Sodium Lighting

Sodium Lighting is basically the lighting used for street lamps. Below is a section from Wikipedia's article 'Sodium-vapor lamp'.

'A Sodium vapor lamp is a gas discharge lamp which uses sodium in an excited state to produce light. There are two varieties of such lamps: low pressure and high pressure. Because sodium vapor lamps cause less light pollution than mercury-vapor lamps, many cities that have large astronomical observatories employ them.'

From what I have read on sodium-vapor lamps they produce much less light pollution. This is the reason they are used. Up to now I have tried a shoot using sodium lighting and found it very hard to use due to it being dark when taking the image. Being dark it forces you to use high ISO settings; something which produces very noisy images.

I don't particularly like this.

Below are some examples of uses of sodium lighting that I

like. Again they are taken from the Magnum Photo's website.

This is an image by Alex Majoli. It is an image of a phone box in Liverpool. I like this for the reason I like the image of the phone box in the fluorescent lighting blog. I like the fact it is personal and in way invades the subjects personal space. I really like the use of negative space gained from the fact it is 'night-time'. It adds to the personal aspect.

This image was taken by Steve McCurry. It was taken in China Town in New York. I again like this image for how personal it is. This is something that; I feel, works really well with night time images. I like the mystery to it, we don't know exactly why the man is sat there. He could be homeless or he could just be getting some fresh air. We simply don't know.

This image was taken at San Stephano Beach, Alexandria, Egypt. It was taken by Harry Gruyaert. I have chosen to put this one on as it is different to the other images I have put on in that it doesn't really involve any people and that it is just objects like the brief says. Again there is an 'atmosphere' to it. It is surrounded in mystery as we don't really know what is going on in the image. It leaves the viewer thinking; this to me makes a successful image.

Below I have put my photographs that have used sodium-lighting as a light source. It is something I found very difficult to do due to the use of high ISO's and the noise this creates. The best I could do without consulting anyone about it as to up the contrast of the images. I found it to be relatively successful and made the pictures look better on the whole.

I'll start with the first image. Out of both of the images this is my favorite. It was taken in Accrington town centre on Peel Street. I like how the perspective leads your eye towards the building which is the focal point of the image and the 'object' I chose to photograph. I love how light from the street lamp forms a sort of vignette on the building. I also really like how the building looks. I like the texture and how it looks like a typical mid-20th century building.

The second image is of the pay toilet on Peel Street. I like how its almost 'crushed' into the frame. This daws your eye to it.

Fluorescent Lighting

'A fluorescent lamp or fluorescent tube is a gas-discahrge lamp that uses electricity to excite mercury vapor. The excited mercury atoms produce short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor to fluoresce, producing visible light. A fluorescent lamp converts electrical power into useful light more efficiently than an incandescent lamp. Lower energy cost typically offsets the higher initial cost of the lamp. The lamp is more costly because it requires a ballast to regulate the flow of current through the lamp.

While larger fluorescent lamps have been mostly used in commercial or institutional buildings, the compact fluorescent lamp is now being used as an energy-saving alternative to incandescent lamps in homes. Compared with incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps last longer, but are bulkier, more complex, contain trace amounts of mercury, and have poorer color rendition.'

Taken from wikipedia's article - 'fluorescent lamp'

Fluorescent Lighting tends to be used in public places and the work place etc. This is because they are cheaper to run than regular incadescent lights. It tends to produce a very harsh light causing there to be a very a fine line between getting good results with it and bad results.

I have been looking into photographs that have used fluorescent lighting to light them; here are some of my favorites..

These images were taken from the magnum photo's website.

The first image was taken by a Josef Koudelka in a Rome subway station. I like the use of fluorescent lighting in this image and I like the perspective. I would perhaps have used a higher contrast to make it more moody.

The second image is a railway station platform in Coney Island. I love the contrast to this image, it makes the use of fluorescent light really stand out.

The final image is my favorite. It has an atmosphere to it; it seems a very personal image. Like the photographer has entered the subjects personal space inside the cramped telephone box. It was taken by Richard Kalvar.

