I’ve completely updated all my portfolio sets on benneh.net — they now contain larger images, new material, and a complete rework of my past parkour series.
© Ben Anderson
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© Ben Anderson
© Ben Anderson
I’ve decided I’m going to increase the resolution of all the photos I show here:
© Ben Anderson
The photo above is from a small collection of 6×7 images pulled together from the test shots I’m making for a future large format project. You can see more here -> Nameless
So, I’ll be undertaking an overhaul of the portfolio section of the site, drastially editing the parkour section, and perhaps even rolling the traceurs section in with it. Feel free to drop edit suggestions for the parkour stuff either as commentary on this post, or directly on my flickr parkour sets.
© Ben Anderson
I’ve been shooting in and around Leeds using my 7 for the last two weeks, trying to get a feel for the hidden parts of the city, urban monoliths, vegetation, the odd human in the urbanscape, etc. I’m taking 12 rolls of 120 in to the lab at lunch time and can already feel my excitement growing, it’ll reach fever pitch at about the time I get the archival sheets handed back to me tomorrow.
About 5 minutes later whilst sitting behind the wheel in the lab car park I’ll be holding the negs up to the light and feeling either crestfallen or elated. Then comes the mad rush to the scanner.
This is Film.
OK, so you may have seen my waffling post about the lure of large format, if not go have a read, it may give you some background about my most recent stint of insanity….
…Namely, selling my Canon 5D and some other bits to finance a Sinar P2 5×4 (and 10×8) outfit. This voyage into the land of large format work is still very much in its infancy, I’ve shot a few 5×4 portraits of friends but have yet to get them developed. Pretty soon I should be using this thing ‘in the near field’ ie. within lugging distance of my car boot — I’m hoping to start shooting what is perhaps my most artistically ambitious project to date: I’m just not going to tell you what it’s about yet.
What I will tell you is that it will be shot exclusively on 10×8 colour print film, I’m guessing this may indicate my level of commitment to this undertaking, It’s something I’m extremely passionate about. Hopefully I can share some of my results with you in the not too distant future.
© Walter Schels
I’d been aware of Walter Schels ‘Life Before Death’ work for some time, it depicts people shortly before and immediately after they have died. I hadn’t seen this photograph until I noticed The Sonic Blog had posted an article about the work.
Introduction, A Few Simple Options, Film profiles suck, Scanning
Using The Histogram, & The Finished Article
Introduction
Hamrick Software’s VueScan is perhaps the most flexible and powerful piece of scanning software available to photographers today. Many people fall foul of it’s myriad features and options - it can be quite daunting when you first start the software and begin to explore the different options pages. I’m going to explain how to get the best out of VueScan with the minimum of fuss, least fiddling, and the least deviation from the software’s default options.
If you’ve already got the software installed (at the time of writing the latest version is 8.4.70), then now is perhaps a good time to reset the options to default, you can do this from within the file menu “File->Default Options”
A Few Simple Options
The first thing I turn off in viewscan is the automatic saving of scans - you’re probably going to want to do things like adjust white balance, white point, and blackpoint before committing your scan to disk, so there’s just no need to have this option enabled.
You’ll also want to turn on VueScan’s histogram Graph, you can do this from the Image menu “Image -> graph b/w”, or by hitting ctrl-2. You want the b/w graph because this allows you to adjust white and black point using 2 graphical sliders (explained later in the article).
Film profiles suck
VueScan comes with some pre-configured film profiles, you may think that these are just great, but in reality they aren’t - they just take control away from you, and will more than likely deliver a scan that just does not come up to scratch. Why? Because each and every roll of negative film you shoot has it’s very own slight variations in both manufacturing tolerance, exposure, film fogging (heaven forbid), and most importantly development. All of these combine to change the film’s base colour density - so by choosing a preset you are using a ‘best guess’.
The good news is that there is absolutely no reason to settle for a best guess, and this is because VueScan will allow you to sample the base colour of your film directly. These tips are available on the VueScan homepage, but I’ve combined them with some screenshots to make it even more clear. So without further ado, here’s how it’s done…
Firstly you need to preview your film. Click the Preview button! When the preview finishes you should select an area of clear film between frames (or in the film leader). If the ‘Lock Exposure tickbox is ticked, untick it (see the picture below this one)
Hit the preview button again, when the preview finishes tick the “Lock exposure” tickbox.
