What is Photography?

What is Photography?

• Communication: Photography can be used for communication purposes, the biggest example being commercial purposes. There are many different ways photography can be used in this way such as for advertising (to promote a product visually), Crime scene photography (Which is used to capture specific details from the scene to be analysed later) and for the paparazzi( who use the photos they take to get a story out to the public about the famous people they have photographed.)

• Expression: Expression Photography is when a mood is captured onto a photo, the most popular event for expression photography is weddings newlyweds will hire a professional photographer to take pictures of their wedding so they can capture the feeling from that day and look back on it for years to come.

Lenses:

There is all different types of lenses available for cameras, they determine the quality of what photograph you will take. It's important to use the right lens for the right photograph, for example if you are wanting to take a landscape photo you will use a wide angle lens to capture all of your surroundings.

This is a fish eye lens, this type of lens allows you to get a wider shot of your surroundings. This lens is mostly popular with skaters as it allows them to stick with the style found in most skating videos.

This is a telephoto lens, this type of lens allows you to zoom in on object far away. They are mostly used to record football games or to capture from a great distance away.

White Balance:

White balance controls the colour of the photo you take, this is important if you are taking photos in daylight because if the white balance is not right then your photo will be drained from colour. To set the white balance you need to hold up a sheet of white paper in front of the lens and configure the settings correctly. Below is an example of how white balance effects a photo.

 

This is a photograph taken without the white balance set correctly.

And this is the same photograph with the white balance set correctly, as you can see there is a clear difference between the two photos as this one has more natural colour.

Photos were taken from this website: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/white-balance.htm


F-Stops

F-stops is one of the main features of a camera as it allows you to choose how much light you let into the lens. There is a number of different f-stops to choose from, the further up you go the less light you will let into the lens. This is helpful if you are trying to take a darkened photo. And if you use a lower f-stop then you will get more light exposure into the lens thus allowing you to take lighter photos. 

The above diagram was taken from here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-number

ISO:

ISO stands for International Standards Organization and is a built in camera sensor. When you change the ISO setting then you are adjusting the camera's sensitivity to the light. So if you wanted more light then you would set the ISO setting to a higher setting  but if you wanted a darker photo then you would lower the setting. But the higher the ISO setting, the more grain you will get on your photo.

The above image was found here: http://www.exposureguide.com/iso-sensitivity.htm


 
Different Photographers

Horror:

This photograph was taken by Joshua Hoffine, it is based in the horror genre and includes elements of a slasher movie with a young girl babysitting and a escaped killer in the house. He stages all of his horror photo shoot's as small movies with props, costumes and special effects makeup. I chose this particular photo because I am interested in the horror genre.

http://www.joshuahoffine.com/

Art:

This photograph was taken by Edward Burtynsky, it is shot looking down at a housing area surrounded by water. He was born on February 22, 1955 and is mostly known for his industrial landscape photos. I chose this picture because it reminds me of Eastenders.

http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/

Fashion

This photograph was taken by Rankin, it is a shot of a model with very long eyelashes. His full name is John Rankin Waddell, he is a fashion photographer and he has photographed people including Tony Blair and The Rolling Stones. I chose this photo because it struck me as being bizarre. 

http://rankin.co.uk/home/

Participatory:

This photograph was taken by Julian Germain and it is a wide shot of everyone in the room looking at the camera. He was born in London in 1962 and has written numerous books and he mostly takes participatory photos in his spare time. I like the element of voyeurism in the photo.

http://www.juliangermain.com/projects.php

Album Covers

This is the cover for the soundtrack from the movie Drive, it features the main character from the film with his back turned and the name of the film written in a 80's font to represent the music used in the film.

This is the cover of the band Blink 182's live album released in 2000, it features the three members of the band drawn in a cartoon style performing on stage.

This is the cover for the band The Misfits album Earth A.D which was released in 1983, it features the band surrounded by skeletons and also shows them as skeletons too.

This is the cover for the band Metallica's album Ride The Lightning which was released in 1984. The main song on the album is Ride The Lightning which is where the album gets its name from.

This is the cover for artist Katy Perry's album Teenage Dream, which was released in 2010, it features her on the cover and gets its name from the main song on the album Teenage Dream.