Depth o' Field

Using a flower, Victoria's Secret dog, The Simpsons figurines, and an African Elephant; the depth of field was experimented with using the flower (close-up) setting and automatic without flash. The End result was a good example of depth of field: first is with all in focus, then focused close with deep blurry, and deep in focus and close blurry!

Depth of Field

Depth of field is: the distance between the closest and furthest objects that appear in sharp focus in a photograph. Depth of field ("DOF") can be consiered perfect in many different ways, it all depends on what the photographer's aiming for . It is all a matter of personal preference when you're trying to determine the DOF to enhance a photograph! A few factors have a direct effect with the depth of field, they are: 1) the aperture, 2) the focal length of the lens you use, 3) the image size (has to do with distance). Just remember, the bigger the lens opening (aperture), the narrower depth of field. The smaller the aperture, the deeper the depth of field. The shorter the lens focal length, the deeper the "dof". And finally, the greater the shooting distance, the deeper the depth of field.

Lights! Camera! Action!

The first photograph is depicting a blurred action shot, purposely set with a slower shutter speed so the motion is shown. The next is of Jessica Hanstad running outside, she is in focus as she is moving because my camera followed her movement: Panning. Notice how she is in focus but the surrounding ground and background are blurred. Finally is an example of stopped action. The car appears to be still but could also be moving, just taken with a fast shutter speed? Can you tell if it's moving?

Homecoming

The Homecoming Week for October of 2007 at La Conner High School. Notice the first picture with an 80's themed poster in the background, the second picture is of a teacher, Mr. Compton, with his eyeball face mask. Also notice the 8th photo as an example of stopped action.

Action

In taking action photos there are different methods and reasons why a picture of someone running can turn out blurred or as a perfectly still image.

Panning: A technique where the camera is moved to follow a moving subject, keeping it in the same position as shown in the viewfinder
-Panning is a helpful technique for action and once perfected, the main subject will appear sharp against a blurred background

An example of panning: the Camera was moving next to and in sync with the subject (the camera was in a car going somewhat close to the same speed) which helped the overall image not just a blurry mess but a fairly well focused image of a truck.

Truck with motion blur achieved by panning with a camera with a slow shutter speed

A good example of panning:


I found this description of a good way to practice panning:

Rotate at the hips for a smoother scroll.
Don't set your shutter speed to long.
Start from around 1/15 to 1/40 shutter speed and experiment.
Make sure you only go in one direction. left to right.. up to down.. don't try to go left to right and up to down at the same time!

Blurred action:
A camera's purpose is to "capture" a moment in time. This isn't exactly possible when an image is moving. The shutter speed determines the actual "timeline" of moments captured into one outcoming image whether it's blurred or in focus.


Stopped Action: a form of animation that allows otherwise lifeless objects to move and change positions. Or also a photo of an action going on without the blurred imagery. A photo of a seemed actual moment in time!

Exposure

For an image to be captured on film it must be exposed to light.
A camera needs two things to control the amount of incoming light: The shutter and aperture. The shutter of a camera blocks out all the light from exposing the film until you press the button to take the picture with. It quickly opens and then closes which gives the film a quick flash of light. To control the length of time the shutter remains open, go to settings and change the shutter speed. The aperture is the opening, after light passes thorugh a cameras lens, that lets in more light when it's open and less when it's small. It is similar to the pupil in a human's eye. You can control the aperture by going to settings and changing the "Aperture Opening", also known as an F-stop. Film has some input in how a picture turns out too. Film reacts to light and the more light you "expose" it to, the brighter the image will be. You are able to buy all types of film for your camera, and they 'll all have a film speed. "Fast" films are more sensitive to light than "slow" films. It goes with the names!

The faster the shutter speed, the less light that is able to enter through the lens and aperture. The bigger number F-stop the smaller the aperture opens.

Info found at: http://www.photonhead.com/exposure/

My Photo Assignment October 8th, 2007

A flower in late summer, at the peak of its season, in a yard in Northwest Washington.

2 Photos

This photo is a good example of: bordering/framing.
A swingset in a small town in Oregon. The black and white effect also seems to dramaticize the whole atmosphere too!
The border/frame around the photo allows the viewer to focus on the swing set.

This photo is a good example of the rule: Simplicity
A grasshopper on the top of a blue Subaru Outback taken in the Summer of 2007. See how the sky is reflecting onto the car's surface. This rule works for this picture because there isn't much to at besides the grasshopper. There isn't anything to distract the viewer by!

This was the first photo I took after leaving Oregon City over the summer of 2007. It's of the Columbia Falls and was a rainy cold day. It's a beautiful waterfall and I enjoyed taking pictures of it!

