Academic Shoot Reflection and Critique

Reflection

1. A challenge I faced while going on this shoot was to not disrupt the class while I was taking photos. I didn't want the teacher to be upset that I was in there, so I had to be as quiet as possible. Another challenge was trying to get photos of students who weren't posing. I wanted to get candid shots, and I had a few encounters with people who would pose as soon as I pointed the camera their direction.

2. I found myself thinking a lot about keeping my subject in focus. For example in the picture of the leading lines with the students working in desks, I wanted to have the girl in the front desk in focus. Since she wasn't in the middle of the frame, the camera would automatically put her out of focus while I was trying to take the photo.

3. If I could do this shoot again I'd try to incorporate more composition rules into my photos. I was able to get at least one in every photo I took, but I want to challenge myself to achieve more than one next time. 

4. If I were to redo this shoot, I'd want to go to the same locations. I was able to take a lot of good pictures in these spots and I really liked the different angles I could get in them.

5. I think the easiest rule to achieve is either leading lines or rule of thirds. These rules have to do with how you position yourself and has nothing to do with your subject doing anything. You can get rule of thirds in almost every photo you ever take if you wanted to.

6. I think the hardest rule to capture is framing because with this rule you have to have the right location to make this rule happen. It has little to do with how you position yourself and more to do with the location of your subject.

7. The rule I'm still a little confused on is avoiding mergers because I don't know what is okay to cut off. To get more clear on this photo, I can go back to the composition rules website and read about that rule again. I could also go to google and look up merger photos and see what the photographer did incorrectly.

Critique

http://lesliephotojournalism1.blogspot.com/2015_10_01_archive.html

I really liked the different angles that Leslie was able to achieve while taking these photos. There's a lot of variety and I really like that. I really like the third picture she took and put in black and white. I love how it's dramatic and the black and white filter fits this photo perfectly. I think that her photos are a little overexposed, so maybe in photoshop she could try darkening her levels a little bit more.

Academic Shoot

1. In this photo I used the composition rule of balance. This photo follows this rule because the boy sitting down and the woman standing up balance each other out.

2. The subject of this photo is both the boy sitting on the left and the woman standing on the right.

3. I think it's clear to the people looking at this photo who the subjects are because they're in the center, they're in focus, and they're the biggest things in the photo.

4. If you couldn't clearly tell what the subjects were, I could have moved to angle myself so that the table was not in the photo at all.

1. In this photo I used the rule of simplicity because the flag is in focus with a simple background of the ceiling.

2. The subject of this photo is the American Flag in the center of the photo.

3. I think the subject of this photo is very clear because it's the only thing in the photo except the ceiling.

4. If the subject was not clear to someone in this photo, I could have found a different less busy background.

1. In this photo I used the rule of leading lines because the students in the desks create a line going to the back of the photo.

2. The subject of this photo is mainly the girl in the front desk on the left.

3. I think the subject of this photo could be a little unclear because it's such a busy photo.

4. To make the subject more clear in this photo, I could have found a row of desks that wasn't as busy and didn't have the teacher in the background.

DSLR Camera Simulator

Possible Aperture Settings

• 2.8
• 4
• 5.6
• 8
• 11
• 16
• 22

Possible Shutter Speed Settings

• 1
• 1/60
• 1/4000

Possible ISO Settings

• 100
• 200
• 400
• 800
• 1600
• 3200
• 6400
• 12800
• 25600

ISO

ISO 200

ISO 6400

1. The advantages of using a high ISO during a sports game or at night is because it'll let  more light into the photo and it'll help stop the motion to get a good action shot.

2. The author suggests using the lowest ISO whenever possible. This way you get most of the details in the photo and it's very clear. 

3. The author suggests using a higher ISO when there isn't enough light to quickly take an action shot. He says it's okay to use a higher ISO when you want to stop the motion, but you need to ask yourself if the noise that comes long with it is acceptable. 

Shutter Speed

Fast Shutter Speed

Slow Shutter Speed

1. If I was assigned to Bulldogs and Hotdogs and it was in the morning when there was lots of light I would...

a.) I would set the shutter speed at a relatively slow speed. Since there isn't a lot of action going on and there's good lighting I wouldn't need to use a fast shutter speed.

f.) I would set the shutter speed at a faster speed. There's action in the picture, and I'd rather capture the moment than show motion. 

If it was night and there wasn't as good lighting I would...

c.) I would set the shutter speed at a faster speed. When the dancers are dancing you want to be able to see their moves without blur. 

d.) I would set the shutter speed in the middle, not too fast and not too slow. The lighting isn't as good, so you can't have a really fast shutter speed because then it would be too dark. You don't want a slow shutter speed for this either because then the students dancing would be blurry.

2. The three modes a camera has regarding shutter speed are "Aperture Priority," "Shutter Priority" and "Manual." In "Aperture Priority" mode, the photographer sets the aperture and the camera automatically sets the shutter speed. In "Shutter Priority" mode, the photographer sets the shutter speed and the camera automatically sets the aperture. In "Manual," the photographer is in control of all the settings and can change them however they want to.

Aperture

F2.8 Aperture

F16 Aperture

1. Many people closely relate aperture to the human eye. The aperture and human eye both determine how much light passes through. 

2. The smaller the aperture the larger the f-stop, the higher the aperture the smaller the f-stop. 

3. Aperture greatly impacts the depth of field of a picture. Depth of field is how blurry the background of your object is. If you want your subject to stand out from the background, you'd use a smaller aperture.

Unusual and Interesting Photos

Part One

1. I wasn't a huge fan of Christian Rhum's photos.  I liked his creativity and his new ideas, but I didn't like the "wobbly" images. I think the impact the buildings have was lost. You couldn't see the details of the buildings, and I think it would have had more impact if you would have just shot them at an angle using simplicity.

2. I think he used a long exposure to take these photos. He slowed down the shutter speed and slowly moved the camera while it was taking the picture of the building. He either did this, or he developed the different pictures on top of each other to achieve the effect he was looking for.

3. I would like to try to take a picture like this on the Empire State building in New York. Since it's in New York though, I don't have access to take that picture. A place that I'd have a better chance of being able to shoot would be the UT Tower or the Austin Capital downtown. 

Part Three

1. I think the three most important things photographers should remember when shooting are to take a picture that shows perspective, story telling through facial expressions and to never stop looking for the right angle. 

"Hand with reflecting sphere" M.C. Escher

4. I believe the photographer followed all of the suggestions. The photographer took a photo of a reflection, himself and it shows perspective. The only thing that he didn't do was take a photo of his hand, instead he took it of his feet.

5. The two most influencing pictures to me are "Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper and "Poppy" by Georgia O'Keeffe. I like how Edward Hopper's showed the quiet moments instead of the hectic action shots. I think that's something I could incorporate into my photography. I also liked how Georgia O'Keeffe showed a close up of the flower. She filled the frame with the flower without crowding the image. This is also something I will begin to think about when I take photos.