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Photography Projects

Project - Focus & Rule of Thirds

This project may be completed by the following students:

M1 1st Year Media Arts Majors.

M2 2nd Year Media Arts Majors.

M3 3rd Year Media Arts Majors.

TC Technology Concepts Students.


Directions

  1. Pre-Production

    1. It is strongly suggested that you complete the Photo Presentation project first.
      • The Photo Presentation project is about showcasing selected photos, a thing you will have to do for this project. If you have to do it anyway, you might as well get a grade for it.
    2. FOCAL POINTS
      1. To complete this project, you first need to understand focal points. A focal point is defined using several criteria:
        1. Whatever the viewer's eye drifts to
        2. Whatever the viewer notices first
        3. Whatever stands out the most to the viewer
      2. It may at first sound difficult to control what the viewer sees in your artwork, but keep in mind that human brains are hardwired to notice differences.  The more differences there are between your desired focal point and the rest of the image, the more likely that subject will likely be a focal point for your audience.
      3. Take the image below, for example. The Canadian goose is the obvious focal point, since the only other details are the ripples in the water. Compared to the bird, the ripples barely stand out.
        canadian goose on the water
        (source)
      4. In this next image, a little more detail has been added. The bird remains the focal point because:
        1. It's coloring is more intense than the rest of the image.
        2. The background is blurred beyond recognition.
        3. While the fence arguably takes up more space, it does so with a repeating texture.

        bird with bright blue head and wings
        (source)
      5. We may be hardwired to notice differences, but we're also hardwired to notice faces - so much so that if there is a face in a picture it might become the focal point unless it is directing attention towards something else. In the picture below, the woman's face is the focal point. Yes, there's also a man in the picture, and he's even in the foreground, but with his head significantly cropped out and looking away from the camera while the woman is making "eye contact" with the viewer, the woman stands out more.
        portrait of two people, one looking at the camera
        (source)
    3. RULE OF THIRDS
      Now that you have a basic understanding of focal points, watch this video that explains the rule of thirds.
      1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSSOZxLnNyc 
    4. FOCUS
      1. Now that you have a basic understanding of focal points, let's talk about focusing your camera.
      2. Many cameras auto-focus as a default. The less expensive cameras (including the ones built into your phones) will not allow you to disable this, while more expensive cameras like DSLRs will allow you to manually adjust this by turning a ring on the lens.
      3. To see if you are able to selectively focus on something, point your camera at something nearby and push your shutter button (the big shiny button) about 1/2 way down. The camera should bring the center of your composition into focus but NOT take a picture.
      4. Don't move your finger off the shutter button, but change the camera's angle so the object in focus is no longer in the center of your composition.
      5. If your original object is still in focus but whatever's in the center of your composition now is not, then you can selectively adjust the focus.
    5. DEPTH OF FIELD
      1. "Depth of field" is a term that describes how much of your image will be in focus.
      2. A narrow depth of field will have objects at a very specific distance in focus, while everything closer or further away will be blurry. A wide depth of field will allow much more of the image to be in focus regardless of distance.
      3. Cheaper cameras are set to wide depths of field so that more of the image is in focus, because for most images "blurry = bad." Phone cameras usually fit into this category.
      4. More expensive cameras, like DSLRs, will allow you to adjust this with your aperture (f-stop) setting.
        1. The lower the number of the f-stop, the wider the aperture and the shallower the depth of field is.
        2. Shooting with a higher f-stop number will give you a much wider depth of field, at the cost of letting less light in to hit the camera's sensor.
    6. MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY
      1. Many cameras have a "macro" setting, indicated by a picture of a flower. If you cannot find this setting on your camera, ask your teacher or a classmate for help. (Depending on the camera it might not have a macro setting.)
      2. Macro photography involves taking extreme close up shots of your subjects. These shots often have to be much closer to the camera than it can normally handle.
      3. A side effect of the macro setting is a very narrow depth of field, which is why macro photography is being mentioned for this assignment.

  2. Production

    1. Armed with the information covered in the Pre-Production section, take a significant number of photos of a wide variety of subjects and locations.
      1. IMPORTANT: If you have received permission to use your phone, check your settings to make sure it's saving images as JPG files, not HEIC files! HEIC has some benefits, but it is a proprietary format that you may not be able to display properly for critiques!
      2. This is a 2 week assignment. Do not attempt to take all of these in 30 minutes as you will severely limit yourself.

  3. Post-Production

    1. Review your photos.
      1. Remove the photos that do not match the rubric's requirements from consideration. This will make the next step easier. (They might still be great photos, but there's more to this assignment than just handing in nice looking pictures.)
      2. For instances where you have multiple shots of the same setting and/or subject, select the one you think looks the best.
      3. Repeat this process until you have at least 10 distinctly different photos that match the rubric requirements.
      4. If you have less than 10 distinctly different photos that match the rubric requirements, shoot more photos that do not include the same settings/subjects you previously used.
    2. As the rubric does not allow editing the images for this assignment, upload your 10 selected images and hand them in.

Rubric

Standards

Resources


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