Focal Length and Lenses

Focal Length is the distance between a camera sensor and the optical centre of the lens and determines the angle of a picture and how much of a subject will be magnified at one given time. Smaller focal lengths (1-35mm) give a much wider perspective, being suited to more landscape imagery while larger ones (70-300mm) give a much narrower field of view. 50-70mm is recommend for portait and standard photography as these are the most similar to the human eye.
Focal Length Measurments:
1-35mm: Wide Angle
35-70: Normal (Portrait)
70-135: Medium Telephoto
135-300: Telephoto


Zoom Lens: These allow for a user to manipulate the focal length on the lens within a given range. A benefit to these are the amount of flexibility that can be achieved at one time (e.g. a 75-300mm) meaning a variety of different compositions and perspectives can be achieved with less effort when compared to using a prime. Previously zoom lenses used to lose optical quality when adjust the length, however with modern technology most high end models can now avoid this.

Prime Lens: These have existed far longer than zoom lenses and are in general, the cheaper and often diputed higher quality alternative. Despite only have one focal length, the do not lose any optical quality and have greater light gathering ability. Also they are considered faster at processing an image, making them ideal for more fast paced photography.

I feel this can help me a lot when it comes to filmaking and photography as it allows me to be a bit more precise and will involve more pre-planing when coming up with ideas. However I feel as if I require a lot morw practice with a variety  of different lenses, particularly telephoto.

White Balance

White balance controls the colour temperature within a photo by adjusting the levels of red, blue and green to create the most realistic light (given the situation). Darker, shaded areas are normally made up of more blue light, meaning the blue needs to be turned down and more red needs to be substituted by the camera to create white light. Artificial lights use more red light so the same has to happen, except by swapping the colours around. A good way of adjusting the temperatures is to use various gray cards as they act as a neutral reference and they are portable so you can quickly adjust the camera's balancing while in various locations.
 Most cameras come with an auto white balance feature, but the images produced do not match the same quality as those who adjust the colours manually as you can be a lot more precise with the colour mixing. Although you can set your own white balance, modern DLSRs come with many different pre-set white balance setting that can work for a variety of different lighting situations.

(http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/2014/01/31/white-balance-explained-how-your-camera-corrects-the-colour-of-different-kinds-of-lighting)/

	Auto White Balance
	Custom
	Kelvin
	Tungsten
	Fluorescent
	Daylight
	Flash
	Cloudy
	Shade

Examples of bad White Balance

Good Examples of White Balance:

When it comes to white balance I feel as if I need to practice under more artifical lights as I have spent more time focusing on darker, bluer lighting situations.

Composition

Rule of Thirds

(http://amyshealthybaking.com/blog/2013/04/26/food-photo-composition-rule-of-thirds/)

 The 'Rule of Thirds' is a standard rule when it comes to most visual media (e.g. film, photography, art, etc.). It breaks into the image into nine different sections and gives a basic idea on the composition of important elements within a shot, saying that the focal point should be place within the centre thirds. It also states that the human eye is gravitated towards the four intersecting points of the grid as we seem to find it more aesthetically pleasing.

Golden Spiral

(http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-565161.html)

The 'Golden Spiral' is based on the ratio of 1 to 1.618 (often refereed to the perfect number) and is a naturally occurring found in most plant life and natural structures creating a predetermined line for the eye to follow. Some argue that because it is such a natural pattern, it is very appealing to the human eye and that we find it very harmonising. It's impact is so strong that it has been used throughout history dating all the way back to the classical Greek architecture (when some say the rule was first unearthed), to Divinci;s "Mona Lisa", to modern day construction.

http://www.apogeephoto.com/may2014/how-to-use-the-golden-ratio-to-improve-your-photography.shtml
https://photographyicon.com/goldenratio/

Leading Lines

Leading lines create a natural pathway within an image for the eyes to follow. Mostly created from the environment within a location, their main functions are to both exaggerate length and add a perception of depth. Typical examples of this include roads, fences, paths/walkways, rocks, etc.

Depth of Field

Depth of field refers to how much of a potential image is or is not in focus. This is important as it not only helps to guild a persons interest to particular elements of an image, but it can also have symbolic meaning (e.g. a short depth of field could imply isolation or paranoia). To alter depth of field you have to adjust the aperture on the lens accordingly (a wider aperture means a shorter amount is in focus, visa versa).

To help work out depth of field you look at your lens' focal length and this should give you the rough idea on how much should be in focus at one given time.

Focal Length (mm)	Focus Distance (m)	Depth of Field (m)
10	0.5	0.482
20	1.0	0.421
50	2.5	0.406
100	5.0	0.404
200	10	0.404
400	20	0.404

(http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm)

Examples of Short Depth of Field

Examples of a Longer Depth of Field

Photoshop Tutorial

We were given the task of editing an image to give it another feel or match it's atmosphere to a specific genre. For mine I wanted to give it a more Gothic/Horror/Thriller feel to it and did this by playing around with the colouring (e.g. turn up the blue and turn down the greens). After adjusting the exposure and lighting I found certain areas were way too dark and lost a lot of detail; to fix this I erased the first layer to reveal the background and hopefully brighten parts of the image (the top especially). To a certain extent this worked, but the bricks still appeared very dark and I could not do too much else without altering the rest of the image. Also as a result of editing the image gained a pre-rendered look to it as the lighting looks almost too warm and added in afterwards. This allows me to be a lot more creative in post production and artistically create an atmosphere or specific look artificially.

Before:

After:

Three-Point Lighting Workshop

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-point_lighting)

In this workshop we learnt how to set up and how to use standard "three-point lighting". This is compared of three different lights, each with their own specific function:

• Key light: This is the hardest light and is used to illuminate the set/actor.
• Fill light: This is a soft light and is mainly designed to eliminate the shadows created by the key light.  You can do this by either diffusing the light or shining it off of a reflector 
• Back light: This is shone on the back of the set/actor and is meant to separate them from the background so they stand out a lot more.

Although this is a very common way of lighting a set; it does not mean it is essential and can be altered to fit the given situation. A way we did this was to re-position the lights in order to create a film noir shot/atmosphere. To do this we cut kept alternating turning off the soft and harsh lights to create a variety of different shadows across the face. We found that the back light was important as it stopped the target from blending too much into the background but it wasn't needed, depending on the distance the set.