Panning in four simple steps

Have you ever tried to take photographs of moving subjects and everything always came out blurry?  Have you ever wondered how the sports and war photographers capture crisp images of the subject, while the background has movement or blur?

Panning is where you can capture an image where the subject is crisp and still but the background is full of motion and blurred with lines and colors.  You would want to use panning to create the feeling of movement, or to capture a moving object. You can create amazing images by using the panning technique.  Most sports and war photographers use this technique.

Panning solves the problem of blurry moving objects, for example cars, bicycles, and most sports. To master panning, requires a lot of patience, practice, energy and trial and errors.  Don’t worry, if you keep at it, you will be able expand your image taking!

4 steps to learn panning:

1) Choose a moving subject:

For your first few attempts try to locate subjects that do not move very fast, for instance moving cars in a residential area, or running dogs and joggers in a nearby park.

2)  Set your shutter speed to slower speed at 1/30 or 1/60 and your camera on Auto Focus.

3)   Now, you need to learn to focus track!  When your subject starts to come to the area near where you are, put the subject in view and focus on the subject following it’s movement towards you.  Hold down your shutter button half way down to keep the subject in focus.  Do not let go of the shutter while following your subject with your camera at the same speed it is going.  Your camera will automatically adjust its focus.

Here is an image, where my AF was not focused on the subject:  I chose to go to the nearby carousel located in the center of Florence.

You notice that the background is blurred, but so is my subject.

4)  When the subject gets near where you are (in front or some focal point you have chosen) and shoot!

 

This is how a panned subject should look!  There is a blurry background, while the subject is still in focus.  The image shows the movement of the carousel and provides a colorful background.

Notes:  You may want to play with the shutter speed to gather more blur in the background, but if you make it too low, the subject will also become blurred!

Once you get the hang of it, you can practice on faster moving objects!  Have fun!

Tips on how to use our disposable cameras

We have been distributing quite a few cameras lately without conducting our famous workshop to offer tips in person regarding the camera.  Our cameras are not the most deluxe disposable cameras around, but the 35mm lens is quite nice actually.  We use ASA 400 color film.

The camera is best used:

Outside in natural light

If it is a cloudy day, you may want to turn on the flash.

 

When using inside:

The flash is not very strong and does not have a large distance, you will have to get closer to your subject than you might expect.  The flash will not light up an entire room.

When taking a picture:

• Make sure that your finger is not over the lens, you will not see your finger when viewing through the view finder. Because…the lens is lower than the viewfinder! (we don't want to see your finger in the picture!)
• Try looking at your subject from different angles before you take your shot, look for the angle that appeals to you the most!
• Try laying on the ground, or standing on a chair for a “different view”
• Ask people to act natural, try not to let them “pose” for your image…unless that is what you are looking for.
• Keep the sun behind you when you shoot.  Unless you want a silhouette or flairs.
• Wait to take your shot, make sure that it is something that is a part of your story, or is your story, sometimes that perfect shot comes a few seconds later than expected.
• When outside, the best light is at sunrise and sunset.
• Don’t just “snap and shoot”  Plan, look, wait, think and then shoot.
• Shooting with film, is not the same as digital, you cannot look at the shot, you cannot take back the shot, you cannot erase the shot.

You only have this one roll of film and one week to tell your story.  Reflect and think before you venture out. 

Propaganda and Historical events

History is defined as, “a record of narrative description of past events”, “all that is remembered of the past as preserved in writing; or images; a body of knowledge”

The problem with history is that the stories are told based on the communicator’s perceptions of the events.  For example, if I were an immigrant in France and there are huge protests against the French treatment of immigrants, my side of the “story”, or “historical account” would be different than the French policeman that is blocking the demonstration.

If journalism is supposed to record events that are taking place, which can be used for our future historical records, as journalists we are supposed to try our best to “remain objective” and provide information on we observe then relay that “story” to the general public.

However, a journalist in a specific area cannot cover everything at once in the region. Journalists can only record bits and pieces of what they experience and observe based on where they are located at that particular moment.  These stories become “pieces” of the story and not the entire “story”.  At least this is the reality.  If a person wants to understand the entire story, then one must read articles from different journalists who were there at the same time, but possibly running around with the policemen and not the protesters.  The alternative for the journalist is to observe the demonstration from the sidelines, and then interview both parties and include them in his/her piece.  This is what many journalists try to do.

