Assignment 1: Workflow

Brief:

The purpose of this assignment is to explore the subject of workflow through a shooting assignment of my own choosing. Before completing the first two exercises for the course I felt I  had an established workflow which worked well for me, completing the exercises made me question this however - was my workflow too rigid? Was it preventing me from exploring alternative methods of processing? If my workflow was so good why did I have so many unprocessed images on my hard drive? With these points in mind I wanted to explore the subject of my workflow in an analytical way, carefully considering each aspect and spending time thinking about my choices and ways of working. I tried to put aside all of my preconceptions and at the end of the assignment I hoped to be able to use what I had learned to make practical adjustments to my ways of working that would be of benefit in the future.

Choosing a Subject:

I wanted to choose a subject that would provide many different types of image, would be of interest and would be accessible. I arrived at my choice of Penshaw Monument near Sunderland by chance - I took a number of photographs from the top of the monument on a family day out and felt this could be a subject worth exploring further.

Penshaw Monument is a symbol to the people of wearside (as important as say the Tyne Bridge or Angel of the North would be to the people of Tyneside) it dominates the local landscape and can be seen for miles around and is featured on Sunderland football clubs badge. It is a Doric style structure based on the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens built in memoriam of John George Lambton, the Earl of Durham, in 1844. The monument was given to the National Trust by the 5th Earl of Durham in 1939.

One of my areas of interest in photography is how the familiar can be transformed for example through viewpoint. Recognisable monuments are mainly represented through a 'chocolate box' aesthetic which is not a style I am attracted to - by choosing Penshaw Monument as my subject I wanted to explore this kind of 'tourist' view while also making pictures that are less typical of the kind regularly seen.

Preparation:

I began by brainstorming a number of possible approaches so when I arrived at the monument I would have some ideas of what kind of shots to take. I also began thinking of different times I would want to take the photographs:

• The 'tourist' view
• People included

• Abstract/details

• Night time

• Sunrise/sunset
• Context e.g. Local houses
• 'Chocolate box' view

• Light and shadow

Plan for shooting the images:

One of the factors that led me to choose Penshaw monument as a subject was that I pass it every day on the way to and from work. Not only that but the structure is so prominent that I can see it in the distance for most of my journey. I wanted my chosen subject to be reasonably accessible and felt that I could stop off at the monument often to and from work and would be able to take pictures in a variety of different times of day and weather conditions.

Usually if I am pursuing a long term project I review and edit my images after each shoot. I find that this can influence me in subsequent shoots - for example I might not take a particular image because I feel I have already taken something similar. As part of my research I was inspired by an article about Garry Winogrand which detailed his ways of working.

Winogrand was a prolific photographer, when he died he left around 2500 rolls of undeveloped film and is estimated to have shot around 5 million images in his lifetime. Winogrand believed that emotional attachment to an image led to poor editing choices and would take the extreme solution of waiting up to 2 years before even processing a roll of film. By doing this he believed he separated the act of taking the image from his selection process; by having virtually no memory of taking the picture he was able to make decisions based purely on the content of the frame and not influenced by emotion.

When I shoot I always download my images regularly and review them straight away - as mentioned this can influence what I shoot after this, I may choose not to take a certain image because I think I have already captured it. For this assignment I took the decision to shoot over a number of weeks (months as it turned out) and to only view the images and begin making my selections when I had taken them all.

Taking the pictures:

One of the main reasons I chose Penshaw Monument as my subject is that I thought I would be able to stop off regularly to and from work and take pictures in a variety of conditions. In reality things turned out very different: stopping off going to work never happened because the weather conditions often meant I would be a mess before I got to work or because I was worried I would end up spending to much time taking pictures and be late. It was also difficult to stop off on the way home, I work quite long hours and was often not in the mood to stop off or needed to get home for family reasons so it was not practical. In my head I thought I would be able to stop for 10 minutes or so and take some pictures, in reality I spent 1-2 hours each time I stopped.

A benefit of choosing Penshaw however was that I spent a great deal of time looking at the structure on my journeys and would think a lot about different images I might take. A downside however was looking at the structure when conditions were interesting and knowing that I either didn't have time to stop off or have my camera with me.

When to stop became an issue as well - I initially intended to spend around 2 months on this assignment but it has actually taken me around a year! Even at this point I had to force myself to start bringing the assignment to a conclusion - my main reason for this was fearing I had not taken enough pictures and had not explored all of the possibilities I had thought of. With hindsight I should have set myself a strict deadline, something I will try to do for future assignments.

