COMD 1340 D085 Fall 23

Review Global corrections

Global corrections adjust the entire file. In the Lightroom, it includes the controls under Light, Color and Effects. In Lightroom Classic, this includes everything in the basic panel: White balance, Tone and Presence.

Download and color correct the three files.

Local corrections

After you make global corrections, sometimes you will want to make corrections to part of your image. Generally, the brightest part of the image commands the most attention. Sometimes that is not where you want your viewer to look first so shifting the exposure of parts of your image can create the image you want.

Masking – The Brush

The important thing in this photo by Bryan Rodriguez is the face of the card player. However the cards are brighter and demanded too much attention. Using a mask created with the brush, I darkened the cards. Creating a second mask, I lightened the face of the card player a little more. The goal was to bring more attention to the person’s face and less to the overly bright cards.

Masking – Subject, Sky, Person

Lightroom masking allows you to select part of the scene and correct it. It can select “the subject” or specific people.

This is an image I shot at the Dance Bloc Festival of The Dynamite Experience.

Image one is the file as shot.

Image two uses a subject mask.

Image three uses a second mask created with the brush to reduce the brightness of the crouching figure.

Use masks to make local adjustments on all three files.

Lab exercises

Adjust the 6 photos above.

Working with your partner, you both adjust one of their photos and one of your and compare.

Put your results, a total of 8 photos, in an album on Flickr for today’s lab credit.

Homework

Final Project – 20 pts

Due December 20th:

3 albums each of a minimum of 40 photos

1 album of the 10 best photos adjusted in Lightroom

a 3-5 min presentation of the final project – projected from the album on Flickr.

Presentation Guidelines

1. Start by introducing yourself and your project. Then outline the big picture with a few sentences sentence such as, ” I photographed variations on the theme of windows. Most of the photos were taken in downtown Brooklyn.”
2. If you are showing 10 images, you have about 30 seconds to describe each photo. Tell us what your intention was, what interested you about the photo we are looking at, and give us information we may need to know to understand the photo. Tell us what makes it visually interesting ie the use of shallow depth of field or some other feature.
3. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice.
4. Do not tell us about what you did to the photo in Lightroom.

Late work will be accepted until December 20th at 11:59pm. Coursework will not be accepted after that time.

There will be a quiz next week on Dec 6.

Possible topics: outdoor portraits, light direction and quality, contrast, studio basics, portrait lighting styles, main, fill and background lights

Inspiration: Atton Conrad

Sprint Campaign: http://lightpaintingphotography.com/?s=sprint 

Tripod use

• Spread the legs out and make sure the tripod is stable. Use the height from the legs before using the neck of the tripod. Put one leg forward and the two legs on your side.
• Put the plate on the camera and make sure that the lens arrow is pointing towards the lens. Insert the plate into the locking mechanism and make sure that the camera is secure.
• Use the camera timer and DO NOT TOUCH the camera or the tripod during the exposure.

Considerations for painting with light: 

1. Use a tripod 

2. Use Manual as the shooting mode.

3. Set the ISO to 100

4. Set the aperture to f/11 as a starting point to get a wide range of depth of field. 

5. Set the shutter speed to 4″ as a starting point.

6. Use manual focus. Make sure the subject is in focus. To do this shine a light on the subject and use auto focus. Then flip the lens back to MF. Remember that if the distance of the subject to the camera changes, you need to refocus!

Mixing Strobe Lights or Flash with Painting with Light 

The aperture controls the exposure of whatever is lit by the strobe lights. 

The shutter speed controls the illumination of the background. 

Lab

Painting with Light

Homework

Final Project

No class next week on November 22. Happy Thanksgiving!

For the next class

On November 29th, if you have a flash light bring it in. You can also use your phone but you might want to have a charger so you aren’t left with a dead phone all day.

Review Portrait Lighting Styles

Focal Length

The focal length of a lens is defined as the distance in mm from the optical center of the lens to the the sensor when the lens is focused on infinity. This varies on the camera and the lens.

Focal length controls: Magnification and angle of view

Focal length is described as short, normal ie close to human vision, or long.

Wide Angle Distortion-created when using a wide-angle lens AND the camera is very close to the subject. The object close to the lens appears abnormally large relative to more distant objects, and distant objects appear abnormally small and hence more distant – distances are extended. 

Focal length and proximity to the camera affect how a person’s face looks in a photograph. A wide focal length and proximity between the subject and the camera create wide angle distortion and will distort a person’s features.

