I just took these newborn shots this morning, and I've been working on the processing all afternoon.  I just had to post this photo, because I love it!  The dad's ring, his working hands, his daughter's little fingers holding his - it just makes me want to cry.  This is why I love photographing babies.

Littleton Photography Class - Session 6

In our final class we practiced taking pictures of people.  Before going out to photograph, we checked our batteries, memory cards and camera settings.  We took  normal and telephoto lenses, and tripods.

 Lenses sometimes called portrait lenses are usually around 85 mm.  They have enough magnification so that the photographer doesn't have to stand too close to the subject.  Using a wide angle lens and standing close to the subject causes distortion.  You don't want to make your subject's nose bigger and out of proportion to the rest of their face.

Outside we looked for open shade, an area out of direct sunlight but with lots of diffuse light bouncing around.  We talked about bouncing light back into the shadow areas with reflectors.  Commercial reflectors are very handy, but when you don't have one, a white wall, a piece of posterboard, or even a white diaper changing pad can do.

An accessory flash connected to your camera's hot shoe can add more light when necessary.  We also looked for our camera's flash controls, including flash output compensation and fill flash settings.  A great resource for information on taking your flash off of the camera and using it as a portable studio strobe is the website strobist.com.

We talked a little about basic posing and trying to make your subject look as good as possible.  Having your subject face the camera with face and shoulders squarely toward the front has its place, but it's not flattering for most people.  Angling shoulders and heads is usually more pleasing.  If possible, have arms coming away from the body so that there is not one giant mass of arms and torso.

There is a difference between a portrait, where the photographer thinks about things like posing and lighting, and a candid shot, which is usually taken quickly and without much control of the conditions.  Candids are often a part of photojournalism, or of a photojournalistic style of portraiture.  When I was a high school yearbook advisor, I taught my students to capture the actions and reactions of what was happening, and not to take snapshots of people grinning at the camera.

Littleton Photography Class - Session 5

We went outside to take landscape photographs.  Before leaving, we checked our battery, memory card capacity, and any settings that might have been changed during our last photography session.

Since we were planning to take both landscape and close-up photos, we took both wide angle and telephoto or macro lenses.  A tripod would be helpful.  Also some basic filters.

 polarizing filter - reduces or eliminates glare by only allowing light that comes from a certain direction.  Polarizing filters make the sky look bluer by reducing the glare off of the many droplets of moisture in the sky.
neutral density filter - reduces the amount of light entering the lens, and is a neutral gray color.
split neutral density filter - has a gradation from a neutral gray to clear.  By turning the gray portion of the filter toward the top, you can slightly darken a too-light sky.  Put the gray portion of the filter towards the bottom, and you can tame a too-bright land mass or body of water.  Most often used for landscape photography.

We discussed the effect aperture will have on depth of field.  The larger the aperture (smaller number), the more shallow the depth of field.  Depth of field is also affected by the focal length of the lens and by the distance to the subject.

 A telephoto lens causes an apparent condensing of the visual space.  You can see far away because of the magnification, but it all looks kind of squashed together.  A wide angle lens ( with a smaller focal length) increases depth of field.

As you move farther away from the subject, depth of field increases.  As you move closer, depth of field decreases.  Taking close-ups of plants and shots of far away landscapes is a good time to see these principles in action.

We discussed composition concepts like putting the horizon along one of the rule of thirds lines.  Framing is another composition technique often used in landscape photography.  Framing is shooting through an element to create a kind of frame for the main subject.  Tree branches or architectural elements are often useful for framing.  It also gives a feeling of depth and dimension. We also tried to look for leading lines in the landscape.

Homework for this week is to shoot at least 30 shots of urban and rural landscapes, including some close-ups.

This image from Yorkshire, England is an example of framing with tree branches.  The photo at the beginning of this post is also from Yorkshire. It was taken in Valley Gardens in Harrogate.

A close-up of a blooming crabapple tree in Denver.  A combination of the aperture and a small distance from the camera to the subject created the shallow depth of field.

Session 4 Homework

This week as you look for subjects that showcase texture and color, look for:
1.  texture in nature
2.  man-made texture
3.  texture of skin, hair, fur or feathers
4.  saturated color  (bright, vivid, high chroma)
5.  subdued color (dull, more neutral, not as bright)
6.  monochromatic color scheme (one color, different values)
7.  cool colors (blues, greens, purples)
8.  warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows)

The world is full of color and texture, and aren't we glad!  Have fun as you notice these things in your daily life.
 

texture photograph by Janet Lemasters, 2010

Histograms

This is an example of a histogram.  Getting into the habit of checking your histogram as you shoot will help you see when you need to do a shot over again.  It is usually good to have some pixels all the way to both ends, and to have a majority of pixels somewhere in the middle.  But this is art, so whatever effect you're going for may look different from what I've just described.

