The goal of this photoshoot was to demonstrate a clear understanding of Manual mode and exposure through use of the camera's shutter speed, aperture and ISO to take well-lit black and white photos in a variety of lighting scenarios.

I enjoy the compositions of IMG_0398, IMG_0287, and IMG_0361. I feel I found a good range of values in each as well as an interesting subject, and in most of my images I have captured some kind of texture. I'm unsatisfied with not being able to get closer to the cicada shell in IMG_0289, as it's translucency was very interesting, and in IMG_0365 I wish I had gotten a larger range of values. I realized that some contrasts clearly visible in color are much less so in black and white.

This photoshoot's goal was to demonstrate the value of bracketing, to allow all of the photo to be properly exposed when edited, through quick use of the sliders that control shutter speed and aperture.

I like the composition of IMGs 0486-0488 with the horizontal lines across the page, as well as the clarity of the pine needles' outlines in IMGs 0413-0416. I also like the ripple that's so clearly defined in 0433. I also really like the framing of 0499-0501. I don't particularly like 0410-0412 because the pattern is too complex and not captured well by my framing. 0490-0492 might have been more interesting if I could have zoomed into the knit further, to make the fuzz more apparent.

This photoshoot was meant to make me seek out different angles, perspectives and focal lengths, focusing on different things about the subject until I felt I was unable to find any more. This is supposed to point out the possibilities created by exhausting the subject.

I like the composition of a lot of shots focusing on the lens like 0786, 0814 and 0856. I also found photos like 0836 and 0817 really interesting and dynamic due to the position of the wire. Some others like 0815 and 0810 look a bit snapshot-like, and I wish I had been able to develop more variety in general, specifically by getting closer to the subject and taking detail shots. However, I was prevented from doing this by the inability to create good light conditions that close. I also found the lighting conditions needed to show off the security camera lens made the rest of the image far too light.

This photoshoot is meant to make us demonstrate an understanding of the rules of composition, allowing us to follow guidelines to make more interesting and clear photos through many objectives that have been proven to make a photo more appealing to look at.

I like the views I was able to get with my framing shots, especially considering how small the hole in the wall was in Framing1. It's a really interesting view on the construction! I also had fun with keeping the focus on the tiny spider in Depth1, and ended up liking Cropping1 and Symmetry1 a lot for their subject matter. I like RuleOfOdds1 better than rule of thirds (2) but I feel both demonstrate their assigned principle. I wish in Leading Lines 1 I would have ensured my camera was parallel with the floor as that would have bettered the impact. Due to some camera adjustments for dark lighting some of the indoor shots were more blurred than intended, and I caught some unintended reflection lights. I think I could have zoomed out more for the Balance shots to make the point better, but the idea is that an informal balance can be created by juxtaposing a smaller object further from the center against a larger one closer to the center, or a heavily contrasting small area against a low-contrast large one.

This photoshoot is meant to allow us to begin our first experiments with color and lighting scenarios, shooting in Golden/Twilight Hour, Cloudy/Shade, Direct Daylight, Fire/Candlelight, Tungsten, Fluorescent and with Colored Lights. In addition to working in full manual mode as we learned with black and white photography, we must now take white balance into account based on the temperature of the light involved.

Inevitably plants are very fun to photograph and catch detail in, so IMG_1454 and IMG_1539 are close to my favorites, and I'm happy I caught both of the shadows of the gun on IMG_1576, it's got the kind of limited color palette I like. I also feel all the blue-light pictures have a great kind of mystical feel to them with all the color drained out of the subjects, though IMG_1574 is my favorite out of those, even if it's the darkest. I also like IMG_1552 for compositional reasons, though I think I would want to lower the brightness in post. Speaking of post, I had to edit some of my least favorites to make them more tonally consistent: I had to decrease contrast on IMG_1646 because I really wanted to save that color difference between their yellow shirt and the magenta lighting. I also feel I didn't use the white balance correctly in my Tungsten light shots but I feel it turned out quite nice on IMG_1634 because their face is so rosy and shimmery! This contrasts to IMG_1600 where I believe I could have made their face more saturated with a white balance change. In general I have found a new love for color!

This photoshoot is meant to prompt us to use color combinations and schemes constructively in concert with our subjects to to convey a certain mood. We were tasked with considering our subjects and choose from 7 options of color schemes: Monochromatic, Analogous Colors, Triadic Colors, Complementary Colors, Split Complements, Warm Colors and Cool Colors.

