Assignment 1: Contrasts

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 1

This is the result of changing the original assignment in reaction to the comments of the tutor (Mr. Joe Fox). Most of the assignment has been reconsidered and rebuilt. All the pictures have been taken in RAW format and processed with camera RAW (in most cases just the automatic process). All the relevant EXIF data of the pictures hass been added below each one, and in some cases even edited and modified, because this data did not reflect the wireless triggering of the flash. The general subject of the assignment is children, and care has been taken to have all the pictures placed in this general context.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 2

Curve 1

Camera: Lens: Exposure:

Canon EOS 40D EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Shot at 22 mm Auto exposure, Aperturepriority AE, 1/125 sec, f/11, ISO 100 Off, Did not fire April 23, 2011

Flash: Date:

Taken in a sunny day with the sun close to the zenith (around midday). The position and arrangement was prepared (I wanted to see the shadows as well). I did several trials. I was inspired by a picture of Bryan Peterson (the one in the cover of his book Learning to see creatively). The aperture could be far more open, with the focus in the floaters. The shadow in the bottom of the swimming poool would be blurred anyway, but I wanted to have a big depth of field, so that the curve line of the swimmingpool border would be fully focused as well.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 3

Straight 5

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date:

Canon EOS 40D EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Shot at 44 mm Auto exposure, Program AE, 5 sec, f/8, ISO 100 Yes. Off the camera. May 24, 2011

A straight path surrounded by straight elements. The picture was taken with a small tripod and the flash was placed on the floor in the back of the marble (beyond the left part of the frame). The straight lines are predominant and an implied line in the background divides the frame approximately leaving one third on the top and two thirds on the bottom. Although the marble and the tops of the Lego pieces are rounded, the dominant lines are straight (vertical, horizontal and diagonal)

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 4

Liquid 2

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date:

Canon EOS 40D EF75-300mm f/4-5.6 USM Shot at 240 mm Manual exposure, 1/5,000 sec, f/5.6, ISO 800 Off, Did not fire April 21, 2011

Light of the sun coming from the zenith. Strong and hard light. The ISO could have probably been set lower yet still allowing a shutter speed fast enough to freeze movement and the drops of water. There is a small text in the googles, but it is not distracting. I could have tried also different positions with regard to the subject to avoid undesirable reflections.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 5

Solid 4

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date:

Canon EOS 40D EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Shot at 50 mm Manual exposure, 1/60 sec, f/5, ISO 100 Yes Off the camera May 19, 2011

Few things in nature are stronger than the link of mother and child. The picture was taken at night in the child's bedroom. Everything is prepared, the position , the frame and the light (all the light is coming from hte flash). A flash unit was set in the floor, on the left at 45 degrees and bounced from a door. The result is a directional light not so hard as the direct flash, that still creates some shadows. The light coming from below provides some misterious atmosphere. The child is holding the mother and at the same time looking to the camera as if it was a threat. The shadows behind produced by the light of the flash also look threatening.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 6

Continuous 3

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date:

Canon EOS 40D EF50mm f/1.8 II Auto exposure, Aperturepriority AE, 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 Off, Did not fire May 15, 2011

In a circular shape there is no start and no end. It is uninterrupted in space and if something moves along a circular line, it is moving in sequence. The circular shape.......a symbol for the continuous (since very old times) can be clearly seen. The child playing with the toy trains gives context, and the fact that the trains move along the railway (in circles) is implying some sort of sequence. The circular road is a diagonal of the picture, and the unusual framing (it looks as if the rail road is placed on a wall and not on the ground) gives me the feeling of dynamism. A child playing with trains moving in circles. The circle of life. Trains move in circles or sequences, in the same way life goes in continuous circles.....days, seasons, years,.......

