Pre-holiday competition

• Objective: as convincingly as possible insert yourself or one of your classmates into one of the supplied images.
• Due: Tuesday end of period. Put it in the appropriate gallery folder.
• Prizes: 1st place: $10 Best Buy gift certificate - 2nd place: $5 Best Buy gift certificate
  

Requirements:

• Must be someone from this school.
• Must be "Full Body" ... (Do not just replace a head. Portions of the body can be obscured.)
• Must use one of the two images provided below.
• Must be good enough to fool a jury!
  

Tricks

1. Match shadows. Is the lighting source the same?
2. Are any highlights from lighting sources the same on the insert vs. those in the picture?
3. Is the inserted person the same brightness, contrast, etc as the originals?
4. Is the resolution of the insert similar (not better detail, not worse detail)?
5. Have your inserted person both behind some of the original objects as well as in front of some of the original objects.
6. Removing someone from the original may be the best way to integrate a new person.
   

To get the image ... click on one of the images below then copy and download the LARGER image that shows up.

This will also serve as your picture for the week.

Cut out

1. There are many ways to cut out an object ... eraser, selection tool, pen, lasso, etc.
2. Go to this site and try this method.
3. Then, search the web for another way to cut out an object, try the method, then paste the link as a comment to this blog entry.

Photoshop introduction

After working through this Wiki (Do the tasks to a photo in Photoshop) up to and including the Levels/Histogram section, which sections do not make sense? Do you know when you would use each tool?

What did you learn today? What do you need to learn more about or have explained better?

Respond as a comment to this blog.

Lesson Design Idea

See Moodle for your lesson design assignment.

Respond as a comment to this blog what your lesson subject may be and how you will put it together (what form will it be in.)

You may have one partner if the plan is significant enough to require two people. Grading will be more difficult for a group.

Depth of Field

I understand this is repetitive and some of you have answered these questions, but along with shutter speed, Depth of Field is the other very important topic.

Watch the video and then discuss the following.

How does lens selection (or Zoom on a zoom lens) affect depth of field? How does the aperture affect depth of field?

Why might you want to blur the background? What compositional rule can you think of that you suggest we blur the background?

For portraits are you more likely to want a blurred or sharply focused background? Does this require a large Depth of Field or a short depth of Field?

Describe how focus should be in a landscape photograph.

Action shots

Watch this video (ear phones on) ... and then respond with the THREE methods to represent/capture action in your photos. For each, list a subject whose action would be well represented using that method.




(Note: After watching the video online, if you want to see a higher quality version of the movie, you may watch it on Mr. Hiller's laptop. The compressed video online blurs the images some so the difference between fast and slow shutter speeds is not as obvious.)

Action Shots

In the next few days we will be exploring the shutter setting, and capturing action. Tomorrow we will be taking pictures of various forms of action in the lab and competing for the best shot.

Today, write a comment to this blog. Discuss how action/motion is depicted in each shot. What in the image portrays the action? How do you think the shot was taken (What settings on the camera)? Do this for EACH photo.

ONCE DONE, GO BACK TO MOODLE FOR ANOTHER ENTRY ON YOUR BLOG ... ALSO DUE TODAY!

Settings Discovery

# In your assigned group - One blog entry per group

NOTE: Have one person writing a comment to this blog with one computer, and one person looking at the Moodle assignment with another computer.

* Respond to THIS BLOG with your answers. Include all names.

* 1 Person types - 1 Person handles the camera - 1 person helps/watches time
* Camera on AUTO (the green setting on the dial)
* Green items should be written about in the blog entry.

* Lightning bolt button - 9 minutes
o What is it for?
o What are the different settings (For the lightning bolt), what are they each for?
o Each person should try each and understand each of the settings.
o What is your impression of the quality of photos with this turned "on"


* Switch roles
* Half-push - 9 minutes
o Push the shutter button down half way.
o What happens?
o Point the camera at a subject. Push the shutter button all the way and time how long it takes to take the shot. How long?
o Point the camera at a similar subject. Push the shutter button down half way, let it do its thing. Now, finish pushing the rest of the way and time that. How long?
o Each person in the group should do this.
o Why would it be useful to push the shutter button down half way? Give two reasons.


* Switch roles
* Flower button - 8 minutes
o What is this for?
o Each person should try taking close up photos with this on and this off.
o Try pushing the shutter button half way when close to a subject. How close can you get?
o With the "flower" turned on can you get closer to the subject zoomed in or zoomed out?


* Switch roles
* Review zoom feature - 6 minutes
o Playback or review a picture already taken
o Zoom into the picture (use the zoom control)
o Navigate around the zoomed picture
o This is a good way to make sure your picture is in crisp focus.
o Each person should try this.
o Knowing that you can do this "in the field" to check your photos as you take them, should you ever turn in a photo that is not in crisp focus? (Unless it's blurred for artistic reasons.)


* Switch roles
* Scene Modes - 10 minutes
o Your camera has various preset scene modes (pictures on the dial, face, running guy, etc)
o What is each one used for?
o Take a picture of a sitting person, use AUTO, Then try PORTRAIT. What was the difference?
o Take a picture of a moving subject, use AUTO, Then try ACTION. What was the difference?
o Each person should try the various modes.
o What are these modes doing to the camera in terms of settings?

