Hakone Shoot Requirements

1. Landscape-wide depth of field
2. Flower/nature-shallow/narrow DOF
3. Bokeh shot of something/anything
4. Water from waterfall-blur with slow shutter
5. Filtered light (if any-check out the bamboo forest for this)
6. Long shot -everything in focus, wide DOF (vine tunnel or bamboo path, or other path)
7. Reflection in the pool
8. Someone's reaction to something they see (not posed, authentic, do not let them see you taking their photo if possible)

Hakone Project Requirements:

1. Is the work inspired by a Haiku and do the visuals make sense with the intention of the Haiku?
2. Does the work use a variety of photos to support the Haiku (at least 5 photos)
3. Do the photos demonstrate compositional strength (rule thirds, horizontals, leading lines, golden mean, etc)
4. Do the photos demonstrate camera mastery in terms of exposure?
5. Does the student demonstrate an understanding of DOF, both shallow and wide?
6. Have photos been manipulated in photoshop if necessary?

Sept 30th-Outdoors, Flash, Hakone

 

Excellent movie on using flash outdoors-watch as class

Monday: Introduce Hakone Project / watch flash outdoors / Haiku research
Tues: practice outdoor portrait, with DOF and flash, prepare for Hakone - finalize Haiku. Go over shot sheet. Finalize car groups.
Thur: Rides to Hakone. You will shoot photos for your project and according to the shot sheet.

Hakone Project:
You will find a Haiku of your choice, something that inspires you, and something that will correlate with visuals from Hakone.  (Nature, Fish, Ponds, Flowers, Meditation, Vines, Seasons, Bamboo, etc) You will create a project around this Haiku Poem and photographs you shoot. You may decide to do:

1. Poster
2. I-Photo Slideshow with narration/music/photos
3. I-Photo booklet
4. Mixbook book
5. Other-of your choice. 

Project due date: End of Class, October 10th. Submit in a format such as .pdf, quicktime or other. 

Tues Sept 24 Sunflowers, Dominoes - DOF examples

Sept 23 Depth of Field

Monday: Review Homework, Modifications in PShop
Tuesday: Group Research/Prepare Presentation/Shoot Sunflowers
Thursdy: Presentations
Note: Bring cameras this week



Homework: Turn in 1 excellent photo that demonstrates your knowledge of composition and narrow depth of field. Think about this photo in terms of the conversation that happens between subject, photographer and viewer.

Everyone please turn in Hakone permissions.

Homework 9/22

Please experiment with light painting this weekend. Turn in your best work to the homework folder for 9/22.

Bubble Reflection (no pun intended)

How do you react to the idea that photography is triad relationship between 3 parties, photographer, subject and audience. Describe that relationship in the work you did this weekend shooting the bubble work.

1. What was your role as photographer? Describe what you did, how you worked with talent on camera, camera settings, concept, composition.
2. What is the role of the subject (the bubble and people who helped you form your bubbles, or the resulting great bubble)
3. What is the role of the audience as we react to your work? How do you want an audience to react to your work with this project, and others?

September 15th-Manual exposure and exposure meter in the viewfinder

Please read this excellent article on metering in your viewfinder. This article will help you to better understand how to evaluate and correct your exposure right in the viewfinder.

Exposure Metering in Viewfinder

After reading the article, find these exposure settings in the viewfinder of your camera.

Classwork:
In small groups, find a quiet area on campus to shoot a portrait of someone in your group. Shoot this photo looking through the viewfinder adjusting exposure as needed. Shoot an underexposed image, then an overexposed, then finally shoot a perfect photo. Upload all 3 photos to the classwork folder. Each group member should have an opportunity to shoot to understand their viewfinder metering and demonstrate their knowledge. When shooting your friends, try to shoot the person thinking about something, try to achieve an inner feeling through portraiture. No shooting straight at a front facing smiling face. Make it interesting.

