DPP Assignment 2 - Seeing Like your Camera - With Tutor Feedback

DPP Assignment 2 - Seeing Like your Camera

Now that I have my tutors feedback I will present this in green text and my comments etc in red
It’s interesting that this assignment is about seeing like your camera since it’s the camera’s inability to see like the human eye that I need to take account of.  Our eyes are able to look around a scene and adjust sensitivity based on elements within the scene. The camera will record a dynamic range subject to the sensor’s sensitivity, and the camera’s exposure and light sensitivity settings.

Of course our clever eyes and clever mind can be easily fooled, there are many optical and colour illusions that call fool our sometimes simple mind. I’m told that the human eye with 20/20 vision and a 60 degree angle of view can resolve the equivalent of a 52 megapixel (mp) camera. This is interesting as pro rated cameras such as the D800 are starting to achieve resolutions near this. A single glance from the human eye and its recording resolution between 5-15 mp can be immaterial as the eye and mind will record elements that  it regards as of key interest.  The human eye can see over 20 f/stop equivalents and is constantly adjusting as it scans the elements within the scene.

Of course even if a camera can record levels matching the human eye the final image produced may not be one of interest if the imagery isn’t memorable. This is where the photographer needs to use their creative skills and understand the limitations of the camera. These limitations can also be used in a creative way.

The key difference for me is that the human eyes, well their owners, will examine a scene and focus on the elements it finds interesting. When creating an image the photographer may need to consider that the viewer’s eyes will be restricted to the captured image and that their eyes will examine only the recorded scene.

Prior to the recent set of exercises I have performed I was aware of elements such as dynamic range, ISO and exposure adjustment but I had never really thought about my requirement to learn how to see like the camera. As my understanding improves I hope I can translate this in to reading of scenes in front of my camera and the image I capture.

I have recently bought a book called Practical HDR by David Nightingale. HDR imagery is something I would like to explore and I understand that HDR images are not appreciated by all. I recall reading that Michael Freeman published a book regarding HDR but completely misunderstood the application that photographers would apply to creating HDR images and many chose instead to be very creative in the final HDR image rather than to create a record of scene with a wider dynamic range than what the camera’s sensor can record. Michael himself was surprised how many photographs sought to create images. I’m not sure if HDR is still as popular as it was when first explored and I think Photography can go through fashions. For anyone playing the electric bass guitar or listen to music from the 80’s they may recall the fashion of the “slap” bass playing style, Mark King of Level 42 a noted player of slap. This style has faded and perhaps HDR imagery has also, likely only temporarily. I note the Nikon D4 camera now has a HDR setting, so obviously professionals have a need for this. Using a camera’s ability perhaps different from intended though is  not a bad things, understanding of facts allow creative interpretation. A key point Nightingale points out is the need to meter the dynamic range of a scene, the camera can help here with its histogram on its LCD.

One of the most famous photographers to have ever lived also practised HDR with mono images. Here is an interesting article explaining this:

http://ralphnordstromphotography.com/wordpress/articles/how-to-articles/making-a-photograph/ansel-adams-hdr/

It’s interesting that Ansel used the water bath development process for his black and white photography using 10 zones where zone zero is pure back, zone 10 is pure white and zone 5 dead in the exposure middle. In a future blog entry I will visit Ansel Adams in more detail. Ansel’s water bath treatment allowed to expose the film emulsion saturating the heavily exposed areas and less saturating the under exposed areas

I will look into this in more detail but a summary view of Ansel’s application of the zone system was to identify in the scene that he was to photograph was to identify the element of average light reflectance and set the camera to expose for this. In the digital world of course this could still result in some elements of the image being under or over exposed and will in part be due to the dynamic range of the digital camera’s sensor.

Matrix metering will try to look at a scene and take the average light reflectance across the scene and expose for this. Spot metering will allow the photographer to correctly expose for a particular element of the scene. This can be used creatively to say under expose a tree or building line to put them into silhouette and perfectly expose a sunset or sunrise.

Understanding the dynamic range of a scene and the dynamic range of the camera will allow the photographer to determine if he can correctly expose the full scene. In the digital world the histogram on the camera LCD is an invaluable tool. This allows the photographer through either exposure compensation or using manual settings to correct expose to reduce either over or under exposure.

