What Is ISO?

ISO is a number that represents how sensitive your camera sensor is to light. ​Also controls the amount of light your camera lets in, and therefore how dark or light your photos will be. ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization.

How Does It Affect Your Camera?

Controls the amount of light your camera will let in, and therefore your photos will be light or dark.

What does a low/high ISO mean?

A lower ISO value means less sensitivity to light, and the more light you will need to take the photo. While a higher ISO means more sensitivity, and the less light you need to take a picture.​It’s one of the element in the photography’s exposure triangle — along with aperture and shutter speed — and plays an important role in the quality of your photos.

If you use a High ISO  it can  degraded image quality and cause your photos to be grainy or “noisy.”​

High VS Low ISO

It’s good to be on a low ISO to avoid noise and a degrading quality in the image.

ISO chart

Low Light Situations

In low light situations, it is often crucial to raise the ISO in order to get a clear picture. The huge problem with raising the ISO, though, is that it introduces ‘noise’ into the image , which can make it appear grainy.​

If you are taking a picture in excellent light conditions, you will want to keep the ISO low in order to dodge introducing noise into the image.

How to Adjust ISO On A Camera

To adjust ISO on the camera you will need to press the ISO button and will you need to use the swivel at the top to rotate it so it will go into a lower ISO or a higher ISO.

Edward Weston

Edward Henry Weston was an American photographer. He has been called “one of the most inventive and dominant American photographers” and “one of the masters of 20th century photography.” Weston was inventive due to the types of photos he would take. Weston was born in March 24th 1886 and died  January 1, 1958. He was 71 years old.

Cabbage Leaf 1931 which is pictured below.

My work of High ISO VS low ISO

High ISO Photos

Above is the information of the photo that has been taken at a high ISO. The ISO was set to 6400, it was set to this so I could achieve a grainy and degrading effect to show the difference between a High ISO an A Low ISO.

Another High ISO Photo

Above is the information of the photo that was taken at a High ISO. The ISO was set too 6400 it was set to this so I could achieve a noisy and grainy effect, like it is above.

Low ISO Photos

Above is the information of a photo taken at a Low ISO. The ISO was set to 200 it was set like this to achieve a clear picture that you can see properly without lots of noise produced.

Another Low ISO Photo

Above is the information about the photo that was taken at a Low ISO. The ISO was set too 200 to achieve a crystal clear image that is easy to see rather than being made with a degrading quality.

Adobe Lightroom is to import and export photos, create, edit, and share photos across all devices. This allows people to quickly and easily edit their photographs with tools to alter contrast, balance colour, and change brightness on mobile devices immediately after taking the picture.

I imported 31 photos into Lightroom. I then made a subfolder or collection as its called in the app of all my best and favourite photos. I had 14 favourite photos, which I then rated out of 5 stars, this app was really useful to help arrange my photos into groups and get them all sorted so they are not cluttered everywhere.

This is collections. This shows how many collections there are. Below there is a plus button to get access to your collections and photos. It also tell you how many photos are stored. To do this, I clicked the plus sign next to collections to create a new collection, titled it photos for photography and put it then imported it into a collection.

By doing this, I can sort my huge gallery of photographs into smaller groups. E.G, instead of having all my photographs in one area it would make it difficult to differentiate and classify them I can split them into particular collections (e.g. photographs for photography and aperture etc.)

Where It Is Stored On The Computer

Functions

I then had the choice to select and rate my images in distinctive ways – one thing you can do is flag your images as good or bad using either the P key (for excellent ) or the X key (for poor), allowing you to then filter out which images you want to see using the flagged filter which you can eliminate, the images you marked as poor from view. You can also rate your pictures from 1-5 stars and then filter them by these star ratings. 1 is poor and 5 is excellent.

An array of images flagged as excellent, with the ones flagged as poor filtered out. Star ratings are also shown under each image.

Develop Mode

After learning how to import images, create collections and rate/filter images in library mode I then learnt how to use develop mode. This mode is used when you need to do large amounts of editing on one single image at a time (similar to Photoshop), unlike library mode which can be used to make small quick adjustments to many images at the same time .

Develop mode has many pre-sets which can be used to make quick edits of your images, or you can make lots of improvements manually to really convert the image into one you really like. I spent a while using the manual developing features, and then formed an edited version of my image which I am happy with.

What Are Contact Sheets?

Contact Sheet

A contact sheet is a type of photographic paper that displays a collection of small images. These images are taken from a reel of film that the photographer has put into several strips. The photographer then puts these negatives on the sheet to see all the images side by side, making it easier to match them together.

William Klein

William Klein (April 19, 1926 – September 10, 2022) was a photographer and filmmaker who was born in the United States of America. He later became a French citizen. He was known for his unique and ironic style in both photography and filmmaking, often using unconventional techniques in photojournalism and fashion photography. Klein was recognized as the 25th most influential photographer by Professional Photographer magazine in their list of the top 100 photographers.

William Klein’s Contact Sheet

What is Shutter Speed?

Shutter Speed– The length of time your cameras shutter stays open, and therefore how long the sensor is exposed to the light. The longer its on the more light can enter the image. If its open less, the darker the image due to there not being enough light. Shutter speed is part of the exposure triangle.

Example of Slow Shutter Speed.

This photo was taken by Francesca Woodman. She puts the shutter speed at 1\6, so she can make the photo blurred and she can make it in a spot of no light, so you are able to achieve this image.

