My Five Final Photographs

Here are my five final photographs on the theme of 'Fairytale':

 This photo was taken on a beach next to a castle. While it is fitting in the theme it is also an interesting photograph as there is a large contrast between the rough and sharp plants going up the hill and the peaceful blue sky. I also liked the light on the castle because it is very bright in some bits where the light is hitting it but there are also a lot of shadowed areas.

 This photograph of a swan was taken by a small pond. The thing I like best about this photo is the ripples shown on the water, they give the photograph another interesting aspect. I also like a how the swans beak creates a small pop of colour.

 This photograph of my friend fits in with the theme of 'Fairytale' because it is in the style of Snow White. The main focus of the picture is the hands holding the apple. I used depth of field to concentrate on the main focus. I also decided to only use the lower half of the models face to concentrate the eye on the main feature of the photo.

 For this picture I decided to take a lower angle so that the models face is covered by the book so that the main focus of the photograph is the book and the viewer isn't distracted. Whilst editing the picture I played around with the colours to bring out the tones in the book.

The main thing I like about this picture is the colours, the whites of the hand and the white of the bit that has been bitten out of the apple and the red of the berries in the bush and the bright red of the apple bring your eyes through the photo.

The theme I chose was 'Fairytale'. I chose this theme because I thought it would give me a lot of creative freedom to explore a different kind of thing and produce something interesting. I am pleased with the final result of these photos as they look at different aspects of what 'Fairytale' could be.

Light

Light is one of the main key factors to keep in consideration when doing photography. There are three types of light in photography: natural light, artificial light or a combination of the two. And there are three things to think about when working with light: the direction from which the light is coming from, the colour of the light and the strength of the light.

Photographer: Matjaz Carter

Light in a photograph is either hard or soft light, this is decided by whether it has heavy shadows or not.

The direction of the light can give the photo a certain effect, these are the different directions light could be coming from: high, low, in front or behind. You can manipulate which  direction the light will come from by using a flash or moving the subject or your own positioning.

The colour of light can also give a picture a certain mood or look. when we are looking out to different places at different temperatures our eyes are constantly adjusting to the light. Digital cameras do this by using white balance. White balance is a feature that changes the colour of the light. this isn't necessarily a good thing because it can change the look of a picture.

I think that light is a very interesting aspect of photography that can be manipulated in certain ways to create the photograph that you envisaged.

Sources:

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/natural-light-photography.htm
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Light-in-Photography

Focus

When taking a picture photographers have to decide what they want the focus of the picture to be. This can be manipulated by using the focus, this is what you want to be clear in the photograph. If something is in focus then it is the clearest in the photograph and something that is out of focus is blurry.

Photographer: Cayusa

In some situations you might want everything in the picture to be in focus, like if you are taking a picture of a landscape and you want it to look the same way it does to the human eye. The aperture is the main way of controlling what is in and out of focus or if you are using the correct terminology depth of field. For this type of picture you will have to set a small aperture and begin by putting the ISO on the lowest setting to give the most amount of detail and the least amount of sound.

Sometimes you will want a shallow depth of field for a portrait. Using a wider aperture will make your picture more interesting to look at and will show the viewer the thing that you are wanting to focus on in that picture. this works best with a telephoto focal length lens because if you get too close to the subject you will reduce your depth of field.

After finding more out about focus I think it is a really important thing for photographers to learn about if they want to make impacting and more interesting photographs. 

Source:

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2012/10/01/best-camera-focus-techniques-10-surefire-ways-to-get-sharp-photos/

Exposure

Exposure is one of the most important aspects of understanding photography. Exposure is the process of letting a certain amount of light in the cameras lens. The key to getting the correct exposure is by balancing the three main elements, they are shutter speed, ISO and aperture.

If a photograph doesn't get enough light then it is underexposed and if the picture is too bright then it is overexposed. What is a good exposure? There is no 'correct' exposure, only the one that looks best. The goal is to get the medium between underexposed and over exposed.

