Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Theory Notes - Shooting in Low and Sun Light

Shooting in Low and Sun Light

Low Light

Low light shooting is divided into two categories:

  • Natural Light (Daylight)
  • Artificial Light (Light from lightbulbs and lamps)

Natural light often comes from daylight, light from a sunny day, in a building in the shade or early in the morning. For taking pictures in low light using film with ISO 800 film is very good because the pictures become sharper, better contrast, and the colors are brighter. The ISO 800 film is better to use for low light compared to the ISO 400 films. Tools that help when shooting in low light is fast film and fast lense. As explained a bit earlier, using ISO 800 film gives you good result. If you're taking many pictures in low light it will help with a fast lense which gives a large aperture. Photojournalists who take many pictures indoors often use a combination of fast lenses and high speed films.

The picture to the light has been taken by using both flash and natural light. The flass makes the colors a bit brighter making the picture a bit warmer.

Artificial Light can give a 'warmer' effect to the picture. Often when you are using artificial light, which is lamps and light bulbs, etc, gives you more control over how much light you want. Artifical light helps with giving light where there is little natural light.


Using day light you get more of a natural look, but using artificial light you can get a 'warmer' tint in the picture.


Shooting in Direct Sun Light




Shooting in direct sun light can make give the pictures big contrasts, blown out highlights, lens flare and colors that may look over saturated. Some solutions to not have to shoot in direct sun light is to move in to the shade, make your own shade and use fill in flash.
Move into shade: Move the subject into the shade so the pictures won't get high contrasts.
Make your own shade: If it is not able to move your subject, then you have to try and make your own shade. You can use like an umbrella or something else that will block out the sun.
Use fill in flash: Shooting in the sun may make the subject very dark and so you could improve the picture by using a flash to fill in the shadows.

In the picture above you can clearly see that the subject have become very dark and the contrast is very big.

Image Bank

Image Bank
Eve Arnold
Eve Arnold is the photographer of this picture. Eve Arnold was born April 21, 1912 and is an American photojournalist. She was the first femal member of the Magnum Photos. Her interest in photography began in 1946 when she was working for a photo-finishing plant in New York. She learned some photographic skills in 1948 from Harper's Bazaar art director Alexei Brodovitch. Arnold is best for her images of Marily Monroe on the set of Monroe's last film (1961), The Misfits, and together they had a good relationship. Eve Arnold was the photographer Marilyn Monroe trusted the most. Eve Arnold has traveled around the world taking several pictures. I really like this picture, especially the way Marilyn Monroe is positioned. I like how the model is just laying down with closed eyes and looks very relaxed.

Lorenzo Agius
Lorenzo Agius took this wonderful picture of Madonna. I think the setting is really interesting and I really like it because it is a bit different and the setting is creative. I also like how the fashionable clothes Madonna is wearing fits in with the setting. Lorenzo Agius Art and Art History at the University of East Angli and moved to London in 1983 when he began to assist in photography. In 1989 he became a freelance photographer and specialized in fashion and portraits. He has published some of his work in Vogue, Vanity Fair and Elle and other magazines.
Lorenzo Agius is a very talented photogrpaher and on his website there are several good pictures of women, men, and fashion. He has also taken many good advertisement pictures.
Terry O'Neil
Terry O'Neil was born in July 1938 in London and is a successful Enlgish photographer. His success started when he took pictures of the celebrities and fashion in the 1960s. He began his photography career when he was working for a photographic unit for an airline at Heathrow Airport. He has taken pictures of several celebrities and bands like Judy Garland, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He has also taken pictures of the Royal family and several politicians. I really like the setting of this picture of the band The Beatles and I like how the band members are standing in different positions. This is one of my favorite bands so I really enjoy this picture and I think it is a really good shot.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Printing Compositions

Printing Compositions - Clothes, Accessory and Shoes


Taking these pictures was very fun because I had to try to focus on the shoes and the clothing and it was fun to try and position my 'model' so that I would get the best possible shots.
The settings for this contact sheet was:
Aperture: 8
Time: 68
Filter: No Filter


It went extremely quick to find the correct settings for this contact sheet. The settings are:
Aperture: 5.6
Time: 8
Filter: No Filter
September 2008
I like the composition of this picture and I like this shot. The lighting of this picture is soft because there are no hard shadows and the lighting is natural. This was my second print and this picture took a while to find the correct settings. It often turned out a bit too dark and I just couldn't find the correct settings. Fortunately though, I eventually found the right settings which are:
Aperture: 8
Time: 68
Filter: No Filter
September 2008
I really like this picture and the contrast in the picture. This was my first print and it went quick. The settings are:
Aperture: 5.6
Time: 10
Filter: No Filter
This is a test-strip for the picture below. The settings are:
Aperture:4
Time: (From bottom to top) 15, 20, 25 30
Filter: 2.5
These settings with time 30 looked good so I decided to use those settings for my final print.
September 2008
The settings for this print is:
Aperture: 4
Time: 30
Filter: 2.5
This print didn't take that long to make. I only had to make a few test-strips and then I found the correct settings. I like this picture because in a way it is a bit different from many other pictures of shoes, but I wish the picture had better contrast.

Diary Entry - Clothes, Accessory, Shoe Project

Diary Entry for the Clothes, Accessory, Shoe Project - October 3, 2008

For this project I was finished a week early! For the first time I did not have to stress about
finishing my photography project. For the lat project it took me weeks for me to find the correct
settings fro the contact sheet, but now it only took me a couple of classes. I was very pleased that
it went so quickly and so I got my first full print pretty early. The second print however, took a
while to find the correct settings for, but eventually I found the settings and gladly made my
second full print. This whole project for me quickly passed and I finished a week early which was
very nice. Since this project finished quickly and finding the settings for the different pictures 
wasn't very hard, not a lot of bad stuff happened to complain about like it usually does. 
For the last project most of my pictures turned out to be very grey but not for this project! 
Nope, nope. My pictures for this project turned out much better. I really enjoyed this project 
because I like to take pictures of shoes and clothes so it was very interesting and fun for me.