Focal length Experimentation - Image bank

Telephoto:

This photograph is an example of telephoto, it completely blurs the background, causing you to only be able to focus on the subject of the photo which is the dragonfly, I really like this because it blurs the background so much, whereas usually you only blur it a little bit to bring a bit more focus to the subject of the photo.

Zoom Lens:

Zoom lenses allow you to become closer or further away from your subject. The image above shows the zoom lens very well because if you put the exposure time high and zoom whilst it is taking the photograph, this is the result you will get, it looks as if the flowers are getting closer to you.

Fixed Lens

This is a fixed lens photograph, it was shot with a fixed 65mm f/8 camera, fixed lens cameras are good because it means you already know their field of view, they are also more challenging, you have to make the subject fit what you can take photographs of, you can't change the f stop to make a specific photo work, you have to move around so that it will work.

Focal Length Experimentation

A camera lens is composed of multiple end elements assembled and fitted together in a tube called a lens barrel.
This objective lens is known as an 'objective' or compound lens.
A camera lens is either designated as primed or zoom.
Prime lenses tend to be higher quality whilst zoom lenses offer more flexibility.

Focal Length: The distance between the centre of a lens or a curved mirror and it's focus.

FOV: The field of view (FOV) is determined by the angle of view from the lens out to the scene and can be measured horizontally or vertically.
Larger sensors or films have wider FOVs and can capture more of the scene

In 35mm photography, lenses with a focal length of 50mm are called normal because they work without reducing or magnifying and creates images the way we see the scene with our naked eyes (same picture angle of 46 degrees).

Wide angle lenses (short focal length) capture more because they have a wider picture angle, telephoto lenses (long focal length) have a narrower picture angle.

For our focal length experimentation photography we took photographs of the same person in the same place using different zooms, we used the zoom lens at 17mm, 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 70mm. We then took photographs starting from 70mm and zoomed out whilst keeping subject in the same headspace.

Macro Close up - Definition Post

Magnification:
Macro photography has to do with the size that your subject is projected onto your camera's sensor. If you have a one inch object, its projection at 'life-size' would be one inch on the camera's sensor.

Macro photography is when you photograph a small objects that look larger than life size 

When an object is projected at life size it is called 1:1, this means it is life size, 2:1 means it is double the size

Tips for macro:

• Use a tripod

• Explore aperture, the lower aperture may not be suitable as the depth of field is limited

• Use of additional lighting (flash)

• Focus manually (decide where your point of focus should be)

This is an example of macro photography, this bug looks incredibly large and on the screen it looks as large as my thumb, however in real life it is probably less than half this size. This type of photography is really interesting and I would like to look at this later in the year when I'm not studying portraiture.

I really like this photograph because the raspberry looks life size whilst the hornets look bigger than life size, I think that this is probably double the size of what hornets actually are. In addition, the small depth of field makes this photograph even better because we can see that there is another hornet in the background, however it is not focused on at all. The viewers eyes are drawn to the three hornets near the raspberry.

This photograph is really good, I think it is a great example of macro photography. The insect definitely looks larger than life, I also think it is very good because it is only focused on the bug and the thing it has landed on, whereas the photograph before is focused on a few things. The background of this photo is very pretty even though it is blurred out.

Wide Angle and Close up - Definition Post

Close up: A photograph taken at close range or with a long focal-length lens. Usually close up photographs only focus on one thing.

This photograph is an example of a close up photograph because it is only focused on the frogs eye, meaning it has a very small depth of field. I like this photograph because of the use of colour, red and green are opposite on the colour wheel and the two are so different, it makes the photograph more interesting to look out, in addition to this the colours are very bright which also attracts the eye, if the photograph was dull colours I wouldn't be as interested in it.

This is another example of close up photography, I really love this because you can see all the individual raindrops on the ladybird, with the naked eye, you wouldn't see in this much detail. And again the use of red and green really attracts the eye, along with the black which is very bold in contrast.