Some places to shoot:

1. Stadium seating-someone alone 
2. On the field - even shoot someone not facing you.
3. In the library-silhouette exposure-dialing down exposure to achieve a silhouette if lighting conditions are good
4. In front of McAfee
5. Cafeteria
6. Quad under the trees
7. Hyde Park
8. Basketball court
9. In front of office

Week of Sept 9th-Golden Mean

Tuesday: Golden Mean in composition. Metering settings on your Camera.

Walk to downtown Saratoga. Shoot with the intention of using the golden mean to frame and compose a shot. Each student will hand in 5 different photos each depicting a different subject used to study and capture the golden mean. AT LEAST ONE PHOTO WILL USE PANNING AND ONE PHOTO WILL USE HIGH SHUTTER TO FREEZE AN ACTION.

How is the golden mean different than the rule of thirds? How are they alike? Which is more useful to a photographer? Is one just the lazy cousin of the other? (This prompt will be answered at the end of the day Thursday in the comment section of this post).

Thur Agenda:

1. Photoshop Crop Tool and Golden Spiral (10min)
2. Photoshop Revision to 9/10 shoot (downtown saratoga) (20 min)
3. Topic discussion: Metering
4. Photoshop Revisions (cont.)
5. Upload classwork
6. Cover weekend assignment

Thursday: Photoshop Golden Mean-Crop Spiral.
You will crop, align horizontals and make image adjustments to photos from the week, including your homework from 9/8 and the classwork from the downtown Saratoga shoot.
When complete you will upload your finals.

Thursday Topic:
Metering-determines which part of the frame or scene is being evaluated to determine exposure. This is useful in auto and some semi-auto modes (P, Av, Tv).

To better help you understand what your camera can do, look up how to change the metering on your camera using your online manual or google search result (Camera model, metering)
(See picture diagram at bottom).



Homework: 
 

You will make a series of photos based on the topic 'bubbles in daylight'. This will require that you have bubbles (a trip to the drug store might be needed for bubbles), and get a friend (or little kid) to help you. You will create 3 shots:

1. Blowing a bubble
2. Bubble floating, (person in shot with reaction to bubble-like a kid, or a cool reflection)
3. Bubble popping (high shutter-get the pop if you can)

Make sure you hand in your result by Sunday evening 8p to the google drive homework folder dated 9/15. Email Mrs. L if there is a problem.

Homework Reflection-Sept 9th

Reflect on your work based on the concepts below and suggest a grade (out of 10 possible points)

1. Was this work completed over the weekend as assigned, or did you upload something from the classwork from Thursday. Remember, the purpose of the classwork is to learn and practice the concept, the weekend work is to perfect the process or learn more about the concept. You may not fully succeed, but not trying the concept on the weekend will not further your understanding and practice of photography. (and from a grading standpoint-it's a 0)
2. Was the object moving at a rate fast enough to track?
3. Did you track the object at the rate of its speed?
4. Did you keep your arms tucked close to you and track with a movement of your waist to reduce as much camera shake?
5. Are you shooting in a normal to lower light setting? Remember, shooting a noon in the bright sun caused problems. So we discussed not shooting in the brightest part of the day with sun beaming down straight overhead.
6. Do you believe your shutter speed was low enough, such as 1/30th-1/60th or thereabouts?
7. If in manual mode, did you adjust your Aperture and ISO to reduce light if necessary, or are your photos overexposed?
8. Is it a good subject for a panning shot?
9. Did you think about where you were standing relative to the moving subject you were shooting and did you plan your shot in terms of framing? (How close were you to the subject, how did you frame your shot?)
10. Did you try to perfect the process over the weekend at least for an hour?

Please use the comments field below.

To pan an image, make sure you have a moving image to work with (a car, a friend running really fast around the track, a bicyclist, a object you can throw that is big enough to track).

Try a lower shutter speed (1/30th sec to start)

As you frame the shot, track the thing you want to keep in focus, keeping yourself stable as possible.

Keep tracking after you have pressed the shutter release for a second or so to maintain steady position.

