ph oto gr a ph y c o m m u n i c a t i o n
g r a p h i c s
photography
communication graphics
Faculty Guide: Shailan Parker & Amit Kharsani
Imon Khandakar PG Textile Design 2012-2013
“It is through living that we discover ourselves, at the same time as we discover the world around us.� Henri Cartier-Bresson
“You don't take a photograph, you make it.”
—Ansel Adams
Acknowledgement No one walks alone on the journey of life. just where do you start to thank those that joined you, walked beside you, and helped you along the way continuously urged me to do this document, those that I have met and worked with, and to share my insights together with the secrets to my continual, positive approach to life and all that life throws at us. Needless to mention that Mr.Sailen Parker & Mr. Amit Kharsani who had been a source of inspiration and for their timely guidance in the conduct of our project work. Much of what I have learned over the 1 week came as the result of being a student and Mr. Parker & Mr. Amit, in their own ways inspired me and, subconsciously contributed a tremendous amount to the content of this document. They shared their knowledge, their ideas, and numerous tips all of which culminated in the completion of this document. A little bit of each of them will be found here weaving in and out of the pages - thanks! It is through their teachings, encouragement and support that I have gained and grown. Through this doc and my travels I will continue to spread their photographic message as human beings. The catalyst that made me complete this work is my fellow batchmates. All of whom are dedicated to sharing their knowledge with me so that a positive group learning happens. Thanks guys. They helped me. They might also help you.
Contents Camera controls and techniques
Elements of design
• Shutter speed Bulb setting Zoomer Panning • Aperture • Exposure • ISO • Depth of field Aperture Focal length Distance between subject and • Metering Evaluative Partial Spot Centre weighted • White balance Indoor Outdoor • Focal length • Crop • Panorama
• • • • • • • •
Point Line Shape Form Color Texture Pattern Light and shade
Introduction The word photography comes from two ancient Greek words: photo, for “light,” and graph, for “drawing.” “Drawing with light” is a way of describing photography. When a photograph is made, light or some other form of radiant energy, such as X rays, is used to record a picture of an object or scene on a light-sensitive surface. Mankind has been a maker of images at least since the cave paintings of some 20,000 years ago. With the invention of photography, a realistic image that would have taken a skilled artist hours or even days to draw could be recorded in exact detail within a fraction of a second. Today, photography has become a powerful means of communication and a mode of visual expression that touches human life in many ways. Like many things, photography is a delicate balance between science and art. If we don’t learn the science/technical side, we will have no control over what we get. When we lack artistic touch, image will end up being mechanical, uninspiring. Learning the rules of composition; figuring out what feelings to convey; being deliberate in artistic choices and learning to break the artistic rules when it feels right.
BASIC CONCEPTS
TOOL
• Composition- Composition refers to the arrangement and relationship to the different parts that make up the whole image. • Subject-Subject is what we want the viewer to see when he looks at an image. • Background and foreground-Whatever is behind and in frontof the subject is background and foreground respectively. • Focus-Focus decides what to be kept sharp and what to be fuzzy in a composition. • Lighting- Lighting is photography, the art of capturing light reflected from subjects onto film or digital surface. • Colour-the colour of subject and how it interacts with the surroundings and the lighting. Motion-Whether to freeze or blur the motion or capture an inanimate composition.
A camera is a device that records images that can be stored directly, transmitted to another location, or both. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the word camera obscura (Latin for “dark chamber”), an early mechanism for projecting images.
PHOTOGRAPHY IN DESIGN • Sensitivity to composition-the fundamental principles of design remains the same for all visual artists and designers. The decision of what to leave in and what to filter out instils sensitivity, spatial awareness.
• Observant of things around- Photography forces to observe, to have a perspective. • Play of light and shade, Colour sensitivity • Inspiration-data collection -documentation-reference- It acts as a visual diary of the things that inspire us from the real world • Tool of expression& understanding our preference in art and design.
In its most basic form, a digital camera is a photographic device consisting of a lightproof box with a lens at one end, and a digital image sensor at the other in place of the traditional film plane. Advances in digital photography are fast providing a wide spectrum of features and options that can be challenging for the new digital photographer to master.
