Candid Portraits - Derek the Master Farrier

Background....

So what is a Candid Portrait? After searching the Internet and finding a whole host of explanations as to what is and what's not  candid photography I was none the wiser. At the planning stage of this module I had looked at the work of Weegee for the candid category.

In the above photographs taken by Weegee you can see they have been taken without any direction from the photographer,  but the subjects in the photograph know of his presence and what he is doing. They are totally spontaneous in their actions and its down to the photographer when to press the shutter.

For the Candid Portraits I was lucky enough to capture and record a master craftsman at work. The gentleman's name in question was Derek. Now into his seventies he still has the skill and stamina to make many a young Farrier green with envy. His foundry is on the border of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, in an out building on a farm. Lit by a mixture of fluorescent and daylight, and the glow of the intense foundry fire. The only direction I gave him was to work as normal as if I wasn't there.

This first image is actually the last image I took at this session.  Derek was just chatting away and  just looked up at an opportune moment, I was fairly close at the time and the backgrounds were somewhat confusing. You will see in some of the other images the wires and metal covers which distract the eye. I also used a shallow depth of field f2.2 to further omit detail in the background. This image is slightly soft which I thinks adds to the overall feel.

I wanted to give the impression that I was not always focused on Derek and so took certain still life objects within the forge. I also wanted to use the new found skills form the first module and carry them over into this. The second image is the starting of the fire in the forge. There is an image below that shows it at full force. I used a slower shutter speed to create the sense of movement within the flames.

I took these next two images of Derek to show the heat of the metal being worked. I also liked the glow that can be seen in his face. I struggled with light throughout this session, I had to use a shallow d.o.f to allow more light to hit the sensor as I needed a fairly fast shutter so that the images didn't blur.

The first object is an examples of basic metalwork. Derek worked this metal with such ease and craft.  It took him all of about 10mins. I placed them on the stone floor where they caught the window light. I converted to greyscale as I think the overall composition suits the effect better.

With the second object image I saw a number of horseshoe blanks laid on the floor next to the forge, I was taken a back by their blue colour. The final image has been cropped to tidy up the edges and help draw the viewers eye into the centre of the composition.

This next image is of the large metal tongues positioned next to the forge. They are used to position the metal in the fire to get to temperature before working. I took this image dropping the focus to the foreground and background, creating a clear sharp area of focus in the centre of the composition.  I captured the image along the length to draw the viewers eye to the centre and help to produce an abstract image. The image on the right show the concentration of Derek working the metal. I used a fast shutter speed to capture the motion of the hammer. If I was taking this image again I would slow the shutter down to create increased motion within frame.

With this shot I was able to capture shards of metal sparking off the forge. This is the kind of image you expect to see from a farrier.

Another shot showing the total concentration of Derek.

I saw the above wording hanging in the store room next to the forge. I liked the way the light caught the edge of the word and then the dark metal work against the very light background. I used a shallow d.o.f as the store room had tools hanging against the wall which would have caused a distraction.

The final image was take to show the intensity of the forge fire. I have turned up the saturation to bring out the wonderful colours that can be seen in this image.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Some of these images are slightly soft. This is due to me not being very observant. I had just bought a Sigma 28mm prime lens and was itching to use it. This lens has a known problem of sometimes not  auto focusing properly. Lesson learnt - always check your equipment before and while the session is taking place.

2. Another rookie error. We think of Farriers/Blacksmiths wearing used leather aprons, with the shirt sleeves rolled up, not cardigans. I could/should have got Derek to wear his protective clothing as it would have given more credibility to the images, but this could have been classed as direction!

3. Have a plan of action. I should have researched a bit more for images of Farriers/Blacksmiths and had more of an idea of what I wanted to achieve. This would help in being more creative.

4. I learnt something about myself with this shoot. Altogether I enjoyed the experience but I realised I preferred the controlled environment of the studio. As I turned up with my camera and little else I didn't enjoy not being in control of where the light would fall. Just a personal preference!!

5. Sometimes its not possible to see the location before the shoot. However if you can do some prep then do. If I had know how dark the Forge would be then I would have looked a bringing lights. However, is this then moving out of candid into environmental?

6. I could have converted all the images to grayscale to reduce the distraction in clothing and backgrounds. However, I think this would loose some of the intensity of light and heat that have been caught within frame. Also trying to keep within the spirit of Candid photography I have tried to make little or no alteration to the captured image.

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