What affects the exposure?

To get the right amount of exposure you have to balance the aperture and the shutter speed and ISO. when you do this you control how much light goes through the lens (aperture), the length of time the light passes through (shutter speed) and how sensitive to light the light sensor is. When you adjust all these factors you can achieve the exposure you desire.

I think that after researching exposure I have a clearer understanding of the fundamentals of photography.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_%28photography%29

Macro-Photography

Macro-photography is extremely close-up photography where the subject in the photograph is life size or larger than they are in real life. They are also normally high quality images. The subject of macro-photographs are usually very small things like insects or plants.

 The term photo-macrograph was proposed in 1899 by W. H. Walmsley for close-up images with less than 10 diameters magnification, to distinguish from true photo-micrographs.

Most DSLR cameras how have a macro mode allowing users to shoot macro-photography easily but for even better quality images photographers use special macro lenses. Macro lenses have a long barrel for close focusing and optimized for high reproduction ratios, are one of the most common tools for macro photography.

How to begin doing your own macro-photography:

Put macro mode on your camera and adjust the lens to focus on your subject. Unfortunately when you engage macro mode on most cameras you will lose control of exposure and shutter speed.

With any lens fixed to the camera, engaging macro mode on the camera commands the lens aperture to close to its minimum, so extending the depth of field and allowing you to move closer to the subject.

The best thing to do would be to by a proper macro lens but these aren't cheap so see if you are interested in Macro Photography first before you purchase such an expensive piece of equipment.

I really like macro-photographs because they show you the tiny details in things you wouldn't notice normally and after researching it I would like to try doing some macro–photography for myself.

Sources:

http://digital-photography-school.com/macro-photography-for-beginners-part-1/

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macro_photography

DSLR Camera

A digital single lens reflex or DSLR camera is a type of camera used by professional photographers and most people that are interested in photography. The significant difference between a DSLR and a standard compact camera is that you can remove the lens. This enables you to use all sorts of different lenses which allow photographers to create the picture they envisage.

So how do they work? The light comes in the lens and in the camera there is a mirror. When you take a picture that camera flips up and down, this mirror reflects the light up to the top of the camera into the pentaprism allowing you to see what you are shooting through the view finder whereas with normal cameras when you look through the view finder that isn't exactly what you are seeing through the lens because the view finder is slightly off center.

DSLR cameras have improved greatly over time and can now produce extremely good quality photographs and video. With a DSLR camera you can edit pictures straight after taking them and store lots of high quality photographs.

I have a DSLR camera and I think it is great. Its many features allow me to manipulate the pictures I want to create by, for example, focusing on a specific subject or adjusting the shutter speed and exposure.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_single-lens_reflex_camera

Point and Shoot Cameras

Most people own point and shoot camera. These simple cameras have automatic settings which mean the users don’t have to worry about exposure or shutter speed. This means they are very popular with people who consider themselves amateurs which is why they are very useful for documenting things like holidays, birthday parties and school graduations with ease.

Here are some tips for using a point and shoot camera:

Don’t over use the flash. With most point and shoot cameras the camera will usually put on the flash automatically but it is normally not needed. You will usually find that you will over expose your shots when you don’t need the flash on because when you put the flash on the camera can only use a fairly slow shutter speed.

Invest in a small tripod. If you use a point and shoot camera you probably aren’t extremely interested in photography but you can buy a small inexpensive tripod that will improve your photographs. There are times that you might want to use a longer shutter speed and a tripod will avoid blurriness.

Use the zoom. When you are taking a picture don’t get really close to your subject or you could cast a shadow on your shot or go out of focus.

I think point and shoot cameras are good for people wanting to get into photography as they are reasonably inexpensive but they are declining in demand because people can now easily use the camera on their phones because they usually have around the same picture quality.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point-and-shoot_camera