Photography

From UANotebook

Contents 1 Before you snap the shutter 1.1 Positioning yourself 1.2 Stabilize your camera 1.3 Love your viewfinder 2 Style Guidelines 2.1 Choice of subject 2.2 People 2.3 Composition: framing of subjects 2.4 Context versus Close-up 3 Technical Aspects 3.1 Focus 3.2 Exposure 3.2.1 Flash 3.2.2 Shadows 3.2.3 Effects 4 Taking notes 4.1 Descriptive Notes 4.2 Analytical Notes 4.3 Method notes 5 Technical Issues 5.1 Raw mode versus JPG mode 5.1.1 If the above sounds beyond your comfort level with the technical aspects of digital photography,

Before you snap the shutter

Positioning yourself

Before taking photographs, walk around your intended subject and view it from many angles. Find the best light for the subject itself. Find the best view which puts the subject into the context of the environment. Remember that you are allowed to photograph one subject from several angles! Also remember that you do not have to stand upright; you can crouch, kneel, stand on a bench, and even lie down, for example, or stand in middle of the street.

Having said that, though, please be careful! Whatever you do, make certain that you

• think about your safety first and foremost,
• have a good grip on your equipment (it sucks to drop your camera),
• are steady/supported to take a good, clean shot.

Stabilize your camera

At the very least, devote yourself to taking the photograph. Put your mind into composing the scene and then put your body into it too. Concentrate on the view, put down extraneous objects (don't hold your Coke in one hand and take the photo with the other). If you are doing hand-held photography, use both hands.

Sometimes, such as in low light conditions, you may need to use a tripod or set your camera down on a stationary object! While in the field, you will frequently be shooting in low light, bad light, or nighttime conditions. As with film photography, your camera compensates for low light by lengthening exposure time. The longer the exposure time, the more susceptible your image is to turning out blurry.

Do not trust your LCD! The image that is projected on your camera's LCD is tiny compared to the actual size. While it may look crisp on the camera's LCD, it is very likely that it will be unusably blurry when you offload the image to your computer. Review your photograph and if it looks even slightly blurry on the little LCD, then it will be very blurry when viewed on a computer screen. Do not hope for the best, find another way to photograph your subject(s) more clearly.

To help alleviate these problems, follow these steps. They are listed in decreasing order of effectiveness:

• use a tripod if you have or can get one
• set the camera down on a stationary object
  • use the camera's shutter delay timer. many cameras have 2 and 10 delays, intended to give you time to run into the picture when taking those precious family photos. set the camera down, press the shutter, don't touch the camera, and let the camera snap the picture. Often, removing the small amount of shake that your hands put on the camera makes the difference.
• if you can't set the camera down, hold it up against a stationary object, like a telephone pole.
• lean yourself against a stationery object. Steady your body and, especially, your arms against the object as you take the shot.

Love your viewfinder

(This section and this advice is pure opinion on my part; however, I really believe that this idea holds weight. I believe that the thought processes of picture-taking by using the viewfinder versus using the LCD screen are different. --Tom)

When you compose your photograph, you should view the frame and not watch the screen. Photography is not the same as watching television. Try composing the photograph by looking through your viewfinder rather than the screen. At the very least, turning off the LCD while shooting greatly increases battery life. But more importantly, looking through the viewfinder lets you see only what the camera will see... sort of (more on this later). When you are looking at the LCD, you are distracted by the camera's buttons and controls and, more poignantly, by the surroundings that will not be in view when you take the photograph. This, I believe, makes it harder to remember that the person looking at the photograph later will only see the small window of your world that is represented in the photo. When you look through the viewfinder, however, you are shutting out all the scene except for that window. As a result, I believe that composing the photo through the viewfinder better connects you to the viewer and, thus, results in more thoughtful photography.

