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You, Your Digital Camera, and the Artist Within

Lubow - Spring 2008

CAMERAS

point-and-shoots: delay -- optical vs. digital zooms - noise at 400 - icon metering modes
digicams - shutter delay
digital SLR's - canon // nikon

pixels vs. sensor

use the hood!

http://www.steves-digicams.com --   http://dpreview.com

Service Photo (local) // B&H Photo (web)

Luminous-Landscape.com

http://lubowphotography.com/technical.htm

early morning, late afternoon: slanting shadows, drama -- good for landscape

cloudy: big umbrella

window: soft/strong half for portrait

Monet: not of cathedrals, of light

noon: harsh, contrasty, shadows under eyes, etc.

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FORMATS

JPG - compressed - lossy -
various degrees of JPG
the camera does the sharpening, white balance, contrast, saturation
smaller files, more on a card
snapshots, news images: more than sufficient quality
quicker to shoot
image prints fine, but if worked heavily in PS: degradation

RAW

true digital negative - free to set and reset variables
16 bit vs. 8 bit
not compressed - most data available
set white balance, etc. later

TIF - uncompressed working format

Storage: Gold Archival CD's -- DVD's -- External drive

LENSES
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wide:  28mm-35mm

architecture/landscape/street-scenes
wider angle of view
greater depth of field
distortion in the forefront [wide-angle]

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standard - 35mm-70mm

50 - your naked eye -- some would argue 35
Cartier Bresson: only 35 for this reason [Cartier-Bresson] [H Leonard - Dexter G]

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telephoto: 70mm-400mm

reduces depth of field - subject stands out, hence good portrait lens
blurs background
brings main subject closer
compresses the image, layers it
landscapes: far away - arranges mountains like layers, stacked one behind the other
See Tuscan Dawn
in portraits it flattens features like large noses

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image stabilization

camera shake: the more the magnification, the more the shake disturbs

Reciprocity rule: 1 over the focal length

24 mm 1/30th
28 mm 1/30th
50mm 1/60th
90mm 1/125th
135mm 1/125
200mm 1/250

filters: UV filter

polarizing filter

pixels: tiny squares of information
Georges Seurat - Pointillism (French Neo-Impressionism)

when publishing a photo - 2 media: the web, the print

web: monitor displays images at 72 ppi - with clarity

if an image has 72 ppi it will be: size x (1 square inch)
if an image has 144 ppi, it will be: size 2x (2 square inches)

a print: 72 ppi will not do

300 ppi - 240-360

higher than 360: no: printer driver works at 360/300/240

the higher the ppi, the larger your print can be w/o degradation
a given resolution will produce a given size print at a given ppi [Chart A1 Resolution Chart]

to enlarge a print beyond native resolution:  print at less pixels per inch (upsizing) - or use a fractal program (upsampling) -- either way: degradation

ISO / APERTURE / SHUTTER SPEED

film: plastic with light-sensitive chemicals (grains of silver halide) -- shutter opens at a given aperture - exposes film to light - chemical reaction

sensor: pixels instead of chemicals

properly exposed image: a given amount of light to achieve the visual that you want

the variables that control the light: ISO, aperture, shutter speed

bucket - many ways to fill a bucket

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Visual charts at:  as given in class

ISO: (Internat'l Orzn for Standrdzn)
controls chip sensitivity to light

100 ISO - slow -- less sensitive to light, so requires longer shutter speed to achieve a given value
200 ISO - faster -- needs ½ the shutter speed time that 100 needs to achieve a given value -
400 ISO - needs ½ the time that 200 needs - twice as fast as 200
1600 very fast - very sensitive to light, so requires less time to achieve a given exposure value

example:

ISO 100 -- 1/30th to achieve given value
ISO 200 -- 1/60th to achieve same value
ISO 400 - 1/125th to achieve same value
ISO 800 - 1/250th to achieve same value
ISO 1600 -- 1/500th to achieve same value

doubling an ISO value doubles the chip's sensitivity to light by an F stop - (the size of the aperture)

the greater the ISO, the more the noise!

