Exercise 6: Fitting the frame to the subject

The first exercise proper following on from getting to know your camera. This part of the course in named the frame
or thinking about composition .Really looking forward to this part of the course as it makes me start examining the composition of images .

Through a series of four images this project encourages me to experiment with how much space a subject could take within the frame of the viewfinder.

The first image shows the entire subject within the frame not taking too much time to consider the composition , a snap hot in effect.

In the second image the subject fills the frame from edge to edge

In image 3 i zoomed in to highlight a smaller section of detail from the main subject

In this 4th image, i moved back from the subject so that the subject occupies a much smaller area of the frame and to show the subject in the context of it’s surroundings.

Quite an interesting exercise for me this one , and i got some real benefit from it. Each view provides a totally different aspect and feeling .Previously i would have tried to produce a landscape image from the available surroundings and surprisingly my favourite image from this set is image three the image zoomed in to the small section of writing on the boat.

Roland Barthes

Currently reading The Photograph by Graham Clarke and came across an interesting statement by Roland Barthes , the French literary theorist, philosopher and critic.

Whenever we look at a photograph we look at something which no longer exists. The moment has passed.

Never really thought of a photograph in that way before , but i don't think i could explain any clearer in so few words

Exercise 5:Panning with different shutter speeds

This one should be quite a learning curve for me and have to be honest its a skill i have never tried before.Trying to find a suitable subject

The aim of the exercise is to capture an image of a subject moving across the frame and try to pan with the camera , creating a series of images with varying shutter speeds.The images captured are to be technically analysed to see how successful i was at freezing the subject or subject and background. And once that is complete i need to pick my two favourite images one each from exercises 3 and 4 and explain my reasons for this choice.

The 18-200 lens will again be used with the camera hand held and in shutter priority.Thoughts before the exercise are how fast or slow will i be able to go without under or overexposing the image?

My subjects were various vehicles travelling at appx 30 mph ,rather than comment on each individual image my finding are that with a shouter speed of 1/8 second the image was virtually illegible.The vehicles started to sharpen at around 1/250 second with the backgrounds still a little blurry. At 1/500 second the vehicle is very sharp and the background quite sharp, moving up to 1/1000 second the whole image appears frozen .With an image moving at this speed shutter speeds in excess of this never made a great deal of difference in image quality although with faster moving objects i i expect this to be more crucial

Personal favourites

The moving car @ 1/250 second was my choice due to the slight hint that there was movement in the scene , with the car wheels and the background slightly unfocused.

At 1/2 second although the water had a silky look to it i loved the way that there appeared to be streaks or lines in the water when it was running past the large rock.

Exercise 4:Shutter speeds

In this exercise the aim was was to take a series of images of a subject that moves constantly across or within the view using various shutter speed from fast to slow .

I chose a stream running over a rock which i envisaged would give a good example of how shutter speeds can effect an images clarity and also add or distract from the image artistically.

The camera was fixed on a tripod complete with 18-200mm lens;the focal length was set at a constant 62mm throughout to frame the images identically .Due to the low light of the woodland setting i had to change the ISO for several of the images to obtain a decent exposure.The low light also had a effect on the fastest shutter speed .The camera was set to shutter priority allowing me to alter the shutter speed while the camera controlled the aperture and exposure.The images produced shutter speeds ranging from 8 seconds to 1/250 of a second.

The two images below were taken at 8 and 4 seconds producing similar effects , the slow shutter giving a milky , cloudy effect to the water

very similar results with the next to images at 2 and 1 seconds , nothing within the water clear

Some definition within the water but still a cloudy feel with these two image at 1/2 and 1/4 of a second

The first image at 1/8 second is showing signs of a mixture of defined and cloudy ,the image at 1/15 second has signs that the water has an edge to it.

Once again at 1/60 and 1/30 second the water can clearly be seen to be splashing around although still not frozen

In final two images the water seems to be sharply frozen.

My conclusion is that it takes a very fast shutter speed to freeze the movement of running water , if the available light had been more favourable a shutter speed of 1/1000 or even higher would have given a perfectly crisp image .Purely on a personal artistic note i prefer the slow shutter speed particularly the 8 second exposure, the slow shutter speed emphasizes the fast flowing water and gives a silky texture to the image

Exercise 3: Focus at different apertures

The objective for this exercise was to take 3 photographs of a scene from the same position with each image framed identically to the others.
Each photograph was to be taken at different apertures. The first photograph was taken with the lens aperture wide open, the second one with the aperture at mid range and the final image with the lens set to its minimum aperture.

All images were taken in available light with the camera in aperture priority using manual focus

At first glance there seems to not to be a great deal of difference between the three images.However on closer inspection and with the aid of zoom on a computer, the differences in depth of field between each of the images is noticeable.mainly between the f5.6 and f16 images where depth of field is notably deeper at f16 . taking the aperture up to f32 doesn't really produce a sharp image.