As a photojournalist, the only real option is to stand on the sidelines and photograph the action, submit it to the editors at the news agencies.  In war photography, it is difficult to “stand on the sidelines” and take images because, the photographer is physically placing him/herself in the territory of either the “enemies” or the “good guys”. 

One must understand, that in most conflicts there are borders where the “good guys” or the “bad guys” (depending on who is writing, what news agency, and/or whose side your on) cross the borders and fight.  For the photographer to cover the story, one must cross the borders.  For example, culture A bombs culture B; the damage takes place in the area of culture B.  Culture A could be the good guys and culture B could be the bad guys.  So if the photographer wants to record the “damage” in the area of culture B, he must cross over and most of his/her images will be from the area of culture B. 

The problem lies in this, let’s say you are covering the damage in culture B, destroyed homes, crying mothers, and broken cars but the agencies most likely to purchase your images are rooting for culture A.  Therefore, if the photographer wants to earn an income and sell his/her images they cannot make culture A look “bad”, they must look like they are doing good in order to justify why they (the supposed good guys) go in and destroy a city. 

In the end, the news in culture A, only gets ½ of the story.  The photographer takes images of solders helping children, rebuilding schools, handing out candy or water.  The photographer takes images of smiles, and joy, in spite of the recent destruction of an entire neighborhood.  These are called propaganda photographs.  Or that is what I call them.  If I wanted to get back the money I spent from going into Iraq as a freelance, I HAD to take propaganda images, it was a must.

One day I would wake up and say to myself, today I am going to run around and “take propaganda” images.  I needed the money.  So, I did just that.  On other days, when my true journalist self came out, I wanted to see what was really going on out there, I would take images of the gas lines, the satellite dishes, the empty movie houses, the priest who’s church was just invaded from the “good guys”, the mothers without husbands, the suicide bombers, talk to the soldiers,  etc…I did not sell any of the images and stories yet, they were part of the story.  It was the other half of the story.

I was once accused as being an activist, not a photojournalist from an editor of a mainstream media source.  At first, I took this rather difficult but within a few days, I looked at is as a compliment.  From his perception, when I submitted images of blocks and rows of apartments with new satellite dishes, brought in from an American company and making a ton of money from the destruction of the media services, I was on the “wrong side”.  I was an activist.  From my journalists’ perspective, I was covering the story, as much as the whole story that I could.  I call it history.  These stories came from the ground, and behind the scenes, the long lines, satellite dishes, lonely soldiers, bombed buildings, and no currency. 

But they did not make the news and they did not make a penny.  Not one.  So where does a photojournalist publish these “untold stories”?   Does he/she leave them in the computer not sharing a part of history with the world?  Or, does he/she publish to those who will take the images and the story, in order to get the other half of the story out there? 

Journalists are responsible to the public, we are responsible to provide objective information to the readers it is our motto, or it is supposed to be.

Documentary Photography Lesson 2: Altering Images, How far can we go?

"In documentary photojournalism, it is wrong to alter the content of a photograph in any way (electronically, or in the darkroom) that deceives the public."  The motto of the NPPA.

Brian Walski’s photographs in the Los Angeles Times, lead to his dismissal for compositing two images from Iraq by using the “burning” or “dodging tool” The Charlotte Observer rescinded three images in the Pictures of the Year awards given to Patrick Schneider because he removed background information from certain images, through excessive adjustments in Photoshop.  Although the conclusion was that Schneider did not “intend” to deceive the public, but “he went over the line in the use of some techniques which altered the backgrounds in ways that left us uncomfortable.” Quoted by the NCPPA.

Schneider used the “hand of God” burns, enhancing the colors of a sunrise photo…which resulted in basically a made-up image.

The debate is was that enough to dismiss the award?  The story did not change.  I agree with the NCPPA and the NPPA in their decision.  Yes, I agree with those who oppose their decision based on the fact that the story did not change.  But that is not what the NCPPA was basing their decision upon.  It was based on the extensive use of altering images, changing colors and removing backgrounds.  I am a member of the NPPA, and I would not dare, alter an image to such an extent.  So what if the sunrise was not as bright and yellow/orange and it should (?)/could have been.  So what if the fire was not as bright red/orange enough to make the image esthetic enough for the viewer to marvel at it.  The image was good, in the Raw context.  However, removing backgrounds?  For me that crosses the line much more than enhancing colors.

