Author Archives: Dominic Price

M1 Wk5: Power & Responsibility

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Forum: Towards an ethical practice

The photographic work I do in school is, through necessity, closely managed and scrutinised.

My responsibilities are to portray facets of life within the school in a sensitive, considerate way, adhering to Child Protection and Safeguarding policies; protecting the interests and safety of the children, while also ensuring my own safety. All work is stored on the School network and is used only by, or with permission from, the school.

I am answerable to the Headmaster, with content and use of images subject to his scrutiny. I am not permitted to release copy without prior approval and published images may not be captioned with pupil names. However, the images are captured in my style, my time and will only be made available if they meet my expectations!

The third parties used should be answerable to me: publishers, manufacturers, hire companies. All those whose involvement and actions could compromise the work.

DetDE - PosterDulce et decorum est – Drama production poster 2005 © Dominic Price

M1 Wk5: Reflection

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Those precious moments each day (and night!) that can be afforded to this course are mopped up all too readily by the challenges of the weekly discussions and forums. These provide a refreshing and interesting glimpse at important aspects of the wider discipline, but ensure that progress on practical work is kept to a minimum.

This week’s look at Power and responsibilities provided reassurance on my decision to hold off on the submission and maintenance of a portfolio with Getty Images.  My Getty account currently stands empty while I review the very ethics discussed in the Forum.

Project Development

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British Society of Master Glass Painters

It would be hugely wasteful of a project based upon stained glass for me to overlook the wider benefits of such work.  The formal archiving of stained glass windows for historical/artistic reference or for insurance purposes seems an eminently sensible facet of my planned work.  With this in mind, I have contacted the British Society of Master Glass Painters, seeking their professional opinion on what they would most want to see from an archive image (or series of images).

newbsmgpheaderFounded in 1921, the BSMGP is Britain’s only organization devoted exclusively to the art and craft of stained glass.  Its chief objectives have been to promote and encourage high standards in the art and craft of stained glass painting and staining, to act as a locus for the exchange of information and ideas within the stained glass craft and to preserve the invaluable stained glass heritage of Britain.

I await a response to my enquiry…

Project Development

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RAW vs JPEG

raw-file-format-symbolWhen first I dipped my toes into the waters of stained glass window photography, through habit, I captured the images in JPEG format which is inherent with problems that work in antagonism with image quality.  At its most basic level, JPEG is a ‘lossy’ format – every time a file is saved, image quality is sacrificed. By contrast, RAW can be lossless.

More significantly, the improved handling of Dynamic Range makes capture in RAW format eminently more sensible for stained glass windows, which are notorious for having a very high dynamic range.  RAW allows the post production flexibility to darken (burn) the highlights while raising (dodging) the shadows. It is possible to tone-map an image appropriately in a process far more akin to analogue work in a darkroom.

Shooting in RAW raises an exciting prospect for this project: might it be possible to achieve the same results with a single RAW file that previously required a series of six exposure bracketed JPEG files?  If not, I suspect there could be a reduction in the number of exposure bracketed RAW files compared with JPEG files.

RAW key advantages for this project:

Increased dynamic range:  RAW files contain a greater dynamic range – the ratio between the maximum and minimum measurable light intensities (white and black, respectively).

Increased Colour Depth:  JPEG is captured in 8-bit, RAW can be captured in 12-bit or 14-bit

  • 8-bit means 28 tonal values (256) for each colour (red, green, and blue) per pixel (16,777,216 unique colours)
  • 12-bit means 212 tonal values (4,096) for each colour (red, green, and blue) per pixel (68,719,476,736 unique colours)
  • 14-bit means 214 tonal values (16,384) for each colour (red, green, and blue) per pixel (4,398,046,511,104 unique colours)

What can the human eye see?  It is worth highlighting the fact that the human eye is unlikely to be able to discern all the colours in an 8-bit image, so shooting at 14-bit may seem nonsensical. When discussing the number of colours perceptible to the human eye, wisdom tends to refer to the 2.4 million colours of the CIE 1931 XYZ colour space.  This is based upon sound scientific evidence, but might be rather limited by context.  When referring to both chromaticity and luminosity it may be possible for the human eye to be sensitive to 10-100 million distinct colours.

