Your assignment for this week is to create a still life of your own and bring in two photos of different still life setups that you have taken.

You need to group at least 3 items and light them with natural or some type of artificial light (no flash). Bring in at least two different photos of your still life.

I want you to be creative with it. Do a little research on the web. Look at other still life photos and come up with something that is interesting. Think about what you have learned about composition and light. How can you use your aperture and shutter speed to control the light and emotion in your photographs.

Remember, you don’t need a fancy setup to get that lightbox feel. Just one or two desk lamps, something to difuse the light and a backdrop. You can use any type of light bulbs but using daylight balanced compact flourecent bulbs will keep the light balanced.

Better yet, use natural light. Diffused window light with something to reflect it makes great light for still life setups. Remember my ironing board setup?

If you make a lightbox you might want to try setting it up using artificial light as well as outside in bright sunlight and take a few photos. There’s definitely a difference when using sunlight as your light source.

Here are a couple of sites with instructions on making light boxes:

• A box made with foam core board.
• A box made with a PVC pipe frame.
• A box made with a cardboard box.

Food photography tips and tutorials.

For more great information on lighting for shooting things and some great tutorials on making your own light stands, check out the “Shoot that quilt” and the “Pro Photo Life” instructional video links on the right side of the page

• Freeze the motion
• Panning with the subject/background blur
• Implying motion
• Blur of the whole scene

For some good explanations of the different types of motion photography check out this site.

This blog article on photographing helicopters is really interesting and helpful for learning about photographing things in motion.

Panning tips – Panning can only really be done effectively when you’re prepared for it. You have to find a place where you know someone or something will be moving.

How to pan:

1. Pre-focus your camera on the spot where you expect your subject to appear.
2. Frame your shot and wait for the subject to approach the edge of your frame.
3. As soon as the subject enters the spot you focused on press the shutter button and keep it pressed (using your camera’s continuous shooting mode).
4. As you’re doing this follow/pan the camera with the subject. When you pan a few things are important:

• The movement of the subject has to be in a fairly straight line (refer to the diagram).
• The wider your angle of view on the scene, the wider your pan can be.
• Make the pan motion as smooth and as straight along the horizon line as possible.
• Any camera shake or movement up or down will result in additional, undesirable smearing/blurring.
• Expect your success rate to be rather low with this technique. It may take many shots to get one which is “just right”. Stand in one place and take about a couple dozen photos of the same sort of stuff. Practice, repetition and perseverance will get you there.

Technical:

1. For best panning results the shutter speed should be set around 1/6s to 1/20s. The slower the subject – the slower the shutter speed.
2. Set youre f number to at least f/5.6, but there’s no optimal setting for this.
3. You can make panning shots with virtually any lens, but remember, it should be easy for you to hold it so as not to cause camera shake and additional smearing/blurring. A zoom lens is best to do this.

We also talked about travel photography. If you don’t travel often then you may want to practice by learning to see where you live in the eyes of a tourist. Take a look at the website A Walk Through Durham Township which has some great examples of being a tourist in your own town as well as some wonderful photographs.

You have a choice for your assignment next week. You can shoot photos of the different types of motion or take a “trip” through your neighborhood or somewhere local and tell us the story of your trip in photographs. If you choose the trip assignment remember that every story has a beginning, middle and end.

You need to bring in three  to five photographs of your assignment. Be creative. Don’t forget about composition, lighting and the interest value of your photos.

Think about starting a photo/visual journal of notes and ideas for photographs. Here is an article on keeping a photographic journal.

Information about Dan Eldon and his journals.

Another photographer, Peter Beard, that has kept journals all his life.

Amazon links for a few of the books about photographers and journals …

Sante D’Orazio A Private View: Photographs and Diary

The Journey Is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon

Big Up

Yann Arthus-Bertrand: Being a Photographer

A good book on visual journaling: Drawing From Life: The Journal as Art

A few more sites you might like…

Here is a link to the movie about Dan Eldon’s life.

Here’s some more information on recording your ideas.

A  few more sites you might like…

If you’re a nature buff then you’ll like this blog alot. Her photos are beautiful.

If you haven’t been over to the Flickr site yet…get thee there and check out the millions of photos that have been posted by people from around the world. Do a search on a topic such as children, travel or flowers and get lost for hours looking at photos.

Week 5 class documents: (Right click on the link and select “Save As” to save the files to your hard drive)

• Travel Photography
• Telling Stories
• Travel Album

Week 3  is all about lighting and portraits and how to get one that tells the viewer something about your sitter.

