Advanced Photography Class 4

We had a pretty interesting class last night. We started learning about the studio lights. Before I get into the lights here are the notes on light.

There are two types of light:

• Reflective - this is the light coming off from the subject. When you meter off reflective light your camera or your light meter want to make this 18% gray so you have to be very careful what you meter off.
• Incident - this is the light from the source to the subject. You must have a light meter to measure this light. Metering incident light is the most accurate way to get your exposure correct.

When you take a picture you are just recording reflected light. So the question you have to ask yourself with every picture is: What is the light doing? Color tonality is another important aspect of light. If you are taking a picture of a garden with a lot of different color flowers in it, your meter will tell you many different exposure values for the reflected light. The flowers might not turn out as yellow, red, orange, etc. as you know they are if you do not understand the tonal range of color (think a black and white print). One suggestion that was made to help understand tonal values of items is to get a 'tobacco' colored gel. Before you shoot, hold the gel to your eye, you will get a monochrome image that will help you understand the tonal value of the scene.

The studio lights are going to be fun to play with. We just got a basic overview last night. As I get more into it, I will post more.

10 - Scale

10 - Scale
Originally uploaded by Kortney Jarman.

This photo was my attempt to use the idea of scale. Here we see the large row boat and the size of the people carrying the boat.

9 - Layering

9 - Layering
Originally uploaded by Kortney Jarman.

This photo was my attempt to use the layering technique. My goal was to capture the 3 bridges and have them framed inside one another.

8 - Horizon Lines, Rule of Thirds

8 - Horizon Lines, Rule of Thirds
Originally uploaded by Kortney Jarman.

This was an attempt to combine a couple of the rules of compostion. I like the reflection in the water here and am overall pleased with the way this turned out.

7 - Rythm and Repeating

7 - Rythm and Repeating
Originally uploaded by Kortney Jarman.

This photo was another attempt at using a repeating pattern in it. I liked the way this one turned out, I just wish is was a little sharper.

6 - Leading Lines

6 - Leading Lines
Originally uploaded by Kortney Jarman.

This was my attempt at leading lines. In the first photo I took here, the sign was to dark, so I attempted to lighten it up some with my flash (hot shoe, but still mounted on camera). I think I got a little too much light into the sign, but it still looks pretty good.

5 - Rule of Thirds

5 - Rule of Thirds
Originally uploaded by Kortney Jarman.

This was another attempt at the 'Rule of Thirds'. I like the way this photo turned out. I do wish that the sky was more exciting but, you can only work with what is available at the time. This was taken a couple minutes before the official sunrise time and the sky was starting to light up very nicely.

4 - S Curves

4 - S Curves
Originally uploaded by Kortney Jarman.

This photo was my attempt at a 'S Curve' photo. While it is not a true S curve, I thought it turned out pretty interesting.

3 - Rythm and Repeating

3 - Rythym and Repeating
Originally uploaded by Kortney Jarman.

This is a photo of Hodges Library on the University of Tennessee Campus. I used it as an example of the Rythm and Repeating compostional rule. I really like this shot, but I wish I had a wider angle lense so I could have gotten the entire building.

Advanced Photography - Day 3

Our third class meeting has come and gone. It was an interesting class. We talked about pictures that we found in the different genre of photography that we liked. It was interesting to see everyone's photo choices and their likes and dislikes.

Next we watched a lighting video by Dean Collins. It was quite interesting, although a bit over my head right now. I am really excited about the whole lighting process, but I really want to start doing instead of just being lectured. This class has some great potential, but it will take awhile to get to the studio portion. More pictures to come.

2 - Rythm and Repeating

2 - Rythym and Repeating
Originally uploaded by Kortney Jarman.

This is a photo trying to capture the 'Rythm and Repeating rule'.

It is a photo of my grass. (Please ignore the weeds in it) I thought the dew made this picture interesting.

1 - Rule of Thirds

1 - Rule of Thirds
Originally uploaded by Kortney Jarman.

Well, I was ablet to get out and take some photos over the past week and weekend. Some of the pictures that I took, I would classify as alright, others I would say were technically correct, but lacking emotion. Let me know what you think of these photos.

This one I took with the Rule of Thirds in mind.

Rules of Compostition

All these 'rules' for composition can be found in Perfect Digital Photography, by Jay Kinghorn and Jay Dickman.

So what are these rules of classic composition that we hear about. The ones that are introduced in our book, Perfect Digital Photography are:

Rule of thirds - you dived your picture into sections (draw a tic-tac-toe board over it), at the one of the point of intersections for the lines you want the center of interest
S-Curves - these gentle sweeping curves draw your eyes through the photo
Rhythm and Repeating Patterns - the repetition will pull the viewer through the photo
Horizon lines - used to define areas in your photo, NEVER place across the dead center of your photo
Leading lines - something linear (fence row, parking meters) that pulls your eyes through the photo
Layering - distinctive layers in a photo that require the viewer to absorb the content of each layer and put it together for the photos message to be clear (think rock strata, but instead of up and down, it creates depth)
Scale - adding a familiar element (person, car, etc.) to a photo (think about a person next to a sequoia tree)
Tension - something that conveys emotion (this one is a hard one for me to describe)
Keep it simple - complexity will cause the viewer to get a headache; move close to the subject to fill the frame and don't place the subject in the middle of the frame
Breaking the rules - sometimes rules are meant to be broken
The final thing that this chapter leaves us with is a simple question:

"Does the photo work or not?"

The rules given here are a great guideline or aide to get us started with the composition process. This process starts before you put the camera to your eye. As photographers we must imagine what the photo will look like before we ever take the photo.

