A snapshot of Magnum's Bruce Gilden. This week's tutorial is how to look after your memory card.

 Welcome to the 22nd edition.

Bruce Gilden

Is Bruce Gilden a worthy Magnum photographer? His abrasive style of picture making appears to lack grace and subtlety, it is this 'style' that troubles me. The images are attention grabbing but often mixed with a sense of mockery at the people within his frame. The unforgiving use of flash which is cruel and harsh. Flash blur is an interesting technique in the right circumstances and is best used sparingly. Bruce was around many years before the industry took notice of him. Without losing faith or direction he persevered which is a recurring quality in successful photographers.

Diane Arbus

There is without doubt that sense of glimpsing a hidden world in Bruce's photographs that strikes a chord with Diane Arbus's work. This is a compliment for many photographers and I do not make the comparison lightly.  One of his books is in my collection. 'Facing New York.'  If you love the characters in that cosmopolitan city this book is a treat. The 'in yer face' style of Gilden's work brings a grotesque element just like Arbus. Click on the link to see what you think. Gilden's has limited technical skills but this limitation defines his work rather than detracting from it. Lisette Model is similar in her use of drama and urgency in street photography. The photographs that he took after the Haiti earthquake show a more sensitive side demonstrating a mature documentary style. Some photographers make a good living from producing stylised work that never really progress's technically. If you can do this you are fortunate in some respects but the ability to express yourself is restricted as a consequence. During my time I assisted many established photographers and the lighting would never change. The experience that I gained the most knowledge from was working with a still life photographer who always wanted to push the boundaries. This inquisitiveness which was both a technical and creative form of motivation kept us asking questions. Complacency is a photographer's biggest enemy.
Do you think that I am being unfair to Bruce Gilden? I would like to know what you think about his work. The aim of this piece is to bring greater awareness to this less well-known Magnum stalwart and to challenge my own views of what is good documentary photography.

Lith printing and flash blur.

Nicholas Brewer

I printed this a couple of weeks ago and is the first lith print I have made. The exposure was around ninety-seconds and five minutes at least in the dev tray. The dev was a  strong mix but despite this it exhausted quickly. While it is not a fast process it is exciting. The lith reacts differently for each individual print and can add another dimension to the right image. The paper I used was Multigrade warm tone made by Ilford bought from Silver Print. The paper choice will affect your final result so consider your options before buying persihable material.  Naturally the best place to see a lith print is in your hand looking at it in daylight.

The movement in the photograph is created with a technique called 'flash Blur.' I was using an external flashgun fixed to the camera and bracketing at about 1/8 of a second for the shutter. The moment the flash fired I jerked the camera to create the blurring behind the frozen sign. The great thing about it is the randomness of it. With the flash freezing the foreground you can be confident that this will look like it is meant to however; the background is a blur of merging shapes. As it is done in camera it is an exciting / anxious wait until the first contact sheets. It is a very different way of working from a digital camera. Bruce Gilden uses a lot of 'flash blur' in his work and you can see a small hint of it above. The second lady has a slight 'ghosting' behind her head.

Lith developers as originally conceived were designed to develop lith materials to a high contrast, with total elimination of half-tones, an important requirement of the then graphic arts industry. However the industry that used lith films & papers has gone the same way as video recorders and dinosaurs. The other use for lith developers is using them creatively, highly diluted with various papers for continuous tone printing with colour effects as demonstrated above. Click on Silver Print's link as they provide arrange of information about the history of photography and alternative process's that you may find interesting.

"Great photography is about depth of emotion not depth of field." Peter Adams.

How to care for your memory card -

Pearls of wisdom from Albert Watson

Welcome to the 22nd edition.

Albert Watson

Albert Watson is the greatest photographer of a generation. His images have been influencing style magazines for over twenty-five years. If you are not familiar with his portraits and fashion click on the link. Recently I heard him talk about his work and these pictures. I would like to share some of what he said.