Think about selfie sticks. What are they for but to get the camera away from your face? This makes the photograph look more complimentary to the subject. This is really important with a cameraphone because it has a wide angle lens. The center of the lens and the sensor cannot be very far apart given the thin design of cellphones.

When working with a crop-frame sensor, approximately 65 mm will be the most flattering to your subject.

Lights

  There are three basic types of lights (these are the physical lights not portrait lighting styles):

1. The Main or Key Light-This light provides the brightest illumination and casts the shadows

2. The Fill Light-this light brightens the shadows. It can be a reflector or an actual light.

This video shows how to use a reflector as the fill light.

3. The Separation Light or Background Light-creates separation between the subject and the background. This light can be aimed at the background or it can be aimed at the subject. If the later, it would be called a hair light. If accenting the edge of the face or shoulders, this light would be called a rim light or a kicker.

3-point Lighting

– standard lighting for portraits, video and film, uses all three: a main light, a fill light and a background light.

Inspiration

Mamadi Doumbouya

https://www.mamadi.co

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/21/reader-center/mamadi-doumbouya-photo-portrait-talk.html

Lab Exercise

Two and Three Light Portraits

Homework

Final Project

From last week

Portrait Lighting Styles

There are a 5 basic lighting styles for portrait photography. Each style is defined by how light falls on the face.

1. Rembrandt Light – the model is face forward, main light is at 45 degrees and casts a light on the opposite side of the face to form a triangle on the cheek.

2. Broad Light-model’s face in 3/4 view-light falls on the side of the face with the visible ear. Good for controlling the reflections on glasses.

3. Short Light-model’s face is in 3/4 view, the light falls on the side of the face with the features. (Not on the side with the visible ear.)

Both of these are examples of short light.

4. Butterfly Light, Clamshell or beauty or glamour light-model is face forward, front light.

Photographer: Matthew Jordan Smith, Model: Tyra Banks

5. Split Light-model is face forward, the main light is at 90 degrees to the camera and falls on one side of the face. 

Left: Photographer-Yousef Karsh, Winston Churchill, 1941

Right: Photographer-Nadav Kandar, Donald Trump, 2016

Yousef Karsh

https://karsh.org/overview/portraits/#thumbnails

Nadav Kandar

https://www.nadavkander.com/portraits/portraits/single

Grammies 2022

Lab

Portrait Lighting Styles

Homework Assignment

HW 9: Environmental Portraits

Review:

Lighting Quality

Diffused– light hits the subject from all directions and the shadows are soft

Direct– light hits the subject from one angle and the shadows are crisp with sharp edges

Lighting Direction

Front light – light comes from near the camera position.

Side light – light come from 90 degrees to the camera position.

Back light – light comes from behind the subject and aims towards the camera.

Contrast

Contrast: The measure of difference between bright areas (highlights) and dark areas (shadows) in a photo

High contrast : Large difference between highlights and shadows. Mostly lights and darks without many mid tones  

Low contrast :  Little difference between lights and darks. Mostly mid tones.              

Inspiration

View:

http://filippodrudi.com/project-thefork.html

Other terms to know

Ambient Light-The light that is already there sometimes called available light

Continuous Lights-Always on, may be incandescent, halogen, fluorescent, LED

Strobe Lights – lights that fire when the exposure is made

Strobes have two bulbs:

• the modeling light which helps you see where the light will fall
• the flash bulb that fires when you press the shutter release

A trigger on the camera uses radio waves to tell the receiver to fire the light. The power pack stores the power used to make the exposure.

Modifiers

In studio photography, we put modifiers on the flash heads to change the quality of the lights. Two basic categories of modifiers are:

1. Softboxes- these spread and diffuse the light. The light hits the subject from many directions making the shadows softer.
2. Grids – these concentrate and focus the light. The light hits the subject from one direction making the light harsher and the shadows sharper.

Lab Exercises

Stuffed Animals

HW 8: Final Project Proposal and Mood Board

Final Project

Next Week

Bring in a stuffed animal to work with approx. 6 inches to 12 inches in size.

Light Quality

Direct light or hard light – the rays of light are nearly parallel and strike the subject from one direction creating hard edged dark shadows with little detail.
Examples: a spotlight, sun on a clear day, or a bare flash

Diffused light or soft light– the rays of light are scattered and coming from many directions. It appears even and produces indistinct shadows. Examples: overcast daylight, a light covered with tracing paper or other translucent material.

