The following is a direct copy and has been Pasted in for future reference from the Art of Photography coursework PDF Doc. (pasted in Maroon)
20 – 30 photographs
This exercise will help you to think about the practical process of composing an image. For this you need a situation which involves people – ideally out in the street. The idea is to record the way you approach and shoot a subject from the moment when you catch sight of a possible photograph, to the final best image you can make of it. Ordinarily, you would only shoot when the moment seemed just right, but here you will record all the moments that are ‘almost’ right. A public event such as a parade, or a market, will generally have enough interesting potential subjects to make this exercise easy. In whatever situation you choose, use the camera as a viewer and keep it to your eye. Use the viewfinder as a way of checking out possible pictures. Normally, you would not press the shutter release until you felt you had the best viewpoint. Here, however, take pictures as you go along. They will be a record of how you moved around and found the best images – a sort of stop-frame movie of your shoot. Once you have the processed photographs in front of you, see how the sequence progresses. As this will be some time later you should be able to look at the images more objectively. Lay them out in order and under each one write a short note, describing why you moved on to the next viewpoint. As you can imagine, you may have a few false starts in trying to capture this kind of sequence. The final image may just not work out well. But persevere. Take more than one sequence if you want to, and if you find it really too difficult to do in a situation that has people, choose a landscape as a subject.
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Equipment
Nikon D4
24/70 lens
Method & Approach
In this exercise I went with the Local Market idea and the story behind all my images is “Trading.” where I have tried to capture the atmosphere of a Market from both sides.
- People browsing to buy.
- Market traders serving.
- A sale of goods.
Please see pictures and captions below for visual understanding.
Note – all pictures have been compressed hence there will be a quality reduction when enlarging.
This picture and the one below shows the jovial faces of two market traders selling fruit and veg to a elderly couple who previous to this image had been lured in by the traders calls. Unfortunately the background on this picture has been “blown out” as it was taken using spot metering.
This picture is a follow on, it was taken from the same position, I wanted to capture the traders jolliness and personal banter. With this shot I changed to Multi-Segment metering which has improved the picture characteristics.
Final picture taken from this spot, the bag full and the trader counting out the lady’s change, which I wasn’t able to capture from any vantage point.
This picture was taken from a different position within the same stall, the purchased fruit and vegetables in the bag and being handed across.
The woman in the red coat moving on and the trader onto his potential next sale, taken from the same position as the last picture.
This picture was taken from the same stall from a slightly different vantage point.
Here in this picture and in the one below, they were taken from a similar spot to the one I was in earlier, the woman in the beige coat having just bought something and waiting for her change.
Picture shows a follow on from the one above, the man in the red hat is considering an item.
A different vantage point of the same stall, my intentions here were to show people browsing with a potential to buying.
The same position, this time a customer would like to purchase some fruit. The person in front still browsing.
Different stall, this time all the pictures in this series are taken deliberately from the same position. There is still a story to be told with the sequence but the events shown continuously from this position become less and to some extent non inspiring after the second image.
Second image of the sequence shows a potential interest, the trader is asked a question from the girl in the wolf decaled coat.
Third image, the girl is in consideration whilst the trader averts his attention to another customer.
Fourth image, a sale has been made which could have been captured with far more meaning if I were to have changed my position. The difference between these pictures is so little that as I mentioned above, they all have a story but because I stood still the story lacks any dynamic punch.
In this sequence of three, I recognised the woman wearing the short brown quilted coat in the left of the picture about to make a purchase. I took this picture and quickly moved around the stall to a better vantage point in order to capture more detail of the event.
Image two depicts the woman having made the purchase and reaching in her bag for her purse.
Final picture shows the whole meaning of trading as the woman pays the trader for her goods.
These three images (like above) tell the same story but due to the proximity of the stall I was able to capture this sequence of sale from pretty much the same position. I did however alter my position to keep the story moving from image to image.
Second picture shows a slightly different vantage point where the customer has made a selection and the trader is weighing the goods ready for sale.
This picture was taken from a position very similar to the first of the sequence but to add interest I changed the focal distance. The picture shows the customer paying for the goods and the trader about to hand the bag over.
What have I learnt from this exercise
From this exercise I have learnt that when metering (Spot vs. multi segment metering) take care not to blow out (over expose) particular parts of the image especially whilst using spot metering.
My Reflection
When shooting people in a situation like this, don’t rely on it happening in front of you, move around to better any current vantage point.
stingray493 