I found fluorescent lighting one of the easiest forms of light to photograph with; surprisingly. Since fluorescent lighting is used in various locations I decided to photograph using it in various locations so to get the best results. Below are my favorite photographs.

The first image was taken at my local Spar Petrol Station. Once I was given permission I utilized the lighting in the car wash and the perspective the tunnel like structure creates. The perspective is my favorite part of this image.

The second image was taken in a phone box close to where I live. The fact the phone takes up most of the frame echo's the cramped conditions that you get in phone boxes. I like the dark, sinister atmosphere to this image.

The final image was taken in my local shop. The shelf is typical of a small corner shop's shelf in the range of products all crammed into such a small photograph. I particularly like how the light is directional.

Fortnightly project - 03/11/2009-17/11/2009

For this weeks fortnightly project the theme was English Breakfast. I didn't want to do a directly obvious photograph for this image; I wanted to do something that people would have to think about. Because of this I decided to do a 'social documentary type shot' of my nanna. I did this as she always makes me a very typical, cooked Breakfast. Shes something that I associate with English Breakfast.

This is the final image that I came up with. I shot it digitally and then edited it in lightroom. I adjusted the colours and added a vignette. I think these suit the image very well. Overall I am pleased with the image except; as I look back on it now, I would probably make the breakfast a little more prominent.

Individiual Task - Digital Asset Management

Today we were set an individual task. We were told to go out and take an image of an object lit by either window, strobe or fluorescent lighting. We were told to set our camera's to manual exposure, manual focus, ISO 400 and RAW file format.

I didn't really know where to go at first but then decided that the train station might be interesting due to the fluorescent lighting in the su

bway. I was drawn to the signs for my choice of object as the lights ran above them and really 'caught' them quite well.

When we arrived back we imported them into lightroom and 'tested' our 'digital asset management skills'. We were then told using the develop module to add a lightroom preset and then export them. I used the High contrast B&W preset. It added a dark and moody feel to the image something which suits the image due to it being in a subway and being lit by the harsh lighting of the fluorescent light. Below is my final image.

Spring Wood

Here are a slection of the images I shot at Spring Wood yesterday.

John Sexton

Tomorrow I intend (weather permitting) to go to Spring Wood near Whalley. This is after I looked up a photographer, again, mentioned by John. His name is John Sexton and he is an american landscape photographer. He specializes in black and white photography and his work very much reminds me of the work of Ansel Adams. This is probably; as I have just discovered, that he worked for a Adams as Technical Photographic Assistant and a Technical Consultant. This was between 1979 and 1984.

Here are just 3 of his fantastic images. I live the contrast and detail in his images. His images have such and atmosphere to them.

Image source: http://www.dearnogallery.com/artist_detail.php?id=18

Joel Meyerowitz

After one of John's lectures I decided I would look up a photographer called Joel Meyerowitz. He showed us some of his images; which I liked, so I decided to look at more of his images.

Through wikipedia I found a link to a site containing his coverage of the aftermath of 9/11. I found the set of images itself very powerful.

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/cp/olympus/feature/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003020408

That's the link, click the picture to view the slideshow.

Meyerowitz was one of the key photographers in the rise of colour photography as an art-form. He is a street photographer. Here are a few of his images that I really like.

'Fuertaventuran' Magic Hour

Over half term I went on holiday to Fuertaventura. Fuertventura is one of the Canary Islands; the Canary Islands are situated in the Atlantic Ocean just off the west coast of Africa. Fuertaventura is the second largest of the islands and is one of the nearest to Africa itself.

Due to its brilliant weather conditions all year round I decided that it would be the ideal place for a 'magic hour' shoot. I feel it was successful and feel as if some strong images have come out of it. Here are the images I have processed so far.

Images

This/these image(s) is of some sort of alley-way out of a bar in the built up area of Costa Caleta; the resort I was staying in. I've been looking to do some urban magic hour shots and did this one by accident really. Personally I think it works best in colour as the orange of the wall really draws you to that side of the image and makes your eyes follow the wall towards the shutters at the bottom of the image. This, to me, makes a good image when your eyes are bounced around the image. I really like the composition of this image too, I think its really well balanced.

