Bibliography

Books:
*photoshop CS3 essential skills by mark Galer and Philip Andrews
*Collins Digital SLR handbook by John Freeman
*The photography Bible By Daniel Lezano
*Three persepctives on Photography by Paul Hill
Websites:
http://www.silverprint.co.uk/ProductByGroup.asp?PrGrp=724
-23/9/09
http://http://www.arrowfile.com/
-24-9/09
http://www.durhamweb.org.uk/fourclocks/what.htm
-1/10/09
http://www.justingrantphotography.com/#/fashion/
-7/10/09
http://www.jamesnader.com/fashion_2009.html
-7/10/09
http://www.darlington.gov.uk/Culture/arts/
-7/10/09
http://www.justin/grantphotography.com/#/fashion/
-13/10/09
http://www.darlington.gov.uk/Culture/Arts/
-13/10/09
http://www.darlington.gov.uk/Culture/Event+Information.htm?EventID=158794
-15/10/09
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
-15/10/09
http://www.pjjphotography.co.uk/photo_4796541.html
-21/10/09
http://www.nickroylance.com/reportage.html
-22/10/09
http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/
-28/10/09
http://www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk/shows/1/1754/The-Tart-and-the-Vicar-s-Wife.htm
-11/11/09
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_g9kiIAT78
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REll3OCahcI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfDSWzIIVoM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t18GgtPsjY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph6bCtx6U4s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME3rai0yUF4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WBhdy2cu04
All on- 5/11/09
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/zone_system.shtml
-29/11/09
Contact numbers:
Duty Manager Peter Tate on (01325) 387731 Darlington Civic theater duty manager

So now i have everything sorted where am i going to get my prints done at?

Well i have decided to be adventurous this time rather than sticking to my usual and just getting them printed at uni i have decided to get them printed at RGB labs this time.I have heard mixed reviews from rgb and i find that the majority of my class friends get them done there, Ive heard they are good so long as you tell them exactly what you want and expect which is what i will be doing. If they come out wrong i know my customers rights i know i dont have to pay for them if I'm not happy and i will be getting them printed again so hopefully fingers crossed nothing will go wrong.

The zone system

The zone system
A couple of weeks ago we watched a video on Ansel adams, and we learnt about a bit more information. Within this video I learnt about the zone system, now I have heard of it before but to be honest I really didn’t make a point of researching into it until a couple of weeks ago. The best way to describe the zone system is:
*You camera reads in different tones of gray but the majority of the time only reads a mid gray. Which causes a lack of tones within you’re images you’re blacks are not black and you’re white are not perfect white.
*I learnt that Ansel Adams uses the zone system whilst photographing his subjects to make sure he achieves his black, being black. Here is a little research on him which I did and the zone system:

*Ansel Adams developed the zone system to cope with this situation. His technique was to carefully study a scene, visualize the final print, then determine the correspondence between portions of the scene and tones in the print. He would then meter, expose and develop the negative accordingly. His basic rule was,
"Expose for the shadows; develop for the highlights”.















Click on images to enlarge and read details
The zone system chart and description of zones:
I think this technique is a really good technique within my images I usually darken down the black because I find they are usually not a natural black so in future reference I may try this method.

My final presentation.

After much research looking for presentation i was originally deciding on presenting my work in a leather portfolio. After talking to the teacher we found that we did not immediately have to get a leather portfolio but it would be best for our professional studies hand in. So now that i know i don't have to buy a portfolio i have decided to present my work in polyester sleeves as usual in my black print box, and i will later towards the professional studies hand in ,will buy a leather portfolio. Bellow are the products that i will be presenting my work in:

My final ten Images

After whittling through my images I finally decided on my final 10. I found this editing really difficult. Within editing which I have done in the past the images have been so different and opposites where-as theses images were really hard to edit because they were all so similar but I pursued with the editing and came out with 10 below you will find my final 10 images:

lighting diagrams

Within the guidelines surrounding what we had to enter into our journal is said to include lighting diagrams. With my Final 10 images I was working on location without a set up lighting situation so it wasn’t possible for me to produce a diagram. But I will still verbally explain the processes I went through. Because I didn’t know what lighting situations would be waiting for me I took a:
*Canon speed lite flash
Every visit I did I didn’t need to use the flash head unless photographing practice runs before the shows. The reason for this was because each actor, which I photographed, had a continuous line of lights above their mirror so they could get their makeup perfect. Which I found set the scene in the images perfectly and offered a lot of light upon the subject.