Raw files are the equivalent of negatives:  A RAW file is the image data exactly as captured on the sensor. Any settings you apply in white balance, Picture Styles and some other areas are only appended to the image as a small header file. This means they can be changed later in RAW conversion software such as Canon’s Digital Photo Professional.  The RAW file is an original record of what was ‘seen’ by the camera.

RAW format disadvantages:  Pleasingly, none of the main disadvantages in using the RAW format are a concern in the photography of stained glass:

  • RAW file require post-processing
  • File sizes are considerably larger
  • Fills up the buffer more quickly (however, the EOS-1D X Mark II achieves a maximum burst rate of up to 170 full-size RAW files)
  • It is a propriety format (Canon RAW files are .CR2, Nikon RAW files are .NEF)

References:

GDPR

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The EU General Data Protection Regulation

Working within a school and taking photographs for the school has necessitated considerable time and effort put into the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (Regulation (EU) 2016/679). On 25 May 2018 the current Data Protection Directive 1995 (Directive 95/46/EC) will be replaced by the GPDR meaning that the management of all information and data (including images) will change.

The GDPR aims primarily to give control back to citizens and residents over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU. The rights of privacy rights of individuals are protected more robustly, and there are three articles of the legislation that are of particular relevance:

  • The right to be informed (articles 13 and 14) You must be clear about the context of how the photos are being used. For example you could not use photos for social media if permission had only been given for printed brochures.
  • The right to access (article 15) Individuals have the right to access their personal data (photos) on request, and receive confirmation regarding how these are being used.
  • The right to erasure (article 17) Individuals have the right to request photos be removed from websites, social media or future versions of printed materials.

If photos feature children under the age of 18, full written parental consent must be given.

For group shots the permission of parents / school may be sufficient.  However elements that may identify an individual child such as a school badge should be avoided to ensure safety.

References:

Bibliography:

M1 Wk7: Strategic Choices

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Forum: Faux Pas

About to board our coach to return to the UK at the end of a school battlefields tour in Flanders, I spotted a lone poppy beautifully lit by the late afternoon sun in a field of unripe barley.  I thought I had a good shot in the bag: composition acceptable, exposure fine and very shallow focus on the flower.  There was not time to check the shot and no chance to reshoot as we had a ferry to catch.  On reviewing the image, as a thumbnail it looked promising, but sadly I had focussed on the grass behind the poppy rather than the flower itself, so it was destined for the bin.  Fortunately I did not delete the image as it was subsequently used to great effect as a colour wash behind some pertinent text, to reasonable acclaim.

I remain hopeful of being able to capture that for which I was striving!

IMG_0643 (low res)

Project Development

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Henry Holiday

The stained glass windows I have most closely studied lie within the Chapel of St. Nicholas, which houses a magnificent series by pre-Raphaelite Henry Holiday.  At first, only the Chancel (the part of the Chapel where the Choir resides) had coloured windows, the rest of the Chapel simply having clear glass, but through time all thirteen windows were filled with his work.

Henry Holiday editedHenry Holiday (1839-1927) was an artist of great skill and many talents.  He was trained by William Cave Thomas in 1852, and two years later he entered the Royal Academy School.  He made progress with his drawing and painting and was greatly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites.  Millais and Ruiskin both encouraged him, praising his painting, and he was on friendly terms with Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Holman Hunt.

Following commissioning, Henry Holiday produced a vidimus (below, left) for approval.  Once the design was approved, a full-sized cartoon was drawn for every ‘light’ or opening of the window.

This vidimus and window shows the story of the three holy children, from the Book of Daniel: Shadrak, Meshak & Abednego, who had be flung into a burning fiery furnace because they would not worship Nebuchadnezzar.