Direct Light and Direction

Front light comes from in front of subject from the camera position and the shadows fall behind the subject not concealing any details.

Side Light comes from 90 degrees to the camera. it adds dimension and texture to the subject.

Backlight comes from behind the subject towards the camera.

Inspiration

Labs

Lighting Direction

Homework

HW 7: Lighting Direction

Portrait Poses

There are three basic positions for someone’s head and face in a portrait.

1. Front view
2. 3/4 view
3. Profile

Expression

For family photos a smile is a must but not so for a portrait. It is however important that your subject look comfortable. It is your job as the photographer to talk with your subject and make them feel comfortable.

Focus

When shooting a portrait, the subject’s eyes must be in focus. Full stop. Period.

Inspiration

@dont_smile_nyc

https://www.instagram.com/dont_smile_nyc/

Considerations for any portrait:

Use a vertical orientation.

Focus on the model’s eyes.

Watch the background for distracting things behind the model’s head.

Considerations for outdoor portraits

Work with the model in shade or place the model with the sun BEHIND their head.

Use a reflector to add light to their face.

Do not use direct sunlight on the model’s face.

Resource

Using Fill flash

Ambient Light-the existing light that you cannot control

Fill Flash-brightens shadows

Built-in flash-part of the camera and throws light about 6 to 10 feet

External flash-added to the camera on the hot shoe and can throw light 15 to 20 feet 

E–TTL (Evaluative-Through The Lens) is a Canon EOS flash exposure system that uses a brief pre-flash before the main flash in order to obtain a more correct exposure.

Use M or manual.

1/1 is full power. for fill flash, try 1/16 and adjust from there.

Use Zoom to spread or focus the light. Wide angle numbers (smaller numbers) spread the light. Higher numbers focus the light.

High speed sync-allows the camera to be set at shutter speeds higher than the camera sync speed 

Resource

Lab

Outdoor Portraits

Homework

HW 6: Window Light Portraits

Submit to the CUNY Photo Challenge by Oct 28th! 1 pt of extra credit if you send me the screen shot of your submission.

Critique Etiquette

1. Respect the presenter. Give them your full attention.
2. Ask questions about your colleague’s photography. This is not the time to ask questions about your personal concerns.
3. Start with the positive when you comment on your colleague’s works. Use the terms below that we have learned this semester.
4. Be generous. Offer your thoughts. Your opinion and judgements are important. Do not leave the work of giving feedback to the others in the class.
5. Conversely, please do not speak over your classmates.

Vocabulary

Framing: How the frame brings together the elements inside the rectangle juxtaposing them, creating relationships between them

Types of shots: how much information is in the frame

• a long shot
• a medium shot
• a close up
• an extreme close up.

Frame within a frame – use elements in the frame to enclose the main subject and draw attention to it. A frame within a frame can be a window or door or it can be items in the foreground such as branches.

Angle of View:  describes the camera position in relationship to the subject. The angle of view may be: 

• a worm’s-eye view
• a low-angle
• eye-level
• a high-angle
• a bird’s-eye or aerial or overhead view
• an oblique angle.

Rule of Thirds – Instead of placing the main subject in the center of the frame, divide the frame into thirds horizontally and vertically and place the main subject at one of these intersections.

Symmetry-fold the image in half and the two sides are equivalent

Fill the Frame –  (get closer) – do not leave empty areas that do not add to the composition and plan to crop in later.

Diagonals – Sloping lines

Leading Lines – lines in the photograph that lead the eye to the main subject

Perspective-the creation of the feeling of a 3D space on a 2D surface usually with converging lines or diminishing scale

Patterns – repeated elements. Break the pattern for visual interest

Figure to Ground -the relationship between the subject and the background sometimes described as negative and positive space.

Diffused light – light that comes from many directions and creates soft shadows

Direct light– light that come from one direction and creates hard shadows

Contrast: The measure of difference between bright areas (highlights) and dark areas (shadows) in a photo

High contrast : Large difference between highlights and shadows. Mostly lights and darks without many mid tones        

Low contrast :  Little difference between lights and darks. Mostly mid tones.

High Key– most tones are light

Low Key – most tones are dark

Frozen Motion-Motion is stopped and captured in the frame with a fast shutter speed.

Blurred motion-moving elements blur with a longer shutter speed.

The Decisive Moment: A term coined by Cartier Bresson- “the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression.”

