Light Meter
Today we learned that our light meter isn't so smart. Objects come in countless shades of light and dark.....from bright white to absolute black. All of these objects require different exposure settings. Our cameras are making a big assumption that everything in the world is medium gray. With this assumption, the light meter gives you a reading that will make whatever you're pointing at gray. This is fine for many scenes that have "average scene brightness" (equal amounts of lights and darks). But as soon as there is an imbalance of tones (like bright white or dark black) you've got problems.
To correct this you need to over expose when you're taking a picture that is bright white, and under expose when the object is dark black. This is easy to adjust by looking through your light meter. We also learned about the Exposure Compensation on our camera. Usually when taking a picture, you adjust your settings until the light meter is balanced at 0. If you are taking a white picture you'll want the light meter to read to the left (over exposed). Or, you can adjust the Exposure Compensation setting in your camera so that when you're taking a picture, you'll adjust your settings until the light meter is balanced. You just need to make sure you turn off the Exposure Compensation setting after you're done taking pictures......wanna bet I mess this one up.
Photo Essay
Next we talked about a Photo Essay. This is any time you want to use more than one photograph to tell a story. Often it is difficult to tell a story deeply with only one picture. A photo essay can explore an idea or event with more detail and depth of emotion than one picture.
Like writing, the Beginning, Middle and End is the basic frame work of a photo essay. You start with a picture that describes where you started, what you did along the way, and where and how the trip ended.
There are no rules....but here are a few suggestions.
- The viewer knows nothing. You have to guide them through the story....
- Break a scene down. Take different shots from different angles with different focal length lenses edited together to tell the story.
- Start with an "establishing" shot or "long" shot. The establishing shot is often an overview of a landscape, building or room that gives the viewer a sense of where the scene is taking place.
- Medium shots and close shots are the usual progression to the main theme in a scene. Medium pictures are usually the bulk of a picture story. The provide the body of the narrative.
- A detail shot is a quick "cut away" edit to some telling detail in the scene. A close-up of a cigarette held in a shaky hand during a medium shot of dialogue is an example of close up.
- Camera viewpoints play a major role in story telling. In film you'll often see three quickly edited shots of the same subject from three different camera angles. Remember, a director is trying to tell you a story with everything that he or she does with the film. By quickly showing you three separate views of the same subject they have told you everything about the environment that the subject is in.
- Try to think like a director when you make a picture story. Shoot establishing shots, medium shots, portraits and details. Be aware of the passing of time, the weather, and people's moods. Ask yourself what is the real story unfolding here, and make sure you are using all your photographic skills (good light, composition, color and exposure) to tell it.
- Put meat into the story. Include Action Shots and Point of View
My final assignment is a photo essay bound in a book. I'm going to need a little help with suggestions.....so please feel free to share. I want to keep the story simple....nothing too complex. Final class is July 19th and it takes about 1.5 weeks to get a book printed and mailed. The clock is ticking!!
I'll most likely be printing my book at Blurb.com
Links to Picture Stories:
www.burnmagazine.org
www.boston.com/bigpicture/
www.maryellenmark.com
www.johnfmartin.net
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/galleries/cuba/splash.htm
magnumphotos.com/archive
www.rwandaproject.org
www.photodocumentarypress.com
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Assignment #5
This week we worked on our shutter speed. This one was a little difficult because I needed a volunteer. Thankfully I was able to twist the arm of a Belmar beach house friend. Considering I didn't really sell the experience, she was a really good sport.
Sequence
Stop Action
- I set my camera on a tripod and took pictures of Crystal going by on a bike at multiple shutter speeds.
Now for a couple of fun ones.....
Blur
- If you remember from my Assignment #5 post, there are two types of blur. I'll start with Static Blur, then move to Panning Blur
Static Blur
I was also suppose to take a picture with Shutter Speed 1/4....but somehow I forgot. Oops!
Now a few fun ones!