Hartlepool Calender competition

A couple of weeks ago I entered into the Hartlepool calendar competition, I really wasn’t expecting to win anything but it would have been nice in the end I won £500 for the main winning image and then I got another 3 images into the calendar and won £75 per image so overall I won £750 so I was really chuffed. The money that I won I have decided to put towards a car because I am going to start to learn to drive. Below you will find my winning images:
































And the main winning image was this one which i named silhouettes by the sea(below):

Tips from books and you tube-Photoshop top 40 by Deke MCClelland

When starting this course I had never used Adobe Photoshop before so it was all new to me, and even in year 2 my skills on adobe are a lot less skillful than other members in the class. I would watch other members in my class and the things they did and try to learn from them, but as soon as they ventured into the complex system of layers I got lost very very easily. To be honest I didn’t want to be badgering people for help when there busy getting there assignment ready to hand in, because I have been in that situation and its rather annoying.  I mentioned to Phill a lad on my course about how little I know and how did he learnt these skills and he introduced me to you tube.

 Before the 6 weeks previously I had bought several books on adobe Photoshop and books with advice in which I found useful these books being:

*Photoshop CS3 essential skills by Philip Andrews and Mark Galer

*Collins Digital SLR Handbook by John Freeman

*The Photography Bible By Daniel Lezano.

And yes they did help me but some of the sections were far to long and were step by step but it didn’t tell you where to find the tools (which for a numpty like me was rather hard)

 So I Gave you tube a try and entered the details in you tube them being:

*Photoshop top 40 by Deke MCClelland.

I found this very useful because he shows the views what to do by filming his computer screen; he directs you to the tools and shows you how to use them. His demonstrations are done on adobe Photoshop CS4 but he shows the viewers where these tools can be found on CS3 (the software I have) which are usually the same as the same as CS4.

I have learnt a lot from these demonstrations and I am now writing them when I get free time down in a book in step--step instructions where I can find the tools etc. With an index in the front of book so I can look up a skill I have forgotten and go to that page which for me was rather a good idea if I do say so myself.

Here are the links to the certain video's i found useful, i tried to attach the you tube to my blog but it was unsuccessful.

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_g9kiIAT78

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REll3OCahcI 

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfDSWzIIVoM

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t18GgtPsjY

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph6bCtx6U4s

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME3rai0yUF4

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WBhdy2cu04

Choosing my Final 10 Images and explanation

After reflecting on the tutorial, which I had with Richard, and looking at my images I finally whittled them down to my final 10 prints. With none of them containing the live performances that I photographed. Don’t get me wrong I did have some good images within the onstage shots, but I found that yes I had lots of ideas and research from them, I was straying a lot from what I was wanting to show. I though adding on screen photography with behind the scenes was a bit of a mixture and was straying from the main subject matter of capturing the persons personality within the mirrors and  they did before hand to get themselves ready for a show. I think I have gone out on a limb with this decision and yes I may lose marks for this decision but it was making my final prints a mixture rather than a pure form.

On the other hand I am glad that I have done the research on photographing live performances because it shows learning and my will to want to learn more. Within my last post I posted that I would be contacting a theatre photographer and including this within my research. With me not including live performance photography I don’t think it is necessary to contact a photographer. But I have the research and information to contact one if I ever do this project again.

Problems experienced within shooting a civic theater show

After doing this project ,when photographing the actors in their dressing rooms. I came up with many problems other than trying to not get myself in the mirrors. But when they allowed me to photograph the actual shows happening from the sidelines, this is when I came up with sum problems.

I found that in a high key act where there are lots of scene changes and props like the full Monty, they were constantly changing the lighting.

A long explanation short:

Aperture?:

Because the lighting was so dark I was having to set my camera to use a very low aperture 3.5. And because I was using such a low aperture my photo’s weren’t as crisp as I would have liked them to be.

Shutter speed?:

Again because there was such little light as explained above I had my aperture set very low and wide to allow as much light in my camera as possible, but yet I was still not getting enough light in my camera so I was having to set my camera to a relatively long exposure (shutter speed). I also found that with the shutter speed I was using because the actors were running around and dancing, they were coming out unfocused and blurry.

Light meter readings?:

Because I was photographing within a theatre obviously the lighting changed rapidly all the time, I kept having to take light meter readings, and constantly adjusting the settings in my camera for my images to come out relatively decent.

ISO?:

Because I wasn’t sure how to change my ISO depending on the lighting situation I kept my ISO set to automatic, because to be honest I didn’t want my images to come out to grainy. But after talking to my teacher I now reflecting on what I did I should have set my ISO to manual on the highest setting possible to allow as much light in my camera as possible.

After having a discussion with my teacher about these problems that arose he suggested some setting I should use:

1/25^th second exposure-So contents come out un-blurry and focused.

ISO 800- to allow as much light in my camera as possible.

And in desperate situations set my camera to shutter speed priority, so all the setting in my camera are fully automatic besides the shutter speed which I control.

