Photography Bullshit

Unit 10 Assignment 1
Techniques in digital photography and media products

Contents
Introduction	3
Task 1: How digital photography is produced	4
Task 2: Why digital photographs are produced for media products	9
Task 3: Explore techniques of digital photography	10


Introduction
I have been asked by an independent games developer to produce a variety of photographs to advertise and promote their new game. They will be using photographs in a range of their promotional products and will be integral to the games success. These will range from posters, newsletters and leaflets to images on their new website created specifically for the promotion of the game.

In order to participate in this photographic brief, I will need to show that my knowledge of how photographs are produced is sufficient for the task at hand. To do this, I will explore the component pieces of a camera so I fully understand how images are captured.

I will be investigating where, how and why digital photographs are produced for media and find examples of where these are used and have a discussion on their use.
Task 1: How digital photography is produced

There are a wide variety of cameras available for every type of photographer and depending on the type, will determine the overall quality of the photograph.
The weakest variation of a digital camera is the smartphone. As it has other uses besides being a phone, it is not a dedicated camera, hence there isn’t as high of quality as there is with other cameras.

This is counterbalanced however, by the availability of smartphones, as well as the fact that the general populace will keep smartphones on hand, making them easily available when needed. Another issue is the lack of zoom on most variations of the smartphone, as it will just enlarge the image, making the pixels that make up the image more visible and making the overall quality of the Image look worse.

The second type of camera is a compact camera. This type of camera, while higher quality than the smartphone, isn’t quite as powerful as the more high end cameras. These types of camera do include zoom as standard, so taking pictures at a distance wouldn’t be as much as an issue as it would be with a smartphone. Along with being able to zoom, compact cameras also have an overall higher pixel count than smartphones, making them the ideal choice for amateur photographers who desire a more professional looking photograph.

DSLR cameras are the highest end cameras that can be bought. These cameras are used by professional photographers and have a variety of features that most amateur photographers would either never use, or are too complex to use. They also use a completely different method of reflecting light, as DLSRs have internal mirrors that reflect the scene for maximum clarity and quality. The main feature that has made these types of camera popular are the interchangeable lenses, making being able to have the correct zoom far easier than with traditional compact or smartphone cameras.

 There are also various modes that can be set for the camera in order to optimize it for the situation, making it ideal for professional photographers. The only problem with DLSRs are the almost absurd price tag that they sell for, with some going well over £2000, which makes them only being able to be used by professionals who are dedicated to the cause.


Capturing images

There are several mechanisms and processes that go into capturing images, which include the viewfinder, lens, image sensor, aperture, shutter, and the memory. This section of the report will be dedicated to explaining the function of each of these components.

The viewfinder is the mechanism that allows the photographer to get a preview of what they’re about to capture. There are two different kinds of viewfinder, optical and electronic, both if work in different ways. Optical viewfinders work like a reversed miniature telescope mounted onto the camera and generally give the same amount of resolution as the photographer has, making them the better format of viewfinder for less experienced photographers.

The other variation of viewfinder is the electronic format. These come in three main forms: LCD, CRT and OLED, although LCD is the most commonly used format due to its light weight and portability. These kinds of viewfinder also come with software features such as being able to play recorded footage and having a on screen interface to interact and browse with.

The lens of the camera is the component that acts as the eye of the camera, capturing light by refracting light through the various mirrors that are inside of it. The lens can also be adjusted in order to give focus to a particular part of the picture if the photographer so chooses. There are also lenses designed for specialist photographs, such as the wide-angle lens, which gives focus to the centre of the photo by warping the rest of the picture.

There are several different methods of giving additional light to a photograph, with most methods varying in effect and use.
The most common type of lighting in photography is the flash bulb, which is included in most common cameras. When activated, this bulb flashes very quickly before a photograph is taken, which can light up darker areas and show details more clearly. However, attempting to use a flash bulb outside will not work as intended. There is also the fact that using a flash on a person can light up the back of their eyes, creating the aptly named “Red eye” effect.  Most modern cameras and editing programs.

There is also exposure. When you take a photograph, the shutter opens, allowing light to enter the lens and be read by the charge-coupled device (Or CCD) to be converted into a photograph that I then stored within the camera’s internal memory. How long you keep the shutter open for affects how much light enters the lens and what the end photo looks like. Too much light and it is “over exposed”, which makes the picture look unrealistically bright and can look unpleasant/ Too little exposure and the picture will be “under exposed”, making the picture dark and hard to see. Achieving a balance between these two is required in order to create realistic photos.

Supporting the camera can be an important part of taking a high quality photograph, as camera shake can detract from the overall quality of the photo.
When it comes to photos that require a large amount of time (Such as night time photos which have to be exposed for a while due to the low light conditions), using a tripod in order to minimize the shaking of the camera can help immensely in keeping a high quality photograph.

The only issue with tripods is that they do require prior planning in order to use it successfully and cannot be used in every situation due to their bulk. Using no sort of camera support can make taking photos more immediate and is nearly required for event shots that are once in a lifetime, but the quality of the photo may suffer if you are not using the right technique.

Storing your photos can be slightly troublesome at times. While lower end cameras use the common .jpg formatting, which can be easily transferred to a computer, DSLR cameras use the not so common RAW formatting, which while higher quality than .jpg, has to be converted through specialist programming, as RAW’s higher quality takes up far more space than other formats of digital photograph.

