Monday 25 January 2010

Photography lesson

For one lesson, I went to the media theater for a lesson to help me get a better knowledge of photography’s and the process and planning that is included in creating a successful photograph. From this lesson I have learnt a lot and will take all of this information and use it to help me to create successful photographs for my coursework.

There are three main types of cameras which all have different abilities, such as the Compact camera (Digital screen), the Mid-range camera (Digital screen), and lastly the SLR or single lens reflect camera (Non digital screen).

Many different things are taken into consideration before taking a successful photograph, as many photographers will take many different shots, before they come up with the final and successful photography they were looking for. For example I found out many different ways in which the photographer needs to plan to create a successful photograph. As you cannot just take a photograph and it will come out perfect straight away. For instance the shutter speed, the f stop and the ISO, all these things are important to get the right photo graph and a really successful photo.

Camera settings:

(SS) Shutter Speed: Measures how long the camera’s shutter remains open as the image is being taken. The slower the shutter speed, the longer the exposure time, the shutter speed and aperture together control the total amount of light reaching the sensor

(ISO) Sensitivity: Measurement of how sensitive a digital camera's sensor is to light. The light-sensitivity of a camera's sensor is rated in ISO numbers, the lower the number, the slower the response to light.

(F Stop) Of a camera lens is a number that represents the lens size, a large lens is a small f number, and a small lens is a large f stop. The smaller the f number the more light the lens can take in, this improves the camera's ability to capture images in places with low lighting.

These settings are all very important for taking a successful photograph as if the image is not clear or it is too dark, the image will look bad and would not be a good photo in anyway. Whereas if these setting are all set to the correct setting for the place they are being taken in, the photo will come out perfect, very clear and the right brightness.

Techniques used when takinh a successful photography:

Also whilst taking a photograph as well as making sure all the settings are correct and the image comes out clear and high quality, it is also important for the photographer to make the most of the screen and their image.

For instance using a wide angle to take a portrait of someone is not good, as it will make the image look distort and also it will not make best use of the screen and the person. Whereas on the other hand by using the camera at a vertical view, the portrait will turn out much better as the photographer will be using the most of the screen and the person, also by doing this it makes the images features stand out much better than if a wide screen is used.

Also ‘selective focusing’ can be used for photos like portraits as you can focus the camera on only the main person you are taking the image off, and the background of the person is still there but is blurred. This is so that the main person in the image stands out much more compared to the rest of the photo and this makes the photograph more effective.

Thursday 14 January 2010

My final contents page

After looking at all my feedback of by contents page design that I got from some of my target audience. I then did all the needed improvements that I got from my target audience suggested, and now I have my final design.

This is what my final contents page for my school magazine is:

Comments on my contents page

Once I had designed my final contents page and produced the final version on the computer using Micrsoft Word, I then showed my final design to some of my target audience and got their opions and comments on what they think of this deisgn and how it can be improved.

Editing images for contents page

Image one: Original image
For some of the images I took for my contents page I has to change their setting slightly to improved to images quality, as the original image I took is dark and is hard to see. Therefore I increased the brightness of the image and also increase the contrast of the image as well.
Image one: Improved image
As you can see this image is now much bright and clearer to see compared to the original image. I had to change both the brightness and comtrast, as if I just changed the brightness some parts would be hard to see and would not be clear. So by increasing the contrast as well everything can be seen and the image is clearer, this is important as if the image can not be seen it will rewon the contents page and make it look messy and unproffesional.
I also had to increase the brightness and the contrast on another image thta I was using for my contents page as this image was taken in a dark room and is not clear what is happening. Therefore I did the same proccess and the image is much clearer and brighter.

Image two: Orginal image

Image two: Improved image