Photographic Techniques 20110708 - James Turner

Photographic PracticeUsing Techniques in Photography

Landscapes

Using wide angles lenses and capturing nature from their viewpoint, photographers use landscape imagery to show the vastness and integrity of nature with natural lighting conditions from the sun.

Making the horizon visible is essential to create the open space landscape photography with the sky visible.

Focusing on popular landmarks is also a technique of landscape photography.

The picture of Mount Fuji on the left includes the cherry blossom to reinforce the iconic landscape highlighting the two iconic features of Japan.

Photographic Techniques 20110708 - James Turner

Portrait

As the name may suggest with overlaps in art, focusing on taking pictures of people is what portrait photography is all about.

Using zoom lenses such as 75mm to 200mm, the frame must focus on the target person with correct depth of field enabling the background to become blurred.

The picture on the right is the first successful self- portrait picture of a human taken in 1839. Since then there have been many advances in photographic technologies ranging from paper chemistry to digital binary to store images.

Photographic Techniques 20110708 - James Turner

Depth of Field

Using a small F stop on the camera lens opens the wide aperture ring which enables more exposure creating a shallow depth of field.

The shallow depth of field creates the blurred background effect which maximises focus on the target subject.

Shutter Speed

Fast moving objects can be captured in situ with a fast moving shutter on the camera. Although adjusting shutter speed means less light hitting the film, the moving subject will not become blurred by a slow shutter. Nevertheless, special photographic effects can be created by utilising a slow shutter.

Photographic Techniques 20110708 - James Turner

Rule of Thirds

A technique using the viewfinder to place certain objects in frame, rule of thirds acts as a guideline to shift focus onto objects in frame. Breaking the image down into a 3x3 grid section, significant photographic impact can be achieved by placing the subject on where the lines meet acting as a reference point.

Framing

Using the natural world to frame subjects, framing is a technique which utilises elements in nature that acts a partial obstacle of light. Light entering into the camera lens with the obstacle in view creates a frame within the photograph.

Aperture

Changing aperture changes the exposure and the depth of field. For landscape photography, the aperture should be a higher F stop number which will have less exposure capturing a large depth of field. The F22 setting on the image illustrated to the right has a large depth of field so the background is visible. For portrait photography and focus orientated photography, a low F stop number should be used.

Photographic Techniques 20110708 - James Turner

Leading Lines

To draw more focus attention on to your subject, you can use objects in nature which help to draw a path towards the subject. Leading the viewers’ attention following an eye path towards the subject, leading lines helps to visualise a pathway creating a 3D photographic effect.

Exposure Triangle

Aperture, shutter speed and ISO (film speed) are variables that all can influence and change exposure of light hitting the film or sensor (DSLR). To help understand the changes each variable, an exposure triangle can be used to visualise how each variable affects each other.

Most cameras in the digital age have an ‘auto’ function which corrects the exposure based on the light meter readings. Nevertheless photographers understand how each setting collaborates with each other to capture the desired photograph.

Moreover priority should be given to both variables depending on the circumstances and how the subject is appearing through the lens. If the subject is in a dark lit room, night scenery, then ISO priority should be given to enhance the amount of exposure of light the film sensors are receiving.

If the subject is moving past the lens at a fast speed, then shutter speed priority should be given to capture the subject in motion without blur. Changing the settings such as shutter speed will mean other settings such as aperture and ISO should also be adjusted.

The illustrated image of the exposure triangle visually explains the focus on light and how changing the settings change the amount of light the film sensor receives.

Nevertheless giving priority to a favourable setting based on circumstances will always have a compromise on the film quality, light exposure and subject

Photographic Techniques 20110708 - James Turner