Assignment 4: Aperture

Minimum Aperture (Greater Depth of Field)

Maximum Aperture (Smaller Depth of Field)

Maximum Aperture (Smaller Depth of Field)

Minimum Aperture (Greater Depth of Field)

Flash Trick

Certainly not the greatest shot, but I wanted to try out a second curtain flash + slow shutter speed technique we learned in class today. You can see the ghosted image of the numbers on the retracting tape measure and the clear image of the numbers where the flash went off right before the shutter closed.

Assignment 3: "Headless" Portraits: Angelica

As explained in class, "headless portrait" essentially just means you can't show a person's eyes, the "windows to the soul." So, again, I wanted to push the limits of the assignment and take "faceless" portraits without entirely cutting out the head.

I thought about Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa," a portrait where the eyes are less captivating than another, more expressive feature of the face, Mona Lisa's famous smile. In Angelica's portraits, I chose to emphasize her own beautiful smile through the use of a compact make-up mirror.

Strange Skies

At sunset today, There was a crisp, 360-degree line of colored sky above the horizon, and a thick blanket of dark clouds hovering over CUA. It looked interesting, so I took a photo.

Assignment 3: "Headless" Portraits: Steph 2

I wanted to come up with creative ways to hide the head, rather than just cutting it out of every shot. Steph loves to read, so it seemed only appropriate to have her face buried in a book.

Using a slower shutter speed (1/4 second) to blur the flipping pages--another way to hide her eyes.

Multiple views: reflection in the window

Using the half-empty bookshelf to block out Steph's face

Assignment 3: "Headless" Portraits: Steph 1

This is Steph. She has been wearing this key daily since sophomore year. It carries a personal story and has deep meaning for her. It has become iconic of her image, and I wanted to emphasize it in her portrait.

I used a slower shutter speed used to catch a line of blurred smoke moving down towards the key before the smoke inevitably lifted. I don't remember the speed I used exactly, but I think it was somewhere around 1/15 second.

Assignment 3: "Headless" Portraits: Krista

This is Krista--Philly Sports Fan and Cupcake Connoisseur.

Cupcake moustache

Experimenting with Photoshop

One of the cartwheeling photos, cropped in further (switched from landscape to portrait orientation), in black and white, and using the clone stamp tool to get rid of the distracting shadows at the top of the image.




After

Before

For the fast shutter speed image, I prefer the black and white shot. But what about slow shutter speed?

After

Before

In the slow shutter speed image, the black and white makes it harder to tell if Jojo or the line of student projects at the top is the focus of the image.



More with Shutter Speed

When my drippy faucet comes in handy...


Shutter Speed = 1/400 second


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Just before breaking off

Droplet Breaking

Splash!

Same photo as above, cropped closer and with more contrast

Week 3: Shutter Speed Priority



Experimenting with shutter speed with Jojo and Lisa doing cartwheels in the Miller Exhibition Space.

Slow Shutter Speed (1/4-1/5 second):






What  was really cool about using cartwheels to demonstrate slow shutter speed is that there was always one part of the body that was temporarily still and in focus (here, it is Jojo's hand pushing off of the floor). The focus of the photo is at whatever is stationary, which is also the center/starting point of the force of motion.

 Fast Shutter Speed (1/500 second):




Lisa now knows not to cartwheel with her phone in her pocket :-)

What about two cartwheelers going opposite directions?

Fast Shutter Speed  (1/400 second):

Synchronized Round 1:

Slow Shutter Speed (1/4 second):

Synchronized Round 2:

Synchronized Round 3:







Evening Fog

The Catholic University of America, or a scene from a horror movie?

Snow Reveals the "Unseen"

Just one inch of snow and ice reveals a lot of things that typically go unnoticed outside.

Ice Crystals against the aggregate of the sidewalk

I usually don't notice this grate between McMahon and the Pryz, but when it snowed, the proportions and geometry of the panels stood out like a bold, abstract painting. It was the first thing I noticed this morning from my view in Seton.

Reflection of the Basilica in the Ice

Two Miniature Snowmen on a Lampost

Reflection of the Basilica Dome in the Library Windows

Icicles in an Open Window

Snow reveals Student Shortcuts

Week 2: The Unseen

This week's assignment: photograph the "unseen"--the things we walk past every day but don't pay attention to. Just walking back to my dorm room after class, I started to notice my daily unseens. And since I conveniently had my camera in my backpack from today's class...click!

Seeing around the corner. Reflection in the security mirror as an "unseen."

In the Seton elevator. I was actually trying to capture the structure and material in the elevator shaft wall, which is exposed behind the grate as you ride up Seton/Caldwell's elevator. I was focusing on the wall behind (hence the grate is so blurry) but instead got a blur of motion. I plan on trying this again, and changing shutter speed or just trying the default sports setting and seeing if I can actually get a good shot of the real material of the shaft wall.