Selecting the images:

I used Lightroom 4 to catalogue and process all of my images: I had taken 832 images over 8 shoots. Firstly I applied the keyword 'Penshaw Monument' to each of the images and created a collection (Penshaw DPP Ass 1) for the images so they were easily accessible from the rest of my image library.

Next I viewed each image in turn and flagged any I wanted to consider further while rejecting any with obvious technical problems. For this initial select I ended up with 284 flagged images and 3 deselects. I then processed each image in turn which gave me the opportunity to view each picture in more detail. If I found I no longer wanted to consider the image for selection I removed the flag, at the end of this process I had a rough edit of 214 pictures including two I had processed alternatively.

I am conflicted about whether this part of my workflow is the right way for me to select images - on one hand this was a very time consuming process which has not resulted in me removing many sections, I felt an element of frustration that I could not be more decisive. On the other hand I think this part of the process could be the most important part of my workflow as it gives me the chance to spend an extended amount of time getting to know the images and aids my decision making process going forward. The unfortunate reality however is that the process takes time and that is something that is a luxury for me. On first indication taking Garry Winogrand's advice and leaving some time before reviewing my images has made little difference - I imagine that I would have made similar if not identical selections if I had edited the pictures straight after shooting

In the past I have always found having pictures to look at greatly aids my decision making process so decided to have 6x4 prints made of my selects. One of the principles of this project is that I wanted to present a group of different images of Penshaw. With this in mind my first action when I received the prints was to sort them into separate categories - I ended up with 18. Next I reviewed the pictures in their category selections by placing them onto a large table top and looking at them side by side. I then sorted them into three selection criteria - pick, maybe and reject. At the end of this process I had 120 selects, 24 maybe and 70 rejects. I was now feeling quite restless with the selection process and was coming to realise that I was been much too protracted in my approach. I viewed the pictures again with a more critical eye - if there was anything in the image that led me to think 'maybe' I discarded it as I now realised this meant the picture would not make the cut. Despite this I still ended up with a selection of 54 prints!

Final selection:

At this point I was keen to try an approach that I have read many photographers find useful - I decided to display the prints on my wall and leave them for a couple of weeks before making my final selection. I was still faced with something of an impasse however as to which of the pictures to choose. In the end I forced myself into being decisive and began deselecting images by taking them down from the wall - often my selection process was governed by a gut instinct rather than by analysis, in fact I made a conscious effort not to overthink at this point as I was beginning to recognise this was the main driver of my procrastination.

I was surprised at how quickly I managed to pair down the selection to 12 images (although I did have 10 pictures that nearly made it and which can be found here) was this because of the time I had spent 'living' with the pictures - had this aided my decision making? Perhaps I knew from the beginning which images were my favourites and I had been putting off the inevitable?

The final 12:

ISO 1250, 24-70mm f2.8 lens @ 56mm, 1/125 sec @ f5.6

The fields around Penshaw are used for grazing cattle (although the cattle are not always present.) On this particular occasion I took the opportunity to feature this cow as foreground interest. I have chosen to open the set of images with this because I can imagine something similar being used by the National Trust to advertise Penshaw - to me it offers a 'tourists view.' People are excluded and there is a sense of wildness about the monuments setting, the cow and monument have a sense of balance because of their relative size and positioning in the frame and the orange/ginger cow contrasts with the surrounding grass.

ISO 200, 24-70mm f2.8 lens @ 70mm, 1/90 sec @ f11

As I have mentioned, Penshaw monument dominates the local landscape so I was keen to show this in a number of images. Although the monument is quite small in the frame it is clearly the point of interest, the pattern of the corn and its positioning draw the eye. Some of the shots I discarded that were similar to this had tractor tracks in the corn as leading lines but I prefer the low viewpoint here that does not include them. The inclusion of the electricity pylon also acts as a reminder that of how modern technology transforms the landscape and seems to anchor the monument in the distance.

ISO 250, 24-70mm f2.8 lens @ 70mm, 1/350 sec @ f11

This was from the first shoot I did at the monument which gave me the inspiration to pursue it as a subject. I like the disorder in this image which contrasts with the horizontal and vertical alignment of the pillars and shadows. The high contrast tones add a graphic dimension, also, images of people taking photographs is a subject I am interested in pursuing as a long term project. The way the adults in the group are trying to create pictures while the children play has an interesting narrative quality about family days out.

ISO 400, 24-70mm f2.8 lens @ 48mm, 1/250 sec @ f9.5

This picture is all about the atmosphere created by the fog, I like the way the monument is just visible and the muted tones.

