This topic of discussion on experience with darkness will open to new dialoge between sighted and blind community. Do post your comments. 

Each tutorial (question) provides step by step guidance to the visually impaired with related images, videos and also review of work done by accomplished blind photographers on the theme.

Tutorials in this website are proven to deliver desired results. The best approach is to start taking pictures based on these tutorials and once you have comfortable with process of taking pictures, you may explore beyond these tutotials to deliver much more creative work  - possibilities of making pictures are endless. 

• Come close to the person and handshake with him and put your hand on his shoulder. This will give you an idea about the height of the person in relation to your height.
• Ask him to stand still, you go back few steps. While going back make sure you are in straight line with the person. If you are not too sure come back close to him, handshake with him and you go back again.
• Ask the person to talk. This help you to position the camera based on the direction of sound and you are sure that the person hasn’t left the place.
• Now based on the sense of height of the person and direction of the sound you will have few options to position the camera – if the person is of your height you may put the camera at the level of your eyes, if the person is shorter than you place the camera at level of your neck and chest or sometime even lower if the person is a child, if the person is taller than you put the camera at the level of your forehead or even higher.
• Always take more than one picture by changing the position of the camera. 

Depending on whether the person is standing or sitting, you have to position the height of the camera. Also how much you have go back depends on how of the surrounding you want to capture  along with the person.  Less the distance between the person and the camera less surrounding will be captured, far you go from the person more of surrounding you will get. 

Above three pictures taken by visually impaired participating in first session of photography at Blind With Camera workshop. It shows how the position of camera matters and correctness is achieved. In first picture half of the head is cut-off, in second picture forehead and above is cut-off and third is a perfect picture.

Below is a video on blind photographer taking picture of person, it has some funny moments.

 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRcqozuLWXU&feature=related[/youtube]

Addition light can be used to selectively illuminate parts of the subject. In order to minimize camera shake, a tripod is necessary due to the long exposure times and a shutter release cable or self timer is generally used. Manual focus is often used since autofocus systems may not perform well in low light. In addition, photographers often use a slow film speed or low ISO setting on a digital sensor to minimize grain (or digital noise) and increase exposure tolerance. Like night photography, light painting has grown in popularity since the advent of digital cameras because it allows the photographers to see the results of their work immediately.

Alternative to moving light source (like flash lights and light pens) light painting can be done by  moving the camera. It called  “Camera Toss.” Take off the camera from the tripod and used it like a paintbrush.  Sometimes use of artificial light, like LEDs and mobile phones, or through the limited sunlight beaming in a curtained room creates a shadowing effect adds up to a more creative result. 

             The first known photographer to use light painting technique was Man Ray in his series “Space Writing” in 1937 (picture on left). Photographer Gjon Milli took picture of Pablo Picasso in 1949 doing a quick sketch in the air using a light pen (picture on right). To know the story behind Picasso’s famous photograph click here 

Creating images in darkness, in a way bring the blind photographer at par with the sighted photographer, both equally challenged to see in the dark. Seeing with Photography Collective is a group of photographers based in New York City who are visually impaired. The group exclusively uses light painting techiniques, in which flashlights are used to illustrate the subjects over long exposure in complete darkness to create richly surreal work of art – luminous distortions, blurred or glowing forms. Work of  the group is complied in a book titled “Shooting Blind” published by the Aperture Foundation, New York.

To know more about Seeing with Photography Collective group click here

Visually impaired and sighted photographers from the Seeing With Photography Collective group discuss their work in video below. 

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXfq3hMFUTA&feature=related[/youtube]

• Say if group is of  six to eight people, ask them to stand in straight line in two rows. Taller people at the back and shorter people at the front. 
• You first handshake (will give idea of their height)with the first person on the left and walk to the last person on the right. As you walk from left to right you count the steps, say its ten steps.
• Now walk from right to left and stop at the fifth step (now at the middle of the group).
• Now go back wards (8 steps or more) while going back make sure you are in straight line with the group of people.

When a sighted person takes pictures, he looks through the viewfinder or at the LCD screen of digital camera, and moves forward or backward or left or right to make sure that individual or group of people are in the frame. While a blind person while taking picture of group people (or single person) has to judge the height of the person and the space covered by him by measuring the space.  