The talent with photojournalism or documentary photography is the RAW image.  The challenge is in the ability to generate a story, using framing and composing, So what if I take an image of a world leader and in the background are other camera people.  One cannot truly avoid this event in the world we live in today.  Viewing the other photographers in the background, IS part of the story.  The man is famous!  Everyone wants to snap a shot of him if they get the chance.  If one can succeed snapping the shot, without other faces surrounding the world leader, then….you have a classy image.  This is the challenge.  The story.  The real story.

In part 3 I will discuss the historical problems of using photojournalism and documentary photography as a propaganda machine…this is where the true problem lies.

Documentary Photography lesson 1

Documentary photography is often used to incite political and social change due to its ability to capture the “true” nature of an image or location.

Lewis Hine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Hine ) and James Van DerZee are two pioneers of documentary photography.  Through documentary images the public learns the truth about political, environmental, and cultural situations. Documentary exploded in the 1930’s during the great depressions when photographers started to document the American lives during that time.  The Federal government hired about twenty photographers to develop a pictorial record of the impact of the hard times on the nation.

Dorothea Lange's portrait of “Migrant Mother” and Walker Evans's 1936 series depicting the faces and homes of Alabama sharecroppers have become icons of the era.

However, there is another side to this story… Documentary has a stark record in the 30’s of manipulation of the images, but is a direct violation or the photojournalist’s creed. Evan’s rearranged the houses of the tenant farmer families, while they were working in the fields, in order to construct harmonious scenes of dignified poverty.  He pushed a bed out from the wall to create a diagonal form that crosses like a sash from the top left to the bottom right, and he removed a dirty white suit which hung from the wall. He removed dish clutter and left a lamp to gently reflect light but placed a butter churn to resonate with the lamp.  In the end, the documented images, did not truly reflect the lives inhabited by the farmers.  Instead, he created order where there was chaos.

It was later discovered that Dorothea Lang’s Migrant Mother, was retouched to remove the mother’s thumb (Florence) from the lower right corner of the image. There is controversy over the ethics of approaching the subjects, the Mother known as Florence Owens Thompson.

When Dorothea asked to photograph Florence, she was told that the image would not be published.  But the images ran almost immediately in the San Francisco News and afterwards the federal government went to the camp and delivered 20,000 pounds of food. 

In Dorothea’s field notes, she mentions that the family sold tires to buy food, however, during a later interview with Troy Owens, (once the families name became known) that they did not sell tires, because they did not have any to sell.  The child to the left of the image, said that she feels shame for their poverty from that image.  Florence was quoted as saying, "I wish she [Lange] hadn't taken my picture. I can't get a penny out of it. She didn't ask my name. She said she wouldn't sell the pictures. She said she'd send me a copy. She never did.”

The Postal Service made a stamp of the image in 1998 and sold a print of the photograph with handwritten notes from Dorothea for $244,500.  In November 2002, Lange’s personal print of the Migrant Mother sold for $141.500, and in October 2005, someone paid $296,000 for the rediscovered 32 vintage, untouched Lange photos.

In 1983, Florence was hospitalized and her family appealed for financial assistance.  By September, they collected $25,000 in donations to pay for her medical care. Florence died of cancer and heart problems in September 16, 1983.

Ethics in the Age of Digital Photography/Changes to Photographs

In one of the early Digital Conferences, the Rev. Don Doll, S.J. pointed out that there are degrees of changes that can be done electronically to a photograph. There are technical changes that deal only with the aspects of photography that make the photo more readable, such as a little dodging and burning, global color correction and contrast control. These are all part of the grammar of photography, just as there is a grammar associated with words (sentence structure, capital letters, paragraphs) that make it possible to read a story, so there is a grammar of photography that allows us to read a photograph. These changes (like their darkroom counterparts) are neither ethical nor unethical - they are merely technical.

