Assessment 1, Activity 11 - Macro Shooting

For this experiment I used my Canon 18-35mm lens with a macro attachment on the end for close up shooting. 

ISO100, f/4.0, 1/400

In this image, I used water droplets on my car in the morning light. The lens typically focused on the  middle of the image as there was so many droplets it had the potential to focus on. I had to focus carefully to get the droplet I wanted and be careful of glare from the shiny car bonnet.

ISO100, f/4.0, 1/125

In this image, I chose to focus on the front flower and the one slightly behind it so both of them are mostly in focus. In the background you can faintly make out  more flowers but they are blurred due to the low aperture and the lens.

Assessment 1, Activity 10 - Panoramic Landscape

The aim of this activity was to learn to stitch together images to make one long panoramic image. I used the view of Wentworth Falls at dusk to make this panoramic image, overlapping each image by about 40% to ensure I didn't miss any details. 

I used a tripod weighted down by my camera bag for extra stability and a cable release. The tripod has a swivel head which made for smooth, even panning across the valley and an evenly levelled image. I used Manual Mode with a low ISO and 0.50 second shutter speed and switched off the auto focus to ensure a consistent image and make the stitching process easier.

Post production, I imported the images to my computer using Adobe Bridge and then used Adobe Photoshop to stitch them together by using the File --> Automate --> Photomerge command. The four images I chose stitched together neatly and evenly. Afterwards, I tinkered with the contrast and brightness of the sky as well as the blue of the mountains in the foreground and far background. 

Overall, I found the process fairly easy. I thought taking photos appropriate for stitching (and the process itself) would be more difficult but Photoshop made it very easy. I had to do a certain amount of cropping from the top and bottom of the finished image to account for the slightly different angles so that made me aware of having a wide enough view that a little copping would not affect the content of the image or cut out any important detail. 

Assessment 1, Activity 9 - Landscapes

The aim of this exercise was to create a visually appealing landscape devoid of people, with particular awareness of both foreground and background interest, sharpness of the image and tonal completeness throughout the image.

For this exercise I chose the view from the Wentworth Falls Lookout in the Blue Mountains, NSW. I used a tripod and a cable release to prevent camera shake. It was nearing sundown and light was fading very quickly so I needed to adjust my settings a little as it got darker. 

Post production I darkened the sky and increased the contrast to make it less bright and to make it more interesting. I also darkened the blue of the mountains slightly to make it more vibrant and removed some of the saturation.

Below is a screenshot of my images in Adobe Bridge. I experimented with a few different settings during the shoot.

Resulting image below:

100, f/22, 0.50 secs

Assessment 1, Activity 8 - City at Dusk

This activity aimed to show the relationship between city lighting and decreasing levels of sunlight at night.

For this experiment I used my tripod, a remote shutter cable and my Tamron 70-300mm lens as my subject was some distance away.

At the beginning of this exercise I photographed from just before the sun set to just after it went dark using various camera settings in Manual mode. I noticed that as the sun went down, I needed to constantly change the settings to maintain enough light to capture a well exposed image. Most particularly, the ISO consistently increased and the shutter speed got slower and slower.

I used my tripod for stability but ran into difficulty as the lens was so large and heavy that camera shake was frequent. However, I needed the long lens as the distance I was at from the building was the only vantage point available to get photos of the building lit up at dusk.

In my images, I have selected some with higher ISO, some with lower, some with longer and shorter shutter speeds and varying apertures. Higher ISO obviously caused a lot of digital noise in the image which was undesirable and the longer shutter speeds left the camera more prone to movement.

I played with various settings but found the images I liked best in these lighting conditions were with a lower ISO, compensating where possible by extending the shutter speed and widening the aperture.

Night Shooting - Zooming & Bokeh Techniques

In this experiment I played with the bokeh effect and zooming the lens while the shutter remained open. I used a tripod, cable shutter release, the camera was on Manual focus and manual setting.

In image 1 I tried zooming the lens in and out to create the portal effect.

IMAGE 1: ISO100, f/8.0, 10secs, 23mm

In image 2 I used a wide aperture and distance between the fairy lights and the subject to create the bokeh effect. However, the subject was ill lit and had to be lit by a torch which is not all that becoming but it was all I had to work with at the time unfortunately. To let in enough light to make the shot work I had to slow down the shutter speed substantially to what I had originally planned.

IMAGE 2: ISO100, f/5.6, 1/3, 55mm

Night Shooting - Painting with Light

For this activity I set my camera up on a tripod in my front yard at around 9pm. I also used a cable shutter release to prevent any camera shake while I left the shutter open for long periods of time. Other equipment included several LED bulbs normally used in paper lanterns and a small torch with a white bulb.

The follow pictures are some of the results of my experimentation with light painting. I used a light on the ground as something to focus on in manual focus to get a clear image.

IMAGE 1: ISO100, f/8.0, 49sec, 29mm

IMAGE 2: ISO100, f/8.0, 28sec, 29mm