Hit the preview button once more, when the preview finishes tick the “Lock film base colour” tickbox.
With these simple steps you have calibrated your roll of film. You only need to do this once per roll, it can be a pain, but it will save you major headaches in post processing.
Scanning
Now that you’ve optimised VueScan for your current roll of film, you’ll want to go ahead and scan some photos. A lot of people like to keep the film borders and frame numbers in their scans, I think this is a complete waste of time - it will also give you more hard work setting levels in post processing because your beautifully crafted photo will be competing with the levels of the border & bright yellow frame numbers. The answer is simple: use the frame crop box to highlight a scanning target just within the borders of each frame.
When you’re happy that you’ve got the frame correctly selected hit the Scan button.
Using the histogram
Now that your scan is in memory you can do some adjustments, there are 2 main ones you’ll probably want to do, the first of which is using the histogram to produce a nice flat image which can easily be adjusted in PhotoShop. Drag the sliding pointers to left and right so that all elements of the graph are between them - if you want to clip some areas then adjust accordingly.
The final adjustment you may want to make is the white balance - find an area in the scan which is neutral and right click on it (hold down control on mac). VueScan will automatically adjust white balance, if you picked the wrong area just try again until you get something that looks correct — You’ll probably only want to do this once per roll (or once for each set of photos with the same lighting conditions) to ensure your scans are colour matched. Double right clicking resets the auto white balance.
The Finished Article
So now it’s time to save your frame, click on the disk icon or use the save image option in the file menu.
Hopefully you should now be able to successfully scan colour negative film and be sure that you’ll get consistent results. You’ll need to use Curves and Levels in PhotoShop to get the best out of your scans. Good Luck!
© Ben Anderson
Often as I’m browsing around the net I’ll find an image that instantly makes me sit up and take notice. More and more often these images will have been captured on medium or large format film. See my earlier post about Mark Brautigam’s work.
Sometimes I get the feeling that I’m being limited by the equipment or format that I’m using and this had definitely become the case with 35mm digital - that’s not to say that I had become the best of the best within that genre, but that I knew I had something more to offer — or perhaps more importantly, something more to learn by moving up the format ladder. With that in mind I obtained some medium format equipment and started to use it with gusto - I think some of the results have far surpassed what I had imagined I could obtain.
You may be smirking and asking yourself how the image above demonstrates this - and I would forgive you entirely for thinking as much, but for me the image above is most definitely a step in the right direction for my photographic sensibilities. Film, and the larger formats, simply exude a higher aesthetic than I’ve seen possible with digital media. Digital work often comes across as far too cleanly, aseptic even — not all of the time granted, but much of it.
So, I’ve seen where I want to go, and I’ve leapt onto one stepping stone on what is undoubtedly a larger crossing, but the lure of large format photography is incredibly strong. Do I continue to leap? Or do I hold myself in check, take stock of the geography, and learn the lie of the land before moving off?
I finally managed to get out and shoot some more parkour in Leeds today. This was the first successful outing in almost 3 weeks — one of the most difficult elements of shooting this discipline is the alignment of weather, weekends, people, and myself, often it doesn’t work out.
I shot exclusively with the Mamiya 7 today, I’m not sure why, but these days whenever I take a film camera along with my DSLR’s, the latter usually ends up staying in the bag… I don’t know whether I subconsciously prefer the ergonomics of film cameras, or if I’m becoming addicted to the anticipation of picking the developed rolls up.
JLM also tagged along and managed to get some nice environmental photos including me ‘at work’ (see below).
© Jay Mawson
One thing I’ve become more sure about is that, for me, the actual act of photography is the most satisfying element of the whole process (shooting, to postprocess, to display), especially since I can immerse myself in the subject matter _and_ interact with really interesting people.
Of course it’s also good to see the traceurs steadily improving - let’s hope that there’re at least a few photos worth keeping from the rolls I shot!
Part 2 - Environment, Isolation, Empathy, Diversity, & Story
Click here for Part 1.6. Environment
This section is closely tied with Location in part 1. Almost everything we do is governed by our environment, and much of our behaviour is also a product of the environment. Parkour could arguably be said to be a product of Lisses (the birth place of parkour) and its modern, concrete, urban landscape. With that in mind it doesn’t take a genius to realise that we should probably show some environmental aspects in our own photographs.
