This blog documents my fifth day on placement at the NMS entomology lab in Granton, Edinburgh.
When I arrived this morning, Vlad told me that today would be my last visit for the foreseeable future due to the uncertainty surrounding coronavirus. I had intended on starting to shoot for the museum today, however given that I am also doing my final project at the lab (which is worth 40 credits at university), I decided I should spend the day finishing that to the best of my abilities instead.
In my opinion, these three images are the best I made during the placement:
It is a shame my visits were cut short by the coronavirus outbreak, however I think that even during the five days I spent on placement in the department, I learned a number of invaluable skills. Knowing how to use the monorail and associated imaging and stacking software may serve me well in future. Also, learning about how the department operates was not only interesting as I knew very little about it beforehand, but also useful in seeing some of the real world scientific and educational applications of photography in the industry today.
Ashleigh suggested that I return when the the UK lockdown ends. I think I will take her up on that offer as there is so much I didn’t get a chance to do during my five visits.
This blog documents my fourth day on placement at the NMS entomology lab in Granton, Edinburgh. Today, Head of Department, Vladimir Blagodorev showed me how the department finds specific specimens in the museums vast collection. The specimens themselves are stored in drawers on shelves in alphabetical order much like a library. Information on specimens is kept on a private database which can be accessed by the department in order to find certain specimens, using key words such as the scientific name.
Given the enormous scale of the collection and the fact that the majority of it was acquired before the department began using computers, much of the information is not very detailed. For example, the database will have information on where a species is kept, however it may not have details on its exact location or how many of the species there is.
After learning how it works, I was able to use the database to find a European Rose Chafer; a species of beetle I had been researching online. The database was able to point me to a drawer which Ashleigh got out:
Drawer of European Rose Chafers
I then selected the best condition beetle I could find and began photographing it. I ended up photographing it in about 12 separate sections. It took many hours to composite them all, however I think it was well-worth it for the final result:
European Rose Chafer composite
As I had time left, I decided to photograph a butterfly specimen. Fortunately, there was a drawer to hand and I was able to pick out an orange-tip butterfly specimen. It turned out to be a surprisingly simple shot. Unlike the bee and beetle images which had comprised multiple lighting set-ups, I was able to photograph this specimen in one image:
Orange-tip butterfly specimen
The result, although not as striking as the bee or beetle specimens, still looks great. Overall, I am very pleased with my progress today. I think the beetle is the best work I have produced so far. Next week, I will ask Ashleigh if there are any particular specimens she would like to me to photograph as I feel I am ready to give the marketing shots a proper attempt.
This blog documents my third day on placement at the NMS entomology department in Granton, Edinburgh.
As I wanted to improve on the Red-tailed bee specimen photograph I made last week, I spent the week researching how other photographers approach insect/specimen photography.
Levon Biss’ technique involves taking multiple images with differing lighting set-ups and compositing them in order to create an image where every part of the specimen is well-lit:
Levon Biss compositing multiple images
As the wings on the specimen from the previous week were in very poor condition, I decided to instead find a specimen with good wings and composite them over the top. I found a specimen and began experimenting with the lighting.
Left wing
Right wing
Once I had images of the two wings, I went into photoshop, which the museum had installed on the computer. I was able to cut out the wings from the second bee and place them onto the wings of the red-tailed bee.
Red-tailed bumblebee composite
The result is far more striking than my effort from the previous week. I look forward to applying this new technique to images next week.
This blog documents my second week on placement at the NMS entomology lab in Granton, Edinburgh. Today, Assistant Curator, Ashleigh Whiffin taught me how specimens are prepared and stored in the collection.
The majority of the collection is displayed on pins inserted through the backs of the specimens. This keeps them raised, preventing damage to dangling appendages, as well as keeping them in place and allowing them to be viewed from all angles. The pin is usually inserted slightly to the right of the specimens bodies. This ensures the left side remains entirely intact for reference on how both sides looked while it was alive. If it were placed in the centre, this would make it impossible to know what that area looked like as it would be damaged on both sides.
Each specimen has two hand-written labels. The first describes the scientific name and sex. The second includes the date and location the specimen was collected as well as the name of the collector in many cases. These labels are kept beneath the specimen on the same pin so they do not become separated. Between the specimen and labels is a small foam block which prevents the specimen from slipping down the pin, as well as the ink from the labels from staining it.
Example of labels on pin. Amazingly, this pin belongs to a specimen collected nearly 70 years ago
Specimens are kept in glass-topped trays. This allows staff to quickly view the contents without exposing the specimens to dust. All of the materials and processes, with the exception of the pin, are archival, meaning they are fully reversible and do not damage specimens. As these archival measures were only introduced relatively recently, it is common to find old specimens which have been permanently affixed to pieces of wood or card with acidic glues. Other specimens have faded due to long term exposure to light:
Death’s Head Hawk Moth Specimens (On the top, a well-preserved specimen, on the bottom, one that was exposed to light)
As a result, the museum stores the shelves in light-tight cupboards. The temperature and humidity are also closely monitored and controlled to prevent further damage to specimens.
In the afternoon, Ashleigh brought out a tray so I could photograph some more bee specimens. On this occasion I chose to photograph a red-tailed bumblebee.
Red-tailed bumblebee specimen. Image 1
I was quite pleased with the results, however I felt the lighting on the wings could be improved. I decided to research how other photographers approach insect/specimen photography in order to improve my results the following week.
My name is Adam Kitchener and I am a fourth year photography student at Edinburgh Napier University. This is the first of five blog posts, documenting my placement at the NMS entomology lab in Granton, Edinburgh. Unfortunately, it was cut short due to the UK lockdown, however in the five visits I made, I learned a number of new photographic disciplines, as well as the many roles of photography in science.