 (I must state here that when it got to about half way through the show I did mange to figure the setting and the majority of my images came out fine but the ones with quick movement were a little unfocused)

He also suggested that I contacted the local photographer who shoots the shows that happen in the civic theatre in Darlington, and ask there advice on the settings that they use. So when I went to organise my next trip with Peter Tate( the show the tart and the vicars wife, the show I’ve just shot), I asked him if they had an organised photographer who came and did the shows.

He told me they didn’t have a photographer but they regularly got photographers from the northern echo (in Darlington) to shoot the shows they held, for articles in the northern echo.

So what I haven taken from this is when I am next in town I will visit the northern echo and ask to speak to one of the photographers and ask there advice, and include the information on my blog.

I also noticed when I was doing research on KEZZ they had good images from the performance from a photographer. I think what I am going to do is try to get into contact with this photographer(his name was placed under the images he had taken), ask his advice and include it into my research. 

Description of visit to the tart and the vicars wife

So as I was told I met Peter Tate at the borough road entrance. He took me into the civic theatre and to the dressing rooms as usual. With the show that I visited this time the props on the stage were brilliant. They had set the whole stage up to look like the interiors of a vintage old cottage. After checking out the stage I went back to the dressing rooms. I found that with this show there wasn’t as many actors as there was in the full Monty and all the scenes from what I saw they were all sat around a table drinking coffee and having a chat.

Over all I took as many images of the actors getting ready as possible, and I took images during the show, although there were no changes to the scenes and props. But reflecting on this show I went to try to yes get some more work although I have lots already, but mainly went for the experience and practice. What I mean by that last sentence is that it is very difficult to photograph in a theatre. In my next post I will explain the problems that I experienced.(this trip the tart and the vicars wife was to perfect my ability of photographing in the theatre with the problems that arise)

Here is some information i wanted to include about the show this explains what the show is about:

Ian Dickens Productions presents the revival of the smash-hit comedy The Tart and the Vicar’s Wife which has not been on tour since the 80s. Starring Linda Armstrong (The Royal), Matt Healy (the bad boy of Emmerdale), Marcus Hutton(Brookside) and Sarah Jane Buckley (HollyOaks) The Tart & The Vicar’s Wife is an hilarious evening’s entertainment intertwined with a topical ‘credit-crunch’ theme that will strike a chord everybody.

Glenda and her husband Robert Parry were the archetypal successful couple; him an affluent businessman, her the glam ‘exec’ wife with all the trappings of wealth, until Robert decides to devote his life to God and become a vicar after being delivered unscathed from an horrendous car crash. Glenda consequently finds herself thrust into a complete transformation, struggling to make ends meet and dealing with her new identity crisis.

When Robert leaves for a four-week seminar, Glenda turns to her friends for support, all of whom are in similar financial distress. Whilst Robert is away the action is constantly interrupted by the appearance of the vicar’s curate, Henry, to great comic effect. When a millionaire lottery winner turns up to seek the reverend’s help in exorcising his haunted manor house, he meets Glenda and her friends who end up baring their souls to him and discovering just how far they will go for money!

Organization for Visit to photograph tart and the vicars wife.

After going thought my images we concluded that I needed one more visit to the civic theatre . So as soon as I get home after discussing if I could photograph the audience, I organised another visit. Later on a couple days later Peter Tate rang on the 19/11/09 and asked me to meet him on the borough road entrance to photograph, the tart and the vicars wife. In the next post I will describe the visit.

Another Idea for my work!

After whittling thought the Images which I had edited through with Richard. We came up with the idea of approaching my work with another view. We came up with the idea of also including images into my final set of the audience’s response to the acts which they see. So after the discussion I went home and rang Peter Tate and asked him if this was possible.

 He told me he would not be able to allow me permission to photograph the audience because of copyright. He told me that if a member of the public within the audience did not want there image taken I would have to exclude the people who didn’t want to participate and take the image from another angle making sure they weren’t in the shot, but then I would come up with the problem of children in the audience and there parents permission.

 So both me and peter Tate agreed this idea would not be possible, but on the other hand I found it important to include this information into my blog because it shows evidence of learning and organisation. So from this situation I have learnt that when photographing public places you have to get copyright permission from every person and child unless you make there faces unrecognisable.

