Introduction to Photography

Friday, 16th October 2009

Today we went to the library and looked at some photography basics. We worked in pairs to research some famous photographers and examples of their work and then briefly presented them to the rest of the class and explained what we liked/disliked and why we thought the photo was taken.

We also worked out that most people in the class have access to a digital camera (or at least a film camera and scanner). Our school also has several digital cameras you can borrow- please contact me regarding this if necessary. Many people had several 'digital cameras' if we count the cameras on their mobile phones and webcams. Because of the availability of digital cameras and the internet, sharing photos is also easier than ever before. Email attachments are becoming 'old hat' as more people upload to photosharing sites such as Flickr or Photobucket or simply post them on social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace. We are going to be looking at photos in flickr (we might even make a class pool) and also be posting photos on our blogs.

Here in NSW, students at Stage 5 level (you guys!) are fortunate enough to be given laptops, complete with webcams, graphics software such as Adobe Photoshop CS4 and web design software such as Fireworks, Illustrator & Bridge . This unit wont give you an in-depth look at these programs, but hopefully encourage you to familiarise yourself with them at home. Many of you mentioned you had some previous experience with these programs from computing lessons; there are also some fantastic tutorials on the web.

I briefly want to mention some of the main types of photography...

- Nature

This may include wildlife or landscape shots.

- People/portrait

Anyone, anywhere. Usually a head-shot or mid-shot but occasionally a long-shot.

- Fashion & Glamour

Fashion focusing on the clothes (or items being modelled); Glamour focusing on the model.

- Destination Specific

Usually particular places of interest. This also blends with 'travel photography' which may seek to capture not only places but people, cultures, traditions etc.

- Macro

Usually for fine detail in smaller subjects eg flowers, insects etc. Sometimes used for medical purposes.

There are many other kinds of photography. We may also see celebrity, sports, underwater, still life, war, forensic and aerial photography, just to name a few.

You may have noticed several 'settings' available on your digital camera that make it more convenient to take a photo in one of these genres. For example...

Check out my creations & reflections blog for some examples of photos I've taken that might fall into these categories. Post one of your own pictures on your blog and identify which category you think it belongs in. It might be of you or your friends playing sport...might be of a flower, an ipod, a car, a friend, the beach- they all fall into one of the main photographic categories. Make sure to take a look around our class blogs and see (and comment on) what your peers are producing :)