Independent Practice by L W

LUKE WHITE

BA (HONS) GRAPHIC DESIGN YEAR 3 EGRD3014 - INDEPENDENT PRACTICE (30 CREDITS)

WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN WHY

I think this is the time for me to stop, look, listen, take a deep breath and have a long hard look at myself. Over the past two years of the degree I have enjoyed generating work in a number of different disciplines such as photography, typography, advertising, packaging and book making. After speaking to people in industry and former graduates I have heard contrasting opinions about how to operate as a designer. I believe that being flexible and being able to work in a number of situations would be beneficial regarding the amount of work I can get. However, some people have advised me to choose my strengths and stick

with them to develop a ‘signature style’. I have my reservations with this piece of advice, as I wouldn’t want to be pigeon holed as being ‘that type of designer’ before I have even started. After two years of believing that versatility is key, I am uncomfortable with the urgency to decide exactly what discipline I want to work in when I leave the walls of this university. I may find it challenging to choose a single discipline to work in for this unit as I don’t want to confine myself to just one area of design without having experienced it in the real world. Do I want to be a ‘jack of all trades’? Well, not exactly. During last years

Design Investigation I came to the conclusion that I would most probably work best at an interdisciplinary agency working on a variety of different projects. I can say now that freelancing is not for me, I would find it difficult to work from home and not interact with other designers. Although I am capable of working solo, I do enjoy working as part of a collective. As the saying goes, today is the first day of the rest of my life, and indeed the rest of this course, so here we go…

L uke Wh it e

FANZINE

http://lukewhite.gdnm.org/2010/12/03/red-white-blue/

RED WHITE BLUE One week brief: Create a fanzine on the subject of your choice I wanted to relate my fanzine to my passion for photography. During the one day session I generated an illustrated guide on how to photograph a splash in a coffee cup. I did this because there is an increasing number of subcultures on Flickr where someone produces a shot, and people try to emulate it. The guide

would encourage more people to try it, therefore raising awareness for that particular subculture. I wasn’t satisfied with the outcome of the session as I wanted to produce something from my own photography. I decided to produce a fanzine on my recent experience of seeing the R.A.F Red Arrows display team in Eastbourne. I wanted to combine image and copy because it’s something I enjoy doing.

I am aware that this enthusiast fanzine goes against the ‘purist’ fanzines which are hand made and can easily be physically reproduced. However, my argument is that living in the 21st century and with web sites like Issuu, a full colour fanzine can be published on the net to a targeted audience for absolutely nothing. N.B my zine has had 116 views on Issuu.

DESIGN ANALYSIS

One week brief: Analyse an object. I will be honest, at first I had no idea why we were asked to analyse a random artefact. However, after sitting down and writing about my object, it made me think about how even the smallest things that people overlook, have an element of design and reasoning behind them.

THREE MINUTE HERO One week brief: Make a 3 minute video on the subject of my choice. I created a tutorial on how to photograph smoke, with the intention of sharing some photography know-how. This was something I had recently learnt how to do. I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t shot video before and I am by no means proud of my film, however, I know two of my peers found it helpful. http://lukewhite.gdnm.org/2010/10/11/3-minute-hero/

VENN DIAGRAM

ENER

, ALEX TR O H UT C

ILIA KUS GRID S

AT TEN

, IN

ISSUE

O H F OSE

LFL

G R A P H Y, P E R S I S T O P Y T , ENCE HY , RG A P D E T A I L , C R A F T, O T ON

ENT

RAPH

PHOT

B 1) Local Subcultures After my alcoholics anonymous experience I thought I could look at the local subcultures that exist within our own society.

A, M E T T E A M B E C K , J

U L IA Below are five proposed areas of investigation that I would like to pursue, and could link with the results of the Venn diagram.

SKAY

B B O T T, C R A I G W A R D

NDO N , C UR

J A S P E R W H ITE,D

C H A S E J A R V I S, Y

RO D

The completed Venn diagram shows that my interests, influences and skills are photography, typography, paper craft and book making.