Digital Single-Lens Reflex (DSLR) This camera is named for the reflexing mirror that allows framing the image through the lens prior to capturing the image. As light passes through the DSLR camera’s lens, it falls onto a reflexing mirror and then passes through a prism to the viewfinder. The viewfinder image corresponds to the actual image area. When the picture is taken, the mirror reflexes, or moves up and out of the way, allowing the open shutter to expose the digital image sensor, which captures the image. Most features on a DSLR are adjustable, allowing for greater control over the captured image. Most DSLR cameras also allow the use of interchangeable lenses, meaning one can swap lenses of different focal lengths on the same camera body. SLR This is a camera where the photographer sees exactly the same image that is exposed to the film and can adjust everything by turning dials and clicking buttons. The optical component of the camera is the lens. At its simplest, a lens is just a curved piece of glass or plastic. Its job is to take the beams of light bouncing off of an object and redirect them so they come together to form a real image -- an image that looks just like the scene in front of the lens. Digital Point-and-Shoot This is a lightweight digital camera, aptly named after the two steps required of the photographer to capture an image. Basically, point-and-shoot cameras require
pointing the camera and taking the picture without manually adjusting settings such as the aperture, shutter speed, focus, and other settings. Point-and-shoot digital cameras are generally light and small, have built-in automatic flash, require no adjusting of focus, and most often include an LCD display that allows viewing the image through the lens in real time via the digital image sensor.
Bulb Bulb, abbreviated B, is a shutter speed setting on an adjustable camera that allows for long exposure times under the direct control of the photographer. With this setting, the shutter simply stays open as long as the shutter release button remains depressed. Bulb mode is used for long exposures at night. The main advantage is that it allows the photographer to achieve shutter speeds longer than the 30 seconds that is allowed on most DSLRs.
f-stop: f/5 SS: 45 sec. ISO: 200 fl: 47 mm
Zoomer panning Panning is the horizontal movement of a camera as it scans a moving subject. Instead of blurring the subject, one could instead render everything else blurred. This requires the camera to either be located on the moving subject itself, or aimed in such a way that the image frame moves with the subject.
A successful panning shot requires a shutter speed which is just slow enough to cause the background to streak, but just fast enough that the subject still appears sharp.
f-stop: f/3.5 SS: 1/2 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 18 mm f-stop: f/22 SS: 1/25 sec. ISO: 200 fl: 42 mm
Shutter speed
f-stop: f/22 SS: 1/2 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 18 mm
f-stop: f/14 SS: 1/200 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 50 mm
f-stop: f/6.3 SS: 1/4000 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 32 mm
The shutter is a complicated mechanism that precisely controls the duration of time that light passing through the lens remains in contact with the digital image sensor. The camera’s shutter is activated by the shutter release button. Shutter speed refers to the amount of time the shutter is open or the digital image sensor is activated. The exposure of the image is determined by the combination of shutter speed and the opening of the aperture. Shutter speeds are displayed as fractions of a second, such as 1/8 or 1/250. Shutter speed increments are similar to aperture settings, as each incremental
setting either halves or doubles the time of the previous one. For example, 1/60 of a second is half as much exposure time as 1/30 of a second, but about twice as much as 1/125 of a second. Shutter speed is often used to convey or freeze motion. A fast-moving object, such as a car, tends to blur when shot with a slow shutter speed like 1/8. On the other hand, a fast shutter speed, such as 1/1000, appears to freeze the blades of a helicopter while it’s flying.
Aperture The aperture is the opening in the lens that allows light to pass through. The exposure of the image is determined by the combination of shutter speed and the opening of the aperture. The larger the aperture, more light is allowed to pass through the lens. The aperture is measured in f-stops, and each stop represents a factor of two in the amount of light admitted. The aperture setting (f-stop), combined with the focal length of the lens, determines the depth of field of an image. f-stop -The opening of the aperture is adjusted by setting the f-stop. An f-stop is a ratio of the focal length of the lens to the diameter of the opening of the aperture. For example, a 50 mm lens with an aperture opened up to a diameter of 12.5 mm results in an f-stop of f4 (50 รท 12.5 = 4). Therefore, the larger the numerical value of the f-stop, the smaller the opening of the aperture. The speed of a lens is determined by its largest f-stop value (smallest number). f-stop: f/13 SS: 1/30 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 45 mm
f-stop: f/18 SS: 1/30 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 45 mm
f-stop: f/32 SS: 1/30 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 45 mm
Exposure Exposure is the amount of light collected by the sensor in camera during a single picture. “The Exposure Triangle” encompasses the three factors which affect the exposure of a photograph with a given amount of light. The three factors are:Shutter — how long the light is let in. Aperture — how large of an opening the light is let in through. ISO — how sensitive the film or sensor is to light. If the shot is exposed too long the photograph will be washed out which is called overexposure. If the shot is exposed too short the photograph will appear too dark which is called underexposure.