So what happens if the scene still shows clipping on the histogram. If with a tripod then taking 2 or more exposures ensuring each one correctly exposes for low lights and high lights combining these images later can created a HDR image. No tripod, then I could still take a a single image and understanding that I can recover detail in shadow that I can in overexposed highlights I would adjust my exposure to correctly expose the highlights and understand I have greater chance of recover detail in the underexposed elements of the image. In post processing using a copy of the first image and then adjusting the exposure to correctly expose the under exposed elements of the scene (standing a good chance of doing this) would then leave me 2 images one correctly exposed for highlights and the other low lights I could then combine to create a HDR image.

The digital world makes scene exposure much easier than in Ansel’s film days however understanding his processes will certainly make my understanding of DR and HDR that much better.  Alas for this assignment no post processing is allowed so I will be limited to using the histogram to help me understand the scene I am photographing and how the camera is dealing with the exposure.

Assignment Details

Submit three images for each of the four situations that you choose.  You will need to decide the most appropriate metering mode and settings for your camera.  The aim is to get correctly exposed images straight out of the camera, with NO post-processing, therefore the file format that you must use is high-quality .jpeg, even if you normally shoot using RAW.

Overall Comments

You have presented a technically very good assignment that is supported very well through your technical based annotations and observations. The PDF file submitted is structured well and gives good insight to your line of thinking. Your learning log still needs improvement based upon the contextualisation recommendations from the tutor feedback on Assignment 01.  

Thanks for the comments, and yes I do need more contextualisation and academic research. I'm hoping that this will improve after this assignment. I do particpate in research but clearly I need to do more. What I also need to get better at is to document this and reflect on it terms of my understanding, knowledge gained, insight, and perhaps my view of how other photographer's work can influence my own

Feedback:

Demonstration of Technical and Visual Skills

In this assignment on ‘seeing the scene like your camera’ you have made some great observations that are supported by a very competent technical language. Your visual awareness is good, only perhaps some of your compositional considerations could have been better. 

In your opening introductory statement there are some excellent observational skills  and technical considerations made. Your comparative study regarding someone with 20/20 vision and their perceived Mega Pixel equivalency is quite refreshing. You made the comment about how the viewers eyes will examine a scene and focus on the interesting part, this is good, but what about a comparison on the human eyes seeing more like a HDR video camera. Our eyes constantly adjust and adapt to the scene with our irises/apertures compensating for the light changes. Have you put your camera on ‘Live View’ and watched how it compensates for the scene. Still the comment about knowing the cameras limitations and then using them creatively is a very great visual awareness point. Well done…

Thanks for the comments and observations. I do use live view on my camera but often this is for focussing when using a macro lens. I have since tried this and yes, moving the camera around the scene does adjust the image as it looks to meter the scene subject to what the camera is pointing at, and whether I am using spot or matrix metering, but it does this much the same way as our eyes do

Your interior shoots and the comparative to an estate agent photographer was

good to read, some great points about the spaces and available light. 

I think sometimes its easier to contextualise my work as if it was a photographic practice and in addition to the assignment challenges I sometimes also try to this as challenges as professional practitioner.

Part One

Choose a minimum of four situations from the following models: -

1  .       Street scene in the middle of a clear, sunny day – narrow streets and high buildings which cast deep, long shadows.

2  .       Indoor space in which the only available light is strong natural window light.

3  .       Photographing people in the shade while the background is in the sunshine e.g. a group portrait in the shade of a tree.

4  .       Early morning or late evening landscapes with low-angle incident light.

5  .       Any backlit scene, whether in direct or indirect light.

6  .       Scenes which include objects of very different reflectivity, even in flat light such as an   overcast day.

7  .       Indoor scenes illuminated by a single source of artificial light of high luminance e.g. a desk lamp.

8.       A scene with strong incident dappled light.

For my assignment I have selected:

·         Indoor space in which the only available light is strong natural window light

·         Any backlit scene, whether in direct or indirect light.

