Friday 10 December 2010

Health & Safety 1.6

Health & Safety at work act 1974: also referred to as HASAW or HSW, is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in the United Kingdom. The Health and Safety Executive is responsible for enforcing the Act and a number of other Acts and Statutory Instruments relevant to the working environment.

COSHH - Control of substances hazardous to health.
Using chemicals or other hazardous substances at work can put people’s health at risk, causing diseases including asthma, dermatitis or cancer.
The COSHH regulations require employers to control substances that can harm workers' health.

PUWER - Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (1998),


These regulations lay down requirements for employers regarding the safety and use of all work equipment including machinery. Work equipment should not give rise to risks to health and safety.

The primary objective of PUWER 98 is to ensure that work equipment should not result in health and safety risks, regardless of its age, condition or origin.

PUWER 98 applies to the provision and use of all work equipment, including mobile and lifting equipment.

The definition of ‘use’ is wide and includes all activities involving work equipment, such as stopping or starting the equipment, repair, modification, maintenance and servicing. Cleaning and transportation of the equipment is also included.

The scope of work equipment is extremely wide and covers almost any equipment used at work. Work equipment covers:
(a) hand tool, eg. hammers, knives, handsaws etc.
(b) single machines, eg. photocopiers, dumper trucks, circular saws
(c) lifting equipment eg. hoists, lift trucks
(d) other equipment such as ladders, pressure cleaners
(e) the installation of a series of machines


The equipment should be suitable for the use for which it is intended, be provided with correct guarding, proper lighting, clear marks and warning signs etc.

The need for training, maintenance and suitability assessment will apply to all equipment whether old or new.


DSE - Display Screen Equipment.
Computer workstations or equipment can be associated with neck, shoulder, back or arm pains, fatigue and eyestrain.
These aches and pains are sometimes called upper limb disorders (ULDs) or repetitive strain injuries (RSI). These problems can be avoided by following good practice.
Display screen equipment (DSE) is any work equipment having a screen that displays information. Typical examples are computer screens often called monitors or VDUs.
Surveys have found that high proportions of DSE workers report aches, pains or eye discomfort. Mostly these conditions do not indicate any serious ill health, but it makes sense to avoid them as far as possible.
The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations aim to protect the health of people who work with DSE. That does not mean that DSE work is risky – it isn’t, if the user follows good practice like setting up their workstation well and taking breaks in intensive work.
The Regulations were introduced because DSE has become one of the commonest kinds of work equipment. So there is potential to make work more comfortable and productive for very large numbers of people by taking a few simple precautions.

Saturday 16 October 2010

Art Photography

Intro. to Art Photography.

refers to photographs that are created to the photographers appeal. Art photography can be as wacky as you want. Even unrealistic.

Application

Art photography started around the 1800's. Ansel Adams was one of the most popular art photographers of our time with some amazing work. He used many different genres of photo styles such as:
  • Nude
  • Portraits
  • Natural Landscapes
here is an example of his work -

Natural Landscape

Ansel Adams mainly did lanscape work and would show these in different ways such as books and galliries. He was very known for his black and white photography. Adams used a Korona camera with most of his work, this allowing him to capture images in good quality. Adams has some very famous photos such as 'moonlight' which was captured only weeks before the attacks on Pearl Harbour. His work is historic and allows you too see things that he witnessed.

Context

Art Photography can be found and viewed in many different places all over the world.

  • Billboards
  • Newspapers
  • Magazines
  • TV
  • Internet
  • Books
  • Galleries, etc
Most people will also have canvas photos/painting hung around their homes. Landscape is probably one of the most popular types of art photography.

Techniques

This type of photography has an endless number of different techniques because it is all based on the photographers personal taste. He/she can choose to have whatever they wish in their photo and can make it seem as real or unreal as they want. The type of camera used isn't really a big deal as photographers could easily change what they wanted shown in their pictures, but digital cameras would probably be the easiest for this.


Wednesday 6 October 2010

Fashion Photography

Intro. to Fashion Photography;


1856 was the start of fashion photography. Adolphe braun published a book containing 288 photographs of a woman called Virgina Oldoini, she offcially became the first ever fashion model. Within the first decade of the 20th century fashion photographs started to be used in magazines one of the first being La Mode Practique, a french magazine. In 1909 Vouge magazine also started using fashion photographs in their magazine. Fashion photographs started orginally in black and white, but colour was soon introduced.



Application

there are many different genres of fashion photography.
  • Black and White
  • Erotic
  • Fashion
  • Glamour
  • Nude etc.
From looking at fashion photographs you can use many different words to describe what the photo is like for example, Exotic, Surreal, Strong, Sexual, Elegant, Adventure, Retro, Fantasy etc.

Context

These images are used almost everywhere. In magazines, photo books, billboards, tv adverts, newspapers and the internet.