ISO 400, 24-70mm f2.8 lens @ 24mm, 1/2000 sec @ f9.5

I took many images of the monument in silhouette but kept coming back to this one. I think the tones work well here the sun just visible behind a pillar gives a strong sense of mood. I am not sure this would be placed as being north east England without prior knowledge of what it is.

ISO 1000, 24-70mm f2.8 lens @ 70mm, 1/350 sec @ f11

The composition attracted me to this image, through my research I cannot recall seeing a picture of Penshaw from this angle. The height of the structure is emphasised by shooting from the side and the tones pick out the brickwork which gives an indication of the monuments age.

ISO 1000, 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens @ 122mm, 1/1000 sec @ f6.7

This image was shot from about 10 miles from the monument. Unlike the corn image Penshaw is not the obvious subject here, the picture is about the way the layers of mist add depth and is evocative of early morning. This is also emphasised by the 'letter box' crop.

ISO 200, 24-70mm f2.8 lens @ 24mm, 1/125 sec @ f8

I imagine this image being featured in promotional advertising, the jaunty angle gives a modern feel. Although the composition is unconventional I think it is easy to read what the picture is of and the angle of view adds interest as the eye moves around different aspects of the monument. The early morning warm sunlight hitting the stonework complements the blue sky.

ISO 400, 24-70mm f2.8 lens @ 60mm, 1/180 sec @ f11

I chose this image because of the sense of wilderness in the scene. I also like the way the sunlight hits the top of the grass where the monument meets the horizon. The viewpoint isolates Penshaw from any sign of the modern world and the floodlights that surround it are also excluded.

ISO 400, 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens @ 125mm, 1/750 sec @ f5.6

This image is opposite to the previous one because it gives an indication about the environment around the monument. I have an interest in allotments and am attracted to the way their owners often build interesting structures. A lot of the other allotments I photographed in the foreground were more ordered than this but I chose this image because I like the way the slightly ramshackle shed contrasts with the order of the monument in the background.

ISO 2000, 24-70mm f2.8 lens @ 31mm, 1/250 sec @ f5.6

This abstract image of the monument has many similarities to the one chosen earlier but in the end is quite different. The orientation is portrait rather than landscape which emphasises height and the almost monochrome palate gives a cold and foreboding feel unlike the warmth from the early morning sun provided in the initial image.

ISO 800, 24-70mm f2.8 lens @ 24mm, 1/60 sec @ f9.5

I took many pictures using the steps to the monument as leading lines but chose this because of the strong way they lead the eye to the structure. This was taken at dusk and the floodlights have just come on, the darkness of the tones however give a sense of creepiness rather than warmth and the picture contrasts with the reassuring view that opens the set.

Conclusion:

I have found this assignment invaluable in understanding my own personal workflow. Before beginning I was quite dismissive about the learning's I would take from the exercise, however, it has highlighted both weaknesses in my approach that I was probably not confronting while making me realise that I very far from having an established workflow of my own. Firstly, I understand now better than ever before that I need to shoot more, however, I need to come up with a strategy to aid this as self doubt seems to be my main issue. I have plans for a number of long term projects and this is what I plan to concentrate on to drive me forward as well as forcing myself to pick up my camera more often - whether I feel in the mood or not.

For the purposes of this assignment I have taken a protracted approach to selecting my images. At the time I thought this was for the better good of the assignment and my development but really I was just putting off progressing. I have understood for a while that procrastination is a major issue for me and have thought I had this under control, clearly however it is not. If I am truthful I could have predicted most of the images I have chosen for my final selection at the initial stages. Again self doubt is the enemy here and I believe that the more I 'practice' the more my confidence will grow and the more willing I will be to trust my instincts.

In the end my understanding of workflow has gone full circle. Initially I thought this was one of my strengths, now however I understand that although I am confident in using the software I have a long way to go in being confident in my own selection and decision making. Everything I now read that comments on workflow now takes on a new resonance and meaning and informs my ways of working. Yes this assignment has been much more difficult to complete than I foresaw anticipated and yes I have spent much longer on it than I first wanted to. However, that could all be for the long term good as long as I put the lessons learned here into practice.

10 Things Garry Winogrand Can Teach You About Street Photography by Eric Kim

I found the link to this blog by street photographer Eric Kim via @BlurbBooks on Twitter. The piece is full of great information about Garry Winogrand and I find the personal, enthusiastic tone refreshing - Kim frequently mentions in the article how studying Winongrand has influenced and informed his own photographic practice and methods. The blog also provides lots of different suggestions for further research. At the time I read this I was researching workflow and thinking a great deal about my own ways of working and a number of points resonated with me.

