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Photography 1: Digital Photographic Practice Assignment Three (Monochrome) Mike Nott (Student Number 510717) Page 1 of 30 © Copyright Mike Nott 2015 PHOTOGRAPHY 1: DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHIC PRACTICE Assignment Three (Monochrome) Mike Nott (Student Number 510717) 16 th January 2015

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Photography 1: Digital Photographic Practice

Assignment Three (Monochrome)

Mike Nott (Student Number 510717)

Page 1 of 30 © Copyright Mike Nott 2015

PHOTOGRAPHY 1:

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHIC PRACTICE

Assignment Three (Monochrome)

Mike Nott (Student Number 510717)

16th January 2015

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Assignment Three (Monochrome)

Mike Nott (Student Number 510717)

Page 2 of 30 © Copyright Mike Nott 2015

1) INTRODUCTION:

This supports the submission of the third assignment for Photography 1: Digital Photographic

Practice. This assignment is titled ‘Monochrome’ and the requirements for this assignment are

repeated below from the course material:

“For this assignment, choose a theme or subject that you will conceive, shoot

and process in black-and-white, attempting to bring out the monochromatic

images of form, tonal contrast and texture, and perhaps experimenting with key.

To accompanying the final images, which should total about 5 and 10 (discuss

this with your tutor), write an account of why you chose this particular theme or

subject, what you set out to achieve from the point of view of black and white

imagery, and to what extent you feel that you have succeeded.

Send your work to your tutor with extracts from your learning log or blog URL.

You must include some prints in your assignment submission.”

When thinking about my subject for this Assignment Three, I had first considered ‘trees’ as my

initial subject matter, indeed, I had contacted my tutor asking whether this would have been a

worthy choice (and it was). However, I couldn’t help but be drawn back to Dungeness down on

the south coast where I visited earlier in the year. Many people will be familiar with the (often

overused) images of old fishing boats, dark and moody skies etc., but I wanted to do something

very different, focussing on the shape, form and texture of key elements that go to make up

‘Dungeness’; converting the images to monochrome should emphasise these characteristics of

these key elements.

During my research for this assignment I found out that Dungeness is one of the largest areas of

shingle in Europe and is deemed to be Britain's only desert by the Met Office (one of the

definitions of desert is ‘arid land with usually sparse vegetation’).

FIGURE 1 – ASSIGNMENT THREE PLANNING MIND MAP

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In my ‘planning’ mind map shown in Figure 1, I identified five potential substantive areas of

interest for my assignment based on my recollection of my visit earlier in the year, namely power

stations, lighthouses, beach, boats and rubbish. There is a lot more to Dungeness that just these

components; there is a small community of scattered homes consisting of full time and weekend

residents in a variety of eclectic dwellings (the “Village”), two pubs, a small railway (The Romney,

Hythe and Dymchurch Railway) and an RSPB reserve to name but a few. Recent history is also

present in the form of Second World War relics and buildings, but these are less obvious to the

untrained eye and only ‘seen’ by the discerning student of history who has done their homework.

At one end of the beach, in the area around the boats, there is a mass of discarded rubbish and

the detritus from the careless and deliberate actions of the fishermen; it forms sort of a sort of

visual ‘history’ of their working lives.

I have made the decision not to use the power station or lighthouses in any of images and I

deliberately did not take any pictures of them when I visited the area. I also decided not to

include any of the boats, or at least not in any recognisable sense in the context of Dungeness or

the beach, such that I remove the sense of the place and to produce images that could be

anywhere, showing form, texture and shape in isolation from the location. I know that sounds a

rather contradictory scenario, going somewhere to take images, but yet removing the ‘place’ from

the images. It is – isn’t it?

After my visit, my initial challenge was to down-select images from the 200+ that had been taken,

discounting those images that would not convert well to monochrome in my post-processing in

my ‘digital darkroom’. Whilst I imported all the images into Lightroom, the application displays

the RAW files in colour (which can be mildly irritating). I chose to perform my down-select

against the JPEG images that I took simultaneously with the RAW files in black-and-white ‘in-

camera’ alongside Lightroom (to check histograms etc.). As I become more experienced, I will

develop the skill to mentally assess scenes and compositions in a real-world environment and be

able to ‘see’ textures, shapes and forms that would translate well into this colourless medium –

and that will develop over time I’m sure.

