DUE ON FRIDAY 12-17

• PORTRAITS (contact sheet and 2 prints)
• STILL LIFE/LIGHT BOX - negatives processed.
• 3+ good, different, unique digital images demonstrating different slow shutter techniques
  

Your task for today

Sharing a digital SLR with a friend you will be shooting 3 different slow shutter images. Try and mix up the technique used (motion of the subject, motion of the background, motion of a light source (cell phone?).

Shooting with slow shutter speeds

There are lots of opportunities to use the adjustable shutter on ones camera to create unique and interesting photographs.

One technique is to capture motion:

Capturing movement in images is something that many photographers only think to do when they are photographing sports or other fast moving subjects.

While there is an obvious opportunity in sports photography to emphasize the movement of participants – almost every type of photography can benefit from the emphasis of movement in a shot – even when the movement is very small, slow and/or subtle.

Read more: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/how-to-capture-motion-blur-in-photography#ixzz180T82VXg


There are a ways to achieve this:

1. Blurred Subject With Background In Focus

photo by paulaloe

Let’s assume you’re photographing a speeding train against a wall of trees in the background. You can blur the train while leaving the trees in focus. Doing so would instantly communicate to the viewer that the train is moving quickly. To accomplish this, you would use a slow shutter speed. (It’s also important to use a tripod. That way, your camera remains steady.) You’ll often see this technique used in nighttime photographs with car headlights cutting through the image.

Image by Extra Medium

2. Blurred Background With Subject In Focus

This second technique keeps your photograph’s subject in sharp focus while the background is blurred. Using our train example, the train would be in focus and the wall of trees would be blurred, thereby conveying the train’s movement. Similar to the first method, you need to use a slow shutter speed. However, instead of using a tripod, you’ll be panning your camera along the directional path of your subject.

Panning Explained

Some more examples:

Photo by Mr Bones - No exposure settings supplied

Today, as a followup to our post earlier in the week A Beginners Guide to Capturing Motion in Your Photography I want to post a series of posts from Flickr that all illustrate a variation on the same theme – movement.

The following shots are all of moving subjects where the photographer has made the choice to set their camera to capture the movement as blur rather than freezing it. This is in all cases by choosing (or letting the camera choose) a ’slow’ shutter speed (although by slow you’ll see that the speeds (noted under each image) vary from anything from 1/30 second to up to 40 minutes).

Photo by Ben McLeod – Shutter Speed – 8 seconds

Photo by zane&inzane - Exposure Time – 10 minutes

Photo by PhotoToasty – Composition of 3 images at shutter speeds of between 1.6 seconds and 25 seconds

Photo by Amnemona – No exposure settings given

Photo by Sara Heinrichs – Exposure Time: 20 seconds

Photo by Mace2000 – 50 second exposure time

Photo by WisDoc – Shutter Speed – 1/30

Photo by Mace2000 – Shutter Speed – 50 seconds

Photo by Wam Mosely – Shutter speed – 4/5 of a second

Photo by Mace2000 – Exposure Time – 43 seconds

Photo by jon madison – Exposure – photographer estimates somewhere between 30-40 minutes

Photo by thorinside – Shutter Speed – 13 seconds

Photo by tschnitzlein – No Exposure information given

Read more: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/blur-movement#ixzz180U3GIzf

Another technique is Light Painting:

Digital Photography School Forum member Sodaman420 couldn’t have done a better job introducing the technique of Light Painting. His video is posted here. Light is what makes up your photos. Perhaps too often we limit ourselves to the normal diffused lighting we are used to seeing. Locking your camera down on a tripod and setting it for a slow shutter speed allows you to manually get some movement on the lights in your scene. Experiment with flashlights, rope lights, candles or anything handy. In the picture here I had a friend sit perfectly still in a completely dark room. I set the shutter to be roughly the time it would take me to walk around his chair holding a candle (8 seconds). His face was entirely lit by candlelight. Since I was moving too quickly to get in the shot, all you see is the floating flame. I know, it turned out a little demonic, but unintentionally. This is just to get your ideas flowing.

Read more here:

http://www.photographymad.com/blog/post/painting-with-light

The last technique is turning darkness into day, with this the shutter speed is so slow that it makes a night scene look as if the sun is out...

Programmed Auto Mode - Underexposed

Fujifilm FinePix E550 7.2mm, Programmed Auto, Pattern Shutter Speed 1/4 sec., Aperture F2.8, ISO 80

In the above example, the camera uses the slowest shutter speed and largest aperture available in P mode and at the widest focal length. The picture is underexposed.

