Major Assignment #2.

Location Documentary - for Folio.

(19/3/2012)

This should prove to be a good challenge for us as photographers. I had at least (7) initial concepts, but after further thought i felt i needed to single-out the ones with more of a story to tell. So the following information is a selection of possible stories/subject matter for this assignment:

1. Life of a Greens-keeper.

This is a story i have always wanted to learn about. In my time i have played a fair bit of golf and have always admired how the greens-keepers manage to continually maintain the course after all those divots, lost balls, un-raked bunkers and people's attempts to drive their golf-buggy like they're were on Mt Panorama :)

Perhaps i'm weird, but i take an interest in what most people find uninteresting. What does a greens-keeper get up to each day at work? What keeps them coming back to mow grass and re-position that little hole so many of us struggle to fill with a golf ball? etc etc

They work at hours most people only experience whilst waiting in line for a cab after a night out on the town. They also deal with constant changes in weather and unlike the yards in Canberra (for those who have one), their task is on a grand scale.

I would like to portrait the contrast of working as part of a team, working alone and working for the big boss. I imagine they are quite multi-skilled within their role. Combining a knowledge and understand in horticulture, plumbing, machining, automotive and electrical trades. Surely there is also a bit of the "aussie-bloke" cliche with some quirky little things in and around their work-shed - perhaps there is even a gender equality.

Without sounding vein, I feel my previous professions have given me a strong set of people skills that allow me to adapt to my environment and let people warm to me quite quickly (gotta get some better jokes though) add to this solid communication, and i feel i may get some very natural photographs - resulting in stronger results.


I feel this is my strongest idea, with the most photo opportunities. See how i go... perhaps i could even photograph greens-keepers from more than one course here in Canberra to see if they share a similar attitude to their role, who knows right now, but i am excited by this project and do hope that the people i pitch my story to understand it :)


I plan to approach:
The Royal Canberra Golf Course
Federal Golf Course






Reference & Research
What is a Greenskeeper - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenskeeper

Shot Ideas:

_


2. KungFu master.
A young man i worked with at Woolworths got talking to me one shift about his involvement in martial arts, in particular KungFu. I myself have done many years of Karate and a short stint in KungFu. For a while there it took over my life and totally changed my way of thinking - i still say for the better.


Anyway, he continued to tell me about his master. From what he mentioned, this master of his was something special and someone who had to be been seen to be believed. So i of course pursued this matter further and was informed that at this year's multicultural festival his master and his students would be performing a demonstration for the crowds. Further to this, his master would be making an attempt to break his own Guinness World Record. What the?!?!? He just got a whole lot more interesting.


So, i attended the recent Canberra Multicultural Festival (huge event) and was fortunate enough to see the performance put on by my work-mate and his dojo. I met his master and was instantly impressed by his bone-crunching hand-shake. The performance was great and topped of by a solo sword demonstration by his master before he then demonstrated how to break a very thick slab of concrete!


However, there was more to the story, because the following day their dojo would again put on a performance/display for the crowd and in addition to that, the master would make his world record attempt to lay on a bed of nails with up to 700kg of weight baring down on him. Crazy stuff!!



Ok, so... with all of my prior exposure to martial arts and still practising and reading about it in my spare time, i would like to capture the life of this incredible man to portrait his hard and soft sides, his mental and physical toughness etc etc and who knows, perhaps he has a real interesting other side to his daily life away from KungFu.


I have made contact with my old work-mate to try make contact with his master (who's name i have forgotten) to see if he will allow me to photograph his life.




Reference & Research:
Kung Fu website - http://www.firedragon.com.au/




_


3. Re-using the Un-used.
In our wasteful modern-day society i often wonder - does anyone still re-use things? The answer is yes and although it is a small percentage of us, it certainly continues to remain functional - otherwise it might get "thrown in the bin.