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The full ‘contact-sheets’ for this assignment can be found in Annex A (Supporting Material) and

the initial selection of images for further review and conversion to monochrome is given below:

FIGURE 2 – DOWN-SELECT CONTACT SHEET1

The assignment was shot entirely on a Canon 5D Mark III predominantly using a 50mm f1.4 prime lens and a 24-105mm f4 zoom lens.

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2) Images:

PLATE 1 – GEARS 2

Across the broad expanse of the shingle that goes to make Dungeness such a unique

environment, there are large and heavy, but yet redundant, winches previously used to drag the

fishing boats up onto the beach. The decaying mechanics offer the shapes and texture that I

wanted to capture for conversion into monochrome; the tight framing and minor cropping in post-

processing makes it more abstract and removes any context of location.

An initial global adjustment to the Exposure (-0.39) was performed and medium contrast

adjustment to darken the shadow areas a tad. I experimented with the hue sliders and needless

to say that the Green, Aqua, Blue, Purple and Magenta had absolutely no impact on the tonal

quality of this image, so were all zeroed. The rusting of the gears was predominantly

orange/brown in colour, so minor adjustments to the Red, Orange and Yellow sliders were

performed (+14, +17 and +12 respectively) to enhance the overall image. A 4x3 crop has been

applied, but I suspect a 1x1 crop would have been quite effective as well; converted in Silver

Efex Pro 2 using a pre-set with further minor contrast and colour adjustments.

Image Details: 105mm, 1/5th sec @ f11, ISO 100, Auto WB, Manual Metering.

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PLATE 2 – ENGINE 3

Driving the winch gears seen in Plate 1 are equally decaying diesel engines, left open to the

elements and the corrosive salt air; the single strand of rope all that is left of the cover that once

provided shelter. I felt that this subject provided the key image elements that I required

(interesting shape and texture) to have a successful conversion to monochrome; moving in close

again to get a tight framing when taking the photograph, coupled with minor cropping to remove

the distracting bright horizon, focusses the attention on the shapes of the pipes, injectors, cover

and the textures of the flaking paint, rope and manufacturers metal plate.

The basic conversion into monochrome was performed in LR, having initially set the black and

white points. This image was loaded into Silver Efex Pro 2 and a series of basic template

settings were checked; the best ‘feel’ was ‘Wet Rocks’; once applied, further adjustments were

made to the brightness and contrast and the final version re-imported back into LR for a minor

crop top and bottom. A full tonal range is present within the image. The weathered and rusted

texture of the engine block and components has been brought out within the image – and a

rough, gritty feeling pervades.

Image Details: 50mm, 1/250th sec @ f8, ISO 400, Auto WB, -0.3 EV, Evaluative Metering.

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PLATE 3 – ROPE 4

Dungeness can be very cluttered and messy around the fishing boats and fisherman’s huts; piles

of fishing nets and rope, various floats and creels, plastic drums and other detritus of this

seaborne trade. Selecting individual elements to support this aims of this assignment can be a

confusing affair, but in this example, a single frayed rope has been isolated for the splayed out

shape on the pebbles.

The original colour image had strands of yellow and green intertwined into the rope. The aim of

the mono conversion in LR was to bring out the texture and form of the rope; altering the primary

colour hues associated with the pebbles (Orange -31) and increasing the Yellow (+31).

Increased Green +21 and Aqua +17 to bring out the fine texture of the frayed rope in the centre

and centre-left of the image and finally reduced the Blue -65 and increased Clarity to +18. A 4x3

crop was finally applied. There is a lot of increased detail within the rope, more so than seen

within the original colour image, but there is a distinct lack of a clean ‘white’ within the image, but

then, there wasn’t in the original scene.

Image Details: 50mm, 1/100th sec @ f11, ISO-400, Auto WB, +0.3EV, Evaluative Metering.

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PLATE 4 – TRAINER 5

This solitary training shoe is an example of the random nature of the rubbish left high-up on the

beach, well away from the high-tide line, so it has been discarded rather than lost ‘at sea’. I

could have captured this in two ways – a ‘wide’ composition where the trainer is small in relation

to the overall scene or, as is the case here, a close frame to isolate the trainer and bring out the

detail of the weathered and aged shoe.

The image was loaded into LR and a basic monochrome conversion was performed. A decrease

in the Orange and Yellow hue sliders (-37 and -67 respectively) was used to darken the pebbles;

increased Green to +44 to lighten the small blades of grass and increase Blue (+45) to lighten

the rope in the lower left corner. Some local Brush adjustments applied to reduce the Exposure

and Highlights on the sole and heel of the shoe to bring out the detail of the cracking and overall

contrast within the scene. Sharpened the image with mask adjustment (+66) and a 4x3 crop

made.

