Susan Sharpless Smith

Yesterday’s snow kept all but 2 of us away from our final Introduction to Photography class. So, my final evening became one of conversation with plenty of time for questions.

After reviewing our portrait efforts (and both of us there brought more “classic” shots than ones we took last week), Will introduced us to a few different types of specialty photography that we might like to try out.

HDR (High Dynamic Range) is “a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods” (Wikipedia). The following image from Momoc HDR illustrates the technique:

This technique is accomplished through exposure bracketing  by photographing at least 3 RAW shots -  one overexposed, one normal and one underexposed (we saw several that used up to five shots that spanned this range). Then you bring the shots into an application  like Photomatix (or a Photoshop plugin) where the software interprets the different levels and merges the images so that the details of the high, mid and dark details are combined into one resulting image. More examples can be seen in this Smashing Magazine article. Will advised that you don’t adjust aperture as that would change the depth of field. You would adjust shutter speed to accomplish the range of exposure and set the ISO as low as possible. This technique works best with architecture and landscape shots.

Panoramic Photography is a technique where several photographs that capture the  span of a scene are stitched together using an application such as the open-source CleVR. I enjoyed the example of BB&T stadium that Will used as an example.

Stop Motion is an animation technique that creates the illusion of motion by photographing inanimate objects  and then physically manipulating them slightly between each photo. Then they are assembled sequentially in a video application. When played they appear to move. You probably are familiar with Gumby, which is a prime example of clay-mation.
Here is one example that Will showed: Western Spaghetti by PES

Time Lapse is a technique where you take a picture at specified intervals to capture an event occurring over a long period of time. In the example below, the artist compressed a 7 day trip from LA to New York into 5 minutes! To do this, you would need to attach a intervalometer to your camera.

Another fun example is Oren Lavie’s “Her Morning Elegance” that is comprised of 2096 still frames:

I enjoyed this final class that served to pique my interest to explore interesting possibilities that could expand and enhance how I can use my camera. Well done, Will.