Perhaps it's just me, but i see more and more useless people getting around. If the item they are using stops working or isn't quite right - they ditch it (throw it away), because it's much easier to just go out and buy a new one at the shop or even better, purchase online and have it delivered to your door.


There is a real admirable quality to those who can see another mans' trash and make it re-usable. Not only this, but it can be seen as smart shopping in some instances. There is still a lot of perfectly usable "junk" out there if you have the right frame of mind.


It used to be a habit of old "funny-duddies" with a limited income and understanding of hygiene and social skills that would make use of this advantage, but (just maybe) it seems to be on a bit of a rise within society as we become better educated and more aware of this culture.




Reference & Research:
The Tiny Green Shed - more information.
Recyclery - more information.






Lets hope one of these goes ahead :)












D.

Questionnaire #4

Eleven Questions

1. What are the limitations of a Focal Plane shutter ?

it does not work well with artificial lighting (flash) due to how it exposes the film/sensor to light from top to bottom at higher shutted-speeds.

2. Should a Between The Lens of a leaf shutter be cocked during lens attachment/removal ?

no.

3. What is the maximum speed of a Between The Lens shutter ?

From what i could find, i believe it is only 1/400 second, because anything faster than this is actually faster than the mechanism itself and will result in a drop-off of light.

4. What is the definition of Depth of Field ?

Put simply - it is the amount of focus in a photograph.


Depth of field is a vital part of photography. It allows creative and technical control of the the photograph in order to achieve the desired result.


For example, in nature photography, if the photographer wants to capture the details of a pristine landscape, an almost-closed aperture is used. This gives a large depth of focus and produces detail throughout the entire image.

small aperture = focus throughout the image.

However, if the photographer wants to single out something from a scene, a wide-open aperture is used. This allows the photographer to acquire focus on the subject itself and blur 
out anything in front of or behind the point of interest. This gives a nice separation.

large aperture = focus on subject only.

So depth of focus (depth of field) is controlled by adjusting aperture.


Initially, aperture and f-stop numbers are confusing, but it is important to get your head around them. Put simply - a large f-number (22) is actually a small opening and a small f-number (2.8) is actually a large opening and both give a completely different result.


I like to think of it like this:
Small f-number = small depth of field.
Large f-number = large depth of field.


Below is a visual representation of depth of field (depth of focus).

5. How is depth of field increased ?

Depth of field is increased by opening up the aperture to increase the amount of light coming through the lens and hence increasing the circles of confusion effect. It can also be increased with lens choice and distance of subject from the camera.

6. Why is the automatic diaphragm fully open until until the shutter release is pressed ?

umm

7. What are the two types of sensor arrays ? and briefly describe the differences between the two.

CCD and CMOS are the two most common sensory arrays found in modern-day digital cameras. A sensory array consists of the following aspects.

• Total pixels.
• Effective pixels.
• Active pixels.
• Recording pixels.
• it is normal for a sensor to actually have a few DEAD pixels.

a common Bayer-filter elements and possible new sensor design.

Digital SLR cameras capture their images on a silicon semiconductor referred to as a digital sensor. This sensor is composed of an array of photosensitive diodes called photosites that capture photons (subatomic light particles) and converts them to electrons, much like solar panels convert light to energy. This build up of electrons in each photosite is converted to a voltage which in turn is converted to digital data as a picture element or ‘pixel’. These pixels are then relayed in consecutive order and stored as an image on the camera’s memory as a file. These files can then be viewed on the camera in the LCD screen, or uploaded to a computer where they can also be viewed or manipulated with imaging software.




Types of digital sensor.

CCD - Charged Coupling Device (CCD) sensors were invented by Dr. Willard Boyle and Dr. George Smith at Bell Labs in 1969. Today CCD sensors are used in a multitude of devices from scanners to telescopes.