Something that has stayed with me about Garry Winogrand for many years is a famous quote of his, "I photograph to see what the world looks like in photographs." I think I read this before I  was consciously aware of Winogrand's work and it is a simple sentence that I keep mulling round in my mind and often use as something to spur me on and inspire me. On one level the sentence can be read as a flippant aside, I believe though the truth is much more than that. For me it suggests the self doubt a photographer can face and confronts critical questions such as 'why did you photograph that?' It is a rebuke to such statements and asserts the right of the photographer to work as they wish - it says 'if you don't get what I do why should I explain?' I often feel uncertain about what I should be photographing and the Winongrand's words spur me on not to overthink but to get out and do - the words give me such a strong sense of his drive and energy. 

In his article Kim states that a conservative estimate of how many photographs Winogrand took in his lifetime is over 5 million. (He does concede that there is some conjecture about this however with a commenter challenging that the true figure is between 1-1.25 million, without getting drawn on this he recognises that even this lower figure means Winogrand took a great number of photographs.) Something I am becoming increasingly aware of is that I do not shoot enough, I tend to have periods high activity punctuated by days or weeks when I do not pick up the camera. I have thought long and hard about why this is and there are many reasons; often I have a sense of self doubt or I feel unsure about what I should be shooting, if I do not feel in the mood for taking photographs I tend not to, I feel guilty if I am taking photographs for 'fun' rather than for the course are a few reasons. While the 455 images a day Winogrand took is somewhat on the extreme side maybe if I set myself the target of going out to take photographs twice a week that would be a more realistic approach. Again I go back to the previously mentioned quote - Winongrand seems to be telling me to put aside all these doubts and just get on with taking photographs.

Of course the problem remains of how to edit and select all the images taken, Winongrand had had a radical solution to this - he never processed his film straight away but waited up to two years believing he needed to almost forget having shot the pictures. He felt that emotion was the enemy of good selection and that he could be influenced by the way he felt on a particular day rather than the strength of a particular image: "You make better choices if you approach your contact sheets cold, separating the editing from the picture taking as much as possible." I recognise this as being true - I often struggle with editing my images because I make too many selects and therefore take too much time reviewing and processing. I need to find ways to be more decisive - it strikes me that Winongrand was extremely confident in which images to select and I guess this is something I will develop too over time. Still the doubt remains that I might not make the correct selections so I include images that I really know are not working - I need to find a way to divorce my emotion as Winongrand did.

Kim's blog contains other similar articles about other photographers that interest and have influenced him such as William Eggleston, Henri-Cartier Bresson, Walker Evans and Robert Frank. All photographers that also interest me so I will spend time reading further. I am beginning to realise that looking at photographers work alone is not enough but understanding there ways of working is also very important - hopefully this will help me develop my own strategies and ultimately help me find my own photographic voice.

Zack Arias Blog: Editing Your Porfolio

I came across this photographer and his blog via a forum post on the OCA student website:

http://oca-student.com/node/82174

As part of a discussion about workflow, Nigel Monckton provides the link:

http://zackarias.com/editorial-photography/editing-your-portfolio/

At the time I read this I was researching workflow and image editing as part of the early exercises in DPP. The piece hit a particular nerve with me because of this. Most other writing I had come across in reference to workflow I found quite dull and uninspiring as they deal with the 'nuts and bolts' of the process. Martin Evening discusses various strategies in 'Lightroom 3 for Photographers' and hints at his own workflow but eventually arrives at few conclusions - an indication that there is not a 'one size fits all' approach.

What I like about Arias' blog post is that he is unapologetically personal in his tone and extremely open and honest. Procrastination and self doubt (something I am extremely familiar with) are themes he repeatedly touches on. He talks about "kick[ing] the demons out of your head and get[ting] to work" ,because, "It’s never going to be perfect. It’s never going to be finished. It’s never going to be ready. If you wait until you are ready you’ll never accomplish a thing. Ever." I find the knowledge that a successful professional photographer has the same feelings of the work not being good enough that I do extremely reassuring.

I also like the way he discusses editing and photographic skills and the need to continually revisit your work: "You not only grow as a photographer but you grow as a photo editor in your life." This is a feeling echoed by OCA tutor Clive White in the forum discussion: "I still come across images that I shot and discarded 30 years ago that make a different sense to me now." This is very much my view and it is good to see it reaffirmed - simply, storing digital images takes up very little physical space and extra storage is extremely cheap nowadays so why would you not want to keep everything? Of course, the trick is being able to access this again - hundreds of MBs worth of image files that are not labelled in any way are just as unwieldy as piles of boxes of random prints.

