A lesson from Bresson

Whenever out and about taking photos, I’ve always used my 18-200 lens because of its versatility. Having read yesterday that Henry Cartier-Bresson often stuck to one 50mm lens, I thought I’d give it a try. I’ve had a 50mm lens for a while now and due to its 1.8 aperture, I’ve mainly used it for a narrow depth of field or low light situations.  

Bresson’s take on the subject appears to be that by using the one focal length, you can develop a better idea of how your photographs will look as you see a scene. The 50mm focal length also has the benefit of producing images almost as the eye sees. A family trip to the beach seemed like a perfect opportunity to try this out as there was plenty of space to move around while getting used to not having a zoom.

After a bit of running back and forth to get the right shots, I quickly found myself developing an instinctive feel for the distance needed between myself and the subject. 
I started to think about the benefits of using this lens more often:

·       Develop an instinctive knowledge of the focal length

·       A nice wide aperture to help with low light and narrow depth of field

·       Much lighter to lug about than larger lenses

There are drawbacks:

·       There will be times I just can’t fit everything I want in shot

·       No zoom means if I can’t get close, I can’t get the shot

I’ve added a few shots from the day: 

Larger versions of these images can be seen on Flickr: Hornsea

I plan to spend the next couple of months, just using my 50mm lens for days out, developing my street photography skills.

Watch this space...

Colour on the street

I used a visit to the Freedom Festival in Hull to look into the use of colour in street photography. This genre shunned the use of colour for some time until the works of photographers such as Joel Meyerowitz and Martin Parr paved the way forward. Although colour has been accepted for some time now, street photography does seem to be trending back towards the black & white format. 

Returning home from the festival, I processed my images in both formats and viewed the sets as a whole. In general, I felt that the black & white had a timeless, classic feel whereas the colour set felt more vibrant and fitting to a festival.

Having researched views on colour in street photography, I decided to use some of the questions raised on my own set.

Does the colour add anything?

The image which instantly springs to mind is one I took of a red tricycle in front of a picture of a red flower. On the door above is a red sign. The main subject being the colour, all is lost when converted to black & white.

The image I took of some graffiti reflected in the wet road brought similar results

Does colour promote or distract from the main subject?

I was surprised to see that not all of the images including graffiti worked better in colour. The bright colours in the artwork often dominate the image, therefore in images where the artist is the subject, black & white often works best.

In this close up, however I think the colour works as a vibrant backdrop without taking over the image.

The next image was part of a wider shot, however on editing I noticed something which made me opt for a smaller crop. Part of the Mandela lifeline, this section shows Nelson’s family. On noticing Winnie’s eye peering through the bars of the fence, I felt it reflected her time in prison. The black and white conversion not only aids to draw the eye to Winnie’s eye but promotes the feeling of despair and loneliness she must have felt during this time.

On taking this skateboarding shot, I thought that the blue backdrop would make it a definite colour image. Converting to black and white confirmed my thoughts, however flicking through some of the presets; I found that the infrared setting gave quite a dramatic effect.

     

The green bag and flowered dress draw the eye away from the subject; the omission of colour aids to bring the attention back to the activity of creating the flowers.

The blue of the singer’s eyes is reflected in the guitar and balanced by the warm tones of the backdrop. This image loses something without colour.

Are there any imperfections?

The position I found myself in to watch the ‘BMX Flatland’ show gave mixed results. The benefit of gaining an insight into the crew’s antics was counterbalanced by a totally burned out sky. I also picked up some motion blur. In the first image, the colours are quite unbalanced with an unflattering mix of vibrant and muted colours. I found that by converting to a contrasty black & white, I burned out even more of the image which brought focus onto the crew tent. This brought more interest to the shot as they were all taking or viewing photos of the act on their mobile phones.

The second image has a much better balance of colour with the red and blue lights complimenting the yellow bike. Although still burned out, I don’t think this has a adverse effect on the image. I like this image equally in both formats.