The full Monty shoot explained

After having a frantic last week and the week before, i can finally get down to work again. It just feels like Ive been run off my feet for the past 2 weeks with finding out i won the calendar competition ringing about trying to find the ice cream man(who was within one of my images entered into the calendar competition). Visiting areas i thought he may have been in. Photographing the full Monty then preparing to visit the lakes the next day to photograph waterfalls with friends on my course hoping i may get some more images to put towards my exhibition. Rushing to get the images (full Monty images) edited for the crew of the full Monty on the Friday night and saturday morning(they were leaving saturday). Visiting hartlepool within my weekend to get the model release form signed, so its been a bit chaotic recently to say the least.
Soooooo explanation as to why there's been no work done on my blog in the past two weeks over now onto the full Monty.
So i turned up to the civic theatre on the time arranged at 6.15 straight after uni, and was allowed into the civic theatre this time to wait. Again peter tate was not due to be working the time i was meant to be visiting, but i got told "jeff" had give me the go ahead. So i was met by different man who wasn't jeff! who i found rather intrusive and rude to be honest. I think he saw me coming a mile of he saw me as a student and thought i was easy to push about and tell what to do. I understand that in a civic theatre behind the scenes you have to be on the ball because there are people running in and out of the sides with props and you have to know where to stand when to move and get out of the way and i did that. But he got to the point where because he had done photography he was telling me about problems i would experience, which yes i found useful(and didn't experience any of the problems he mentioned like lens flair)but then he went on to tell me what images i should be taking and compositions. He was very much go there, come here take and picture of this and that, and to be honest I'm my own person a like to do my own work and have a wander and see what i can find providing it doesn't pass the boundrylines which they set for me, which to be honest he really got up my nose from the word go.

I went to the full Monty not knowing what to expect,as seen earlier in my blog i did research and I found that the full Monty was based in "New York" but whether they had dramatic makeup and costumes i didn't have the slightest clue,so i went slightly preserved about going and not knowing what to expect. After escaping from that annoying member of the crew who did organising, he let me go along the routes of what i wanted to do and let me wander off into the actors dressing rooms and photographing them with there permission(after an explanation that a photographer I.E me was meant to be coming around photographing). And i found the actors really warm and friendly and helpful, and there was many actors within the show so i had a wide range in choice. The makeup was dramatic just like i wanted and the costumes were great just like what i wanted in kezz but didn't get.

To be honest i found that i got a much better result from the full Monty than i did kezz,and it was the show i was most least looking forward to shooting surprisingly.So after getting some great shoots in the dressing rooms. I was then allowed to shoot at the sidelines of the theatre whilst the show was going on providing i didn't go to far on stage and didn't use my flash. I got some really great outcomes from doing this. After about 9.00 it was getting a bit tiring with the man bossing me around,but i finally got to meet jeff who turned out to be an old man who was in about 2 of the scenes from the show.By 9.00 i thought i had plenty of work to use and was thinking of heading off because I'd been and uni all day then went to the civic theatre as soon as i got home and wanted so tea. But the annoying man wanted me to wait another hour so i could take a picture of the sideline crew, so i reluctantly did. so yes that was my long story, but throughout my complaining i did get lots of work to use and thinking back i regret not taking one image.

When walking through the actors rooms i came across this old lady who looked in her late 80's, after over hearing her conversation i found that she was a makeup artist in the civic theatre when she was younger,and she was also part of the shows sometimes.she was dramatic with a turban on, although she had white hair she still painted her eyebrows brown and remembered to put her eyeliner on.he sat there in her little knitted jumper with a medal attached to her jumper and looking across the room, she had her old and i mean old makeup laid out (in old Victorian tins they were almost like face paints) with her old programs from shows she had been in and the photo's from them.

Now at the time i picked up the courage to say please could i take a picture of you and she said yes for me the first shot was perfect and i think expressed the person she was.The picture to be honest gets me a little stewed every time i see.And because i liked the first shot i took i listened to her story looked at her programs said thank you then left.Looking back i really wish i had taken time o take and image of her old makeup laid out with her programs and i could of linked the 2 images within my final prints but i didn't sooo i know for next time.

From the shoot with the full Monty after taking the image the annoying man asked me to burn the images onto DVD for them and he would edit my work and he said he would use it in the brochures.I thought nothing of it at the time thinking great my work will be used within a brochure and advertising,but when i got home i started to stew over what he said. I was really not happy with him editing my work,and basically claiming glory for my work and doing what ever with them as he wanted. I spoke to Richard and he said ask john he had the same problem. So i did so in the end i decided on burning the majority of the images with my copyright info in the metadad with my watermark throughout the centre of the image very slight so it couldnt be taken out. After doing that i burnt 40 images on the DVD and it took me 4 hours to do all of them. But looking back I'm glad i did it because it means my work is safe and the "annoying man cant claim my work as him own". :)

The full monty

After persisting with peter Tate ,ringing him i finally managed to organize a day to go and photograph the full Monty. the date was set for tuesday the 3rd of November at 6.15 again i had to meet them at the borough road entrance. Within my next post I will explain what happened and the process.