This week we reviewed the 3 P’s, ISO, Aperture, shutter speed, DOF, the rule of thirds and composition.

We talked about how to read the flashing highlights (blinkies) and the histogram in your camera’s view screen for each photograph you take.

Learning to read the histogram for each photograph you take is essential because with digital image making you need to ‘expose for the highlights and process for the shadows’. Which means that you are exposing for the ‘texture highlights’ because the highlights are the most important tonality as they can’t be recovered in digital. Once they go white they are gone, you cannot get a texture out of them again but you can still recover the dark areas.

We watched a slideshow about lighting and portraiture.

• Our main topic was the four M’s of lighting (main light, meter, mood, modify) & lighting for portraiture. For our activity we photographed each other during class outside and in the atrium. We also talked about bracketing your shots and use the technique of putting your subject just inside a doorway on a sunny day.
• Part of your assignment for this week is to shoot a portrait of a friend or family member (no pets) as well as a self-portrait. Don’t just set the camera up and take a snapshot. Use some of the lighting and composition techniques that we talked about. Create a mood and tell us something about your sitter as well as yourself with your photos. Think about using your sitters environment as part of their portrait.
• You were also asked to take a self portrait.
• The self portrait assignment requires that you learn how to use the self timer feature on your camera.
• For ease of focusing, think about putting your lens on maual focus mode
• Use your flashing highlight window to help with exposures in bright sunlight.
• Try using your zoom lens set on 50-55mm only. See if that makes a difference in how you view your subjects. The object is to get in close and interact with your subject.
• Play with your camera settings a bit and see where it takes you. Be creative.
• Shoot from slightly below your subject’s eye line – shooting from slightly below a person’s eye line is more flattering for most people.

You’ll need to pick out your favorite self portrait and portrait and have them printed so we can discuss them in class next week. Also, (day class only) pick out your favorite photo you took in class of your shooting partner and have it printed as well.

Please note: I want you to start recording the meta data (ISO, aperture and shutter speed settings) for each photo that you bring in. You can write it on the back of each print or you can put it in your notebook.

More on portraiture…

One of the best and most underused locations for portraiture is an ordinary garage or doorway. The simplicity of location makes your subject feel at ease. Open the door and position the subject in the shadow near the edge of the light. You will discover the light is like nothing else you have seen. Make sure the lights are out behind them and there is no window in the back ground, If necessary, hang a backdrop behind the subject to cover up all the clutter. The garage creates a box, which protects the subject from direct sun. The sky adds a sparkle to their eyes. In a sense a garage door opening is like a big window without glass. And if the driveway or sidewalk is a light-colored concrete, it can act as a reflector bouncing the fill light back in.
If you don’t have a garage, any overhang will do. Experiment with positioning the subject closer and farther from the shadow’s edge until you find the right combination. Try using a small stepladder or stool so that you can position the camera just above the subject’s head. This will cause him to look up so that the light from the sky will brighten his eyes. Do some pre planning to keep your portrait sessions short, from 10 to 15 minutes.

I love this expalnation by photographer Joey L about the way he shoots portraits. He describes it as “The Dignified Portrait”.

The Mentawai, Behind the Scenes Documentary from Joey L .

Try to think creatively when taking your homework portraits this week.

Take a look at the intuative portrait examples as well as the Intimate portrait examples.

Check out the portfolios of Joe McNally for some great examples of portraits.

Here’s a good explanation of environmental portraiture. These are some really interesting environmental portraits. Some more and some more.

The self portraits of Vivian Maier. She used reflections very creatively.

Also check out these self portraits on Flickr.

Miss Aniela’s self portraits on Flickr.

Here are some more self portrait examples for you to peruse.

Also, check out these portraits on Flickr by David Hobby. David runs the Strobist website.

We watched this video over on the Strobist site about street portraiture by photographer Clay Enos.
Here is the link to the site of Kevyn Major Howard. He does headshots using natural light. Here is a link to the video featuring him shooting in his garage. Pretty cool setup.

If you’re interested in photographing children, Jinky Art is a great blog to check out. This photographer does some beautiful work.

William Coupon is an amazing  portrait photographer that you should study.

Check out these portraits by local photographer Glen McClure. Currently he has some work over at the Mariners Museum in Hampton/Newport News.

