Prompts - The background in the image

The background in an image is important. Sometimes the background can say as much about the person as their clothing and their facial expressions, it's often a part of the narrative of the image.

Back in 1988 when I was studying photography I was interested in Stock Photography and I read a book (Title and author I can't recall) on the subject. One of the most Important things I learned from the book and still use today was a formula that can be used when you're shooting images for picture editors with the intention of securing sales. The formula - which I still teach is...

Person + background + involvement + symbol = picture

All of the components are important, but the background element is very important.

For example have a look at this image here of my son...

You're told "Go and take a picture of the 14 year old kid that took six wickets for 15 runs in an adults cricket match". You come round my house, you look around and you see this wall and you shoot this...

If we examine the image and start deconstructing it what can we see and what can we start making assumptions about if we analyse it? (See prompts in the side bar).
We're concerned with the background at the moment, but we can't ignore the rest of the image. What can we see...

• He's a white westerner.
• From the clothes and the haircut we can see that he's not destitute and that he's possibly either working class or middle class.
• He's fairly tanned and the environment looks warm, so he probably lives in a temperate area of the world or warmer.

But can we say anything about the background? Well it's kind of fairly neutral as it's breeze block. Breeze block would be usually associated with basic forms of architecture, in my own experience - social/council housing as opposed to private estates or anything 'posh'. Looking closer there's no designer labels and he's wearing grey track-suit bottoms which kind of reinforce the 'Working class' assumption. But, there's nothing in this image that tells the cricket story, even though it is the kid in the story.

This image represents an improvement in that there's some visual clues although they're a little esoteric the style and colour of the shirt and the inclusion of the Slazenger brand name and logo indicates an association with a sport. If you have some knowledge of sport you might be able to recognise the kit as being related to cricket and the image combined with the text now makes a little more sense, but the plain wall doesn't.

This is the image your picture editor would liked for you to come back with if you couldn't get an action shot (Or a smiley version). The background in this image albeit still fairly esoteric would be recognisable immediately when combined with the text relating to story "14 year old boy takes 6 wickets for 15 in an adult crickets match" because of the detail on the background - the grass and the pavilion. The ball though is probably the clincher to the narrative as it's the 'Symbol'.

Could it have been improved even more? Could the background have been even more 'Crickety'?...

Something like this?

This image uses the formula mentioned earlier...

Person + background + involvement + symbol = picture.

Backgrounds therefore are important as they are integral to creating the narrative. You can simplify them and then make the narrative ambiguous.

Simple backgrounds e.g. a solid colour or black and white still have connotations that can be read and made sense of. Alternatively a simple background focuses the attention on the subject and in many instances the inclusion of the simple white, grey or black background is of little significance. But these colours can also be made sense of in complex ways -

White http://www.bourncreative.com/meaning-of-the-color-white/
Grey http://www.bourncreative.com/meaning-of-the-color-grey/
Black http://www.bourncreative.com/meaning-of-the-color-black/

Starting a blog for college

Starting a blog for college                               http://www.southendasphoto.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/index.html

Follow these steps to get your blog started.

(1). You will need a Google account and email. Go onto Google and set that up. Make sure you keep a note of your Google account details (Put them on your phone) or email them to your usual email account.

 

(2). Now when you're signed into the Google webpage near the top right-hand corner you'll see a small group of nine squares, as it says in the diagram click the squares button.

 (3). This will then open up the Google Apps. At the bottom see arrow, click on the 'More' tab.

 (4). You'll then be presented with your Google log in confirmation again. Enter your login details once again...

 

 (5). This will then take you to this 'Blogger' page below. Click 'Continue to Blogger'.

 (6). This page below - click on to the 'New Blog' button.

(7).  This next stage is the important stage. Follow these instructions carefully. "Title" indicated by arrow 'B' is where you name the blog. This can be changed at any time, but for the moment just called it something simple like your name followed by research blog e.g. Joe's Research Blog.

The address section 'A' is the bit you've got to get right. If you're starting this blog before your first day, you need to find one of the letters that the college has sent you previously with your student number on it. Use your initials for the blog title followed by the student number. This is always an 8 digit number. YOU MUST use your initials followed  your 8 digit number in the section indicated by arrow 'B'. Blogger automatically adds the .BlogSpot.co.uk and the full address appears under the part you type the address into for you to click and confirm you're happy with and then it checks to see if it's available.

If you're already in college, your student number is on your ID card, so follow the same instructions as above. Don't worry about the design of the blog at this stage, just choose simple (you can change it later).

 

 (8). Now click 'Create Blog'.

(9). Now you'll be taken to this page below and you'll need to click the little orange tab with the pen symbol in it which you use to create your first and new post. In future as you add new content to your blog you click this little tab to start a new page/entry. 

 

(10). This then takes you to the editing page below. Arrow (A) is where you type or upload your content. For the moment just try typing something basic like "Always use the British Journal of Photography for my research". Then in the section marked by the arrow (B) give the blog page/entry a title next to the word 'Post'. I've typed 'Research 001'. You need to write "Bibliography". Then click the button indicated by the arrow (C) "Publish". This will then put your blog onto the internet and you'll have published your first post.

(11). Having 'Published' your first page the page will now change to this page below. There are a number of options just below your first post... Edit, view, share and delete. In order to see what your first published post looks like click 'View'. If you wanted to add to the post and change it, you would click 'Edit'. This would allow you to add more text or add things like videos and images.

(12). You'll then be presented with how your blog looks on-line. If you ever want to go back into the control panel for Blogger you have to click on to the little orange Blogger symbol in the top left hand corner of your web page.

 

 That's it! The worlds now waiting for your content. On the course you'll be guided bit by bit as to how you should title your pages as you go through the course. But for the moment just get on with what you've been set to do and send the web-link for your blog to your course leader.