These images are of the back of a small restaurant near to harbour. It's again an urban shot. The thing I like about this image is the 'little details'. I like how everything seems to be in groups. There's a group of gas bottles, the plastic crates are grouped, the small doors are grouped and the fence posts are almost grouped etc. I think it probably works a little better in colour. I like the tint of orange that the setting sun has cast onto the white building.

I took this image on the rocks at the beach. The black and white image is quite a good image I think but again like my other black and white images that show a lot sky there is not much detail in the sky. The sky looks very washed out and would look quite good and 'moody' if i could adjust this. I do however like the colour image, the orange glow on the rocks looks fantastic. It shows magic hour. I also like this image in general as it gives a little insight into life on the island. It reflects the populations laid back attitude in that there are sun-loungers and a group of people playing beach-volleyball. I later discovered the people were spanish and part of the islands population.

Magic Hour Examples

I've just been looking around the web for some examples of magic hour photography. I've picked out some pretty random images really but I'll categorize them into Urban and Rural since these are two areas I am keen to experiment in.

Urban

These are images are part of a set of images by Liang Yue. They were taken at dusk and even without sunshine in the images they work quite well.
These two images are by a photographer called Gregory Crewdson. These two look a lot more like magic hour photographs than the previous two. I like Crewdson's work because he makes even the most ugly looking scenes look 'beautiful'. The colours are the main reason these images appeal to me. I also like the fact they all have a story or narrative to them.

Rural
These are two images are by Robert Adams. They really capture the beauty of the sun setting in the magic hour. There is terric tonal range and detail; particularly in the first image.


Finally this is an image by Ansel Adams. Ansel Adams is somebody who I greatly admire. The work he produces is stunning. This is an image taken in the evening and is a perfect example of the kind tonal detail i'd like to achieve with my photographs for the magic hour should they be in black and white.

The Magic Hour

To quote Wikipedia; the magic hour 'is the first and last hour of sunlight during the day, when a specific photographic effect is achieved with the quality of the light.' The light often appears more red, this is due to light traveling through more of the atmosphere because of the suns lower position in the sky. Shadows are longer because of the angle the light is coming in at. Galen described the magic hour as a mild version of alpenglow. The time of magic hour differs depending on season and where you are in the world but by looking at other people's images I can see that it can produce some very beautiful images.

So far I have had two magic hour shoots which I am in the process of processing. I have however processed a few images from my first shoot here in the UK. For this shoot I Decided to go up to the Halo Panopticon in Haslingden/Rossendale. It is one of a series of 'modern' sculptures dotted around Lancashire. It is very high up and in a peaceful country-side location so I thought it was an ideal time to capture the 'beautifulness' of the magic hour.
The first image is of the wind turbine which presumably powers the lights on The Halo. Its in an ideal place as I found it to be rather windy up on the hill. I took it in the earlier stages of shoot hence there's no massive area's of 'red' in the sky. I would still however class it as magic hour. I think its a well balanced image that seems to be well composed. I really like the colours that setting sun has brought out in the grass. There's a relatively good gradient in the sky from top to bottom. It was slightly enhanced using Canon's DPP to bring out the colours a little more.

The second image is probably my favorite. I decided to experiment with black and white to see if you could still capture the beauty and seeing this I fully believe you can. You could go as far as saying that black and white makes the magic hour look better as I believe it adds atmosphere to a photograph. In this photograph I really like the tones and the shadows. I used DPP to up the contrast of the image to give the image a better tonal range and add atmosphere. The dark, elongated shadows caused by the magic hour sun add atmosphere to the image. As you can probably tell the atmosphere is the reason I like this image so much. My only complaint with this image is the gradient in the sky; I believe with some more 'area specific' editing in photoshop I could adjust this and therefore make it better.

My second magic hour shoot was taken on holiday in Fuertaventura. I believed that this would produce some good magic hour images due to its position on the earth and constant, all year round, warm climate. After glancing through the images I can see some potential for some good photographs. These will be uploaded soon!