Having said that, it is important to remember that most point-and-shoot digital cameras are not SLRs and rely on a rangefinder window. Because it is positioned above and slightly to one side of the lens, the scene viewed in a rangefinder is slightly different than the actual image the lens records, especially the more zoomed in the lens is. In this case, it still helps to mentally and physically compose the image in the rangefinder and, if the difference is unacceptable, switch to looking through the LCD.

Style Guidelines

Always photograph your subjects in their ‘natural’ state. Do not stage or pose your photos, e.g. do not alter the lighting or move objects in the space to make the image "look better".

Choice of subject

generally, make certain that your intended subject is clear and informative. Review your photo immediately after you take it to make sure the subject is in focus, is legible, and is visible in its entirety.

People

generally, do *not* portray people (including yourself) in your photos. When this is not possible (e.g. in a crowded space), make sure that your photos do not show people’s faces or other recognizable aspects of someone’s identity. Failing that --sometimes it is preferable or necessary to depict people -- zoom far enough away that the individuals are not the primary focus. Also, remember that when photographs are shrunk down to the correct size for display, some fine, detailed features --such as faces-- will be reduced.

Composition: framing of subjects

wherever possible, include elements of the ‘context’ surrounding the subject (e.g. the texture of the wall or surface, a views of the surrounding street, objects that can be found in proximity). You can do this by shooting several photos of the subject at various ranges, from close-up to wide-out. Take many shots of the same subject. Read the section below for more information.

Context versus Close-up

Simply stated, context in this case is synonymous with wide-out or wide-angle. This means that, in addition to photographing your subject within the full frame of a photograph, you step back and shoot a wider view. Your subject becomes one component of the larger scene. Such a photograph shows the subject's position in the overall landscape and its relationship to other landscape elements. It shows the subject within the context of the overall scene.

Remember that a visitor to the web site is not out on the street with you. S/he has only the frame of your photograph through which to view what you wish to convey. Sometimes, the relationship of the subject to the larger scene is important in order to convey your message. As a result, you may need to shoot a context photograph in addition to close-ups of the subject.

The following is a piece of advice to a student who was photographing large painted-wall murals:

> Also about how many pictures I should have of each mural, for instance, "The
> Middle Garden" I think will be one of the main murals that I will be focusing 
> on and I'm going to try and take a few pictures of it from many different
> angles -- i.e. across the street, up close, etc., but I don't want to get too
> carried away.  If you could give me some direction on about how many pictures
> you want me to do and how in depth I should go would be great.

Have one or two that captures the entire mural. Have one or two "context photos" 
that put the mural's location in context: say, from across the street or from the 
sidewalk where a pedestrian might see it. I would recommend taking about four or 
five of the entire mural and also about four or five context photos and them just 
pick the best one or two of each.

Then you can take a bunch of close-ups of anything that you find interesting (paint 
strokes, chipped paint, peeling and damage, artistic elements, interesting lettering, 
etc.) There's really no limit on the close-ups as long as you are capturing what you 
think is important (which is what you can explain in your reflection). Don't feel the
need, though, to shoot close-ups that cover the whole thing, though... thatmight be 
overkill.

In the metadata, you can indicate the relationship between context and close-up photographs through the Context Photo and Close-up Photo fields. For example: you have a close-up photo of a poster as well as a wide-angle shot which shows the entire street corner in addition to the poster. In the close-up's record, you would enter the name of the context photo in the Context Photo field. In the wide-angle photo's record, you would enter the name of the close-up in the Close-up Photo field. As a result, when the a visitor is viewing one image, s/he can quickly link to the other image.

Technical Aspects

Above all else, if you are shooting digital photographs, experiment with many shots; you should always review and trash bad shots right away. Save the marginal-quality images for review on a larger screen later. Get into the habit of reviewing your shots during and after shooting each subject. You can make minute adjustments from the same angle for a better photo. Remember that, unlike film, digital photography is cheap. It's better to take 5 shots of one thing and pick the best image later than to get only 1 really bad and blurry shot. This is one of the greatest strengths of digital cameras and many photographers don't take advantage of this.