The Rule

There are many rules-of-thumb when composing your images. Look up some composition rules and describe them as a comment to this post.

1-2 rules with very little or confusing definition = 75%
1 rules with in depth explanation (with images?) = 85%
2 rules with in depth explanation (with images?) = 95%

Five W's

Photo deleted for privacy ...

Photo courtesy Rachel Cook.

One Thousand Words

While a picture may be worth a thousand words, pictures often need some explanation especially in news/journalism and documentary as an example. The quality of the caption is as important as the quality of the image. Sometimes the caption is all the "viewer" has. This would be true for visually impaired people for example.

Find two images with captions (look on news sites, arts sites, national geographic as examples). Paste their captions as a comment to this blog. Include links to the image (but not the image itself). Be sure to have the caption text as part of the blog.

Hindsight is 20-20

So, we've spent a big chunk of time creating and attempting to use a basic pin-hole camera. As many of you noted in your blogs the purpose of the project was to give you a basis for understanding all cameras. Any camera, no matter how complex comes down to ... a light tight box, a hole that lets light in, a shutter to block that hole and open on demand, and something to capture the light/image.

Spend a few minutes and answer the following.

1. Was this a useful project? Why or why not?
2. Would you recommend this project to be used for next year's class?
3. What would you recommend being done differently to make the project more useful?
4. Would you like time to try again, or are you "done with pin-holes"?

The Pictures

Here is the picture taken Saturday night with one of your cameras (camera slightly modified). I arrived at this result after a couple of hours of making an attempt, and immediately developing the picture to see the result, changing what I was doing, and trying again. This allowed me to vet out where our process was lacking, and zero in on an acceptable (if you want to call it that) exposure.

I scanned the print, and two versions of it are presented here, can you explain them?

Two images of the commons. One image is a direct scan of the print and the other one is modified. What's the difference? Why does one look funky? How was the second made?

It emerges

Another hour or so since the last post and I'm watching my final exposure as it spends its 1 minute in the developer solution. Joy! An image emerges. Not a very good one mind you ... but you can tell what it is. I needed to prove the process would work and that the pin-hole cameras can actually take a picture. Now we have some images including at least one successful one to talk about on Monday. A few hours of work and now I know basically what it will take for our cameras to work, and what might get in the way of a successful image. The best thing about being a teacher is how much I get to learn!

So, heading home with my proof of concept, I get a call on my fire pager for a motor vehicle accident. I've just spent the past hour dealing with that. Welcome to my life.

So, when you're in class listening to your teachers ... think about what goes into each lesson they prepare. Sometimes it's hours of work and a ton of missed sleep!!

I'll get the photo up tomorrow.

Will it work part du...

Ok... it's Saturday night (well, really Sunday) at 1:30 AM. I developed all of the pin-hole exposures. I see something that appears as if it may be a genuine subject in ONE of the shots. Most of the exposures are black. Since these are all negative images (since we skipped the film step which is usually the negative image), black means light. Pitch black means too much light. Our discussion Monday will be, "Where are all the points in our process that light might be hitting our paper ... either when it should, or should not be". I've done some tests and found some errors in the process and some places where it's ok, but on Monday we'll discuss.

For about the past hour and a half I've been using a couple of the pin-hole cameras trying to get a picture. In that time I've found some issues with the cameras and I THINK taken one picture that showed two lights in the ceiling of the commons. Right now I have both cameras taking 10 minute exposures. There are so many factors, even in these simple cameras that go into getting the right shot.

On the plus side, the chemicals are working, the amber light is working, I utilized an enlarger to produce a print from a negative to confirm that the paper and process was all good. We essentially have a working dark room.

On the negative side... I discovered the Senior candy-for-a-dollar stash. Three dollars and a bag of Fritos, a Kit-Kat, and box of junior mints later, I feel a little sick!

On another negative side, I have to be up in 7 hours for the Hope Island Fire Department barbecue fund raiser and still need to prepare for all my Monday classes.

That's were I am now. Hopefully the chemicals don't make me pass out!

Will it work?

I hope we have all had some fun trying to build a simple camera. Even if we don't get any good images we will refer back to this camera often as the basis of our understanding of more complex cameras. The most expensive and complex cameras are basically the same ... a light-tight box, a hole, a shutter, and something to capture the image.

What I would like to find out from you today is ... do you think it will work? Do you think any of the pictures you have taken will come out. Please describe why or why not.

Feel free to respond to each other's posts.

NOTE: I will grade grammar, spelling, and punctuation as if you're in an English class. always write as if you are in English class. This is true for everything you do, not just here!

Pin Hole Cameras - Going Old School

For the next few days we're getting ancient and going early 20th century low-tech. To understand the complex we are starting by getting an understanding of the simple.

Your task will be to make and utilize the simplest form of a camera. Today we are starting by trying to come up with the requirements for how we will build our pinhole cameras.

In your groups perform the following task.

1. Find the origins and the meaning of the word "camera".
2. Find at least 3 sources that describe the requirements and how to build a "pin hole camera".
3. reference those sources here.

By the end of today you should post as a comment on this blog (1 post per team)

1. Your research on the word camera
2. Your sources for pin hole camera research
3. The primary components of a pin hole camera
4. How to use the pin hole camera

The only thing I will tell you (as we have no choice) is we are using photographic paper to record our images, as opposed to film