Photographer that inspires me.

Christopher Anderson


Here is another photographer that i have been inspired by. I first noticed Christopher Anderson when looking through the Magnum Photo website. He was Born in Canada 1970. In 1995 he become a freelance photographer, then in 1996 he become a Documentary/War photographer for U.S News and world report. Christopher to me is such a great photographer because of the way he can capture images which are so powerful. I think to capture such a powerful photograph you need to have good knowledge and understanding on how to use a camera and also making sure you know abit about the culture of the city you are going to. I admire him for many reasons, firstly his courage to go in to an environment where you are put under a lot of pressure and situations you might not think you will come out of.  The second reason i admire him is for putting his life on the line and producing photographs the way he does. Christopher is now knows as a experiential Journalist.


To go on to the Magnum website "click here" and the link will appear.


This photograph is one of my favourite photographs because i think the contrast, lighting and the mood is really good. I think of this photograph as a shot that was taken by mistake and captured a shot of what he can see around him. The detail in this photograph is so sharp and must of had a high shutter speed to capture the pigeons fling with no blur around their wing span.

Christopher Anderson

2001

AFGHANISTAN. 2001.

This photograph below is another one of my favourite photographs . The detail, colour, composition and contrast i think have a lot to do with making this photograph be so eye capturing. This photograph in black and white wouldn't of been as good as it is in colour i don't think.

Christopher Anderson

2004

AFGHANISTAN. 2004. Voting during Afghan President election. 

Christopher Andrews is someone i admire and look up to. He has inspired me as a photography student and made me think more about capturing the moment in photography were most people unlike photographers take for granted. Hopefully one day i will be taking photographs like his or if not better. Looking at Christopher makes me more determined to become a photo journalist and to get some fantastic photography opportunities. 

Wile i am studying in photography and not yet have the skills to become a war/documentary Journalist i went on a four day trip to Barcelona. At Barcelona i was walking round the streets thinking again of the many photographers that inspire what would they be looking for if they was here, and how can i get a photographs as good as Christopher Anderson.

Below are some of my own photographs that i feel are similar to Christopher Anderson's work :

                                       Ryan Williams 2009 Barcelona 

                                          Beggar on the streets

                                           Ryan Williams 2009 Barcelona 

                                          Street of Barcelona                                                    

                                            Ryan Williams 2008 Liverpool

                                               Army show

    
                                                       

                                               Ryan Williams 2008 Paris

                                       

                                     

Photographers that inspire me (Michael Wolf)

Michael Wolf


Michael Wolf inspired me when I was doing an A level in photography. Researching Michael Wolf made be think about my own photography. I start to think more about the way I take photographs and how I could find a good picture within the landscape. I think this photograph is one of my favourite pictures because it makes me want to stare and keep looking at the background. Also the way he has thought about how the photograph will look once he has captured the moment.  It makes me think of lots of things when I look at this picture. One thing I start to pick up on is the sheet, it could be that you are on the beach looking at the city in the foreground or it could even be a photograph representing what is beneath the city. This picture is also on the front of Michael Wolf's book called 'Hong Kong Back Door'.

Below are more Photographs of Michael Wolf's work:

From Researching Michael Wolf and liking his work so much I booked a trip to Barcelona and started taking my own photographs. When I was in Barcelona I was thinking  about  Michael Wolf  and how would he take pictures and if he was going to take a photograph then what would he be looking for. I think from looking at his work and doing research it has made my pictures become more interesting and made me a better photographer.

Barcelona trip.

Photographers that use lighting

Photography Practice Research


Photographer
Gregory Crewdson

Independent Research

With this photograph it's hard to find were his main focus point is. The left and right side of the photograph is in focus but the centre of the photograph is out of focus, i also find interesting about this photograph is it has a type of cartoon effect to it when you're looking at a closer version. To me its a painting layered into a photograph, also i think the colours are important in this picture because i don't think this photograph would be anywhere near as good in black and white because i don't think it would give off the same effect.

Gregory Crewdson

Untitled (Shane), Summer 2006

Archival inkjet print

Edition of 6 and 2 Artist's Proofs 

Print: 57 x 88 inches

Frame: 58 1/2 x 89 1/2 inches

I like this photograph because it looks really surreal and it makes me wonder what the women is 
thinking. The composition and the lighting has been used really well.
I got my information about Gregory Crewdon on a website called http://www.luhringaugustine.com/index.php?mode=artists&object_id=66#

Gregory Crewdson
Untitled (birth), Winter 2007
Archival inkjet print
Edition of 6 and 2 Artist's Proofs 
Print: 57 x 88 inches
Frame: 58 1/2 x 89 1/2 inches











Below are more photographs of Gregory Crewdson's work.

Independent Research - Aperture

Independent Research

Aperture

This is a diagram of the lens when changing the aperture.

The wider the aperture the smaller the F-Stop.

Depending on how much light is going in to the lens, for example if the F-Stop was F22 you wouldn't have much blur compared to an F-Stop of F2.8. Also an F.Stop of F2.8 would have a very blurry background.

This screen shot was on youtube and is a good website for getting research.

In this screen shot it is showing a diagram of how the lens works and how open the lens is when light is directed towards the camera lens.

It shows you that the smaller the f-stop the more the lens is open.

If I was taking a photograph with a f-stop of f16 then you would have a really slow shutter speed so that the light can enter the camera sensor in just enough time. Also if you were taking a picture with an aperture of 1.4, you will have a faster shutter speed.

Depth of Field

This is another screen shot showing you an example of what depth of field looks like.

