Better Pictures with Your Camera
FAQ: WHAT DO I NEED?
Photographers Need:
1. Working camera or camera phone with memory card
and ability to transfer photos from camera.
2. Please email in exercise/assignments on the Sunday before Mondays class.
WHERE Again Is The ZOOM LINK to Join the Class ?
https://zoom.us/j/95198032024?pwd=Mm5XRVlGL0dFMGJibURUWWJ1clpNdz09
Meeting ID: 951 9803 2024
Passcode: saycheese
HOW DO I REACH YOU BETWEEN CLASSES ?
"Jim"
Facebook.com/jim.austin1
jimagesphoto@gmail.com
COURSE MATERIALS: FREE
1. Each week there is an assigned Video, linked from this course outline.
2. Book Assigned is: Picture This: How Pictures Work, Molly Bang, Your library may have a copy.
WEEK 6 STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHS: scroll down to week 1 Outline
Week 5 STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHS
WEEK 4 STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHs
WEEK 3 STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHs
WEEKS One and Two Outline
- START WEEK 1
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TOP VIDEO How Pictures Work is suggested Video for Better Pictures weeks 2 and 3, because it covers principles in composition we saw in student photos.
Second Video: Learning Composition; Ten Photography Mistakes. This is assigned for Exercise 3b, if you choose LANDSCAPE. Nigel details which of his
nearly worked and which ones and which ones worked well: 4 Points SETTLE Body and Mind. SIMPLIFY Complications TAKE Extra Time with Space, Weight, and Time in PURPOSEFUL COMPOSITION |
WEEK 1
1. Photographers in this experiential class need a working camera, fully charged batteries, a consistent way to get pictures from camera to your device (desk or mobile). 2. Course Approach: We do not know all of photography, so what counts is YOUR unique view, story, vantage point. c. Ask many Questions, anytime ! I am not an expert and we learn together. 3. Introductions : Your Passion / Your story / Your Camera / Your Editor 4. Week One Info Jim Screen Shareing 5. Exercise/Assignment 1: One or two jpegs , downsized, due March 14th.
What are 5 Main Issues in Photographing? VANTAGE POINT, The Thing Itself, Framing, Time, Detail. Aperture and Depth a. What is the Minimum Focusing Distance of your Lens: As close as Possible b. How do different F Stops change your depth? c. Focusing Your Camera: Practice Manual Focus by switching off the autofocus on your lens if you have a Digital Camera (phone cameras practice focus lock on the screen) Click Play to Watch VIdeo upper left this page: How Pictures Work https://youtu.be/j_GRioqOT8Q Visual Literacy (length is 29:14) Exercise Assignment 2: Idea + Wide Open F-Stop A) Exploring your home or your daily walk, stay with the subject you are passionate about and ponder the concept, idea of it. This can be a continuing theme in your life, one that has meaning. For instance, for me right now my idea is that my dog knows things (Word idea is DOGKNOWS). The concept is not the subject, but what the subject is about, what it represents or symbolizes. B) EXPOSURE: Aperture Priority/ Portrait Mode Use a wide open aperture to create depth in your subject, any subject, with vertical or horizontally framing, in BW or Color. C) CRAFT All iPhone 7, 11, 11 Pro photographers may use PORTRAIT camera phone mode (some phone cameras have 6 choices. For this exercise, truly helpful reading if this is your first use of PORTRAIT Mode: https://www.imore.com/how-to-use-portrait-mode Digital REBEL and Mirrorless photographers use Av or A for Aperture exposure mode. Dial in apertures from f/1.4, f'1.8, f/2, f/4 to blur the background. You will need to work slowly and take your time focusing. Take 3-5 shots to ensure you have focused on your subject. Optional Video Links 1) Youtube Video Ten Settings for iPhone Photos https://iphonephotographyschool.com/iphone-11-camera/ 2) Youtube How to Take Better iPHone Portraits Key Point: CHANGE DEPTH (APERTURE SETTING) after the Shot: Start Vid at 1:15 minutes in. Portrait Mode feature wide portrait mode option. At 4:20 minute, video shows how to tap a picture, click edit, and see the aperture setting (real world examples guy photographs a woman with iPhone 11 pro max, but examples apply to any iphone that shoots portrait mode. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy6rcf9uElk --------------------------------------------- WEEK 3 1. HOW PICTURES WORK: Examples. 2. SUBJECT IDEA Review Exercise/Assignment 2 3. How to Critique Supportively a) Picture World, Not Person b) Suggestions to make more compelling. 4. EXPOSURE TRIANGLE Aperture, Shutter, ISO/ASA triangle. Aperture is in F-Stops. 5. ISO a. High ISO and Sharpness vs. HIGH ISO and Digital Noise b. Low ISO and Blur 6. When Do I Save As? a) JPG file, jpeg b) Photoshop PSD c) .TIFF file d) Save for Web. ASSIGNMENT/ Exercise 3: Photograph a landscape with a Foreground, Middle Ground and far Distance. Foreground must be in focus, Middle Ground in focus, Distance can be softer. Work in or near your home. City, nature, backyard are all OK. Use maximum (small opening) apertures for maximum depth of field (F/8, F/ 11, F/16). Video, At Left, watch VIDEOS OF THE WEEK: Solutions for 7 Mistakes Beginners Make (Nigel Danson main point at 19:33). Main point is connect your foreground with midground and distance of your photograph.(6:30 minutes in) https://youtu.be/ZHnNyKQsdLw Q: Jim, what do you mean by depth of field? A: https://shuttermuse.com/what-is-aperture-in-photography/ (scroll down) Examples: 1. William "Bill" Neill website https://portfolios.williamneill.com/portfolio/C0000FtMbDdkvkOw/G0000Cb3udiVMGMQ
Q and A 1. Review Shooting Exercise 3 2. GEAR IS GOOD: Shutter Speeds from Minutes to 1/8000. 3. VISION IS BETTER: SLOW PHOTOGRAPHY Tripod or Gorilla Pod for Stability. Gorilla for calm days, mobility. Tripod for high winds, working more deliberately. b) Review www.alessioromenzi.photoshelter.com/index 4. How To Get Natural Looking Color and Skin Tones? White Balance Reading One: http://thephotographerwithin.com/2014/07/what-is-white-balance/ Reading Two: https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/white-balance.htm 5. Creative Exercise 3 USING AN ONLINE PRINT SERVICE: Make your photo tangible. Make Yourself a Valentines Card or Print. Visit www.shutterfly.com, Upload a photo Shutterfly.com, send yourself a print, card for Valentines Day Feb 14th.
