Ruud van Empel - Extreme Photoshopping

 

Ruud van Empel (seen above with one of his tree compositions at Beetles Huxley Gallery in London) is a Dutch photographer whose collaged approach is demanding and unique. Born in 1958 in Breda in the Netherlands he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Breda between 1976 and 1981. He now lives and works in Amsterdam. His wok is sold and exhibited world wide and he has pieces in many international museums and art galleries.

After leaving college he started to create a new realism with the many photographs he took using traditional cut and paste techniques with some re-touching. It is fair to say that he re-invented photography at this time, adding a genre that did not really exist in the manner in which he explored it. He continued with this method into the 1990's but switched to digital processing in 1995.

Unlike some who try to achieve a surreal approach in his finished pieces he wants to maintain a naturalistic realism in his work, even when the juxtapositions seem odd. He is constantly taking pictures to work with and, whilst many of his pieces consider the natural surroundings, he often uses people and especially children in his work.

 Highly contrived and vividly coloured, van Empel’s photographs evoke the theatrical and uncanny, mirroring scenes we recognise with a disturbing, dreamlike quality. Birds and butterflies appear in odd sizes as part of a forest scene and yet the scenes are familiar to us.

The detail and care taken in the placement of objects, in the creation of light and space as well as the careful colouring shows how intensely his pictures are worked. You can find out more at his website https://ruudvanempel.nl/ 

 ...and here with a short video of him at work thanks to his London representatives Huxley Parlour Gallery https://huxleyparlour.com/artists/ruud-van-empel/ 

Photography of the built environment

 Adam Leitch - Bosjes Chapel, Capetown

The built environment is all around us and provides many opportunities for photographers. Whether in urban or rural areas, whether a spectacular architectural masterpiece or a run down shack, whether internal or external the possibilities are endless. They may provide a good opportunity to record the present for posterity or create a wonderful abstract picture that will make people look twice. The problem is we often walk past places which give us these opportunites or are not sure how to make the best of them. Here I consider the main things you should think about and the tools you will need.

Yao Li - Dongzhuang Building Museum, China

As photography is all about light you will have to pay close attention to the time of day that you take your photographs, as well as weather conditions. If shooting an indoor scene then where does the light fall at different times of day? Will you need to supplement that and if so is flash best (and can you use it) or will you need more substantial directed light or even to paint the space with  torchlight whilst on a long exposure? Think about how you want the final image to look before you start shooting. When outdoors consider whether you want bright sunlight or moody shadow, reflected evening light or rain slicked pavements and windows. Also consider the immediate surroundings. Are there specific elements that would add interest or context to the final image? The Photographers Emphemeris ( https://www.photoephemeris.com/ ) is easily downloaded onto your tablet or smartphone for a small charge and helps track the movement of light in any place in the world across any day or time you care to mention.  The photograph below are taken by me and seeks to illustrate a couple of these points. It shows the Chrysler Building in New York and I quite deliberately sought an angle to show the street lamp as well as the building itself as I felt this helped to both frame the building and describe the enormous scale. The evening light caught the top of the building and the cloud was low so as not to interfere with the outline of the building itself. The overhanging branches filled an otherwise empty space and shooting in mono meant that distracting colour allowed the building itself to take centre stage. 

Nigel Walker - Chrysler Building, New York

The second important consideration beyond light is position. Do you want to show a part of a building or all of it? Are you going for an abstraction or a representation? Are you showing it in context with the sort of life and people it attracts or standing alone with no human involvement? If you are going to try a whole building approach then where is the best vantage point? As the human figure can be important or a distraction also consider how you might make the building appear empty or full of ghosts and shoot at a slow speed or with muliple exposures that can merge figures or make them disappear. The picture below of the Guggenheim in Bilbao took me three days to work out the best available vantage point having tried several others, at least one of which was thwarted by poor light and another by rain. So be prepared to walk around and explore possible angles.