Fortunately, depicting a subject within its natural environment is a sure fire way to add depth and foster emotional attachment to your photos, that’s something we should capitalise upon. As an example, take a look at the photograph of Ben below. Whilst the group were on the move from Leeds International Pool to another favoured location Ben told me that he had been tattooed with a parkour emblem. Now for me this is a pretty hardcore statement which really underlines Ben’s commitment to the discipline
So, how best could I show his tattoo? A close up shot? No. We happened to be on a foot bridge overlooking the location where my, perhaps most notable, photograph, Leeds Leap, was taken. Light bulb! By taking a photo of Ben looking out at the view I could immediately gather together the following ideas: parkour as an urban pursuit, the spiritual nature of the discipline (free your mind), the inspiration and start point for my own parkour photography, the power of Ben’s conviction, the tattoo itself, and the cyclical nature of things — the pool is soon to be demolished.
The environment is all around us, duh, make use of it, it is a powerful tool that can be used both very easily and very effectively to add character and strength to your photos.
© Ben Anderson
7. Isolation
Isolation is really the counterpoint to environment. The idea here is that you should totally direct all of the viewers’ attention on the subject and nothing else.
On occasion the message you are trying to get across is so strong that to have anything else in the scene will only serve to dilute it. One very simple trick is to make sure the background is very simple, a wall, the sky, the ground - something uniform. Or even something so boring or at odds with the subject that it immediately makes your message stand out.
Colour can play a very strong role in achieving subject isolation. If you had a traceur dressed in green doing a move then it wouldn’t be a good idea to shoot them against grass or some trees would it? Instead find a red background, brick works well. Conversely red shirts against green work superbly.
Even though you are isolating a subject, you can still let some environment creep in to add depth, take a closer look at the photo of Devin below.
© Ben Anderson
8. Empathy
Whenever you approach a subject photographically you should bear in mind the implications of any photographs you take. For example, parkour is non competitive, so you should definitely not take a photograph that appears to portray it as such. Similarly, parkour is not a team discipline, and although traceurs train together it would be questionable to display parkour moves performed in tandem or give the appearance of teamwork. Of course this is not the case for photos of Acro.
Again I’ll refer back to some of the other subjects, Anticipation, & Rapport, you can only truly empathise with your subject if you are knowledgeable about it - ensure that you are. By depicting your subject with empathy you help to engender rapport with its practitioners - this is a feedback loop that can lead to some great insights and future benefits.
Although photography will always be exploitative to a certain extent, you can minimise this by helping to portray the goals and dreams of your subjects’ practitioners. Remember that you as a photographer are also being exploited by your subject - it’s a two way street. Don’t be evil - ever!
© Ben Anderson
9. Diversity
Shoot everything.
When you start to look critically at everything which is happening around you, then you will start to see things that would not normally be apparent: forms, the play of light across a face, how the shape of a person interacts with the environment, perhaps a juxtaposition of your subject and something as banal as a commercial banner. There are interesting photographs everywhere, even in the most mundane every day places. By framing them with your camera’s viewfinder you freeze them in time and allow them to be shared with others. If you’re not taking a photo then you’re missing an opportunity.
Eventually as your eye becomes more familiar with this mental ‘framing’ of the world you will know when to shoot and when to wait for the truly sublime: we all have the ability to transcend our everyday existence, catching those rare moments is what you should aim for - people don’t want to looking at boring photos.
Originality is perhaps the single hardest thing in photography, but it always keeps you on your toes, and working out a new and refreshing way to show something is reward in itself.
© Ben Anderson
10. Story
Telling a story is perhaps the single most difficult thing to do with photography. Much can be learnt by looking at cartoons and film story boards, think of the key ways in which each ‘frame’ interacts with its neighbours, flow, form, rhythm, are all important. Consistency of style and format are also paramount (I’ve broken this rule myself in my parkour set so far!) - you should also either use all B&W or all colour photos, or aim to have sections of all the same.
Think about the everyday aspects of your subject, the journey, buying a ticket, mucking about on the bus, the meet, stopping for food, all the little ‘boring’ every day things that happen can help to punctuate a larger body of work and most importantly ground them in the understanding of the viewer — this connection with the viewer is important, never forget it.
© Ben Anderson
Click here to see some parkour photos