Photography

What is Photography?

Photography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving pictures by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an electronic sensor. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects activate a sensitive chemical or electronic sensor during a timed exposure, usually through a photographic lens in a device known as a camera that also stores the resulting information chemically or electronically. Photography has many uses for business, science, art and pleasure.

Genres of Photography

Here are some genres of photography:-

Aerial
Black and White
Commercial
Documentary
Fine Art
Forensic
Glamour
High Speed
Illustrations
Landscapes
Nature
Paparazzi
Photojournalism
Portrait
Still Life
Stock
Underwater
Wedding

This is a good example of Fashion Photography as the model looks very glamorous and is wearing a designer dress.

This is a good example of Landscape photography as the wooden platform draws your eye into the picture and you can see the horizon in the background.

Camera

A camera is a device that records images, either as a still photograph or as moving images known as videos or movies. The term comes from the camera obscura (Latin for "dark chamber"), an early mechanism of projecting images where an entire room functioned as a real-time imaging system; the modern camera evolved from the camera obscura.

Shutter

In photography, a shutter is a device that allows light to pass for a determined period of time for the purpose of exposing photographic film or a light-sensitive electronic sensor to capture a permanent image of a scene.

Aperture

In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. In photography, this can be measured in increments called f-stops.

Lens

The lens of a camera captures light from the subject and brings it to a focus on the film or detector.

Exposure Control

The size of the aperture and the brightness of the scene controls the amount of light that enters the camera during a period of time and the shutter controls the length of the time that the light hits the recording surface. Equivalent exposures can be made with a larger aperture and a faster shutter speed or a corresponding smaller aperture and with the shutter speed slowed down.

Health and Safety

Studio

· Cables- as the studio may be dark, care needs to be taken as you may trip over a cable.
· Lights – the flashes get very hot and very bright. Care not to stare into them.
· Backdrops – Very heavy and expensive.
· Coats/Bags – Put somewhere safe to prevent people from tripping over them.
· Food and Drink – No food and Drink anywhere to prevent spillages.

Sensible Behaviour at all times

Dark Room

· Coats/Bags – Put somewhere safe to prevent people from tripping over them.
· Food and Drink – No food and Drink anywhere to prevent spillages.
· Wet and Dry areas – Please keep separate at all times
· Chemical Spills – Please let tutor know immediately if you spill any chemicals.
· Clothing – wear old clothes as chemicals can stain clothes.

What is a Pin-hole camera?

A pinhole camera is a light-proof box with a small hole in one side it is a very simple camera with no lens and a single very small aperture. Light from a scene passes through this single point and projects an inverted image on the opposite side of the box. Cameras using small apertures and the human eye in bright light both act like a pinhole camera .The smaller the hole, the sharper the image, but the dimmer the projected image. Optimally, the size of the aperture should be 1/100 or less of the distance between it and the screen. A pinhole camera's shutter is usually manually operated because of the lengthy exposure times, and consists of a flap of some light-proof material to cover and uncover the pinhole. Typical exposures range from 5 seconds to hours and sometimes days.

Examples of Pinhole Photography

Below is an example of Pinhole photography which was taken by Marcia. C. Sheer in 1984