Panning Blur
Now a quick fun one
Sequence
Stop Action
- I set my camera on a tripod and took pictures of Crystal going by on a bike at multiple shutter speeds.
Shutter Speed 1/30
Shutter speed 1/60
Shutter Speed 1/125
Shutter Speed 1/250
Shutter Speed 1/500
Shutter Speed 1/1000
(after taking this one, I really started to crave a bigger zoom lens)
Blur
- If you remember from my Assignment #5 post, there are two types of blur. I'll start with Static Blur, then move to Panning Blur
Static Blur
Shutter Speed 1/ 125
Shutter Speed 1/ 60
Shutter Speed 1/30
Shutter Speed 1/ 15
Shutter Speed 1/8
I was also suppose to take a picture with Shutter Speed 1/4....but somehow I forgot. Oops!
Now a few fun ones!
Panning Blur
Shutter Speed 1/30
Shutter Speed 1/ 15
Shutter Speed 1/8
Shutter Speed 1/4
Shutter Speed 1/2
Shutter Speed 1
Now a quick fun one
Next we had to communicate an idea. This one was a little tricky. For the next couple of weeks he's going to give us a word and/or phrase and we need to capture in a picture......ugh.
- Portrait of a loved one without them in it
- As time goes by
- Urban jungle
- Will this ever end?
Seriously when will it end??!!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
A week off class....
Our instructor had to cancel class on May 31st to attend a concert.....rough life. Good news is it gave me an extra week to work on my assignment. Which I needed. I'm still missing one picture for tomorrows assignment. So for now I'll post a picture of a couple of my roommates in the Belmar beach house. I'm sure you can tell how thrilled they are they I carry my camera all over the place now.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Class #5
Shutter Speed, Time and Motion
Our first couple of classes, our instructor kept telling us "the most important thing to remember about photography is we are representing the 3D world in a 2D medium". This week we learned the second most important thing about photography "We are creating a flat, motionless and silent representation of a very dynamic world". We are trying to let the viewer know the things we are photographing are alive, dynamic and moving. So how do we do this.....
1. Sequence
I'm sure you've all see the below picture. Eadweard Muybridge's "The Horse in Motion". As a little history lesson......These pictures were taken to help a friend of Eadweard's with a bet. The bet had to do with whether a horse in full stride has all four hooves off the ground or not. Multiple pictures were set up with wires that tripped as the horse ran by. These multiple pictures describe the passage of time and motion, while also capturing a view the eye was not able to see. To really capture and measure the movement, add something static in the picture.
2. Stop Action
A fast exposure can stop an action that otherwise would be imperceptible allowing the viewer to study the intricacies of the motion. The shorter the shutter speed, the faster the action can be stopped.
How about a little more history.....In the 1940's Dr. Harold Edgerton designed a flash with a duration of less than 1/10,000th of a second that could stop a bullet.
Stop action photos allow the viewer to study an event they can't with the naked eye. You freeze the moment by increasing your shutter speed.
3. Blur
- Static Camera Blur
First you need to set your camera up on a tripod to hold it steady. Then allow the action to streak onto your film. By adjusting your shutter speed you can adjust the amount of blur. The slower the shutter speed, the more blur.
- Panning Camera Blur
For this method, you're trying to hold a moving object constant in your frame as you pan along the moving objects path. Again - you can adjust the amount of blur by adjusting the shutter speed. The trick with Panning is to begin moving the camera with the subject before the exposure then release the shutter when you have smoothly matched the speed.
When Bad Blur Ruins Good Pictures
A couple of tips
- Do not handhold a camera at less than 1/60th of a second
- For lenses longer than 50mm, select a shutter speed equal to or higher than the focal length of the lens.
- Tripods or cable release can help eliminate blur. Removing your hands from the camera can greatly improve the sharpness of a picture.
