Week 1: Introductions to Photo II

Week 1: In our Photography II Class, we are focusing on advancing our skills in articulating our ideas and visions into compelling and aesthetically pleasing photographs. This week, we focused primarily on the technical aspects of the media. The photos above are the ten pieces I have chosen to illustrate the work I have done this week for the class.

Craft: The Craft of this assignment is the following: Digital SLR Camera (Canon E05 Rebel T5i), a computer, photo lights. various props (Old Canon Cameras, Deer Skulls, etc), and Bowens Camera Studio Lights. I used these resources to create the images above. The Bowens Camera Studio Lights came with stands as well as studio umbrellas for the lights.

Composition: In this class, we were tasked with taking photos to fulfill some requirements for the assignment. The process that I took to accomplish this is as followed: first, I had to set up the props and lighting in the photo shoot studio that were already set up. The setup was quite simple. It consisted of a black background, a stand with black paper atop to blend it with the backdrop, and Bowens studio lights for lighting the studio. For each photoshoot set, I set up different props and lighting situations. First, I used a mirror to which I pointed my own camera at. Setting my camera on a stand, I set the camera on manual and manually focused to get the range of focused shots that I needed in artificial lighting. I also used series of camera lens in the same setup. However, in this next photoshoot, I switched the camera's color scheme to monochrome to get the black and white capture of the images. When it came to natural lighting, I went outside to take photos in the daylight. The most technical aspects of this project were managing the ISO, Aperture, and shutter speed to make sure that the images were not too washed out or dark. I had forgotten to recalibrate this after each shot so some shots in each set were not in the correct exposure.

Concept: In this project, we were tasked with creating photos that incorporated the following requirements: Horizontal/Vertical Photo capture, black and white/color photography, Shallow and Deep Depth of Field, and natural vs. artificial lighting. Each picture incorporated at least one of these elements. For the natural lighting, I chose to go outside. I used this to work in depth of field. For the photographs set in the photo studio, I focused on lighting as the main driving force of the composition because I found that in the controlled setting, lighting was able to convey a much more meaningful story with black and white as opposed to color.