Health & Safety - Photography

Health & Safety

Darkroom

Safe working practices when working in a darkroom:

1. The use of personal Protective equipment - Gloves, masks, goggles, tongues etc

2. Free from obstructions to avoid, slip, trips and falls

3. Correct ventilation

4. First Aid Kit to include Eye wash

5. Chemicals clearly labelled and stored correctly to conform with COSHH regulations

COSHH - The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health 

In Layman's terms what this means is that every substance we use that could cause any kind of danger to us needs to be labelled properly, used as intended and stored correctly.

Substances used at work that can cause ill health if handled correctly will not or almost never do so.

Substances can cause ill health through, breathing in, skin contact, swallowing, getting into eyes.

All substances that are harmful have some form of symbol on them, it is imperative when dealing with chemicals that you are aware of what symbols mean what. The 10 main symbols are toxic, very toxic, harmful, irritant, highly flammable, extremely flammable, explosive, dangerous to the environment, oxidising, and corrosive.

Any risks should be identified and controled

The Provision and use of Work Equipment Regulations (1998)

To ensure that work equipment is suitable for the purpose that is intended and that it is used correctly so as not to pose any health and safety threat to oneself or others.

All portable appliances must be PAT tested annually to ensure they are safe for work, the test will include ensuring correct fuses are used, cables are not frayed or damaged, and that it is earthed and the plug wired correctly.

If ladders are to be used, correct training must be given.

Display Screen Equipment Regulations 1992

Working with VDU's can cause a range of health problems but good working practice and design can prevent most.

Headaches caused by screen glare can be reduced by adding a screen filter to the screen. Regular breaks must be taken away from the VDU. Correct posture and chair height to prevent back pain.

Chairs must be adjustable and suitable lighting available

When using a laptop ensure you are sitting comfortably and angle the screen to see clearly and take regular breaks and when possible place on a hard surface at the right height to use the keyboard correctly.

Employers have to:

Analyse workstations and do a risk assessment

Ensure workstations meet minimum requirements

Changes in activity and regular breaks

arrange eye tests

provide health and safety training

Northern Quarter Manchester - Music Trail

A visit to the Northern Quarter in Manchester to photograph the areas links to music. Everywhere you turn in

The Northern Quarter its links to music are apparent but for me the first port of call had to be the Roadhouse.

Roadhouse

The Roadhouse has played host to many famous bands over the years. Manchester band Elbow played early gigs there and most of them worked there behind the bar and on the door before hitting the big time and are still best mates with the owner Kate. Local bands I Am Kloot who's music is produced by Elbow's Craig and Guy have also strong links to the Roadhouse along with The Rainband who are currently taking the music industry by storm. From Coldplay to Texas, they,ve all played here.

The Castle Hotel

The Castle now hosts a small intimate music venue of its own. The Castle is more notebly known for its link to Joy Division's Ian Curtis who was interviewed here by John Peel back in 1979

Night & Day

Night & Day has played host to thousands of bands over the years and is one of Manchesters most respected music venues. Elbow's Guy Garvey is reported to have spent so much time here in the early years  that he gave out the venues number as his home number to record companies

Matt & Phreds

Matt & Phreds is now a jazz bar but was once P J Bells, P J Bells once again saw the likes of Elbow gracing its stage in their early years

Posters, advertising, iconic buildings, record shops dotted around the Northern Quarter

I did have a few more images but blogger wont let me upload any more. I'd like to go and reshoot some of the venues, I shall be doing a further post on music venues around Manchester so will reshoot then. I will also go more indepth in to Manchester Music and its icons

Music Photography

Van Morrison's - Brown Eyed Girl

 

A song I often sing to my Brown Eyed other half

 

 

 

 

Ive done this one as it appeals to my sense of humour

 

Dean Martin's - Standing On the corner

 

 

 

I went to a bird of prey park on Sunday and captured the above Vulture, he really made me laugh the way he was just sat there watching everyone go past, he probably wanted to eat them but hey ho!

 

 

 

Studio Submission

Here are my final images for my studio brief. When it comes to lighting I still have a lot to learn, i've tried to mix up my submission by including both still life and portrait.

Image 1 - Converse

 

The above was lit with a softbox, that gives it a soft even light, however with using the reflectors, this highlighted areas of the watch and rock, it also highlighted the table as it was a gloss top so these were smudged out in PS

Lighting setup for the above image

 

 

 

 

Image 2 - Glass
 

 

This was placed on a still life table which was lit from behind with a softbox flash slightly to the left of the subject. The softbox gave it a nice soft even light which stops any glare reflecting off the glass itself but still shows the detail in the glass.

 

 

Lighting Set Up for above image

 

 

 

 

Image 3 - Skull

 

 

The subject was placed on a perspex sheet with further subject matter underneath. The underneath was lit from behind with an halogen spotlight with barndoors and set in front of the spotlight was a honeycomb grill. The honeycomb grill diffuses the direct glare from the spotlight and allows just enough light to light the subject matter underneath whilst not affecting the light to the main subject. The top was lit using a discharge tube light within a beauty dish, this gives a much harsher light than a softbox.