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 7

Intermittent 1:

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date:

Canon EOS 40D EF50mm f/1.8 II Auto exposure, Aperturepriority AE, 1/100 sec, f/2.5, ISO 100 Off, Did not fire May 15, 2011

If a toy railroad could represent continuous, it may also represent intermittent if seen in a different manner. In this sense it is neccesary to note that intermittend does not necesarily mean periodic (this latter has a more restrictive meaning). Intermittent is understood here as discontinuous.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 8

Weak 2

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date:

Canon EOS 40D EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Shot at 135 mm Auto exposure, Aperture-priority AE, 1/30 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 Off, Did not fire April 27, 2011

The picture was taken from a balcony in the first floor of a house. Below I noticed one of my friends giving a refreshing bath to her small baby. I took a few pictures. There is one thing with this picture: the strong colors of the improvised bath tub. It could be argued that they subtract interest from what it should be the main subject (the baby). However the colors are framing the subject, and they form a sort of pattern. When reading the picture, the eye looks first for an irregularity in the pattern (namely the baby) and it is also noted that both the color of the skin and the shape of the human body attract strongly the attention of the viewer. In relation tho that i would like to refer to an e-book by Mitchell Kanashkevich "Captivating Color: A guide to dramatic color photography", Darren Rowse, Digital Photography School, 2011. There is an example of a picture on page 10 (left side, the picture on top), presenting the principle. Therefore I think that in this case the strong colors are not only not in detriment of the main subject, but contributing to emphasize it.
Leopoldo de Castro The Art of Photography Assignment 1 Page 9

Strong 1

This picture portraits strong in many different ways......the boy looks healthy (namely strong), it is carrying a heavy (for him) bucket with water and you can see the strain on his body and face. He is coming out of the sea, and he is fighting against the water and small waves in the limit of the sea with the beach. Although the horizon line can not be seen, the background really suggests the sea (the surface, the colour, the small wave behind the legs of the child.....). The sea is a synonym of strength...in this case the picture reflects a child who is fighting the sea in some manner. I like particularly the manner in which he is grabbing the bucket strongly with his hands and fingers..... There are two things in detriment of the picture......one is the blue shoes that distract the view from the body and face expression of the child. The second is the bucket that has an almost strident colour (in terms of colour it is the most remarkable element in the frame). On the other hand, the fact that the bucket is so remarkable, also gives the impression that it is big, and probably heavy for such a young child. Because its partial transparency, it can also be seen that it is carrying quite a lot of water (we all know that water is heavier than it looks like, and this amount of water is probably quite heavy for such a child).
Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date: Canon EOS 40D EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Shot at 135 mm Auto exposure, Aperture-priority AE, 1/250 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 Off, Did not fire April 28, 2011

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 10

Large 9

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date:

Canon EOS 5D EF70-200mm f/4L USM Shot at 200 mm Manual exposure, 1/800 sec, f/5, ISO 50 Off, Did not fire May 21, 2011

The tiny window of a tiny doll's house in my back garden. The light is daylight (the sun) and the shadows (that look from trees) are coming from a relatively small (around 1meter tall) bamboo plant. Small depth of field chosen to have the rose plants behind out of focus.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 11

Small 6:

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date:

Canon EOS 5D EF17-40mm f/4L USM Shot at 17 mm Auto exposure, Aperturepriority AE, 1/15 sec, f/7.1, ISO 50 Off, Did not fire May 13, 2011

A child is small. The things in the room of a child are small (clothes, toys,etc....). We usually refer to the children as the 'small ones'. Small in terms of a child means small in size, small in time lived, small in experience, .....small. The use of a wide angle lens in this case creates the illusion that the child is even smaller.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 12