I will be out shooting this weekend, so hopefully I can share with everyone examples of these rules.

Advanced Photography - Day 2

The second day of class wasn't to bad. The teacher was sick, so we joined with one of the other classes, which was photojournalism. It was a very interesting lecture. (Warning: I've tried to organize my notes the best that I can, the instructor had a tendancy to ramble and switch thoughts mid-stream)

We talked about lighting situations. From low light, room lights, and flashes.

Low Light Situations
In some low light situations, you can't use a flash. In these situations you want to 'push' your exposure. To push, with digital, you will bump your ISO up to the smallest the situation will allow. Normally at night you will need an ISO of 1600 or 3200. (Note: no matter what ISO you are at, you will still capture the same number of pixels) The issue that arises when you increase your ISO is noise. This is where the pixels don't know what they are supposed to do. Here is where the cost and age of your camera come into play. The older your camera is, the higher amount of noise it will have. Also the more expensive your camera is, the better the chip that records the information. There is a big difference between digital SLRs and the compact point and shoot in relation to noise. The compact point and shoot will have a lot more noise at the higher ISOs.

Two rules for low light situations:
1. Own a good camera
2. Shoot with arms tucked at sides for more stability

Inside with room lights
Not a lot was said about these situations. If you are taking photos indoors and there is not enough light, take the shades off the lamps. This will increase that amount of available light and help with shadows.

Flashes
The instructors first comment about flashes was: The on camera flash is crap, rip it off. So with that note, I do recommend getting an external flash. Check out Strobist for more information about off camera flash photography.
Once you have the flash, his recommendation was to use it off the camera when ever possible. If you have to use it on your camera, don't have the flash pointing directly at the person. Angle the flash up so that you can 'bounce' the light to make it less harsh. He also recommended getting a good diffuser. Stofen makes an 'Omni-Bounce' that does this very well. The cheaper alternative is to find a medicine bottle that is white and about the size of your flash and make one for yourself.
An issue that you will run into using your flash is that the light from your flash has a different color temperature than daylight, floresent, and tungston. It is closer to daylight than the other two. If you are shooting with your flash inside, you will need to color correct for the difference. You can use gels to do this or Stofen makes 'Omni-Bounces' of those colors. (Floresent = Green, Tungston = Yellow)
You can use your flash as 2 different light sources:
1. Supplement - this is a fill flash. The existing light creates the scene and the fill helps with the shadows.
2. Compliment - the flash as the main light. The flash creates the scene and the existing light is the background.

Photojournalism
Photo journalists normally shoot extremes. This means they are normally shooting at a wide open aperture (f-stop 2 or 2.8) and a fast shutter speed (1/1000). The wide open aperture forces the background out of focus while the fast shutter speed will catch the action. A couple of other things here: a photojournalist makes fast decisions about how he wants the picture to turn out (aperture and shutter speed), and he can decide how the person will look (wide angle lens - not flattering, telephoto lens - flattering).
Photojournalism is concerned with 3 areas:

1. Sports
2. Features
3. News
a. Scheduled
b. Spot

The last thing the he left us with was this:

Take pictures of interesting things.

Photography Styles/Genres

In my class we were give a list of multiple photography styles and genres:

Architecture
Commercial / Advertising
- Food
- Catalog
Documentary
Fashion
Fine Art
Industrial
Landscape
Model
Music
Nature
Photojournalism
Portrait
Wedding
Sports

This is a large list of different niches in photography that you can specialize in. Personally, I have not figured out which one I like or fit into. There are great things to all of these.

One of our class assignments is to pick two categories and find some pictures out of magazines that we like and that 'hit' us. Then we have to explain what hit us about the photo and describe the compostition (lighting, arrangement, and what works or doesn't work).

I would love to read your thoughts on the different genres listed here or ones that aren't. What do you like and why?

TN Valley Fair: Photo 8 of 8

Fair Picture 8 of 8

Well this is the last picture I put in the fair. This a close up of a sunflower that my wife got on her birthday. I was playing with light here. Hard light, soft light, whatever. I was having fun with 2 lamps with CFL's in them. It took me a little while to get the whitebalance corrected in my camera, but this shot turned out rather well.

TN Valley Fair: Photo 7 of 8

Fair Picture 7 of 8

This is a friend of mine's son. This photo was taken at the playground outside our church. We were working with the kids during the summer and I had my camera with me (my wife says it is a permanent attachment.) I was lucky enough to capture this great expression on his face.
I decided to destaturate it and take it to an antique look because I felt his expression was the central focus of the photo and that the color would distract from it.

TN Valley Fair: Photo 6 of 8

Fair Picture 6 of 8

The young girl on the right is my neice. She is now 2 years and as you can tell very photogenic (in my opinion). It is always fun to be around her and I need to remeber to always have my camera with me because you never know what she will do.

TN Valley Fair: Photo 5 of 8

Fair Picture 5 of 8

This is my beautiful wife. She reluctantly agreed to be a model for me while I was playing with different lighting techniques. This photo was matted on a sky blue mat.

TN Valley Fair: Photo 4 of 8

Fair Photo 4 of 8
This is my dog, Bridget. She is my entry into the fair for the Domestic Animals section. She was being her mischievous self her and I was lucky enough to get a picture of her. Normally when I have my camera out she just wants to be directly in front of it, with her nose on the lens.
I was playing with DOF (Depth of Field) in this picture. As you can see, I was able to get Bridget in focus, while the grass in front of her and behind her are out of focus. To do this I used a very low aperture (f-stop).

Photos 5 - 8 to come soon.