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APERTURE:  a diaphragm that opens/closes to allow/disallow light to hit the sensor
[Chart A2-Apertures]

The Histogram - informs you of your dynamic range

a given subject needs a given amount of light for a proper exposure
to get that amount you use aperture and shutter speed
goal: to keep the aperture open just enough for the right amount of light to hit the sensor

recipricol relationship between aperture and shutter speed
-- law of reciprocity -- "equivalent value" --

opening the aperture by "one stop" and decreasing the shutter speed by one stop equals the same exposure

[Chart A3-Same-Exposure-Settings]
[Chart A4 F-stops Apertures Speeds]

further example:

F1 (largest opening)	1/1000 second
F1.4	1/500 second
F2	1/250 second
F2.8	1/125 second
F4	1/60 second
F5.6	1/30 second
F8	1/15 second
F11	1/8 second
F16	1/4 second
F22	1/2 second
F32 (smallest opening)	1 second

F1 Largest opening 1/1000 second ("at a thousand")


f/2.8 large opening - "2.8 is great" -- the faucet is wide open - big pipe for the water (i.e., the light)

f/32 small opening - the faucet is very small -- straw for the water (i.e., the light)

Imagine two apertures:

to get the same amount of light in each scenario, which opening has to stay open longer?
the small one

recap:

exposure: light passing through a given-size hole for a given time
aperture: size of the hole or shutter opening
the aperture is measured in F-Stops or Stops
shutter speed: the amount of time the shutter is open

ISO revisited

[Chart A5 ISO F-stops speeds]
[Chart A6 ISO changes]

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Exercise 1

You're at a concert - shooting George Clinton - at:
F/2.8 (your fastest aperture)
shutter speed of 15 (i.e., 1/15th of a second)
ISO 100

what's the problem?
what you can do?

Excercise 2

You're at the zoo - shooting a pacing puma - at:
F/16
shutter speed of 1000
ISO 1600

Is there a problem?

street scene: 1/60th 1/125th

person walking 1/125 or 1/250

person running 1/500 or 1/1000

closer to camera = need faster speed

landscapes: wide aperture so slow speed so: tripod

Depth of Field is controlled by (1) aperture, (2) focal length (mm) and (3) proximity of the subject

[Chart A7 Depth of Field]

one-third in front of the focus and two-thirds behind

1. The wider or more open the lens (F2.8) the smaller the depth of field.  So an aperture of 2.8 will produce a shallow depth of field.  An aperture of 22 will produce a greater depth of field.

landscape shooters // F22 is slow! /tripod

eye test - through tiny hole in fingers

2. focal length. the wider the lens, the greater the depth of field that you capture -- street/landscape

telephoto zoom: shallow

3. The closer the subject, the more shallow the depth of field

F2.8 at 125 equals F22 at ½

at ½ second you need a tripod or the like

Bracketing:  shooting same image at different speeds or F-stops to get best exposure

Use Exposure Compensation:  -3EV -2EV -1EV 0 +1EV +2EV +3V

Focus Lock: focus on subject, lock focus, recompose


Metering:

zone system

1. Matrix or Evaluative
2. Partial or Spot
3. Center Weighted

Use Exposure Lock! -- expose subject, lock exposure, recompose image to satisfaction, shoot

Miscellaneous:

fill flash

hit the eyes

check your histogram

primary focal point: simple portrait // fuzzy background
secondary focal points: cabin against mountains -- [capa-rudy-valle]
selective focus - depth of field

keep it simple -

keep simple background for portrait so as not to distract
a spot, specular light can distract
one person, car, horse, whatever too many
three is pleasing, four is often too much

horizontal or vertical

watch where you "amputate"

watch the background - is a pole sticking out of your subject's head?

Leading Lines - leading the eye to an object or into the photo [Welcome]

framing - an overhanging branch, a window, etc
[Fred Hersh] [Stairway to Light] [Cartier-Bresson_Arenes de Valence]

dramatic angles/contrasts - think graphic design [Cartier-Bresson Sifnos, Grece 1961]

eye level on children, animal, portraits - immediate intimacy

fill the frame [figure on beach, beach can swallow her]

be mindful of relationships

shoot appearances, not objects -- the gestalt

use space to make the viewer think

people/cars/boats move into space [Rainrider]

only show people the good stuff

portrait -

try a window
70-105 narrows a person, more pleasant, -- good for portrait
double chin: ask to raise head
sensitive to bald spot: shoot up at them
stance: crossed arms not usually relaxed, confrontational