Week 4

Lighting Continued

Tuesday, October 4, 2005

Week 4

Lighting Projects Scavenger Hunt

Turn in summary. Discussion of what you found

Portrait of a high school life Major lighting project for the quarter Read requirements together

Week 4

More on Lighting Separate Slideshow (big files)

Natural Lighting Slides from book (Read together)

See Ms. K for handouts

Week 4

White Balance Image sensors can be balanced to match light at a

particular color temperature White balance is used to adjust sensitivity of sensor

to match the overall color cast of the light that is being captured at the sensor If the light has a blue cast, the white balance will add red

to make a more neutral white light Similar, with reddish light from a tungsten light bulb the

white balance on the camera would add blue to make the overall color more white

Week 4

White balance on our Nikons Can preview the white balance of a scene by looking at LCD Auto – camera automatically adjusts White bal preset – set the “white” on the camera to an object

in the scene that is supposed to be white use for unusual lighting situations

In the following setting: white balance can also be fine-tuned (can add more red or more blue to have a “warmer” or “cooler” color cast) Daylight Incandescent (tungsten) Fluorescent Cloudy Speedlight – adjusted for light produced by built-in flash Shade

Week 4

Using white balance creatively Using daylight setting with incandescent lights will

exaggerate the reddish cast Can make the scene more warm and cozy Can heighten mood in the picture

Using incandescent setting outdoors will exaggerate the bluish cast Make scenes more cool Could make snow or water look like it was illuminated by

moonlight Can make day-as-night scenes

Week 4

Class Time White-balance practice - play with camera Download and organize pictures from memory cards

Memory card should be empty Your images should be in separate files Charge battery

Print out some pictures for BB Could also choose 1-2 photos to submit for STA website

Homework: Read Manual See website for sections to read Experiment with the camera while raading!

Week 4

Digital Photography

Focus

October 5, 2005

Week 4

Chapter 3: Overview Exposure - the light reaching the sensor

Shutter speed, aperture, and ISO (sensor sensitivity) all contribute to the exposure of the image

Subjects reflect different amounts of light - so we want to average the tones in the scene to get proper exposure

Bracketing - taking photos at several exposures to find the one that is optimal for a picture

Sequencing: allows you to set the camera to take multiple pictures in a row

Autoexposure (Metering Modes) && Camera Modes Let’s look more at these

Week 4

Metering Modes Matrix-metering (averaging): many different zones are metered separately and

then camera evaluates a good exposure 5400 recommends this for most situations

Center-weighting: emphasizes the center portion of the photo, but uses light reading from the whole picture 5400 recommends for portraits (centered subject)

Spot-metering: lets the photographer move the metering spot to the area that works best for the photo 5400 - default is center, but you should be able to move the icon p, down, left & right

Spot AF area (on 5400): links the spot area to the active focus area Other

Corner-weighting: emphasizes corners - works well when the bright or very dark objects are in the center

Top- or bottom-weighting: de-emphasize the middle

Week 4

Camera Modes P: programmed auto S: shutter-priority auto A: aperture-priority auto M: Manual

Part of being an experienced photographer comes from knowing when to rely on the automatic or semi-automatic modes and when to set everything manually

We will be exploring the cameras to get better at knowing what we can control

Week 4

Focus: Critical Concepts Depth-of-field

A lens can focus accurately at only one distance at a time But there is a range of distances around the focus plane that look acceptably

sharp (depth of field) Autofocus – “automatically” focuses the image

But… you need to tell the camera what to focus on Most cameras use a focus lock – press the shutter halfway done to focus the

lens (On our camera) Focus on subject in center of frame Press shutter-release halfway down to lock in focus Recompose the picture (keeping shutter release halfway down)

If subject moves, you need to relock the focus on the subject Take picture

Week 4

Focus: Find a balance Why do we care about focus?

Most people agree that sharp (well-focused) images look the best Selective use of focus can make the image look more professional

and artistic However, too much sharpness can be bad as well

Our eyes naturally see some things in focus, and other things not in focus (peripheral vision)

If the whole image is sharp then: The picture loses its depth The subject isn’t necessarily the “focus” of the image

Week 4

Focus: the Nikon 5400 Our cameras do not have much fine-detailed focus control (no focus ring

on lens) Auto – Camera automatically selects focus area containing the subject closest

to the camera Manual – User selects focus area manually using multi-selector (5 areas to

choose from) Off – Camera focuses on subject in center focus area (And the focus lock is available as well)

In addition, you can use the aperture settings and zoom to provide some control of the depth of field and focus of the image

Week 4

Camera Features Manual Reading: pages 34-72, 109-110 Pages 34-45, 53-57, 60-68:: little things to practice

Focus Exposure Compensation (step by step) Scene Modes

What does the camera offer? How do the modes actually affect the camera? Image Quality & Size White Balance (like we saw yesterday) Continuous, Sharpening, Adjustment, Saturation

Pages 48-52, 68-72 :: lab - need multiple pictures to experiment Pg 48-52: Intro to Camera Modes (P, S, A, M) Sensitivity (Setting ISO Values) Aperture, Shutter Speed Metering & Focus

Week 4

Lab Day (Wednesday/Thursday)

Goal: Have a collection of images that really show off the effects of the different modes on your camera

additionalFeatures Experimenting with all the “little things”

apertureLab Pick a subject, take pictures at each available aperture setting – save images in folder called

“apertureLab” - try to demonstrate how aperture changes the image shutterLab

Pick a subject, take pictures at each available shutter speed setting – save images in folder called “shutterLab” - try to demonstrate how shutter speed changes the image

meteringLab Pick a subject, try all the different metering modes on the Nikon, store these images in a folder called

“meteringLab” - try to demonstrate how metering helps the image quality focusLab

Take an image with everything in focus, and another with only the subject in focus, try to catch some action photos, experiment with manual focus – save all the images you take in a folder called “focusLab”

manualLab Try varying aperture and shutter speed in conjunction with one another to see how the exposure looks

under different lighting conditions Note: Will need a tripod or a flat surface for aperture & shutter labs

Week 4

Thursday Lighting Project Theme

Turn in your write-up Discussion

Finish your features lab

Project : Start taking images that may be useful for the lighting project ~15% of your quarter grade, will want to collect lots of

images – compose them well, have them focused on your theme, and show off lighting concepts that we’ve learned