Today's class was a fairly detailed examination of the various components that go into making a good exposure. An exposure is a combination of the correct amount of time (shutter speed) and the correct intensity of light (aperture).
Shutter speed is measured in fractions of a second: 1000, 500, 250, 125, 60, 30, 15, etc. Shutter speed determines how time is shown. Aperture (f-stop) depends on your lens and is measured thusly: 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 64. Higher the number, the smaller the lens. ěSpeedî of the lens is its highest aperture. Smaller the number, bigger the lens. Higher stop is useful for low light and fast, action shots.
Another component is film speed. Film speed (ISO or ASA) comes in 1600, 800, 400, 200, 100, 50. The higher the number, the faster the film. 400 is a good all-around film. Slow film requires more light.
When creating photographs, one must always determine which has priority, shutter or aperture. Or to put it another way, time vs. space.
We discussed the concept of Depth of Field: how much of your picture is going to be in focus. The higher the aperture, the greater depth of field. The lower the aperture, the tighter the focus.
We discussed the merits of film vs. digital photography and the ethics of intent: what does the photographer owe the subject?
We looked at our portraiture from yesterday and at a few other photography books: Five Decades by Arnold Newman, Stranger Passing by Joel Sternfeld, Like a One-Eyed Cat by Lee Friedlander, Jump by Philippe Halsman, and Dirty Windows by Merry Alpern.
Our next project (due tomorrow of course) is a series of photos representing an object concretely and abstractly.