f-stop: f/4.5 SS: 1/25 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 24 mm
f-stop: f/4.5 SS: 1/5 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 24 mm
f-stop: f/4.5 SS: 1/2 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 24 mm
ISO
iso 100
ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. The lower the number the less sensitive camera is to light and the finer the grain. Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations to get faster shutter speed. The component within camera that can change sensitivity is called “image sensor” or “sensor”. It is re-
iso 400
sponsible for gathering light and transforming it into an image. With increased sensitivity, camera sensor can capture images in low-light environments without having to use a flash. But higher sensitivity comes at an expense – it adds grain or “noise” to the pictures. Typically, ISO numbers start from 100-200 (Base ISO) and increment in value in geometric progression. So,
iso 800
the ISO sequence is: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400 and etc. Each step between the numbers effectively doubles the sensitivity of the sensor. So, ISO 200 is twice more sensitive than ISO 100, while ISO 400 is twice more sensitive than ISO 200.
iso 3200
f-stop: f/5.6 SS: 1/40 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 92 mm f-stop: f/5.6 SS: 1/10 sec. ISO: 400 fl: 64 mm
f-stop: f/7.1 SS: 1/10 sec. ISO: 800 fl: 42 mm f-stop: f/4 SS: 1/800 sec. ISO: 3200 fl: 18 mm
Depth of field F-stop Depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image. Three factors affect the depth of field: a)The size of the aperture or (f-stop)- While changing the aperture (f-stop) will not have a striking effect on the depth of field for a distant subject or a wide angle (short focal length) lens, it can make a great deal of difference in a closeup or a photo taken using a telephoto or zoom lens. A wider aperture (smaller f-stop number) will result in a shallower depth of field. It can be used to keep either the foreground or background out of focus while maintaining the subject in focus.
f-stop: f/5 SS: 1/15 sec. ISO: 1600 fl: 55 mm
f-stop: f/10 SS: 1/4 sec. ISO: 1600 fl: 53 mm
f-stop: f/20 SS: 1/2 sec. ISO: 1600 fl: 60 mm
Depth of field Focal length of the lens The depth of field is inversely proportional to the focal length of the lens; that is, the smaller the focal length numbers of the lens, the greater the depth of field. For example, a 28 mm lens has the ability to capture more of the picture in sharp focus than a 100 mm lens.
f-stop: f/11 SS: 1/15 sec. ISO: 400 fl: 50 mm f-stop: f/14 SS: 1/10 sec. ISO: 400 fl: 65 mm f-stop: f/14 SS: 1/10 sec. ISO: 400 fl: 100 mm
Depth of field Distance from the camera to the subject
Depth of field is directly proportional to distance; i.e. a subject at a greater distance will have greater depth of field than a close-up subject.
f-stop: f/3.5 SS: 1/40 sec. ISO: 3200 fl: 18 mm
f-stop: f/3.5 SS: 1/40 sec. ISO: 3200 fl: 18 mm
f-stop: f/3.5 SS: 1/40 sec. ISO: 3200 fl: 18 mm
Light metering
In order to shoot an image with the correct exposure, one has to know the correct value of the intensity of light. Light meters are used to measure the intensity of the reflective light in a scene. Digital cameras have built-in light meters that allow to choose the portion of the viewfinder to meter. These meter settings include, but are not limited to: a) Evaluative: Evaluative metering operates by dividing the frame into several small segments, taking a reading from each individual segment, and processing the averageof the total segments to recommend the best exposure value for the overall image b) Spot: Spot metering operates by metering within a small target area that is usually in the centre of the frame. Spot metering is particularly useful when subject is placed in front of a relatively bright or dark background. Spot metering ensures correct exposure of subject. c) Centre-weighted: When the camera’s light meter is set to centre-weighted, thecamera measures the light in the entire viewfinder but gives extra emphasis to thecentre of the frame. This setting is typically used by portrait photographers, because the subject is usually cantered and the background isn’t ignored. d)Partial-metering: Effective when the background is much brighter than the subject due to backlighting, etc. The gray area in the figure is where the metering is weighted to obtain the standard exposure.
