Self Evaluation

It is important to review your work in more formal ways. Questions to ask yourself/answer might include:

What are your favorite images? Why? 

What would you have done differently? Why? 

Did you encounter any problems? What were they? 

On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best) rate your:

composition:

effort:

idea: 

Digital ISO/Sensitivity

When talking about digital ISO it is sometimes helpful to think of digital ISO/sensitivity as film speed. When a non-digital camera is used, the user must load film into the camera. This film has different ISO/ASA numbers. Typical ISO numbers are: 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600. The higher the ISO number, the more sensitive the CCD is to light - which means pictures can be made in lower light situations. The lower the ISO number, the less sensitive the CCD is to light - good for sunny days. The difference between film ISO and digital ISO is that you can change the ISO for each frame on a digital camera whereas you have to shoot an entire roll of film before you can change the ISO.

*On a side note - the higher the ISO the more noise (digital camera) or grain (film camera) you will see in the photograph.

Artist Statements

Artist statements are valuable for many different reasons. Professors may want them when turning in an assignment, gallery owners may want them when reviewing potential work for their walls, etc. Artist statements explain why we do what we do and what our work is about.

When writing an artist statement, you will want to take into consideration the following:
-the audience
-the materials used
-the medium
-the subject of your work
-methodologies and theories that have influenced your work
-personal background, purpose, and perspective

Light and Lens by Robert Hirsch offers 14 steps to writing an artist's statement on page 333 if you would like more indepth descriptions than what is offered below.

"The overall purpose of an artist statement is to clearly and succinctly explain and give your ideas credibility."


1. List your ideas and where they came from.
2. Reflect on your own work. What do you enjoy photographing? Do you gravitate towards specific color palettes or themes? Once you have thought about these things, try to figure out what the common denominators are in your work.
3. Find an artist that you admire and read their artist statement.
4. Research. Artists get ideas from many things - politics, other artists, philosophy, history, etc. Figure out where your ideas come from and what appeals to you. When you come across an idea or concept that is interesting, rewrite it in your own words.
5. Can viewers interpret your image?
6. It is important to recognize that all images possess meaning - and this meaning is typically not universal across the audience. Make sure that you can express your meaning while recognizing that the viewers meaning can be true as well - each person has a different life experience.
7. Make a list of denotations and connotations that can be seen in your work.
8. Use metaphors. Literal statements lead toward literal interpretations.
9. Don't tell viewers what they should get out of looking at your work-point them in the direction you want them to go. The statement should help the viewer understand the ideas about the work.
10. Make sure your statement matches your work. If your words and images don't match-change the statement or change the work.
11. Be simple and specific. Artist statements don't need to be research papers.
12. Only discuss technical aspects of your work if it is really important to your idea.
13. It is sometimes helpful to create an image contact sheet with image titles, creation date, dimensions of print, etc.
14. Get feedback-review and revise. Have others read your statement and look at your work.

Shutter Speeds

Shutter Speeds control how much time the light can reach the camera sensor. It is a camera setting that controls the amount of time the shutter is open. (To better understand how a shutter works, think of a stage curtain opening and closing.)

Shutter speeds also control how movement (or lack of movement) can be captured in a photograph. The higher the shutter speed number (i.e. 1/500) the faster the shutter opens and closes. This action reduces the amount of light let in and stops or freezes any movement in the image. You would want to use a faster shutter speed to freeze the action in sports like soccer or football.

The lower the shutter speed number, the longer the shutter is open and it may cause blurring because the subject is moving or even the camera may have motion (sometimes called camera blur or motion blur). Sometimes motion blur is a desired result - say for example you want to show speed.

Numbers indicated like 2" means the shutter is open for 2 seconds.
Numbers indicated like 1/60 or 1/250 is actually a fraction of a second.

It is important to remember that most photographers can hand-hold the camera (meaning without a tripod) at about 1/60th or 1/125th of a second without having motion blur. Anything longer than these will most likely require a tripod and remote release or self-timer).

*Information from Judith Pisconeri and Light and Lens. www.pisconeri.com

White Balance

White Balance is an automatic or manual control that adjusts the brightest part of the scene so that it appears white. Every time a digital camera takes a picture it needs to establish a 'white point.' Many digital cameras offer an auto white balance setting as well as preset white balance settings and manual white balance settings. When the camera is set to auto white balance mode, the camera decides where the white point is in the photograph. The preset modes (i.e. sunny, cloudy, fluorescent, tungsten/incandescent) are to be set each time you move to a different lighting situation. For example, one would not want to use sunny white balance mode when under tube lighting - you would want to use fluorescent white balance mode for this situation. The manual white balance mode allows you to pick a specific color temperature.

*The diagram above are approximate temperatures that will correspond to each type of light. These temperatures will vary depending on the condition. If it is a mostly sunny day with some clouds the temperature will vary slightly.

*Information from Judith Pisconeri and Light and Lens. www.pisconeri.com

F.Stops and Aperture

Aperture: is the lens opening and controls how much light is passed through the lens.

F.Stop: are the numerical measurements of the Aperture.

As you can see in the diagram above the lower the number (i.e. F2) the larger the opening of the lens which allows MORE light in. On the flip side, the higher the number (i.e. F22) the smaller the opening which allows LESS light in.

So what's the big deal? Why is Aperture/F.stop important?

One of the important things the f.stop/aperture affects is the depth-of-field. The f.stop/aperture on the lens controls how much of the image is in focus in addition to the point you specifically focused on. For example, a lower (wide-open) aperture (i.e. F 2.8/F4) will produce an image where only the subject focused on is sharp, and the items in front of and behind the focus point are out of focus in varying degrees. A higher aperture (less opening in the lens - i.e. F11/F16 +) will produce images with more or all of the subject and surroundings in focus.

*Information from Judith Pisconeri and Light and Lens. www.pisconeri.com

Light Meters

Here is a crude diagram I quickly put together so that we can have a discussion on 'in-camera' light meters. (Depending on the model of your camera- the plus and minus side may or may not be on the same side as this diagram.)You will notice in the diagram that there are two bolder/bigger lines to the minus side and plus side of this diagram. These are STOPS. If your meter reads to the first bold line on the minus side it means that you are 1 stop underexposed. If you are at the second bold line on the plus side it means that you are 2 stops overexposed.

So, how does a light meter work? The camera's light meter reads the light reflecting back from the 'scene' you have selected in the viewfinder. The meter then determines the average exposure within the scene.

Change the MODE of your camera to MANUAL. You will then need to change your shutter speed and f.stop to make the meter read 0. Helpful Hint: Go outside during daylight hours. Set your ISO to 400. Set your shutter speed to 60. Then, all you need to do is change your f.stop until you reach 0. Once you have taken a few different photographs using this method, try setting your f.stop to 5.6. Then change your shutter speed until you get to 0. Repeat these a few times in different locations. (Remember that you should not go under a shutter speed of 60.)

Once you have familiarized yourself with your meter and using your shutter speeds and f.stops to get to 0 you might want to try bracketing.

Exposure Bracketing begins by making a 'correct exposure.' Then you make a picture one stop below the 'correct exposure' and finish by making another picture one stop above the 'correct exposure.'

Example: Original or 'correct exposure' Shutter Speed: 125 F.Stop: 8

Under: Shutter Speed: 125 F.Stop: 11
Over: Shutter Speed: 125 F.Stop: 5.6

*Information from Judith Pisconeri and Light and Lens. www.pisconeri.com