The lab houses National Museums Scotland’s insect specimen collection. Its purpose is to study the specimens for scientific research. Macro photography plays a major role in this as well as communicating the labs findings with the wider scientific community.
The purpose of the placement was to learn how to use the departments photographic equipment, as well as the labs day-to-day running and operation. This would allow me to create images for their social media/marketing. It was also a great opportunity to get real world experience taking photographs in a working environment.
Day 1 – Mon 2nd March
Today, I was introduced to the department by Ashleigh Whiffin (Assistant curator). The lab comprises an office space where the majority of the research is carried out, as well as a storage area for the research collection.
Specimen storage
Office space where staff carry out research
After the tour, Vlad (the department head), showed me how to use the camera set-up. It consists of a Canon DSLR and 100mm macro lens on a monorail. Incredibly, the monorail can be adjusted to within one micron.
Camera set-up
Closer view of monorail (Camera moves up and down it in order to photograph subject from varying distances)
The camera/monorail is adjusted using a software called Helicon Remote. The camera needs to be adjusted to such fine degrees due to the incredibly shallow depths of field caused by photographing subjects at such short distances. It simply wouldn’t be possible to photograph the entire specimen in focus in one image. By taking multiple images at differing distances and stacking them however, it is possible to get a single image of the entire specimen in focus. The stacking is done using a sibling software called Helicon 6.
This box allows the stacking and remote software to communicate with the camera and monorail
I spent the rest of the day practicing with the software to ensure I was proficient. It was surprisingly intuitive, so I was able to pick it up fast. The main difficulties I found were not the technical aspects but instead with the specimens themselves. Many were in very poor condition, asymmetrical and/or covered in dust etc. After selecting and photographing the best possible ones, I was able to use a clone stamp on photoshop to remove/correct the pin and any dust/imperfections.
Helicon remote software (Allows user to adjust monorail, camera settings, as well as see live view and histogram)
The software has a live view feed which allows the user to determine the nearest and farthest points (A and B) at which the subject is in focus. Once these are entered, the camera will determine the number of images and intervals required to capture the distance between the two points. I found results were better when I entered the number of images manually however, as the software often overcompensated, causing the images to look over-sharp or unnatural, like an HDR. The optimum seemed to be between 12 and 18 depending on the size of the specimen. After I shot the images, I was able to drag and drop them into the stacking software (Helicon 6). I shot raw and jpeg to speed up rendering times (with the intention of stacking the raw files and saving them as tiffs later).
Stacking software
First image
For the first image, Ashleigh fetched a bee specimen. I was just getting the hang of the process so photographed the specimen with ambient light.
Today was very educational. I look forward to learning more next week.
Having the read the brief a few times I started by doing some research on the internet and in the library about documantary photography. I used books. articles and even youtube videos to aid my learning. This clarified a few things for me and taught me a thing or two. Here are some of the notes I took:
-Capture candid moments to create a greater sense of realism so as to document accurately.
-Capture important details and moments to create more interest.
-Think what you are attempting to portray and construct the images accordingly (think about how text in the form of signs for example can alter the reading of an image).
-Pick an aspect/narrrative and stick to it (otherwise confusion and mixed messages can be created).
It was ressuring knowing that the audio from the interview would add make clear what I was trying to communicate in my images. I then researched interviewing and how documentaries keep audiences interested. This is what I learnt:
-Make sure the quetions you ask create a response which both repeats the question in one way or another and answers the question. (Otherwise there will be no context and it will not make any sense)
-Make sure the interviewee is comfortable and does not know the questions beforehand (Otherwise the answers will seem forced/awkward).
-Stay quiet whilst the person is talking or else you will be unable to use that bit of audio or you will have to spend ages editing yourself out.
I started watching documentaries and interviews to learn more about how to do them. I began by watching a few tedtalks. I had watched many in the past but never really thought about what made them interesting. I found very quickly that the reason many of them are interesting is the use of images. I also found that if any of them exceeded a few minutes I would just click off them because the speaker was taking too long to get to the point. These two things were covered in my presentation as it was only to be about 1.5 mins long and had to have images. I found the ones with anecdotes and facts were the most engaging so I decided I would try to incorprate them into my own presentation. I also watched some full-length documentaries, and again, it was all about using facts and anecdotes to create more interest. I also found that they would link information from one point to the next to make it flow better. For example they might reach the end of a point and say ‘speaking of which’ and then link it onto the next one. I also found that documentaries often had aspect ratios of 16:9 or even thinner to give a more immersive and cinematic feel. I decided that I would do this with my images as I did not like the idea of them being full screen. I felt it would be harder to read them and they would lack consistency.
It was now time to look into additional audio. I decided to use the internet for research. I began by looking at sound effects. It seemed that many were copyrighted so using them for the presentation without permission from the creator would be illegal. I did however find royalty-free sound effects on some websites which could be used for free and for any purpose. Also, many video editors such as imovie offer a wide variety of sound effects which can be used for any purpose. Obviously adding in the sound of a plane taking off or some crickets chirping to my presentation would be very cheesy and distracting but it was interesting to know that it was possible. If I were to do my documentary on a farm for example the sound of a cockerel or some sheep would be perfect for setting the scene at the beginning. I then looked into the legalities of downloadng music and it was incredibly complex and often seemed to contradict itself. Obviously it is illegal to use an artist’s music without permission and/or crediting them. And with most artists it is impossible to get permission. However, I found that if you turn the track into a remix or change the pitch or speed it can go under the radar and even evade copyright law (but best not to risk doing this). But also similarly to the sound effects there are plenty of royalty-free tracks which are often instrumental which you can use for free provided you credit the artist or source. I reckon a situation where I could use this royalty-free instrumental music would be if I were to use a space like a music school or a care home. A piano playing softly in the background would be great in setting the scene and adding ambience. I could even record someone in the space playing it themselves to add to the realism and documentation. To sum up: Additinal audio can be very corny or distracting so it is all about using it in taste and only to add to the story.