Image Details: 50mm, 1/50th sec @ f11, ISO-400, Auto WB, Evaluative Metering, +0.3EV

adjustment.

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PLATE 5 – PLANKING 6

I just couldn’t get the effect that I wanted by just adjusting the hue sliders in LR post

monochrome conversion; I wanted to emphasise the grain in the wood and to differentiate the

planking. I elected to import the basic monochrome conversion into Silver Efex Pro 2 and tried a

number of pre-set options to see whether the effect that I wanted could be achieved. I selected

the ‘Full Contrast and Structure’ pre-set and made further manual adjustments to the Brightness

(-15%), Contrast (+29%) and Structure (+19%). I willingly accepted that I would get some

shadow clipping in the darkest shadow areas. Finally I applied a subtle vignette to the corners

and brought back into LR for final cropping (1x1) to ‘strengthen’ the pattern of the planking.

Image Details: 24mm, 1/5th sec @ f13, ISO-100, Auto WB, Manual Metering.

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PLATE 6 – RIPPLES AND NET

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This is part of a broken down fisherman’s hut; the outside covered in tar and felt, withered and

crinkled with age and a fragment of netting strung as though it were a broken spiders web. This

image is all about texture and the conversion into monochrome needed to emphasise that.

Initial global adjustments were made to the colour image in LR (Shadows -36, Blacks -34 and

Clarity +10). Further minor adjustments were made to the Tone Curve (Highlights -2, Lights -31,

Darks -25 and Shadows -23) and hue slider adjustments (Red -65, Orange +62, Yellow +24,

Green +26, the last three to brighten the netting and Blue -21 and Purple +12). This image was

then loaded into Silver Efex Pro 2 for final adjustment to enrich the rippling of the tar and felt.

Image Details: 50mm, 1/6th sec @ f11 ISO-100, Auto WB, Manual Metering.

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PLATE 7 – CURVE 8

The edge of this boat had flecks of yellow moss/algae, spots of red/brown rust and bright reflected

skylight in the shinier parts of the metal work. I performed the initial conversion into B&W in LR

and it was very flat, so applied an S-curve to increase the overall contrast. I wanted to emphasise

the colours on the wooden top, so increased the Yellow (+24) and Green (+50) hue sliders, but

decreased the Blue (-59) to reduce the minor reflection of the sky. I performed selective

sharpening using a mask (70). There was no shadow clipping present in the final converted

image and it would have been possible to bring out more detail in the shadow area (there was no

shadow clipping present in the final converted image), but I decided not to. I wanted to keep the

dark in the upper left corner as a contrast to the brighter band of boat hull as it swept up into the

frame. Whilst the curve is attractive within the original composition, it benefited from a 4x3 crop.

Image Details: 75mm, 1/50th sec @ f4, ISO-100, Auto WB, Manual Metering.

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PLATE 8 – AGING PAINT 9

As seen previously, the conversion to monochrome was performed in LR; I applied an aggressive

S tone curve using ‘Strong Contrast’ in the Tone Curve panel (Highlights +50, Lights +40, Darks

+18) and reduced Highlights -11 and Whites -22. Further adjustment to Clarity +8 and the Red,

Orange and Yellow hue sliders (+50, +38 and +36 respectively) and Aqua -42, Blue -4, Purple -42

and Magenta -32 to bring out the tone, detail and texture in the wood grain and flaking paint. I

finally applied selective sharpening using mask for grain detail and edges only.

Image Details: 105mm, 1/160th sec @ f4.5, ISO-400, Auto WB, Evaluative Metering, +0.3EV.

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PLATE 9 – RAILS 10

These are the disused mini rail tracks that, in the days long ago provided the only means to

transporting the daily fishing catch from the boats up to the road. This scene was captured with a

deliberately shallow depth of field and we have a bright, washed out sky with the blurred form of a

fisherman’s derelict hut (seen again in Plate 10) and more permanent houses away in the

distance. Like so many of the pictures of this area, we have the constant presence of pebbles

and shingle which I can treat using various colour adjustments once converted to black and white.