High key images (mostly light values) will have the highest spikes toward the white end of the graph.  Low key (mostly dark values) will have the biggest spikes toward the black end.

Littleton Photography Class - Session 4

My Camera:  We looked at what kind of lens our camera has.  We found the controls for the flash, and looked for flash output compensation.  We also found the white balance, and looked at the different white balance settings.  We looked at different metering patterns available, and discussed when to use them.

Terms:  
contrast - the difference between the darkest dark and the lightest light in your photograph.  The greater the contrast, the more drama your photos have.  Of course, the greatest contrast is going to be with a subject that is absolute black and brightest white.  We talk about contrasty lighting causing harsh shadows. Try modifying the contrast in your photos post-capture, and see what a difference it can make.
normal lens - a normal lens most closely approximates normal human vision.  For 35mm cameras and full frame DSLR's, a normal lens is 50-55mm.  The following definitions assume you are using one or the other.
telephoto - a telephoto lens has a focal length greater than 55mm.  It will magnify your subject and visually compress the space.
wide angle - a wide angle lens is less than 50mm.  The feeling of space or depth of field will be greater.  Its angle of view will show more of your subject out to the sides, but it will not be magnified as much as a normal or telephoto lens.  Wide angle lenses used close to the subject will cause distortion.
fast lens - a fast lens has a larger possible aperture, allowing faster shutter speeds to be used.
zoom lens - a lens with more than one focal length.
histogram - even little bitty point and shoot cameras have them now.  A histogram is a graph that shows you how many pixels there are of each of the possible 255 values.  It looks like a spiky mountain range.  The taller spikes show where you have more pixels.  The graph along the bottom tells you whether those pixels are lighter or darker.

Littleton Photography Class - Session 3

Camera:  We practiced setting the shutter speed in manual mode, or finding shutter speed priority mode.  We found the control for the self-timer.

Terms:  stop - an increment of light.  The difference between a shutter speed of 15 ( one 15th of a second) and 30 (one 30th of a second) is one stop.  The difference between two adjacent apertures would also be called a stop.  Cameras in the 1800s had a piece of metal called a Waterhouse stop that determined the size of the aperture, and therefore how much light came into the camera.  You chose which stop to put into the camera based on how much light you wanted to come in.

A shutter speed of 15 lets in twice as much light as a shutter speed of 30.  A shutter speed of 60 lets in half of the light as a shutter speed of 30.

equivalent exposure- different combinations of apertures and shutter speeds will let in the same amount of light, but there are aesthetic reasons for choosing one or the other.  For example, if I start with an aperture of 8 and a shutter speed of 125, but I want to use a larger aperture for a shallower depth of field, I can change my aperture to 4.  That 's two stops more light.  Therefore, I have to change my shutter speed two stops to 500 to keep my exposure (the amount of light) the same.  If I start with f/8 and 125 again, and want to blur motion, I can change my shutter speed to 30.  Since I have changed my shutter speed to allow two stops more light, I must change my aperture to f/16 to keep the exposure the same.

Remember that aperture determines how large the opening is that allows light to come in.  It also controls depth of field.  Shutter speed determines how long the light strikes your image sensor, but it also determines how motion is recorded.

white balance - one of the properties of light is color.  We experience this every day, but perhaps have not really thought about it.  Morning light is cooler than evening sunset light.  Tungsten lightbulbs give off a warm, yellowish light.  Florescent bulbs give off a cool, greenish-blue light indoors.  Digital cameras have settings to compensate for these different colors of light.

 flash - an artificial light source.  Most cameras come with a built-in flash.  Your built-in flash is often not the best solution.  It produces a harsh light close to the camera lens that makes your subject look flat and without texture.  Often the subject is too bright and the background is too dark.  Accessory flash units that connect to a hot shoe on the top of your camera give much greater flexibility in intensity and direction of light, and can even be used off-camera. A wonderful web site for reading about off-camera flash is strobist.com.

Seeing:   This week, look for motion and light as you take your practice photos. Try to take both frozen action and blurred motion.  Give panning a shot.  Take both high key and low key photos, as well as a high contrast one.  Try a window lit, back lit, and reflection picture.  Have fun!

Motion photo by Carol Luallin        Dice photograph by Amy Parker