Ideas:
When thinking of ideas for something to document I wanted a very interesting place and very interesting people. My first idea was my neighbour, an eccentric old man called George who lives alone in a big house, has a dog named Crackajack, an old battered sports car and an overgrown garden. I felt this was the perfect thing to document. Unfortunatley, when I asked (politley) if he would be happy to be a part of a documentary I was making for a university project, I was rejected. I then thought of the care home where my great aunt was until late last year when she sadly passed away but I didn’t feel I could go back there. That was when I rememberd my S5 work experience when I was at the musuem campus in Granton for a week. I had been given a tour of the whole campus, including the taxidermy department where I met a man named, George. I felt him and his department would be perfect. I sent him an email explaining who I was and asking if he would like to be part of my project. He said yes and actually seemed very enthusiastic about it. We arranged for the interview to be on Thurs 20th April. I had to get up at 5:30am in order to be at Granton on time as there were only a couple of hours in the early morning that I was able to do the interview and take pictures.
Here is the list of questions I took into the interview:
“Please could you start my introducing yourself and explain where we are?”
“How did you first become interested in zoology/taxidermy?”
“What are the specimans used for?”
“What is your favourite aspect of of the job as why?”
“What is your least favourite aspect of the job and why?”
“Do you any memorable moments working here?”
“In your job you work with dead animals. Are there any times you work with live ones?”
“Has this area changed a lot since you started working here, whether that be the building itself or the people who work here?”
We used George’s office for the interview as it was quiet. It lasted around 20 mins and many of George’s answers covered other questions so I ended up not having to ask all of them. I also ended up asking questions which I had not prepared as he said some very interesting things which I wanted to know more about. After the interview he took me around the department briefly to explain what everything was. I took pictures along the way and more pictures freely afterward of him and his colleagues working. It was very challenging getting content I was happy with in such a a short time but thankfully I managed to get more than enough for the 1.5 min presentation.
When putting together the presentation I started by going through all of the images I had taken. I then listened to the audio and wrote down the most important parts before arranging them into a story:
George introduces himself before describing his job and what he does for it. He then goes on to describe the space (where he works) and talks about the history of it and his personal experiences there. At the end he talks about the childhood story of how he first became interested in zoology. Whilst I was putting this together I thought of which images could go where. I initially selected around 25 images which could potentially be part of the presentation:
Unfortunately due to the number of images being limited to 12 and the audio to 1.5 mins I had to cut a lot of strong images and monolgue which I would definitely have used had the limit for both been higher.
In the end I came to 11 final images which I felt best fit the story the audio had created:
Due to poor lighting conditions I had to remove green and yellow tints from some of my final images on Photoshop. I put the interview into audacity where I cut it from 20 mins to 1.45. Any further and there would be too much crucial information missing. After this I put it into windows movie maker where I cut it all and rearranged it into the order I had written them in earlier. I then added in my final 11 images. I experimented with cross fades and gaps of black between the images however I eventually opted for just simple cuts between the images. I used black borders around the images because in my research I had found that most documenatries use similar thin aspect ratios. I felt this was easier on the eye. It also gave room for subtitles (which I felt were necessary owing to George’s German accent and quiet voice). I would have liked to have gone back to reshoot some of the images and take some images which I had not thought to take previously however I simply did not have the time as I was working Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday. Friday and Monday were being used for editing.
I had realised when I got to the space and when it came to editing that there were no ambient sounds to record. It was silent. I also felt that adding in music or sound effects would just be distracting and take away from the story. It also just seemed a bit corny adding in additional audio especially seeing as it was just for the sake of it. The brief had asked just to consider the ‘legalities and logistics’ of additional audio so the only thing I did not do in regards to additional sound is actually record ambient sounds. But then again there was none to record anyway.
Reasoning for final selection of images and audio:
The first image is a candid one, showing George. I chose to use one of him as the opening image as at this point in the audio he is introducing himself. I used a wide aperture of f2.8 to create a shallow depth of field to draw more attention to him to show that this image is about him. I included the bones in the foreground and had him holdng the tortoise skull so as to show how he interacts with the space. I captured him candid in this portrait and all of the other ones of him to give a heightened sense of realism.
I chose this one as the second image in the sequence as he is still talking about himself but more about what he does for his job and what he does in the space in a typical day. In this image I captured this moment where he is looking for a specimen in the research collection. Unfortunately the conditions were very dark. I attempted to pull it back in photoshop but unfortunately some of the detail was lost and there is some fringing and other nasty artefacts in the shelf and his clothes. I decided to use it anyway as I think it is a good moment and it is impossible to notice these problems when it is in the presentation.
Although this image is very similar to the first image I think it works as it shows him from another angle, allowing the audience to get to know him better. It also adds more variety and makes it more interesting.
The fourth image offers a close-up of the bones he is examining in the first and third image. At this point in the audio track he is talking about how sometimes the job can be a bit ‘nasty’. I think this illustrates that well with the dried blood on the bones and haphazardness of how they are arranged and the cracks and details in them. I maybe should have included his hand interacting with them but I am still quite pleased with this image and I think it does what it is meant to do. The browns and yellows evoke feelings of decay.
At this point in the audio George is talking about how taxidermy is no longer practiced at the museum but as can be seen there are still some stuffed specimens left over. This shows the change that has occured since he started working there. I do not know why I opted for such a shallow depth of field. If I could take this image again I would probably have a narrower aperture so that more of the birds are in focus. Regardless, I think it still does what I want it to do. I realised after that I had cut out a bit of audio with him saying ‘which is a great shame’. I am quite bummed that I missed this as it would have shown his personal reaction to the absence of taxidermy as well as the change that has occured.