·         A scene with strong incident dappled light

·         Indoor scenes illuminated by a single source of artificial light

  

Indoor space in which the only available light is strong natural window light

An estate agent photographer would need to apply some thought when capturing images of rooms within a house with a view to creating images that made the rooms appear spacious, bright and clean. Challenges presented will be dynamic range, exposure and subject to the amount of light within a room shutter speed. I’ve deliberately not used a tripod so that I can challenge my knowledge and its application to producing well exposed images and avoid any potential camera shake being restricted to slow shutter speeds.

I’ve decided for this first set of images to use auto white balance

Image 1

This image is of a kitchen which has particular challenges of bright light through window on left, white doors, dark floor and dark worktop and white ceiling. I felt the dynamic range of the scene far too great for the camera’s sensor so the choice was to consider correct exposure for the windows and doors which would have left the room dark or to expose correctly for the dark elements of the room and over exposure the window and doors.  For house images I’ve felt it key to correctly expose the dark elements of the room adhering to my self determined brief above. I’ve also boosted the ISO  to 640 limited by the widest aperture of my UWA lens at f/4. I’ve need needed to compose the image excluding the window since the highlights would be completely blown out because I’ve spot metered for the tiles at the end of the room. I’ve also opened the door on the right so the edge is face on to the lens to help avoid it dominating the image being over exposed. The challenges of the scene are show in the histogram though I do have some highlights clipped, the low lights are correctly exposed. The lighting from the window has created shadow challenges, exposing for the floor would have washed out the cupboards and caused more highlight clipping within the image.

Though post processing activities are not part of this assignment options I would have considered would be taking a set of bracketed images, noise reduction.  For example purposes only I have included a toned mapped only version demonstrating that a potential tone mapped version restores detail captured in the floor but slightly underexposed in my image above:

I would have used the above image for the estate agent picture rather than the unprocessed image.

The kitchen scene was an obvious shot of how the lighting needs improving, with that sweeping shadow presenting a challenge.  

Since this assighnment I took this further as a technical exploration and have produced a blog entry for this which can be found here:

http://warrenjonesphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/hdr-blended-images-resolving-exposure.html

Image 2

As I continue at the rooms from my cameras perspective I cant start to understand more the challenges presented to estate agent photographers and particularly the camera sensor, it almost shouts at me what do I do here, help me out. The Lounge  presented a similar challenge where exposing for the room would blowout the light coming through the French doors else exposing for the French doors would underexpose the room. In this particular challenge I’ve felt the overexposed light from the right actually gives the appearance of bright light entering the room and giving a much more pleasant feel. I’ve boosted the ISO to 500, spot metered the snooker table as I felt that would give a better average exposure across the room, excluding the light coming through the doors, this can be seen in the large spike at the very right of the histogram.

Compositionally with my estate agent hat on I feel I could have experimented more with different options regarding composition giving me more options to consider as part of my post processing workflow to help decide which gave the better appearance to prospective house purchasers.

Image 3

From my experiences so far I knew my next room, the bathroom would present a number challenges regarding the white tiling, bath and sink and the bright light that would be coming through the room. I realised that the camera would have trouble exposing the room correctly and also having problems with the light streaming through the window. My eyes, as in the other scenes is much more adapt and processing the scene. Again as with the images before attempting to adhere to my self imposed brief acting as am estate agent photographer I’ve continued to expose the room to give a light and airy feel and allowed the window to over exposure giving the feeling to viewers  that the room gets good light. The histogram reveals the amount of white in the image and particularly the over exposure peak at the right of the histogram.

This is a small room, not much longer than the width of the bath. I’ve tried multiple compositions but the low vantage point in landscape and this gives a feel that the room is much bigger than it is. This in itself is perhaps a dilemma in photography where even with no post processing I have perhaps created an image that is not itself 100% reflective of reality using the UWA lens. However as the estate agent photographer my job is to encourage viewings, I understand the potential purchases will only but have seen the house themselves so from a morality perspective I am unconcerned in this instance.

I've realised the scene could be difficult for the camera to expose and also for me to get a hand held image without camera shake. I've set the ISO to 640 giving me a shutter speed of 1/100 and then I have spot metered on the white tiles. As detailed above I was aware that this would over expose the window but this is compensated by the image of the bathroom feeling very light and clinically clean.