Manual Mode - Overexposed

Fujifilm FinePix E550 7.2mm, Manual, Pattern Shutter Speed 3 sec., Aperture F2.8, ISO 80

Switching to Manual mode allows me to access the slowest shutter speed available on this camera, 3 sec. while keeping the aperture at F2.8 (the largest aperture available). The effect is immediately better, but it does seem a bit too bright, giving almost a daylight effect. If this is the effect you're after, then you're done. But if you wanted to capture the night mood, read on.

Now it is just a matter of adjusting the shutter speed and/or aperture to obtain the desired exposure. I choose to close down the aperture so as to increase the depth of field also.

Manual Mode - Correct Exposure

Fujifilm FinePix E550 7.2mm, Manual, Pattern Shutter Speed 3 sec., Aperture F4.0, ISO 80

Closing down the aperture to F4.0, a more pleasant image is obtained with enough dark areas to indicate it is night time (dusk, really) and enough lighted areas to reproduce what my eyes saw at the outdoors skating rink at the Mississauga Civic Center.

Due today

• Portrait Contact Sheet
• 2 portraits (1+ using double exposure)
• 23 question quiz
• 3 fav portraits + 3 questions

grades will be updated this afternoon.

photo quiz - with a historical slant

1. Who below was the first person to successfully "fix" a photographic image, thus becoming the father of photography?

	A. George Eastman
	B. Thomas Edison
	C. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce
	D. Samuel Morse

2. The first photograph ever made by the above gentleman is in the collection of

	A. the Louvre
	B. the Bibliothèque Nationale
	C. the Metropolitan Museum of Art
	D. The University of Texas at Austin

3. A curator of photography at the Museum of Modern Art was

	A. Leopold Stokowski
	B. Igor Sikorski
	C. John Szarkowski
	D. Leon Trotsky

4. Who below did not help popularize the nude in photography?

	A. Hugh Hefner
	B. William Mortensen
	C. Bunny Yeager
	D. Wallace Nutting

5. Which name is the most difficult to pronounce?

	A. Gyula Halász
	B. George Hoyningen-Huené
	C. László Moholy-Nagy
	D. They all give pause to even the most photographically literate among us.

6. Really famous people just need one name; which one below is the photographer?

	A. Madonna
	B. Cantinflas
	C. Brassaï
	D. Pelé

7. If Alfred Stieglitz didn’t think you were worthy enough to own a print from his gallery, he would

	A. call 911
	B. not sell it to you
	C. have you taken out the back door
	D. sic Georgia on you

8. Who below was the first to make aerial photographs?

	A. Charles Lindbergh
	B. the Red Baron
	C. Nadar
	D. Timothy Leary

9. What group did Alfred Steiglitz found?

	A. Linked Ring Brotherhood
	B. Photo-Secession
	C. Rat Pack
	D. Association of International Photography Art Dealers, Inc.

10. Which painter below used photography?

	A. Rembrandt
	B. Piet Mondrian
	C. Thomas Eakins
	D. John James Audubon

11. Name a famous photographer's model.

	A. Whistler's mother
	B. Lee Miller
	C. Brenda Lee
	D. Taco Bell chihuahua

12. In attempting to produce the ultimate in photographic quality, the F 64 Group was famous for its members'

	A. opening their lenses up to f 64
	B. stopping their lenses down to f 64
	C. always using tripods
	D. never photographing things that move

13. Which of these other single-name people is associated with fine-art photography?

	A. Fabio
	B. Twinka
	C. Fabian
	D. Liberace 14. Which of these photographers is not dead? A. Alfred Eisenstadt B. Yousuf Karsh C. Aaron Siskind D. Berenice Abbott 15. The Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art was established in A. 1066 B. 1954 C. 1922 D. 1940 16. Later in his life Ansel Adams used A. a Minox B. an 8 x 10 view camera C. a Hasselblad D. no camera. John Sexton snapped the shutter for him. 17. Name the photographic duo. A. Ferrani and Tycher B. Hill and Adamson C. Gilbert and Sullivan D. Hans and Franz 18. Photographs have a history of mistreatment. For example, some of the glass negatives from the Civil War were used as A. broken glass atop walls to keep out the enemy B. greenhouse roofing tiles C. protection when viewing solar eclipses D. Frisbees 19. Which of the photographers below is not known for using multiple negatives in their imagery? A. Jerry N. Uelsmann B. Angus McBean (what a great name!) C. Allen A. Dutton D. W. Eugene Smith 20. People from which organization below were blacklisted during the McCarthy era? A. Association of International Photography Art Dealers, Inc. B. Photographic Society of America C. Photo League D. American Society of Magazine Photographers 21. Alfred Stieglitz called his cloud photographs A. Similarities B. Equivalents C. Likenesses D. Equalities 22. Eadweard Muybridge proved with his motion study photographs that A. in each stride of a gallop all four hooves of a horse are off the ground at the same time B. in each stride of a gallop a horse's ears lay back to the same angle as its tail C. cameras can indeed be used to determine the winner of a photo-finish D. a horse can outrun a locomotive 23. Which best describes photography gallery owners? A. a great bunch of folks B. weasels C. masochists D. all of the above Here is the last challenge. Match the photographers names on the left with their given names on the right. Clicking the camera icons will show the answers. Answers are below if you don't have java. 1. Man Ray A. David Szymin 2. Nadar B. Otto Umbehr 3. Weegee C. Emmanuel Rudnitzky 4. Eadweard Muybridge D. Andrei Friedmann 5. Umbo E. Gyula Halász 6. David (Chim) Seymour F. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson 7. Robert Capa G. Edward James Muggeridge 8. Brassaï H. Gaspard Félix Tournachon 9. Lewis Carroll I. Arthur Fellig