Different methods of file transfer:

Direct cable (from camera to device):

First of all, know what end of the cable goes into what port in the computer/smartphone. This will be important later
Have you computer or laptop powered on and ready to receive the image file.
Go into your folders and create a folder to place the photos after you’ve transferred them.
Insert the cable into the appropriate slots of the smartphone and computer.
When the prompt comes up at ask you what to do with the smart phone, select “View images” and a window will open.
Select the image you want, right click and select the option “Copy”.
Go into the folder you created, right click and press “Paste”.
Disconnect your phone from the computer.

This method of photo transfer is far simpler and cheaper than most other methods of file transfer, as it only requires a simple to use cable, rather than using a specialized applications or things such as USB Card Readers. The problem is that the cable takes up some room, so it may not be able to fit in bags that are filled to the brim. They also can be lost, meaning that you would have to either find it, or buy another one.

USB card reader:
Insert the card reader into the USB slot of the computer and be sure that it is firmly inserted into it.
Carefully remove the SD card from the slot inside of the camera.
Insert the SD card into the reader.
When the prompt comes up at ask you what to do with the smart phone, select “View images” and a window will open.
Select the image you want, right click and select the option “Copy”.
Go into the folder you created, right click and press “Paste”.
Disconnect your SD card from the computer.

The advantage of using a USB card reader is the greater compatibility, as the USB is used on a majority of computers and devices, while SD card slots are not present on older devices. However, depending on the USB reader, it might not support all SD cards, so the user will have to check to see if it is compatible.

Email:
Go into your email application on your smartpohone
Find the “Compose” option.
Type in the email you wish to send the photo to.
Find the Attachments button and click on it, you will be brough to your photo album.
Select the picture or pictures you would like to send.
After confirming that it will be sent along with your email, send it.

The advantage of using a smartphone application is that it requires no third party to be installed and requires no money to be spent. However, this also means that it only applies to photos you’ve taken with a smartphone. It also requires an internet connection, so if you do not have any, you can’t send it.
Task 2: Why digital photographs are produced for media products

The reason why digital photographs are produced for media products is in order to give readers a better insight into the article. Instead of describing what it looked like, e-newspapers use pictures instead, as to keep information relevant to the article. These newspapers also use them in order to grab reader’s attention in order to increase sales as pictures are far nicer to look at than ordinary text.

They also use these to show what they are talking about, giving the audience something to look at in order to help get the point across or to avoid confusion. News stories for example, usually have a dramatic shot of the event they’re reporting on in order to help the audience see what’s happened. This is especially prevalent when tragedies occur, as a visual of what’s happened can be far more engaging rather than a detailed description of it. As for celebrity stories, photos are used in those in order to grab attention and illustrate what the celeb did in order to get those in an article, or just a normal face shot for more general mews

Photographs are used on DVD covers in order to advertise the product and show the potential buyer what the film is before they purchase it. Depending on the film genre, the style and tone of a cover can vary greatly, with more family friendly films leaning towards brighter colours and showing the full cast of characters, while more adult oriented genres like horror tend to use more subtle attention grabbers, such as only having one character in the centre of the cover, with the tagline either on the top or the bottom of the cover.


Task 3: Explore techniques of digital photography
In this article, I will explain several methods of photography and analyze the techniques within them in order to discuss how a photograph, as well as discussing the downsides of said techniques.

Location shots are shots that take place at a particular place, such as famous landmarks and outdoors in general. These types of shots are typically uncontrollable due to the many factors that are involved in outdoors photography, such as lighting, distractions, people getting in the way and the weather.

Some of these issues can be dealt with via proper planning and taking precautions (I.E. Waiting for a day where the weather isn’t distracting, see if the location can be blocked off to the public for a short time, etc) . There is also the issue of focus. With so many distractions potentially around, the main focus of the image should be on the subject you’re taking a photograph of and not on any distractions that may be present. Adjusting the aperture in order to give focus the correct part of the photograph.

Studio shots are shots that are taken indoors and are far more controlled than outdoors shots. This type of shot is usually reserved for more controllable circumstances, such as portraits and pack shots. An advantage of using this type of shot is that it is far more controllable than some other types of shot, like event shots or location shots, which results in a lower chance of distractions in the final product.

This also means that this type of shot can only be done indoors, which is a bit of a downside. A thing to consider with studio shots is what the focus of the picture is, as using the wrong amount of focus can completely a destroy picture’s quality. Another important factor in studio shots is the composition of the shot. One especially important part of the composition is the Rule of Thirds. This technique theorizes that any photograph can be broken up into thirds, with the subject being within the top third of the shot in order to keep the focus on them.



Night shots are shots taken during the hours of night. These shots are usually used in order for tourist information leaflets or other advertising material in order to attract potential customers to that location. Night shots require more support than traditional shots, due to the extended amount of time that is required in order to have enough light pass through the lens in order for the subject to be exposed correctly, not enough light and it will become underexposed and hard to see.

Another thing to consider when creating a night shot is light trails. As mentioned before, night shots require more time than shots during the day because of the aforementioned lack of light leading to underexposed photos. Light trails follow the same concept as using the correct amount of exposure, which is leaving the shutter open for a long amount of time In order to let light gather within the lens. However, light trails happen when the camera is set above somewhere where cars travel, like motorways due to the amount of cars you will see there. Shots like these are usually accompanied with a shot of the city skyline in the back of the photo in order to make it as attractive as possible.