Typology Assignment

Assignment 1: Typology

This week, you will be learn about Typologies which are the study of types. You will shoot a series of photographs with the intent of creating your own typology this week.

This assignment is inspired by the work of Hilla and Bernd Becher’s typologies. They photographed industrial sites from the same vantage point and assembled a grid of the resulting images. These are commonly referred to as Becher Grids. Please read the following articles to get a sense of their work and background:

A nice selection of images by the Bechers on Artnet
Nice collection of Contemporary Typologies
High precision industrial age souvenirs Bernd and Hilla Becher
"The Photographic Comportment of Bernd and Hilla Becher" (BLAKE STIMSON) 2004
MOMA exhibit - Bernd and Hilla Becher: Landscape/Typology
Exactitudes Series of dress codes typologies

Here are some student examples from the Spring 2010 semester:
Mike Nelson
Susan Mitchell
Pat Culkowski
Dawn Marie Snell

Begin by photographing a series of things which are similar yet different along the lines of the Bechers' grids. Then, you will use Aviary to edit the images and create a grid. Basically, you are exploring the subtle differences between similar objects/subjects. For this assignment, you are going to create a grid of your photos and host it on your blog.  

You will edit your photos using Pixlr.com. I would like you to start by adjusting the tone and image  of each image using the Levels tool. It is very important that they are all color correct.

Levels is a very powerful tool that can be used to adjust the tones (brightness values) of an image. Levels relies on you having a basic understanding of a histogram. For that reason, I would like you start by reading this tutorial on histograms. Then, read this tutorial on using Levels. It is written for Photoshop, but the big concepts are applicable to Phoenix (and all image editors for that matter), there are just less options. Here is another good tutorial on using Levels with Photoshop. Pixlr doesn't support the Alt/Option key trick mentioned in that tutorial. Phoenix basically offers a simplified version of Levels shown in the image below. This menu is found by going to Adjustments > Levels.


Basically, you want to move the left most slider to where the data in the histogram starts to climb. This will make set the darkest part of your image; the black point. You want to move the right slider to where the histograms starts to climb as well. This will set the brightest part of your image; the white point. By moving these point to where the data begins, you are expanding the limited tonal range of your image to make full use of the tonal range available. If the data is already spread across the full tonal range, then you don't need to move the sliders. You would still want to adjust the middle slider to change the midtones, the middle brightness values, to taste.
So, for each image adjust the black point, white point, and midtones.

If you are not sure, you can always hit the Auto Levels button to see how that works for you. Sometimes, it works great and other times not so great.

Next, you will crop the images down to squares. You want the framing of each image to be as uniform as possible. To get a perfect square, you have to change the Aspect Ration to 1:1 in the Options menu once the Crop tool has been selected.   You can then re-position the selection if you like. Then, to crop to the area selected, hit Return/Enter. 

Next, you need to down sample each image. Down sampling is a type of interpolation (re-sizing) in which the total number of pixels is reduced to create a smaller file. You are going to down sample these images because you need to fit 4 across and the maximum file size is only 4000 in one direction.

So, you are going to crop each image to a set amount of pixels. Given that you will have a grid of 4x4 images with a space between each and the edge of the frame, this will allow for X pixels between each image and from the border.

So, it will be X pixels border + X00 pixels image + X0 pixels border + X00 pixels image + X0 pixels border + X00 pixels image + X0 pixels border + X00 pixels image + X0 pixels border for a total of 4000 pixels across.

Go to Image > Image Resize and put in X00 for the first field. This will result in the second field automatically changing to X00 as long as you cropped to a square. The image above shows how the dialog box will look.

This will start a process in which it will allow you to download the file in the format of your choice. I would suggest that you use PNG. Be sure to name it something descriptive. Then go to the next image by going to File > New Document. You will get the following warning:
Are you sure you want to create a new document and discard all changes?
As long as you already exported it, choose Yes. Choose Load Existing File to open up the next individual image. Do this for all 16 images before moving on to assemble the grid.

THE REST OF THIS DOCUMENT STILL BE UPDATED - it currently refers to a different program....

To create a new image that will become our grid, go to File > New Document. You will get the following warning:
Are you sure you want to create a new document and discard all changes?
As long as you save it, choose Yes. Then select Start from Scratch.





Shown above, is the New Document dialog. Set the dimensions to 4000 x 4000 pixels which is the largest size that Pixlr supports. You can easily change the color of this background at any point. Depending on what your images are of, you may want to select a color other than white for your background.

To bring an individual image into the Grid image as a layer go to File > Import File. Select one of the cleaned up images from the Aviary Library.

Move this image into position using the Move tool. Unfortunately, Phoenix doesn't have a provision to create a grid for positioning, so you will have to use the rulers to insure correct position. Be sure to keep 80 pixels away from the edges and other images. NOTE: Sometimes it isn't clear how to apply a move. If you move a layer and then want it to stay there, you may need to click on another tool and then back to the Move tool.

Repeat this process until the grid is complete. Name it Grid. Export the completed grid as a PNG file then post it on your blog.

Drawing from this project and our class room discussions, consider the following:

1. What is the largest high quality, photo-realistic print that we can make from the completed grid? Explain your answer.
2. After the image is hosted on your blog, it appears small within the body of the blog, but opens up larger in a separate window when clicked on. What is the pixel dimension of the larger version? If it differs from 2800x2800, why would that be?
3. It is convention that 72ppi are need for screed display. That is to say, if you wanted your image to appear as approximately 2 inches by 2 inches on screen, you would size your image to be 144 x 144 pixels. How large of a print would an image of that size make? Why do you need higher resolution when you print than for use on screen?
4. Let's imagine you want to make a new Google Docs or PowerPoint presentation. You decide that the images don't need to be larger than 6 inches across for on screen use. How many pixels wide should your images be for this application?
5. What is DPI? What is it an acronym for? Is it the same thing as PPI? If not, what are the