CCD sensors derive their name from how the charge is read after an image is captured. Utilizing a special manufacturing process, the sensor is able to transport the built up charge across itself without compromising the image quality. The first row of the array is read into an output register, which in turn is fed into an amplifier and an analog to digital converter. After the first row has been read, it is dumped from the read out register and the next row of the array is read into the register. The charges of each row are ‘coupled’ so as each row moves down and out, the successive rows follow in turn. The digital data is then stored as a file that can be viewed and manipulated.

Until recently, CCD sensors have been predominant in digital SLR’s because of their high quality/ low noise images and their maturity, having been produced for over thirty years. But new manufacturing methods of an old technology have led to inroads for it to surpass CCD sensors.

breakdown of a CCD sensor.

CMOS - (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensors or Active Pixel sensors were first discussed in length in a paper from Dr. Eric Fossum, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in 1992. 1993 through to 1995, JPL developed much of the technology which would be implemented into the CMOS sensor. Fossum and other members of the JPL co-founded Photobit Corporation in 1995 to commercialize the technologies they had developed. In 2001, Micron Technology acquired Photobit and used its extensive knowledge of CMOS wafer manufacturing to enhance the development further.

CMOS sensors derive their name from the way they are manufactured. They are cut from a CMOS wafer which is cheaper to produce then a CCD wafer, provides less power consumption, and also allow for more involved circuitry along side of the photosite array. Each photosite in the CMOS sensor has three or more transistors which has its benefits and its draw backs. The transistors allow for processing to be done right at the photosite, and each pixel/photosite can be accessed independently. Because the transistors occupy space on the array, some of the incoming light hits the transistors and not the photosites, which leads to picture noise. CMOS sensors also function at a very low gain which may contribute to noise.

breakdown of a CMOS sensor.

The differences between the two sensor types are noticeable in a number of ways. Below is a comparison chart explaining them. Now that i know this, it makes sense why manufacturers push the CMOS SENSOR when advertising their cameras. Constant improvements appear to boost the CMOS sensor's capabilities and precision, but i feel the CCD still trumps it for now.

how each channel (RGB) combine to make an image.

Most of the above information has been referenced from - http://www.sensorcleaning.com/whatisasensor.php

8. What does a photo-site record ?

Light and then it is converted to an electronic signal and recoded by the camera's image processor. 

• 1 photo-site : 1 pixel.

9. What is interpolation ?

umm

10. Explain step by step the process of RAW file capture.

RAW data is the output from each of the original red, green and blue sensitive pixels of the image sensor, after being read out of the array by the array electronics and passing through an analog to digital converter. The readout electronics collect and amplify the sensor data and it's at this point that "ISO" (relative sensor speed) is set. As far as I know, RAW isn't an acronym, it doesn't stand for anything, it just means raw, unprocessed, data.

Now one of two things can be done with the RAW data. It can be stored on the memory card, or it can be further processed and compressed (lose information) to yield a JPEG image. The diagram below shows the processes involved:

If the data is stored as a JPEG file, it goes through the Bayer interpolation, is modified by in camera set parameters such as white balance, saturation, sharpness, contrast etc, is subject to JPEG compression and then stored. The advantage of saving JPEG data is that the file size is smaller and the file can be directly read by many programs or even sent directly to a printer. The disadvantage is that there is a quality loss, the amount of loss depending on how much compression is used. The more compression, the smaller the file but the lower the image quality. Lightly compressed JPEG files can save a significant amount of space and lose very little quality. For more on JPEG compression see http://www.photo.net/learn/jpeg/index.html

11. What is the difference between RAW and JPEG files ?

RAW - is an uncompressed recording of any light entering the camera.


JPEG - is a compressed recreation of the recorded light.

D.

Questionnaire #3

(week 5)

1. What are the two ways exposure is controlled? And what are some other factors that play a role in exposure?

Exposure is controlled primarily by SHUTTER-SPEED and APERTURE.

2. You have an ISO of 400, a shutter speed of 1/125^th second and an f-stop of F5.6.

a) I ask you to open up the aperture to let more light in by 2 stops. What would you change your reading to? - f/2.8

b) Now, back at your original setting, close down three stops. What is your setting now?

