Architectural Insight.

Big View of China Basin, Across from Pacbell Park.

Detail Shot of the Box Offices at Pacbell Park

Big View of City Hall in San Francisco

Detail Shot of City Hall Door

Interior Shot of City Hall hallway

Chapter 9: Landscape Notes

• Three types of Landscape Photography:
• The Grand Landscape
• "big view" for pictures of great outdoors.
• Wide open expanses.
• Large expanse of the scene, wide-angle lens often used to capture more of it.
• Sky a prominent part of it.
• Abstract
• images composed of lines, shapes, values and textures.
• Tree bark patterns.
• Get really close to your subject and photograph a small part of it.
• when using a macro lens on small subjects youll need as much depth of field as possible.
• Use a slow shutter speed and a tripod to get sharp images.
• Details
• Rocks
• Vibrant Flowers
• Simple trees.
• Before sunset, just after sunrise.
• close down the f-stop or choose a faster shutter speed for a shorter exposure.
• There was a tradition of landscape painting when photography was invented, so photographers looked to paintings to gain ideas.
• Carleton E. Watkins (1829-1916)
• Capture the grandeur of the American West.
• Learned photography in 1854.
• Opened his own gallery in 1858 in San Francisco.
• Began photographing Yosemite Valley in 1861.
• Ansel Adams (1902-1984)
• inspired by Yosemite Valley.
• Best known images in the Valley.
• Changed the way the public views the natural world.
• Timothy O'Sullivan (1840-1882)
• learned photography in 1860 from Matthew Brady.
• Sent to photograph the Civil War.
• Priciple photographer for Gardner's famous book , the Photographic Sketchbook of War.
• lead photographer on the survery on the western lands past the Mississippi River.
• Died of tuberculosis at 42.
• inspired phototgraphers of the 1960s-70s with his documentary style.
• Composition is one of the most important aspects of landscape photography.
• Viewpoint most important aspect of Composition.
• Move the Camera in all directions to encourage different views.
• Achieve balance between unity and variety.
• Variety in everything (i.e. texture, size, color, value, appearance, subject)
• Value very important in black and white shots.
• more dramatic = large range of tones.
• "contemplative"=less differnt tones.
• Camera Settings!!
• Depth of Field
• Maximum
• f/16, f/22, f/32
• longer shutter speeds, more detail.
• tripod very necessary for these types of shots.
• Light
• just after sunrise
• just before sunset.
• low sun, shapes and textures emphasized.
• Grand Landscape photos direct lighting is good.
• Film
• 100 ISO film.
• Lots of details, slow film needed to capture all of them.
• Lenses
• Wide Angle lenses typically used.
• Telephoto lesnes used to concentrate on details.
• Macro lenses used for close up images, like detail or abstract shots.
• Filters
• yellow filter brings out the clouds.
• Red filter : dark black skies, stark white clouds.
• red with a polarizer = max contrast.
• Support
• slow film and smaller f-stops = slower shutter speeds.
• tripod needed to get non-shaky shots.





Grand Landscape





Details





Abstract Landscape



Heidi Kirkpatrick

Born: 1959 in Springfield, Ohio.
She currently lives in the Portland, Oregon area and joined the Northwest Academy in 2004 to teach high school students photography.
Famous for depicting the world as a woman would see it.  She is also know to develop her own images, with silver gelatin printing, alternative processes, and creates transparent images on film with 3D mixed media objects.  She uses a toy Holga camera to take her shots, even though this is a cheaper type of camera she is able to create very artistic shots and show what she wants to show to the viewer of the image.

Some of my favorite photos of hers are:


Tattoo




Svartsengi Geothermal Station 2001

 

CVG to PDX 4/99

In the photo CVG to PDX 4/99 the way the mountain is framed in the middle of the photo toward the back, helps to emphasis how high Ms. Kirkpatrick was from the ground when the image was shot.  The plane wing being in focus to the right of the shot also allows the viewer to have context of the image. There is a great amount of value in this shot with the burned edges of the photo and the white of the ice and snow that is in Iceland.  While right away the viewer is not sure if the snow is really snow, they soon realize it when they see the mountain in the background.

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams was born February 20, 1902 and passed away April 22, 1984. 
He was born in San Francisco, California to Charles Hitchcock Adams and Olive Bray Adams who were members of the distinct upper class. Ironically Adams also possesed a photographic memory which allowed him to learn how to play piano when he was young.  His father gave him his first camera, which was a Kodak Brownie box, he gave it to him during his first trip to Yosemite National Park when he was 14 years old.  This launched his photographic enthusiasm and caused him to focus on photography more than his piano passion.
He is known for his black and white photos of the "American West" especially ones he has taken of Yosemite National Park, in order to discourage against destruction of the national park.  He gained this passion for the parks through his enrollment in the Sierra Club, which is a group that strives to protect the nation's natural wonders and resources.
A few of his most famous images are:



Monolith, The Face of Halfdome

The Tetons and The Snake River



 

Mt. Williamson



In the photo of Mt. Williamson, he emphasizes the rocks that are brought out into the front of the photo.  This emphasis shows the texture of the rocks and helps put the mountains into perspective of how large they are to the viewer/photographer.  There is great value within this photo with the bright whites and the dark blacks.

Architecture Blog Notes

• Indirect Portraits
• Pictures of buildings and homes that can portray the people who live in them.
• 3 Methods
• the Big View
• Details
• Interior
• Architecture was a primary subject for early photography because:
• Early film was notoriously slow, often needing hours to expose.
• buildings were staitionary = more detail, varied tones and values, cameras could expose as long as needed.
• Pattern is a part of every image especially through architecture.
• Settings to use while shooting architectural shots:
• Wide angle lenses useful.
• Tripod needed for detail heavy shots.
• Smaller F-Stop
• Slower film (100 ISO or less)
• More detail.
• Value helps to determin the shapes of objects.
• Contrast: Difference in value range.
• High: greatest difference between black and white.
• Low-key: middle range of value.
• Commercial photographers prefer to shoot in color.
• Artistic photographers choose to shoot in black and white
• Lighting for Architecture:
• Deep Blue 80A filter can be used for incandescent light
• FL-Dfilter can be used in flourescent light..
• Perspective Distortion:
• Strong converging lines in a building where the sides of the building angle in toward each other instead of looking parallel.
• Shooting from the side of a building creates a 3D feel, shooting head on creates a 2D image.

Photography Movie Notes

• The Illustrated Daily News, in 1919, was the first paper to market itself with photography as an integral part of it.
• The cover photo and headline of a newspaper is meant to catch attention and encourage patrons to buy that one instead of another.
• The Tabloid Wars occured in the 1920s.
• the Daily News and Evening Graphic were two main competitors.
• The Evening Graphic included many scandals and often staged photographs using the "Composer Graph" technique.
• The 1920s used photos as a central part of advertising.
• More public attention to products.
• Photos "tell the truth," whereas drawings can lie.
• Photos could show products as "Objects of Desire"
• The idea of a Media Celebrity was created by photographs.
• Sports Stars became Huge
• Babe Ruth became the most photographed person after the Prince of Wales.
• First Sport star to be heavily used in marketing.
• Turned Rudolph Valentinos death into a Riot.
• The Positron, Planet Pluto and proof of the expanding Universe were all first shown through photographs.
• Photographs can accurately show the amount of stars in the sky better than the naked eye, by using long exposure techniques.
• Photographs can be connections saved for a long time to people or things far away.