Text:
O all ye works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord.
Praise Him and magnify Him for ever.
Benedicite

Influences

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Having worked heavily in black and white photography as an A-level student, many of my influences stem from that field.  The most significant concept that I adopted was one of candid photography – I detest having to take portraits or staged group shots, but love capturing decisive moments that may appear to be portraits.

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Cartier-Bresson liked to be in the middle of things, absorbed by events.  He was a ‘human interest’ photographer who benefitted from the use of a new generation of lightweight Derriere-la-Gare-Saint-Lazare-Paris-1932-Henri-Cartier-Bresson (low res)camera such as the Ermanox and the Leica.

He would capture ‘the decisive moment’.

“We are passive onlookers in a world that moves perpetually.  Our only moment of creation is that 1/125 of a second when the shutter clicks.”

One of my favourite Cartier-Bresson images, Derriere la Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris, about which I wrote during my A-Level exam, depicts a motion-blurred bulky man lurching into the wet, being mocked by a sprightly figure leaping lightly on a poster.

Derriere la Gare Saint-Lazare, Paris 1932 © Henry Cartier-Bresson

Ansel Adams

A childhood living on the rugged edge of Dartmoor and many months of my undergraduate years spent on geological fieldtrips in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland led me to an appreciation of the works of Ansel Adams.  ansel-adams-redwoods-ball-creek-flat-ca (low res)His obsessive attention to detail where composition is concerned, combined with the most majestic of locations blend to form landscape photography perfection.  However, it is his depictions of Redwoods that most resonate with me, reminding me of break time at my junior school where we used to run around the three enormous Redwoods within the school grounds.

Redwoods, Ball Creek Flat, CA 1960 © Ansel Adams

David Bailey

For as long as I can remember, David Bailey has been the photographer whose work I have most admired – perhaps strange for someone who does not enjoy the process ofIMG_5146 ce (low res)2portrait photography.  So well know are his iconic works from the 1960’s that they need little mention, but his bromide print of Michael Caine taken in May 1965 is probably my preferred well-known Bailey portrait.

However, having sent his children to my Father’s school, Bailey was generous enough to photograph each one of the staff, as a thank you for their help and support in educating his children.  Thus my choice Bailey portrait is of my Father, sitting in his study.

Charles Price 2000 © David Bailey

John Swannell

As a life-long fan of David Bailey, my admiration of John Swannell’s work is hardly surprising.  having assisted at Vogue Studios, Swannell then spent four years assisting mw11200 (low res)David Bailey before setting up his own studio.  From there, he never looked back, working for many magazines, including Harpers & Queen, Vogue and Tatler; producing numerous ‘celebrity’ Christmas cards, and photographing al the leading members of the British Royal Family.

While so many of his images are exquisite in composition and appearance, a particular favourite of mine is  one of his portraits of his former mentor David Bailey.

David Bailey 1970 © John Swannell / Camera Press

M1 Wk7: Micro Project

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Details & planning

Thank you to Dr. Gary McLeod for his challenge:

Make a contact sheet of 36 standalone photographs that explore one stained glass window.  Every photograph must be visually different enough from the rest of the images but also reveal new information about the window itself.

There are rules:

  • You are not allowed to make composite images.
  • All cropping and adjustments must be in-camera.
  • You must use a tripod for every picture.
  • All images must be made during one visit.
  • There must be no trace of the personality of the photographer.
  • You are encouraged to think of the window as an experience as well as a thing.
  • You may use digital or film for the task. If you use digital, you are not allowed to delete images as you work.
  • You are welcome to find loopholes in the rules but time may be better spent getting to know the window.

I will be exploiting one bit of semantics regarding stained glass:

  • Light: the term for the complete vertical panel of glass within the stone framework of the window.
  • Window: a complete assembly of lights.

Thus I will be tackling The East window, composed of seven separate lights, allowing for a little more variation, with the planned shots indicated below.

