Lesson 8 • Focus & Lighting Introduction
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The document discusses key photography concepts including ground planes (foreground, middle ground, background), lighting types (backlight, front light, side light, bounce light, artificial light), and focus (shallow focus, deep focus). It provides examples of good and bad applications of these techniques and how they can be used to manipulate mood. The goals are to learn about these fundamentals and practice different compositional skills through taking photos.
Lesson 8 • Focus & Lighting Introduction
- 1. Today, I will learn… Ground plane Lighting types Focus Learning Goals
- 3. Ground Planes When thinking of your composition, framing, and balancing your photograph; you should take into consideration the three distances or areas of the ground plane to break up your photo appropriately
- 5. Foreground Boats on shore Foreground Boats on shore Middle ground Water and boat in water Middle ground Water and boat in water Background Mountains and horizon Background Mountains and horizon
- 6. Lighting By changing the amount of light and shadow, a photographer can change the mood and create dramatic effects When the subject is behind a light source the viewer sees fine colour and detail.
- 7. Back Light “Good” Example Placing a subject in front of a light source (back light) can create a silhouette, emphasizing general shapes rather than detail Can create beautiful and dramatic effects if done correctly
- 11. Back Light “Bad” Example The photo is backlit by the natural lighting of the sun, however, the photographer hasn’t compensated with their exposure settings, nor used a front lighting source (i.e. flash, or reflectors)
- 12. Front Light “Good” Example A good cast of lighting from natural sources such as the sun, indirect lighting from reflectors, or diffused light
- 15. Front Light “Bad” Example No consideration of how shadows are cast Sometimes, subjects can be “washed out” due to harsh front light sources; loosing details and contours of objects and subjects
- 16. Side Light Light source is directed at the subject from either side Can create dramatic effects and moods for the audience
- 19. Bounce / Reflected Light Bounce light is an indirect light source Typically reflected or “bounced” off walls or reflectors, which helps diffuse light Creates a much softer casting of light, less harsh shadows and highlights Evens out harsh light sources
- 21. Artificial Lighting Commonly associated with studio photography Generated from a studio lights, and built-in or external flash. Artificial lighting provides a lot of flexibility and creative opportunities; you can control the effects created within your photographs
- 22. Focus
- 23. Focus By manipulating how sharp or blurry a picture appears, a photographer can change the mood of a photograph. We often think the best photos are those where everything is in clear, sharp focus, this is not always the case.
- 24. Soft Focus Photographers often deliberately blur the details of a picture, either during shooting or during post-production (editing), this is known as soft focus Soft focus is used to suggest a romantic, ideal, angelic, or dreamlike quality Common in wedding photography & glamour shots (yay!)
- 30. Shallow Focus A narrow/shallow depth of field needed (large aperture, small f-stop, i.e. f 2.8) Only a small area (foreground, middle ground, or background) is in focus, while the rest of the planes are out-of- focus This can help emphasize and draw importance to your subject and ensure the audience is focused on your subject
- 31. Only the surfer in the background is in focus = shallow focusOnly the surfer in the background is in focus = shallow focus Narrow/shallowNarrow/shallow depth of field (small f-stop number)depth of field (small f-stop number) In focus Out-of-focus
- 34. Deep Focus A wide/deep depth of field needed (small aperture, large f-stop, i.e. f 16) Foreground, middle ground, and/or background can all be in focus This can help to ensure your audience observes the photograph as whole
- 35. All of this is in focus = deep focusAll of this is in focus = deep focus Deep/wideDeep/wide depth of field (large f-stop number)depth of field (large f-stop number)
- 37. Practice Practice your composition & framing skills; Take photos of objects, buildings, people; anything that catches your eye Move around; think about your composition and how you position your subjects within your camera frame Experiment with different camera shots, angles, aperture settings (to get different DoFs/focuses), and shutter speeds (to capture motion blur)
- 38. To Do Reflection #1 – Overdue Journal #1 (Rule-of-thirds) – Overdue ‘Composition…’ article questions – Overdue Camera techniques glossary – Due today! Journal #2 (Exposure) – Due today! Detailed instructions on Edmodo