Nigel Walker - Guggenheim Gallery, Bilbao

The last big consideration is the lense that you use. Clearly a standard lense can be used but a wide angle or telephoto can be very useful depending on the shot you might want. Although more specialist a tilt/shift lense can come in handy for, as the name implies, these lenses allow you to tilt and shift the focal plane, or the perspective, of the lens and reduce perspective distortion. This way you can straighten converging lines, minimize a large subject, and more. They are sometimes complex to use and the best will cost around £2000 new although used ones can often be picked up from reputable dealers for half that price. As you won't use it much I suggest you could also hire one from around £40 for a weekend to £240 for a couple of weeks. Search the internet and use reviews on sites like Trustpilot to get the best deals.

Nigel Walker - Barn, Dordogne

Finally remember that it doesn't have to always be the most recent and gobsmacking architecture that you look for. This old barn, heavy with ivy and sitting at the back of a field of dying sunflowers caught my eye in rural France and I very much enjoyed taking it, although having seen it a couple of days before I had to time my return so that the sun caught the end of it towards late afternoon. So get out, keep you eyes open and your minds working and enjoy yourselves.

52 Assignments - A practical series of photography books

 

52 Assignments - Landscape Photography by Ross Hoddinott and Mark Bauer is one of the books in the 52 Assignment series recently published which could prove informative and helpful to any photographer. Ross Hoddinott is a multi-award winning photographer of natural history and landscape while Mark Bauer is also a landscape photographer who runs excellent workshops in the UK. So both know their stuff. Other books in this series cover topics such as nature, street, experimental and travel and are written by photographers with expertise in that field. All are recent and so the information in them is up-to-date. For this blog we'll stick with Landscape as an example.

The book starts with an overview of the 52 weekly assignments which are comprehensive as you can see. From the basics of composition and technical advice on specific topics such as shooting a sunset, to printing and selling work online are all covered here. The books are also well sized to take with you when you are following the assignment.

Each assignment is headed with any special kit or tips that you should consider as well as some of the practical steps to getting the shot you want, along, of course, with examples.

The above shot suggests online resources too that can help you time your arrival for the best shots and reminds you that the sun can continue to give perfect and interesting light beyond the time it sinks below the horizon.

Following the simple assignments not only helps you get excellent shots (provided the weather plays ball) but adds a wealth of information that will be relevant for much longer. All the books can be bought online but as prices vary considerably do shop around. For anyone looking for a reasonably priced Christmas or birthday present for a photographer this series could be very helpful.

Great British - John Blakemore

 

There are probably few living photographers who have been as influential as John Blakemore over the years. Yet his star does not burn as brightly as Bailey, McCullin or Parr, whom most people would name immediately. 

Blakemore was born in 1936 and discovered photography while on national service with the RAF in Aden. Self-taught, as most people were at that time, he returned to his hometown of Coventry determined to record the re-construction of the city. He had become inspired by Edward Steichen's "The Family of Man" which he had seen in a copy of Picture Post sent by his mother while abroad.

He worked as a photographer initially for Black Star agency and then in a number of studios producing portraits and commercial work. He also became a printer of black and white photographs - of which he has become a master over the years learning, and using, the Zone System made famous by Ansel Adams

After a spell as a photographer at Courtaulds he left Coventry and joined his friend Richard Sadler as a lecturer of creative photography at Derby College of Art, later becoming Emeritus Professor of Photography at Derby University where he taught from 1970 until 2001.

Landscapes and still life are his main subjects and he is known for his handmade books, many of which are now in his archive in the Library of Birmingham. He has consistently championed the British countryside and landscape, working in the same small areas for many years to develop a close relationship and understanding of them. Working mainly in black and white he says that "the silver print is my chosen and primary means of expression". His book, "John Blakemore's Black and White Photography Workshop" is still held as a masterclass in landscape work. His landscape work has been described as richly nuanced which comes, at least aprtly from his printing techniques.

He is also famous for photographing tulips for over a decade of which he says "The tulip journey, then, was ultimately a visual journey, an investigation and discovery of visual possibilities. The tulip became an object of attention and fascination. It became both text and pretext for an activity of picture-making. The photographs are not finally, or not primarily, about tulips: they contain tulips. To say this is not to diminish the role of the tulip. Had the vase of flowers on the table when I made the first tentative exposures exploring the space of my kitchen been, let’s say daffodils, then the journey, if it had ever begun, would in all probability have been shorter. The daffodil, although it is a delightful flower, exhibits a stubborn rigidity of form; it lives and dies at attention. The tulip, however, is a flower of constant metamorphosis; it stretches towards the light and gestures to occupy the space." And that observation, perhaps, say what all photography is about.

