Robin Michals | COMD 1340 Photography 1

Author: rmichals (Page 6 of 8)

HW4: Space and Focus

4 pts. Due Sept 26, 12 noon. 30 photos in an album on Flickr.

Shooting outside during the day at a location of your choice:

Take at least 10 DIFFERENT long shot photos that use perspective to depict deep space. This can be either converging lines or diminishing scale or both. These photos should use extensive depth of field meaning everything from near to far should be sharp. This may not be possible in dark indoor spaces but should be possible outside or in bright indoor spaces.

Take at least 20 DIFFERENT close up photos that use shallow depth of field to isolate the subject from the background. The subjects of the photo need to be at varying distances from the camera.

If you are shooting with a camera phone, you can get real shallow depth of field vs blur created by an App by getting very close to the subject and having actual space between it and the background.

Put your 30 best photos in an album on Flickr. Send your single best photo with deep space and perspective to the group as well as your best example of shallow depth of field.

Lab 4: Aperture, Depth of field and Perspective

On our field trip:

Take at least 10 different long shots that use perspective to depict deep space. Look up at a tree or along a path. Use either converging lines or diminishing scale or both. These photos should use extensive depth of field meaning everything from near to far should be sharp.
Using the shooting mode Av, set the aperture to f11. Use auto ISO.

Take at least 20 close up photos of individual plants that use shallow depth of field. There should be something in the foreground and something in the background. Don’t shoot from an aerial or bird’s-eye view for these photos. Sometimes the foreground should be in focus, sometimes the mid distance and sometimes the things in the far distance. Use the shooting mode Av, set the f-stop to f/4 with auto ISO. Make sure that your shutter speed is faster than 1/60 th of a second and that the blur in the photo is shallow depth of field and not motion blur.

Put your 30 photos in an album on Flickr. Send your best example of perspective and of shallow depth of field to the class group.

Week 4 – Depth of field, Aperture, and Perspective

Depth of Field

Depth of Field-The distance between the nearest and farthest points that appear in acceptably sharp focus in a photograph. Depth of field can be shallow or extensive. While the term includes the word depth, depth of field refers to focus.

Shallow Depth of Field

Shallow depth of field is commonly used in portrait photography to separate the subject from the background and in food photography.

Extensive Depth of Field

Extensive depth of field is often used in landscape photography and photojournalism.

The depiction of space

Perspective-the representation of a 3-dimensional space on a 2-dimensional surface by converging lines, diminishing scale and/or atmospheric perspective.

Canyon, Broadway and Exchange Place. 1936.
Photographer: Berenice Abbott

Sometimes photos combine perspective and shallow depth of field.

How to control depth of field (with a camera)

These four factors control depth of field:

  • lens aperture 
  • focal length
  • camera-to-subject distance
  • sensor size.

Aperture

Aperture is the size of the opening that allows light to hit the camera’s sensor when the photograph is taken. 

  1. Aperture values are expressed in numbers called f-stops. A smaller f-stop number means more light is coming into the camera and will create shallow depth of field. A larger f-stop number will let less light into the camera and create extensive depth of field.
  2. The full stops for aperture are: F2, f28, f4, f5.6, f8, f11, f16, f22, f3

Focal Length  is the distance from where the light converges in the lens to the sensor. If it is a short distance then the lens is a wide angle lens and shows a lot of the scene. If it is a long distance, the lens is a telephoto lens and it magnifies the scene. Wide angle lenses create extensive depth of field while telephoto lenses create shallow depth of field.

Camera-to-subject distance is how far the subject is from the camera. If everything is far from the camera, it is easier to achieve extensive depth of field. If the main subject is very close to the camera and the background elements are far from the camera, it is easier to achieve shallow depth of field.

It is the small size of the sensor that makes cameraphones so good at achieving extensive depth of field. It is also the main reason it is so hard to get your cameraphone to achieve shallow depth of field.Sensor size-the smaller the sensor the easier it is to achieve extensive depth of field. Bigger sensors allow for shallow depth of field.

 Bokeh-Bokeh comes from the Japanese word boke (ボケ), which means “blur” or “haze”, or boke-aji, the “blur quality.” Bokeh is pronounced BOH-Kə or BOH-kay. 

 — From http://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore/article/h0ndz86v/bokeh-for-beginners.html

Lab Exercises

Lab 4: Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Homework

HW 4: Near and Far

HW 3 – Freezing Motion

Working outside in the day, freeze the motion of athletes and bike riders, dancers, jumping dogs. Try at least two different types of subjects ie soccer players and bikers, kids on swings and dancers. Capture the decisive moment. The soccer player when their leg is fully stretched out in a kick, a bike rider doing a wheelie. Don’t be shy. Fill your frame with the action.

Use a shutter speed 1/500 sec or faster.

If using a cameraphone outside in bright light, it will automatically use a fast shutter speed. If you are working with less light, use lightroom or other app that lets you set the shutter speed.

Post shots of at least two different activities to an album on Flickr for a total of 40 shots. Please don’t include all of the times you missed: shots out of focus, the back of receding bike riders, etc. Just your best work. Send your best two to the class group.

Due Sept 19, 12:00 noon.

Lab: Week 3 – Freezing and Blurring Motion

Freezing Motion:

Using the shooting mode Tv, set the shutter speed to 1/500 or higher. Capture a range of subjects in motion creating a minimum of 15 photos that freeze the motion.

Blurring motion: use a tripod. Start with a shutter speed of 1 “. If your photos are too bright look for a darker place to shoot. Combine something moving and something that is still and sharp in every frame. Create a minimum of 10 photos that contrast blurred motion with a sharp environment.

Put the final 25 photos in an album on Flickr. Send your single best blurred motion and your single best frozen motion to the class group.

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