Example of Medium Shutter Speed.

An example of Medium shutter is to blur a running child to give impressions of a fast movement. The shutter speed used is 1/250 to 1/30 sec. So you can achieve this type of image.

Example of Fast Shutter speed.

An example of Fast shutter speed is to freeze an image in action. The fast shutter speed will create a short exposure .The shutter speed used is 1/2000th second or faster. The image below is an image of a bubble being popped in action.

Shutter Speed Chart

Eadweard Muybridge– Use of Fast Shutter Speeds

Eadweard Muybridge is known for   his pioneering photographic studies of motion, which ultimately led to the development of cinema. He was hired to photograph a horse’s movement to prove that a horse’s hooves are all lifted off the floor. Muybridge is known for his pioneering chronphotography of animals between 1878 and 1886, which used multiple cameras to capture the different positions in a stride.

Harold Edgerton– Fast Shutter Speed

Harold Edgerton is famous for  revolutionized photography, science, military surveillance, Hollywood filmmaking, and the media through his invention of the strobe light in the early 1930s, which influenced his work.

These photos where taken with a fast shutter speed. Fast shutter speeds of 1/500th are used for capturing fast moving objects, such as freezing a bicycle when moving at top speed. Fast shutter speed will allow you to capture crucial moments.  The fast shutter speed allowed me to expose for the bright light.

Francesca Woodman- Slow Shutter speed

Francesca Woodman’s family spent all of their summers at her parents’ farmhouse in the countryside near Florence in Italy and many of her photographs were taken there. She was heavily influenced by European culture due to being in Italy and had a massive impact on her life. She was influenced by surrealist art, particularly the pictures of Man Ray and Claude Cahun can be seen in the style of her work. She developed her ideas and skills as a student at Rhode Island School of Design.

She was born on 3rd of April in 1958 and died on the 19th of January 1981. She was very important as an innovator , particularly in the context of the 1970s when the status of photography was still regarded as less important than painting and doing a sculpture. She led the way for later American artists who used photography to explore themes relating to identity such as Cindy Sherman and Nan Goldin.

Hiroshi Sugimoto– Slow Shutter Speed

Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photographer and architect. He leads the Tokyo-based architectural firm New Material Research Laboratory. Hiroshi Sugimoto is well known for black and white photographs of particular subjects that he has observed in depth for many years: Images of natural-history dioramas, wax-figure installations, amazing seascapes, and ornate movie theatre interiors.

My Work of a Slow Shutter Speed

This is one of my photos taken with a slow shutter speed. As you can see the two of the leaves are in a midground focus. The slow shutter has made the camera focus on two of the leaves and made them have texture with having leading lines. This was taken at a shutter speed of 1/30, since it has a slight blur.

My Work of Fast Shutter Speed

This is one of my photos taken with a fast shutter speed. As you can on the table there are water droplets running down the side of the table, by doing this with fast shutter speed it will create a short exposure and will make the water droplets become more focused.

A Class Photoshoot

I have done to represent the difference between fast shutter speed and slow shutter speed.

Photos from the studio Fast Shutter Speed

This photo has been taken on a fast shutter because the photo is in focus ,by using a filter called black and white. Black and white creates a gloomy emotion.

Photos of the Studio of Slow Shutter Speed

This photo was taken at a fast shutter speed because the photo is blurred. Fast shutter speed allows you to capture crucial moments in a photo and allows you to freeze an image.

Auto Focus- Will adjust the cameras lens to obtain a focus in the lens. For general use.

Manual Focus- Is the process of adjusting the depth of field of the camera lens to bring the image into focus without relying on the auto focus. Used for finer details.

Focal Length

Focal Length- Is the optical distance (measured in MM) from the centre of a lensand it’s focus. Point of convergence of your lens and the sensor or film recording the image.

Aperture

Aperture-Aperture is how wide the hole in the back of the lens is, and it controls how much light is let in. It is measured in f-stops and the lower the number, the more light is let in

Depth of Field-DOF is what’s in focus in front of or behind the main subject of the photo. Lower aperture (f2.8-f4) gives a shallow DOF (minimal focus) , higher aperture (f16-f22) gives a greater DOF (broader focus)

In picture 1 there is a shallow depth of field, which has an aperture of 8, a shutter speed of 1/60 for good exposure and an ISO setting of 1600.

In picture 2, there is a very small depth of field, which has an aperture of 2.8 which means the opening on the camera lens is big. The shutter speed is 1/60 for good exposure and so you can focus on the plane and the ISO setting is at 200.

In picture 3, there is a very wide depth of field, which has an aperture of 22 which means the lens has a tiny hole in it where no light can get through. The shutter speed is 1/1 for good exposure and the ISO setting is at 100.

Artist Research

Ralph Eugene Meatyard

Ralph Eugene Meatyard made his living as an optician, born in 1925 and died in 1976. Meatyard was born in Normal, which is in Illinois. He was a member on the Lexington Camera club and pursued his passion for photography outside the mainstream. He experimented with many strategies such as multiple exposures, motion blur, and other methods of photographic abstraction. Two of his series included depth of field and focus.

 

Meatyard used a wide aperture which has a small F stop and this also has a small depth of field. which means his photos have a background with a soft focus and the foreground has a sharp focus.

Photos that I used that are inspired by his work.

These photos where taken at Mont Orgueil Castle