At this point he talks about the history of the site and how it was built after WWII for recovering soldiers. I found from my research that facts are interesting for the audience so I felt this worked well. I think this image aslo gives context as to where this is all taking place. He then goes on to talk about how the ergonomics of this building have had an effect on him which I think links on well to the next image:
Here, he talks about his relationship with the design of the building. This cluttered shelf and sink show how him and his colleagues use the space. I maybe did not leave it up for long enough for the viewer to explore all of the objects on the shelf though. But I think it still works as it shows how George uses the space and it is very interesting because of the clutter.
The next image is a continuation of how he interacts with the space and what he thinks of it and all of the machinery and equipment it has. It is a far wider shot which is a huge contrast to the clutter and clostraohobia in the pervious image of the shelf. There was a close-up image I took of some tools I probably should have included as well but then again adding it in would have given less time to look at the other images. The chair in the bottom right corner is annoying but I did not want to fiddle with anything as I was trying to capture everything as it was. It may also seem a bit too yellow but it was far worse than this before. This was the most yellow I could extract without blue or green hues entering the image.
He then goes on to talk about the reason for the maps on his office wall. (The opportunites his job provides to travel). I think this image works as it is simple and not only shows his passion for travelling but where he lives as two of the maps are Scottish. Also, if you look closely you can see a visitor pass with a picture of a bear on it. This shows George’s humour. He also talks about how he went to Mexico for two and a half years which links nicely to the next two images:
In this photograph George talks about how he collects insects and goes on to share a personal anecdote about how he first became interested in zoology and specimen collection and ultimately ended up in his job and more importantly the space in the first place. I missed focus on this one so unfortunately his face is out of focus. It still communicates what I want it to though. The photograph shows him interacting with the insect collection which links to the story he is telling about how his father would collect insects and how that got him interested.
The next image provides the link between his travels to Mexico and his insect collecting as it can clearly be seen on the labels that these insects are from Mexico, owing to the narrow depth of field. It also offers a close-up of what he is actually examining in the previous photograph.
I found it very difficult to end the presentation and as I was already 10-15 seconds over the 1.5 mins specified in the brief I just had to end it on him finishing his personal story. After completing the final presentation I uploaded it to youtube:
Unfortunately there are some crackling sounds at a couple of points in the audio clip. This was because George moved a few times, causing his clothes and the chair he was sitting on to make noise. I attempted to remove them on audacity, however some of them were buried beneath his speech so I was unable to remove them without also removing what he was saying. On another note I successfully managed to remove all of the ‘fuzzy’ ambient sound in the background using the noise reduction tool. I think that because of this all of the transitions between two different areas of speech are quite seamless. It would have been great to go back to reshoot/capure some opportunities I missed, however there was simply no time to organise another trip to Granton for a couple more images. I think the addition of subtitles was a good move as I can imagine many people would be unable to understand what George is saying as he has a foriegn accent. Although the brief asked that I look into recording background sounds and look into the legalities of using other people’s audio I just could not think of any music or sound effects that would not be distracting or corny. I still researched it to show I have an undertsanding of it. To be honest there were no sounds in the space anyway. I definitely should have considered this before I organised to document this location.
Feedback
The feedback at the crit was very positive. Everyone seemed to like my images and found my topic interesting. Mary-Ann pointed out that it starts and ends a bit abruptly and it could maybe do with some breathing space as it is quite fast-pace. I totally agree with this and it is the way I wanted to have it. However, there just was not enough time to add these in along with all of the audio I wanted to include. Some people found that the subtitles distracted from the images.
200 Word Reflective Statement
I think that overall I succeeded in creating images which assisted the audio I recorded. In regards to the audio, I think I did well in reducing ambient noise on audacity and I think that I asked questions which created good monologue. I do think, however that I should have asked my interviewee to speak louder and more clearly and not move around as this both ruined parts of the audio and caused me to have to use subtitles which some people said were distracting. As was pointed out by Mary-Ann, it started and ended a bit too abruptly. I definitely should have added an introduction and outro. Even just some text on the screen for a few seconds. I also should have spaced out my audio as well as it was maybe a bit too cramped and fast. The main reason I did not do these was because my presentation was already running over the limit. I suppose this just comes down to not being ruthless enough when editing down my content. I did consider additional audio in my research, however ended up not adding it in as I felt it was too distracting and the place I documented was very quiet. This is something I should have considered before choosing the location.
For part 1 we were put into groups of three and asked to write a brief which would be given to another group to complete. I was put in Group 4 with Anna and Ellie and the brief we wrote asked for a product photograph of Starbucks coffee. Unfortunately our group was too busy to meet up so we had to write the brief over Facebook Messenger. Ellie wrote a first draft which Anna and I checked over to see if anything could be added in. I then wrote a second and final draft based on what Ellie wrote and the corrections we made. Anna then printed the three copies we had to bring to class. The next day we presented it to the class and our classmates and teachers gave us feedback on how we could improve it. We then handed our brief to Group 3 and recieved Group 1’s brief.
Part 2
Our group now had to complete Group 1’s brief under their supervision. We also had to supervise the completion of our brief which was now in the hands of group 3.
We began by going to the library as a group to do some research. We had each read the brief several times. It asked us to create a still life photograph for a book called ‘ The Night Circus’. We first researched previous book covers which, as the brief stated, were not photographs but graphics. We printed them out to take to the tutorial with Sally:
We drew inspiration from the simplicity of these for our own cover. They also asked us that the image be monochromatic with red being the only colour. With this in mind we set about finding the objects that were listed in the brief. We found very quickly that the only objects we would be able to provide and use were gloves, tarot cards and rings. The tree, umbrella, fire, ice and birds would all be impossible to photograph with these. Either because they are too big, too dangerous or too impractical.