Any backlit scene, whether in direct or indirect light

Backlighting can give the photographer both challenges and creative opportunity. In this set of 3 images I’ve attempted to express my creativity in taking the opportunity of using backlighting as part of my images

I’ve decided for this second set of images to use auto white balance

Image 1

Strong backlighting can impact the final image. Many amateur photographers taking holiday snaps are often disappointed when viewing the images where backlighting has impacted the camera’s exposure. Of note portraits of people against either bright backgrounds reflecting light or against the prime light such as sun and find the subject is in silhouette or facial features are lost as they are under exposed.

In this image if I matrix metered then the camera would likely expose for the larger area of space and light coming through the windows and would leave features of the flower in shadow. I’ve chosen to spot meter the flower and as a result should expose the flower correctly and blow out the background to create a high key image.

I've used a 50mm f/1.8 wide open to put the background out of focus and used spot metering to also blow out the background metering and focusing on the stamens of the flower. The histogram has confirmed this with the far right of the histogram confirm over exposed elements in the image. When I viewed the histogram in the camera LCD I thought I had also correctly exposed the low lights but the histogram shown in my post processing software suggests I could have underexposed 1/3 or 2/3 of a stop as I have lost detail perhaps. In instances where I would have not had the chance to retake the image I would have considered using bracketing to either creating a HDR image or the more likely increase my chances of getting a better exposed image that met my pre-visualisation.

Image 2

In this image I’ve created an abstract image of a ceiling lightshade shooting toward the window with natural light reflected from the white ceiling but aiming my camera upwards toward the ceiling. In this instance I’ve matrix metered on the inner sleeve of the light shade visible through the top centre hole perforation in the light shade. This has as expected correctly exposed the ceiling and underexposed the brown felt of the lampshade. This is reflected in the histogram confirming that for the majority of the image, the brown felt, the camera feels the image is under exposed but has instead resulted in what I intended. Had I matrix metered the white circles would have been less light and not as contrasting as I have created. In addition using an aperture of f/2.8 and focus on the top centre whole of the shade I put the bottom of the image out of focus. I’ve also tilted the camera to create the lines of circles in a more diagonal and dynamic way. This will I feel result in viewers of this image having their eye drawn along the diagonal line through the image to the in focus hole.  I’ve used an ISO of 500 to ensure I get a faster shutter speed to avoid camera shake from the image. The histogram tells me that it is a dark image and had I been able to post process, bringing in the slider from the whites to the left to the start of the histogram incline on the right I would have created a more contrasting image.

Image 3

3a

An image typically reflecting springtime with the fresh and bright yellows. Sometimes images need to capture the whole of the subject but they can also be creative when they capture part or are made to dominate the frame. This image is backlit shooting almost directly into the sun with a wide aperture of f/3.5 to create a narrow focus on the around the stamen of the flower putting the background and elements of the flower out of focus. The white balance was set to direct sunlight and in the strong morning sunlight this has retained the natural light colour.

The histogram shows a dynamic range greater with light and dark clipping as shown at the extreme ends of the histogram. Shooting almost directly into the sun will risk over exposure and where attempting to limit this, then darks will by the same token be under exposed.

3b

I also took the same image with the white balance set in the camera to shade to see what effect this would have as some elements of the flower are in shade. However from the small image below the colour rendition is incorrect in terms of what my eyes recorded and also appears unnatural.

3c

Here is the image from 3a in a larger size taken (with the white balance set to direct sunlight in camera)

A scene with strong incident dappled light

For the 3rd, and also the 4^th, situation I have used a preselected white balance option for most images. From TAOP I recall how light is measured in colour temperature and my camera manual (who reads these end to end  - I should J) details this quite succinctly:

Using White balance adjustments is the process to remove unrealistic colour casts captured by the sensor. This will ensure that say a colour seen by the photographer as white, if required, are adjusted to look whote also in the final image. A classic example of this is images taken of snow where the camera will record the snow as a grey white rather than the white seen by the human eye

In my experience selecting auto white balance will for the very vast majority of time correctly adjust the white balance for the jpeg image. Personally I prefer to create RAW images and adjust manually when viewing the RAW image to meet what I feel either matched what my eyes saw and perhaps a creative adjustment. The WB presets are fixed adjustments and unlikely to meet the photographer’s requirement each time can certainly be used when understanding exactly what the camera will do for these preset adjustments.

