Aperture

We've been slowly moving away from "taking photographs" to "making photographs, what do I mean by this?

Moving from automatic settings to manual settings in order to create the photograph you want.
Together, shutter speed, aperture and ISO are called "the Exposure Triangle" and each affect the final photograph. You can choose to set only one of these at a time in different camera modes: "Aperture Priority Mode", "Shutter Priority Mode" and "Manual".
Exposure Triangle YouTube Video

What is aperture?

The aperture refers to the size of the opening in the lens through which the light enters the camera. The size of this opening can be adjusted and the aperture size is measured in f-stops. The image on the right shows you exactly what the aperture on a lens looks like.

When you change the f-stop value, you change the size of the opening. Here’s the weird thing though. The higher the f-stop, the smaller the opening.

Take a look at the chart below to see what different apertures look like at different f-stops. On the far left, you can see that setting an aperture of f16 will result in a small opening. Choosing an aperture of f1.4 will result in a very wide opening.

How does your choice of aperture affect the photograph?

The most noticeable effect your choice of aperture has on the photograph is the depth of field. What do we mean by this exactly? In very simple terms, depth of field refers to the amount of the image that is sharp. What does this mean in practice?

If you use a wide aperture, the depth of field will be shallow. Only part of the image is sharp and the rest will be out of focus or blurred. Look at the picture on the left below. The cat is perfectly sharp but the background is blurred. Using a wide aperture works well for portrait style photographs as it makes the subject of the shot really stand out against the blurred background.

In this case, the depth of field extends from about the tip of the cat’s nose to just behind its head, no more than a few centimeters (from point A to point B in the diagram). Anything not in this range, either in front of it or behind will not be sharp. For this shot, I used a wide aperture of f/3.5.

When you use a narrow aperture, the depth of field is deep. When the depth of field is deep, all of the photograph from foreground to background is sharp.

Take a look at the photo below taken in the Dublin Docklands. Everything from the dock cleat in the foreground to the bridge in the background is sharp. In this case the depth of field is several hundred metres, extending right from the foreground to the background of the scene. In this case, I used a narrower aperture of f/11.

Most of the time, we want to achieve a deep depth of field when shooting landscapes. We want all of the image to be pin sharp.

The mid range apertures (around f/8) are good for shooting handheld for example when doing street photography. You get a good balance between having enough depth of field and fast enough shutter speeds to shoot hand held. We’ll discuss shutter speeds in more detail later.

The chart below gives you a good idea how different apertures will affect the depth of field in your photographs. You can see that as the aperture gets wider, the pyramid in the background becomes more blurred.

Intro to Shutter Speed and Aperture

1. Read the article posted in the SShare titled "Unit 3 - Exposures Basics Note".
2. Watch these videos to help your understanding of Aperture and Shutter Speed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_B8pVoANyY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f5jiFd0ZrI
3. Hand in your notes on the handout "DSLR and Exposure"


These images may also help your understanding of Exposure:

APERTURE

SHUTTER SPEED

4. NOW Post on your blog an example of high f-stop, an example of a low f-stop, an example of a short shutter speed and an example of a long shutter speed. Label the images you find accordingly.





ISO

Shutter Speed Portfolio

SHUTTER SPEED

Shutter speed settings allow you to regulate how long the shutter is open for. The shutter is a moveable plane that blocks light from reaching the image sensor - think of it as a door that is usually closed but opens briefly to allow light in, then closes again (teacher demo with Canon DSLR). The longer the shutter is open the blurrier your subject will be. The shorter your shutter is open the more frozen in motion your subject will be. See the example diagrams here.


The longer the shutter remains open the more light that enters the camera and the shorter the time the less light that enters the camera. Shutter speeds range from tiny fractions of a second, 1/2000 second for example, to much longer time exposures like a minute or more.

Human motion and water splashing can be frozen around 1/400 or 1/500 second. You can get a good blur at 1/4 second to 1"-2" second.

Your task: Explore and experiment with shutter speed on your own camera or the class Nikon cameras. The more experimenting you do the more familiar you will become with the concept behind shutter speeds. Choose your best 5 slow shutter speed photos and your 5 best fast shutter speed photos. You will need to record the shutter speed for each photograph you take as you will need to list it when you post these photos to your blog. Name this blog post "Shutter Speed Portfolio".