If you have your camera lens on automatic and you point your camera at the object you want to photograph it will automatically focus on the object and make a noise to aware you it is locust and is ready to be used. For example the woman in the screen shot to the left, her face is in focus but the background is out of focus, this is called depth of field.

The deeper the depth of field the more its focusing on the object and reducing the depth of field makes the subject in focus but with less of a blur.

Unit 1 Systems and Processes - lecture with John

Histogram Practice

Friday 16th Oct

Independent Research

This is a photograph that has been

taken when learning about histograms.

John my tutor asked the class to take photographs of the board and set are camera settings to a F-Stop of F.8, Iso of 200 and shutter speed to 1/125. Once we had done that we had to draw are histograms on the board. It showed that everyones histogram was the same or similar.

Histograms help you with your exposure and also it helps with the editing.

There are two types of histograms. The first one is on the back of your camera and the screen shot here gives you a example on what a histogram looks like. The second histogram is on editing software such as adobe Lightroom or adobe photoshop.

A histogram is a measurement of light and dark within the photo. It gives you a different reading on how much light you have in the photograph.

In this screen shot is an example of the second histogram which is in the software i talked about above.

Photography Practice

Independent Research

This photograph was taken on my phone camera. I was looking at fluorescent light and how it changes in different places. This photograph was taken on the train. You can see it has a orange blur below the light. This blur was all the way down the train and if I looked at the train from the outside I

think it would look quite bright.

Here is another example of how flourescent light looks. When someone is sitting under a flourescent light I have noticed that it gives of a dark shadowy look and makes people not look that nice.

I thought I would take this photograph to show the flourescent light shining in a closed area. I think this type of light would look better if it was bright and made the light clearer. With the light being so bright it gives off a dusky orange light and doesn't look very nice.

More examples below:

Unit 1 Systems and Processes - Studio Practice 2 - Natural Light

Photography Practice

Wednesday 14th Oct

Natural lighting in the Studio

This lesson was looking at natural light and what changes can be made.

This Photograph was taken with a canon 40d, ISO of 400 F-stop 4.5 and the white balance was on daylight. There was a window to his left and that is why to the left of his face is brighter than the other.

This photograph was taken in the same place with the same natural light and taken with a canon 40d, iso of 800, F-stop of 5.6 and white balance is Tungsten Light. Changing they settings makes the photograph blue, Everything else is the same.

Again same camera and settings but this time with a white foam board to the right of him. I think when using I white foam board gives the photograph more detail.

This photograph is the same as above but only this time I have changed the back white balance to Tungsten light again. The reason for me to do this is to get a idea of how white balance works and to see the outcome of the picture once taken. Also this photograph has the white foam board to his right.

Here again is a photograph of a student but this time he has moved position and has his back facing the window. My camera settings are 800 ISO with a f-stop of 5.6 and my white balance is at daylight.

This photograph was taken with two foam boards in front of him. You can see it is darker than the one above. The reason why its darker than the other one is the natural light is hitting the foam boards and bouncing back.
ISO 800, F-stop of 5.6 on a canon 40d

Here is another photograph of the student but this time

 in a studio. Above him is a flourescent light and has 5000k of power.

This is the same photograph as the one above but the difference is the  fluorescent light is below him.

Unit 1 Systems and Processes - Studio Practice 1

Photography Practice.

Wednesday 7th Oct

This is me in the studio. We were looking at different ways of light and changing the lighting equipment to see what would happen.
You can see with this photograph the light was to the left of me and was at the same height as my face.

This is the same shot but it is an example of how the lighting equipment was set up for the shot above.

This shot is a wide shot of the photograph above.

You can see how the lighting has been placed to get the shot above. Again there have been no changes to the camera settings.

This photograph was taken with Nikon d90, ISO of 100 and a F-stop of 5.6. The lighting was

kept the same but the difference was here I am looking up which makes a shadow appear under the lower part of my face.

This shot was with two black foam detractor boards and one light on in front of me and the one behind me off. Because I have two boards either side of me the photograph looks a lot darker and you start to see the features in my face.

Again this shot is the same as the one above, the same camera, ISO, and f-stop. It was with two black foam detractor boards but this time the light behind me was on and the light in front of me was off. Because I have two boards either side of me the photograph looks a lot darker and the light is directing the left of me.

Here is a shot on how the lighting was positioned. You can see how the light on the left is turned off. This means the light towards my face is more direct and shows more shadows beneath my face.

This photograph was taken again with a Nikon d90 and ISO of 100, f-stop of 5.9 I had two black foam boards ether side of me and this time I was holding a reflector under my face.

Here is another picture on how you can change the lighting equipment. You can see the soft box is this time above my head and I have hold of the reflector in my hand which is making the light bounce back up to my face. doing this type of setting means when taking a photograph you will get a much more clear, lighter and detailed shot.

This photograph was taken with out the two side black board reflectors and just with a small reflector. With the reflector I held under my face made my face really bright and made me look sickly. it also shows lots of detail and my hair is a lot lighter. All of the photographs you can see where taken on a nikon d90 and had a ISO of 100 and f-stop of 5.9  the white balance was on auto.

Here is an example of the shot above. here we was looking at natural light and how it can be reflected in different ways. For the natural light we used the skylight. The reflector has two sides to it. One side is white and the other is gold. This means if you turn the reflector to the gold side then I will look really light and shows a lot of detail in the photograph. The white side of the reflector isn't as bright and doesn't give as much detail to my face.







This exercise demonstrates the variety of moods that can be created by changing your light set up.