Techniques

Nearly all photographs used in the industry today are edited in some form. Photoshop is the most popular program for doing this. The editing of photos today is much more complex then just changing a few colours, and can literally edit an entire face and its features to different shades, sizes and colours, you can also edit a head onto a completely different body. The finished product can look like a totally different photo compared to the original. Examples of photo editing:

Notice how they have not only edited the colour, but they have also made her look thinner by cutting off parts of her stomach making her legs look smaller, made her face smaller and made her breasts look bigger.

 this type of photo editing, gives real people unrealistic goals. Lots of todays women aspire to look like most of the models that are portrayed in magazines etc, but with all this photo editing its not really possible. Photo editors are always very wary of the size of a model, and if they think there is somthing slightly wrong they will edit it out to create the perfect image. its not only the idea of someone looking different to how they actually are, the use of photo editing can also change the meaning or idea of a photo. 
In this example the man on the far right is edited out of the photo, giving the impression that he was never there. This then changes the meaning of the photo and what happened on that day according to the viewers of the picture. 
File:The Commissar Vanishes 2.jpg
After Editing
File:Voroshilov, Molotov, Stalin, with Nikolai Yezhov.jpg
Before Editing


Different types of camera can also effect the picture. The use of a digital camera allows a picture to be instantly taken but loses some of the effect of the photo. For example if you take a picture of a person looking sad, upset or annoyed it will seem fake or staged because the picture was captured so quickly that they really didnt have those feelings at all, which shows in a picture. With an older style camera that use films/slides you would have to wait a while maybe up to 20 minutes in one position to get the image captured. When sitting in hot lights and in one position not knowing when the camera will be ready you do tend to start feeling the emotions that need showing! This makes old style photographs seem very realistic and emotional.

Wednesday 29 September 2010

Portraiture

Application

Portraiture : the creation of any portrait, an artistic representation of a person. (wikipedia)

Famous Portraiture Photographers :
File:Diane-Arbus-1949.jpg
Diane Arbus
Walker Evans
Richard Avedon

Tony Vaccaro
Larry Clark
 A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer. (Wikipedia)

All these photogrpahers have different ways of capturing of their images, but they all come under the same style. Tony Vaccaro is mostly known for his photos that he captured in World War ||. When he wanted to capture a picture instead of capturing it in a way the person in the photograph wanted, he would capture the image in his way, in his opinion of the person. Vaccaro would want to capture the real nature of a person and not a 'staged pose' in a picture that people normally would be told to get in. Vaccaro was asked to do a portrait of Pablo Picasso, and while waiting to take a picture Picasso would do different poses similar to that of other photographers he had previous to Vaccaro. Vaccaro didn't like this so acted as if his camera had broken, Picasso lost this 'mask' that he seemed to have and at that moment Vaccaro captured the real emotion of Picasso.  
Pablo Picasso
 Diane Arbus was a brilliant photographer, she liked her photogaphs to realistic and represent the person for who they were and not what they wanted to be put across as. Her work wasn't very recognized before her death in 1971. Some people said that the world wasn't ready for her style of photography. Arbus was around in the 1960's taking pictures of groups, families and events happening at the time, such as protest. It seemed as if she was capturing the 'ugly truth'. Although her work is now greatly appriceated at the time is was frowned apon and some people could not believe why anyone would want to hire her as a photographer. In 1971 at just the age of 48, due to depression she took her own life with pills and a razor blade. The following year MOMA showed her photography and it soon became one of the most popular exhibitions of the time. Her daughter also helped in the creation of a art book which was the best selling of the time. Arbus' work was questioned, a lot, and has forced us to question the morality of a photograph. What is it we're doing when we take a picture? and what gives us the right? One of Arbus' subjects (Susan Sontag) did a essay on Arbus in 1973 accusing her of nihilism.

Context

Portraiture has always been a very popular type of photography. With nearly every single human being having at least one picture of themselves. The very start of portraiture were paintings of very important people, such as kings and queens or other members of rich/royal families. When the first camera came out this was also used to take portraits of people and these were used in many different ways. Even today, with our modern technology people still pay good money to get their portrait done sometimes this is also availible in old styles. Many Portraiture photos of our time can be seen in lots of different places such as:
  • Billboards
  • Newspapers
  • Peoples homes
  • Galleries
  • TV
  • Internet
  • Books
Techniques

There isn't really a technique to Portraiture, as there are so many different styles that you can do it in, from paintings to digital prints. With the old style camera a persons expression could feel more realistic and effective as they would of had to sit there a while to allow the slide to be changed and the photo to be taken, whereas digital camera of today have a almost sudden shutter time so as to capture the image straight away, therefore the person doesn't have to be posing for the picture for too long so the image/expression can seem fake or unreal. Old cameras would of processed there images in a dark room, where the light would be off and you would use different chemicals to get the photo to come out. Digital cameras allow for an instant image, which all you need to do it print.