"I just got lucky" Albert Watson said when describing the events leading up to taking this striking image. Shot on location with traditional film and camera long before photoshop was around. It is a double exposure made taking the photograph then printed in a darkroom. Albert Watson prints all his own black and white. The double exposure is created when the camera is stopped down a 1/2 for each one.

The portrait was commissioned by a magazine with the original idea for Mick and the leopard to sit together in an open top car. The wild beast could not contain its natural urge for long and tried to maul the Jagger! While they were building a partition between the drivers seat and the passengers this incredible photograph was taken. The two faces have to be lined up perfectly for this to work. Only one roll was taken with a total of twelve frames. Six of the frames did not have the faces aligned properly leaving six frames that were successful. This presumably is the 'luck' that he was referring to. "The more prepared I am the luckier I get' Albert Watson said later that evening.

Mike Tyson -by- Albert Watson

Albert grew up in Scotland, a tough place were his father was a boxer. He told his son that the neck is the most important part of a fighter and the result, was this picture. A good photographer does research into the subject and location of the shoot. He did take one the right way round so the world could see Mike Tyson's handsome features.....

While I have not learned anything new from hearing Albert Watson two important points are reiterated. Firstly preparation is the key to making our photographic experiences free from unnecessary anxiety. Always double check your equipment and make sure that you have spares of everything if possible. The second point is that portrait photographers need to show leadership and an assured manor when photographing their subjects. No matter what our internal feelings are an impression of everything working out perfectly enables the photographer to remain in control and appear professional even if they do not feel it. Fake it until you make it.




The Darkroom.
Over the past couple of weeks I have re-discovered the joy of the darkroom and I have tried Lith printing for the first time. Zoom In near the Oval cricket ground in London were running a workshop on Lith printing and it was fascinating. Lith is the developer that the fibre based paper is developed in. The paper needs  overexposing by about three stops. I was using Ilford warm tone multi grade that worked successfully. The exposure was F11 at ninety seconds so it is a long exposure in comparison to regular printing. The final tone will depend on a variety of factors including how long it is left in the developer, the ratio which it is mixed to and the temperature of the dev. Lith prints produce amazingly delicate highlights and high contrast in the shadow. Next time you can see the affect.

"The camera is an extention of yourself.... Your story treatment may be subjective, but it is important to remain objective as to truth." Cornell Capa.


Thank you for reading.

Convert digital colour images to black & white -

do we see in 3D or 2D

Welcome to 21st edition.

 This weeks tutorial is on caring for your camera's sensor. Simple maintenance will save you time and money.

3D or 2D that is the question?

Surely we see in 3D. Your computer screen has a front middle and back which you can see clearly so the answer must be we see in 3D. We have a sense of space and depth otherwise driving would not be a universal means of transport. Some of you will be screaming "no you idiot we only have two eyes so therefore the answer is 2D" and you would of course be correct. So how can we judge space and depth? The brain tricks us into believing that we are seeing in 3D.

Hold your finger a few inches away from your eye. Close one eye and then switch to the other. The same finger in the same location appears to move although we know it has not. Our angle of view changes. The eyes see two slightly different views of the world but our perception is that we have a continuous view. The brain takes this information and interprets it and our sense of depth is created. If you move your finger further away from your eye the effect of movement is reduced. Have you seen 'Avatar'  by James Cameron. You may remember there were a lot of images where the viewer is looking through things that help to create this illusion. Can you remember the scenes in the forest in Avatar?

This effect of movement is called 'Binocular Disparity.'  Charles Wheastone was the first person to describe the experience and in 1840 was awarded the Royal Medal from the Royal Society for his work.

Man of the moment,  Eadweard Muybridge used  this knowledge to show his landscape images via a stereoscope. Two photographs were taken at slightly different angles just like our eyes see.  Looked at through a viewer  it creates the impression of depth. Queen Victoria started a craze for them when she used one in London during the Great Exhibition of 1851. Queen guitarist Brian May is fanatical about this aspect of photography. May became an international figure during his time in the band however; prior to this he was studying for his phd. While his contribution to good music is a matter of taste, his work for the stereoscope is significant. Please click on the links to find out more about this curious subject.

