Exploring function

Planning

Looking at the photos shown in the course notes and also at the project photos taken by other students, I felt that it would be preferable to find a location for this exercise where there is sufficient visual interest to evoke the functions undertaken there, for example:-

• The photograph of old maps and books laid out on a table in library on the front page of Part 3 of the course notes.

• Another student had taken a photograph of the papers spread out over the desktops in the college office where he worked.

In contrast, I looked at various student photographs of corridors and other rooms where the visual composition was not especially interesting.

With this in mind, I thought that a restaurant/bar the "William Bray" could be a suitable subject. We were going for a country walk with some friends this morning, planning to finish up at the William Bray for lunch. This is a modern restaurant and bar in the Surrey village of Shere set in a restored Edwardian mansion. Both the bar and the restaurant are high ceilinged rooms with natural light from north facing windows.

Like a country pub, the function of the public rooms is social in nature, with couples, families and friends having a leisurely lunch or drink together. Photographically, I hoped to take some photos of tables laid with cutlery and glassware, customers having lunch or drinking at the bar, and photos of the bar itself with beer taps, wine bottles and glasses. Like the photograph in the library above, I would be looking for a high viewpoint looking down on the tables and the people with a reasonably wide angle lens.

There would therefore be several possible functions of the restaurant/bar that I could present:-

- customers having lunch

- customers drinking at the bar

- bar staff and serving staff working behind the bar or at the serving stations.

I would have to look for scenes which would work visually for any of these. I did not need to work to a narrow objective.

Photography

I was fortunate that the walk also started in the village, so I went along to the William Bray before we set off on the walk. It was open and there were a few serving staff getting the tables and bar ready for lunchtime. They had no objection to my taking a few photographs. I took some more photographs when we arrived back at the restaurant at the end of our walk. By this time, several other tables were occupied with customers and there were a few people socializing in the bar. Hence, I could choose whether to show people in the pictures or not.

I have selected two photographs for this exercise.

Image 1 - Ready to start

Panasonic Lumix G3 10-30mm zoom at 14mm: Iso 800 f6.3 for 1/20th seconds

The photograph was taken when the bar was empty and shows the area where water jugs, cutlery, table numbers are lined up ready to be distributed when the customers need them. In the background is a general view of the bar room, bar fittings etc. In the far wall there are two doorways through to another room beyond (which is the restaurant).

Techniques

I chose to use the new Panasonic Lumix camera as the touch screen is useful for composing from high and low angles. Also, I need practice to become familiar with the settings and controls. The focal length of 14mm is equivalent to 42 mm in a full frame 35mm camera. I use this focal length quite frequently when taking photos that I want to look "natural". I was interested to read in another students blog that whilst the angle of view of the human eye is similar to that of a 50mm lens, the angle of view both human eyes used together is wider, being equivalent to a full frame lens with focal lengths approximately 35 to 40 mm. There may accordingly be a scientific reason for using this setting for natural looking photographs.

The light levels were lower in the bar room than I expected, and I needed to set the ISO to 800 as I was hand holding the camera.

Critical analysis of image 1

I chose this viewpoint, as I wanted something in the foreground to draw the viewer into the scene. If I moved more to the left, I would see the bar from the front, but the foreground would be little more than empty tables.

The scene is very busy and in colour there were several red highlights in the background including a red cushion and a union jack on the wall which were distracting. I therefore decided it would be better to convert the photograph into black and white. I chose a relatively high key Silver Efexpro conversion adding a subtle dark vignette so that the bright foreground objects remain prominent for the viewer.

I experimented with cropping out different sides of the photograph but in the end reverted to the full scene (after some minor adjustments to straighten up the perspective).

Image 2: Comfortable modern restaurant

Panasonic Lumix G3 10-30mm at 20mm: Iso 200 f6.3 for 1/20th seconds

This is a photograph of the restaurant at lunchtime taken through the doorway of the bar. Various tables in the middle distance and background are occupied, but the closest tables are laid but not yet taken (apart from my glass of beer).

Technical

The portrait format has been cropped across the bottom as the area under the table was not relevant to the scene.

The tables are just below the windows so the light in this area was sufficient to use ISO 200. The viewpoint and zoom level were adjusted so that the perspective lines of the table tops and ceiling lights stood out in the photograph giving a sense of depth.

The beam in the ceiling has white lettering advertising the house champagne. I burned this until it is barely visible as this was a visual distraction on the edge of the frame.

Critical analysis of image 2

In this scene, I felt the colour should be retained as this shows the style of the room and table settings. The dark blue glasses are complimentary in colour to the pale orange of the wood tables. These colours stand out against the neutral colours of the walls, ceilings and pictures.

One of the customers is wearing a red jacket, which in this case I think adds something to the photograph. The colour is not too bright and I think the photograph would have looked rather flat if she had been wearing something neutral in colour.

My objective is to produce one image from these photographs, so it is not important that the two pictures have the same style.

Conclusions

Neither photograph has as strong a visual impact as I would have liked. Maybe for this sort of scene, I should have used the widest angle possible (like the example photograph of the scene in a library).

My gut feeling is that Image 2 is the better photograph, as it is less cluttered than Image 1. There is more order in the scene with the lines of chairs, glasses and ceiling lamps.

Some more practice is clearly necessary.