Changes to content can be Accidental or Essential (this is an old Aristotelian distinction)- Essential changes change the meaning of the photograph and accidental changes change useless details but do not change the real meaning. Some changes are obviously more important than others. Accidental changes are not as important as Essential changes, but both kinds are still changes.

If you had a photograph of a bride and groom and removed the groom, this would constitute an essential change because it would change the meaning of the photograph. (In fact, there are companies that will provide this service if you get a divorce. I guess the wedding book would end up looking like the bride got all dressed up and married herself.)

In the photos of the ladies on the parade float, the first photo has a set of wires running behind the ladies. In the second photo, the lines have been removed.




 


It takes only a few seconds with the cloning tool in PhotoShop to remove these lines. Removing the lines is an Accidental change, a change of meaningless details. If we had changed the flag to a Confederate flag, or removed a couple of the ladies, this would have changed the meaning of the photo and it would have been an essential change. But if we just remove the lines, what is the big deal? Who is harmed? As far as I am concerned, we are all harmed by any lie, big or small.

I do not think the public cares if it is a little lie or a big lie As far as they are concerned, once the shutter has been tripped and the moment has been captured on film, in the context of news, we no longer have the right to change the content of the photo in any way. Any change to a news photo - any violation of that moment - is a lie. Big or small, any lie damages your credibility.

The reason I get so adamant when I discuss this issue is that the documentary photograph is a very powerful thing and its power is based on the fact that it is real. The real photograph gives us a window on history; it allows us to be present at the great events of our times and the past. It gets its power from the fact that it represents exactly what the photographer saw through the medium of photography. The raw reality it depicts, the verisimilitude makes the documentary photo come alive. Look at the photo of Robert Kennedy dying on the floor of the hotel in California; look at the works of David Douglas Duncan or the other great war photographers; look at the photo of Martin Luther King martyred on the balcony of a motel in Memphis. The power of these photographs comes from the fact they are real moments in time captured as they happened, unchanged. To change any detail in any of these photographs diminishes their power and turns them into lies. They would no longer be what the photographer saw but what someone else wanted the scene to be. The integrity of the Moment would be destroyed in favor of the editorial concept being foisted, as is the case in the O. J. Simpson TIME cover.

F16 Rule Apertures

The larger the aperture in a camera is the hole or opening through which light travels this part of the camera is called an iris.  The iris is adjustable in in different increments or stops.  Each stop or f number allows half the light in as the previous one.  The term f-number or f-stop is used to define the ratio of the focal length to the diameter of the aperture.

Below is a diagram of the different f-stops.

 Each f-stop allows half the light in, so to let all the light in with the aperture fully open would be almost the same diameter as the lens.


Normally, I use the f/16 rule when taking photographs.  F/16 is the f-stop that is best to use on a sunny day, no clouds with the object in the sun because it lets in just the right amount of light for a balanced image.


Below are some examples of the results from the different f/stops:


f/16

f/11

 f/8.5

 f/7

f/4.5

 f/3.5

 Changing the aperture changes the depth of field, the depth in a scene from foreground to background that will be sharp in a photograph. Smaller apertures increase depth of field while larger ones decrease it. For some pictures—for example, a landscape—you may want a smaller aperture for maximum depth of field so that everything from near foreground to distant background is sharp. But perhaps in a portrait you will want a larger aperture to decrease the depth of field so that your subject is sharp but the background is soft and out of focus.

Remember the larger the aperture size, the smaller the aperture.  This is a good way to remember what aperture to use when you are out on a photo shoot.

To get a good image with a small aperture, you can increase the ISO.

Ethics in the Age of Digital Photography / Personal Taste

Honest photographs can have an ethical dimension when it concerns the personal ethics of the photographer. Did the photographer violate some ethical standard in the process of making the picture?

For example, take the very famous photo of the young child dying in Sudan while a vulture stands behind her, waiting. It was taken by Kevin Carter who won a Pulitzer Prize for the photo (a photo that raised a lot of money for the relief agencies). He was criticized for not helping the child; he replied there were relief workers there to do that. After receiving his Pulitzer, Kevin Carter returned to Africa and committed suicide. He had a lot of problems in his life but, with the timing of the sequence of events, I cannot help thinking there is a correlation between his photographing the child and his suicide.