Homework

HW 5: Reflections

Terms

Aspect Ratio-the proportion of the width of the image to the height of a 2D image

Clipping-the intensity of the light falls outside of what can be recorded by the camera and there is a loss of detail.

Exif Data-information stored by the camera in the file.

Gamut-range of colors

Histogram- a graphic representation of the tones in an image. A spike of data on the left side indicates underexposure, on the right overexposure.

Non-destructive Editing-adjust the image without overwriting the original image data. Instructions are written to a sidecar file that tells the software how to interpret the image.

White Balance-the setting that adjusts for the color temperature of the light and that will make a white object appear white or a gray object a neutral value

Global Corrections

Global corrections adjust the entire file. In the Lightroom CC, it includes the controls under Light, Color and Effects. In Lightroom classic, this includes everything in the basic panel: White balance, Tone and Presence.

Using the Histogram

The histogram is a graphic representation of the tones in the photograph. It is a guide to exposure decisions. Most images look best when there is a full range of tones from black to white in the image. But there are no iron clad rules.

To access the histogram in Lightroom, from the keyboard select: Command 0

Or get it from the three dots on the right menu bar.

From the top of the histogram, there is a triangular button on both the left and right. Toggle it to turn on/off show clipping of the shadows on the left and the highlights on the right.

To maximize the the tonal range, adjust a photo to have some tones that are totally black and totally white but only a few so that you don’t lose detail in either the shadows or the highlights.

Another way to toggle between before and after besides the button at the bottom of the interface is the backslash key.

Looking at the histogram, we can see that there is not a true black or white. To raise the contrast of the image and use the full tonal range, use the following adjustments:

• Select show clipping on the top left of the histogram. Adjust the blacks slider to the left until you see bright blue flecks on your image.
• Select show clipping on the top right of the histogram. Adjust the whites slider to the right until you see bright red flecks on your image.

Most images improve with:

• shadows slider to +50 add detail to the dark areas
• the highlights slider brought to the left to bring detail into the highlights.
  

In this photo of the pier in Coney Island, the histogram shows that is underexposed. But we also know that it is an evening scene and that there is nothing in the photo that should be bright white.

Lightroom Workflow:

1. Optics: enable lens correction. If there is architecture or a strong horizon line, geometry>upright>auto
   
2. Crop.
   
3. Light
   a. Exposure slider-use to adjust the overall tonality
   b. Set black point using show clipping
   c. Set white point using show clipping
   d. Use shadows slider to brighten mid tones.
4. Color or white Balance
   
5. Effects – Adjust clarity (mid tone contrast)
   
6. App: color – Adjust vibrance and or saturation
   
7. Detail panel – Sharpen-amount at least 50
   

Lightroom Classic Resource

A few tips for Lightroom Mobile:

1. To access the histogram, tap on the image with two fingers. If you can’t really see the histogram background, brighten the display.
2. To see the image before your corrections, press on the image.

Lab Exercises

Global Corrections

Homework

Midterm Project

Bees

Photo credits: Top, left to right: Tina Gunasekera, Julian Georgi, Jabez Brisueno

Bottom: Fawziah Akhter, Brianna Brand, Alan Castillo

Light Quality

Light is either direct or diffused.

Direct light: the light strikes the subject from one angle and creates sharp shadows. Sunlight is an example of direct light.

Diffused Light: the light hits the subject from many angles and creates soft shadows. The light is diffused on an overcast day or in the shade.

Photo credits: Left-Joel Barbeco, right-Alan Castillo

Measuring the Amount of Light

Exposure is the amount of light that comes into the camera to create the photograph.

Exposure is made up of three components:

1. ISO-Sensitivity to light.
2. Shutter Speed-the length of time that the camera’s shutter is open during the exposure.
3. Aperture-how wide the cameras lens opens to allow the light to come in.
   

All three are measured in stops. Each full stop of light represents that the amount of light has doubled or reduced by 1/2.

How your Camera Meter Works

Acronym: TTL – Through the Lens

The meter in your camera is a reflected-light meter.

A reflected light meter averages the tones in the scene and selects the aperture and shutter speed values that will make the whole scene medium gray.

Watch from :45 to 1:34 for an explanation of how your camera meter works.

Challenges

There are certain predictable situations that will fool your meter.

1. Backlight – a common example is a person against a window or against the sky. Add exposure to get the right exposure for the main subject and allow the background to be overexposed.

2. Landscapes with sky. The sky is brighter than the ground and to get a good exposure of the land portion of your photo, often you need to over expose the sky.