 

Lighting setup for the above image

 

 

 

 

Image 4 - Low Key

 

 

The boards either side of the light ensure that the light is directed straight onto the subject. The deep reflector gives a harsh directional light that is good for shooting "mean & moody" shots and is perfect for low key

Lighting set up for the above image

 

 

Image 5 - Rose

 

The above image was placed on a still life table, to the right rear was a continuous light with barn doors, to the front right was a flash with honeycomb grill, the honeycomb grill allows you to put a strong directional light upon the subject, which is good for highlighting a particular part of a subject. The above image was deliberately over exposed and a slow shutter speed used to give the above effect.

lighting set up for the above image

 

 

 

Image 6 - Serrano Inspired

 

 

Background lit by constant light source with a softbox to the right of the subject. The softbox gives a a nice soft even light that does not produce shadows and is perfect for use on portraits.

 

 

 

 

Image 7 - The Doc

 

 

The above image was lit using a lounge uprighter lamp balanced on top of an ironing board with a tinfoil reflector to the left of the face, I had quite a bit of natural light from the right hand side from a window

 

Lighting setup for the above image

 

 

 

Evaluation

 

Overall I am very pleased with the level of my submission, I still have a lot to learn in terms of lighting but I think the images show I have the ability to light various subjects. During the studio work I constantly found myself altering the lighting setups to try out various other options to the ones set up prior to the shoot. I also tried to think outside the box in terms of how I shot a subject like the Rose, the Glass and the doc images show.

 

 

 

A Bit More On Studio

 

 

Lighting in the studio:

 

Flash:-

 

Softbox - Diffuses Light

Beauty Dish - Contrasted for a more dramatic effect

Snoot - Produces a small pool of light, good for still life and highlighting

Honeycomb - Produces small patch of light

Deep Reflector - Deep & Moody - good for low key

Constant Source:-

Red head

Discharge Tube Light

 

Here are a few more images good and bad from my time in the studio:

 

 

 

 

 

                                    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trying my hand at Architecture

Sunday morning, bright blue skies and I pick all the buildings in the shade! First time I've gone out with my camera with the sole intention of shooting architecture. So here goes, heres a few of the pics I shot. Theres also a sneaky one I took at college today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Documentary - Children in politics

On Saturday 9th February the local people of Levenshulme went out in force to protest about the closing of the local Library and Swimming pool, I went along with my camera to document it. What struck me the most about this protest was the amount of children "obviously with their parents" who where actively involved.
Where would our children be without a library to read books? The olympics stirred up a whole new appetite for sports, on the back of this the government adopted its "The Olympics Legacy" and then they plan to close swimming pools and leisure centres.
So here are a few photos of the children of the day.......

Interior Brief final & Overview

I choose the Catholic Church as my interior brief. Being brought up as a catholic, the thing I remember most from an early age is being absolutely petrified of the local priest and the church in general, church was always freezing cold, dark and damp and I wanted to be anywhere on a Sunday morning than sat on a hard wooden pew, freezing cold having to put half my hard earned pocket money into a tray for the poor. Initially I wanted to portray the church as I saw it growing up, cold, damp and frightening. What changed? I spoke to the most helpful priest in the world, who bent over backwards to help me and I felt myself not wanting to portray his church in that way or maybe it was just age old catholic guilt! So the final 10 images show from my 7 year old self what the church and my faith meant to me growing up. The icons and items of everyday church life, from Mary and Jesus to baptism and confession, from collections for the poor to the splendor and richness of the church itself.

The lighting was an absolute nightmare and I shot various exposures for each photo. I didn't want to use flash as this bounced off every available surface and I lost the ambience of the church. I feel the images are composed well and I've achieved in my minds eye what I set out to achieve. I'm disappointed that some of the stain glass windows didn't show up as well but I could only achieve this on some occasions if I totally underexposed the rest of the scene and by doing this I lost a lot of the detail. A couple of images of the church itself have been deliberately under exposed to compensate for the windows.

The bible photo is a bit over exposed and isn't all quite in frame so I would use a different exposure next time and get it all in frame.

The statue of our lady I should of in hindsight used a shallow depth of field to blur out the background but the use of flash as slightly compensated for this as it's brought out her face from the background as I wanted to give her a more life like and dare I say angelic feel as opposed to a rock hard statue. The Jesus statue didn't work out as well and I'd possibly shoot from a different angle next time.

The more I photograph the more I seem to be leaning to searching out the small random details that by some would go totally unnoticed but that I find fascinating, so we have the collection for the poor sign, the organ keys, Mary and Jesus done as portraits instead of statues, the opened bible.

Still a lot to learn, but I feel I did the best I could with the lighting conditions I had and I'm quite happy with the results.

BLOGGER WON'T LET ME UPLOAD PHOTOS AT MOMENT