This is the kind of choice all journalists will face some time in his or her career; maybe not in the extreme situation that Carter faced, but in some way, we all will be faced with choices of helping or photographing. Some day we will be at a fire or a car accident and we will be called upon to put the camera down and help. It is a good idea to think about these issues in advance because when the hour comes, it will come suddenly and we will be asked to make a choice quickly.

Here is the principle that works for me. It is not a popular one and it is one that many journalists disagree with but it allows me to sleep at night. If you have placed yourself in the position where you can help, you are morally obligated to help. I do not ask you to agree with me. I just want you to think about this and be prepared; at what point do you put the camera down and help? At what point does your humanity become more important than your journalism?

Photojournalism Code of Ethics

Visual journalists operate as trustees of the public. Our primary role is to report visually on the significant events and varied viewpoints in our common world. Our primary goal is the faithful and comprehensive depiction of the subject at hand. As visual journalists, we have the responsibility to document society and to preserve its history through images.

Photographic and video images can reveal great truths, expose wrongdoing and neglect, inspire hope and understanding and connect people around the globe through the language of visual understanding. Photographs can also cause great harm if they are callously intrusive or are manipulated.

This code is intended to promote the highest quality in all forms of visual journalism and to strengthen public confidence in the profession. It is also meant to serve as an educational tool both for those who practice and for those who appreciate photojournalism. To that end, The National Press Photographers Association sets forth the following.

Visual journalists and those who manage visual news productions are accountable for upholding the following standards in their daily work:

   1. Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects.

   2. Resist being manipulated by staged photo opportunities.

   3. Be complete and provide context when photographing or recording subjects. Avoid stereotyping individuals and groups. Recognize and work to avoid presenting one's own biases in the work.

   4. Treat all subjects with respect and dignity. Give special consideration to vulnerable subjects and compassion to victims of crime or tragedy. Intrude on private moments of grief only when the public has an overriding and justifiable need to see.

   5. While photographing subjects do not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to alter or influence events.

   6. Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images' content and context. Do not manipulate images or add or alter sound in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.

   7. Do not pay sources or subjects or reward them materially for information or participation.

   8. Do not accept gifts, favors, or compensation from those who might seek to influence coverage.

   9. Do not intentionally sabotage the efforts of other journalists.

Ideally, visual journalists should:

   1. Strive to ensure that the public's business is conducted in public. Defend the rights of access for all journalists.

   2. Think proactively, as a student of psychology, sociology, politics and art to develop a unique vision and presentation. Work with a voracious appetite for current events and contemporary visual media.

   3. Strive for total and unrestricted access to subjects, recommend alternatives to shallow or rushed opportunities, seek a diversity of viewpoints, and work to show unpopular or unnoticed points of view.

   4. Avoid political, civic and business involvements or other employment that compromise or give the appearance of compromising one's own journalistic independence.

   5. Strive to be unobtrusive and humble in dealing with subjects.

   6. Respect the integrity of the photographic moment.

   7. Strive by example and influence to maintain the spirit and high standards expressed in this code. When confronted with situations in which the proper action is not clear, seek the counsel of those who exhibit the highest standards of the profession. Visual journalists should continuously study their craft and the ethics that guide it.

Ethics in the Age of Digital Photography / Visual lies

It is time to get back to the theme of this report - the ethics involved with the use of computers to process images.

I like the Weekly World News. It provides a constant source of photos for these discussions about ethics. One of the more famous front pages shows a space alien shaking hands with President Clinton. It is a wonderful photo, guaranteed to make the career of any photographer who manages to get an exclusive shot of this event.

We can laugh at this photo and I have no real problem with the Weekly World News running such digitally created photos because of the context of where this photo is running. This is the second of the vocabulary words I want to give you: CONTEXT. Where the photo runs makes all the difference in the world. If this same photo ran on the front page of the New York Times, it would damage the credibility of the Times. In the context of the Weekly World News, it cannot damage their credibility because that newspaper does not have any credibility to begin with (it seems we need to create a new set of terms when we can refer to the weekly World News and the New York Times both as newspapers).