I would have expected the next image to come out best in colour; the vivid green scooter against the black clothing should have made quite an impact. There are a few problems with this as a colour image. The green scooter which I thought was going to be the focus detracts from the real focus which is the flowing hair. There are also flashes of red at either side of the image which really draw the eye. In black & white, these problems are erased.

I thought that this scene promised a great timeless image but somewhere, something went wrong. The colours are unbalanced which doesn’t help but even in black & white it doesn’t feel right. The hundred year old building, a girl who’s just stepped out of the eighties, Chinese lantern type decor and a cocktail sign are too disconnected to be convincingly timeless. I think this image fails in any format.

What emotions are being portrayed?

My research led me to the conclusion that emotion is often better portrayed in black & white, especially if the emotion is shown through facial expression as the contours of the face are more prominent in this format. As for the general feel of an image, a black & white format would bring out feelings of sadness and loneliness, whereas colour can induce more positive feelings. This is not a hard and fast rule; the vast spectrum of colour can induce a wide range of emotions, positive and negative.

Some of the art installations at the Freedom Festival left me with mixed emotions as I compared the two formats, the following two in particular:

I took this photograph originally as I found it amusing that people were walking in the rain, looking a bit miserable under the banner of ‘Freedom’ at a celebratory event. This almost made me feel guilty as I considered Mandela’s walk to freedom, which made a wander in the drizzle seem like a picnic. My original thought works well with the black & white image, however the need to see a positive slant to this walk in the rain has made me choose the colour as my favourite version. The vibrant hues bring a bit of fun to an otherwise dreary image. I have noticed that the word 'FREE' stands out more prominently in the black & white image.

The multicoloured dolls wrapped around a wire sphere represent the multicultural world. The myriad of colours shows no minorities but embraces diversity. Converting to black and white gave two options; an even spread of red, green and blue gave an insignificant picture of grey dolls, producing an image with no meaning. A more vivid spread had the effect of making most dolls almost white and just two black. I feel that this has the effect of segregating the black dolls from the white, promoting an entirely different slant on the world.

Many of the following images work equally well in both formats but sometimes give conflicting messages.

The black & white image feels timeless and a little bit melancholy; the man could quite easily be powering a steam train rather than cooking pizzas and the girl appears to have the weight of the world on her shoulders. This is not anything like the reality of the shot but aesthetically, I prefer it.

Although the couple and the general image are predominantly blue, the red flash across the top and warm glow are reminiscent of sitting by a log fire on a cold evening. This gives a romantic feel which echoes the couple’s holding hands; this feeling is lost in black and white.

The red and green contrast reflects the vibrant mood of the dancers while the pink and green almost give the elephant a smile; both are diluted with the absence of colour.

This girl has noticed me taking a photograph of her and her friends. In colour, she doesn’t mind too much; in black & white, she’s not so keen.

I like these two images in both formats; however they have a more timeless feel in black & white, especially the smiling waitress.

My last two images are my ‘undecidables’.  

I was instantly drawn to the bright colours worn by the presenter and other artists. In colour, this is the subject and the reason I took the shot. In black & white, the conversation is the subject. Two completely different points of focus, yet I like both images equally.

A shot of the BMX rider wiping his shoes before the performance; an informative shot showing the preparation involved in order to spin without slipping. I had no need to remove the colour as I think it is well balanced, however I also like the image in the high contrast black and white. Rather than creating a timeless image, the contrast modernises the shot which I feel works as well with the subject matter as the vibrant colours.

I am taking so many lessons away from this exercise. I already have a passion for capturing the decisive moment, however my confidence in taking photos of random strangers is lacking. I’m sure that continued research and lots of practise will boost my ability in this area.

Street photographers

In street photography, I have found something which truly inspires me, I’m not particularly good at it... yet, but I do think it fits my personality and my way of working. For me, catching that perfect moment far outweighs any technically perfect studio shot. That’s not to say that street photography doesn’t require technical ability, on the contrary, it is vital to know your camera inside out in order to quickly manipulate settings to fit a rapidly changing scene. It also takes an enormous amount of confidence to take photographs of complete strangers going about their business. 

