Topic 4: Memory / Vintage

TIME

Creating a sense of space in a photograph constructs an environment in which your viewers can spend time. Once you have this, you have the potential to present evidence of past events in this location. Or the possibility of future events can be hinted at. Or even the absence of time, aka timelessness, can be the point. In this way nothingness can be something. [re: Zen Philosophy]

In all of these instances we are using time as the main variable. Most of the photos up to now have been in present time, but time stretches in both directions. Time in the past resides in our memory. Future time is in our dreams and is a product of our imagination. Timelessness can be a strong emotional state if one feels suspended in it.

The term vintage refers to the past. The Vintage Effect in photography is becoming very popular with Smartphone and Lomography photographers. But first we must understand the meaning of the word vintage. Some definitions of the word Vintage include:

• representing the high quality of a past time; classic: e.g. vintage movies.

• of, imitating, or being a style or fashion of the past; retro: e.g. vintage clothing.

• old-fashioned or obsolete.

• too old to be considered modern, but not old enough to be considered antique.

MEMORY

The word vintage has both good and bad connotations, but since this all has to do with images from the past, it all has to do with memory. When organizing the content in your photos you have to think about how we remember things, places, events, people, etc.

It is also said that we only remember the good sides of things. Then maybe vintage implies some kind of positive emotional attitude. But there are also nightmares – bad memories. You could follow this course of thought as well.

For example, I had a student who went back to the sites where significant and usually traumatic things happened in her life. She shot self-portraits at those locations. You never knew what the exact story was, but the feelings were strong. Another student went back to her high school steps and superimposed a current self-portrait over a shot her friends had taken before they graduated. Each photograph was made translucent (by lowering the opacity of each image) so neither really seemed ‘real’.

Another way to create translucent people is to shoot with a long shutter speed and have the subject person move slowly through the frame, or stand still for half the exposure time and then quickly move out. There are smart phone apps available can control your shutter speed to make long exposures possible. 

LEGACY

In the photographic world, vintage is often used to refer to photographs shot on film that are usually at least 20 years old so the prints are now fading and the colors have shifted. Another variation of the vintage look is the Instant Film look a.k.a. Polaroid. These prints also have their own peculiar color balance and the color of these prints shifts through time in a different direction from that of conventional film. Yet another variation is a technique known as cross-processing. This is when positive color film (for slides) is developed in the chemicals for negative film (for prints), or vice versa. This creates unusual color shifts that are somewhat unpredictable. Other photographers have found old film that has been damaged and have made prints from these negatives. I had a student who would boil her film and then freeze it, producing a 'damaged' or broken look. This gets into the territory of ‘marks made from process’, aka intuitive, or improvisational, or unintentional, all of which are part of another conversation that we will get back to...

The key point in all of these examples is that the colors are not “normal”. There is a precedent in the amount and direction of the color shifting because all this came from chemical film processes. In digital photography we often try to emulate chemical processes. After all, this is our legacy. This is where the vocabulary of photography comes from. Digital technology now gives us the power to push things a little bit further and in directions that were not previously possible. But you have to be careful. If you push things just enough you get really interesting looking photographs because they are within the realm of believability. If you push things too far you get photos that just look weird or worse, fake, aka unbelievable.

VINTAGE/ RETRO

We return to the question: What is the vintage look and, more importantly, why would one want to use it? If you answered, "Because it looks cool", then you are missing the point. Vintage refers to photographs that look old. What are the attributes of old photographs other than the technical described above? The colors are faded, the edges are bent, the saturation is reduced, the details are unclear, and so on. How do these attributes line up with potential content? The form of any piece must reflect or support the content. If you are making photos that deal with the past, then you should have a specific memory or type of memory of a kind of situation in mind when shooting. If you are making photographs about faded memories where the details are less clear, and the feeling has gotten softer and fuzzier, then maybe the vintage style supports this content.