You can visit his website here :- https://www.johnblakemore.co.uk/ 

There is also a recorded talk by him presenting his work from 1955 - 2016 at the Meeting of Minds conference in 2017 here;- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa8woJC-0lg

Autumn Colours - an alternative approach

 

Autumn colours are everywhere at present and photographers will travel miles for a killer picture. New England in The Fall is on many a photographer's bucket list. But in the days of a pandemic and limited travel we may have to look closer to home. 

I am lucky in living near the edge of the Wolds as they start to reach out north from the banks of the Humber. The trails which lead through Welton, Brantingham and South Cave before running up towards Market Weighton through the Drewton Estate are heavily wooded and a delight to walk through in October and early November. So I set myself a challenge to walk up Brantingham Dale Road and cut off through the woodland path to South Cave and create some less than usual photographs of autumn colours yesterday. I limited myself to an hour as part of the challenge and as the weather was very variable. I also made a decison to take standard photographs, such as that above, but also to use both multiple exposure and intentional camera movement (ICM) to gain some more abstract records of my walk.

Anyone using these techniques will know that there is a degree of luck involved although you can reduce that by really thinking about the colours you are wanting in the frame, the exposure times you are allowing and the number of frames you are stacking. The greater the number of frames the more critical the exposure time and this usually needs a bit of tweaking as you see the results. I started with a stack of four frames eventually reducing this to two. The less frames you stack the more definition you may get in the picture (see the next frame below). My exposure times varied from half a second when I decided to use ICM to 1/160 when I took single frame, standard pictures.

As I always shoot in RAW I post-process in Lightroom and the images nearly all benefitted from some manipulation of the texture and colour to deepen the tones and vibrancy. Sometimes that was quickly achieved by using the overall saturation and vibrancy tools but others I achieved through working on the hue, saturation and luminance of individual colours.

Whether or not you like this type of photograph it is always interesting to see the results. The pictures here are a selection from the 129 pictures I took in the hour available. The time in post production is probably twice that of the walk at least! Comments on blogs are always welcomed whether they are constructive criticism or questions raised so do leave a comment if you wish and I will always respond.

Why black and white photographs are still relevant

 

In the history of photography the use of colour is relatively recent. Although the process for chemically recording colour was proposed by Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell in 1855 and the first colour photograph produced six years later for a lecture by Maxwell (by the photographer Thomas Sutton), it was not until the 1970's that colour film began to sell in industrial quantities. It had been more widely available since the 1930's but the colour was not great and the film was expensive and difficult to develop without the right facilities.

This means that when we scan photographic history most of the pictures we see are in black and white. Perhaps that begs the question is monochrome still relevant in these days of far more reliable colour films and digital cameras which can create great colour reproduction in comparison to early colour film? I'd argue that it is, as much as anything because it is available and can serve a purpose.  There are several reasons you might consider using mono in a photograph.

1)   Due to the history of photography black and white photographs appear more timeless. Removing colour makes it more difficult to date a photograph.

2)   A lack of colour exaggerates the drama of shadows and light immediately and photographs with dramatic lighting can draw the attention of the viewer more quickly.

3)   Fine art photography often uses black and white to distance the viewer from the reality of the subject. Because we see the world in colour the viewer has to stop and work out what they are seeing. This makes the viewer pause and look more closely, however briefly, at the picture. As Joel Sternfeld said, "Black and White is abstract; colour is not. Looking at a black and white photograph you are already looking at a strange world."

4)   Many photographers would say that portraiture is more stark and exacting in black and white and that removing the colour allows an audience to see the face and eyes without distraction. As photographer Ted Grant once said, "When you photograph people in colour you photograph their clothes. When you photograph them in black and white you photograph their souls."

So it is a good rule of thumb when deciding whether to convert a picture to mono (given that all digital camers will shoot a file in colour even if it gives you the option to adjust the settings for black and white) to consider the light, form and texture of the picture. And don't forget to shoot in RAW if using the mono settings on your camera as the retention of the colour information in the file allows for considerable leeway in post processing...

