Worth a 1,000 Words - Art & Photography

With Apple and Steve Jobs coming out with such beautiful and interesting bits of technology, like the MacBook Air, which while fairly useless to many users, offers a beautiful version of a consumer laptop computer. It’s not only sleek and sweet to look at, but it’s useful.

Are Macs considered art?

As I grow up I feel like time keeps going faster and faster. I can remember when I was little and I would measure time by cartoon episodes.
Me- “Mom, how long till we leave for the beach?”
Mom- “About two episodes of Garfield.”
Being a sophomore in high school my days are mostly filled with homework, work, and the rest of the time working on my photography. I find my weeks blurring into months and months into seasons. In a little over a month I’m going to be sixteen and driving! I can’t believe the year I’ve been waiting for since I was six is finally here!

Although I can’t control how fast my life is speeding by, I can control my shutter speed. Shutter speed is the amount of time the shutter on a camera is open. By setting the camera to a slow shutter speed like 1/15th of a second the photo may become blurry. By setting the camera to a fast shutter speed like 1/500th of a second the photo will show stopped motion. For example if I were to set my shutter speed to 1/15th of a second and take a picture of my brother jump roping, the picture would show the movement of my brothers body and the jump rope as blurs of coloe. If I were to set my shutter speed to 1/500th of a second and take the same picture, my brother would appear frozen in the air without any signs of movement.

3 Ways to Show Motion
Stopped Motion- The whole picture appears crisp and the subject of the photo appears frozen.

How to achieve this — set your camera to a fast shutter speed (something greater than 1/30th)

Blurred Motion- The whole picture appears crisp except for the subject, which should be blurred to convey a sense of motion.
How to achieve this — set your camera to a slow shutter speed (something less than 1/30th)
For best results use a tripod.
Panned Motion- The whole picture is blurry except for the subject, which appears crisp.
How to achieve this — set your camera to a very slow shutter speed (something less than 1/15th) and then when you take the picture follow the subject with your camera.
For best results use a tripod.

Examples:

(Stopped)

(Mildly Blurred)

(Blurred)

(This picture is blurred but can also be classified as “ghosted”. Ghosting is a term used when the blurred motion leaves behind a trail as if it were a ghost.)

(Panned)

Along with allowing pictures to show motion, shutter speed also is a factor in how light or dark an image is. When a shutter speed is slow it will allow more light into the picture, and in turn the picture will be brighter. When a shutter speed is slow it allows less light into the picture, and in turn the picture will be darker. Shutter speed can at first seem like a huge challenge, but once you get the hang of it shutter speed can add an interesting element to every photo.

Challenge of the Week: Try taking the same picture three times. One using stopped, one using blurred, and one using panned motion. See if you have a preference out of the three and also take note at the different feels each kind of photo gives off.

Happy Photographing!
Cate

Welcome to Teen Ink’s brandy new Photography Blog! My name is Cate, and I’ve been chosen to be the heart and soul here. Seeing as this is a photography blog I figured the best way to jump into things at a personal level would be through portraiture, but before I get into that I would just like to say that I shoot with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi and a variety of lenses. Although I do prefer Canon it’s simply because I started out with a Canon point and shoot and figured I would stay within the brand as I moved up. I have absolutely nothing against Nikons or any other type of camera and I truly believe that it’s not the camera that makes a great photograph, but the person behind it. So without further ado I would like to introduce portraiture.

Portraits have been around for thousands of years, and they continue to prosper today. Portraiture can be defined at the act of painting, sculpting, or photographing a certain likeness of a person in a way that “portrays” that person’s personality. In most cases portraits are of a person’s face, but because the idea is to capture a likeness it could be any part of the body. There are mainly two types of portraiture. The first one is self-portraits, which are portraits taken by the artist of themselves. In most cases the easiest way to achieve this portrait is with a tripod. I personally have a Manfrotto 3001BPRO. This type of tripod has all sorts of levels on it, which makes it easy to avoid a crooked photograph.

I like taking portraits of people in a place where he or she would normally not be seen. For example, I’ve taken portraits of myself in my bedroom, which is a place that’s relaxing and pajamas are dress code. Being all dressed up in a place where informal attire is usually worn can arouse suspicions. Where is the girl going? Where has she come from? Was it a party, wedding, funeral? Getting the viewer of a photograph to respond in any sort of way shows signs of a strong art work, which brings me to the second type of portraiture.

There isn’t a fancy name given to this type, just regular portraits. The same definition can be given to these as self-portraits with the exception of the photographer not being in the photo. This type of portrait can also be of animals. The next few pictures are of my younger cousin Grace. The set is called “Grace’s Extremities.”

This set of pictures conveys all the different types of personalities Grace has. I love how a simple change in clothing, lighting, and facial features can change the whole mood of a picture. In these pictures I kept a very simple background so that the main focus would be on the subject, which in this case is my cousin. This technique can also be used when photographing anything from candy to grandparents.

Challenge of the Week: One of my favorite things to use for backdrops are curtains and sheets. These two things come in all sorts of colors and patterns that make it easy to turn a regular space into a studio, also they’re really cheap. Try buying a cheap set of sheets or curtains and see what type of photo shoots you can come up with.

Happy Photographing!
Cate