Time Line of Assignments

10 (or more) Things You'll Learn, About this Course, Sample Lesson/Video(s), FAQs

Lesson 1 - Understanding Digital Concepts, Learning to Use your Camera, Experimenting with Your Settings

click on any of the above images to enlarge completed examples of this lesson

Readings from Tom Ang's "Digital Photographer's Handbook" or web

●Read: The Elements of Design: Line, Shape, Color, Form, Space, Texture/Pattern
●Read 226-227 File Formats:
●Read 232-235 Basic Color and File Management:
●Read 238-239 First Steps: Opening Files, Image Denigration, Color Mode, Work in Native Format

●Read 240-241 Cropping and Rotation:
●Read 68-73 Composition: symmetry, diagonal
●Read 78-79 Image Orientation:
●Read 80-81 Image Proportion:
●Read 102-103 Color Composition:
●Read 74-77 Focusing and Depth of Field

Activities

Video Tutorial Downloads - AVI, QuickTime

Understanding how your camera takes pictures: zoom, focus, sport preset or shutter priority and aperture priority (depth of field) or landscape preset.

●Find an environment where there are objects that are still and objects that are moving in the same composition. The idea is to choose an object for your subject and focus in on that and create a composition. Put your camera on a still surface or tripod and while focusing on the subject, take a picture with everyone one of your basic settings that your camera has--more than likely they are on your dial and are represented by little icons. It is important that your camera does not move at all during the entire process and that you shoot the exact same composition (for comparison sake).

The canon digital rebel, for example, has the EOS system. This is a system of presets as well as manual settings as icons on its dial. It has for depth of field alone, 13 possible settings, manual (far too many combinations to list) aperture priority, 18 possible settings; shutter priority (and a bulb function), 52 possible settings, 12 on program mode, 1 for automatic, 1 for portrait, 1 for landscape, 1 for macro or close-up, 1 for sports, and 1 for no flash. So, to keep this simple, I just want you to go through your basic dial settings with out any tweaking or adjusting exposure at the moment. Every camera has a set of basic settings on the dial or in the menu system. This lesson will make you aware of what these settings do and how each is setup to give you a greater chance of success in a particular shooting situation. An example, is a "sports" mode which is a camera preset that has a faster shutter speed so that you can capture something in motion and freeze it.

Questions/Posting to the Discussion Area

After analyzing all your pictures of the same composition and your camera settings, post to the discussion board what your discoveries are and how it relates to our reading for the week. More specifically comment on:

●What did you learn about depth of field from the reading and looking at your compositions with different settings?
●What happened between the relationship between your subject and the other subjects or objects in the composition, such as something in motion or still.
●Were some things in focus while others were blurry? Does where you or the camera focus affect depth of field (DOF)?
●What setting(s) did you find optimum for causing a moving object to be still in your composition (frozen, in focus, sharp)?
●What setting(s) did you find optimum for showing the "movement" of (such as the flowing of water) or the "freezing" of, let's say, water for example or something in between (slight movement)?

TIP: Are you noticing your images are not as sharp as other people's work? It is possible something is off on your camera. It could also be that you may not be as still as you could be. I would check the camera lens (how clean is it?), the settings in the camera, try shooting on a tripod and don't forget to make sure you camera settings are on the highest possible resolution and quality. Always shoot on your highest quality and largest size. And of course, make sure you focus in working.

Uploads

●Select 1 image of your composition shot on automatic.
●Select 1 image where everything is “frozen in time,”
●Select 1 image where you show the “movement of moving objects” in relationship to objects that are still in your composition.

●Upload Total: 3 selected images, label as yournameL1auto, yournameL1frozen, yournameL1movement. Make sure to include the following settings: F-stop, shutter speed, iso and what setting (auto, manual, sports, shutter priority, etc.).