Photoshop Assignments

Negative Space and Fill the Frame Portfolio

Your task: Demonstrate your understanding of two compositional strategies: Negative Space and Fill the Frame by posting a portfolio of your best 5 of each type of photograph.

Negative Space Examples
Put simply, negative space is the area which surrounds the main subject in your photo (the main subject is known as the "positive space"). For this negative space project, the negative space dominates the photograph, it takes up most of the frame and give the subject tons of space to breathe.

Fill the Frame Examples
The frame refers to the edges of your photograph or the edges of the viewfinder of your camera when you are shooting. The advice to fill the frame means to get in close, to make your subject a significant portion of the final photograph.

RUBRIC

Criteria	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Knowledge/Understanding
Quality of photo: -value range is balanced (not over or underexposed lighting) -subject is in focus            /10	Limited quality: limited value range and many unfocused subjects 5     5.5	Somewhat good quality: some value range, some subjects are focused 6     6.5	Good quality: most photos have:   full range of values from light to dark, and   subjects are in focus 7     7.5	Great quality: full range of values from dark to light, all subjects are in focus 8     9     10
Thinking/ Inquiry
Fill the Frame/Tight Cropping and Negative Space -accurate depiction of composition techniques                     /5	Check the examples again. 2/5 accurately depict fill the frame/ tight cropping and/or 2/5 accurately depict negative space. 2.5	Check the examples again. 3/5 accurately depict fill the frame/ tight cropping and 3/5 accurately depict negative space. 3	Good start! 4/5 accurately depict fill the frame/ tight cropping and 4/5 accurately depict   negative space. 3.5	Nailed it! 5/5 accurately depict fill the frame/ tight cropping and 5/5 accurately depict negative space. 4   4.5    5
Communication
Blog Post: -each photograph is labeled with the types of composition technique -each photograph’s subject is identified -blog post is titled appropriately                       /5	Composition techniques and subjects are rarely labeled accurately. Blog post has appropriate title. 2.5	Composition techniques and subjects are sometimes labeled accurately. Blog post has appropriate title. 3	Composition techniques and subjects are mostly labeled accurately. Blog post has appropriate title.    3.5	Composition technique and subject is labeled accurately. Blog post has appropriate title. 4   4.5   5
Application
Exploration and creativity: -variety of angles, locations, subject matter, camera rotation -ordinary objects have been transformed into interesting photographs                                            /10	Limited exploration and creativity: little variety of shots, little variety  angles, locations, subject matter, camera rotation. Ordinary objects have been transformed into interesting photographs rarely 5     5.5	Some exploration and creativity: some variety  angles, locations, subject matter, camera rotation. Ordinary objects have been transformed into interesting photographs sometimes. 6    6.5	Good exploration and creativity: a good variety of  angles, locations, subject matter, camera rotation. Ordinary objects have been transformed into interesting photographs mostly. 7     7.5	Great exploration and highly creative portfolio: variety of  angles, locations, subject matter, camera rotation. Ordinary objects have been transformed into interesting photographs 8     9    10

TOTAL       /30

Photoshop Techniques

Your Task: Follow along with Ms.P to learn the following Photoshop tools.

1. Selection tools: Magnetic Lasso, Magic Wand Tool, Inverse, Rectangle Selection, Quick Slection Tool
2. Spot Healing Brush Tool
3. Move Tool
4. Crop Tool
5. Clone Stamp Tool
6. HDR Toning
7. Dodge Tool
8. Burn Tool
9. Black and White Adjustment and Tint
10. Colour Balance
11. Brightness/Contrast Tool
12. Step Backward
13. Levels Tool
14. Spot Colour
15. Drag and drop images into other photographs
16. Managing layers

Your Assignment: Using the photos from the SShare folder do the following to the elephant image:
1. Open the image of the elephant
2. Crop the photo to a square.
3. Make two elephants and flip one elephant to face the opposite direction.
4. Select the flower from the flower photo and add it to one of the elephants heads.
5. Make the flower blue.
6. Make one elephant lighter in shade.
7. Make that same elephant purple.
8. Make the ocean black and white.
9. Make the trees in the background alternate light and dark by using the dodge and burn tools.
10. Select the sky and use a really obvious filter on it - you may need to adjust the settings.
11. Have the dinosaur swimming in the ocean - show only the top of its head, upper claws and tail.
12. Use the text tool and put your name in the bottom right hand corner of the image in white writing.
13. Save your new file as a .jpeg
14. Post your completed image to your blog and email me the link for grading.