- The mirror lock up feature allows you to release the mirror and stop the lens down prior to the actual exposure eliminating the vibration. (I have to do a little research to see if my camera has this feature and how it works)
- Learn the proper way to hold your camera. It should be cradled in your left hand with the left elbow against the body. Your right hand holds the camera firmly with the entire palm.
- When taking a picture, don't push the button.....squeeze until it fires
Our first couple of classes, our instructor kept telling us "the most important thing to remember about photography is we are representing the 3D world in a 2D medium". This week we learned the second most important thing about photography "We are creating a flat, motionless and silent representation of a very dynamic world". We are trying to let the viewer know the things we are photographing are alive, dynamic and moving. So how do we do this.....
1. Sequence
I'm sure you've all see the below picture. Eadweard Muybridge's "The Horse in Motion". As a little history lesson......These pictures were taken to help a friend of Eadweard's with a bet. The bet had to do with whether a horse in full stride has all four hooves off the ground or not. Multiple pictures were set up with wires that tripped as the horse ran by. These multiple pictures describe the passage of time and motion, while also capturing a view the eye was not able to see. To really capture and measure the movement, add something static in the picture.
2. Stop Action
A fast exposure can stop an action that otherwise would be imperceptible allowing the viewer to study the intricacies of the motion. The shorter the shutter speed, the faster the action can be stopped.
How about a little more history.....In the 1940's Dr. Harold Edgerton designed a flash with a duration of less than 1/10,000th of a second that could stop a bullet.
Stop action photos allow the viewer to study an event they can't with the naked eye. You freeze the moment by increasing your shutter speed.
3. Blur
- Static Camera Blur
First you need to set your camera up on a tripod to hold it steady. Then allow the action to streak onto your film. By adjusting your shutter speed you can adjust the amount of blur. The slower the shutter speed, the more blur.
- Panning Camera Blur
For this method, you're trying to hold a moving object constant in your frame as you pan along the moving objects path. Again - you can adjust the amount of blur by adjusting the shutter speed. The trick with Panning is to begin moving the camera with the subject before the exposure then release the shutter when you have smoothly matched the speed.
When Bad Blur Ruins Good Pictures
A couple of tips
- Do not handhold a camera at less than 1/60th of a second
- For lenses longer than 50mm, select a shutter speed equal to or higher than the focal length of the lens.
- Tripods or cable release can help eliminate blur. Removing your hands from the camera can greatly improve the sharpness of a picture.
- The mirror lock up feature allows you to release the mirror and stop the lens down prior to the actual exposure eliminating the vibration. (I have to do a little research to see if my camera has this feature and how it works)
- Learn the proper way to hold your camera. It should be cradled in your left hand with the left elbow against the body. Your right hand holds the camera firmly with the entire palm.
- When taking a picture, don't push the button.....squeeze until it fires
Assignment #4
For this weeks assignment we experimented with our f-stop and ISO of our cameras. This required taking a series of pictures, holding the same frame, and adjusting our f-stop or ISO with each picture. For the f-stop test, we were trying to determine when our camera put everything into focus. For ISO, we needed to find at what number the "noise" was too loud. I'll only post a few of my pictures.....since they are all pretty much the same scene.
1. Series of pictures with a variety of apertures - with Camera mode set to Aperture-Priority and lens at 35mm.
a. At 3' from camera
Here my f-stop is set at 5.6. I went all the way up to 32. I found that at f-stop 11, everything was pretty much in focus and I probably don't need to go all the way to 32 to have complete focus.
b. At 15' from camera
Again - I'm at f-stop 5.6. You'll notice that since I stepped away from my main object in the picture, everything is pretty much in focus.
c. Picture w/ Min Depth of Field
d. Picture with Max Depth of field
2. Series of pictures with a variety of ISO settings - with Camera mode set to Programmed Auto.
- Its hard to see in these pictures, but in class the pictures were blown up. As my ISO increased - you could see "noise" in my pictures. They were more grainy and edges lost their sharpness. When we zoomed in, I started to experience a lot of "noise" around ISO 800. He suggested we make a few prints and see how the pictures develop to determine when the "noise" causes issues with the picture. Apparently the application Light Room is able to eliminate a lot of the "noise". Still not sure if I want to buy the application.....we'll see.
a. First we took pictures outside.....
b. Then we took pictures inside.....
