photography club part 1
TRANSCRIPT
PHOTOGRAPHY CLUBTaught by Michael Bennett
WEEK 1
THE HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY
WEEK 1
In the first week of our photography club,we were looking at the history of photography. We started looking at early models of cameras, such as the pinhole camera. In the lesson, we made our own; it is effectively a light proof box with a small hole on the side. Light from the area will pass through this small hole, providing an inverted image on the other side of the box. The pinhole camera is very simple to make, however has one major disadvantage, the lengthy exposuretime, generally taking several hours.We then looked at other previous models of cameras including one of Mr Bennett’s older cameras.
Our PinholeCamera
WEEK 1
After the invention of new camera models, photography began to growrapidly in popularity. A very popular usage of photography was the Carte de Visite, it was a small family portrait mounted on stiff card. Studios opened all over the UK offering to produce Carte de Visites for individual families. The new technology also allowed war to be photographed. In fact photography became so powerful, that it was used to change the publics opinion on events. A famous example of this is Nick Ut’s picture (shown above) of children burned by the Napalm bomb dropped by America. The photo had a huge impact on public opinion in the US.
WEEK 1
We then looked at some of the best photographers and their works from the last century.
Central Park Zoo
Gary Winograd 1975
WEEK 1Le baiser de l’Hotel de Ville
Robert Doisneau1950
WEEK 1
Unnamed (Featured in a collection)
Robert Frank1952
WEEK 1At the end of the lesson, we were set a short
homework, to photograph as many eyes as we could, to get a feel for our camera. I collaged mine, and they are displayed below.
WEEK 2
APERTURE AND DEPTH OF FIELD
WEEK 2
In the second week of photography club, we were taught some basic photography terms such as adjustable camera and automatic exposure. However the two main terms that we focussed on were aperture and depth of field.
We then researched the terms and looked at some of the examples provided.
Aperture: The size of the opening on a camera lens is measured using aperture, the larger the opening, the smaller the aperture. Most lenses have a range of around f2.8 to f16.
Depth of Field: is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a particular scene that appear sharp in the image. I.e., the amount of a subject that is in focus.
WEEK 2 – EXAMPLES
WEEK 2
We learnt that a large aperture lets in lots of light but gives a shallow depth of field, but a small aperture lets in much less light but gives an extended depth of field. So the larger the aperture, the shallower the depth of field. In the examples on the next slides, you can see that the first photograph has a smaller aperture meaning less of the image is in focus. This is a useful technique when wanting to focus on the subject of the image. However in most cases the larger aperture is preferred, such as in the second picture, where both the subject and background are wanted in the image.
WEEK 2A smaller aperture means less of the image is in focus
WEEK 2Whereas a higher aperture means more of the image is in focus