You should go through the list of fx that are attainable with various Smartphone apps and experiment with them to see what visual modifications they produce. When you have some of that under your belt, stop and think about what photographic content would be best be expressed using these appearances. Then make those photographs. And you may not be able to just walk around and wait for the world to hand you photographs. You may have to make them happen. This is where the photographer moves from being a ‘gatherer’ to being a ‘hunter’, aka a person who makes photographs happen. [ref: Intuitive vs. Directed Shooting ]

Remember to share your experiments with your classmates. Please let the class know early if you find any other apps that work well. People are encouraged to find new ways of doing things that are different from what is prescribed. These people will get better grades. Share any discoveries and how you have used these tools by posting entries to the smartphone recipes blog site. 

note: be sure to avoid the obvious photo clichés, e.g. the expressive hands of old people, aka pictures of your parents or grandparents, the gnarled roots of might trees, old things such as old truck and classic cars, etc… Don’t just take pictures of old things - this has to be down through Ambience and Feel.

VINTAGE/ RETRO ƒx APPS

There are so many apps available and each has sometimes thousands of fx and presets possible. It is very easy to see that this is where things get out of hand. It is impossible to write a tutorial on his. In order to give you a head start however, here are some lists of the fx available with several very good Camera Apps: SnapSeed (by NIK), Photo fx (by Tiffen), and Vignette. Each app has a tutorial section built into it and a web site to accompany it. You should run through those first, and then start playing.

APPS of Choice:

SnapSeed (Apple + Android)

By Nik Software, Inc., respected maker of computer photo filter fx software

home site: https://support.google.com/snapseed/

for instructions, video tutorials, etc.

• Black & White: neutral, contrast, bright, dark, film, darkened sky

• Vintage: 

• Drama:

• Grunge:

• Center Focus:

• Tilt-Sift:

• Retroflex: 

• Frames: 

note: This app retains the full resolution of the camera and does not reduce file size!

Photo ƒx (Apple)

by Tiffen, Inc,. respected maker of optical camera filters.

home site: http://www.tiffensoftware.com/products/iphone-ipad-apps/photo-vex

and there is a tutorial page in a drop-down menu

http://www.tiffensoftware.com/tutorials/photo-fx-tutorials

In Photo ƒx, you can choose from 76 filters containing 878 presets organized in 8 different filter groups. 

Some of the filters in their respective categories are:

• Film Lab: Bleach Bypass, Cross Processing, Faux Film, Grain, Three Strip, Two Strip

• Diffusion: Black Diffusion, Black Pro–Mist, Bronze Glimmer–Glass, Center Spot, Cool Pro–Mist, Diffusion, Glimmer Glass, Gold Diffusion/FX, HDTV/FX

• Grads/Tints: 812 Warming, Color Spot, Color-Grad, Dual Grad, Mono Tint, ND–Grad, Nude/FX, Old Photo, Strip Grad

• Image: Black & White, Fluorescent, Haze, Levels, Sharpen, Sky, Temperature

• More: Close-Up Lens, Depth of Field, Vignette, Wide Angle Lens

note: This app retains the full resolution of the camera and does not reduce file size!

Vignette (Android)

Vignette is also a full-featured camera application, featuring digital zoom, time-lapse, self-timer and more. It has more than 70 customizable filters and 50 frames useable in any combination to create many photo effects. 

Examples: http://vignette.neilandtheresa.co.uk/filter-examples

 • Retro/Vintage styles
• LOMO/Diana/Holga toy camera styles
• Instant camera styles
• Cross-process, duotone, charcoal, tilt-shift and much more
• Photo-booth and double-exposure
• New: Touch to focus
• New: Share your personalized saved effects with other Vignette users
• Take pictures at your camera’s full resolution, even with effect (paid version only)
• Use the flash and front-facing cameras on most devices
• Self-timer, time-lapse and steady-shot modes
• Digital 10× zoom
• New: 21× optical zoom on Samsung Galaxy Camera EK-GC100
• Store location data in pictures (geotag)
• Use the volume rocker as a shutter button
• Edit imported photos
• On-screen controls for exposure, zoom, flash and switching camera
• Launch from the lock screen in Android 4.0+
• Remote shutter with Bluetooth remote, wired headset or Sony Ericsson LiveView
• Time- and date-stamp pictures with adjustable size, color and format
• Rule-of-thirds and golden ratio composition guides
• Optimized for taking pictures underwater
• Share pictures via third-party apps

 note: The paid version of this app retains the full resolution of the camera and does not reduce file size!

Some other possibilities:

Vintage Camera: (has only 1 camera, 20 effect presets, no post-processing one saved, saves at 1280 x 1280.)