This Tuesday there is a talk by Albert Watson at the Victoria & Albert museum in London. Going with a friend so it will be interesting at the very least. I will share with you the pearls of wisdom from Mr Watson next time. They still have tickets aviliable if you can get there.

As 'The American' is released soon about a photographer played by George Clooney it got me thinking about films with photography in them.

Blow Up, Momento and Rear Window are three of my top contemporary films. I would like to hear anyone elses choice. What would you include?

Thanks for reading.
"When I have a camera in my hand I know no fear." Alfred Eisenstaedt.

How to care for your cameras sensor -

how to use movements on a 5x4 camera and Eadweard Muybridge at Tate Britain.

Welcome to the 20th edition.

Nicholas Brewer

The weekly pdf tutorial is an introduction to the 5x4 camera. It covers simple movements and the uses for them. There will be another one next week.

Eadweard Muybridge at Tate Britain.
Murderer, scientist and artist all describe Edward Muggeridge the birth name of one of England's most pioneering photographers. The exhibition at the Tate is big. It is difficult to appreciate the broad range of Muybridge's work that includes a panoramic cityscape of San Francisco, stop motion pictures and landscape images of Yosemite. The recent work that I have done with time-lapse photography ignited a profound interest in the man and his legacy. Why is Muybridge worthy of your attention and valuable time?
It is not important if you consider photography an art or a science or a mixture of the two. One must have some technical grasp to make consistently well exposed photographs and this you can learn in a variety of ways. Creativity is much harder to learn if you consider that it is a skill to learn as opposed to instinct. Creativity in my opinion is shaped by everything that influences you from books to films, how much it affects you depends on how open you are to it. Eadweard Muybridge was a master technician and also a creative who fused these two qualities together making a lasting impression on the world. Do you like U2 or know someone who does? Their video 'Lemon' is a homage to Muybridge and I have included a link below.

Marcel Duchamp 'Nude Descending a Staircase' is also heavily influenced by you know who. Muybridge's work bridged the gap between how we think we see things and how they are in reality. Naturally this had a profound impact on artists ever since and Francis Bacon's work is clearly guided by the photographers images. It is for these reasons that Muybridge is a photographer that can offer inspiration for pushing technical boundaries and for self-promotion something he did with great skill. It is rare to find all of these qualities rolled into one person however; Eadweard Muybridge worked incredible hard and was a risk taker who earned his place in history.With his influence affecting so many different types of artists and still shaping the world in which we live this is why you should at least consider investigating his achievements further. None of us are perfect and Muybridge was no exception. Not long after shooting Harry Larkyn who was the lover of Muybridge's wife, she died suddenly. Believing that his only son was fathered by the dead man Muybridge sent him to an orphanage. There is no proof of who the biological father was. The story is all the more tragic as the boy grew up having a very strong resemblance to Eadweard Muybridge....
Please see previous blogs to find out more about this fascinating man. If you are interested in the history of photography click on the photography podcast link and listen to History of Photography by Jeff Curto.

"All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth." Richard Avedon.


Introduction to 5x4 -

How to use photographic lighting and an exhibition of the emperor's new clothes

Nicholas Brewer

Welcome to the 19th edition.

The weekly pdf below continues with studio portrait lighting. If you do not have access to a studio you can always improvise. Portable flashguns are powerful and provide good light as an alternative. Bounce them off white boards or ceilings to soften them. Use card and other means of directing the light to suit your style. Remember that tracing paper over the front of your flash-gun will help to imitate the light from a soft-box. You can do simple portrait shots in a small room. There are plenty of places that you can hire lights from if you are feeling adventurous.

