Post assignment 1

I have sent off and received feedback for the first assignment. The assignment was interesting for getting me to think about a few things particularly the context of the image (which can be implied, but anything outside of the frame is missing in a single picture) and the response to the picture (which will differ amongst different viewers as well as between a viewer and the photographer).
It was also interesting for conveying something (the contrast illustrated by the photo) to the viewer. I asked a few friends to guess what I was trying to convey in each picture and was surprised when they actually got most of them, including ones that I didn't think were so clear.

I was pleasantly surprised by the detail in the tutor feedback for this assignment. Particularly useful is the reference to other photographers (e.g. Minor White) that I might want to look at, and the recommendation of the book 'The Ongoing Moment' by Geoff Dyer. The feedback also got me thinking about the comparison between poetry and photography which I hope to explore at some later point.

I can finally get back to doing some more formalised photography stuff. My work hours for this year have not left time to do much else, particularly writing up in regards to photography. Mainly due to the need to finish what 'I' wanted to do for my PhD. All over with now though, so I can concentrate on doing other stuff full time now.

I've kept in mind the course when I have been taking photographs, though less so recently, and I already had a few things ready to write up, just not the time to do so.
I also have a better compact camera now, so that I can keep one on me all of the time.

On the weekend (Sunday) I got to do a bit of shooting, I was planning to go round Cambridge on Saturday, but it was raining for most of the day and then I was busy.

I tried out some more DOF in a wood, so I have something outside for that now. I can appreciate the use of it to shift the background out of focus and increase attention for a foreground subject. That is more from looking through past photos and seeing ones where there is an observable effect. Presumably a similar effect could be achieved by applying a gradient blur (at subject boundary, else just normal blur) around a foreground subject.

I also tried out panning, I didn't get any great shots. I suspect it might work better with more light, allowing a slightly faster shutter speed (providing I have a more quickly moving subject than my parent's lazy dog). As well as having a bit more practice doing it, to minimize vertical movement, or alternatively use a tripod. I think that the panning in the wood works best, as there are objects in the background which can be made out (if not clearly). More importantly, when the background is plain grass, having it blurred doesn't make that much of a difference for subject attention, so there is not as much gained.

I've heard back from my tutor for one course, and he suggests a six week deadline for the first assignment, which is producing at least 8 pairs of photographs of contrasting things, e.g. light/dark, many/few, straight/curved.
There are about 12 exercises before then, which are based on getting to know the camera and how to set up a basic shot, so before I finish the assignment I should have (and will) take a bunch of shots. It will be interesting to go through photos I have already taken to see what I could place with each exercise, and then to compare these to what I take for the exercise with a specific thing in mind. Particularly those based around setting up particular types of shot, and whether I have photos already that are similar.

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So I've had a look through some of the course material now. Actually spending most of the time playing around with my camera. Although sitting in my room with bad lighting isn't quite the best place to try it, I was having difficulty getting a clear depth of field (DOF) effect.
In the end I managed to get it working somewhat on my keyboard. The distances aren't really big enough for it to show up properly. Super macro mode gives a DOF of down to 0.009 (subject distance of 0.087, and can't set below this).

Anyway, the actual reason for playing around with that was testing out the focus bracketing. I can set this on my camera to take three photos, or alternatively using CHDK I can extend this. Also of use is the CHDK DOF calculator (which gave me the values above).

I thought I'd also try it on something else, so I tried some paints lined up on the radiator, using a tripod this time. It was more obvious, but I'd still rather have something with a bit more distance involved - ie something outside.

Images added to Flickr [link]
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I think the next project will be more useful anyway, flicking a bit further on into the course materials. Playing around with the focus, aperture and shutter speed is stuff that I did when I first got the camera and had these things available to me. Mostly I was playing with the settings to get the right settings for wandering around Chicago and taking random photos while I wandered. There are a few things I haven't set out to do deliberately though, such as panning with a slower shutter speed, and exploring DOF more.
The next project is framing, which will be more useful, particularly in modifying my processing of visual information with photography in mind.

After that is the first assessment - contrasts. Six weeks is more than reasonable now that I've had a look through the stuff. I'll probably spend a few weeks on the framing stuff, and fill in the initial bits as I do that. Then a couple of weeks on the assignment. Depends on getting the chance to go and shoot though, so it will probably be bundling multiple exercises into the weekends.