Context becomes a problem when we find digitally altered photos in reputable publications, and there have been many. For example, the cover of TexasMonthly once ran a photo of then Governor Ann Richards astride a Harley-Davidson Motorcycle. It came out that the only part of the photo that was Ann Richards was her head. The body on the motorcycle belonged to a model and the head of the governor was electronically attached to the model.

On the credit page in very small type, the editors claimed they explained what they had done and that this disclosure exonerated them.

They wrote:

    Cover Photograph by Jim Myers

    Styling by Karen Eubank

    Accessories courtesy of Rancho Loco, Dallas;

    boots courtesy of Boot Town, Dallas;

    motorcycle and leather jacket courtesy of Harley-Davidson, Dallas;

    Leather pants by Patricia Wolfe

    Stock photograph (head shot) By Kevin Vandivier / Texastock

In the first place this was buried on the bottom of a page very few people look at, in a type size few over 40 can read and was worded in a way as to be incomprehensible.

Secondly, my feeling is that no amount of captioning can forgive a visual lie. In the context of news, if a photo looks real, it better be real. This photo looked real but it was a fake. We have an obligation to history to leave behind us a collection of real photographs. This photo of Ann Richards entered into the public domain and on the day she lost her reelection bid, AP ran the photo on the wire for its clients. AP had to run a mandatory kill when they were informed it was not a real photo.

Written Lies

Janet Cooke was a reporter at the Washington Post who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for a story she wrote about an eight-year-old heroin addict named Jimmy. The Prize was taken back and she was fired when it was discovered that she made up the story. Can you imagine if the Post put a disclaimer in italics at the end of the story when it first ran, that said something along these lines: "We know this exact kid does not exist but we also know this kind of thing does happen and so we created this one composite kid to personalize the story. Even though Jimmy does not exist you can believe everything else we wrote." The Post would have been the laughing stock of the industry and yet this is what TexasMonthly is doing by captioning away a visual lie. You have to have the same respect for the visual image as you have for the written word. You do not lie with words, nor should you lie with photographs.

Identity defined

Identity is defined as an “abiding sense of the self and of the relationship of the self to the world.” (Northrup (1989)

The complexity of identity is shaped by individual characteristics, family dynamics and social and political factors. Answering the question, “Who am I?” Tatrum (1997) says that the core of identity is also in the core of his communal culture. Identity employs a process on reflection and observations, a process that takes place in all levels of mental functioning. Tatrum states,

“The individual judges himself in the light of what he perceives to
be the way in which others judge him in comparison to themselves
and to a typology significant to them; while he judges their way of
judging him in the light of how he perceives himself in comparison
to them and to types that have become relevant to him.”

We have multiple identities, the mother, the professor, the student, the child, the teacher, I am white, I am black, I am Palestinian from the Amar Family, I am Israeli, a sabra. Some parts of our identities are projected to other people, they notice and reflect that back on us. We identify with socio-economic status, physical or mental ability, gender, religion or sexual orientation. These different identities can be associated with sexism, racisms, and oppression into the systemically advantaged or disadvantaged. There are dominant identities and targeted identities and they can occur at the same time.

Dominant groups “set the parameters within which the subordinates operate” (1997 Tatrum) the dominant group holds the power and authority in a society. It determines who gets the best jobs, whose “history will be targeted in school” what relationships are validated by society having the greater influence.

Group affiliation, is important because the “individual is identified on the basis of group affiliation and individual needs defined in terms of communal interests.” (Cohen 1991) In groups across cultures, the Americans, the British, the French, The Palestinians all have a specific group identity that is applied to them as a culture. They are members of the community that holds that affiliation.

Because identity holds the sense of “self”, then when the self is feeling threatened it can lead towards conflict. The shaking of ones world disrupts the core and central part of our being. This central parts of our being are called “core constructs” the nature of the entire system, the life and the role that we play. When there in unpredictability of the world around us, it becomes terrifying because the individual senses threat to that core. In turn, it develops in inner urgency, a redefinition of the inner self, to accept or reject the new definition.

When someone moves into our “territory” and that identity is threatened and forced to change the natural response is anger and conflict. Resulting in a struggle to hold on to that sense of self and the sense of where and who we are in this world. We are in constant relationship with the world, with time, people and space. And for us, the core sense of self is relativity stable and we would like to keep it that way.