Monthly Archives: September 2016

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Research

KEY PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS – EXPLAINED

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1. Focal Length:

Focal length of an image is the distance between the centre of a lens and its focus. The focal length tells us the angle of view—how much of the scene will be captured—and the magnification—how large individual elements will be. The longer the focal length; the narrower the angle of view and the higher the magnification. The shorter the focal length; the wider the angle of view and the lower the magnification.

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2. Depth of Field:

Depth of field, in photography is the distance between the nearest and the furthest objects that give an image judged to be in focus in a camera; it is whether the foreground, mid-ground or background are in focus; which are and which aren’t. Some images may have very small zones of focus which is called shallow depth of field. Others may have a very large zone of focus which is called deep depth of field. Three main factors that will affect how you control the depth of field of your images are: aperture, distance from the subject to the camera, and focal length of the lens on your camera.

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3. Point of View:

In relation to photography, ‘point of view’ refers to the position the camera is in when viewing a scene. Are you lying on the ground, looking up at your subject? Are you flying in a helicopter, looking down at the landscape below? Or are you simply standing and looking straight-on at your subject?

Bird’s Eye View –

Photographing from a bird’s-eye view can be especially effective if shooting landscapes.

moonjazz-766x1024

 Becoming the Subject –

This point of view tends to be the most effective, especially when photographing human subjects. To use this technique, photograph your subject from the point of view of the person interacting with the subject.

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Eye Level – 

This is the most common way to photograph a subject. after all, it is typically the way we regard most subjects in our day-to-day lives, especially other people. photographing animals especially from this perspective allows viewers to feel more connected with them – especially if the subject is making direct eye contact with the camera.

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4. Aperture:

Aperture is essentially an opening, a hole, or a gap. But in photographic terms it is a space through winch light passes in an optical or photographic instrument.

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It is calibrated in f/stops and us generally written as numbers such as 1.4/2/2.8/4/5.6/8/11/16. The lower f/stops give more exposure because they represent the larger apertures, while the higher f/stops give less exposure because they represent smaller apertures.

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The lower the f/stop—the larger the opening in the lens—the less depth of field—the blurrier the background.

The higher the f/stop—the smaller the opening in the lens—the greater the depth of field—the sharper the background.

The f/stop also affects shutter speed. using a low f/stop means more light is entering the lens and therefore the shutter doesn’t need to stay open as long to make a correct exposure.

5. ISO:

In very basic terms, ISO is the level of sensitivity of your camera to available light. The lower the ISO number, he less sensitive it is to the light, while a higher ISO number ISO increases the increases of your camera. with increased sensitivity, your camera sensor can capture images in low-light environmental without having to use flash. But higher sensitivity comes at an expense  – it adds grain/noise to the photos.

ISO Speed Example:
ISO 100 – 1 second
ISO 200 – 1/2 of a second
ISO 400 – 1/4 of a second
ISO 800 – 1/8 of a second
ISO 1600 – 1/16 of a second
ISO 3200 – 1/32 of a secondiso-200-and-iso-3200

6. Shutter Speed:

Simply put, a camera shutter is a curtain in front of the camera sensor that stays closed until the camera fires. When the camera fires, the shutter opens and fully exposes the camera sensor to the light that passes through the lens aperture. After the sensor is done collecting the light, the shutter closes immediately, stopping the light from hitting the sensor.

Shutter speed, also known as “exposure time”, stands for the length of time a camera shutter is open to expose light into the camera sensor. If the shutter speed is fast, it can help to freeze action completely.  If the shutter speed is slow, it can create an effect called “motion blur”.

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Research

High Angle / Low Angle / Canted Angle – Explained

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A high-angle shot is a photographic/cinematic technique where the camera looks down on the subject from a high angle and the point of focus often gets “swallowed up.” High-angle shots can make the subject seem vulnerable; like you, the photographer is a giant. It is very effective when applied with the correct mood, setting, and effects. It almost has a fish-eye effect due to the perspective –  the head of a person in a high-angle portrait looks blown up and bigger than the rest of the body.

high-angle-avengers

Image result for high angle photography

In cinematography/photography, a low–angle shot, is a shot from a camera angle positioned low; sometimes it is even directly below the subject’s feet or anywhere below the eye line, looking up. Psychologically, the effect of the low-angle shot is that it makes the subject look strong, powerful and superior to the small character you’re playing as you look up at them. proportions can look strange in a low angle shot as the the upper half of the body can look out of proportion to the rest but can also pay off very well.