PORTRAITS: to turn in

• Contact Sheet of 24 + pics of no more than 2 subjects
• 2 prints - at least one of which must be a double exposure!

favorite portraits...

Find 3 portraits you dig, you will need to answer 3 questions for each photo.

• What drew you to this photo?
• What was done compositionally to make it interesting?
• What is unique/interesting about this portrait?

You can find a random selection of interesting portraits here: http://www.portrait-photos.org/shuffle/

or you can use gettyimages or google images to search for an amazing portrait.

This is due at the end of the day Friday

examples:

Make your own light box for $.50

Photo lighting made easy.

Not having enough light seems to be the #1 annoyance to most people when they’re trying to take nice photos of their items. And #2 is what to do with that light if you do have it!
We can’t post photos here, so I’ll have to keep linking to flickr, but here goes…

I guess lightboxes are cool. I dunno, I’ve never used one. I’ve sold lots of stuff on ebay and craigslist, and have a few things still listed in my vintage shop, and piece of cardboard and light bulb have always served me just fine.
Here’s what I call my 50 cent lightbox:

Yup, a sheet of Bristol board taped to the floor and wall. And today was a perfect day to demonstrate; cold, cloudy, blustery, and quite dark. What you see there is what you get. Not very good light. Big deal.

Enter the light bulb, or to be precise, the Ott bulb. These are cheap, easily available at hardware stores, and the best lighting invention since sliced bread. Even better in fact, since sliced bread has very little to do with photography.
Take one table lamp, remove shade, screw in Ott bulb, and put on stairs. What a difference!

Notice how the light is positioned roughly 45 degrees above the item, and about 45 degrees off to the side. If my space were bigger, I’d use a 2nd bulb on the left as well, to eliminate the shadows cast by this one. Oh well, I’ll just have to make it work. You can move the light around so that you don’t cast shadows where you don’t want them.

Now, stop here and take a good look. Those walls should be lighter. What’s going on? The camera wants to make everything a neutral tone, so if there’s a lot of light stuff in the photo, like here, it will try to darken it to get it to neutral. If I had taken a shot of only the white wall, it would have been even darker, but the floor is pulling the exposure up a bit.
This camera has “Exposure Compensation” which is used to essentially fool the meter. If I set it to overexpose by 1 f-stop, here’s what I get:

Much better. Some of the upper wall on the right is starting to get blasted now, but I don’t care.

So what’s that thing on the cardboard? It’s an ugly old, busted ceramic brooch. Can we make ugly look half decent?
Here’s a shot at floor level:

Not half bad lighting. Notice how only the front part is in focus. This is because the aperture is set to its widest (lowest number f-stop), so the depth of field (portion of the photo in focus) is very shallow. If I set the f-stop to the maximum (smallest aperture), it pulls much more into focus:

Maybe a bit too much detail for this ugly, dirty, broken thing. Buyer beware!

How about something much prettier? Here’s an AUTO shot of our next beauty contestant:

I’ve moved the light closer to the front because I like the illuminating better. Once again, everything is a bit too dark, but we know how to fix that. Here’s a closer shot:

Even darker! Why? Because there’s much more white in the picture, so once again, the camera is trying to pull that white towards neutral grey. So, we crank up the exposure compensation again, just like before, and we zoom in a bit:

The shallow depth of field is much more evident on this larger subject. The little diamond on the front ring of the lens is in sharp focus, but the rest fades into a blur. So once again, we set the aperture for a much higher number:

Now that’s a camera!
And two more examples using a macro:

All this with a sheet of cardboard and one light bulb on a miserable, dark day.
You don’t have to live in sunny California to take well lit photos, you just have to live close enough to a hardware store. And yes, all the item photos were taken on a tripod or with the camera on the floor. There’s absolutely no other way.

more examples

Double Exposures

For your portrait assignment you are going to be required to print one of your images as a double exposure. The other can be printed as normal or an additional double image. Your options for double exposure are creative dodging and burning or sandwiching negatives.

