Viewfinder: Fitting the frame to the subject

For this exercise, I was instructed to choose a subject and take at least four photographs of it. the first one is just the subject from a conventional viewpoint, without giving much thought to the composition. The second photo the subject fills most of the frame, going to the edges. The third, the subject fills the entire frame with no edges visible. The final photo shows the subject in its environment.

For this project, I chose a shiny motorcycle parked in a bank parking lot on a partly sunny mid to late afternoon.



This is a rather plain photo.



This photo the subject comes right up to the edges of the three parts of the frame (I forgot that my viewfinder only shows about 95% of the actual recorded image). I like how the chrome one bike stands out, especially against the dark truck behind it. But the truck is in too much focus. I should've opened up the lens more to blur the background.


In this shot, the subject occupies the entire frame, with none of its edges showing. The chrome looks good, and there's some good contrast and detail. And it's clearly a motorcycle, you can see a part of the rear tire and portion of the seat. But you don't see much of the engine, which I think, as it turns out, is important for getting a feel that it's a powerful motorcycle.




While I was photographing the motorcycle, a man approached me, complimenting me on the bike. He thought it was mine. We chatted briefly, then the owner came up and started talking with both of us. I felt quite self-conscious, but as it turns out they were both quite engaging and we chatted for some time. I think this photo shows the bike in its environment, but I wish I had captured a better image of them talking about the bike. Like pointing at it, or leaning in, or something like that. Something that showed the bike as the object of conversation (which is a role it plays quite often, I'll bet). Anyway, this photo didn't quite get what I was going for. I knew it at the time, but I felt too self conscious to keep standing there waiting to take another. So I re-entered the conversation, hoping for another opportunity, but the conversation broke up more quickly than I thought it would.



This is an alternative version of the tight photo where the subject fills the frame. It shows the engine much better. It looks powerful, and I like the V shape. I also like the leg swinging, with the chain of the chain wallet visible. You can't tell if he's getting on or getting off, but you can definitely see the movement! But I think the straight on view is kind of boring.

Photographing movement: Panning at different shutter speeds

For this exercise, I took my camera off the tripod and photographed my subject in light clothing walking in front of a dark background of evergreen bushes and a wood fence. I panned the camera with his movement and took a series of photos, from 1/1000 of a second to 1/4 of a second. It was a bright sunny day, and I was using 100 speed film with a yellow filter.



1/1000. The subject is walking slowly, so the fast shutter speed froze the entire image, even though I was moving the camera.




1/500th. Still freezes everything even though I was moving the camera.


1/250th. Everything is still sharp. I'm a little surprised. I would've thought I'd start seeing movement in the background here, but I guess the subject was walking slowly enough that I wasn't panning very quickly.




1/125th. Still sharp...


1/60th. Here's where I can start to tell something is up, although I can't quite tell what's happening. The subject looks a little "out of sync" with the background, but I can't really tell why.



1/30. Still looks a little out of step with the background.



1/15th. I love this photo! The subject looks like he's moving really, really slowly. Kind of like he was going fast, but put the breaks on right away. Neat!



1/8th. I think at this speed, the shutter was open too long to get a stable image of the subject, but I still like how he stands out from the background.


1/4. This is strange because he looks like he's walking briskly, but not fast enough to have the background so blurry, so it makes him pop out even more. He's kind of in synch with his environment, but not really. I like how the background darkened, so the shirt really stands out. And his arms look folded, which makes him look like he's cold. There is a kind of tension in this photo that I can't really describe just yet. Maybe I'll come back to it.

I will definitely experiment more with panning. I like how it separates the subject from the context. I would like to do this kind of exercise again with a subject that's moving more quickly.

Shutter speeds part 2

This is part two of the exercise where I photographed my subject walking in front of the evergreen bushes. It takes us from 1/30th of a second to 2 seconds. Can really see the movement in this sequence.


1/30th, not a good point in the stride to see the movement, but subject is soft all over.


1/15th, subject is now very soft all over and one arm and leg are quite blurry.



1/8th. Whole subject is soft, but there's still a little definition around the head and foot that is on the ground. There's a bright spot coming up in the lower right of the image. It brightens in the next shots. Maybe it's flare because the shutter is open so long?




1/4. Entire subject is now blurry. I would say this is the first shot where the the entire subject is blurred.


1/2. Quite blurry now. Can't tell if the subject is male or female, or walking slowly or quickly, or even running.


1 second. Totally blurry. Captures 1 and a half strides. Starts to have a little rhythm to it.


2 secs. Lots of movement. Can't tell much about how the subject is moving. Could be running, skipping, walking. I like the thick white line at the subjects shoulders and the legs. Very rhythmic.

Photographing movement: shutter speeds Part 1

With this project, I'm getting a feel for how the camera records movement. I set my camera on my tripod, and had my subject wear light clothing and walk in front of row of dark evergreen bushes and dark fence. I photographed the subject from 1/1000 secs all the way to two seconds. I haven't figured out how to move the photos around on these blogs posts after I upload them to the new post box, so I'm breaking this into two parts. The first part is 1/1000 down to 1/60th. it was a bright sunny day and I was using 100 speed film with a yellow filter. I added a neutral density filter for the longest shutter speeds.



1/1000, everything sharp.



1/500th, still sharp.



1/250th, still sharp.


1/125th, still pretty sharp, but looks like soft, although it's kind of hard to tell on these small pics.


1/60th. Can see the edges are softer all around the subject, especially noticeable on the foot and legs.

Project: Focus

For this project on focus, I took several photos of the same set of boats on a pier, with the aperture set at F2. I first focused on the closest boat, then on the third boat, and finally on the last boat. I left the aperture at F2, giving the shallowest depth of field possible with this lens.

While I like the balance of the photo with the middle boats in focus, I prefer the one with the last boat in focus. I think the middle-focus picture would've worked better if the third boat had more interesting detail in it, like the second one does. It's just too bland.

I also think the edge of the pier is very important in this composition, and in the third photo, it pulls the eye right into the boat, which is in sharp focus. I also like how the edge of the pier forms a line to the boat, which then points toward the house, so it carries your eye all around the photo. You also can see some shadows and highlights in the water and on the pier, which I enjoy.

The only thing I like about the first photo is the detail in the boat. Most of the photo is blurry, and there just isn't enough of the boat to make the photo interesting.

Photos were taken with TMAX 100 and developed with ATM49.

OCA Art of Photography Course

I will use this blog as my learning log for the Art of Photography Course through OCA. I will post some of my photographs, ideas, and reflections on what I've been studying and learning.