#6 Class Notes Critique Assignment #1

The First Shooting assignment for the Basic Digital Class:

Texture,
Line,
Quality of Light,
Edge of Frame,
Shallow and Deep Depth of Field
Stop Action and Slow Shutter Speed.

Everyone who completed their assignment did a wonderful job. This is a great stretch assignment as everyone can push themselves at every level to fulfill the assignment.

In addition to the images from class posted here (Coming Soon.)

Here are a couple just uploaded.

Todd's

Olivia's

#5 Class Notes Digital Workflow

Using Bridge to rank select RAW files and then use ACR (adobe camera raw) to make adjustments. -White Balance, including Color and Tint.
-Exposure, Recovery, Fill Light and Black.
-Brightness and Contrast.
-Tone Curve
-Sharpness

Link to Tutorial for using Adobe Camera Raw

We learned to set the parameters for Export by selecting the hyperlink at the bottom of Bridge.

-set color space (Adobe 1998, ProPhoto RGB, Colormatch RGB, sRGB)
Use Adobe 1998 if you are going to continue editing as it is a larger color space, you can always change to sRGB later for the web or for printing at a Photo lab.

Use sRGB if you are going to be uploading to the web or sending to photo lab.

You can set the size, the default is you camera sensor size.

Set the resolution. 72 ppi (pixels per inch) is a common screen resolution. 240-360 ppi is common for printing to inkjet and offset lithography.

Use the save image button as a jpeg, tiff or dng. (which we will go into later in the semester.)

UPDIG 4.0 guidelines for digital photography

We made contact sheets and web galleries in Photoshop.


You can use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to make contact sheets and web galleries

We also discussed the value of Photoshop in preparing work files, working in layers.

To prepare for #6 class download the Words to Think about for Photography.

Here is a guide to critiquing.

#4 Class Notes Using Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw

Someone mentioned some sort of parade for a football team and all hell breaks loose.

Oh well no harm no foul, truth be told, we need to go over this stuff a couple of times and hey everyone who showed up is at the head of the class.

We downloaded some RAW Canon files (cr2) and opened them using Adobe Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw. The images were a variety of exposure brackets to show that the Camera Meter Indicated Exposure (MIE) this is what the meter suggests is just that a suggestion, the photographer decides how to interpret the measurement.

Also included was a range of depth of field examples, and a color balance example.

We will continue with this exercise this week and work on using Photoshop. We will also look at making contact sheets and web galleries.

#3 Class Notes Camera Meters & Exposure Calculations

The last couple of weeks we have looked at the settings for the camera. This week we took a close look at the camera meter, the camera sensor, how the meter evaluates a scene and how photographers calculate the exposure based on the meters recommendation.

Here is a fun online exposure calculator that explains the "sunny sixteen rule" in fun interactive way.

Metering tip for metering specifically Nikon.

How your meter "sees"

Ultimate Exposure information

Accurate Exposure

Here is an article on selecting a d-SLR

We talked about how to hold a camera.

A good discussion about the "exposure triangle" ISO, Shutter Speed, Aperture (f/ stop)

Gray Cards for exposure : a little history by Thom Hogan, using a Gray Card & another

#2 Class Notes Camera Settings

Welcome to those of you who joined us today for the first time. Please review the notes from last week to see what you missed. Do not worry, we will review a lot the the info here over and over.

Books: These are the three books I recommended during today's class.
The New Photography Manual or here .

The Photography Bible

RAW Pipeline

Thanks to Chris from the equipment office for presenting a primer on checking out equipment and using the computer / digital lab.

Today we looked at settings for digital camera's. Here is a link for info on setting aperture, shutter speed and ISO.

Links for other of today's topics.
- Focal Length
- Zoom Lenses
- Aperture Priority & here
- Shutter Priority
- White Balance
- Shutter speed and Aperture scales and how they work to determine exposure
A good summary

Photographing JPEG vs RAW and here

Metering systems
- canon
- nikon

Focusing Systems
- Nikon d-80
- Canon

Web Link to a blog about Workflow using Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw ACR in Photoshop

Remember to bring in 20 images as jpegs on a jump dive .

Please put them in a folder with your last name. if you can rename the files or adding your initials to the files so we know who's work we are reviewing.

Welcome Class #1

Thanks to everyone for attending today's class at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. I think we are going to have a lot of fun this semester. Favorite quote today, " Pittsburgh has two season's Winter and Rainy." The truth really hurts. Luckily for us digital photography works well with flat light. In addition to the basic housekeeping for a new semester including the syllabus and the facility tour we jumped right into the software. I do not want anyone to feel overwhelmed and it looks like a lot of heads were shaking affirmatively today so I think we are on the right course. I want everyone to know that by the end of the semester you will be throwing terms like Metadata and RAW files around so much your friends will be superbly impressed. Why not start tomorrow. The main topics covered today: Renaming, Metadata (EXIF and user data called IPTC), using Adobe Bridge to Rename and add Metadata as well as keywords. Creating a Metadata template. Link to a video tutorial here. Using Adobe Camera Raw plugin for Raw conversions. I currently use a file name schema using my initials, the download date and a machine generated four digit number. (RKP_090113_0001.CR2) Here is a link to renaming for Lightroom . We discussed that a sidecar file called an .xmp file is created in Bridge, Lightroom etc that adds text info to be used with the RAW file in software that can read both. Next week, remember to bring your camera and instruction manual.