Task 2: Cropping the image

Example: 

By John Hilliard - British photography

Cropping the image in post production creates these four different images as well as four different meanings. Each image has a different title running top to bottom left to right these are, Crushed, Drowned, Burned and Fell.

Hilliard has presented these images as a Swastika. however, it also has a circular feel to it as if it is never ending.

I don't actually like these images they leave me feeling cold, as if i've witnessed something I shouldn't have.

My own example of telling different stories with cropping from one photograph:

Original image

crop 1

crop 2

crop 3

Through completing this exercise I can now appreciate how important the from of a photograph is. It is not only what is in the image thats important but also what is left out.

By cropping the same image three different ways, these three new images tell a completely different story to the original photograph.

For instance in crop one we as viewers don't know who these people are or where they are going. They could just be setting out for a long hike with no particular destination.

Whereas in crop two there are a couple of cars coming towards us, the viewer, we don't know where they have been. Or they could just be setting out on their journey.

However, in crop three we know where the cars have come from we just don't know where they are going.

In conclusion to this task just by altering the perimeters of the image I the photographer can change the meaning of the image completely.

Brassai: Paris by Night

In this version of Brassai's Paris by Night a piece of music has been used along with the photographs, then shown in a slide show. (unfortunately the sound didn't import).

I'm not sure if it would have quite the same impact without the music. However, as I was watching the video I felt it to be haunting of a by gone age, this atmosphere hits straight away due to the lack of people on the empty streets of Paris. Then you get to see the insight of how the Parisian people live night by night.

I was quite amazed at how hard this hit me, as the piece went on I began to feel sad about how these people have been forgotten through time.

The Golden Age: Roots of Modern Documentary Photography 1920s - 1950s (lecture notes)

• 1888 Kodak roll film - George Eastman (alternative to glass plate)

• 1889 35mm movie film Thomas Edition

• 1890 Halftone printing

• 1920 Illustrated magazines - Germany

• 1921 Wire-photo (bit like email today) invented by Western Union

• 1924 Leica camera - created by Oscar Barnak - Photo agencies - Magnum & Associated Press

Group union of photographers to sell works

Key words and names up to 1930s (Germany)

• Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung
• Arbeiter Illustrirte Zeitung
• Ullstein Press 
(magazines)

• André Kertész
• Martin Munkacsi
• Alexander Rodchenko
• Bill Brandt
• Brassai
• Henri Cartier-Bresson
• Erich Salomon
• Felix H Man
(photographers)


Felix H Man  born Germany 1893

He was one of the first photojournalists, starting work as a professional photographer in the 1920s when photojournalism was in its infancy and within a few years he had helped to define the genre.

In the mid-1930s he migrated to Britain to flee the rise of fascism in Germany. Here, he became one of the foremost contributors to Picture Post magazine where almost all the photographs in the very first 1938 issue were his.

Felix H Man uses natural light and he's photographs, at least these two example, are candid photographs.

Candid = taken informally, without the subject's knowledge.

Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung

This was a weekly magazine that was founded in 1891, the first issue was published in 1892. The magazine focuses on photo essays this is done by telling a narrative through the use of a series of photographs.

Key words and names up to 1940s (UK)

• Illustrated London News

• Lilliput

• Picture Post

(magazine)

• Stefan Lorant - founder of Lilliput

• Bill Brandt - surrealism

• Brassai - Paris by Night

• Bert Hardy

• Kurt Hutton

(photographers)

Kurt Hutton born Germany 1893

Kurt Hutton  migrated to England in 1934, where he worked for the Weekly Illustrated and later Picture Post. Hutton is famous for taking candid photographs depicting the class system in England.

Lilliput

Lilliput was a monthly magazine showing photographs as well as short stories. The magazine was founded in 1937 by Stefan Lorant, who was a photojournalist. 



Key words and names up to 1950s (USA)

• Life magazine
• Look magazine
(magazine)

• Alfred Eisenstaedt
• W. Eugene Smith
• Margaret Bourke-White
• Kurt Hutton
• Stanley Kubrick
• Robert Capa
(photographs)


Margaret Bourke-White

Margaret Bourke-White was the first woman to work for the Life magazine, she was also the last person to photograph Mahatma Gandhi.

Robert Capa
Robert Capa worked for Picture Post, he was also friends with Pablo Picasso. He was originally name Andre Friedmann but reinvented himself as Robert Capa.

Task 1: Exploring the Frame

Aspect Ratio

"In its simplest form, aspect ratio is used to describe the relationship between two sides of a rectangle.

It's not the measurements of each side of the rectangle, its the ratio of one side compared to the other.

For example, if I have a rectangle that measures 1120 by 840 inches, this rectangle has an aspect ratio of 4:3. In this case, the aspect ratio is just both sides of the rectangle divided by 280. If my rectangle measured 840 by 560 the aspect ratio would be 3:2.

Every consumer digital SLR sensor is in the shape of a rectangle.

When people talk about the aspect ratio of a particular camera, they are simply referring to the dimensions of the digital SLR sensor.

The vast majority of digital SLR cameras have sensors with an aspect ratio of 3:2.

An aspect ratio of 3:2 matches the aspect ratio of a standard 4x6 inch print

What this really means: when you take photos with a camera that has a 3:2 sensor, none of the prints that you make at 4x6 will get cropped. What you see on the monitor is what you'll see in the print."

http://www.digital-slr-guide.com/aspect-ratio.html

Above is my attempt at showing aspect ratio within a photograph. My camera, a Nikon D3100, has a 3:2 aspect ratio. My frame as see in the photograph is 4x6 inches and my camera settings were a shutter speed of 1/60 and F4.2.

I found this task surprisingly difficult because without using the flash so as no to make the image appear flat I had to rely on natural light. I had to work out the balance between shutter speed and aperture. I had to have a fairly quick shutter speed so I could hold the frame and camera but still have enough light actually going into the camera. 

The result being that the photo has a swallow depth of field with selective focus.

With the photo above, I was trying to show the odd one out and in the frame. I do feel that I achieved this even if it is done a bit crudely.