Still 3
My idea of 'still' was to show one of the few moments when young children are quiet......and I mean really quiet.......that is when they are sleeping. A child sleeping is something worth to see. They are relaxed to the bones. This natural skill of relaxing will be lost later when they grow (and the tensions and worries of the day to day life starts to leave its mark on them). Relaxation is the closest thing to still in our life.......and I say that because 'still' like 'void', 'infinity' and many other abstract concepts are so far of our daily experience that they can exist only as mental categories. We live in a world that is moving at a huge speed through the universe, our perception of time is based in movement (of the clock, of the seasons, of the day and night cycles, etc...), our body is the opposite to still (the heart is continuously moving, the lungs as well, the blood through our veins, etc.......),.......and even our mind is constantly moving........try to leave the mind still or blank......it is just not possible!!!! (ask otherwise to the masters of meditation). Therefore still is just one abstraction......... In my view 'still' is a child sleeping.......This is the picture of the hand of a child who is sleeping, next to the mother's hand (who was also sleeping). The hand of the mother like 'hanging' from the top, and the hand of the girl completely relaxed. both hands on top of the sheets of a bed.
Camera: Lens: Exposure: Canon EOS 40D EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Shot at 105 mm Manual exposure, 1/60 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 13

Flash: Date:

Yes. Off the camera May 20, 2011

Moving 4

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date:

Canon EOS 40D EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Shot at 19 mm Auto exposure, Aperturepriority AE, 1/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 Off, Did not fire April 9, 2011

The frozen movement, the different expressions of the children starting to gain speed, their faces, their unbalanced positions, their shadows, the nice trees in the background, the fact that all the people in the picture are in the action one way (running) or another (the parents observing and supporting their children, and the referee still in the position signaling the start of the race).......all the faces can be seen (no one is hidden by another's people body),............

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 14

Hard 2:

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date:

Canon EOS 40D EF50mm f/1.8 II Auto exposure, Aperturepriority AE, 1/320 sec, f/2, ISO 100 Off, Did not fire May 15, 2011

The difficulty of expressing hard in a picture is in my opinion related to the fact that hard is a concept strongly linked to senses other than the sense of view. Hard is more a touch related concept, something that is easy to feel with the skin, but not so easy to detect with the eyes.For children (particularly when the teeth are breaking through) the feeling of hard or soft (and to some extent also cold and hot and many others) comes mainly in the mouth.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 15

Soft 7

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date:

Canon EOS 40D EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Shot at 80 mm Auto exposure, Aperturepriority AE, 1/80 sec, f/5, ISO 100 Off, Did not fire May 19, 2011

The feet of brother (right) and sister (left) touching each other in a way that suggest proximity, protection and softness. The picture was taken in the garden on top some old wood boards thaat contrast a lot in color and texture with the skin of the children.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 16

Few 1

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date:

Canon EOS 40D EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Shot at 135 mm Manual exposure, 1/10 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 Off, Did not fire April 21, 2011

The shoe of a child. It has to be noticed that it would be impossible to know that it is from a child if it was not for the size that can be read in the picture. The light is coming from a window behind. A child on his own is simply not enough (too few) to survive.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 17

Many 1

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date:

Canon EOS 40D EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Shot at 38 mm Manual exposure, 1/10 sec, f/5.6, ISO 100 Off, Did not fire April 21, 2011

A family portraited in an unconventional manner. The two childrne on the left, father on the right and mother on top. The picture has lots of readings (more or less subjective). It was taken in the same place than the one for few and under the same conditions.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 18

Contrast in one Still and moving

Camera: Lens: Exposure: Flash: Date:

Canon EOS 40D EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM Shot at 10 mm Auto exposure, Aperture-priority AE, 1/500 sec, f/11, ISO 250 Off, Did not fire April 16, 2011

The picture is the result of merging six RAW pictures in photoshop (fotomerge), cropping the final result and using autolevels. The camera was hand held. The format is not standard (it is a panoramic view), and the static buildings contrast with the two children (lower left of the frame) who are moving. They are actually the main characters on the frame. I was lucky to freeze the two children in unbalanced and dynamic body positions. The weakness of the photo lies from my point of view in the fact that the sky is too flat. Also there is some distorted perspective as a consequence of the wide angle lens used.

Leopoldo de Castro

The Art of Photography

Assignment 1 Page 19