Shadow Catchers.
At first glance you may dismiss this show for its inability to make you think it is about photography. The work is not made with a camera but using a mixture of techniques including solarisation. My friend was obviously cynical of the work. Clearly he did not think that I had invited him to a photographic exhibition at all. Just the pretentious offerings of those who have no idea how to work a 5x4 camera and probably lacking in any technical ability. It's not sharp, who cares we will call it art! Many commercial photographers view the fine art world with sneering contempt. For a long time I was one of them. Once you realise that the principle is the same just the practical side is different we become more open minded about what a photograph is. The medium is a broad church ranging from science to art with everything in the middle. The work represents a uniqueness not found in the digital age.  Chemigrams involve the artist putting chemicals like varnish onto the light sensitive paper and then manipulating it. These images explore the area of a unique piece of photography as a physical art form. The Chemigrams in some ways are a return to images like a Daguerreotype. While it is not traditional photography in the same way that Robert Capa made images it still has its place. Traditional photography is dead. Long live the Avant-garde.  Click on to the links and make your own mind up, let me know what you think a photograph is. The Daily Telegraph link provides in depth information about the artists. Where we did find common ground was the need for the artists to dress the photographs with quotes. The jury was unanimous it was 'Pretentious Crap.'

Sam Scott-Hunter a well respected music photographer is having an exhibition at the charmingly named Filthy Macnastys. For those of you who like real photography of rockers like Ozzie Osbourne then this could be for you. The raw edgy style of Scott-Hunter captures the subjects in a way that is neither flattering or too exaggerated. The show is on for a month starting from Wednesday 10th November and is in central London. See details below for more information.

"The obsession we have are pretty much the same are whole lives. Mine are people, the human condition,  life." Mary Ellen Mark

Ville Valo by Sam Scott-Hunter.

Sam Scott-Hunter

Week 19 -

How to improve time lapse photography.

Image via Wikipedia

Welcome to 18th edition,
This weeks pdf tutorial is on studio lighting. It covers a range of styles and I will add more next week. If you are a student or have access to a studio you can practice these traditional styles of lighting. If you don't imagination will have to do.
I hope you will notice some improvements from the previous time lapse photography and you can see the results below. With over four hundred jpegs to turn into something that looks like film, the post-production takes a long time.
Now it is winter people move much faster rushing around and this affects how they look to the camera. There is a photographer taking portraits in the last ten seconds of the film. He does a star shape near the end so keep an eye on him. It brings humour and closure to the film.
The cloud looks much softer with a solid blue background and I used a polarizing filter  to do this. Increasing the frequency of shots from every 30 to 15 seconds helped to smooth the cloud movement. It is interesting how much the color changes  when the sun goes in. The camera white balance was on cloudy throughout. The sundial affect of the CCTV cameras adds meaning  in many ways The sundial for the passing of time and the cameras recording it. Photography is all around us and our every day movements captured constantly.
The happiness when I first saw the film is the reason for doing it. There was a real adrenaline rush. It is a sensation we have all felt.

The camera was set on aperture mode @ F22. The shutter speed was from 1/4 - 1/10.
If you look at the previous blogs you can see earlier films. There are pdf tutorials showing you how it works. I hope you try it and I look forward to any comments. Thanks for reading.

"Photography is a major force explaining man to man" Edward Steichen.




Studio Portraits -

Test Your Knowledge of Photography. The Tale of an Urban Explorer.

Welcome to the 17th entry.
This weeks pdf is based on a quiz that I gave my students in the week. The 15 questions range from very easy to difficult but as they are multiple guess, sorry I mean choice, eliminate the obvious wrong answers and you may surprise yourself with how much you know.

Nicholas Brewer

Nicholas Brewer

This weeks photographs were taken in a disused building that is being developed in the near future. There is a whole movement out there photographing distressed buildings and having much fun in the process. 28 days later is a popular website used by urban explorers to discuss ideas and share information. Thankfully I was able to gain access to the building with the permission of the developer although I did have to sign a disclaimer stating that any injury incurred during my time was my responsibility. Somehow this felt like cheating....  Many images taken by urban explorers are given the H.D.R. (High Dynamic Range) treatment and is a perfect subject for this type of post production. In the near future I will dedicate a blog to  H.D.R.
Time Lapse
I have included a longer time lapse 'film' that gives a better idea of what is possible although I do not like  it as much as the first one.

I have never taken a picture I've intended. They're always better or worse. Diane Arbus

Photography Quiz -