

I really like the third image, strong emotional content great close up crop, well done. Would one of the more side on shots work better from the white trumpet end issue you have? such as 0586?

 

Martyna Wren

First image is a good choice capturing atmosphere and the entire band, this sets the scene, the second image is excellent, really well seen moment that captures the jazz club environment beautifully. Technically, as you point out, the noise is a slight problem but you have handled it well in post-production. Luminosity noise can look like film grain and can enhance an image in terms of gritty atmosphere, so as you suggest in this type of setting it may be appropriate. Ask yourself does the noise distract from the image? Does it add atmosphere? If you decide it is acceptable you then need to consider all the images in terms of consistency. The noise is a limitation of your equipment but as you are aware of the issue you are still making some great images here. Upgrading your equipment will help resolve this, noise is much less of a problem in later cameras, the bigger the physical size of the sensor the less the noise. Some of the smaller sensors used in the Fuji X range perform amazingly well regarding noise. Have you talked to Pizza Express regarding sponsoring you? They could purchase a house camera for you to use when you are working there? Just an idea! Talk to them!

The third image is great, excellent viewpoint and technically well handled in difficult lighting, you manage to hold detail in the sheet music highlights which is well done.  Is it possible to burn in the sheet music highlights just slightly more as they attract attention? also consider burning in the bottom right table edge to eliminate the distraction, a great shot well done. Good critical comments concerning focus in your annotation.

David Benoit

First image, another first class shot here Miriam, the movement on the hands, focus and concentration on the face and inclusion of the Pizza Express logo work really well for you, I also like the out of focus foreground coffee cup which adds depth to the image. The second image also works well but consider cropping this to lose a chunk of the drummers back as it adds little to the overall composition, see my suggested crop attached. Also on this type of photography consider burning in small detail that is distracting, I am not suggesting massively altering the image just subtle reduction in small distractions, such as the wire in the roof.

The third image is OK but there is not much dynamic happening from the drummer himself? Looking at your contact sheet you have plenty of images where his head is thrown backwards and or his hands are engaging with the drum kit more. You mention facial expression and I can’t see that from the small contact sheet images so I guess that may be a problem? But some more excitement from the drummer would help here.

Have you shown these to Pizza Express? Did they give you some feedback? If so that would be really excellent to include on your blog, I am sure it would be positive as this is good work. This would help to turn your brief into more of a ‘live brief’.

Note I have just used screen grabs to illustrate the cropping options so do ignore the quality of the images.

Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays

Context
As mentioned some relevant, helpful and inspiring research is documented that has informed your own practice, this concerns primary and secondary research. A detailed reflective analysis in terms of your images strengths and weaknesses is also documented, you make excellent comments here that demonstrate understanding and learning, well done.