INFLUENCES

P A P E R A R T, L O

INTERESTS

INDEPENDENT PAPER CRAFT PRACTICE EXPERIMENTS BOOK BINDING PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTOGRAPHY TYPOGRAPHY

ID A

L I O N S,

PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS

E UNUSUAL, SUBC

Y, P U B

ICAT

PHOTOGRAPH

S, T R A V E L , T Y P O G

SKILLS

N TA L E M I R PE

TURE

I O N, C O P Y W R I T I T A T N E NG IM R E P EX T S, B O O K M A K I N U O Y LA

2) Transport & Airport Codes I have a big interest in aviation and transportation. I like the theme, but need to decide if it is too restricting regarding the possibility for experimentation. 3) Geometrical Fascination After creating my book last year, I have wanted to take it to a larger scale. I enjoy paper art and typography and would like to experiment by combining the two. 4) Long Exposure Photography This is a technique I have wanted to experiment with for a while, not during

the night as this is very common, but during the day instead. 5) Hidden / Unknown London I find London an intriguing place, mostly because of its rich and diverse history. Aspects such as disused railway stations, and the rumours of secret underground locations fascinate me. Maybe this a risky area to pursue due to its high level of secrecy?

http://lukewhite.gdnm.org/2010/10/20/group-help/

SOYEZ REALISTES, DEMANDEZ L’IMPOSSIBLE! One week brief: Do something you’ve never done before, something that is outside your ‘comfort zone’. Something you never thought you’d do, but have always wanted to. I decided to attend a local session of Alcoholics Anonymous. I didn’t document the experience first hand, however, afterwards I made a small publication to evidence my observations and understandings.

JOSEF HOLFLENER I have been following Josef Hoflenerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work on Flickr for the last year. He is an Austrian landscape photographer and has a very distinct style. No matter the subject, the compositions are striking and well thought out. His photos are presented in black and white and in a square format, something different from the popular 3:2 format. Most of his work shows movement and has signs of longer shutter speeds than one would expect. His landscape shots I would imagine to be sixty seconds or longer. This allows him to achieve skies and water with a calming smoothness to them. I have never tried long exposure photography during the day and it is certainly something that I would like to experiment with. This technique is popular with landscape photography, I aim to use it on subjects that are unexpected.

CALCULATING EXPOSURE The most common way to create long exposures during the day is by using a 10 stop ND filter which retail in excess of a hundred pounds. I have heard of people using welding glass (used in visors) as an economical alternative to gain a very similar effect. The glass looks solid black and If you were to hold it up to the sun you could just about make out its circular shape. Using the welding glass will allow exposures (depending on conditions) of around fifteen minutes to be achieved.

F-STOPS f/1.0 f/1.1 f/1.2 f/1.4 f/1.6 f/1.8 f/2.0 f/2.2 f/2.5 f/2.8 f/3.2 f/3.5 f/4.0 f/4.5 f/5.0

This allows lots of movement in a daytime shot to be captured that cannot be seen with the naked eye. To help me calculate the correct exposure I have created a useful table. I will need to meter the scene without the welding glass, then add the glass and adjust the shutter speed by 10 stops. For instance, if the scene meters me to shoot 0”5 without the glass I would then set a shutter speed of 480”.

SHUTTER SPEEDS f/5.6 f/6.3 f/7.1 f/8.0 f/9.0 f/10 f/11 f/13 f/14 f/16 f/18 f/20 f/22 f/26 f/28

Bold = Full Stop Increment Light = 1/3 Stop Increment

3200” 2560” 1920” 1600” 1280” 960” 800” 640” 480” 400” 320” 240” 200” 160” 120”

100” 80” 60” 50” 40” 30” 25” 20” 15” 13” 10” 8” 6” 5” 4”

3”2 2”5 2” 1”6 1”3 1” 0”8 0”6 0”5 0”4 0”3 1/4 1/5 1/6 1/8

1/10 1/13 1/15 1/20 1/25 1/30 1/40 1/50 1/60 1/80 1/100 1/125 1/160 1/200 1/250

1/320 1/400 1/500 1/640 1/800 1/1000 1/1250 1/1600 1/2000 1/2500 1/3200 1/4000

Canon 17-40mm F4L Lens

ELASTIC FANTASTIC Canon 17-40mm F4L Lens with hood reversed and welding glass held on with elastic bands

The best way I have found to attach the glass to the camera is by reversing the hood and using a few elastic bands. This holds the plate in place firmly against the lens without the risk of light leaking in.