Image result for low angle

Image result for low angle portrait

A canted angle, once again used in television or photography is a camera angle which is deliberately slanted to one side, sometimes used for dramatic effect to help portray unease or disorientation and could make the audience feel uncomfortable looking at it. A canted angle can be used to portray a discrete or disguised way to capture a scene in films for example. Canted angles are often used in street photography.

Image result for canted angle

Image result for canted angle

 

Analysis

View points of an image

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HIGH ANGLE– A high–angle shot is a cinematic technique where the camera looks down on the subject from a high angle and the point of focus often gets “swallowed up.” High–angle shots can make the subject seem vulnerable or chicken when applied with the correct mood, setting, and effects.

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LOW ANGLE-A low-angle shot, is a shot from a camera angle positioned low on the vertical axis, anywhere below the eye line, looking up. Sometimes, it is even directly below the subject’s feet. Psychologically, the effect of the low-angle shot is that it makes the subject look strong and powerful.img_2930

CANTED ANGLE-A canted-angle shot is a type of camera shot where the camera is set at an angle on its roll axis so that the shot is composed with vertical lines at an angle to the side of the frame

Experimentation

Contact sheet of White Balance

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contactsheet-3

WHITE BALANCE 

White Balance is the process of taking away unrealistic and unwanted color casts.  This is so that objects that appear white in person, are shown white in your photo. Using White balance on your camera , means the camera has to take in account the color temperature  of a light  source, which is the relative warmth or coolness if the light.

The table below is a guide to the color temperature of some common light sources.

Color Temperature Light Source
1000-2000 K  Candlelight
2500-3500 K  Tungsten Bulb (household variety)
3000-4000 K  Sunrise/Sunset (clear sky)
4000-5000 K  Fluorescent Lamps
5000-5500 K  Electronic Flash
5000-6500 K  Daylight with Clear Sky (sun overhead)
6500-8000 K  Moderately Overcast Sky
9000-10000 K  Shade or Heavily Overcast Sky
These images below are the display images that would appear on your camera when changing your white balance.
Auto White Balance
Custom
Kelvin
Tungsten
Fluorescent
Daylight
Flash
Cloudy
Shade

Here is an image of the Kelvin Scale to show the differences in the color of light between the different temperatures.

kelvin-scale

 

Experimentation

Test Contact sheet

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contactsheet-001

What is a contact sheet?  – a piece of photographic paper onto which several or all of the negatives on a roll of film have been contact printed.

Photographers use a contact sheet to display all the photos that they have taken in one shoot. They also use it to easily chose and highlight the best images from that selection.

Instruction

Camera Skills

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During this part of the course we want you to develop some more confidence with using the manual settings of your camera, which will help you to show flair and creativity in your images.

First of all you need to just take a couple of photos, transfer them to your folder (we suggest you create a folder in your M drive as this will have the most space for you to work in).

Then you need to use a suitable programme to convert all of your thumbnails into a contact sheet, then you need to upload your contact sheet to your blog.

contactsheet-001

When you are confident with this process you can then start experimenting with your camera.

1. WHITE BALANCE

Try to understand the concept of White Balance by taking some more pictures that have the same composition and manual settings – but this time alter your white balance settings. In your analysis refer to the following terms: Colour Cast, Temperature, Kelvin Scale. As an extension task you could try setting a manual white balance and you could even try to fool the camera by setting a manual white balance with a coloured pieced of paper.  Here are some resources to help.

eddie-white-balance

 

kelvin-scale

2. ISO (International Standards Organisation)
  1. Use A priority mode to achieve a shallow depth of field and make sure that at 400 ISO you have an even exposure (use the light meter on your camera)
  2. Take the same picture (frame, angle, focus etc) but move through the different ISO settings.
  3. Check your pictures and see what results you get.
  4. Take some more pictures and adjust your Aperture setting and/or your light meter to make sure that all of the ISO settings have a reasonable exposure.
  5. Return to the classroom.
  6. Upload all of your photos as contact sheets
  7. Define the term ISO and
    1. identify the ways in which it affects your photographs
    2. and why and when you would need to use a different ISO setting
  8. Go back and take some more photographs in a different setting (eg outside on a sunny day) to explore and understand ISO further.

