Shooting Tight

For this assignment I chose to illustrate the stress of midterms and its effects on different students. Using the tightest and most compressed focal length I was able to frame up my stories much, much easier than the previous wide angle assignment. Not only this, but I was able to utilize depth of field when going through and capturing each frame in order to draw out a more editorialized and effective story.

In the shot above, I decided to leave the exposure set for the daylight coming through the window, casting the subject of the photo in shadow. I was able to be in the right place at the right time to catch him with his hand on his head and papers spread all over his workspace. This photo is one of my favorites from this assignment, showing how beautiful the spring weather is, and how little students studying for midterms have the chance to enjoy it. 

This subject in this frame, with his body turned out toward the sunlight, is also a prime example of the warm spring weather outside while students are stuck indoors. The computers out of order next to him show both a lack of maintenance and signs of progress (pun intended). The compression helped to isolate the subject and set my frame much easier.

This final shot is my favorite. Some students might stress over midterms while others... Not so much. The tight focal length enabled me to show just what I wanted to show. With his legs crossed, this student is without a doubt the embodiment of senioritis. Once again I set the exposure to balance for the outdoors in order to capture the same "trapped" essence I tried to portray in my earlier photos in the series. 

Overall, I prefer shooting tight to shooting wide when clicking for news-gathering purposes. Being able to editorialize on the spot by isolating your designated frame helps bring out quality in each photo and tell the story much better. Utilizing the much more shallow depth of field helps to do this even more so. Good luck on midterms everybody.

Shooting Wide

For each of these photos, I used the widest focal length available on my Canon Rebel T3i. Unfortunately, because the camera isn't mirrorless, the 18-55mm lens I had turned into more of a 30-88mm focal length. Regardless, I still felt the impact a wide angle can have when illustrating a story. I wanted to illustrate something huge for this assignment; something worthy of a wide focal length. I chose to shoot the skeleton of the new student housing that's being built near the Brown and Science buildings. Using the wide focal length, I wanted to show the contrast between the current on-campus student housing's size and the new proposed housing currently in construction. Capturing the top of the crane really helped further the idea that this new student housing truly will be "bigger and better". 

 

In the earlier photos in the series, I tried to include the older student housing in the frame, to better show the contrast. I attempted more of a silhouetted feel in the first two photos, which admittedly was more of a personal preference. The sunset was gorgeous and I felt the colors of the sunset highlighting a silhouetted construction site would especially help the photos stand out.

The third photo I captured to show that something new and exciting was happening in an otherwise bland area. (No offense, St. George.) In editing these photos, I brought the clarity and contrast up, as well as cooling down the temperature. It was tough getting used to having an extremely limited depth of field to work with. I attempted some depth of field shots earlier in my series, but they came out looking terrible, so I decided to cut them. In the end, just showing the massive scale of the story was the best route to follow when using such a wide and all-encompassing focal length. 

The fourth photo I included wasn't shot at a wide focal length, but I decided to include it simply because of its aesthetic value. In layman's terms, it's purty.

Bracketing

Here are the photos from my Bracketing series. I shot them with a Canon Rebel and an 18-55mm lens. All the photos are taken at a 55mm focal length. The camera's lens could not close down past a 5.6, so I compensated by shooting a 6.3 as my 5.6, and my 5.6 as a 4.

f/5.6 

1/4000s

55mm

f/6.3

1/4000s

55mm

f/8

1/4000s

55mm

f/11

1/4000s

55mm

f/16

1/4000s

55mm

f/16

1/1000s

55mm

f/11

1/2000s

55mm

f/8

1/4000s

55mm

f/6.3

1/4000s

55mm

f/5.6

1/4000s

55mm

The metered photos got a bit overexposed towards the end of my f/stop cycle because the camera's shutter speed was not fast enough to compensate for the wide-open lens exposure. I tried my best to center the meter as much as I could, but it turned out to slowly overexpose as I opened the shutter. If my camera's shutter speed offered a faster option, it would have metered out better. Also, I could have opted to find another spot to shoot my photos that wasn't as brightly lit. Hindsight is always 20/20. Either way, I did understand the concept of the bracketing assignment, I just wasn't thinking  at the time to look for another area to shoot.

Axioms

Now that I finally have access to a camera capable of producing the variables required of this assignment, I was able to go out and shoot the axioms with my buddy Jamal. We struggled at first, taking a few overexposed photos, but we eventually got it figured out (hopefully) with the aid of professor Young.
These four photos address slow shutter speed, fast shutter speed, shallow depth of field, and wide depth of field respectively. The metadata is included under each photo.

Slow Shutter Speed:

f/36

1/80s

55mm

Fast Shutter Speed:

f/5.6

1/4000s

55mm

Shallow Depth of Field:

f/5.6

1/3200s

55mm

Deep Depth of Field:

f/22

1/200s

18mm

Getting the depth of field photos was a bit confusing, and I'm not sure I 100% grasp the concept. It seemed as though I was only able to achieve a shallow depth of field with a much more condensed focal length, and the deep depth of field with a much wider focal length. I feel as though the f-stop and shutter speed were not huge factors in creating the axiom, although somehow I don't think that's quite correct. Either way, I think I achieved the requirement of the assignment. If not, I gladly welcome any tips on creating a shallow and deep depth of field with greater accuracy.