Images with a wide range of tonal values tend to be better for black and white photographs and images are usually most successful when the tones contain both the blackest of blacks and the whitest of whites with a range of grays in between. 

The photograph below was taken as a challenge to make an image in which almost everything in it is white. This means that the only way to distinguish the content of the photograph is by shade and tone. You can decide for yourself whether that works. As the model had dark hair I even sourced a blonde wig to get as white as possible...

Composition

Composition

When a photographer points their lense at something and clicks they are mounting a frame around the object. They are trying to show something to viewers as a piece of the world at one moment in time. What they are doing is making a composition. A monkey banging on a piano is composing but it is likely to be less pleasing than giving the piano to a composer. So photographers are learning to be good composers and frame something that is pleasing to look at.

Science has shown that the human brain can respond to certain mathematical patterns and so there are some basic "rules" which can be followed when learning to compose a picture. These rules will make it easier for a viewer to "read" the picture and allow the photogrpaher to lead the eye of someone looking into a picture.

The "Rule of Thirds" is one of the most commonly used by new photographers and "phi" is a Greek expression of harmony in nature and also known as "The Golden Ratio" or the "Fibonacci sequence". You can find out more about these by following the links below:-

Rule of Thirds -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GcpP-n-94I

Phi - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CiS3SU4lk0 

In some ways these rules are both helpful and misleading. To work with either can certainly help make your photograph interesting but to believe they are the only thing that will make your picture outstanding is naive. Aand anyway, rules are made to be broken! In looking through the lense the photographer also needs to consider colour, balance, action, light and shade and might even use nothing (known as negative space) or depth of field (where some of the picture is in focus and some out of focus) to accentuate the object they wish you to look at.

In the West we "read" from left to right and look at pictures in the same way. The picture of the rape field above has a patch of strong yellow leading down to a track which then sweeps up and ends near a hedge on the horizon. This automatically leads the eye towards the lone tree which stands proudly around one third of the way into the picture from the left. So the picture uses some elements of a classic rule but not all of it as the horizon cuts through the centre of the picture.

The photograph below is a completely different type of composition. Many people looking at this photo will immediately recognise the Liver Building on Liverpool's waterfront as an internationally recognised landmark. However it is dwarfed by a new office block which takes up half the photograph. Nonetheless this is a picture of the Liver Building and the new offices have been included both as a contrast and to draw attention to the older, better known building. It might also add an emotional element as we consider whether newer buildings are as elegant or iconic as older architecture. The street lights at the bottom are included to give a sense of scale and the blank blue of the sky leaves the negative space which helps focus on the Liver Buildings pinaccle. In the photograph of the rape field the clouds add a sense of the sort of day it was and also fill the sky. A blank sky in that photograph would have made it rather boring whereas clouds in the photograph below would have distracted from the main topic.

So when you take a photograph these elements should be in your mind. However remember Edward Weston's quotation - "To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk". In other words practice until you don't need to....

Minimalism

Minimalism....

...is about separating something out to increase the attention paid to it. In many cases our photographs can get swamped by too much detail or colour and the reason we originally spendt time taking it gets lost.

When we look at things as a photographer it is easy to see the object you are photographing and concentrate on that. Why else so many holiday snaps where a pole sticks out of someone's head? Because we fail to consider the object as a part of the wider scene.....and that wider scene can easily distract from our intention.

There are several ways to create a minimal effect. One is to have a strong contrast of colour as in the pink flower above against the brown and khaki of the wall and tree. The khaki of the wall on the right of the picture is known as negative space. This really means that not much is happening in it but it gives the picture scale and allows our eye to be drawn to the part we would like people to see...

One is to use colour to define the difference in a space, as in the cone which looks totally out of place against the architectural stillness of the corner of this building.

A third is to use a lack of colour to emphasis the subject.  The overhead branch below encourages us to consider the branch as pretty much the only thing in the picture, apart from the clouds. We do not need the colour to explain this to us as our brain tells us that without our thinking about it. This is often used in street photography where light fills the space we want people to look at and darkness provides a contrast of emphasis.

Minimalism has a mindfulness to it which concentrates the eye on single area or object and help us to consider that without any major distractions. It is a meditation and for some the pictures may seem frivalous or bizarre. But it has its place and I like a good minimalist photograph that makes me think.