Manipulation in photography 2

22/04/07

There are several decisions that go into the making of an image while on location that can have a dramatic influence on the final outcome. These include:

1. Composition.

The very act of picking up a camera and looking through the viewfinder is manipulating the scene in front of you. By choosing to include some aspects of a landscape and exclude others, the photographer is expressing their views of a moment in time.

Let us imagine a beach on which there is litter thrown by some thoughtless individual. Before picking it up and discarding of it properly we could photograph it. The refuse could be placed in the middle of the frame giving it centre stage - a social commentary on the state of our shorelines. Or the photographer could walk a few steps to the left, discounting the debris from the frame to show a gorgeous sandy beach and clean waves...a real paradise. Which image is more truthful?

2. Focal length of lens used.

3. Aperture and shutter speed.

Let's take this scenario a stage further. We could walk back a few steps and use a telephoto lens with a wide aperture on the rubbish to compress perspective and throw the background out of focus. This would give the impression that the refuse fills the beach. Or we could use a wide angle lens at the 'few steps to the left' location to make the flawless part of the beach apparently stretch on forever. A slow shutter speed would show movement in the water adding depth to the image and also blurring any flotsam & jetsam in the water, making it appear spotless.

4. Filtration.

5. Time of day.

With filtration we can increase the divide between these two photographs. On the rubbish strewn image we can shoot during the middle of the day, giving a bluish cast and use a cooling filter to increase the cold unwelcoming effect. With the lovely sandy beach a few steps to the left we can wait until later on in the day, nearer sunset when the light is warm, and can accentuate the colour with a warm up filter and polariser, which will saturate colours and cut down on reflections in the water.

6. Film type used.

We can really push the boat out now and use tungsten balanced film for the rubbish strewn beach shot. Tungsten film is designed to give colour corrected images indoors under artificial light, but when used outside gives a strong blue cast to the image. This is because unlike our eyes, cameras have no way of correcting for the colour of light so film manufacturers make films specific to different types of illumination. Artificial light is very yellow and the blue cast in tungsten film neutralises this. But when used outdoors the blue cast becomes apparent.

For our tropical beach photograph Fuji Velvia is the film of choice. Velvia became ubiquitous in landscape photography because of its ability to make even the most drab day appear vibrant and colourful. It is a very contrasty, highly saturated film that adds punch to a photograph making our beach scene look like the Bahamas!