The overall exposure has been reduced (-0.74) and the Highlights and White decreased (-22 and

-27 respectively); I also applied ‘strong contrast’ using the Tone Curve. The initial conversion to

black-and-white wasn’t too bad; a yellow ‘filter’ effect made the overall scene much brighter (high-

key) that would have some attraction; increasing the Green colour would either enhance or

effectively remove the green foliage in the middle distance. In fact, there are so many options for

post-processing this image that there may not be a ‘right’ conversion.

However, in this conversion shown here I used Silver Efex Pro 2 again. I’m trying to work out

what it does so I can replicate similar effects in LR, but I’m not quite there yet…other than altering

the global adjustments to get the final effect that I am looking for. I’ve created quite a high-key

image here, but have altered the Red hue slider to recover some of the detail in the foreground

netting. I also applied a film-type effect of Ilford FP4 Plus 125, the black and white 35mm film

used in my (much) younger days! Reloading the final image back into LR, I applied the same 4x3

crop.

Image Details: 105mm, 1/320th sec @ f5, ISO-800, Auto WB, Evaluative Metering.

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PLATE 10 – FLOWING NETS 11

I wanted to capture the feel of the netting ‘flowing’ out of the ramshackle hut like water. I had a

full tonal range in the original image file with no highlight or shadow clipping and an even

distribution of tone across the histogram. The initial conversion to monochrome in LR left the

black wooden cladding somewhat insipid. I applied a medium contrast setting to the image via

the Tone Curve and I reduced the Orange, Yellow and Green hue sliders by -45, -34 and -52

respectively. I finished off with a 1x1 crop to focus the eyes on the lead-in lines of the planking

towards the ‘flow’ of the netting.

Using monochrome has allowed the dark block of the wooden cladding to decrease in

importance, emphasising the spilling out of the netting onto the shingle. I really should have

gotten down lower though when I took the photograph though!

Image Details: 40mm, 1/40th sec @ f5, ISO-100, Auto WB, Evaluative Metering.

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3) Self-Assessment and Reflection:

This is my third assignment for Photography 1: Digital Photographic Practice. I continue to

present my assignments in this rather structured format, as no one has told me that it doesn’t

work – or that it could/should be done differently.

In terms of the assessment criteria laid out within the coursework, there are four main areas to be

considered:

Demonstration of technical and visual skills

Quality outcome

Demonstration of creativity

Context

There has been so much visual exposure to elements that form all that goes to make up the

Dungeness area and the ‘typical’ image of decaying boats will be instantly familiar as

‘Dungeness’; I really didn’t want to go down that path and deliberately chose to ‘get in close’ for

many of the compositions, isolating the shape, form, tone and texture of the subjects as much as

possible. Have I been successful in that regard? Possibly, but I think I could have created better

compositions and cleaner and more pronounced ‘blacks’ and ‘whites’ in some of the images.

Removing colour from an image should allow other graphic elements and features with the scene

to be increased in importance. When I perform crucial self-analysis of the ten plates presented in

this assignment submission, I would only consider four to be really successful in that regard,

namely:

Plate 1 (Gears) – the strong shapes of the gears and post-processing has emphasised the

‘form’ giving a three-dimensional nature to the subject;

Plate 5 (Planking) – we have the diagonal lines of the planking spanning right to left (rising)

vs left to right (dropping) creating a strong structure with contrast between the deep shadow

areas and the much paler, textured wood. The deliberate cropping ‘anchors’ the lines

formed by the planking in the bottom right and top left;

Plate 7 (Curve) – a deliberately shallow depth of field and the swooping nature of the edge

of the boat leads the eye into the image - texture remains in the immediate foreground in the

rough wood that soon drops off. I could have recovered some additional shadow detail from

within the boat (top left quadrant), but I felt that it would reduce the simplicity within the

composition with the compromise of a ‘block’ of black as a result.

Plate 9 (Rails) – this is a high-key image, created deliberately in post-processing treatment.

The rails create the ‘hard’ shape with the pebbles creating a juxtaposition of roundness and

almost shapelessness as the eye moves up the image.

Many of my images do not exhibit many of the monochromic qualities that I would ideally like, but

I have been successful in creating elements of shape, texture and tonal variations; to a large

degree I put that down to the selected subject matter and the ‘flat’ low contrast daylight present

on the day (and yes, that was a deliberate choice on my part). I still feel that my work doesn’t

have much creativity about it, but the images that I take I feel are ‘me’, so perhaps I may be still

be developing my imagery such that they will be considered as artistic or creative in nature in the

future. I’m hoping that will develop the more I see and the more I read. Well, I can hope.