3. SHUTTER SPEED

This week we need to add one more key feature to your knowledge of manual camera settings – ‘SHUTTER SPEED’. To start with set your camera to Tv (Time Value). This means that  when you adjust your camera settings, it will change your shutter speed value and adjust other values (aperture, ISO) accordingly to ensure a balanced exposure – ie not too dark / not too light (or in photography language not too overexposed or too underexposed).

First of all let’s try to work out how shutter speed affects the image. Then think about where, when and why you would want to adjust shutter speed value.

Then, undertake a task to show your own practical understanding of this task – remember to take good quality images as part of your practical task, think about light, setting, composition, NVC etc etc etc.

 

You need to record your own examples, so I suggest you look at this pdf to give you some ideas shutter-speeds and then look at the work of Francesca Woodman:  

Image result for Francesca Woodman

 

before you produce:

  1. some images that record movement very slowly, so that the image is blurred, impressionistic and abstract (use a tripod to help keep your camera steady)
  2. some images that record movement very fast, so the image is sharp, clear and in focus
  3. some images using some specific techniques: eg ‘zoom bursts’, ‘whip pan’ or ‘time lapse’ which will show a more advanced command of the camera and the use of shutter speeds.

 

For each shoot:

  1. upload all of your images as a contact sheet
  2. use formal written language to discuss and analyse what you have done showing a sense of evaluation (what was good, bad, could be improved etc)
  3. Include key terminology in your post
  4. Include some images or videos about shutter speed in your post (to illustrate your ideas)
  5. Highlight your favourite image (or couple of images)

All sets of images (at least 12 photos for each) should show your ability to take a good photograph, so pay attention to composition, exposure, framing, light, NVC, setting, balance, shape, form, colour etc etc etc.

4. Aperture

 

In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels…as shown in the diagrams below

 

aperture

 

aperture-dia

 

USEFUL link here :

https://expertphotography.com/how-to-understand-aperture-5-simple-steps/

aperture-comparison

This image clearly shows how the focus of an object and its background can be adjusted by controlling the aperture (or f-number) only…

Now your turn…

  • set up objects in a scene in which you maintain the same focal length, ISO, WB but adjust only the APERTURE to create a similar comparison
  • create a blog post to describe and explain your process and results alongside your most effective images

5. Depth of Field

A basic definition of depth of field is: the zone of acceptable sharpness within a photo that will appear in focus. In every picture there is a certain area of your image in front of, and behind the subject that will appear in focus.

APERTURE CAN / DOES AFFECT DEPTH OF FIELD

FOCAL LENGTH CAN / DOES AFFECT DEPTH OF FIELD

Depth of field can dramatically change the feel or mood of an image, and bring our attention to a particular focus point…where the subject is isolated from the background. This is known as a shallow or narrow depth of field

For example…

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But we can also a apply a wide, deeper or larger depth of field by using a small aperture eg f22 or f36 to create a sense of more aspects of the image being in focus…

For example

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So…to increase depth of field you should :

  • Narrow your aperture (larger f-number)
  • Move farther from the subject
  • Shorten focal length

and to decrease depth of field you should :

  • Widen your aperture (smaller f-number)
  • Move closer to the subject
  • Lengthen your focal length

With your camera try these techniques and create a blog post to document your experiments (portrait or street photography)

  1. Define what depth of field is…add an article or video to support your understandin
  2. insert your images so that you can compare various depths of field
  3. describe and explain how you created the images…analyse the best ones using key terminology where possible

EXTENSION ACTIVITY…creating BOKEH effects

Bokeh is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in the out-of-focus parts of an image produced by a lens. Bokeh has been defined as “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light”.