Assignment: Real of Fake.

Assignment Four: Real or Fake.

Assignment Four: Real or Fake.

The task I gave myself was to produce an attractive picture for an article promoting Deal as a tourist destination.  

To give myself additional problems I took the picure on bin collection day so that the street was littered with plenty of unwanted items.  I could have easily returned on another day and photographed a clean street but I wanted to see what could be achieved with this image.

The first image is as taken.  I took it at 1/3 stop under so as to save some sky colour and prevent clipping on the lighter buildings.  It was, as you can see, bin collection day and the street is full of purple bin bags and one door has a wheelie bin parked in front of it.   Another problem was my reflection which appears in the window on the right. 

Had this been a real photo assignment I would have called a day and returned when the street was tidier but I wanted to see how far I could take this image.

This image is quite clearly unacceptable.  The first change was to increase the exposure and check the white balance.  The next was to increase black, brightness and saturation. I also cropped it slightly to take away some the dark mass of the building on the right.   

The first alterations to the truth of the image were to remove my reflection, the bin bags and wheelie bin and air brush away the yellow no waiting lines.  I can easily justify the removal of the bin and bags as they are not permanent features of the street.  My reflection is also a temporary aberration that can be removed without changing the honesty of the image.  The yellow lines, however, are part of modern life and their exclusion is a lie.  The street looks better without them but it is telling a lie to remove them.  Were I to be using such a picture in a tourist guide I would remove the yellow lines.

Having gone this far what else can be done to give Middle Street an air of an earlier period?  What I did was to remove all the obvious signs of change.  Away went the one tv aerial, off went the modern chimney pots, and down came any outside wiring.  Now this is becoming a lie as these are real features in this street.  This I would say is reaching the unacceptable edge of what is true.

My next move puts a bit of truth back into the altered image as it clearly does not show Middle Street as it is today but attempts to show it as it may have looked at an earlier time.  I did this by adding a sepia tone and a little grain, giving it the feel of an Edwardian photograph.  This last alteration gives the other changes a purpose and the final image some authenticity.  It does not claim to be an early picture but does give a reasonable impression of what Middle Street may have looked like.

Alteration.

Exercise: Alteration.

The featured picture is one I took out of the front of a car in Sri Lanka last year.  The driving system in Sri Lanka is based on the Buddhist principal that if it is not your turn to die you have nothing to worry about.  That is why our driver, Dillu, was overtaking a bus on a blind bend.  Some sharp braking and steering got us out of the lorry's path.  The image is spoiled by the Budweiser sticker in the window so I have air brushed it out with the clone stamp in Photoshop, dragging in the road surface and shadows from the surrounding area.

Addition.

Exercise: Addition.

This exercise has given me a great deal of trouble and the techniques involved are still a work in progress.  

The first two images are the basis for my meld image.  Their problems as pictures speak for themselves, with high contrast, burned out sky and deep shadows.

The third one is the result of a merging of the images and some further correction.

Clearly not the scene as seen but a more pleasing picture.

The first of the cliff images is as taken.  The white of the chalk is a dull grey with hints of blue from the sky.  By using a layer mask I was able to lighten the cliffs but leave the sky a deep blue.  A degree of colour correction has finished the job.

Manipulating images in Layers is a new tecnique to me and one I am struggling with.  I am working through a couple of Photoshop instruction manuals to prepare myself for the rest of the course.  

Enhancement.

Exercise: Enhancement.

This face is mine and is beyond the help of simple enhancement.  I tried lightening, and I tried darkening, I tried selective smoothing and the cloning out of wrinkles and marks but all to no avail.  In the end I gave myself a pair of blue eyes.  I wanted then to look real so I limited the amount of change.  The change hasn't done me any favours in that I think I appear older and meaner.  I certainly look like my long departed grandfather.
I commented on the acceptability of this sort of enhancement in the last entry.  Flattering lighting is one thing, but the enhancing of a face or figure to the extent it is done in advertising is straight forward fraud.