Week 3 class documents: (Right click on the link and select “Save As” to save the files to your hard drive)

In this week’s class we reviewed the 3 P’s. What are they? Practice, Patience and Persistance. The more photos that you take and the more you practice the concepts that you learn in class the better you will get at taking good photos. We also reviewed some of the ingredients to taking better photos. ISO, F-stop and shutter speed.

• Bracketing your shots
• Lens compression
• Focusing modes

We looked at your cameras mode dial and learned what those other letters mean.

• Auto = Fully auto the camera does all the work
• P = partial auto the camera allows you to set things like the ISO but controls the shutter speed and aperture
• AV or A (depending on camera model) = Aperture priority you set the aperture and the camera sets the shutter speed
• TV or S (depending on camera model) = Shutter priority you set the shutter speed and the camera sets the aperture
• M = fully manual you make all the decisions

By setting the mode dial to A (Nikon) or AV (Canon) instead of M, you will be able to control the aperture and the camera will control the shutter speed. This is called aperture priority. It is a semi auto mode. Using this setting will be helpful in part two of this week’s assignment.

Here’s a good description of the mode dial settings as well as the scene selection settings.

For our lesson we looked at slideshow on composition, the rule of thirds and depth of field.

Composition: Things to consider…

• Horizontal or vertical
• Perspective
• Subject
• Simplify
• Negative space
• Lines
• Visual Weight
• Fill the frame
• Motion
• Depth of Field

We talked about the Rule of thirds (think of your viewfinder as a tic tac toe board) and how it affects the composition and feeling of a photograph. We also talked about shallow depth of field and how it is used to isolate a subject from it’s surroundings. Also, how there are a combination of things that are needed to achieve the correct effect.

Professional photographers use depth of field (DOF) to isolate their subjects and throw a distracting background out of focus. To do this you’ll need to use a combination of any of the following…

• Use a long Lens (85 mm and up)
• Have a wide aperture/f-stop (1.4, 1.8, 2.0, 2.8, 3.5)
• Get close to the subject
• Keep your subject away from the background

Here’s a link to an article with some good information on achieving shallow depth of field.

Here is a link to a page with a list of articles on composition and The Rule of Thirds, also known as “The Golden Mean”.

For your homework:

Please read the chapter titled Aperture in your book. It will help with understanding how aperture works.

Assignment Part One:

Take your every day object and, using what you learned about composition and depth of field in in class reshoot it to make it look more interesting. Take a bunch of shots from different angles and different lighting. I also want you to see how you can use depth of field (DOF) to enhance your subject. Pick out your best shot and have it printed in 5″x7″ format for class next week.

Part Two:

Depth of field: I want you to pick an object, a stuffed animal, potted plant, etc. It must be between 15″ and 24″ in size. No miniature objects, no people or pets, and set it up outside on a stool or table in front of something like a bush, wall or tree.

• Try not to shoot in bright midday sun. Early morning or late afternoon light is good as well as bright open shade (**see definition below).
• If you have one, use your longer zoom lens for this assignment and set it at 85mm. If not, use your 18-55 set at 35 mm and get in close.
• A tripod to set your camera on can be very useful for this assignment.
• Set your object up about 3 feet away from your background. Get close to your object making sure you can see what is in the background. Focus on the object.
• Set your ISO for the lighting conditions. 200 for a sunny day. 400 an overcast day or a shadey area.
• Set your camera’s mode dial to A or AV for aperture priority. This way you do not have to worry about the shutter speed for this assignment. The camera will take care of it.
• Set your aperture/f-stop to to your widest aperture for your zoom setting. It should be about 4 or 4.5. Take the shot.
• Without moving your camera position, set your aperture/f-stop to 8. Take another shot.
• Set your aperture/f-stop to 16 and repeat as above.
• Now move your object about 6 feet away from your background. Recompose your shot making sure you can see a little of what is in the background behind your object. Focus on the object.
• Set your aperture/f-stop to to your widest aperture for your zoom setting. It should be about 4 or 4.5. Take the shot.
• Without moving your camera position, set your aperture/f-stop to 8. Take another shot.
• Set your aperture/f-stop to 16 and take a shot.
• You should now have two sets of 3 shots. One with your object 3′ from the background and one with it 6′ from the background. Carefully look at the background of each shot. You should be able to see a difference between each. Especially the first and last of each set.
• Print the set of 3 shots where your object was 6′ from the background and bring them to class next week along with your reshot everyday item.