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My applied workflow was very consistent in its application:

I always work on a RAW file in Lightroom, giving me the maximum opportunity for consistent

post-processing and greatest flexibility for either global or local exposure adjustments;

Setting the White and Black points to maximise the tonal range and adjust contrast;

Recovery of Shadow detail and/or reduce Highlights;

Adjusting the RAW grayscale hue settings to achieve the desired result;

Optionally perform additional post-processing using Silver Efex Pro 2 plug-in (it is a much

easier method of achieving a desired effect, usually with some manual adjustments of

overall image brightness, contrast and structure to suit my personal tastes and preferences).

I feel a whole lot better using this ‘cheat’ when Michael Freeman devotes two pages to this

noteworthy plug-in in his ‘Black-and-White Photography Field Guide, 2013, The Ilex Press

Limited’;

RAW also allows me the option of creating a 16-bit TIFF file as the final output for additional

conversion (i.e. creation of smaller JPEG images for the blog).

I have also created a set of prints in support of this assignment. I am finding that the same

image is, not unsurprisingly, consistently printing out much darker than the image when

displayed on the computer screen. I performed a bench-marking exercise to determine how

much additional ‘brightness’ needs to be applied to an image to get the same effect. I did this by

creating an adjustment layer within Photoshop and increasing the ‘brightness’ in 5% increments

from 0 to 35% and printing out the results. The theory being that the ideal % can be identified

and applied to all subsequent images for printing! It will certainly save me some money if I can

crack it.

I’m not sure I have consciously tried to incorporate any ideas into the work for this assignment

garnered through the study of the work of other photographers. That being said, given the

longevity of the monochrome image from the earliest days of photography back in the 1830’s

through to the current day, the cannon of work to explore is immense.

The list below is just a sample12

of the best known photographers who will have contributed to

this medium in a substantive manner:

Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908 – 2004)

This well-known French photographer exclusively worked in the black and white medium

throughout his career. Could he possibly be the best known/most famous photographer of all

time? One that would result in a length debate I suspect. He is possibly the ‘father of modern

photojournalism’ who started using 35m cameras to take candid images of the unsuspecting; he

is best known for the phrase ‘the decisive moment’ of an event – the one that if you missed it,

would never happen again.

Ansel Adams (American, 1902 – 1984)

Well, it would be rude not to include Mr Adams in this (very) rough selection of well-known

photographers who contributed so much to the black-and-white photographic cannon of work of

the 20th and 21

st Century. His photographic work of the American West, especially the National

Parks such as Yosemite, will be his lasting legacy along with the ‘zone system’ that he developed

12

I’m sure my tutor will have different views on who might appear in such a list, and I suspect, so would I if I were to think about it again in the future as I become more familiar with the work of other photographers!

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so thoroughly to achieve the correct exposure and contrast resulting in images noteworthy for

their clarity and feeling of depth – and coined the term ‘pre-visualisation’ where the photographer

imaged how the final print would look even before he took the photograph. There are simply too

many classic images from Adams to call out, but I recently saw two at the Drawn by Light

exhibition that have aged well, ‘Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico (1941)’ and ‘Aspen, New

Mexico (1958)’.

Edward Weston (American, 1886 – 1958)

I have to be honest and say I was relatively unfamiliar with the work of Weston until I started my

research for my personal project in Assignment Five – where I discovered that his cannon of

work included landscape, still life, portraits and nudes. I will be studying his work in more depth,

but his well-known vegetable and fruit still-life works (e.g. “Pepper 30”) will be forming the basis

for my personal project. It has been said that Weston was “one of the most innovative and

influential American photographers” and was a friend and contemporary of Ansel Adams (they

were in the Group f/64 together).

Richard Avedon (American, 1923 – 2004)

Primarily a fashion and portrait photographer, Avedon worked for many of the best known

magazines such as Harper’s Bizarre, Vogue and Life for much of his working life; he is also

known for his minimalist portraiture work (the subjects look square into the camera against a

white background and using strong lighting) and his most significant book and travelling

exhibition In the American West (1979) consisting of 125 portraits of people across the American

‘west’ who caught Avedon’s eye. During a recent camera club talk by a member of the club (who

happens to be a Professor in Psychology) on what she thought made photographs have the

‘wow’ factor, she showed Avedon’s Beekeeper image from his In The American West book; I

feel the need to scratch every time I see it now! Thanks Sheena….