The technique was similar to the one used on the Sri Lankan farmer.  I masked the eyes in Photoshop and painted in the new colour very gradually so as to give natural looking eyes rather than the bright blue eyes of a younger man.   

Improvement or Interpretation.

Exercise: Improvement or Interpretation.

I took this is the portrait of a Sri Lankan farmer last year.  The whites of eyes are darkened so that there is little eye definition.  By lightening the whites I have lifted the pupils  and given them the missing detail.

This small change has altered his character completely.  Instead of the soft face of a gentle farmer we now have the staring face of fighter.  This sort of alteration is, to me, not justified.  It may be a believable image but it is far from true.  

To draw an arbitrary line between forgery and flattery is difficult.  The removing of a facial blemish from a bride I would accept, but to airbrush out every wrinkle from the face of a cosmetic model is out and out fraud.  Between these extremes we all draw our own line.

 I achieved the whitening in Photoshop by masking the eyes and using a paintbrush to lighten that part so as not to give any unnaturally harsh transition line.

Correction.

Exercise: Correction.

This picture was made from a scanned in negative that was taken some thirty odd years ago and features my daughter.  There is a flaw in the area of her fingers which looks like some sort of contamination on the negative.  There is also a small blemish in the greenery above her head.

For the hand blemish I employed the cloning tool in Photoshop and changed the blemish one pixel at a time.  The result is perfect.  There is now no sign of the mark.  For the Blemish in the greenery I used a soft clone brush and blended in the area.

The lens flare image is one I took at Botany Bay, Kent a few weeks ago.  The flare is visible in the left side of the picture as a round pale area.  I tried to change the density of the flare but found it also had a green tint that made it still visible.  I reverted to the clone tool and painted in the details from the surrounding areas, finally restoring the horizontal lines.  An acceptable result at normal viewing resolution.

The changes made to the picture of my daughter have not in any way changed the reality of the image but have in fact removed items that were not there at the taking of it.  When working on old negatives this is a constant chore but one that must be done to make them usable.

The removal of the lens flare from this image I believe to be acceptable.  The flare added nothing to the composition and was not there to the naked eye at the time.  Had it added something to the image, like completing an implied triangle, I may have left it in but in this case it had to go.  

Assignment Three: Monochrome.

Assignment Three: Monochrome.

On the beach at Deal is what remains of the once thriving Fishing fleet.  As Deal has no harbour the boats have traditionally been hauled up onto the pebbly beach at the end of each trip.  The presence of the Goodwin Sands just off the coast acts as a natural break water and protects the shore from the worst of the waves.
Due to changes in fishing policy the boats have lost quota and the number of working boats is down to a handful.  I photographed what remains of a fleet that at one time filled over one mile of beach.

The Boats are hauled up into the beach by winch or tractor.  The state of the tractor and featured winch says a lot about the decline in the fortunes of the fleet.

I have used a low view point and wide angle lens to emphasise the size of the tractor.  The poor old beast is now abandoned and sits rusting away on top of the beach.  In the processing I dramatised the sky by lowering the blue and played with the red, orange and yellow sliders to increase the contrast on the machine.  Some added sharpening has given it bit more bite.

This is one of many winches that have fallen into disuse and are little more than junk.  The steel rope is dull with lack of use, the gears are rusty and spiders are taking over. 

I have included this shackle for no more reason than I like the texture of the materials and the pattern of the components.

The Gary Ann is one the remaining working boats but even she is reduced to taking out sea anglers and carrying out a bit of crab fishing.  The crab pots give a nice feeling of this being a working boat and add texture to the image.

I have included this second image of the Gary Ann as it shows her in a different context; that of part of a fleet.  I like the pattern the three boats make as they reduce in size from right to left.  The mess and debris in front of them hints at lack of interest and care.  I again put contrast in the sky with use of the blue slider and used the warm filters to do the same with the pots and pebbles.