Here are examples of each setup. These were all shot a 35 mm on the lens. You can click on each picture and it will open up larger.

DOF Assignment 3 feet

 

DOF Assignment 6 feet

***Extra credit: Do the same thing but move your subject 9-10 feet away from the background. Bring in this set of prints instead of the 6′ foot ones.

Check out this video where Jen Leman talks and what inspires her to become a better photographer. (We watched this in class.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-B62Jo39jo

In the spirit of getting you all to look at the world through your lens from different view points…check out all these wonderful shots taken from low angles in the Flickr Low Perspective group pool.

I want you to go here and read the blog post by David DuChemin.

Week 2 class documents: (Right click on the link and select “Save As” to save the files to your hard drive)

• Class slide show Please note this is a large file. Approx. 10 mb
• Words of wisdom

Got a question? Just shoot me an email and I’ll be happy to answer it for you.

**Definition for “open shade”: This term is used to refer to large shades caused by things such as large buildings, trees, hills, etc. However, these shades allow a large light source to illuminate the subject. It is good for photography because you avoid harsh highlights produced by strong sources such as the sun.

Welcome to the class blog! This is the place where you can find information on each weeks’ class as well as information on the topics that we discuss as well as additional links to useful information on the Web. I will also be adding information regularly so please bookmark the site and check back often.

This book is required. Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera by Bryan Peterson

Please note we have “going green”. What does that mean to you? It means that, other than the class syllubus,  I will no longer be giving out paper handouts. All additional information will be posted here on the blog with each weeks’s class recap. This is being done in an effort to save paper and my tim and frustration with the copy machine.

Here is a recap of this week’s class:

The topics we discussed were: We went over the class syllabus. You had a look into my camera bag.

We discussed manual camera functions and learned how to set them on our cameras. What are the 3 P’s? Practice, Patience and Persistence. We also learned about some of the other main ingredients that help you become a better photographer. They are ISO, F-stop, and shutter speed . We learned how they relate to each other on the exposure triangle. Remember: ISO affects shutter speed and aperature, aperature and shutter speed affect each other but they do no affect ISO.

We learned about the different types of lenses and their uses. Zoom lenses (lenses that move from a wide angel to a telephoto or some variation) and prime lenses (a fixed mm lens) and the variations of each - wide, standard and telephoto. Here’s a link to some great articles about different lenses and how to choose the best one for what you like to shoot.

We discussed using your camera’s built in light meter to read the light as a starting point for your exposure.

Here is the metering sequence…

Please note: Before starting check your ISO. You’ll want to set it to 200 for bright sunlight or 400 if it’s an overcast day.

1. Set: set either the shutter speed or aperture
2. Meter: get the meter to zero out with whichever setting you didn’t set (IE: if you set the aperture then use the shutter speed to zero out your meter)
3. Shoot: take the picture
4. Look: check it out. Is it too light or dark?
5. Adjust: change either the aperture or shutter speed to adjust the exposure
6. Shoot: shoot again
7. Look: how does it look now?
8. Repeat: repeat steps 3-6 as necessary to get an exposure that you like

We briefly looked at the different metering modes. The main ones are evaluative/matrix, center weighted and spot mtering. I asked you to set your camera to matrix/evaluative for now. We will look at these in more detail in a few weeks.

Part of your homework for next week is to read the introduction and chapter 1 in your book as well as familiarize yourself with your cameras’ manual functions. Get comfortable setting the f-stop and shutter speed using the thumb wheels while looking through the view finder.

I also want you to shoot some everyday items. Make sure to shoot your items in good light. Don’t try to shoot things indoors in low light yet. Take at least 30 shots of different items and pick out your favirite 3. Print them in 4″x6″ or 5″x7″ fomat and bring to class with you next week.

Another thing we discussed is that I want you to start keeping your camera handy. Here’s a great post about having your camera with you so you dont miss those unexpected shots. From the Shutter Sisters blog…Surfer Wisdom.

I also want you to start being aware of the light around you. Without light there would be no photographs. Watch how light changes at different times of the day and during different weather conditions. Look around your house. Do you have an area that gets really nice natural light? Is it all day or just at certain times of the day?

Check out photographer and author Rick Sammon’s top 10 digital photography tips.

Please remember to bring your camera and manual to class each week as we will be shooting during each class period.

See you next week.

If you are signed up for the class the book Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera by Bryan Peterson is required. You can purchase it on Amazon by clicking the link or at area book stores.