Above two pictures taken by visually impaired participating in first session on photography at Blind With Camera workshop, showing how position of camera matters and correctness is achieved. 

How much to go back (distance between the object and camera) depends on the no of person (or size of the object) and space around them / it that you want capture and also greatly depends on the on the focal length of the camera. 

Imagine you are examining a table at home before taking a picture. A few touches reveal that the table is set for four, table is rectangle in shape, and the top is smooth and partly covered by a thin oval tablecloth. On further exploring by touch reveals that the table is neatly arranged with thick round platters between knives and forks, knives are sharp and forks have four tines. Beside each knife is a wineglass, the glasses are full and the surface of the fluid is fuzzy. There are rough rectangular mats with hot covered serving dishes on them.

By position the camera away from the table to show the wholeness from your ”memory of touch” your picture will tell the shapes of each object and its likely functions, as a sighted would tell by seeing.

Taking pictures of still object can be very creative, professional photographers may find 100 ways to photographs a single object. One has to really think wild to come out with great idea like Pedro Hidalgo, a Cuban blind photographer uses still objects used in daily life to narrate the story of his life.

Pedro says – “The shoe at the bottom going all the way up to the top of the head with the hat is a representation of my life. I have the self-portrait moving up the stairs, which for me is symbolic of growth. The self-portrait begins at childhood and moving up from the bottom are small baby shoes. This represents my childhood growing up in Cuba as I did. Always had my visual disability from birth, and as you move up the stairs you see all the different objects, the cameras, the glasses, magnifying glass that have been crucial in my life and my growth. Cameras have always been a way for me to see. It has always helped me to view the world and to be able to capture the world so I could see it better. The drum and the music, the cigar-smoking figurine there indicates the culture that I come from, from Cuba. I grew up during the Cuban Revolution and this was a difficult time there. The photograph of the eyeball signifies war, as you see inside there is a soldier, the saint with the rosary beads signifies my background also, but also talks about the meaning of spirituality for me today. It has been an integral part of my growth as a person and as an artist.”

• Based on initial description of the sighted companion, you should ask questions to him to understand the details and beauty of the landscape.
• Later position yourself with camera to shoot the landscape and as you point the camera, ask to continue describing the changes in landscape like change in lighting or contrast, or flying bird.

These descriptive clues help you to decide when to click. When you are surrounded by a naturals space like a forest during fall, by touching the trees, sound of dry leaves and warmth light (early morning or setting  sun, late evening, night) you will have good idea what the visuals looks like and take judgment to take pictures. Remember to move and change your position to click more pictures than just one frame.

Below is a video on blind photographer working on landscapes with assistance from sighted companion -

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMDBntRPuTg&feature=related[/youtube]

• Touch a flower, go backward 2 – 3 steps and point the camera towards the direction of touch.
• You may take close-up picture, getting close will give a very different abstract picture as the camera goes out of focus.
• If you want to take picture of a garden, you have touch flowers and go backward 10-15 steps to click a picture.

Traci Parks’s photographs of flower is amazing. She uses micro lens (a lens used for taking close-up without camera going out of focus). Traci by getting close has created abstract images of colourful images of flowers. 

• Full Name (do not use fake names)
• Sex, Age and Place 
• Nature of Blindness - Born blind, Late blind and Low Vision 
• Photographer’s statement and experience of taking the picture   
•  File should be in JPG format and maximum of 100KB size

Mail the above information along with the pictures to photoblog@blindwithcamera.org

Maximum ten pictures will be uploaded per visually impaired. 

Expert photographers will give comment on uploaded picture and pointers for improvement.   

Imagine you are in a restaurant waiting for your friends to join, you can hear sound of people talking. By listening carefully, from the modulation of voice you can judge the age of people around you. Point the camera towards direction of sound that interest you (may be family get-together of older people or young kids with parents). At times, like this described you can not measure by walking up-down, but rely on your judgment of distance based on the audio input. You need to be like a bat.

Below is a video on blind photographer taking pictures of city space.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyiWoY7ye38[/youtube]