Lab 4: Creative White Balance

1. In the library

AWB

Tungsten Light WB

Custom WB












In this case, the AWB gives a warmer colour cast (bit of orange), the Tungsten Light WB a little bit of blue in the picture and the Custom WB gives a cooler cast (greenish cast). Maybe it was the lighting of the library, but maybe how I took my picture of the white paper for the custom WB had affect the result.

2. Shoot in an area where there are two different colours of light

 In order, the first picture was taken with the AWB, the second with Shade WB and the third with White Fluorescent Light WB.

In the first picture, the AWB gives a grey hue. It was cloudy and snowy.

In the second picture, the Shade WB gives a warmer cast and in the last picture, due to the Florescent WB, there is a cooler cast (very blue cast). The blue cast is given by the Fluorescent preset that is normally use for indoor pictures (like in a room, hallway) but in that case it was near a window so there was shade light and fluorescent light.

3. Purposefully shoot with the wrong WB preset in order to introduce an overall colour cast to your image.

In order, AWB, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten Light, White Fluorescent Light presets.

For the outdoor presets (Daylight, Shade, Cloudy), the colour cast is warmer. For the indoor presets (Tungsten & Fluorescent), the colour cast is a lot cooler.

In that case, just like the pictures near a window, the clock is also near the window so we have shade light and fluorescent light. I think the AWB was the best for these pictures.

Assignment 1: Creative Use of Shutter & Aperture

1. Shoot a sport - Freeze the action

ISO 1000 f1.8 1/1250s
50mm

I really like to photograph sports (in this case: stunts) to freeze the action. The frozen action makes it possible to see something we can't see because of the speed of the movements executed. 

2. Pan a moving object

ISO 100 f16 1/40s

50mm

I think it is very interesting to have a sharp moving object with a blurry background. It gives an impression of movement in the photo. But instead of taking the picture with a high shutter speed, we took it at a slow shutter speed.

3. Shoot a night scene

ISO 100 f5.6 5.0s

50mm

In this picture, the speed isn't there. On the contrary, the shutter speed is at a long exposure. This long exposure allows us to capture those trailing lights of a car passing by the camera. The results of this kind of photo depends of the exposure we give.

4. Shoot a portrait with a shallow DOF

ISO 100 f1.8 1/2000s

50mm

The shallow DOF gives a blurry background in the picture. That allows us to focus more on the subject (in this case, the person). I tried to take the picture during the night, but the results weren't successful because the tripod I have is not that good. Because it is very light, when I release the shutter, that gives a little shake that makes the tripod move. With this picture, I was a fast shutter speed. That makes the picture sharper in that case.

5. Shoot a landscape/cityscape with a deep DOF

ISO 100 f22 0.5s

50mm

I took many shots of landscape and cityscape during the last week. I wasn't very happy with the result because I'm not happy with the tripod I have now. Just now, this was my best landscape but it is still a little bit blurry. Maybe if I had increase the ISO, I could have use a faster shutter speed.

I prefer to take picture with a fast shutter speed and a shallow DOF instead of a slow shutter speed and a deep DOF. Of course, it doesn't mean I won't take pictures with these criteria because all those types of pictures (fast vs slow shutter speed, shallow vs deep DOF, panning vs freeze the action) gives something special to the photos depending of the situation.

Lab 3: Lenses

Part 1: Lens Focal Length

1. Still Life

I used my 18-135mm Lens to this part. I played with the 18-55-135mm focal length. 

ISO 800 F5.6 1/25s
18-135mm (18mm)










ISO 800 F5.6 1/25s
18-135mm (59mm)











ISO 800 F5.6 1/15s
18-135mm (135mm)

My aperture for this project was at F8 and I can remark that the background become more blurry the more the focal length increases. I think there is more distortion in the first picture than the last one. The lens is the last picture seems to be the sharpest.

2. People

ISO 400 F8.0 1/8s

18-135mm (18mm)

ISO 400 F8.0 1/8s

18-135mm (69mm)

ISO 400 F8.0 1/5s

18-135mm (135mm)

The first picture isn't very sharp compared to the last two. Maxime seems kind of blurry in the second picture compared to Andriana who's very sharp. In the last picture, Andriana in the foreground is sharp and Maxime in the middle ground seems more sharper than in the 2nd picture.

Part 2: Focal Length and Depth of Field

ISO 400 F8.0 0.4s
18-135mm (18mm)

ISO 400 F8.0 0.4s
18-135mm (56mm)











ISO 400 F8.0 0.4s
18-135mm (135mm)

The sharpest picture is the last one because we really can see the background but the foreground is a little bit blurry. The first picture is more of a global shot so the foreground (column) and the middle ground are seems sharp but we can't really see details in the background. In the second picture, the column is what I think is the more in focus and the background is still very blurry because the end of the hallway is far away.

Part 3: Test your Lens

ISO 100 F2.0 1/2000s
50mm

ISO 100 F4.0 1/500s
18-135mm (18mm)

ISO 100 F5.6 1/200s
18-135mm (135mm)

ISO 100 F8.0 1/125s
50mm

ISO 100 F11 1/60s
18-135mm (18mm)

ISO 100 F16 1/25s
18-135mm (135mm)

ISO 100 F22 1/15s
50mm

ISO 100 F32 1/6s
18-135mm (135mm)











I remark that the Focal Length of 18mm at wide aperture has a lot of distortion compared to the 50mm and 135mm with the same Aperture. The more the aperture became small, the less distortion is the picture we see. I think the distortion depends of the aperture and the focal length of the lens used. We can see in some pictures that the edges are softer than in other pictures.

Lab 2: Aperture

Lab 2 : Aperture

1. Shoot a still life scene:

By having a larger aperture, the picture's background will be more blurry and by having a smaller aperture, it will be more sharp. With a larger aperture, we can tell what the background is but we can't see the details precisely. However, with a smaller aperture, every element in the picture is sharp. With an aperture between those two (larger & smaller), the background will be blurry but we can see more details in it. For this kind of picture (still life), I think the Shallow DOF is more effective because it gives more emphasis on the subject than the Deep DOF picture.

ISO 200 f2.8 1/250s
50mm
Shallow DOF

ISO 200 f5.6 1/40s
50mm
Medium DOF

ISO 200 f22 0.4s
50mm
Deep DOF

2. Shoot a portrait:

With a larger aperture (1st), it makes the eyes focus more on the subject than the background because we can't see the details clearly. With a smaller aperture (2nd), we can see more details in the background so our eyes are moving a multiple places in the picture at first look. I think it is good to have a blurry background for portrait but not too blurry and we want to focus on the subject more than sharp background. Maybe a medium DOF is good for portrait.

ISO 800 f2.8 1/80s

50mm

ISO 800 f22 1s

50mm

3. Shoot a architecture image:

ISO 800 f22 0.4s

50mm