Additionally, field photography is a learning experience. Play with different angles and settings. When you review images, your camera can display the shutter speed, aperture, and exposure compensation (EV) settings. Use this information to tweak the exposure manually. You will develop a better feel for your camera as well as for photography in general.

Focus

make sure that your images are in sharp focus; backgrounds can be slightly blurred to emphasize the subject in the foreground but remember that we are also interested in the subject within the context of the entire scene captured in your photograph.

Exposure

make certain your photographs are not over-exposed (too bright) or underexposed (too dark). Sometimes, you may need to take your camera off automatic setting (if you can) and set shutter speed and/or aperture manually. Even if you cannot adjust shutter/aperture, most cameras allow you to adjust the EV, or Exposure Compensation. Learning how to work with these camera settings will make you a better photographer.

Flash

• should only be used when absolutely necessary. Try to shoot under ambient (available) light conditions at all times.
• You may be surprised how good of a night shot you can get if you steady the camera by placing it on a tripod or a stationary object.
• Sometimes, zooming out will get enough ambient light from a streetlight into the frame for a good shot.
• Remember, the further you are zoomed away from your subject, the more useless --and often detrimental-- your flash is. If your outdoor subject is more than 10 feet away, the flash will probably not help.

In short, shoot first without flash. Failing that, steady the camera using any of the methods mentioned above and re-shoot without flash. If all else fails, fire the flash.

Shadows

Shadows, as well as underexposed portions of a generally well-lit scene, are unavoidable and sometimes lend context to the scene you are documenting. Make certain that shadows do no detract from the subject(s) or idea(s) that you are presenting with your photograph.

Effects

Do not use ‘effects’ such as sepia, black and white or similar color alterations. You are free to take photographs with these effects enabled for artistic purposes; however, for our collection, we cannot accept them.

EXCEPTION: If you are shooting film in addition or instead of digital photography then it is actually preferable to shoot Black and White photographs. B&W negatives are more stable than their color counterparts.

Taking notes

In addition to your camera, you will need a small note pad and pen as you search the streets. These notes will provide important information for future researchers who might use the data that you collect. This additional information (known as metadata) is just as important as the subject of the photo itself.

Field notes are an inescapably important part of data collection. Your photographs are just one aspect of the data you present us. We are looking for much more than just pretty pictures; we want your additional reports on things that are not in the frames of you photographs. We want to see how your research expands, reinforces, and refutes the research of others.

Without field notes and metadata, your photographs are just individual windows stacked in a crate and not connected to anything else. Notes and metadata provide the bricks and mortar for your photographs to come together into beautiful mansion to house your brilliant ideas.

Descriptive Notes

Descriptive notes, as their name suggests, consist of description. These usually take the form of concrete, observable characteristics of the environment and of the subjects of your photos. Here are some basic characteristics to note about your photos:

• Location – note the address, a nearby intersection, or some other clue about where the subject is located. Note the neighborhood. This will help future researchers locate the spot where you were so that they can look at the scene and describe how it has changed since you've been there.

• View Orientation – note the direction that you, and the camera, are looking (e.g. East, West, North, South). Realize that that building now located on the corner of 4th and Pike that is in your photograph may be replaced by another building later. How will people know which corner of 4th and Pike your were facing when you took your picture?

The above two are perhaps the most important note as they will allow future researchers to place your historical photograph into their contemporary world. Think about those old photographs you see in archives. Somebody just might be looking at your photograph 50 or 100 years from now. Make it as easy as possible for people down the road to get to where you were standing.

Here are some other things you may wish to make note of in the field:

• Working Title – descriptive title that will help you link the photograph to your notes.

• Description – transcribe any text, especially if it is hard to read. Provide a brief description of the surroundings where the subject was found, any context that might help to understand it better. Also, record any thoughts you might have about a particular photograph while you are in the field, or as soon as possible afterwards. You may note something important about the scene that is not in the frame of the photograph --smells and sounds, for example-- that add important context to what you are trying to convey in the photograph.