Wide angle: A wide angle lens is a lens which has a small focal-length compared to the focal length of a normal lens.

This photograph is a great example of how wide angle can distort the subject of a photograph, the head of the goat would not be this big in real life compared to the body, personally I think this is a good effect, it makes the goat the main subject of the photograph, your eyes aren't really distracted much so the goat is the only thing you look at.

This is another example of wide angle photography, this photograph is really nice because it centres on the building in the centre and it is very symmetrical due to the lights on either side of the building. I love how this looks however personally I probably wouldn't try this this term because I want to focus on people for now.

To create this effect you have to use your camera at its most zoomed out, which for my camera lens is 18mm, I also made sure that everything was in focus, this doesn't look as good as it would if I had a specific wide angle lens, although I think it worked pretty well for a normal lens.

Wide Angle and Close Up - Technique & Work Diary

Wide Angle and Close Up:

Wide angle: A wide angle lens is a lens which has a small focal-length compared to the focal length of a normal lens.Close up: A photograph taken at close range or with a long focal-length lens. Usually close up photographs only focus on one thing.

This is an example of the technique, you can do it on anything, people, animals, or plants and objects, though personally I think it works best on people because you can see much better how it has distorted it.14mm, 20mm 24mm, 28mm, and 35mm are good lengths for wide angle close up photography

When I took photographs using wide angle, we used our normal cameras and just experimented using the camera settings on the smallest focal length, this didn't work very well but the photograph I took of Ellie is quite good and I'd like to experiment with this technique again as it was quite interesting, I would like to use an actual wide angle lens and take photographs of people to see how much it distorts them.

This is the best photograph from the wide angle shoot, I think that it definitely shows wide angle, the subjects face is slightly distorted but not as much as the example photograph at the top of this post.

This is my worst photo from this shoot, it doesn't show any distortion and it just looks like I was practising depth of field, I think that this is a very boring photo and it probably doesn't help that the object I took the photo of is see through.

If I was to do this again I would use an actual wide angle lens because I don't think that this lens worked very well, although I did the best I could with what I had in the lesson.

Illustrated Project Proposal

My personal investigation is:

to look into portraiture, I would like to look at people of different ages for this. Although I will look at doing this in both studio environments and also non studio environments.

Background:

I would like to focus on portraiture of different aged people, I would like to make the area I am in a key part of this project as I am going to France and Switzerland and they can be quite pretty places. I am also going to go to Brighton in England and also Camden and Brick Lane in London, these are very different places, and I think it will create a nice effect rather than making the background separate from the subject.

I'd like to begin this subject by taking photographs in London of people my age, Camden and Brick Lane are very popular areas for young adults as they have shops and markets that appeal to people my age. I would like to take some photographs before my next lesson because that way I can spend my time editing photographs rather than taking them during the lesson as I don't have photoshop at home.

Photographers research: 

I will look at artists that I have previously looked at a lot during AS, like Alec Soth, I will also look at photographers that I haven't researched much like Martin Parr.

I'm also going to look at photographers that aren't as well known like George Muncey who posts his photography on instagram, I absolutely love his photography because he focuses on people like I want to do. 

Most of the photographers I am looking at are still taking photographs now, the photos aren't old, the oldest photographs that I have looked at are Martin Parrs photo's, they were taken in the 1980's, but other than the fashion, you probably wouldn't know that.

I want to look at photographers that have taken photographs of nice places as well because a lot of my photographs will include pretty backgrounds like the Alps in France, or the beach in Brighton, even London has some very pretty places.

Illustrations: 

Whilst I was researching photographers, I came across these photographs.

This is a photograph called Joshua by Alec Soth, I really like this photograph because the background is just as interesting as the subject of the photograph, it gives us an idea of where he is or who he is whereas if the photograph was just of him in a black background, we wouldn't have much of an idea. The man in this photograph is in a prison, this is in contrast to the words 'preacher man' on his collar, which shows that he may see himself as religious, however he has broken the law and ended up in prison, we don't know that he has committed a crime that hurt someone or if it's a form of ironic humour. The photo shows a lot but it also brings a lot of questions with it. 