At the point Arias culls his original 'big edit' down to the final 10% he makes prints so he can view them physically and most importantly explore their relationship with each other. This is a process I also find extremely beneficial and it can be surprising how much your opinions can change when faced with a physical print rather than an image on a screen.

I will leave the last word with Leopin, the OCA student who originated the discussion, as he ponders why there is so little written material on workflow since this is such an important part of the photographic process: "What shall I conclude? That it is a process too subjective, too intimate, too private to be disclosed openly?" I think he could be right in many ways and again I applaud the bravery of Arias to publish his ways of working in such an honest way. I think the majority of photographers would struggle with being this honest fearing self doubt shows some sort of weakness. Maybe there is also an element of not wanting to be challenged as well - OCA tutor Jose Navarro discusses his workflow in very practical terms on the forum, and while I very much respect his views and appreciate his ways of working would be highly tried and tested, his is not a system I would employ myself…..knowing about how he works does help me however.

"Its all in the edit (delete at your peril)" by John Macpherson on duckrabbit blog

I came across this article via twitter before starting DPP and when I was looking through my twitter feed realised it had a lot of relevance to the initial exercises of the course concerned with workflow and editing.

The piece was posted on Duckrabbitblog on 25th January 2012 by photographer and photography teacher John Macpherson. I like the open and personal tone of the piece in which Macpherson discusses what he believes to be the potential mistake of photographers deleting pictures in the field alongside his experiences of tutoring novice photographers.

He begins by explaining how he tries "to encourage a process of editing images on the computer"…."just like the contact sheets we used to make in the good old film days." He continues, "for many inexperienced photographers it’s actually quite difficult to determine what actually constitutes a ‘good’ or ‘successful’ image and that too often its the technical qualities that are the defining ones, overriding any other less tangible considerations."

He follows this with an anecdote of how one of his students failed to see the potential of one of her shots and apologised for not having deleted it at the time because it was "not sharp." Macpherson's experience and visual knowledge however told him differently -  to him the image was evocative and the lack of sharpness made the image timeless with a certain amount of 'emotional content.' This led him to conclude, "taking ‘good’ images is very easy, but the difficulty is that they are invariably surrounded by a mass of work of lesser value. How does one discern the good from bad? If you’re a novice photographer how can you tell the difference? I often wonder how many real gems never see the light of day because they are simply deleted?"

Another anecdote concerning a discussion about a students image that to her represented something very negative, (a photograph of her partners damaged leg after a serious accident which meant they were separated by hundreds of miles while he recuperated.) After discussion it was agreed that her feelings were based on the emotional force she placed on the picture and that disregarding this and focussing on the pictures actual content could lead to a very different reading -  that the image actually represents tenderness, caring and healing. After the discussion the woman changes her opinion which to Macpherson shows the importance of sharing your work:

"I think its vital that you share your work with people you know. Discussing why it was made, and what it makes you feel like, is a hugely valuable thing to do. It’s an even more valuable thing to do with people you don’t know, because they’re less likely to care about offending you by saying they don’t like a particular image."

After the article, in the comments section, Macpherson touches on a particular issue connected with digital photography - the ability to take hundreds of pictures at a time. He states that "It took me literally years to learn to ‘read’ and properly understand images in the editing process. It really is a skill to develop, separate from the button pressing that creates images." And on the subject of being able to "shoot 10 frames a second [and] to come back from an event with a huge amount of material" he adds this note of caution:

"[it's] a painful job if you want to consider every single frame, check the expressions on faces, where eyes are looking, all the little details that can make or break an image. I think a lot of people lose a lot of work because they just don’t have the time to carefully edit, and they probably miss some useful work. I know I’ve come across little gems I missed first, second and third time around because there was so much other stuff."

Lots of interesting food for thought for me in this article - I never delete images from my memory card (so a tick for me there!) but I am increasingly coming to the conclusion that my ability to edit successfully is something I need to work hard at. Often I am consumed with self doubt and disappointment when reviewing images. I have tried various strategies to combat this - editing as soon as possible after a shoot (which is not always practical) and also leaving a bit of time between shooting and editing as I sometimes find the cushion of time can help me be more objective about the images. The advice to seek feedback about images is one I will try to incorporate for example actively seeking feedback through Flickr. The problem with this however is that a certain amount of editing is required which does not eliminate the problem of good images being lost and not being selected at all. My overall feeling is that I need to create a schedule for both shooting and editing - I tend to have intense periods when I take a large amount of photographs which is often punctuated with inactivity. I need to arrive at a better strategy for managing my time which pushes me to photograph more regularly, however, this also needs to be reinforced with robust editing and taking my pictures to some sort of output - even if this is just posting on Flickr.