Exercise 2; Focus at different points with a set aperture

The objective for this exercise was to take 3 photographs of a scene from the same position with each image framed identically to the others and with the aperture set to the widest available f5.6.
Each photograph was to be taken with the focus point being at different areas of the scene.
The first photograph was taken with the focus point set to the middle of the scene
The second photograph was taken with the focus point set to the far end of the scene
The final photograph was taken with the focus point set to the nearest point of the scene


















Personally the image i find most pleasing is the one focused at the mid point, mainly due to the fact that it gives a good level of clarity to the areas away from the where the focus was aimed.

Thinking ahead to assignment 1

Thought it may be a good idea to read ahead and see what images will be required for assignment one.

With this in mind i plan to make notes of scenes / objects when out and about that may be suitable for the assignment allowing me to crack on with it when all the projects are complete.

Excercise 1 : focal length and angle of view

My first exercise so a little bit unsure as to what exactly to include but here goes

In this exercise we are asked to take three photographs of the same scene, noting the exact position from which the photographs were taken from. One image each at the widest and shortest available focal length , and one image to match what the eye was seeing.

Weather not too good so did this exercise in doors , setting the camera on a tripod to ensure i achieved the same position for each shot. Thought it was little difficult to do the image with both eyes open but got there in the end.

We were then asked to print each of the images on to A4 paper and return to the exact position where they were taken and view them adjusting the distance between the eye and the photograph so that the view was the same as on the print ,Finally we measured the distance of each of the three images photographs from eye to print.

The first photograph was with a focal length equivalent to the naked eye, so that is objects appeared to be the same size through the lens as they do through the eye.This image take with a Nikon 18-200 lens returned a focal length of 55mm.

The second image was taken with a Sigma 10-20 lens set at its widest focal length of 10mm

The third image was again taken using the Nikon 18-200 lens at its longest focal length of 200mm

After printing and viewing the images as required i came up with the following observations.

At 55mm focal length the measurement was appx 600mm from the eye.

At 10mm focal length it was impossible to measure as the image was virtually at my eye and would guess at a distance of 1mm .

At 200mm focal length the measurement was appx 1900mm from the eye

Conclusion

My cameras standard focal length in relation to how my eyes see the world is around 55mm. The distances of three images i took had a multiplication or division factor of around 10% in relation to the lens focal length.

Sensor size and aspect ratio

Bit over my head at first but after some research it became clear.

Back in the film days, the rectangle that captured the image on a standard SLR was one size: 24mm x 36mm .

People usually refer to a sensor’s size by its “crop factor.” That’s the number you use to find the 35mm equivalent of a given lens. It’s just like taking the middle of an image and throwing away the outside edges. If a sensor is 24mm x 36mm, then there is no crop factor, since it covers the same area as 35mm film

The Nikon D300 that i will be using during this course uses a 12.3 megapixel , 23.6 x 15.8 mm CMOS DX sensor in the 3:2 aspect ratio.

Focusing on Nikon they use two sensor sizes full frame (FX) and 1.5x (DX).

Nikon DX sensors, , have a crop factor of 1.5x. What this means, is that relative to 35mm film, the image will appear enlarged by approximately 50%. So shooting with a 24-70mm lens is "equivalent" of shooting with a 36-105mm lens on a FX full frame camera.

TAOP introduction

Just read through the introduction section of the TAOP course picking up a few areas that will help me along my study journey.

• Collect objects of different shape , colour , texture , backgrounds
• Keep a note book to keep details of any interesting subjects or settings i come across for possible future use , buildings,structures , flowers etc and think about how they might look in different seasons or lighting conditions.
• Also note details like time of day , iso , fstop etc when i am taking images
• Visit galleries or exhibitions and read magazines etc to view other artists work and use these images to relate to my current area of study eg Lighting
• Critique images, do i find them boring , exciting , inspiring etc. If possible cut out and keep these images in a folder with my thoughts linked to them .

Think that should keep me going for a while , in the mean time moving on to ‘’Getting To Know Your Camera’’

trying out live writer

I plan to do a lot of work whilst away on our travels in our caravan so after a little research i came across Live Writer and thought i would give it a try as it would enable me to work on my blog when not connected to the internet.

This is the first up load after working on it off line , seems to work a treat, i also feel the user interface is far superior than working from the blogger site.

Study Materials have arrived

the box arrived this morning and have to admit to being a little surprised at the sparse contents of it.

Don’t know what i was expecting but was impressed by the red tissue paper

Just completed and sent of my introductory email to my designated tutor , really looking forward to his reply and being able to crack on with the course.

Plan to read through the various literature OCA have provided over the next 24 hours and hopefully after that ….all systems go.

Decision made

Enrolled on ‘The Art of Photography ‘ with the Open College of Arts yesterday , expect my learning kit to arrive the middle of next week.
Few things to sort out before i get into the course the main one is i need to get my head around this blog thing.

In The Beginning

I love my photography ,the problem is i have focused mainly on landscape in various guises over the last couple of years and although enjoyable i think i have exhausted my enthusiasm in that direction at the moment.
What i feel i need is a structured push to try new subjects and settings.

At the moment i am toying with the idea of moving on to the next level with a course through the OCA.

Hopefully i will make the decision within a couple of days