Tag: photography

Intro to Photography (Workshop part 1)

DemelzaB Leave a comment

Having studied photography briefly in college, I had a basic understanding of DSLR cameras. Today we had 3 hours to be introduced to photography and capture our objects using a variety of set-ups. This was a fast-paced session, packed with lots of information.

Our lecturer Hannah explained that the camera is a machine that takes in light. As a photographer, our job is to control the light going into the camera. This is done using shutter speed, ISO and aperture. When you alter one of these, it affects the other 2 settings.

Letting in too much light makes an image over-exposed and too little light creates an under-exposed image:

(Left to right: Under-exposed, correctly exposed, over-exposed) photos by Guy Henstock | Photographer Oxford

We learnt about a camera feature I had never heard of, called exposure compensation. This is used to balance the light in an image when a scene has very dark and very light areas, for example, when a scene is lit from behind.

With analogue cameras, the ISO can only be changed by changing the whole film to one with a different ISO rating, but digital cameras allow you to change the ISO from shot to shot. A good ISO for a cloudy day would be 800 and for a sunny day would be 100. A low ISO gives a smooth grain, as the camera is letting in less light. Using a high ISO will give you more noise, though you need to use a higher ISO when shooting in a really dark room for example.

Aperture refers to the size of the opening of the camera. A smaller opening = a high aperture, for example f/22. This would be suitable for photographing landscapes. This gives a larger depth of field, meaning that the camera is able to focus on foreground, mid-ground and background. A larger opening, and therefore low aperture, such as f/4.5, is best for portrait photography. A low aperture focuses on the foreground and these photos will have slightly blurry background.

8 Low-Light Tips For Awesome Night PhotographyThe Work Smarter Guide – Redbooth

Example of a mode dial

How to Understand Your Camera’s Dial Modes and Settings – FeltMagnet

Hannah explained features of the Canon cameras we use at Brookes:

Tulip symbol = macro (to capture tiny details)

Running person symbol = shutter speed

Flash symbol = night time/ low light shooting

M=manual function

AV= aperture priority

TV=shutter priority

MF/AF= manual focus/automatic focus

RAW for very large photos, e.g. the side of a building. They take up a lot of memory and you cannot process RAW images inside photoshop. You would instead need to use a RAW converter, such as Adobe camera RAW.

We learnt to work with tripods, which is something I had never done before. Using a tripod is an important technique in photography. When holding a camera by hand, we have a natural shake that can cause blurring in photos, especially when using a long shutter speed.

We used 4 different set-ups to photograph our objects. Working in pairs, we took several photos in 1 area, then moved to the next. For example, in 1 set-up we were using a chair draped in fabric and metal studio lights. These lights get very hot, so we used heat protective gloves to handle them. We had the choice of using one or both lights for a photo. Moving the bulb back and forth gave a spot-light effect or a more balanced light. We had the option to light part of all of the object.

My classmate photographing her object.

Another set up had a plinth and sheet hanging as a background. For this set-up we used studio lights with diffusers attached to the front. This set-up reminded me of a school photo shoot.

The 4th set-up allowed us to add colour gels to filter the light through. These were LED lights. They were the easiest to use, as the switches were the same on the back to 1) change the warmth of the light and b) change the brightness to lighter or darker.

LED light set-up gave us the option of using colour filters.
Classmate using the set-up.

It was interesting to experiment with shining light onto the background and seeing the effect compared to shining the light directly onto the subject. The black background created a theater look and made dramatic photos.

Class hand-out

003 Raincoat Girl & Colour

DemelzaB Leave a comment

I printed the photos of the raincoat girl with labels. I wanted to see how I could use different effects to influence the message of the picture. I printed these images at 75% of the original image size.

I selected black-and-white for printing, and I really like the effect this has on the composition. Printing in black-and-white allows me to see the different tones within this image, that I couldn’t see in the colour version. Waiting is something that we usually do not like to do. Therefore, printing this image in black-and-white emphasises the boredom and passing of time that we associate with waiting.

I then chose to print one of the photos in red. I chose the ‘unbreakable’ image because of the use of scissors in the picture. When looking at colour theory, I learned that red has associations with danger and blood. Therefore I felt it appropriate to use red with the subject of something being ‘unbreakable’.

Colour by Ambrose/Harris

For this next image, I used an effect called duotone. This is where the image prints in black and another colour. In this case I chose yellow and black. According to colour theory, which I read about in the book Colour by Ambrose/Harris, yellow is a bright and happy colour. The book also says that yellow is versatile and can represent many emotional states. “Greeny yellows have a stronger connection to illness and nausea.” I think this is the case within my image, since the use of black and yellow in my prints, combine to create a greenish tone.

I wanted to try the duotone effect using a different colour in place of the yellow. For this image, I used blue and black. Colour theory suggests that blue is calming, however the use of black in this print, combines with the blue and creates a darker navy blue. “Darker blues, such as navy, are considered conservative and uniform.” I like the depth created with black and blue this photo. It is appropriate for the image, because of the strong shadow in the foreground.

I used blue when printing this image, but this time I chose to omit the black. This gave the photo a cooler and lighter feel. “Pale blue suggests more youthful and serene qualities.” I feel that blue in this case gives The Raincoat Girl a youthful look. I wanted to combine the ‘unbreakable’ image with the image of bricks, to emphasise the word unbreakable. I took this photo of bricks while in town. I like the warmth of the bricks in contrast to the pale figurine. Because of the paleness of the blue print, the background was useful in framing the subject.

I had the idea of combining my figurine with different backgrounds, to see how this could add to the message. I need to be careful so as not to overcomplicate the image and therefore the message. For the old-fashioned figurine, I used a photo I took of a dead tree. The tree is clearly aged, and this ties in with the theme old-fashioned, but in a literal way. I kept the text on the left-hand side, as it relates to a JPEG file. This is a contemporary theme, so I felt it made a nice contrast with the rest of the subject.

I photographed some flowers in the park. People say that no two flowers are alike. In this piece I played with that idea, by combining the flowers with a copy stamp. The viewer considers the fact that this figurine is a copy, due to its being mass produced. The figurine also has a story of its own, and therefore is more than just a copy.