1. Series of pictures with a variety of apertures - with Camera mode set to Aperture-Priority and lens at 35mm.
a. At 3' from camera
Here my f-stop is set at 5.6. I went all the way up to 32. I found that at f-stop 11, everything was pretty much in focus and I probably don't need to go all the way to 32 to have complete focus.
b. At 15' from camera
Again - I'm at f-stop 5.6. You'll notice that since I stepped away from my main object in the picture, everything is pretty much in focus.
c. Picture w/ Min Depth of Field
d. Picture with Max Depth of field
2. Series of pictures with a variety of ISO settings - with Camera mode set to Programmed Auto.
- Its hard to see in these pictures, but in class the pictures were blown up. As my ISO increased - you could see "noise" in my pictures. They were more grainy and edges lost their sharpness. When we zoomed in, I started to experience a lot of "noise" around ISO 800. He suggested we make a few prints and see how the pictures develop to determine when the "noise" causes issues with the picture. Apparently the application Light Room is able to eliminate a lot of the "noise". Still not sure if I want to buy the application.....we'll see.
a. First we took pictures outside.....
b. Then we took pictures inside.....
Monday, May 23, 2011
New Purchase!
For this weeks assignment I needed a tripod. So I headed to the store and made a new purchase. Promaster 7150. Figured it would be an easy decision - after all its just a platform with three legs. Boy I had no idea how many options there were.
I've also started receiving National Geographic.
I've also started receiving National Geographic.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Class #4
Lenses.....Part Two!- For this class we covered Depth of Field with the lens. Depth of Field is the amount of an image that is in focus in front of and behind the main subject. This is important in creating image composition.....the viewer's eyes will only want to stay in areas that are sharply focused. We can alter depth of field three ways.....
1. F-stop - The larger the f-stop (smaller the number) the shallower the depth of field, while the smaller f-stop (bigger the number) creates a greater depth of field. So with a smaller f-stop, objects behind the main subject will appear more out of focus.
2. Lens Focal Length - The longer the lens the shallower the depth of field, the wider the lens the greater the depth of field.
3. Camera to Subject Distance - The closer you are to the subject the shallower the depth of field, the further away you are the greater the depth of field.
ISO
We covered ISO briefly in our last class. The ISO is a measure of light sensitivity to your chip. One down fall of adjusting your ISO is noise. The higher the ISO, or increase in electricity running through your chip, the increase in noise. Noise is the chip adding randomly colored pixels in areas that should be black or very dark. Noise is caused by the low level electrical charge of the chip actually creating ghost information. Better cameras have less noise, but all cameras will show some noise at certain setting. Part of this weeks assignment is to determine at what ISO setting we start to experience too much noise with our camera.
1. F-stop - The larger the f-stop (smaller the number) the shallower the depth of field, while the smaller f-stop (bigger the number) creates a greater depth of field. So with a smaller f-stop, objects behind the main subject will appear more out of focus.
2. Lens Focal Length - The longer the lens the shallower the depth of field, the wider the lens the greater the depth of field.
3. Camera to Subject Distance - The closer you are to the subject the shallower the depth of field, the further away you are the greater the depth of field.
ISO
We covered ISO briefly in our last class. The ISO is a measure of light sensitivity to your chip. One down fall of adjusting your ISO is noise. The higher the ISO, or increase in electricity running through your chip, the increase in noise. Noise is the chip adding randomly colored pixels in areas that should be black or very dark. Noise is caused by the low level electrical charge of the chip actually creating ghost information. Better cameras have less noise, but all cameras will show some noise at certain setting. Part of this weeks assignment is to determine at what ISO setting we start to experience too much noise with our camera.
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