I have spent this week doing some research into what makes a successful street photograph. 

Emotional content

Juan Josereyes has created a process using five levels of street photography to aid the culling process. He assesses the emotional content of each image, giving a score of one to five, dependent on what emotion is evoked. Josereyes believes that different emotions bring on varying levels of cognitive friction; higher levels of cognitive friction demand greater understanding, meaning that these images are more likely to be remembered long term.

The five emotions, given in order from low to high cognitive friction are: interest, joy, surprise, distress and mixed. The points below show the impact of an image inducing these emotions:

While researching the greats, I stumbled across international street photographer, Eric Kim. His blog lists many famous names in street photography, each with a page on what Kim has learned from their work.

Irony

Looking into Kim’s own work, I discovered his album entitled, ‘Only in America’. This ironic insight into American values reflects the work of such greats as Robert Frank and also Martin Parr’s reflections on the British public.

A young girl smoking a cigarette and black and white segregation on the buses – not quite images of the American dream

Images from Martin Parr’s, ‘The Last Resort’ – the British holiday at its worst

The interest in these images lies in the irony; they show a state of affairs contrary to the expected. This in itself can induce mixed emotions, ranking them at the higher end of Josereye’s scale of cognitive friction.

It also should be noted that this book is shot in colour, which at the time, was thought of as the format of amateur photographers. Parr, along with other American photographers such as Joel Meyerowitz, worked to bring some acclaim to this medium.

Timing

In order to capture such interest, timing is often vital; whether quickly capturing a scene as you notice it happen or waiting as a scene unfolds in order to catch that Cartier-Bresson style decisive moment, timing is always of the essence. In this image, Henri Cartier-Bresson hits the shutter at the precise moment when the bicycle is perfectly framed by the fence.

Surrealism

He was also well known as a surrealist photographer; the girl leading the horses, the boys watched over by angels and the walking shadows are great examples of this.

Meyerowitz shows some of Bresson’s surrealist influence in his work, he has the same talent for noticing bizarre situations.

Meyerowitz, as mentioned ealier was also influential in changing attitudes towards colour photography.

Colour versus black & white

A search through the decades of street photography brought interesting results; the sixties show the introduction of some colour work, leading to a larger surge in the seventies and eighties. However, throughout the last twenty years or so, street photography has tended towards its original black and white format. I began to wonder, is this just a fashion thing or is there more to it?

I decided to research debates on black and white versus colour in street photography; is there a ‘better’ format, what are the reasons for choosing one over another?

The first and most obvious question is; does the colour add anything to the image? If not, colour can be a distraction from elements of design, emotion and other features. As street photography can produce busy, cluttered images, omission of colour can aid to draw the eye to what is important in the image.

As previously mentioned, street photography is a fast paced genre and even the pros don’t always manage technical perfection. Motion blur and grain induced by using high ISO can look much more pleasing in black and white. In fact, the format can even work alongside the grain in making the image look classic and timeless.

Facial expressions are more emphasised in black and white, creating a more dramatic quality. The absence of colour can help to evoke feelings of sadness, loneliness and other negative emotions. While colour generally adds a more light-hearted feel to an image, each hue has the ability to evoke its own emotion. Colour can often draw attention to the main subject, especially if the colour is mirrored elsewhere in the image, the yellows and blue show fine examples of this in Meyerowitz’ photographs above.

In the age of digital processing, we have the luxury of deciding after taking the photograph. As a result, we can now view any image in both formats, think about what we are trying to promote and make a more informed decision in post processing. I will consider these points as I look at my own street photography.

Links:                                                                                                                                                                             

http://juanjosereyes.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/the-five-levels-of-street-photography/

http://erickimphotography.com/albums/only-in-america/

 http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2014/01/20/street-photography-book-review-the-last-resort-by-martin-parr/