Selfie Project
When brainstorming some ideas for this shoot, I found that my main goal was to give others a look into my life outside of the bounds of college or a job. I really was trying to focus on who I am when I don't have a schedule to follow or people to answer to. With this in mind, I took to the woods with some ideas on how to best represent that notion. I often find myself using the shelter of the woods to separate myself from the world. To convey that in this photo, I let my head and body disappear into the hammock. This conveys a lack of connection to the outside world. With that said, I also wanted to convey a sense of comfort, so leaving my feet out, crossed, and in flip flops pushes that sense of contentment and comfort. When it came to framing the photo and cropping, I wanted to push the feeling that I am immersed in the nature around me, to do this, I kept a wide shot at a focal length of 18mm and cropped the height of the photo to capture a wide view of the landscape around me. Lastly, I wanted to take advantage of this vivid orange of the hammock and the soft greens around me. To do this, I desaturated all colors except orange to make that hammock pop. I also pulled out the greens by shifting them a bit toward blue to cool down a soften the mood of the photo. This also draws the focus back to the subject in the hammock. Overall, I think this photo really captures who I am. I love taking that long walk into the middle of nowhere only to find myself sinking into a comatose state of relaxation.
Exposure
ISO
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) controls the camera's sensitivity to light. A high ISO makes the sensor very sensitive, while a lower ISO, not as sensitive. Higher ISO can account for lower light subjects, but it causes the photo to become very noisy. This makes the photo seem grainy, especially when zoomed in. As seen in the zoomed images, the textured leather on the watch band is very clear with a low ISO setting, but on the right, the photo seems noisy, and the texture of the leather is lost.
Aperture
The aperture is the part of the camera that controls how much light hits the sensor. The aperture setting controls the diameter of this. When the aperture setting is high, a large amount of light can enter the camera, while a small setting allows less light to enter. The larger the aperture, the narrower the depth of field. The photo on the left has a very large aperture, because of this the front two rows of chips are blurry. On the right, the aperture is very small, so all rows of chips are in focus.
Shutter Speed
1/250"
ISO 800 F/4.8 |
1/8
ISO 200 F/9 |
Shutter speed controls how quickly the cameras shutter is open. The longer the shutter, the longer light can enter the camera. Therefore, the longer the shutter, the brighter the image. The shutter speed also controls how crisp a subject will look if the subject is moving. On the left, the shutter is very quick, so the beans are stopped in mid air. On the right, the shutter is only 1/8 of a second, so the sensor caught movement of the beans, creating a blur effect. To get a better stop motion, I should have used an even quicker shutter on the left photo, as there is a slight blur in the beans, but I was limited by the lighting.
Aperture
Practice Pair
1/30
ISO 500 F/3.5 |
1.3"
ISO 500 F/22 |
The left photo is a very shallow depth of field, due to its wide aperture. This creates a satisfying blur effects in the background. This one would be my pick because the background is not very exciting.