3. Snow

How to control exposure

With a camera: Use Exposure Compensation set to plus to increase the light and set to minus to decrease the light.

Exposure Compensation-a way to force the camera to make an exposure either lighter or darker than the meter reading. Good for backlight or extremes of light and dark.

With a cameraphone: Touch the area where the main subject is and then drag the little sun icon up or down to increase or decrease the overall exposure.

Using Exposure for Creative Effect

Sometimes, you don’t want the tones in your image to average out to a medium gray. You want to tones to be low key-mostly dark or high key-mostly light.

Lab Exercises

Exposure and Meter Challenges

Homework Due Next Class

Midterm Project

Review for Quiz 1: Composition, shutter Speed, Motion Capture, Aperture, Depth of Field, Perspective, Exposure, How the Meter works, Exposure Challenges

Upcoming Schedule

October 4 – Quiz 1, Lightroom, Midterm Project Support

Oct 11 – Midterm Project Presentations

Oct 18 – Outdoor portraits-Brooklyn Bridge Park

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

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.

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.

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: Space and Focus

Homework

HW 4: Space and Focus

Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed is the length of time that the sensor is exposed to light to create the photograph. It is measured in seconds or fractions of a second.

The full stops for shutter speed are: 30”, 15”, 8”, 4”, 2”, 1”, . sec, ., 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250, 1/500, 1/1000, 1/2000, 1/4000, 1/8000

Doubling the time, doubles the amount of light that reaches the sensor.

When shooting with a cameraphone and the Lightroom Photoshop app, you can set the shutter speed of your cameraphone between 1/10,000 and 1/4 sec.

A good rule of thumb when shooting with a camera is: Any shutter speeds slower then 1/60 require the use of a tripod. When shooting with a cameraphone, you will need a tripod to shoot at 1/15 or slower.

Resource

Capturing Motion

Your choice of shutter speed will change the way motion is captured in the photograph.

Frozen Motion-Motion is stopped and captured in the frame with a fast shutter speed.

Inspiration:

World Sports Photography Awards Aquatic winners

World Sports Photography Awards Basketball

Maria Baranova: Performance

How to freeze motion:

• Use a shutter speed of 1/ 500, 1/1000 or faster.
• Use the AF mode – AI Servo.
  

Auto Focus

AF Area Selection Mode: facial recognition, single point Spot AF, Single Point AF, AF Point Expansion, Zone AF, Large Zone AF.

One Shot is for still subjects. AI Servo is for moving subjects.

Blurred motion-moving elements blur with a longer shutter speed.

Inspiration:

Lee-Ann Olwage, The Big Forget

Matthew Pillsbury, Sanctuary

How to blur motion:

• Use a slower shutter speed – 1/4 sec to 30″ or even longer
• Direction-if the subject moves parallel to the picture plane there is more visible movement than if the subject moves toward or away from the camera.
• Focal length-a subject will appear blurrier when photographed with a telephoto lens than when photographed with a wide-angle lens.

Timing

The exact moment that you take the picture is as important as how long the shutter speed is. This is often called:

The Decisive Moment: A term coined by Cartier Bresson- “the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organization of forms which gives that event its proper expression.”

Lab Exercise

Freezing and blurring motion

Homework Assignment

Freezing Motion

Photo by Mel D. Cole

The Frame

Cropping: how much information is in the frame

• a long shot
• a medium shot
• a close up
• an extreme close up.

Angle of View:  describes the camera position in relationship to the subject. The angle of view may be:

• a worm’s-eye view

• a low-angle

• eye-level

• a high-angle

• a bird’s-eye or aerial or overhead view

• oblique angle

Angle of View Examples By Alexander Rodchenko

Lab: Week 2 – Composition

HW 2: Hula Hoops

1. Rule of Thirds – Instead of placing the main subject in the center of the frame, divide the frame into thirds horizontally and vertically and place the main subject at one of these intersections.
   
   

2. Leading Lines – lines in the photograph that lead the eye to the main subject

3. Diagonals – Sloping lines

4. Frame within a frame

5. Figure to Ground – Figure to Ground -the relationship between the subject and the background sometimes described as negative and positive space.

6. Fill the Frame – get closer. Never plan to crop later.

7. Patterns – repeated elements. Break the pattern for visual interest

8. Symmetry – If you fold the image in half the two haves are very similar and have equal visual weight. Or make it asymmetrical to add tension to the composition.

Resource

In-class lab Exercise

Composition

Homework

HW1 – Composition