Flash Unit No. 1 - Pictures

Flash Unit No. 1 - Pictures

During class we had someone to come in so we could take portrait pictures of that person. I took a few that seemed alright, however I'm a bit worried because my first contact sheet I made turned out pretty grey and now I'm worried that all my pictures will turn out a bit grey.

Unfortunately, the portrait picture is not developed yet and so I can not put it on my blog, yet.

Flash Unit No. 1 - Image Bank

Flash Unit No. 1 - Image Bank

Diane Arbus

Born March of 1923 Diane Arbus grew up in Central Park West. When she turned 14, she met her future husband Allan Arbus and four years later they got married. They worked in the fashion industry as photographers and many of her great shots are from that time. Arbus' work in magazines were both very artistic and she got well paid. Arbus' photography career started in 1959 when she had been working with Lissette Model. In 1963 and 193 she received the Guggenheim fellowship for her style. John Szarkowski helped her with her first art exhibition in 1967 at the Museum of Modern Art. While Arbus was doing great and exploring the limits of photographic art her career unfortunately ended by her suicide on July 26, 1971.

I think this portrait picture is very interesting. I really like how she is standing more to one side and I like the shadow in the background. I also really like the models expression of looking a bit sad or upset.

Flash Unit No. 1 - Theory Notes

Flash Unit No. 1 - Theory Notes

Fill-in-Flash

A fill in flash can really help a picture get nicer. Without a fill in flash the subjects in the picture might get some very hard shadows or can be overly backlit so the faces are underexposed which ruins the picture. A fill in flash can also make a picture look much nicer by highlighting the eyes of the subject or adding another nice effect.

The photographer of these pictures used different settings with the flash. In the picture to the right there was no flash used and the sun gave the light. The picture to the right used a flash and it highlighted the details on the clothes and there is a clear different between the two pictures.

A fill in flash can highlight the subjects and add effects to make the pictures much nicer. A fill in flash is meant to reduce the hard shadows and balance out the light on the subject.

Built-In-Flash

Most digital cameras today have a built in flash.

Today, most digital cameras have a built in flash. The built in flash works for indoors and outdoors. Using it outside can help the picture by softening the eye shadow and the shadow under the chin. A common problem that is created by built in flashes are that often red eyes come when you have taken a photo. Red eyes appear if the flash is too close to the camera lens.

The red eye is caused from reflection from the color of the eye blood vessels in the retina.

Even though a flash is not required, it is often used and can create another nice effect to the picture. In the picture to the right a flash is used and the wheat stands out.

Flash Guide Numbers

The guide number for an electronic flash helps quantifying its maximum output in terms that a photographer can relate to - aperture and distance. Putting the aperture and and distance (from flash to subject) will give the guide number and the combination will result in enough light for proper exposure.

The three most common ways to use the guide number are:

1)Find the correct aperture for a subject at a given distance when using manual flash

2) Find the maximum distance a flash will properly illuminate the subject at the given aperture

3) Comparing the relative power of the different flash units (higher guide number = more power)

Narrative Photography

Narrative Photography

For this narrative photography project we had to create four pictures that linked together and said a story. My story is about a girl whose dream is to be a dancer and a competition is coming up. She is working hard and practices everyday for this competition and through the pictures you can see the change in her confidence.

The dancer in this story is not really using her whole body to dance with. She is a bit nervous and afraid to use her whole body. However, this competition is important to her and she is determined to do well.

The more she dances, the more she relaxes and becomes comfortable. She is also thinking of new dance moves for her dance performance and thinking of some things she could do so that she could win. However, while the dancer is thinking, she cannot come up with anything and feels a bit down. She stops for a bit and starts thinking that she can't do this after all. The dancer decides to go home hat day after she has been dancing at her favorite spot, behind a building that no one goes to. She goes home and tells her mom that she does not want to do the competition anymore and then she storms up to her room. Her mom could tell she was deeply upset. but could not understand why she wanted to quit. She went to talk to her daughter and found out that her daughter was feeling down because she could not think of anything to do. She talked for her daughter and told her not to give up on something she loved so much and she encouraged her to keep going and practice hard and eventually she will come up with some great ideas. The dancer said she would think about what to do.

 The next day the dancer decided she would try again. She went to the same spot where she always danced and decided to have fun dancing. She was listening to her ipod and while she was listening to her music she just started dancing. Without really thinking about it she came up with some great moves. She was really enjoying herself and having a great time. Her confidence boosted up and she had set her mind on doing this competition. 

 It was the day before the competition. She was extremely nervous for the competition, but since the first time she practiced, she had become a lot more confident and was not as worried. This time she was really relaxed and really enjoying herself. She went through the dance moves over and over again and she had a really good time. By the end of the day she was proud of her effort and improvement. Later she said to herself that it did not really matter if she won or not, as long as she was doing her best and having a good time.

It was the day of the competition and she was so nervous. She was just about to go and dance, and she felt like quitting the last minute, but reminded herself to dance like she has been practicing and just be free and have fun. She went on and did a great performance! The dancer had done great. When the results came she found out that she had come on third place and she was extremely proud. From that moment she decided to keep dancing forever and never quit like she was about to.  

 Here is the test-strip for this project. It went very quick to find the settings for the prints. I used all the same settings for all the prints so it went pretty quick to develop the prints. The settings for this test-strip are:

Aperture: 11

Time: 10

Filter: No Filter

The settings for all the prints are:

Aperture: 11

Time: 8

Filter: No Filter