- f/16

3. What are three ways you can measure exposure?

ISO (sensitivity) - Shutter-speed (time of exposure) - Aperture (amount of light)

4. If in a given situation ‘correct’ exposure is achieved by using 125 @ f8 at ISO 100, indicate the new shutter speeds required to provide ‘correct’ exposure for the other ISO settings below.

Film - Shutterspeed - Aperture

ISO400 - f8 - 1/500

ISO200 - f8 - 1/250

ISO100 - 125 - f8 - Correct exposure.

ISO50 - f8 - 1/60

ISO25 - f8 - 1/30

5. If in a given situation ‘correct’ exposure is achieved by using 125 @ f8
at ISO 100, indicate the new f-number required to provide ‘correct’
exposure for the other ISO settings below.

Film - Shutterspeed - Aperture

ISO400 - 125 - f/16

ISO200 - 125 - f/11

ISO100 - 125 - f8 - Correct exposure.

ISO50 - 125 - f/4

ISO25 - 125 - f/2.8

6. When you use a high ISO you get image degradation. With film this is called increasing the size of the grain. With digital we don’t refer to grain, we refer to?

Pixelation - which is a breakup of fine detail and colour.

7. On your camera, what is the difference between AUTO mode and MANUAL mode?

AUTO mode basically means the camera will do it's best to work out "correct exposure" using it's best metering abilities to find the mid tones - the photographer has no control over the camera's adjustment dials.

MANUAL mode is quite different, the camera will still use it's metering abilities to aid with "correct exposure" to find the mid tones - but the photographer has complete creative control of all the camera's adjustments dials.

8. All in-camera meters try to render the scene as a mid-tone. So if the mid-toned scene is rendered appropriately, what will happen to the light toned scene (white)? And the dark toned scene (black)?

With a WHITE (high-key) scene the camera will stop-down the exposure leaving the image looking under-exposed and a little dull and grey looking.

With a BLACK (low-key) scene the camera will stop-up the exposure leaving the image looking over-exposed and a little too white.

9. What type of metering do built-in camera meters use?

Spot metering - for specific areas of the subject or scene, rendering approximately 3% or less.

Centre-weighted metering - which means it will render the middle 80% of the scene and work out correct exposure from that.

Evaluative metering - will render the entire frame and set the exposure automatically.

Partial metering - is quite effective when the background is much brighter than the subject due to backlighting. It covers approximately 7% of the scene's centre area.

10. If you are using ISO200 how more light sensitive will your exposure be if you change this to ISO400? (HINT: This is equivalent to 1 stop)

ISO400 is twice as sensitive to light than ISO200.

D.

Major Assignment #1.

Lens Research
(23/3/2012)
(week 6)


Ok... so after a bit of initial research into tilt-shift lenses, i discovered it is not the ideal lens for me to consider at the moment for a couple of reasons - the main reason being i felt it was better suited to a full-frame camera body (which i don't have) in order to gain a wider angle of view for architectural photography. Apart from this everything else about them is still quite appealing to me, so will keep it on the wish-list.


So... considering i currently do not have a long (telephoto) lens and my camera has a APSC sensor (focal length advantage) i will now pursue a standout, proven and affordable lens from Canon's "L-series". The 300mm f/4.0 L IS USM lens and i will be comparing it to it's challenger, the far more expensive 300mm f/2.8 L IS USM lens.


:)

10/3/2012
(week 4)


Well.. I made a start on this today. I have chosen Canon's tilt-shift lens collection to report on and compare. This is a lens i have had a genuine interest in for just over a year now, but have never looked into seriously, so i look forward to this assignment task even though I was never very good at this type of reporting through school. So i will possibly need some help from staff at the library etc but hey i'm determined and am sure going to give it my best.

tilt and shift adjustments

angle of view options on offer

D.