Compose, sackboys chosen 6

I have chosen 6 images that I have taken with the DSLR camera that I feel demonstrate effective use of lighting, focus, understanding of aperture and depth of field.

This is from my first shoot in the DSLR session. The yellow in the background is a plastic chair that I used to stand him on. I focused in on Sackboy from an upward angle, this made him look larger than the 7 inches that he actually is. I like the direction of light and the shadows it makes on the side of his face. The yellow in the background adds some contrasting color and it being blurred keeps the focus on the foreground.

I like the angle and proportion of this shot. If you where to draw a line from the top right corner to the bottom left, you would see the bottom right half lit and top left half shaded, I think this is a really effective shot. He looks like he’s looking directly at the camera and almost looks alive.

These two photographs have to be my favorite of the bunch. It demonstrates how depth of field can change a photograph of the same image for different effects.

Although this image isn’t balanced I still find it effective. It looks like it could be used as a wallpaper. Unfortunately I didn’t notice the small discrepancy in the lower right corner, which was the edge of the back drop, other than that I really like the clear lighting and clear focus in this shot.

I feel the same about this image, looks like it could be used as a wallpaper,again the image is unbalanced but it works. Although the image is slightly over exposed, the aperture may have been to wide or the shutter speed may have been to slow.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Sackboy for donating his time and effort, although we had a few disputes over some images the overall outcome was a success.

Compose. Looking at other Digital photography examples.

As part of the compose mini brief I am required to look at other examples of digital photography. So have chosen a few images to comment on that I find interesting.

unfortunately I was unable to find the name of the photographer who took this image, so if you know the name of the artist please let me know.

This picture stood out to me because of the angle and the fact that I very much like black and white photos. I sometimes feel colour can make and image to messy, black and white is simple and clean. It captures the movement of the girl’s hair and the strands in the background look like they are glowing because the are out of focus. It feels like the photographer has also captured a thought that can be read on the girls face.

Next time I view my photographs and other images, I will consider viewing them at a different angle to how they were originally shot and maybe I will view them in a totally different perspective.

The image below was photographed by Martin Philby. (Audience at Pyramid Rock festival, Phillip Island, Victoria , 2005)

I like the composition of this photograph, your attention is instantly drawn to the two girls because they are centered and in focus (Using guide crosshairs). I like that only the middle, horizontal strip across the photograph is in focus and the foreground and background is blurred, this is what forces your attention on the girls.

The photograph right was taken by James Casebere, Nevisian underground #2, 2001.

At first glance I thought this was a painting, I think that’s because of the rippling light reflections on the ceiling  making it look like brush strokes on a canvas. The water in the bottom half off the photo creates the illusion that the arch way is longer that it is in reality. There are two light sources, one coming from behind the arch in the distance, this has highlighted the left side of the arch and the curvature across the top and the shape of the opening on the wall. The second source is coming from the right before the arch out of view and is reflection light from the water onto the wall. I like the effect that light plays in this image, if you were to flood the room with light it wouldn’t have the same artistic effect.

Compose. My photo shoot with Sackboy take 2

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In my second photo shoot with Sackboy, I used a lot more photographic resources. Soft boxes, this gave a much softer light. These fit onto the front of the low heat Tungsten if you unscrew the collar. I also use an arm to angle the light downwards. This time instead of using the environment for a back drop I used a white paper back drop available in the studio. After the first few pictures I realized that the white balance wasn’t right, it was coming out light mocha, so I corrected that by selecting WB on my camera and photographing the white back drop to get the right balance for the lighting conditions. For this session I made sure I used a tripod, this allowed me to slow down the shutter speed and widen the aperture to get a sharper picture using low lighting. I feel am grasping the balance of all the settings slowly, but I will continue to practice and hopefully it will become second nature so I can work faster and have a large range of usable shots.

Compose. My photo shoot with Sackboy take 1.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Out of approximately 44 photos I took, in our first digital SLR (Single Lens Reflex) induction, only about 18 of them were usable. For my first time using the DSLR’s I think I got on pretty well, although I am finding it hard to get my head around what does what but it’s all trial and error at the moment but the more I use them the better I’ll get. The images that came out in focus I am really pleased with. It is just a case of finding the balance with the focus and aperture speed, lighting and thinking about if I need a tripod, white balancing, etc. For the lighting I used a Tungstan (hot head) light,these give off a direct harsh light with no defuser. I didn’t use a tripod for our first induction which is probability why the majority of my pictures are out of focus, due to holding the camera with a slow aperture speed set for the low lit shots.  So in our next induction with lighting I will be sure to use and experiment with a tripod for shots using a slow shutter speeds. I experimented with focusing on different parts of Sackboy, like the zip, hands face and feet so the rest of the shot is out of focus. I experimented with different angles, light, and zoom. I was quite amazed at the detail of the image of the Yellow chair. I have never used a camera that is capable of that much detail, I found out that this is down to setting the camera to manual and set to capture as RAW files. This makes the image incredibly detailed and allows you, when working on the photo’s after, to have and use as much information as possible.