1. Review Exercise. Q and A. 2. Color Spaces: sRGB, Adobe RGB, PRO PHOTO https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/color-spaces.html 3. H U M A N I T Y Shooting Assignment/Exercise 4: Due in class week 5 Feb 15th. Photograph a person. Make many exposures, 10-30 and send the best two to jimagesphoto@gmail.com Work indoors or out. BW or Color. The eyes, person or pet, must be in focus, they are the windows to the soul. Use 1 light source, like a large window or overcast winter sky. Your camera position height (vantage point) is at eye level or slightly below; please, for this exercise, do not have the camera higher than the person's eye level. Use all you have practiced so far of SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD and WIDE aperture (Av, A of F/1.8, F2.8, F/4) and Portrait Modes on your iPhone, Rebel, or mirrorless camera. Or, you may also want to choose a wide angle lens and portray the person in a landscape environment. For examples of environmental portraiture, see the links to Sally Mann's BW work below. The visual examples are from Jim's work Provincetown 25 Years https://www.jimages.com/provincetown-25-years.html Two Background Links Related to This Assignment - Environment: Sally Mann, her bio and a slideshow of her portraiture. https://www.famousphotographers.net/sally-mann Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) Related to Headshots https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/1990/julia-margaret-cameron-british-born-india-1815-1879/ Elliott Erwitt: A Lifetimes Work (b.1928) https://ppmag.com/profiles/a-lifetimes-work?utm_source=PPA-Professional+Photographers+of+America&utm_campaign=3067832b23-PPA+News+21.01.06_Member TED TALK The Silent Drama of Photography Sebastio Salgado (b.1944). Short on time? Start partway in at 4:15 and again at 10:05 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH4GAXXH29s Ralph Eugene Meatyard (mystery) https://www.vintag.es/2018/07/ralph-eugene-meatyard-photography.html
1. Q and A 2. Exercise Assignment Below Issues in Taking Portrait 4. Review Assignment 4 Q and A on Camera Skills and Tech . Review Assignment Exercise Printing :a. How Big Can I enlarge?: Know Print Size Resolution and Print Size b. Shutterfly, Instagram, Bay Photo, Costco, Printique, CVS, Home Inkjet Printing. ONLINE PORTRAITS OF THE WEEK: Jesse Herzog at https://www.jesseherzog.com/portraits ____ Quotes For Photographers: 1. "The brain of a photographer is not only for vision. It is a Tardis, and imaginative instrument for action and attention; it prepares our hands and is driven by them so we make create meaning in our world with our photographs." Jim Austin Jimages 2. "Attention without feeling, I began to learn, is only a report. An openness- an empathy-was necessary if the attention was to matter. Such openness and empathy M. had in abundance, and gave away freely . . .M. instilled in me this deeper level of looking and working, of seeing through the heavenly visibles to the heavenly invisibles." ~ Mary Oliver on Molly Cook 3. "What atmosphere is to nature, tone is to a photograph." Jim Austin 4. "Photography is like making love, you don't want to go too fast." Jim Austin 5. "If I can learn from a photograph something about photography, that's what makes it (a picture) interesting. Don't ask me what that is, precisely. There is a seeming paradox functioning. Its the an illusion of a literal description of how the camera saw. From it, you can know very little. You don't know what happened, You know how a piece of time and space looked to the camera, but it has to compel you to suspend your disbelief." Gary Winogrand 6. "Slow photography is the experience of an intentional, attentive, mind-full craft of making single photographs. " Jim Austin Jimages 7. "To create better photographs, we learn to see the light and the relationships within a scene. We learn to see with our two eyes the way a camera sees, with a single eye and a single aperture setting. If our phone cameras could learn to see meaningfully, it would be fun, but they can't do that yet, because we see with our souls." |