Studio Lighting!!!

Short Lighting

Short lighting illuminates the part of the face that is not facing directly at the camera. In Figure Z, we can see that the side of the face facing the camera is in the shadow side. Short lighting often is the preferred light positioning for most portraits especially for rounder faces or faces less defined facial features.

Putting the shadow side of the face closer to the camera narrows down the face and works well for majority of subjects except those with long or thin faces.

Broad Lighting

Broad lighting is the opposite of short lighting where the lit portion of the face faces the front of the camera. Showing the lit portion of the face directly at the camera broadens the face as it illuminates majority of the subject’s face instead of hiding it in the shadows.

While not as popular as short lighting, broad lighting can be used effectively with thinner faces and can make subjects such as the elderly look more radiant and lively. Broad lighting is a “cheerful” light position that portrays openness and excitement.

Read more: http://www.howitookit.com/classic-lighting-styles.html#ixzz14njY6ZBR

more on lighting

Broad Lighting

Here I want to say not a particular light pattern, but somewhat a combination of light patterns with subject's and main light's orientation to the camera. As you noticed, all light patterns were shown for a full face view. When you turn the subject's face to 3/4 view you have two choices to place the main light, which will create different effects. Broad lighting will create an effect of a broad face, because the wider [visible] part of the face, neck and shoulders will be lit and as such more prominent in the photograph. This approach is flattering mostly for slim and thin people, don't use it with heavy people, it will produce the opposite effect.

Broad lighting

To achieve this effect you have to place the main light to the opposite side from the direction of the subject's face. So if the subject looks to your left (to the camera's left) - as shown below - you place the main light to your (camera's) right or very close to the camera.

Broad lighting studio setup

~ Top ~

Short Lighting

This approach is opposite to the broad lighting and achieves opposite results, it reduces the visible part of the subject's face, neck and shoulders that are lit by the main light. As the result, the heavy people with such approach seem thinner, which creates a flattering effect.

Short lighting

The diagram below shows the main light placement in relation to the camera and the subject. In contrary to the broad lighting the main light is placed in front of the subject's face (butterfly light pattern is often used with this approach.

Short and Broad lighting

What Is Short Light?

Short light is type of studio lighting setup, where the face side which is further from the camera gets the main light. see the diagram for details. In this type of lighting setup, the side of the face which is toward the camera gets less light then the side facing away form the camera. The effect you get when using this lighting setup is a thin face, this is why it is good to photograph fat (or chubby) people with a short light setup.

Diagram 1 - Short Light

Let's look at a picture of a friend of mine - Winnie the poo. Looks like Winnie had allot of honey and he is quite chubby. The flash is set up to my right, and Winnie is looking to his left. This make his face look a bit thinner than what they really are. Short light is very useful in portrait photography, as it gives drama to the subject. (Short light setup also stresses skin wrinkles, to create even more drama for older people)

What Is Broad Light?

Broad light is just the opposite of Short light. In the Broad Light setup, THe side that is getting the most light is the side turning towards the camera. This setup is less commonly used for portraits as it tends to make people look chubby. See the diagram for setup.

Diagram 2 - Broad Light

Lets look at Winnie again. This picture was taken at the same focal length (135mm with 1.5 crop factor D70's sensor). This time Winnie looks very chubby. Oh Winnie! what have you been eating? Also note how the picture looks a bit flatter. There are not allot of light and shade plays.

For both types of light you can use a fill light at the opposite side to the main light, or do as I did and use a reflector at 45 deg. (see diagrams).

Conclusion:

Light Type	Side to Get Most Light	Chubbiness	Wrinkles
Short Light	Away From Camera	Reduce	Intensify
Broad Light	Facing Camera	Increase	Reduce

Studio Lighting Portraits...

Studio Lighting!!!
Your task this period is to shoot some interesting , creative and unique portraits using the studio lights. Remember the different lighting techniques demonstrated in class. Use the lights to add emotion, feeling, or interesting shadows to your images. Try to think out of the box, manipulate the image with Manual settings on the camera, blur motion, stop action, take tons of pics, and have FUN! Shoot for the period in groups of 4 to 6 per light station. Everyone should shoot their own photo session. Take turns as each others subjects. Shoot a minimum of 12 pictures per photographer from 2 locations. .