Without Filter

With Filter

FIRST EXPERIMENT For my first photo using the welding glass I popped outside to the telegraph pole outside my house. It was a partially cloudy day with high wind so the clouds were moving pretty fast.

welding glass really was. This will need to be adjusted in post processing to get the correct colour balance, shooting in RAW format will significantly help me with this.

I set the camera up and calculated that 45 seconds was the correct exposure. After taking the photo I could see how serious the green colour cast of the

I like the effect that this technique achieves, I just need to experiment with different subjects to see what effects can be captured.

Black & White Conversion

GHOST TYPING

EXPERIMENTATION

The seconds, minutes and hours spin independently on each triangle on my clock. The right hand image shows its movement over a ten minute period.

I sat in the frame for a third of the exposure. I believe this is how most of the hoax ghost photos are created.

An image of me playing a lap on Forza 3 on my Xbox. It intrigues me how this technique can show a sequence of time in one shot.

EUGENE ATGET At the mid-point review Luke suggested I look at French photographer Eugene Atget. He was famous for taking tens of thousands of pictures of Paris. His photos combined a long exposure with good timing and early mornings to create photos that rarely had people in them, and if they were, they would be blurred due to the long shutter speed. Judging by most of his photos he used a wide angle lens to capture the entire scene rather than picking out the surface details in the architecture. It is this emptiness that I find really strange, it makes me wonder how can a city such as Paris be captured looking so calm and tranquil. I want to try and experiment with this technique myself with the hustle and bustle of the streets of London.

FAST FOOD Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t ask me why, but the idea popped into my head to photograph myself eating, to see what the result would be. For the pizza (left) I allowed eight minutes for consumption and the scrambled egg (right) I allowed six minutes. In both photos the first minute was left with the dish complete and cutlery either side (which you can just make out). I also allowed a minute at the end of the shot with the plate clear and the knife and fork crossed on the plate.

You can make out that with the pizza I started to eat from the nearest piece to me and with the scrambled egg I ate the right hand slice first and then made my way from the front to the back. I like the effect where the design of the plate underneath shows through. I received some positive comments on my blog about the idea, however, during the session there was very little enthusiasm, so Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not too sure whether to progress with this concept or not.

MAKE SOMETHING DISAPPEAR After reading up about Eugene Atget and how he used long exposures to create a feeling of emptiness in the city of Paris, I thought I would experiment with the same concept.

Secondly, I wanted to see if animal movement would be recorded in a photo, so I took a trip to Richmond park. The lake was full of wildlife, mostly ducks, birds and swans.

First off, I took a trip to the nearest bridge that crosses the A3 dual carriageway. I set my camera up on the tripod, and set an exposure time of one hundred and eighty seconds.

This was also a one hundred and eighty second exposure, during which the wildlife was moving a lot in both the foreground and on the lake.

In the time period I would estimate approximately 200 cars passed through the frame, however, none were in it long enough to be recorded on the exposure.

I was amazed when I checked the camera, not a single bird can be seen in the picture, only ghostly white markings on the water have been recorded.

Without filter

With filter

LONDON CALLING I went up to London to test a few locations out with the filter. Each time I use this technique I learn something new. The hardest part is calculating the exposure length. Although I created the table as a rule of thumb guide, there can be huge differences in light between the foreground and background. What I have learnt is that photos around three minutes in length show fragments of movement which is captured as a shadowy mist.