Using a grey card to measure the light actually at the scene, not in advance in say the home, could help set the correct white balance adjustment required for the camera in that particular circumstance.

Image 1

I've selected a white balance of shade, sun light is from the right and though I’ve used matrix metering it hasn't correctly exposed the tree trunks which, particularly for this on the left nearer the light, are put almost into silhouette. This can be effective if wanting to contrast these silhouettes against the brighter sky but if not might be a prime candidate for multiple bracket  exposures on a tripod with a view to create a high dynamic range (HDR) image. The WB shade option has I feel made the image warmer in colour temperature (e.g. its increased the colour temperature of the image

Image 2

This next scene with strong incident dappled light was taken “contre jour” against the light source with a white balance of shade since in the shade the light would appear cooler in the shade. This has also been matrix metered and has exposed surprisingly well given the very difficult conditions. Unlike the previous exercise in this instance I feel the captured scene does almost reflect what my eyes saw. The trees filigree is scene in silhouette and perhaps with the sun out of the image this could be a more effective image. It is always fascinating how silhouette shapes change subject to the height and strength of the light source. Again this is another idea for the future which can be used creatively in photography.

Image 3

Taking this image from a low vantage point gives the appearance of a steeper hill than it was. Should I have been taking this from an Estate Agent perspective I may well have wanted a higher vantage point for the camera to help “flatten out” the slope and give the appearance of it being more pedestrian friendly. Using the shade WB option has had mix effects here as I feel the colour appears more washed out than how my eyes recorded it. In post processing this image I would have improved this but as with all my images for this assignment they are unprocessed and straight out of the camera. The window of the house far left appears over exposed, its in direct light and reflecting this. With mixed lighting of direct and dappled in the image this can be difficult capture correctly. The camera histogram when I checked this had an even low look but with tall spikes at 0 and 255, the window clearly creating the 255 spike and the dark building halfway up the in the far right third of the image is no doubt creating the 0 spike (see the second image)

For the lighting heading on ‘dapple light’ this was one of the strongest sections in terms of experimentation and learning. The result you got from your cameras ‘matrix metering’ has in this case given a mixed result. Your reading of and subsequent comments on image #03’s histogram was great, this is the most ideal tool to ascertain exposure in a DSLR. Earlier on you referenced Ansel Adams and the ‘Zone System’, this would be a great technical exercise to conduct in terms of your metering/exposure skills. The suggested blog post may be suited as a technical comparative where you examine the zones in relation to the histograms level scale of 0-255, perhaps make a measure of where each of the zones would fall on that scale.  

Thanks. Yes that is a good idea and I've since performed some investigation and have indeed written on where I think the Zone system fits in with digital photography and on the histogram. Here is my blog entry:

http://warrenjonesphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/ansel-adams-and-his-zone-system-within.html

Indoor scenes illuminated by a single source of artificial light

Image 1

I’m continuing my theme for the indoor images as if I’m taking images for the Estate Agent.  For bedroom images perhaps the choices to create are large and airy or warm and cosy. Given the brief in this instance is to use a single lamp then warm and cosy being reflected in the image for the viewer to experience seems the correct choice. I’ve taken the images at around 7pm on a Spring evening so there is some light still outside.  I’ve selected matrix metering as this seems to get it right 99% of the time and I don’t believe I need any one object specifically metered and exposed for.  I’ve set the white balance to Tungsten and initially set an ISO of 500. The histogram tells me I’m under exposed slightly and the shutter speed set by the camera in response to my aperture of f/4.5 is 1/4 of a second which is too slow for handheld and I can see some camera shake in the image zooming in on the camera LCD. However the WB setting of Tungsten is setting the colour temperature to that which matches what my eyes captured.

I've boosted the ISO to 2000 to increase the shutter speed and avoid camera shake. The histogram looks similar to the image above and shares the same clipping at the darks and lights due to I believe the blacks under the bed and the whites of the lamp light.