I really enjoyed returning to a subject with different color schemes, especially when it seemed to take on a new meaning with the second composition. In complementary 2 and complementary 3, I had fun with not only the colors but the placement of the lights to create certain colored shadows on the blank background. I feel the juxtaposed purple and yellow paths create the idea of "happy days before, but wisdom ahead" like the person in the shoes is growing up, while the singular orange path makes it feel like the person is taking courage and walking away from a sadness that has suffused their life. I also really like the composition of monochromatic 4 and I feel like it was difficult to find that angle! I also really enjoyed the increased saturation and contrast of triadic and triadic 2, as well as complementary 4 and complementary 5. However, I find split complementary 2 and 3 kind of dark, and some light situations such as fluorescent light and some darker natural lights make it more difficult to create interest, such as monochromatic 2, where I think I could have found a better angle to create leading lines, or use 3 wheels. I also regrettably still struggle with not being able to zoom in far enough on spiders and spiderwebs.

This photoshoot is meant to make us think of ways to directly affect the focus of the photo by changing the aperture, focal length and focal distance. Focal length refers to the zoom of the camera, while focal distance just refers to how far away you are from the subject.

A deep depth of field means a wider range of the distance between your camera and the furthest thing in sight is focused. Close to everything will be in focus. You can achieve a deep depth of field through narrow aperture (higher numbers), a far distance and a low focal length (little zoom.) A shallow depth of field means less of the distance will be focused, and you can create it with a wide aperture, close distance and high focal length. I think my strongest images are those that get very up close, such as 3086, 3115 and 3136. I think the detail in each are very fun and I feel as if I have a lot more control of the depth from up close. I feel, however, that the task may have caused me to become a bit repetitive. 3104 being only a slight zoom away from 3100. with only a few background elements becoming very slightly clearer. Images like 3031 and 3035 commit more to changing something about the subject even without position change - the books become all focused when before they faded out into the background.

This photoshoot taught us about two types of perspective effects: Bokeh is a perspective effect created by shallow depth of field with heavily out of focus light sources, especially things like LEDs. What you are focusing on ends up needing to be very close to the lens and somewhat small. Forced perspective is the opposite - using a deep depth of field, you can focus on comparatively close and far away objects at once. This creates interesting size contrasts as you perceive them to be on the same visual plane. Objects here tend to have to be further away from you, so it requires some cropping afterward.

I think most of my strongest images were in using the bokeh effect along with other effects provided - using a pinhole/cutout in paper caused the bokeh to appear as different shapes in 3154, 3167, 3171 and 3182. I also found the mirror and bokeh used in tandem created an incredible sort of floating effect for some photos, especially 3331 and 3333. I also like the way that 3307 sort of looks like a fake Paris - I may need to make it a little warmer, but it looks interestingly real to me. I feel one of my weaker images is 3150 - I did not intend the pinwheel to become that close to a silhouette. I feel over the course of this photoshoot I got better at shooting things very up close. I don't feel I had the same opportunity with Forced Perspective - I didn't have as many ideas or willing volunteers all the time.

This photoshoot taught us about the first kind of shutter speed technique - high-speed shots over 1/30, where subjects are not intended to be blurred by motion. There are two techniques in this category, stop action and panning. Stop action is made by using high enough shutter speeds to completely remove all motion blur and freeze all the parts of the subject in frame. Panning is made by using shutter speeds 1/30 to 1/60 and following the subject's movement with the camera so the background is blurred but the subject is not.

My strongest images all used water effects, like 3952, 4000, 3678 and 3804-3807 - it fairly consistently looks good as it is being poured and my camera having a comparatively low continuous shot speed did not prevent me from getting interesting shots. It also has really nice effects with reflection that look awesome caught in stop action. I feel like I had some more trouble with human movements and faster movements like dropping things and throwing things because I cannot figure out a way to increase the continuous shot speed - I think there may not be one on my camera. Also, using flash sometimes looks kind of funny, as seen with my panning shot 3976. I am happy that I at least figured out how bright the lighting needed to be in most cases to compensate for the light input loss the quick speed created.

This photoshoot taught us about the second kind of shutter speed technique - medium and low speed shots that allow you to create different blur effects. In Blurring, speeds lower than 1/30 are used to create blur depending on the motion of the subject. In Ghosting, even longer speeds are used to create multiple translucent frames of a subject within the same photo, by the technique of the subject freezing for a certain amount of time in a spot and then leaving it for a similar amount of time during the exposure. Light painting often uses the longest shutter speeds of all, and a single exposure is held for a very long time while an image or effect is created by moving a light around. Each of these requires stabilizing your camera, usually with a tripod.

I lost an SD card this week and am unable to rate my best and worst as I feel I can't accurately encompass the full range of what I learned in these weeks. However, I think I like 4032 and 4029, 4032 because I got to participate in it and successfully set a self-timer, and 4029 because the reflections in it look very interesting. I feel in many of my photos I did not get the background dark enough for the lights to really show up well, somewhat due to the angle, like 4033, 4034 and 4035, but that's nothing cropping can't fix.