Sunny 16 Rule

For much of photography's history, there were no light meters, so basic rules were created to get the right exposure for a picture. If you know the sensitivity of the film you are using, you can get close to the exact settings you need to get a proper exposure.

So the rule is: on a sunny day (bright sunlight), your shutter speed equals the inverse of the ISO of your film at f16.

For example, we use 400 ISO film, so the ideal exposure at f16 would be 1/400. Since cameras don't generally have a 1/400 shutter speed setting, you would use the closest one. In our case, the closest would be 1/500, but slightly overexposing film is better than slightly underexposing, so I would pick 1/250 of a second for the shutter speed in most cases.

If it is not a sunny day, then you would let in more light by decreasing the shutter speed (go to 1/125, 1/60, etc.) or open up the aperture (go to f11, f8, f5.6, etc.).

Here are some links for more information about this rule. If you meter is broken or not functioning well, use this rule.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_16_rule

http://www.guidetofilmphotography.com/sunny-16-exposure.html

https://www.slrlounge.com/photography-essentials-the-sunny-16-rule/

Remember:
Opening the f stop by one stop (going from f16 to f11) and cutting amount of time the shutter is open by half (going from 1/250 to 1/500), brings in the same amount of light.

Closing the f stop down by one stop (going from f16 to f22) and doubling the amount of time the shutter is open (going from 1/250 to 1/125), brings in the same amount of light.

1/250 of a second at f16 = 1/500 of a second at f11 = 1/125 of a second at f22

History of Photography - the 1870's

The 1870's saw the arrival of the "Dry Plate Process", which revolutionized photography and made it what it is today.

For an explanation of the dry plate process, click here.

And here is a video about that era and the progress it led to.

The Dry Plate Process allowed photographers to do more things, such as landscape photography in faraway places and capture high-speed motion. Below are links to some of the photographers of that era.

William Henry Jackson
Carleton Watkins
Timothy O'Sullivan
Eadweard Muybridge

ISO and Color Spaces

ISO is one of the easier concepts to understand when talking about exposure. Just like shutter speed, when you double the ISO, you double the sensor sensitivity, and vice versa. In the old days of film, you only had one ISO for the roll of film. With digital cameras, you can change the ISO with each picture.

Here is an article to explain ISO in more detail:
https://photographylife.com/what-is-iso-in-photography

Here are two videos about ISO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyJETpvHwIk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBxsCNF5ims

Color spaces are models that define precise colors, some color spaces are larger than others. Color spaces are important for determining how your image will look, whether they are displayed on a screen, or printed out.

Here are some articles to explain color spaces in more detail:
https://fstoppers.com/pictures/adobergb-vs-srgb-3167
https://www.slrlounge.com/breakdown-color-spaces-really-grasp/

Here is a video to explain color spaces.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKX08oOTMkk

Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is one of the easier concepts to understand in photography, but there are a few details to be understood to avoid "camera shake", such as the Inverse Focal Length Rule, proper handholding technique, etc.

Here is the presentation I made in class.

Here are some links for reading up about shutter speed.
http://digital-photography-school.com/shutter-speed/

https://photographylife.com/what-is-reciprocal-rule-in-photography

https://photographylife.com/equivalent-focal-length-and-field-of-view

Here are some link to videos about shutter speed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVEae_HXoVY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdhBvI52Z28

For those of you looking for more ideas, check this out, https://www.viewbug.com/contests/motion-blur-photo-contest/gallery

Photography in the 1850's and 1860's

Photography wasn't considered an art medium for the most part in this era. It was considered a mechanical device for recording people's portraits and events. Two big events of this era was the proliferation of portrait studios, and the invention of Photojournalism.

One of the most famous portrait studios was opened by Nadar. A Frenchman who photographed the famous people of his day. You can read more about him here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadar_(photographer)

To get his view of photography, you can go here: http://rae.com.pt/Nadar_photographer.pdf

Photojournalism began with war photography. Starting with Roger Fenton and others in Crimea, and popularized by Mathew Brady during the American Civil War.

You can learn more about this at these links.
https://clas-pages.uncc.edu/visualrhetoric/projects/individual-projects/the-crimean-war-by-roger-fenton/

http://time.com/3881577/crimea-where-war-photography-was-born/

https://kittyinthecity2010.wordpress.com/2014/02/05/war-photography-fenton-brady-gardner-and-capa/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koLnFvPaya0&list=PLgzoe3GT4Th2KclXeMPbTQ4FEdVWLGorS&index=2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSILLYhYdTY&index=3&list=PLgzoe3GT4Th2KclXeMPbTQ4FEdVWLGorS

For a much longer documentary about Alexander Gardner, check the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hr_EoeDFv0

Camera Controls

Modern digital cameras have lots of buttons and dials, you will use some of those buttons a lot as you get to know the capabilities of your camera better. Here are some links to articles about Canon and Nikon DSLR's that explain what all the buttons and dials do. As the year goes on, you will become familiar with many of these controls.