We managed to find a way around this:
I remembered this album cover I had seen so I showed it to the group and suggested we do something similar. Obviously it would not have been possible for the artist to photograph this scene in real life so they constructed it using paper, paintings and photographs. The result is pretty magnificent. This then reminded us of a Tesco advert which has a photograph of a constructed reality made of food. I have searched for it online but can’t seem to find it. The only places I have seen it are on the sides of Tesco delivery vans and on billboards. Drawing inspiration from these our group decided to construct the objects we would be unable to obtain or photograph out of paper. When we told Sally about this idea at the group tutorial she liked it and recommended we watch ‘The Science of Sleep’. A movie about a man who creates a constructed reality from household objects and lives in it:
Our group met up afterwards and drew out our composition on a piece of paper:
We decided to have the gloves holding the objects and the constructed objects in the corners and around the edge of the frame. We had looked at a website linked in the brief before the tutorial with Sally. This link had been very useful as it had told us all about the book, it’s themes and what colour everything should be. We decided to make the birds, umbrella and ice out of white paper and the fire out of red paper. At this point we were unsure if anything else would fit in the frame so we decided that we would have a red tree if there was enough space. We decided to photograph all of the objects seperately and combine them on Photoshop. We originally intended to photograph all of this in one frame but getting the birds and the gloved hands to stay perfectly still and lit along with all of the other variables would have been near impossible. Furthermore, had we managed all of this we felt it just wouldn’t have the same effect as a composite image. Also most lenses are soft in the corners and suffer from distortion because of the way they are designed. This would have caused a loss of detail in the paper objects and a strange looking persepective. We would have had to have used a telephoto lens (in the small studio space) with a narrow aperture, meaning either a slow shutter speed or very high ISO would had to have been used. This just wasn’t possible.
We booked a studio slot for the following Monday at 12pm. Unfortunately Ellie messaged us in the morning to say she was sick. As much as we would have liked to have postponed the shoot until Ellie was well, we were meeting Sally on the Wednesday so that she could suggest improvements and/or whether we needed to reshoot. This meant it had to be done that day. Myself, Anna and Louise from the other group met at 12pm in D20. We asked Louise if she would be happy to model for the shoot as we needed someone to wear the gloves and hold the tarot cards and rings.
We set up a black backdrop on a chair, using the backrest to hang it from and the seat to place the still life on. We then cut a hole in the backdrop so that Louise could put her hands through, before setting up a camera and tripod in front. The backdrop definitely looked odd, however if Louise’s hands and the lights were positioned correctly it was not noticable and looked a very deep black. We positioned the lights so that there would be a sort of ‘halo’ effect around Louise’s hands. This was to seperate them from the backdrop because although they were shiny they were still black. Anna had the idea of actually having the gloved hands interact with the objects (wearing the rings and holding the tarot cards as if they are being used):
At first it was tough getting a fast shutter speed and a low ISO without motion blur occuring in Louise’s hands. So we decided to up the intensity of the lights. We were cautious of doing this at first as we were afraid it would over-expose the rings or reveal the strange backdrop we had constructed. Thankfully it turned out fine and we managed to get the shutter speed to 1/100, the aperture to f8 and the ISO to 400. The result was very sharp. It was now just a case of moving the lights and objects around until we were happy. After a few attempts we were pleased with the result:
It was now time to photograph the paper objects. Before the shoot Anna and I had made fire, ice (in the form of icicles), three birds and an umbrella out of white and red card. We first photographed the fire. We simply stuck it to the chair and shone a single light on it from the side. This created shadows which gave it more depth. We then photogaphed the icicles. We were able to shoot it the same way we shot the fire but instead we flipped the image upside down afterward so that the icicles were pointing down. We decided against photographing the umbrella. We felt it looked too clumsy so we decided to have more fire on the other side instead. We felt this would make the composition more balanced. We also decided against photographing the tree as there was no space for it and cramming it and the umbrella in now would over complicate the composition.
Now came the hard part. The birds we cut out really needed to be suspended to give the illusion that they were flying so we attached fishing wire to them and hung them underneath the chair. Getting them all to sit in the same position was incredibly tedious but eventually they were all in the same place under the same light and the wire was not visible:
We would have photographed the birds seperately to combine them later in Photoshop, however we wanted to do as much as we could in camera as possible so we refrained. Besides we were already going to be doing a fair bit in Photoshop as it was. (We asked Louise at the start if it was alright for us to use Photoshop and she said it was absolutely fine).
Now that we had finished taking the pictures it was time to combine and edit them. I offered to take the images home to do a rough draft edit. I began by using a desaturation tool to remove all colour besides red from the images. These are the 4 images after selective colouring and flipping the icicles the correct way round:
I then combined the images on Photoshop, leaving space for the title:
I sent it to the group chat and we decided how we might be able to improve it for the final edit. After this and the group tutorial with Ron we decided to redo the fire to make it more pointy and curvy. We then added in a title and printed it ready for the pin up on Wednesday:
We also brought along a version without the title as that was what the brief asked for and a full sleeve version to show roughly what the final product would look like:
Feedback
The class seemed to respond well to it. Mary-Ann and Sally commented on how the framing, lighting, and composition were good. One thing that came up however was that the hands were not bright enough. One person said they had thought they were smoke at first. I think this is a fair cristicism and it has made me realise that in future when communicating something in my images I need to make it as clear as possible to avoid people interpreting it differently.
