intro

Welcome to the blog site for Stan Strembicki's Digital Photo I class. Class assignments and notes for the semester will be posted here as well as student work.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Assignment #2 Depth of Field and Motion


Depth of Field and Focus 

As you have learned in your lecture, depth of field is the area, from the near point to the far point, which will be in focus in your photograph.  This can be used in many ways to make your photograph have more impact, to isolate the subject from a distracting background or to give a photograph more apparent depth.  Just to review:

1.  Depth of field is directly related to the f stop which you use.  A small f stop like f 16 will give greater depth of field (more in focus), and a smaller f stop (like f 2.8) will make the depth of field shallower.

2.  When you want fairly accurate indications of depth of field, you should use the depth of field scale on you lens.

3.  Focusing on a subject close to the camera will give less depth of field than focusing on a subject farther away.

 Assignment:
1.  Make at least 2 photographs which show shallow depth of field.  Remember to use a wide f stop (like f 2.8).

2.  Make at least 2 photographs to show great depth of field.  Use a smaller
f stop (like f 16)

3.  Use the remaining film to show subjects in background out of focus,
objects in foreground out of focus, and other variations of use of limited and expanded focus.

 Don’t forget, as you change the f stop, you must compensate the exposure by also changing the shutter speed.  In some cases, it will be too bright to use a open apeture like f 2.8, or too dark to use f 16.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Assignment #2b Shutter speed and motion

The camera has the unique ability to freeze motion or to show an entire motion to the point where it is only a blur.  Both of these qualities can be used in a photograph in interpret movement as you would like it to be shown.

A few things to remember are:

1.  A higher shutter speed will be required to freeze motion when the motion is parallel to the film than when motion is toward the camera.

2.  If you are using a slow shutter speed, those less than 1/30 of a second, you should use a camera support.  A tripod is best, however you can brace the camera on a bench, a wall, or place it on the ground.

3.  Panning means to move the camera with the subject in motion.  This will allow you to freeze motion which is faster than your fastest shutter speed.  Panning requires practice, so try this a number of times.


 1. Make a series of exposures that show the effects of freezing motion with a high shutter speed.
2. A series of exposures to imply motion using slow shutter speeds.
3. Finally  a series of exposures that  demonstrate the use of panning technique.


 Remember that you must adjust the f stop to match the shutter speed you have selected to get a correct exposure.  You may find that you can not use a low or slow shutter speed in the bright sun, as there is too much light present.  In that case, you must go someplace where there is less light or wait till dusk.  The same is true of high shutter speeds, which often require you to open the lens to get enough light to make a correct exposure, this may not be possible indoors, for example.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Stephen's First Assignment

Jeanette's first assignment

Allison's First Photograph!

Ben's First Assignment

Casey Friedman

Leaves outside Beaumont

Sara Faxon Assignment 1

Jen Locke's First Assignment

Caitlin's First Post!

Jake's Photo Adventure #1

Mariam's Picture #1

Melody's picture #1

Kelly's First Assignment



Monday, January 9, 2012

Assignment #1 Exposure

In this assignment you will shoot a series of exposures and iso settings on your digital camera as follows:

1.  Set Colorspace to Adobe RGB
2.  Set Quality to RAW & jpg-large
3.  Set Mode to manual
4.  Now set ISO and expose images as follows:

-Shoot one subject at iso setting 100; 400; 800; 1600
-Shoot same subject at each iso at normal exposure, the one over and one under exposure

This then is what you'll end up with, 12 shots of each scene, shoot a total of 4 scenes for a grand total of 48 exposures.

This assignment is pass/fail, bring in one set of jpg images on a jump drive for in class review. Select best image for shoot and post on class blog.