MY PHOTOS

A Picture I Took On My Way Home From Oregon

Photographer I Like

I found this professional photographer on photography.com, his name is Phil de Fabio and he photographs pictures of landscapes, animals, waterfalls, and buildings. The angles he takes the pictures from, the lighting, and especially the colors make me really feel like i'm there! The pictures are basically jumping out of the picture. I really like his photographs. To see some go to: http://phildefabio.com/content/gallery/

CCD's

CCD= Charged-Coupled Device a computer chip that senses light amounts and facilitates the recording of images
Contains a grid of linked capacitors. Each capacitor contains one pixel
Example: A 3.1 mega-pixel camera has 3.1 million capacitors

Light travels through the lens and strikes the CCD. This frees more and more electrons the brighter it gets.
A circuit measures the voltage and reads each row until all are done

With a digital camera the light will pass through the lens and land on the CCD which senses the light and records the info it sends back

A CCD is much more reactive than a film-strip (in a film camera). 70% light accumulated compared to 2%! Video cameras have 40X per second or 3 CCDs in one! The video requires a more accurate resolution.

What I've Learned

This Class, I've learned about a camera's aperture,
how the lens helps the picture turn out,
how lighting changes the pictures quality,
and how long the film is exposed changes everything!
I still have questions about how cameras focus and how a digital camera changes the picture from color to black & white, to sepia, and bright colors.
-Zoe

Comparing our pinhole camera to a digital camera.
Similarities: both have...
shutters
black inside and out


Differences:
Digital has: shutter closes in, no photo paper, focus options, screen, flash, setting options, color options, peep hole, deleting options

Group: Doug, Zoe, Mason

Pinhole Camera Project

The purpose of this project is to see how a camera works by making a home-made model.
By seeing what materials can create a pinhole camera,
I can see how my digital camera works at home!

How A Pinhole Camera Works:
My group (Doug & Mason) all brought materials that, when combined,
made a pinhole camera,
The main structure, or body, of the camera is made out of an cylindrical oatmeal box, the shutter is made from black paper and the hole is made with a pin, hence creating the name: Pinhole camera.
The size of the hole determines the focal lengths and projection. When light is entered into the Light tight box, the image is projected onto the paper. The Light rays from an object pass into the small hole to form an image!

The aperture of the projected image is about 100 times smaller than the original distance and size. The image is flipped vertically and horizontally when developed. The amount of light that gets inside the box and/or pinhole size also determines the quality of the resulting image. The larger the pinhole, the more scattered the light, and the less sharp the resulting image.


Materials:
Quaker Oatmeal box
Elmer's Glue
Krazy Glue
An aluminum can
A pin
Black paper
Tape Measure
A very sharp razor or X-Acto


How To Make and Use Your Camera:
First cut a .5 inch X .5 inch square in the middle of the oatmeal container.
Then cut the top and bottom of the aluminum can off.
Now cut it in half, hot dog style! Next take the flat aluminum and cut out a 2 in.X 3in. rectangle. This should be rounded off at the edges. You can recycle the rest of the can.
Attach it to the oatmeal box's inside, and then glue black paper to the inside of the box so it's tatally dark and then create a sliding flap for the shutter with strips of black paper and tape. Now insert the film strip without exposing it (in a special bag or dark room) with tape, close the shutter and prepare to take pictures!!! When taking pictures make sure your box/base is on a sturdy surface with something heavy (ie: dictionary) on top of it. Make sure the item on top doesn't have it's shadow covering the pinhole after you open the shutter. Then keep the shutter open for the amount of time you'd wish (People say from 10 sec.'s to 10 minutes, so experiment). Then close the shutter, take your film out, and develop!

Mr. Hiller's best result using our camera:








How the Pinhole Camera Works:













My group had a pretty smooth experience with using our Pinhole camera. We found a website that explained how to step by step, with pictures and the author had a good sense of humor making it a little interesting to read. Making the pinhole camera was a little stressful because there's so many steps to it, but in the end it was worth it! After we took our two pictures (one of a car and one of the football field) we had them developed but realized that all that the whole paper was black; and since the colors were inverted, it was actually white. This tells me that we had let too much light in rather than too little. Mr. Hiller pointed out to us how our cap was letting some light in which helped explain the result. The next time, if we have a next time, we try to take another picture we will make sure the camera is light tight by using tin foil wrapped around it!!

Zoe
Doug
Mason
9/10/07
Dig. Photography
Materials:
1. Quaker Oatmeal Box (with Lid)
2. Thick Heavy Paper (preferably Black)
3. Elmer’s Glue
4. Crazy Glue
5. Energy Drink (aluminum)
6. A Pin
7. Black Spray Paint
8. Ruler
9. X-Acto Knife
10. SandPaper
11. Marker

Mason:
Energy Drink Can
Quaker Oats?
Pencil

Zoe:
Quaker Oats
X-Acto Knife
Elmers Glue
Black Paper
Pen

Doug: Electrical Tape
Scissors
Krazy Glue?
Quaker Oats
Tape Measure
Pin
Sandpaper
Black Paper

http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=441&Itemid=92

Questions

My goal for my digital photography class is basically
to learn about how lighting affects a picture's quality,
what all the settings on my camera mean,
and to share the pictures i've taken in the past!