Overall I am very pleased with the final cover and I think that my group and I responded well to the brief. Despite our idea requiring heavy Photoshopping, I think we did well to do as much in camera as possible (photographing the birds together and getting the lighting right there and then). All we did in Photoshop in the end was combine the images, selectively colour them and flip the icicles.
This first image is being used to advertise summer holidays. However, without the supporting text this image of the boy in a superhero costume could be given so many more contexts. For example the image could be used to advertise costumes or it could be for a children’s party.
The editorial that I took this from makes it clear that Trump is merely exchanging a fee words with this man, however without context this man and Trump could be talking about anything, especially seeing as the man is whisoering and shielding with his hand so that no one can see what he is saying. Without context this image puts Trump in very bad light. Project-
1. In Lightroom I added a watermark to the bottom left corner of one of my images before also putting my copyright into the metadata. The image is of a very low resolution as it was one of the only ones I had access to at the time:
2. As Donald Trump has been in the news a lot lately I decided to create a fake newspaper headline which shows him in bad light. I searched online for an image of him which looks quite shady. As expected I found many but one in particular caught my eye. It showed him signing the papers for his inauguration, however due to everyone in the background being dressed very formally, there being a dark wooden table and the fact that he has his hands raised and his mouth open as though he is in denial means this could easily be a photograph taken from a court case where he is on trial. I created a fake headline and caption in the style of an online newspaper artcicle like the guarian or the observer and this was the result:
This really shows how easily the meaning or context of an image can be changed just by applying some text to it.
3. Originally I took these images for a workflow project where we had to document an area in 5 images. I chose the train station and attempted to show the fast pace movement of people and trains in and out of the station using slow shutter speeds. When I was given the brief for this project I realised that the images from the workflow project could easily be rearranged to create a narrative of someone using the train station. The images were originally taken in a completely random order. It was only after that I thought of the narrtive and the new order. These are images, in order, below:
The narrtive is about a person using the train station. The first image shows their view of the train station as they walk towards it, the light trails emphasising how busy it is. The second image shows the inside of the station. I panned along beside someone with a slow shutter speed to blur the background but still have their figure recognisable as a person. This was to show how everyone moves quickly through the station, not really paying attention to their surroundings. The third image shows the bridge leading to the platform. I used a slow shutter speed to again emphasise how fast paced it is in the train station. The fourth image shows the person who the narrative is about waiting for their train at the platform from a far. The slow shutter speed blurs one of the trains, showing how much goes on whilst they are waiting. The final image shows a view up tye excalator as the person leaves the next station having caght their train. Again a slow shutter speed is used to emphasise hiw fast pace everything is.
Although the meaning of these individual images was always intended, the order was not and this shows just how importrant the way you sequence your work is. The narrative of these images binds them together, changing the context in which they were taken to one which is easier to read as a whole.
My friend Robbie and I wanted a challenge so we decided to do the West Highland Way during winter. Robbie had previously done it three times in summer and the fastest time he had completed it in was 6 days. He was keen to beat this time so we aimed for 4 days. We decided to go in the first week of January as we were off uni. We took the time off work and watched the weather forecast carefully in the days before we left. It seemed the temperature would be below freezing and we would have to deal with rain, wind and possibly snow afer we crossed the half way line in Tydrum. We packed accordingly and caught the train from Edinburgh to Glasgow in the afternoon on Jan 2nd
I have never actually tried to do an exact recreation of a photograph before so this should be a really interesting project. I will admit, I am a bit of a perfectionist so recreating landscapes or doing anything outdoors is not an option for me. Only the studio will give me full control over lighting and composition. I still definitely want to challenge myself in this project by using both colour and black and white and multiple genres. However I don’t want to challenge myself to the point that the quality of my images suffer. The two genres I am most keen to do are portraiture and still life as they both lend themselves very nicely to the studio.
IMAGE 1
For my first recreation I wanted to do something simple to get me started. The first thing which came to mind was David Bailey. His simplistic black and white portraits often use simple frontal lighting and plain backdrops. Furthermore, he has been a huge influence to me since I first found his work. I often incorporate the same powerful simplicity which he is defined by in my own work. After a brief search through Bailey’s work I stumbled across this image; a portrait of Jack Nicholson with his face contorted:
Although I had been looking for a simple portrait to recreate, I liked the challenge this one presented. I also have a friend with an incredibly expressive face. I asked him if he would be up for it and he said yes. So I booked one of the studios at uni for the following afternoon and set about analysing the portrait so that I was ready for the next day. I concluded that I would need a single light positioned at 45 degrees from the right of the subject’s face. I decided that for the backdrop I would position a light behind it to over-expose it to make it plain white. I asked the subject if they could wear a leather jacket and a checkered shirt just like Nicholson’s. The next day I arrived at the studio, borrowed two LED panels and a tripod from the store and began setting up the image. I sat my friend down in a chair in front of a white backdrop and positioned the camera and tripod in front of him. I decided that for this shoot I would use my 50mm f1.8 lens as it is incredibly sharp and lets in a lot of light owing to the incredibly wide maximum aperture. I placed one of the LED panels behind the white backdrop and put it on full brightness. I then placed the other LED panel 45 degrees from the front of the subject’s face at a lesser brightness. I then set the ISO to 100 to ensure maximum sharpness, the aperture to f2.8 to let in plenty of light and the shutter speed to 1/100 to counteract the effects of the ISO and aperture to provide the correct exposure. At this point it was just a case of asking the subject to move their head fractions of an inch at a time until their face was lit up correctly. After about 10 minutes of tedious shooting we managed to get an image which is very close to the original:
Overall I am very pleased with the result. When reviewing it later on I did notice that there are a few areas where it differs from the original. Besides the obvious one which is that Jack Nicholson is a balding middle aged man and my model is a teenager, the subject’s collar should be closer into his neck on the right side, his face should be tilted slightly down and to the left and the upper left part of his lip should be lit up more. This might be nitpicking a bit however as otherwise the lighting and the position of the subject are almost identical. The subject is nice and sharp and in focus just like the original and correctly exposed too. One part which I am particulary happy with is the catchlight in the subject’s right eye.
