Composition

 Good & Bad Composition- 

This can be the difference between a good and bad photo. Bad Composition generally happens when a photo hasn't been thought out and things such as the background are distracting and take away from the main subject of the photo.  

Bad Composition 

 Good Composition 

Good Composition  

photographers intent- 

These photos are meant to be funny and the photographer has used different angles ect.. to make the photos funny 

My Photo 

For this photo I have used view point, back ground and lighting to create a good composition.   

Sync Speed

1.      Identify your camera’s flash synch speed- 

250 of a second 

2.      What is ‘high-speed-synch’?

It is the ability of the cameras flash unit to fire for longer in order to be able to use a faster shutter speed. 

3.      What is ‘rear curtain’ synch?

This is when the shutter is fired at the end of the exposure, this effects the way in which movement is 

4.    What would happen if you used a shutter speed slower than the camera’s flash synch speed? 

This is when your shutter is open and it records the light form the flash and then also other light from another source which may not give the required effect/result. 

11.    Research the use of the histogram as part of your exposure calculation process:  

Before Histograms photographers used to use light meters to ensure that exposure was correct. Now that our cameras have built in light meters we can use our histograms to ensure that each photo isn’t over or under exposed. A Histogram is a representation of data, it reads the highlights and the shadows. There is no set right exposure to use because every scene is different, but the histogram helps the user understand if they have over exposed or under exposed. The Histogram on your camera reads left to right, representing Dark to Light.   

2. Focal Length:

A Lens focal length is measured in mm, it is the range that the lenses covers. For example the 18-55mm lens is wide angle and a 70-300mm has a closer range for view. Different focal length are used for different things, for example a wide angle is great for real-estate photography.   

 3. Angle of View: 

The Angle Of View is the scene captured by the image sensor, so a wide angle lens would capture more compared to a zoom lens, also the angle of view is the measurement of the breath of the subject.   

Guest Speaker

Gary Ramage

Last Wednesday our guest speaker was Australian Photojournalist Gary Ramage, who is currently employed by News Ltd at the Parliament House Press Gallery. Gary’s life experiences have strongly shaped the photographer that he is today and I could see 3 categories of photography that Gary undertakes. There is firstly the work that he is currently doing with politicians and other news related events eg. “The Schapelle Corby trial”. Gary commented that he always tries to get a different photo everyday while at work which can be a challenge when they are just men in suits.  Secondly in his free time he does wildlife photography, which he finds as a kind of escape and enjoys doing, but as Gary said it doesn’t pay the bills. And lastly there is Gary’s work that he does in war zones such as Afghanistan, Before becoming a photographer Gary was in the Military for 20 years. And now that he is out of the Army he returns and travel’s along side the Australian, American and British troop’s to places “Outside of the wire” where they are under enemy attack. Being in a war zone Gary’s equipment gets damaged and this is why he takes several bodies and lenses along with him. His equipment includes several Canon lenses and The Mark 5Diii and the Mark 1D.
I really enjoyed Gary’s talk as I found his pictures moving and that they really told a story. 

Shutter Speeds

Q1.  Why is there distortion?   

Because this photo was taken using panning, this is when this camera is moving in the same direction as the object and the people in the photo are going in the opposite direction and this causes distortion.   

Q2. & Q3. What caused this effect? 

Because this was taken on a camera phone and they have an electronic rolling shutter, which is unlike a normal SLR which has a mechanical shutter. An electronic rolling shutter is like a scanner in the way that it rolls across the image exposing it gradually.   That is why that blades are distorted in both these photos.   

  

Q4. What caused the truck to be distorted?

Similar to the first photo a panning effect would have been used, where the truck was traveling in the opposite direction to the person with the camera.

Q5.  Estimate the shutter speed used

•       Hint 1: think about typical road speed limits

•       Hint 2: examine the blur created by the car

The speed limit on this road would aprox be 60mk/h & blur has been created by the car because the camera was stationary and the car was moving. To create this they would of used a slow shutter speed, of aprox 1/10th of a second.   

Assignment 2

1. Calculate the aperture diameter for each lens aperture: 

The smallest focal length of my first zoom lens is 18mm:

Focal Length	Aperture Size	Aperture Dimension
18mm	4	4.5
18mm	5.6	3
18mm	8	2.25
18mm	11	1.63
18mm	16	1.125
18mm	22	0.81
18mm	32	0.56

The smallest focal length of my second lens is 75mm:

Focal Length	Aperture Size	Aperture Dimension
75mm	4	18.75
75mm	5.6	13.39
75mm	8	9.37
75mm	11	6.81
75mm	16	4.68
75mm	22	3.41
75mm	32	2.34

  

2. If f4 on a 50mm lens has an aperture diameter of 12.5mm, what would the diameter of f4 on a 400mm lens be?

400 = 100mm

   4

Therefore the diameter of a 400mm lens with 4f-stop would be 100mm.

3. Identify where your depth of field preview button is located-

The Depth of Field preview button on my Canon 550D is located just below the button used to release lenses. This Button enables you to have a preview of the depth of field.   

4. Research the term ‘Hyperfocal Distance’ and describe how you would use it-

Hyperfocal Distance is the distance at which photos can be brought into focus, it maximises your depth of field. If you focus a camera at the Hyperfocal distance everything from the foreground to infinity will be sharp and in focus, which is why landscape photographers commonly use Hyperfocal focusing. 

You would use hyperfocal focusing if you had a rock in the foreground that you wanted to focus on and you also had for example the ocean in the background that you wanted to also be in focus. Using Hyperfocal focusing enables you to have an overall sharper image, which is ideal for printing.  

Examples

This photo was taken with normal infinity focusing. As you can see the ice in the front right hand corner is blurred.    

This photo was taken with Hyperfocal focusing, as you can see the ice in the front right hand corner is not blurred and instead it is sharp and in focus.