• Date/time - when the photograph was taken (your digital camera will usually do this for you automatically).

Many professional photographers carry voice recorders with them to record camera settings and thoughts about their photographs. Feel free to do the same if the writing field notes is tedious. Better yet, do both! Your voice recordings can be edited and presented later for a more documentary feel to your work. You can interview people on the street if you'd like, or just collect ambient sounds.

Analytical Notes

This is where you start to get a little more abstract while still being descriptive. At the end of a day or a particular series, you may wish to take a break and reflect on entire set of photographs or on general observations and thoughts you have on the area(s) your were photographing. These might start out being purely descriptive. You may describe the physical and social characteristics of those areas as you saw and felt them. Furthermore, these notes may take you deeper into the beginnings of analysis. You may recall something that you read in a scholarly article or in the popular press. Informed by these ideas, you may start applying them to the photographs you just collected. Also, you may refute some things you've read because of evidence and counter-examples you have seen.

Do not wait to write these important initial thoughts down. You will forget them eventually and your brilliant observation may be lost forever.

Method notes

Finally, you may have some insights on the method of data collection. Maybe you found a better way to take photographs in certain conditions. Maybe you found a good way to balance photography and note-taking. Maybe you discovered the best time to find new graffiti in a certain alley. Write these things down for your own benefit as well as to share with others who may wish to do similar research to yours in the future.

_

For Bathroom Graffiti

• Title – descriptive title that will help you link the graffiti photograph to your notes.
• Date/time - when the photograph was taken (your digital camera will usually do this for you automatically).
• Transcription - transcribe the text. Best to do it while you're on site. sometimes the photo is harder to read than the actual graffiti.
• Description – Provide a brief description of the surroundings such as where the graffiti was found (wall inside stall, wall in common area, inside door, above toilet, on paper dispenser, mirror, etc.), any context that might help to understand the graffiti better. any other observations about the space.
• Location – City, building name, floor, room number (if any). If you can orient yourself, what wing of the building (i.e. west, east, north, south end)
• Random Notes - if there is anything else you want to add that was not addressed in the above categories.

Technical Issues

Raw mode versus JPG mode

If you can, shoot your Original photographs in "raw" mode. By default, most cameras perform some rudimentary processing and compression of the image. Compression means that quite a lot of information is thrown away forever. Raw mode tells the camera not to perform any of this processing/compression and lets the camera shoot the largest and best quality image which, for the most part, is exactly as the camera saw it. It then stores the image in an uncompressed format. This only among the only digital image formats that have archival value. Since the images are not compressed while in your camera, you will not be able to store as many in the camera but that is the price we pay to have high-quality images for later in case we need to resize the display copies.

When you import the images from your camera, you will have the opportunity to manipulate the image. Thus, shooting in raw mode gives you more control over image quality. In many cases, there will not be a great need to adjust the images. In that case, when your download the images to your computer, save copies of those Originals in TIFF format. Use the resultant TIFFs to generate the JPG images that will eventually go into the Digital Collection.

If the above sounds beyond your comfort level with the technical aspects of digital photography,

let the camera save the images as JPG. This is typically the default setting on most cameras. If you choose to shoot in this mode, make certain that you are taking the largest image size that your camera is capable of taking. Image size is expressed as X pixels wide by Y pixels high; thus "1600x1200" means "1600 pixels wide by 1200 pixels high. Use the largest image size that your camera takes. Additionally, shoot your photos using the highest resolution that your camera is capable of. Image resolution is express in terms of dpi, or dots per inch. Use the highest number that your camera records.

After you download these JPG images to your computer, leave them in a folder named Originals. Do not edit these images! Instead, make a copy of that folder to be your working folder. Use these copies for editing, cropping, and resizing.