Retro Camera Plus: has 6 cameras, but saves at only 512 square

XnViewFx: a reasonable number of fx, including retro, color and texture, etc.. Allows saving presets. Saves at full resolution.

Photo Toaster: reasonable collection of modifiers but no radical style or retro fx. Good for subtle, tasteful photos. Saves at full resolution. 

Camera 360 Ultimate: also has a reasonable collection of adjustments, fx, and borders. Saves at full resolution.

Additional Tips

You have to keep track of what you're doing. It is easy to start working intuitively until you get just the look you want. Then you realize that you have no idea how you made it. Knowing how to repeat your process and create similar looking photographs to create a set of related shots is part of the craftsmanship that we are seeking. Eventually you need to know how to duplicate specific looks so you can build a ‘personal visual vocabulary’, that uses a ‘visual toolbox’ that is specific to you. This is what the photo recipes are all about - knowing how to do what we want to do, knowing how to repeat it, and then sharing this knowledge with others.

Some apps keep track of what you've done and allow us to save those fx actions as a preset. If you have that ability, you can apply the same effect to other photographs to retain consistency within a series of shots. It is preferable, however, to vary each shot even slightly to have variation and project the feel of being hand-made into the photographic work. You can then create a recipe from these presets.

Teaching Points - Topic 2 - Color/ Passion

When I asked you to tackle the topic of Passion I did not expect you to use over-saturation as the main tool. My previous classes did not do this. Maybe I was thinking of a softer form of passion, more to do with the passion between people, about relationships, and even about environments. Perhaps I will alter this topic for future classes by renaming it, ‘Color/ Ambience’. I am trying to get you to elicit a feeling of environment through the use of color. The color of an environment changes through the day because of the changes in the angle of the sun and the way the atmosphere alters the color of the sunlight hitting us. [When the sun is setting and it drops below the edge of the earth, the earth’s atmosphere bends the sunlight letting only the longest wavelength, the reds and oranges, illuminate our world.] One problem with color photos is that they tend to look too normal, aka regular. It is desirable to alter the color away from normal to make a more interesting photo. Most cameras pump up the saturation automatically, so it is better to desaturate to take things in the other, unexpected direction. [Most TV’s and Computer Monitors come with the color saturation turned up as well!]

I do have to comment that there are still a number of photographs that come under the heading of Photo Clichés; dogs, babies, flowers, sunsets, City Hall, lights, graffiti, etc. Please re-read the Photo Clichés document. Avoid people posing for a photo, or worse, hamming it up for the camera. That turns that shot into a snapshot. If people are aware they are being shot they become self-conscious and it usually doesn’t work. Simply asking people to close their eyes can make a big difference. The problem with snapshots is that the essential meaning is not actually contained within the photograph. Snapshots are used to trigger people’s memories, so the image is in their minds, not so much in the photo. This is not what we are looking for in this class.  

Typical Color Clichés include anything with intense color. If it is seen that you are shooting just to grab the color, and there is no deeper meaning behind that subject, the photo is not going far enough. Shooting graffiti, or architecture just for the shapes, is appropriating some else’s art. It is preferred that you make your own art directly from the raw material that the world provides for you. If you are using architectural elements such as graceful curves to enclose a space, or edges of buildings that cast sharp shadows, then you are on the right track. Cute animals (are there any animals that are not inherently cute?) are a classic form of snapshot. Sunsets are a classic content of picture postcards and those are too commonplace. The feeling generated by the light of a setting sun can however be used to create an evocative setting for a subject. Flowers are another classic photo cliché and should be avoided. They are just too easy. Lights seem to be overused these days. The light cast by a fixture, however, can create an environment with ambience, as described above when talking about the sun, just this time it is interior rather than exterior.

note: If you are going to do more work in B&W, as I have encouraged, they have to be toned, even if just slightly. Dead flat B&W is not enough.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Let’s start this analysis by looking at the simplest use of color, the Monochrome images. The first five photographs in this set deal with this is aesthetic problem by zooming in on a specific simple subject. In this case the form is supporting the content. Allison and Brooke come in with very tightly framed shots. Alexandra’s photo of pumpkins show how you can take something that is very commonplace, especially in October, and make it intriguing, just by desaturating the color. Normal color would have been an, “Oh, more pumpkins” photograph. 