This is another photograph by Alec Soth from the same series, called Sleeping by the Mississippi. The photo shows a woman smiling at the camera holding a framed photograph of what she believes to be an angel, Mississippi is in the bible belt of america and a lot of the people there are christian. I find this photo is very interesting because of the colours it uses, the frame and the photograph are very bright in contrast to the muted colours of the background and the subject. In this photograph I would definitely say that the Photograph is the Punctum as it is probably the thing that draws you in the most.

This photograph, by Alec Soth, is of a man who seems to be asleep on a rock, I like this photograph because of the colours in it, they are quite muted and I think that it looks really nice, I want to look into doing photographs that are dark like this but I think that I would need to use a tripod because the aperture would have to be higher than I would usually use.

This photograph is by Martin Parr and it is looking at elderly people on their holidays, I like Martin Parr's photography because he takes photographs of all ages, however in this photo the background isn't as focused on, although I won't always have a nice background for my photographs, I would like to have backgrounds on most of my shoots, no matter if its alps or just a forest background.

This is another photograph by Martin Parr, it shows two young children eating ice-cream at the beach, I really like this photograph because it shows the background of the scene as well as the subjects in the foreground, the two children aren't focusing on the camera meaning that they are probably showing their true emotion, rather than just smiling or frowning for the camera. I like how this photograph has quite muted colours, except for the red which shouts out at you. I would really like to explore this type of photography as he uses film cameras for his photographs.

I really like the background for this photograph, it is like a dull mirror, I think it creates a really nice effect where it reflects the colour but not necessarily the shape much, creating a really nice range of golds and whites. This photograph is by Annie Leibovitz. I like a lot of her work, especially the covers for Cyndi Lauper's albums 'She's So Unusual' and 'True Colours'.

This photograph is by David Lachapelle, I think that it works really well and he obviously takes the background into account because if he had shot this in a studio then it wouldn't work well at all, a plain background isn't what you want with a photograph like this. The fact that there is so much going on in the photograph sometimes affects a photo badly because you can't focus on one thing, however this works very well because she is definitely more in focus than the rest of the photo and this means you are still drawn to her rather than the other people in the background. I prefer muted colours over the saturation in this photograph, however I do like how busy this photograph is, it makes it more interesting to look at.

The photographer for this image is George Muncey, he primarily uses film cameras although he does use a lot of different formats like DSLR cameras and even his iPhone, I really like his photography because he looks into the youth of London, and captures the beauty of London as well as the people that grew up there. I would like to try and take photographs like these for my shoots, the subjects of these photographs are a similar age to me so I would be able to get photographs of people like this. In this particular photo he has focused on the foreground and kept the background blurry, however the majority of his photographs keep the background in focus, because the place they are is just as important to the photo as the person in it.

This photograph is another of George Muncey's, it shows a boy sitting on the floor of an exhibition, I really like this photograph because it would be a great photo without the art behind him, however this tells us where the photograph was taken so we know more about what is happening, for me the punctum is definitely the art on the wall in this image, I really like that we can see the whole body of the boy, instead of just his head and torso like many of George's other photographs.

This photograph is also by George Muncey, it is of a man sitting on a train, I think this image is a candid photo because the man isn't looking at the camera, he probably doesn't know it is being taken. I also love the framing for the photograph, personally I don't take many photographs where the subject is in the middle because I think that it looks better when the subject is off to the side, however in this photo I think it looks really good, the one thing that attracts my eye is probably the no smoking sign on the train window.

Photographic Techniques: 

I would like to try out film photography as I've never worked with film before but I like the effect it has on photographs when compared to DSLR photographs. I also think it would be interesting to look at how exposure changes photographs on film cameras.

I would also like to try and make more gifs as my first go didn't turn out perfectly because I obviously didn't keep the camera still, though it was on a tripod.