In my final image I’ve adjusted the lamp and pointed it at an unseen mirror opposite it on the right of the frame to bounce light around the room. I’ve also reduced the ISO to 1600 using the same settings as previous. This has increased the lighting in the room and lightened the image. I feel I have obtained a middle ground in the image I am happy with now having an image between both light and airy and warm and cosy and lived in. That lived in look is important. I’ve seen many show homes that seem clean and somewhat clinical without having a lived in look which I feel is important when viewing a potential home. The question I would ask as a buyer, and therefore image I want to give to potential buyers as my role as Estate Agent photographer, is that the answer to the question: “Could I live in this house?”.  I want that answer to be “yes” for as any people who view the house Estate Agent images. This would be on the premise the more houses the Estate Agent sells and in a quick time would result in more work for me in the future.

Image 2

A small closet type toilet with sink - how do I maximise the appearance of space in such a small room? I’ve changed the camera orientation to portrait and used the fact that the height of the room is longer than its length, using an UWA lens I feel I’ve maximised the space in the best way I am able.

I’ve set the WB to tungsten and set the ISO to 1600, used the aperture of f/4.5 as I used before and the camera has set a shutter speed of 1/60 which I feel is OK to avoid camera shake. I’ve pulled the blind down to avoid overexposing the light and the histogram suggests the exposure is OK with some high light clipping from the light:

Image 3

One of the bedrooms, following an extension home improvement is long and thin, the bed is a 1.5 times single standard bed. A view from the doorway halfway down the room would not make the best viewpoint for the room. I’ve drawn the curtains to avoid over exposure of the light from the window and put a single light on at the far end of the room. The room walls are white and using the tungsten WB setting this light temperature captured seems correct. With daylight this could have been captured in a confused way.  The camera position at one end maximises the length of the room and the black borders at the top of the walls create dynamic diagonals in the image and good perspective. Whilst the room is narrow, I’m trying emphasis its length and encourage the viewers of the image in the estate agent perspective to consider a house viewing. I would think that many prospective buyers easily dismiss house viewers based simply on some room images where sufficient thought may not be put into the image capture to maximise the property.

The length of the room with a single light has given me lighting problems and getting a shutter speed of sufficient value to avoid camera shake. Whilst I could have used a tripod I’ve instead used the features of the camera to assist me. I’ve continued to raise the ISO until reached a shutter speed where there was no camera shake in the image.

On a full frame camera the rule of thumb is:  

Min Shutter Speed (secs) = 1/Focal Length (mm)

My focal length for this image is 16mm so ideally I should have boosted the ISO to allow a minimum shutter speed of 1/16 to avoid camera shake. Of course using high ISO can cause noise issues. In the end I settled with an ISO of 8000 obtaining a shutter speed of 1/13 to get what I felt was a good all round balance. The histogram suggests a slower shutter speed would have given a better exposure as I’ve lost shadow detail. The highlight clipping no doubt again is the light bulb. Photography can sometimes be about compromise and the camera LCD histogram and image suggested the exposure was OK, but not perfect. Under the lighting conditions I felt the final image could be acceptable

There is noise in the image and I feel I could have removed this successfully, or at least reduced its appearance in post processing.

I did think that the image #03 for the section on ‘indoor scenes illuminated by a single source of artificial light’ was slightly cold in terms of colour temperature.   

Yes, it does appear cold. This high;lights perhaps one of the photographer's conundrums, should he aim to capture an image that reflects what he saw or should he adjust the image, either in terms of presetting white balance in pre-processing or adjusting it in post processing.

The Bedroom, at the request of Ben, was decorated with black and white paint and a grey carpet so does indeed appear cold also in reality. This is on contrast to Image 1 in this set of our bedroom where the colour scheme, and I hope my capture, reflects a scene of warmth. They say the camera never lies but it can be instructed to capture differently from what the eyes may see

Assignment Part 2

The second part of this assignment requires me to to select of the 4 situations above in Part One and think about the lighting conditions and what they should or could be to reduce the contrast in the scene.

I’ve gone back to the images I took for Indoor space in which the only available light is strong natural window light.

The scene for image 1 created me problems due to the light coming from the window on the left of the scene and creating shadow on the dark floor. I tried initially using a remote flash place low aimed to light up the darker floor areas. The image below was the best of those I took where I have also used a WB of Flash and an ISO of 1600. I wasn’t happy with the flash reflection, even though I used a diffuser and some of the shadowing it created.