The next set of 6 photographs approach of topic of complementary color. They start out with simple subjects but quickly become more complex and then move out onto the street. Ross has 2 photos that have a great display of color while staying tightly focused. Chelsea’s Coca-Cola sign is a classic subject and the doorway and Rachael’s porch has the kind of color I was seeking. This photo is extraordinarily emotive in a very simple way. 

The last bicycle shot by Ross takes us onto the street, that is explored in the next several photographs. The lone flower left on the sidewalk in Breanna’s photo makes me think of a lost love or a neglected lover, where the nighttime street by Alexandra makes be feel like my friends have left me behind, partially achieved by having no particular focus (usually a deficit in a photo). 

Then Breanna’s gate photo makes me feel like I am being held prisoner, and Brooke’s photo makes me feel imprisoned by a glass of alcohol, both leading to seemingly abandoned places in the next couple of frames, enhanced by the nighttime light. The street photo by Lauralea has that classic purple sky that comes from Reciprocity Failure (the inability of color film to render color properly at more than 2 second of exposure). In the garage photo by Rachael I am not sure if this is the happy suburbs or the dangerous suburbs... do I feel secure or threatened? (Maybe it depends on where you were brought up.)

The next 6 photographs take us into industrial landscapes, each silent and empty in its own way. Sara’s looming shot of the building that is exaggerated by the angle of view. Debora’s backyard in B&W shows a restricted space that makes me think of the person stuck in there. The last shot of the row houses by by Debora has that particular sense of color that only happens at a certain time of day. This is an exceptional use of color, again enhanced by the desaturation (and maybe a little vintage effect). 

The next 6 shots are all connected through trees. The first is an extraordinary shot by David from a very high angle. Even though skateboarding is on the list of Photo Clichés, this shot transcends that. The next 2 shots have buildings that show man’s interaction with the environment. Ryan’s photo has a curious angle of view. The Barn shot by Maria has a really subtle vintage effect that is the main idea behind the 4^th topic, Memory. The next 3 tree shots work well because of the framing. Jordan’s vertical trees almost become painterly lines on a canvas. 

The next 5 photos are all connected by water. The first by Lauralea is a reflection off a water coated surface. The next by Maria opens up a large expanse of water with great color. The next 2 by Emily and Rachael are more abstract and fascinating. They both elicit a response of ‘Yikes!’. The last photo shows a very calming landscape, or seascape. I had to desaturate the shot, however. I present the original next to the adjusted version so you can see what I mean.

The next photo by Brooke still has some water present, and this photo needed to be desaturated as well, both versions are shown. Jordan's photo is also oversaturated. I made another version for you to ponder. Which one has more drama? This following set of 6 photos seem to be focused on chins. This gets us back to the Mystery theme. These are all evocative shots that make me wonder who these people really are. 

The next 6 photos get darker and darker, emotionally as well as tonally (form supporting content). Emily has her face wrapped in gossamer material. Rachael is distorted by a lunch truck and the other Rachel is severed. Lauralea’s face is lit to the extreme by a lamp, and has that enigmatic look on her face. This is where you have to be an actress to make some internal feeling or thought come through.  This is another exceptional shot. [Using a desk lamp at 3 feet can be a very effective lighting tool.]

 These next few photos introduce the environment of one's living space as an essential element, helping to describe the people in the photos. These photos become more about the things these people are doing, about activity. Cartier-Bresson talks about "capturing the subject like an animal in his habitat!" These photos are doing that. Sarah’s shadow photo is loaded with drama and mystery, the source of which we will never really know. Emily's lampshade with the face on it is an intriguing setup, enhanced by lighting and at the clues to what might be happening in that space. Brooke’s has a great angle, and Mariah’s has great lighting, as well as capturing a fascinating exchange. I am not sure if they are fighting or making fun of each other exactly. When I walk down the street and I overhear a couple debating, I think to myself, “Ah, domestic bliss...”.

The final 3 photos by Jordan, Kandi and Lauralea are little glimpses of daily life in an internal setting. The color is minimal and almost monochromatic, that leads to an otherworldly feel, almost as if they are memories. Keep these in mind as well as we approach the 4^th topic, as mentioned earlier.