However, if the exposures are around the ten minute mark, in most situations the majority of people disappear. It seems to be incredibly hard to get photos that have either a shadowy mist, or that are completely â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;emptyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. I may have to decide that instead of aiming for one effect I should let the process and the time of day impact on how much emptiness there is, rather than trying to get the images to all look the same.

PROCESSING A lengthy discussion in one of my feedback sessions was regarding the post processing of my photos. This is just as important as the photographs themselves as they communicate the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;feelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and message. Welding Glass This is the shot straight out of the camera, it has the green colour cast from the filter. It is a result directly influenced by the process, and would be the same if using analogue or digital. Colour Corrected I have brought the image back to a realistic colour balance. It represents how the process would look, if seen by the human eye over time (if that were possible). Sepia The last version is the sepia processed version. I think this complements the ghostliness and feel of the image.

THE SHORT LIST After many trips up to London these are the images that have made the shortlist for my final piece. All of them were taken at peak times, but there is still a varied degree of movement between one photo and another. Without having the same amount of time as Eugene Atget, there is just no way I could make them all look the same. In the end I decided to let the process, the time of day and the busyness have a direct impact on the outcome. I tried to keep the exposure lengths as close as possible to one another.

FINAL OUTCOME

DISAPPEARING LONDON Disappearing London is the final result of my photographic exploration into daytime long exposures. It is a handmade and bound hardcover book measuring 6â&#x20AC;? x 4â&#x20AC;? in landscape orientation. The piece is constructed with ice white 150gsm card. The cover has an embossed skyline using 300gsm card. The typography has been created using letter punches to emboss the type and help communicate the sense of disappearing. A digital version is available via ISSUU, please ensure you zoom to 100% when viewing full screen to maximize the legibility of the typography.

EVALUATION Photography is a huge passion of mine and I have enjoyed the journey I have taken throughout this project. I know the work is in contrast to what I have produced for my external positioning, however, I enjoy experimenting as it always throws up the unexpected.

its frustrating moments. There were a number of variables that often prohibited me getting the shots I needed. As It progressed I found it difficult to develop my ideas as they were built around a process rather than a theme or narrative.

The journey has helped me develop a few skills, mostly relating to photography. I have learnt a lot about the aspect of photography that is often overlooked, light. Some scenes I had to shoot on a number of occasions at different times of the day just to get the right lighting.

It took over ten separate trips up to London to achieve the results I have. Being winter, the photos could only be taken when the light was good, between 10am and 2pm, which only gave me a narrow window each time. Some days I only managed to capture a single photo I was happy with.

When I graduate I want to find an area in industry that would let me combine both graphic design and photography. As much as I enjoyed this project, it had

It was also difficult regarding where I took the photos. I applied for permits at major railways stations, all of which wanted a lot of money for only an hour’s

permit. At Canary Wharf they were reluctant to let me photograph due to ‘public safety’ and ‘security’ reasons. I enjoyed using the bookmaking skills I learnt last year to produce my final piece. I think making a physical book gave the photos a context and will also help mediate them. I am unhappy with the Issuu version of my final piece as it is hard to appreciate the tactility of it especially the typography.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Websites http://www.abduzeedo.com/29-amazing-long-exposure-pictures http://www.atgetphotography.com/The-Photographers/Eugene-Atget.html http://www.cameranaked.com/Photography_History.htm http://www.dafont.com/universal-accreditation.font http://www.danheller.com/tech-longexp.html http://www.jhoque.com/blog/how-to-photograph-smoke http://www.paxtonprints.com/index.php?x=smoke

Influences http://www.alextrochut.com/ http://www.ambeck.mdd.dk/ http://www.artyulia.com/ http://www.chasejarvis.com/ http://www.ingrid-siliakus.exto.org/ http://www.jasperwhite.co.uk/ http://www.josefhoflehner.com/ http://www.wordsarepictures.co.uk/

Books Peterson, B. (2004) Understanding Exposure: Revised Edition. New York: Amphoto Books Prakel, D. (2009) Exposure. Switzerland: AVA Academia Hoddinott, R. (2008) Digital Exposure Handbook. Sussex: Photographersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Institute Press