Bailey’s photo on the left and my receation on the right. I didn’t do much in post; I just switched the image from colour to black and white, upped the contrast slightly and sharpened it to bring out more of the detail in the subject’s face.
I felt at this point I had proven that I could successfully recreate images in camera without doing much in post. I now wanted to put my photoshop skills to the test:
IMAGE 2
I decided that for my next image I would attempt to recreate a painting so I thought about some of my favourite paintings and one called The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo came to mind. It depicts the Biblical scene in which God breathes life into, Adam, the first man:
Obviously it would be near impossible to recreate the entire painting and it would take a great deal of photoshopping, so for this recreation I am just going to focus on the hands of Adam and God as it seems they will be a great challenge in and of themselves:
I decided that I would just have the outstretched hands against a plain white background. Similarly to the previous image, it appears very simple, even if the lighting is quite complex so I will need to really nail it. Owing to it’s minimalism I was able to take this photograph in my bedroom. I set up a white back drop with a lamp on it to over-expose it so that it was plain white and a second lamp on the left to light the hand. I then set the aperture to f4 so that all was sharp and in focus, the ISO to 100 for maximum sharpness and the shutter speed to 1/60. After this I began to shoot. What I found is that having a very shallow depth of field actually added to the painterly feel so I intentionally put the aperture down to f2.8 for a really shallow depth of field so that parts of the hand very blurred. I felt this created a really nice effect. This meant I was able to put the shutter speed up to 1/200, preventing motion blur of my hand. It was really tricky doing it by myself as I both had to be in frame and take the photographs at the same time so I used the canon app so that I could use my phone as a wireless shutter release. This made it a lot easier to capture the light whenever my hand was in the perfect position. After a few minutes of shooting I got a shot which I was happy with. It was now time to photograph the other hand so I could later stitch them together on Photoshop. However when I put my hand into position the light was completely different. It was at that point that I realised why I had found it so difficult to get my hand into the right position and get the shadows to fall in the right places. Clearly Michelangelo had not been painting true to life in terms of the light. He had created perfect light which did not exist so for the second hand I would have to reposition the light to get similar results. After a bit of tweaking I found a position above and slightly to the left of the hand were the lighting looked the same:
Obviously my hands are not as muscular as the hands in the painting as they have been exaggerated by the artist but I think that besides the shadows on the wrists I more or less nailed the lighting and the positioning. I think that my use of a shallow depth of field to blur certain parts of the hands definitely gives it a softer feel which make it seem more like a painting.
I didn’t do as much in Photoshop as I had first hoped to do. All I did was stitch the two hands together and change the saturation and colour temperature slightly to match the painting. For my next image I want to challenge myself creatively even more in Photoshop.
IMAGE 3
I was listening to some music the other day. When I was skipping through my songs the Queen II album cover came up. I’ve always loved how dramatic and majestic it is due to the lighting and the facial expressions of the band members. It really sums up the album and has inspired the way I have lit many of my own portraits. I instantly remembered the project and decided I wanted to recreate it.
What I found from researching the photograph is that it was taken by Mick Rock who was inspired by black and white photograph of Marlene Dietrich from the 1932 Josef Sternberg film, Shanghai Express. I decided that I would do 4 separate self portraits and combine them on Photoshop as a similar technique was used to create the ‘Bohemain Rhapsody’ music video. I will need wigs and a leather jacket. I know there is a leather jacket somewhere in my house, however I don’t have any wigs and no one I know has the right kind of wigs that I could borrow. This means I’ll just have to go without as it’s not worth buying wigs as they are quite pricey and I would only be using them for one photograph. All I should need besides the costumes is my 70D with a 50mm 1.8 lens, a tripod, a single light which I will position above my head for all 4 photographs, a plain black backdrop and a shutter release cable. Like my last photograph I decided just to do this one in my bedroom as it meant I was not constrained to time and I wouldn’t have to trek out to uni. It also meant I would be able to play music. So with Bohemian Rhapsody playing very loudly in the background I began setting up the photograph. I put my desk chair in the centre of the room, put my camera on a tripod at the wall facing the chair. Behind the camera I placed a lamp which faced down towards my head. I then connected my phone to my camera via the canon app so that I could use it as a shutter release. I set the ISO to 100 for maximum clarity, the aperture to f4 to ensure all was in focus and the shutter speed to 1/60 to give the correct exposure. It was now, like the previous two images, just a case of tweaking the lighting and my position until it was perfect in each of the four photographs.
I stitched the 4 photographs together on Photoshop, using a transparent layer of the original as a template so that I could put each individual self portrait into the correct position. I then cleaned up any moles on my face as the band members are wearing make up (which I don’t have and wouldn’t know how to use) and added in the text “Queen II”before cropping it to a square so that it matched the original:
This time I was able to do a fair bit in post. As well as moving each of the 4 images into the correct positions, I upped the brightness and contrast levels until they were the same and then increased the reds and yellows. I think that it is very close to the original even if there are a few errors. With the exception of me having less hair than the band members, the eyes of the bottom face should be completely enclosed in shadow. There should also be a bridge of shadow joining the right face’s right eye to his hair. Also, the hands are a bit off in terms of their position. Besides this though the two images are more or less identical. I am especially pleased with the shadow on the cheek bone of the right face and the shadow on the nose and left side of the left face.