The fate of the Julie awaits most of what is left of the fleet.  High up on the beach and never likely to take to the water again.  She lacks a decent coat of varnish and the cabin door has fallen in.  There is no sign of any fishing gear around her and no apparent means of getting her to the water.  I incorporated the vapour trails in the sky as a allusion to time and tide passing her by.  I have left a large expanse of sea behind her to intimate that her time at sea is past and that she has no future.  The low key finish adds to this, giving the image a melancholic look.

The Moss Rose is one of last real working boats.  Well kept and a regular sight setting out her crab pots.  I have processed this image to be lighter and without the ominous sky of the other boat images.  There is feeling of hope rather than failure, of hope rather than decay. 

The last two images are of items I saw in the area that took my fancy.  The first is of a rowlock on a very heavy rowing boat.  I just liked the contrasting materials. 

The second of these, and the last image, is a collection of anchors hooked over a metal bar.  I took the shot from low down so as to have clean sky as the background.  By being gentle with the processing I have allowed the texture of the metal to come through.

Have I been Successful? 

Demonstration of Technical and Visual Skill.

Each of the images has been given a slightly different treatment so as to reinforce their impact.  The lo-key of Julia to convey a sad quality as against the hi-key of Moss Rose indicating hope and a future.  With the last two it was a matter of allowing the qualities of the textures to come through and only using techniques that would enhance them.

Quality of Outcome.

These eight images are better than I thought I was going to achieve and I'm pretty chuffed with them.  They put across the state of Deal's diminishing fishing fleet and the fight the fishermen have to keep going.  

Demonstration of Creativity.

The message I wanted to get across in these images was one of a dying industry but one where men are still managing, just, to make a living.  As I went round the beach I kept my eyes open to the opportunity of close up and detail shots.  The light on the day I photographed the boats dictated the direction I shot from.  The sky showed very little detail until I processed it, but having done so I think the sky and its clouds add to the overall feel of the images.  

Context.

Back in the 1960s and '70s I processed all my own film and prints.  All the adjustments we now take for granted had to be got right in the camera with the use of filters and careful exposure.  I still think the quality of a well taken, processed and printed black and white images cannot be beaten.  Trouble was, each print was unique.  Every time a new print was made some variable would creep in.  Having said that there is no way I would go back into the dark.

To shoot in colour so as to use the colour channels for enhancing an image is almost magical and has opened up a whole new world in image processing.  The images I produced for this assignment would have been so much harder to produce in the days of film.  When looking for these images I tried to see tones and textures rather than colour, contrast rather than hue.  Each image was worked in various ways.  I produced three versions of the anchor.  First with a darkened sky and lightened metal.  Second with a lightened sky and darkened metal.  In each of those the visible texture of the metal was reduced so in the end I settled for very gentle enhancing with a little sharpening to highlight that texture.   It was by such experimentation that I came up with the images I have produced.

Colours into tones 2.

Exercise: Colours into tones 2.

The scene is of abandoned farm machinery in long grass.  My aim was to highlight the poor and rusty state of the machinery by darkening it by dropping the red and orange sliders and making the grass paler by use of the green and yellow sliders. The sky has been darkened by use of the blue slider.

First the default b/w image.

Next my version

The increase in contrast has added dramatic effect to the image.  The machinery looks rustier and the grass looks more like straw.  The darkening of the sky also adds to the gloom.

Colours into tones.

Exercise: Colours into tones.

The drummer was outside a botanical garden in Sri Lanka and was making the most awful noise but with great enthusiasm.

 I have kept this simple and used only the blue slider for the first image and the red for the second.  The effects on the blue plastic and the red drum were obvious with the lightening of the filter colour and the darkening of its complementary one, but what I had not thought through was the effect of the red slider on the man's dark brown face which was darkened by the blue filter and substantially lightened by the red and  showing more detail as a result.

Strength of interpretation.

Exercise: Strength of interpretation.

The picture is of Ramsgate Harbour and was taken last year.  The first image is of the original image.