f-stop: f/8 SS: 1/400 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 18 mm
f-stop: f/8 SS: 1/60 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 18 mm
f-stop: f/8 SS: 1/320 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 18 mm
f-stop: f/8 SS: 1/400 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 18 mm
White balance (indoor) This setting helps the digital SLR capture the colours in a scene accurately and can also be used creatively to adjust the overall colours in a scene. Hence if camera detects that a scene has too much red colored/ warm light (that is, the colour temperature of the light is too low) it will attempt to make an adjustment by “adding” more blue to the scene (by increasing the colour temperature) and thereby balancing the colour of the light and making it more “natural”. Basic ones are-
Auto – this is where the camera makes a best guess on a shot by shot basis. Daylight/Sunny – not all cameras have this setting because it sets things as fairly ‘normal’ white balance settings. Shade – the light in shade is generally cooler (bluer) than shooting in direct sunlight so this mode will warm things up a little. Cloudy – this setting generally warms things up a touch more than ‘daylight’ mode.
Tungsten – this mode is usually symbolized with a little bulb and is for shooting indoors, especially under tungsten (incandescent) lighting (such as bulb lighting). It generally cools down the colours in photos. Fluorescent – this compensates for the ‘cool’ light of fluorescent light and will warm up shots. Flash – the flash of a camera can be quite a cool light so Flash WB mode warms up the shots a touch. Custom – Setting as per our preference.
f-stop: f/5 SS: 1/20 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 18 mm
White balance (outdoor) f-stop: f/4.5 SS: 1/20 sec. ISO: 200 fl: 32 mm
Focal Length An important attribute of a lens, besides its quality, is its focal length. Focal length is technically defined as the distance from the part of the optical path where the light rays converge to the point where the light rays passing through the lens are focused onto the image plane—or the digital image sensor. Focal length can be thought of as the amount of magnification of the lens. The longer the focal length, the more the lens magnifies the scene. In addition to magnification, the focal length determines the perspective and compression of the scene.
f-stop: f/5.6 SS: 1/50 sec. ISO:200 fl: 18 mm
f-stop: f/5.6 SS: 1/40 sec. ISO: 200 fl: 35 mm
f-stop: f/5.6 SS: 1/50 sec. ISO: 200 fl: 50 mm
PANORAMA
Crop
f-stop: f/5.6 SS: 1/125 sec. ISO:800 fl: 135 mm
Panoramic photography, also known as wide format photography, is a special technique that stitches multiple images from the same camera together to form a single, wide photograph (vertical or horizontal). The term “panorama” literally means “all sight” in Greek and it first originated from painters that wanted to capture a wide view of a landscape, not just a certain part of it. Two kinds of panorama shooting:
1) Wide angle panoramas 2)180 degree panoramas The basic principle of capturing a panorama is to ensure utmost consistency between images. This means that focal-length, focus, aperture, ISO, shutter-speed, exposure, white-balance and image parameters all have to match exactly.
f-stop: f/8 SS: 1/250sec. ISO: 100 fl: 18 mm
Elements of design
f-stop: f/10 SS: 1/2000 sec. ISO: 1600 fl: 18 mm
Point
f-stop: f/5.6 SS: 1/400 sec. ISO:100 fl: 92 mm
f-stop: f/5 SS: 1/25 sec. ISO: 800 fl: 53 mm
lines f-stop: f/6.3 SS: 1/80 sec. ISO:100 fl: 80 mm
f-stop: f/6.3 SS: 1/400 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 80 mm
f-stop: f/8 SS: 1/12 sec. ISO:400 fl: 18 mm
Shapes
f-stop: f/5.6 SS: 1/320 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 135 mm
f-stop: f/10 SS: 1/60 sec. ISO:100 fl: 113 mm
Forms
f-stop: f/3.2 SS: 1/8 sec. ISO: 200 fl: 18 mm
f-stop: f/5.6 SS: 1/125 sec. ISO:100 fl: 80 mm
f-stop: f/8 SS: 1/320 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 69 mm
Patterns
f-stop: f/6.3 SS: 1/60 sec. ISO:400 fl: 100 mm
Texture
f-stop: f/5.6 SS: 1/25 sec. ISO: 800 fl: 135 mm
f-stop: f/9 SS: 1/80 sec. ISO:1600 fl: 18 mm
f-stop: f/2.7 SS: 1/40 sec. ISO: 200 fl: 135 mm
light & shade
f-stop: f/5.6 SS: 1/100 sec. ISO: 800 fl: 135 mm
Colours
f-stop: f/2.7 SS: 1/25 sec. ISO: 100 fl: 18 mm
BIBLIOGRAPHY/ RESOURCES