PROJECT FOUR: LIGHT, MEASURING EXPOSURE

LIght is photography. in my manual it was described as the raw material of photography. In his book "Understanding exposure" (2010) Bryan Peterson explains that achieving a creatively correct exposure is paramount to a photographers ability to be consistent. He goes ahead to point out why the photographer should determine what kind of exposure  opportunity he/she is facing. either shallow or great depth of field, freezing action, implying motion or panning. Once those are determined, the real question should be "from where do i take my meter reading?"(Peterson , Bryan,Understanding exposure, 3rd edition, page 103).

Light has the greatest impact in photography. In this project, i will demonstrate effect of light on my photographs. I will take pictures at different times of the day and see the effects. As Photographers we know that the best images are the ones shot in the early mornings and late evenings when the sun is not too harsh. By midday when the sun is overhead, light becomes too harsh and does not give us very good pictures. So we see that shooting in the best light can disrupt normal schedules.

To be a successful photographer, you need to understand how the different elements of aperture, shutter speed and ISO combine to produce balanced exposures. But as an amateur photographer, i have made effort also to understand my camera and how it works . This is very important. A successful photographer needs the eyes to see what others can and as well use his tools to capture his art or images.

The concepts of aperture, shutter speed and ISO need good understanding. When i started out they seemed quite confusing but as i read the more i began to understand. What sets a good professional photographer part is his or her ability to adapt these settings when taking pictures to produce excellent images.

In " Understanding exposures, third edition by Bryan Peterson, p 16, a correct exposure is defined as a simple combination of the three important factors of aperture, shutter speed and ISO. These same factors have always been at the heart of every exposure whether that exposure was correct or not. So put another way exposure to LIGHT is determined by these three factors.

In my OCA reference manual on page 106, its mentioned that the amount of light determines how a photograph can be taken and even whether it can. Camera sensors are designed to work optimally in normal daylight, just as are most films. We are told that the quality of light can also make an essential difference to a picture being often the one element that can change significantly in a view.

My first exercise was to produce 4 to 6 photographs which are deliberately lighter or darker than average and then state the reasons why.

I chose a pool side to demonstrate this at noon when the light was already hash and the sun was at highest inclination

Image 2: ISO 100,50MM, 0 EV, F/5, 1/640

Image 1: ISO 100,50MM, 0 EV, F/5, 1/320

Image 3: ISO 100,50MM, 0 EV, F/5, 1/1250

Image 4: ISO 100,50MM, 0 EV, F/5, 1/2000

The Images above from 1 to 4 were taken by a swimming pool side and in manual mode. I enjoy taking pictures with my camera,s manual mode because it gives me the greatest flexibility. It also helps to build my dexterity with the camera. It was 12 noon and the sun was hot. I set the camera to the lowest ISO 100 and using a constant aperture of f/5, i continued to vary the shutter speed with varying  results of light and dark images.

The shutter mechanisms function is to admit light into the camera for a specific length of time.Shutter speeds are indicated on the viewfinder as whole numbers such as 60,125,250 and 500 but they are actually fractions of time e.g 1/60,1/125,1/250 etc. In the brightest image above i used a shutter speed of 1/320s while the darkest image has a shutter speed of 1/2000s meaning it allows much less time to hit the sensor, hence the dark image.


SILHOUETTE

Silhouette images i find very appealing. I learnt to take silhouettes at the London school of Photography when i attended a five day program in April 2011. The course was to basically expose me to the rudiments of my new DSLR the nikon D7000. You set the light meter on  the camera to zero against an illuminated background and then focus on the subject and shoot. I tried taking a picture of my son in front of a window.

Image 5:ISO 200 ,50MM, 0 EV, F/16,1/15

Image 6: ISO 200, 50MM,0 EV, F/16, 1/15

The light meter takes the reading outside and when the camera is re-oriented, the sensors pick -up the in metered part of the image resulting in the image above. The the green foliage behind which contrasts sharply with the young mans dark outline. Am still practicing to take silhouettes in unconfined spaces.

TUTOR FEEDBACK

My tutor feedback came on February 11, 2013 for assignment 3 which i submitted a week earlier. This is 10 good months after my last assignment. He was not quite impressed with the quality of my work and i quite understand that. The important thing here is to take in all the advice and suggestions he put forward.

1. Improve picture composition

2. Spend more time looking at examples by professional practitioners

3. Do plenty of research and independent learning to enhance my creative,theoretical understanding an practical approach to photography.

4. Make more detailed reflective notes and develop my thoughts about how to approach a subject.

He mentioned though that i have demonstrated an understanding of color relationships, but some of my interpretations are quite loose and no diagrams were submitted. This was partly because i was unable to navigate the blogger page to create diagrams.

With all these at the back of my mind, i proceed to the next project on Light.