I used curves to carry out the changes and tried to use the same amount of distortion each time.  All four versions look pretty dreadful.  The sky in both pale versions has kept its contrast in the colour version, its colour.  The rest is predictably washed out and lacking in contrast.  The high contrast b/w looks like it was made from under exposed b/w negative.  The sky has washed out and the blacks have no detail.  The appearance of the high contrast colour image is similar to an under exposed colour transparency with its over strong colours and deep blacks.

Black and white.

Exercise: Black and white.

The byre I used for the subject of the exercise is one I have used before.  For this one, however, I didn't want any modern buildings intruding.  The byre is extremely run down and could come from any age, and it was that aspect of it I wanted to exploit.  In taking the colour version I used a polarising lens to darken the blue sky so as to lift out the clouds.  The structure of the byre and the rough ground lend themselves very well to a black and white interpretation.

The first task was to straighten and crop it.  By removing the foreground the byre seems to sink into the ground and looks even more desolate.  I left in the open space to the right to give an impression of isolation.  Next I used edge sharpening and unsharp mask to give it the feel of high acutance grain.  I converted it to monochrome and used the colour siders to darken the sky to the right and lighten it to the left.  The greens and yellows were lightened and the reds darkened.  All this increased the contrast without actually using any direct contrast controls.  I tried a lighter version of this image but it lost the feeling of failure and collapse.  The scene is now one of almost total desolation and could easily have been taken for the Farm Security Administration.  

Interpretive processing.

Exercise: Interpretive processing.

The picture is of Reculver on the North side of Kent near Broadstairs.  This was my first attempt at taking in image in HDR.  It turned out rather flat but seemed a good candidate for this exercise.

The first image is as taken and is washed out with no great clue that it is an HDR image.

The aim of the first interpretation is meant it look like a night shot in silhouette against a moonlit night sky.  It was altered by use of sharpening and levels.  Changes in vibrancy and saturation and contrast finished it off.

The second interpretation is meant to look like a long exposure on a dark night; the possible scene for a horror film.  I flattened out the colours and tones and sharpened the edges.

The last interpretation is meant to look like a Victorian post card.  It is not just a sepia print but has had a lot of contrast and sharpening work done to it prior to applying the sepia toning.  All traces of modernity have also been cloned away

I set out to make three very different images from the original washed picture and give each one a totally different feel.  I think I have achieved what I set out to do.

Managing Colour.

Exercise: Managing colour.

I had a bit of a problem with this exercise as I don't have many images with horrendous colour casts.  The three I have used have colour problems and I have done what I can to correct them.

The first is of orphan elephants in Sri Lankan.  The colour is washed out rather than having a cast and there is considerable highlight clipping.  My aim was to warm up the image and add a bit of contrast.

The first change was to WB where I went from as taken to cloudy.  Alterations to exposure and recovery got rid of almost all the clipping warnings.  Use of the black, brightness, and contrast sliders gave me the contrast and brightness I wanted, and slight changes to vibrancy and saturation further enhanced the colour.  It went from a washed out snap to a pleasing picture.  If I were to be using this elsewhere I would crop it quite tightly.

I took the next image at last year's Deal Braderie, which is an annual street market where anyone can set up a stall for the day.  I came across these hands that appeared to be playing an imaginary piano.  It was  a dull day with seemed to suck the colour out of everything.  My aim was, as above, to inject some life into the colours and enhance the grain of the wood.

I carried out pretty much the same procedures as above but with the addition of the specific colour sliders to pick out the grain of the table and the flags at the back.  

The last one has real colour cast problems.  It is Deal pier and beach on a snowy morning.  The snow is picking up the blue of the sky overhead while the sea and pier are catching the warm colours of the rising sun.  This was only ever going to be a compromise but I wanted to see what could be done.  The sky also shows a large amount of clipping

I applied a huge amount of recover to get rid of most of the clipping.  Use of the light fill, black, and brightness sliders looked after the contrast while a change to cloud cured much of the colour cast.  I reduced the vibrancy and slightly increased the saturation.  It may not look it in the image but I have readings on the DCM of pretty close to grey from the snow.