East Window (low res)

The East Window

The East Window (1896 Henry Holiday) is the focal point of The Chapel of St. Nicholas, Oxford. It is divided into four lights, with three smaller lights above. The main characters are William of Wykham, the founder of Winchester and New College, Oxford; St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, who brought Christianity to South England; St. Catherine, who refused to marry the Roman Emperor Maxentius and was tortured on a spiked wheel; and Erasmus, a great scholar and theologian, who visited both Oxford and Cambridge. They are known collectively as The Four Scholars.

The inscription at the bottom of the windows reads:

In Piam Memoriam Gertrude Isabella Frances Maclaren hujus scholae fundatricis mortuae Kal. Mart. MDCCCXCVI D.D. alumni et eorum parentes.

In pious memory of Gertrude Isabella Frances Maclaren, founder of this school, who died on 1st March 1896, presented by pupils and parents.

The two small figures in the roundel at the top are Eunice and her son Timothy. She seems to be teaching him out of a book; presumably she was chosen as being a good teacher and a kind mother – qualities for which Mrs Maclaren had also been noted. The angels either side of this have streamers saying, “Hear the words of the wise” and “Apply thine heart unto my knowledge”.

PDF Contact Sheet: Micro Project – East Window Contact Sheet (5.50Mb)

Reflection: Micro Project Reflection

 

M1 Wk7: Micro Project

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Reflection

I have always maintained that the photography of stained glass is beset with difficulties.  Planning can help diminish these, but with the best will in the world, diverse and unexpected problems crop up particularly when working within the confines of tight time constraints.

I estimated that the micro project would take about two hours and in the second half of the week there was just one slot into which I could squeeze the shoot: early Saturday afternoon.  Prior to this, twice I visited the chapel to experiment and plan, but I opted not to bring a tripod on either occasion.  Friday afternoon’s visit was blessed with exquisite and constant light, but sadly Saturday saw skies filled with large snow-laden clouds and variable light.

Timing was far from perfect: Throughout Saturday afternoon, the chapel was being prepared for Sunday morning’s Confirmation Service – one of the biggest services of the year.  Consequently I was constantly at the mercy of interruptions from the cleaners, the Lay Chaplain, Chapel Wardens and numerous others.  Try as had as I might to complete the 36+ photographs without any internal light, each of the many people who entered the chapel during the two hours I was photographing, opted to turn on some, or usually all of the lights, causing huge difficulties with some of the more sensitive compositions.

Preparation for Sunday’s service precluded me from using any sort of platform to raise my position and access to the East Window is limited by the proximity of the alter.

The photo shoot highlighted numerous difficulties, many of which were previously known, but the most significant being depth of field.  In order to capture a small segment of a window, I was mostly shooting at 400mm at a distance of no more than 4m, whereas in the past I have shot using a n 85mm lens at a distance of about 7m.  All the shots at the top of the window were at a significant angle, resulting in images in which it was possible to have only a small area in sharp focus (most notable in image 23): possibly not a problem, but certainly not what I would have liked.  A further undesired consequence was the foreshortening of the image: the greater the height of the area being captured, the greater the degree of vertical compression, resulting in differences between my plans and the captured image.  A large alter immediately in front of the window made macro shots impossible as I could not manoeuvre the camera closer than 2m.

DCP_5619 (low res)Through the series of photographs, I tried hard to give an indication of the subject matter, the history of the window, the opulence of the figures depicted as well as some suggestion of the condition (both good and bad) of the window.  I believe that I met all of the rules, although I am not entirely sure that I was able to portray the window as an experience.  To provide greater flexibility, I shot just over 40 photographs, experimenting with the addition of some of the structure of the stained glass.  Perhaps I should have included more images such as this, which shows one of the strengthening bars, and also illustrates well the large dynamic range.  This project illustrates well the difficulties inherent in photographing these windows.  The pale green glass in particular proving very demanding to capture appropriately.  In photographs it can look either washed out or flat and dull grey-green, when in reality it has an almost golden component.  Confirmation, were it needed, for a photograph of stained glass to be a composition of numerous differently exposed segments.