IMAGE 4
I had been struggling to find an image to recreate. That was when I looked at my iPhone and remembered the beautiful photographs Apple use to advertise their products. I brought up a picture of the model I have (the SE) and analysed it. Having seen Apple’s elaborate lighting set up somewhere before I knew I would need diffusers to create the soft light which characterises Apple’s product photographs. Lighting the apple logo so that half was lit up and half in shadow would be a challenge but I knew it was possible as I had seen this happen on my phone before. Also in the photograph the top of the phone appears to be lit up more than the bottom. Capturing this gradual change in light will only be achievable by having a soft light source placed nearer the top of the handset. I think the most difficult part though will be getting my camera lined up perfectly with the phone.
I decided to clean my phone so that I wouldn’t have to Photoshop out the dirt later. I placed the phone on top of a transparent box. Beneath the box I placed a light which I used to over-expose it so that it acted as a plain white background. I didn’t bother with a tripod. I wasn’t able to get the lighting perfect with the legs in the way. Furthermore tripods are not precise enough to get the exact position I needed it to be in. I placed a diffused light above and slightly more to the top of the phone to give that gradient-like effect I spoke about earlier. It also created the nice soft light which I attempted to emulate here. I then pointed a harsher light at the apple logo. It was then just a case of moving a piece of paper around with one hand to block out some of the light it emitted to get the apple logo half lit up. With the other hand I shot the phone with my camera set to an ISO of 100 for maximum clarity, an aperture of f1.8 to provide plenty of light (I didn’t need a deep depth of field) and a shutter speed of 1/100 to balance out the exposure.
The lights in my room are quite warm which resulted in a very slight orange hue to my image. I fixed this in no time by lowering the saturation slightly on Photoshop. I did attempt to fix it in camera but the colour temperature settings were not giving me the desired result no matter how few kelvin I used. There are probably more conventional ways I could have shot this as opposed to just using a few desk lamps in my room. I am still very pleased with the result though. I think that it is very close to the original. One problem which could easily have been resolved was that even with my ISO of 100, the conditions were quite dark so this still resulted in some slight noise. It could easily have been fixed by using brighter lights in the studio. It is barely noticeable but still something I could have improved upon. Furthermore, in the original, the camera of the phone has a blue flare on it. I was unable to achieve this in mine. I considered adding this in on Photoshop but felt it would be disshonest. In my photograph the dimensions of the apple logo and the manufacturing information are different sizes to the original. This leads me to believe that some tampering has been done in the original.
IMAGE 5
I decided that as well as portraits, I also wanted to recreate still life photographs. I browsed google images for still life photographs and came across this famous one by André Kertés. My lecturer, Caroline, had shown us some attempts from previous years. Well, challenge accepted.
What drew me to it the most though was it’s similarity to David Bailey’s simple yet powerful style. I liked the bold shadow of the fork and the texture on the table. I felt it would be simple to set up and light. The real difficulty would be making the micro adjustments so that it looks just like the original. Similarly to my previous recreation I analysed this one to make sure I knew what I was doing before I took it. I figured there was no need to book out a studio for this. I would just be able to do it at home. It was clear that the orginal was lit by a single light source which was high above and slightly behind the subject, perhaps a ceiling light. That night I put a fork and plate on top of a white piece of paper and positioned an anglepoise lamp behind it. The first problem I encountered was that the shadow of the fork was too soft. To fix this issue I brought the lamp up slightly higher. Like image 1 I used my 50mm 1.8 lens as I would need a very shallow depth of field so that the end of the fork is out of focus. I set the aperture to f1.8 for the shallow depth of field, the ISO to 100 to retain maximum clarity and the shutter speed to 1/100 to give the correct exposure. Like image 1 it was now just a case of making micro adjusments to the angle of the light, camera and fork until I was pleased with the results:
I didn’t do much in post. I brought the saturation down to remove any colours which meant I had to up the contrast so that it looked less flat. I then cropped it to match the dimensions of the original and cleared up a few bits of dust on the fork using a cloning stamp. I am quite pleased with the result. The shadows and objects are in the correct positions. The shadows are nice and sharp like the original. Unfortunately the fork and bowl I used are quite different from the ones in the original image so getting the light and shadows to fall in the correct places was really difficult. This means that in the shadow of the fork prongs only two are visible where there should be four because they are lost to the steepness of the bowl. Furthermore because of the 50mm lens being so zoomed into the subject I couldn’t get it at an angle where the edge of the table was visible. Aside from these two issues I think my image is a good recreation of the original.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion I think I have made 5 recreations which succesfully emulate both the lighting and composition of the works of more than 3 different artists/image makers. This project definitely taught me a lot about reading images and figuring out how they are taken. I can see this being an incredibly useful skill as I will be able to apply similar techniques to the ones I see in photographs to my own work. It has also taught me a lot of practical skills I can use in the studio in the future. I feel I now have a much better understanding of how light and shadows fall on people’s faces. I am pleased that I was able to handle the black and white images as well as the colured ones. Even if my images are slightly off in some areas I think that I have still proven that I understand how the images were orignally created and that I am proficient shooting using different lighting techniques and genres.
FEEDBACK
Having presented my images to the class, the teacher and my classmates gave me feedback on my work. My teacher pointed out the fact that image 4 is too noisy, wigs are lacking in image 3 and the shadows are a bit off in image 5 but aside from that all of the feedback was very positive. Allistar said that I maintained a good standard throughout all of my images and Louise liked the fact that I had recreated a painting as well as photographs.
Orange-tip butterfly specimen
Levon Biss compositing multiple images 
Left wing 
Right wing
Red-tailed bumblebee specimen. Image 1
Specimen storage
Office space where staff carry out research 
Adam Kitchener 