Switching on the overhead lights and boosting the ISO I've been able to get even lighting of the floor combined with the natural light from the window on the left of the scene.

This assignments part two has been quite successful resulting in some good results and technical skills in the execution of the correction task. In the kitchen scene the shadows have been dramatically reduced yet with the overhead lights the white balance has shifted quite a bit with a magenta cast evident in the highlight/mid-tone area. 

This is a good observation and perhaps an excellent example of how presets in camera when shooting jpeg files can have limitations. Had I taken this image in RAW and outside this assignment where I am not to perform any post processing, I would have course adjusted the White Balance temperature in the RAW processor to eliminate this. However I should have confirmed this in my original assignment

I've waited for a day that’s less bright to take an image of the lounge. I've spot metered the darkest and lightest areas of the room and using the same ISO determined different shutter speeds for the lightest and darkest areas in the room of 1/200 and 1/80 and I have used an ISO of 800 at f/4 in aperture priority. This suggests only a difference of 1 and 1/3 stops.

I’ve decided to consider a different view point from the images I’ve taken so far of the lounge and performed the same spot metering and got the same result. Using an ISO of 1600 and a WB setting of direct sunlight, spot metering the TV  and using this reversed position I no longer have the over exposed windows in the frame and get a more evenly exposed image as the histogram shows:

The highlight clipping visible in this histogram for the image on the next page is due  no doubt the sunlit curtain on the left of the scene even though it’s a less sunny day

This final image appears better lit with little over exposure giving a nice clean, war, and airy feeling to the lounge

The final 3^rd image of my retaken set is of the bathroom. Like the preceding 2 images it has been taken on a less sunny day to help reduce the potential for over exposing the light coming through the windows. I’ve pulled the blind down lower to help reduce some of the light entering the room

I‘ve used matrix metering, an ISO of 500 and a white balance of shade. I’m OK with histogram, though some highlight clipping has occurred as a result of the light from the window. 

 However I’m not happy with the light temperature in the image as this has given an off white colour to the white tiles, see below:

Using the same exposure settings I’ve adjust ed the WB setting to Auto. Whilst similar to the original image, waiting for less sunlight has made for an improved image in terms of lighting and less over exposure in the contrasty scene

Key Learnings

a)             I think Auto White balance on modern camera’s is very good and appears to gauge the correct light temperature setting to use very well. Unlike RAW files where the photographer can set a WB setting and fine tune it, with jpegs the camera is deciding but I think this is far more reliable than perhaps even than experienced photographer

b)             Matrix metering again in modern digital camera’s is right in probably around 95% of scenes. Spot metering may allow the photographer to gauge exposure for brightest and darkest elements in scene, calculate the difference in stops and understand if the camera’s sensor has a dynamic range is capable of recording this. If not the photographer can make a decision regarding which element he exposes correctly. Exposing highlights correctly could allow more detail to be recovered in the darks in post processing (as against the opposite) and perhaps allow a HDR image to be created. Of course following this process with RAW files will allow much more detail to be captured in the under exposed areas. Spot metering can allow for a specific element in an image to be exposed correctly. This could be important for people’s face or photographing a sunset putting foreground into silhouette against it

c)              Increasing ISO allows faster shutter speeds to be used and avoids the need for flash and tripods. Some shooting conditions simply do not allow flash or tripods, this is often the case in Churches where flash may be forbidden during the ceremony yet the Bride and Groom will want this element to be captured. Modern digital cameras have good usable ISO range, I’ve seen that I can possible get up to 8000 with little noise. I will experiment more to understand to what level I can reach and with noise reduction in post processing result in a clean or acceptable image

d)             Purposely creating HDR images, whilst can be created from a single image creating a further 2 from the original with under and overexposed values, capturing these as separate images using exposure compensation will create better images though will require tripod to ensure the same scene is framed and captured

e)             Pre-Shoot work flow needs also to take into account the lighting conditions and where possible wait for the optimum time.  Where this isn’t possible, say for formal shoots of Wedding where outside light is hard to predict and weather extremes such as train and wind may result in formal shoots taken indoors. My recent Wedding shoot in February 2014, see my blog, resulted in both situations. Having 3 sets of batteries for flash in advance was as a result of a re-shoot workflow ensuring I cater for all possible conditions

f)              Not relying on post processing images has made me much more aware of a requirement to consider light and exposure and of course metering conditions.

