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).