Consider these links an introduction to most of the major camera features on a modern DSLR.

http://www.lightstalking.com/know-your-dslr-camera-what-do-all-the-controls-mean/

http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/dslr/d3100/compatibility03.htm

http://dailymom.com/capture-2/getting-to-know-your-canon-camera-dslr-buttons/

http://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/what-does-this-do-an-explanation-of-dslr-buttons/


Here are some videos that further explain what these controls are for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkhQK_8pu9U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_EQHuk0634

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wu63FBg27o

Digital File Formats

Here are some links to read:

http://www.shortcourses.com/workflow/workflow1-1.html

http://www.photoshopessentials.com/essentials/file-formats/

http://learnmem.cshlp.org/site/misc/tsg_JPEG_instructions.pdf

Here is a video talking about shooting in RAW versus JPEG https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBKYkEneJO4

Here is a short video about primary colors https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-djTEO4vY8

Here is a video about digital file formats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17oZ0pg1xLA

Here is a demonstration on editing an underexposed RAW file https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1BGchuEL6M

History of Photography - Early Years

Photography was invented in the 1820's and 1830's and was announced to the world in the 1839. The early pioneers in inventing photography were Nicephore Niepce, Louis Daguerre and Henry Fox Talbot. Here are some links I would like you to read, to help you learn about the early history of photography.
Nicephore Niepce
Louis Daguerre
Henry Fox Talbot
Timeline of Photography Technology

Henry Fox Talbot was essentially "the first photographer" since he treated his new invention as an art form. He also published the first book of photographs. We have a book of his works in the classroom. You may want to look up his images online, they are well worth checking out. Here is a link to a video about his work.

Photo Assignment #2 - Forced Perspective

Photo Assignment #2

The camera can "fool the eye", even if the image has not been manipulated in any way. In this exercise, you will intentionally try to fool the viewer with "camera tricks" involving distance, angle, or perspective. This type of photography is referred to as "Forced Perspective".

The main (but not all) ways of fooling people with this technique include:

1) making the main subject larger
2) making the main subject smaller
3) merging different objects
4) bending or defying gravity by rotating the picture or using odd angles

In this assignment, you are to submit two pictures using forced perspective (using two different methods that are listed above).

For ideas on forced perspective, Google "forced perspective" or "forced perspective photography" and observe the results.

Here is the link to the presentation I made in class.

Format for submission:
Since you will be submitting (2) images, you will use this format:

If your name is John Doe, the first image will be named Doe-John-02-01.jpg, and the second images will be named Doe-John-02-02.jpg

I look forward to seeing what you will come up with. Images are due by Midnight Thursday, September 29th.

Submission of Assignments - Formats

The assignments that are to be submitted digitally, will be done in the following format:

Photos
File Format
JPEG File 1280 to 4000 pixels on the long side of the image

Name Format
LastName-FirstName-AssignmentNumber (2 digits) + file extension

Example for the first assignment by John Doe
Doe-John-01.jpg


Text
If there is any text accompanying the assignment, any of the following formats are fine:

Text File - .txt
Microsoft Word - .doc or docx
Apple Pages - .pages
Portable Document Format - .pdf

Example for a Word document for the same assignment:
Doe-John-01.doc

Files will be submitted to the following DropBox folder (you do not need a Dropbox account to do this).

https://www.dropbox.com/request/nbohxwLMIBi7BDrunwgG

I will look into Google Classroom to see what capabilities there are for digital submissions, but we will use this method for the time being.

Photo Assignment #1

Photograph something you love.

Give a short explanation of why you like or love your subject.

How did you photograph it in a way to show the thing you like about your subject?

You may take as many pictures as you want for this assignment, but you only need to turn in one photo.

The assignment is due by Midnight, Wednesday, September 21st.


Here is an example:

I love going to concerts. I like being surrounded by music and the excitement of the crowd.

In this picture, I photographed the stage with the large screens and the crowd in the foreground, to capture the excitement of the whole event.


Another example:

I love my cat's quirky personality.

In this picture I photographed my cat squeezing himself into a basket on the coffee table to show how silly he is.

Tips about Exposure

The amount of light that can be captured depends on a balance between the f-stop, shutter speed, the sensitivity of the sensor (or film). And crucially, on how much light is actually in the scene. Here is a Youtube video to explain the concept in more detail... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8T94sdiNjc

I would also like to talk a little bit about f-stops. The scale that is used, marks when the light is doubled or halved at each stop. It is based on the square root of 2 (about 1.4). So, if you multiply 1.4 x 1.4, you get 2. If you multiply 2 x 1.4, you get 2.8.

Here are the typical f-stop numbers on a lens: 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32. F5.6 lets in twice as much light as F8. F4 lets in twice as much light as F5.6 and four times as much light as F8. F32 lets in 1/16 the light of F8.

Photo Basics

Click this link for a quick introduction to photography.

(Lecture given on Tuesday, September 13th).