g)             For the majority of the images I’ve attempted to put my thought processes around a job as an estate agency photographer. Lighting within houses will vary and be subject to the external lighting conditions prevalent. The photographer will be unlikely to be able to pre-determine the time and lighting. However understanding the successes I’ve had though experimentation for this assignment would make more aware and prepared in advance and would be able to work around these challenges

h)            I've not found this from undertaking this Assignment but I believe the changing light frequency of specific artificial lighting can cause inconsistencies in images even though the photographer may use the same settings

        Quality of Outcome

        You have presented a very good document for this assignment that articulates

        fully your technical skills. The work is coherent with a nice flow and you have

        communicated some good lines of thinking to possible scenarios. With technical exercises such as this assignment try to place them into other photographic scenarios, for example where else might have strong dappled light or where would you want this lighting effect as a suggestion.  

        Demonstration of Creativity

        There is a good level of imagination applied to this submission coupled with the experimentation and developmental aspect, which is quite strong. The resolve may have been greater if there were some more examples of your technical developments in your learning log.   

        Learning Log  & Contextualisation

        Overall you have contextualised your work in a very articulate way, which being governed by the unit is heavily technical. There is some evidence of a range of research yet this could have been broadened to encompass other lines of enquiry in support of your work mainly academic based pathways. 

       Your ‘key learning’s’ at the end of your assignment make for a good reflective

        passage; you have drawn upon you own experience of being a wedding

        photographer as an example of taking possible lighting scenarios into

        consideration, which is great as even at venues with fixed interior lighting these can suddenly be different on the day. 

        Thanks. This was quite a challenging assignment and though initially restrictive in not being able to make any post processing adjustments it has made me consider my photography and "getting it right in camera" is important, least it could save a lot of time when processing multiple images

       The brief line about not relying on post production is a good line of thought;

       perhaps this in itself could make an interesting exercise; whereby you shoot a

       scene and get it right in camera through extra lighting, reflectors, diffusers over windows, a tripod etc. and then just shoot the scene and rely on post-production to correct it.  

         Yes, I have gone back to the particular challenge and used my histogram to determine how many bracketed shots I need to create an image of wider dynamic range than my camera could capture in one image:

         

        http://warrenjonesphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/hdr-blended-images-resolving-exposure.html

        On a technical note regarding your blog design, would it be possible please to

         have the background white and text black as I find white text on black strains the eyes after a while. 

         Thanks for the feedback. I have now improved and spiced up my blog, I hope you like it

        Suggested reading/viewing & Pointers for the next assignment

        In your email you have made a short proposal for your final assignment, it may be good to submit a monochromatic piece based upon your investigation into Lydbrook. Typically it is best to stick to either colour or black & white; sometimes in certain situations mixing the two can work, but I would recommend with producing the work as a monochromatic piece. 

        So now look into these two photographers and examine their monochromatic

        work, which are both quite tonally stunning. 

        The first is Michael Kenna:

        http://www.michaelkenna.net

       The second is Sebastiao Salgado, more specifically his series Genesis:

       http://lightbox.time.com/2013/03/28/in-the-beginnings-sebastiao-salgados-

       genesis/#5

  

        Now explore/research into the work and find out how they were produced, were they both shot on medium/large format cameras with traditional silver halide or were they shot on DSLR’s?   

        In response to an email I sent my tutor around my suggestions / proposals for Assignment 5 of DPP he comments:

        Black & white would be a logical choice for the final assignment, yet as the next chapter is about processing the image with the end assignment being producing a monochromatic series, they may be too close to each other. Take note; assignment three does ask you to bring out the monochrome image qualities of from, tonal contrast and texture, so not all scenes are suitable for black and white conversion. 

        Have you done any HDR black and white work? Perhaps with either assignment 3 or 5 you could explore this angle; maybe even night-time urban photography

        produced this way would be an ideal conclusion for this unit.