Dorothea Lange (American, 1895 – 1965)

Lange is best known for her work for the Farm Security Administration in the USA during the

Depression era in the 1930’s and helped in the development of documentary photography, along

with her colleagues such as Walker Evans and under the oversight of Roy Stryker. One of her

best known works is ‘Migrant Worker’ (1936) that features many photographic history/study

books.

Yousef Karsh (Armenian-Canadian, 1908 – 2002)

Some would consider Karsh to be one of the foremost portrait photographers of this time and

having photographed many of the best known people/faces of the 20th century (including Winston

Churchill, Ernest Hemmingway, Princess Elizabeth/Prince Phillip, George Bernard Shaw,

Elizabeth Tailor, Albert Einstein, Georgia O’Keefe and Mother Teresa). See my mention of his

definitive Churchill portrait titled ‘The Roaring Lion’ in my blog entry

(https://nott249.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/dpp-reflections-22-drawn-by-light-rps-exhibitio/).

There is also an interesting career retrospective interview of Karsh (in three parts) in his later

years that can be found here (http://digital-photography-school.com/masters-of-photography-

yousef-karsh-portrait-photographer/).

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Paul Strand (American, 1890-1976)

An early pioneer in photography in the 20th century with a particular liking for candid street

photography and social documentary; his best known work is likely to be ‘Blind’ 1916

(http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/33.43.334).

Don McCullin (British, b1935)

Yes, I’m going to include McCullin into my list. Best known for his war photography, he is a

photojournalist of the highest order and much of his cannon of work has been in black and white.

I like his work, and from what I’ve read and heard about him, I like him as a person. I have

previously written about McCullin in my The Art of Photography blog

(https://nott249.wordpress.com/2013/07/26/reflections-23-don-mccullin/).

Sebastião Salgado (Brazilian, b1944)

Finally, another contemporary photojournalist held in the highest regard. One of his most recent

substantive works titled ‘Genesis’ was the culmination of seven years effort and endeavoured to

show the unblemished faces of nature and humanity through black and white images of wildlife

and landscapes. I have previously written about the Genesis exhibition in my The Art of

Photography blog (https://nott249.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/reflections-24-sebastiao-salgado-

genesis-2/).

I have deliberately not included my observations and comments from the supporting the ‘Creative

Interpretation’ project exercises associated with this section of the course. My write ups for these

exercises can be seen using the following links:

Exercise 11 (RAW) https://nott249.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/dpp-exercise-11-raw/

Exercise 12 (Managing Tone)

https://nott249.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/dpp-exercise-12-managing-tone/

Exercise 13 (Managing Colour)

https://nott249.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/dpp-exercise-13-managing-colour/

Exercise 14 (Interpretative Processing)

https://nott249.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/dpp-exercise-14-interpretative-processing/

Exercise 15 (Black-and-White)

https://nott249.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/dpp-exercise-15-black-and-white/

Exercise 16 (Strength of Interpretation)

https://nott249.wordpress.com/2014/11/28/dpp-exercise-16-strength-of-interpretation/

Exercise 17 (Colours into Tones 1) https://nott249.wordpress.com/2014/11/28/dpp-exercise-17-colours-into-tones-1/

Exercise 18 (Colours into Tones 2) https://nott249.wordpress.com/2014/12/07/dpp-exercise-18-colours-into-tones-2/

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ANNEX A - SUPPORTING MATERIAL

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General Course Assessment Criteria

Repeated verbatim from the OCA course study material:

“Here are the assessment criteria for this course. These are central to the assessment process for

this course, so if you are going to have your work assessed to gain formal credits, please make sure

you take note of these criteria and consider how each of the assignments you complete demonstrates

evidence of each criterion. On completion of each assessment, and before you send your

assignment to your tutor, test yourself against the criteria – in other words – do a self-assessment,

and see how you think you would do. Note down your findings of each assignment you’ve completed

in your learning log, noting all your perceived strengths and weaknesses, taking into account the

criteria every step of the way. This will be helpful for your tutor to see, as well as helping you prepare

for assessment.

Assessment Criteria Points:

Demonstration of Technical and Visual Skills material, techniques, observational skills, visual

awareness, design and compositional skills;

Quality of Outcome content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent

manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas;

Demonstration of Creativity imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal

voice;

Context reflection, research, critical thinking (learning log).”

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Contact Sheets

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Selection of Related (Unused) Images

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End of Assignment