Photography Planning - Ruraltopia (3)

"You don't take a photograph, you make it."  Ansel Adams

I have learned that indeed there is a difference between taking and making a photograph, mainly to do with photography practices and having a plan for and structure to the creative process.  As an educationalist, I groan internally and think of forward planning, which the majority of teachers dislike because teachers wish to teach and therefore photographers like to take pictures.  But just as planning class lessons has clearly a positive point, so does planning for photography. 

From my research on Yousuf Karsh, the world's greatest ever portraiture photographer, I find that he clearly highlights his meticulous preparation and research before his photography shooting.

 "It was in London, I started the practice of doing my homework ......."  Yousuf Karsh
(Ref.    http://www.karsh.org/#/the_man/biography)

So in order to make photographs for 'Ruraltopia'  I need to have a plan. I hope to utilise some of  of the techniques used by my chosen photographers - Gus Wylie (documentary genre) and Yousuf Karsh (portraiture genre) -  following my research on their photography.

AIM:  

• To visually interpret Ruraltopia through a range of photographs which demonstrate careful planning, creative composition and technical competence;
• To use the subject matter of crofters working in their local crofting environment and portray them in the documentary genre;
• To use the subject matter of indigenous people and portray individual crofters in the portraiture genre;
• To use the model of planning, shooting, evaluating for photographs in order to select final images for assignment.

TECHNIQUES

• Make contact with individuals beforehand to fix ideal location of shoot, eg their working environment;
• Tell the story in documentary by shooting what happens naturally, remembering to capture the details - set the scene;
• Capture the true essence of the person in portraiture, focus on the eyes/hands;
• Use an effective focal range, wide end of 24mm - 120 mm Nikkor lens (shooting with Nikon D600)  for documentary - smaller aperture to give larger depth of field to include detail;
• Use 70-300 telephoto lens with Nikon D600 for portraiture to create blurred background and give a comfortable working distance -  wide aperture/small DOF to give shallow focus;
• Establish social interaction with subject to put them at ease;
• Use tripod for better quality and to get more creative and sharp images;
• Use natural light (outdoor environment if possible) - consider the available light and use fill flash and ISO adjustments as required;
• Prepare to wait and see what happens naturally for a good documentary capture;
• Produce monochrome images in the style of both Gus Wylie (documentary) and Yousuf Karsh (portraiture); shoot in colour and use processing for monochrome conversion;
• Use post-production techniques for image files using iPhoto and Photoshop Elements 13 for completion of the task;
• Produce contact sheets for test images - to be presented in folder along with final six images.

EQUIPMENT

Nikon D600 camera body 

24-120mm kit lens (Nikkor)

70-300mm telephoto lens (Nikkor)

MeFoto Travel Tripod Kit

Props were not pre-planned but subjects were photographed using recognisable props as they were used in the natural working environment

SUBJECTS/LOCATIONS

• Arrange photo shoots with four different crofters, to allow choice in final selection
• Location 1 - Crofter A -  new farm steadings - Knock Farm, Sleat
• Location 2 - Crofter B - Crofthouse kitchen and croft land - Tarskavaig, Sleat
• Location 3 - Crofter C - Ord moorland and Sheep Fank, Sleat
• Location 4 - Crofter D - Crofthouse interior, Ardvasar, Sleat

Mt next blog post will feature how I achieved the aims of the plan, the techniques used and the challenges encountered along with my evaluation of the selected photographs.  My assignment submission will include test prints and contact sheets as well as hard copies of final six images.

The images below are from each of the locations from where the photo shoots took place.  (Click on each image to view large).

"You don't make a photograph just with a camera.  You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved."   Ansel Adams

Knock Farm Steadings

Tarskavaig Croft

Ord Moorland

Ardvasar crofter at Crofthouse