If successful, you should have a dominant object (person, object) in focus and the background blurred. This is great for action shots, moving images, sports, etc.

TEST this concept today by going out on Herriman or Saratoga-Sunnyvale and try to follow a car or bicyclist. See what you get. Show the results to Mrs. Leather for class credit today.

HOMEWORK:

Please upload to the homework folder for 9/8 your best example of a photograph that perfectly demonstrates the concept of panning. Keep working until you get a good one. It might take several tries. You will be assessed on your ability to get a good blurry background while keeping the dominant object in focus. If you work for over an hour, and are still not successful, please show me the results on your camera to show evidence of numerous tries. You should get something successful within 20-30 min. Remember to upload by Sunday evening. We will work with these images Monday and Tuesday in Photoshop.

Slow Sync Flash

See if your camera allows for this mode. Many camera do, even less expensive models. You can do some impressive visual work with slow sync flash on your camera. See this website for some examples:

Slow Sync Flash

It can be really simple. Just make your shutter speed lower than normal (1/30 or so, around there, the opposite of the higher shutter speeds we use for freezing things like water droplets). Now add your flash. If you have a mode for slow sync flash, put your camera into that mode. Check your manual to see, or google it! Slow sync can be used for shots you wish to remain stable (no movement), or for shots you wish to pan. The Panning slow sync shots can create really interesting results.

A few examples from my own portfolio to share:

low light, flash helped add light to scene

Low light, slight movement, slow sync

normal lighting, slow sync, no movement, ghosting

Thur Sept 5th-Panning/Zooming

Panning

Panning

 Compare and contrast the 2 panned images to the left. Which is more successful at focus on the dominant object? What camera settings do you think are used to achieve successful panning? What advantages does the image on the bottom have that is somewhat lost on the image at the top?

Please leave your comments in the comments area. Remember to sign in so your comments are recorded. You may work with a friend to discuss, but each person MUST enter their own comments.

Tues September 3rd, question of the day

1. The wildwood park photos were pretty good, especially for first time around with shutter speed. When you look at any of these photos at 100% size in Photoshop, are they in focus? Some are not. What can you do to make sure your photos will be in focus, most of the time?

2. When shooting high shutter speed shots, are tripods useful? What about low shutter speed shots, are tripods useful? Why? Why not?

Photoshop Image Compositing

Goal: Students will learn how to composite photographic images together in Photoshop.

Key concepts:

1. Image quality/image size
2. Layers and all their controls for overlay and mixing images, opacity
3. Layers-making new, del, flatten, merge
4. Layers, Channels, Paths
5. Lasso/Select
6. Quick Selection/Magic Wand
7. Refine Edge
8. Image adjustments
9. Spot Heal, Heal, Stamp

Assignment: Taking your best 'splash image' you will composite 'something' jumping out of Saratoga's creek. It could be a fish, a car, a shark (which is a fish I realize), a boat, a swamp monster, etc. Anything you want. Your finished composite image should be fun and imaginative, or serious and cool, either way. But have fun thinking about merging two images.

To start:

1. Open Photoshop
2. Open your splash photo and make sure you have corrected any lighting problems. Also crop to make sure it is compositionally well done.
3. Go to Google and search for an image to composite into your splash. When looking for an image keep these things in mind:
• Make sure the image will be at the same implied camera angle as the angle you shot the splash photo.
• Make sure the background of the thing you wish to composite isn't too complicated or busy. It will be easier to select and refine the edge of your selection with an image that is substantially easy to pick out from the background. Your might even find something over a single color, this is the best case scenario.
• Once you are completely set up and ready to go, you will take a break and go shoot your leading lines photo for the day. This should take you about 30 min. Shoot enough leading line photos so that you have 3 final shots that are visually very successful.

The live demo will take place after your photo shoot of the day. You will follow me doing a live demo. You will have additional help on Thursday as we will spend most of the week understanding the power of Photoshop for merging and manipulating images.