Lifestyle and Commercial Photography

I decided this week to explore the definitions and differences between lifestyle and commercial photography, since these are the next topics to be discussed in class.

Lifestyle photography captures the little details apparent in everyday life. These photos can capture special memories or simply random events in daily life. This article displays some great examples of lifestyle photography. I especially love the little details that these photos capture! It also includes tips for how to capture those moments, which is especially easy in today's world of seemingly endless storage for digital photos and the exceptional quality photos most cell phones can provide in a compact device.

http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/03/5-tips-for-lifestyle-photography.html


Commercial photography focuses on displaying a product or service with the intent to sell. I found this article from fstoppers.com which asks several different professional photographers to give their definition of commercial photography. I thought it was interesting to see the similarities and differences in each person's response. I especially liked Dave Geffin's answer: "Commercial photographers are employed to create compelling visual images that speak to the target audience of that product." This definition implies that while the end goal is to sell a product, the means to that end still require an artistic approach that inspires others to act.

http://fstoppers.com/fstoppers-answers-what-is-commercial-photography


The final website I looked at went into more detail concerning the different distinctions of commercial photography, including travel, product, fashion, and advertising.

http://www.all-things-photography.com/commercial-photography.html

A History and How-to of Time Lapse Photography

 

This week, I have explored the history of time lapse photography. It began with a horse racing bet in the nineteenth century. Racing aficionados argued whether or not a horse's feet all left the ground simultaneously while galloping. The motion was too fast for anyone to tell with the naked eye, so the first experiment in time lapse photography was conducted from 1872 to 1878. Instead of a single camera that we would use today, a series of cameras were set up along the racetrack connected to trip wires. The horse would hit the trip wires as it ran past, causing the camera to snap the picture. All of the pictures from the various cameras were then combined to create a type of time lapse video of a horse galloping. This video solved the bet of whether or not all of a horse's feet leave the ground simultaneously (they do!), and it also set the foundation for time lapse photography as well as motion picture photography.

Check out the full article along with the 1878 racing video here:

http://www.wingscapes.com/articles/timelapsearticles/from-ponies-to-the-projectcam-the-history-of-time-lapse-photography

Along with some background information, I found this article which further describes some basics about how to create time lapse videos. It contains tips about how to plan for the number of frames you will need (in other words, how much time you will need) to shoot in order to create a video of a certain length. It also describes how to edit the video and add music or other effects.

Read this article here:

http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/ultimate-guide-to-time-lapse-photography/

Time Lapse Photography

This week, I am going to post about time lapse photography. This is done by taking many, often several hundred, pictures of a scene and putting them together in post-processing. The result is an amazing short video that compresses several hours into only a few minutes. I especially liked the time lapse videos of the Northern Lights, since I would love to actually go see them in person some day. Here is the link to a great video on the Northern Lights:

http://vimeo.com/21294655

I also found an interesting article explaining to beginners the basics of time lapse photography. It had some helpful tips about how to control flicker, a sharp change of exposure from one frame to another, by shooting in manual mode. It also explained how to control the shutter speed and aperture in order to minimize flicker. The article then gave tips about how to save time in post processing by changing a few camera settings before you shoot, including manually setting the white balance so you don't have to go back through every picture in post processing to make them uniform. Here is a link to the article:

 http://www.lightstalking.com/timelapse

Finally, this next website gave ideas for time lapse photography that go beyond the "traditional" of shooting moving stars or clouds. Creative ideas include shooting moving cars in cities, ice melting, or bike stunts. Check out these pictures! The image of the tree in this blog is one of my favorites from this site:

 http://picpulp.com/time-lapse-photography/

Experiments with Av Mode

With the recent snowstorm we had in Billings, I decided to go around campus and practice shooting in Aperture Priority (Av) mode using the exposure compensation feature. This is one of the first times that I have shot in Av mode, as I have been shooting in manual mode for years! It was interesting (and occasionally frustrating!) to see how the camera adjusted its shutter speed based on the exposure compensation, aperture, and ISO that I set.

Here are a few of my photos (and my attempts at editing them):

Specs: Av mode, +1 1/3, f/18, 1/15, ISO 400

Specs: Av mode, +2/3, f/4, 0.3, ISO 1600

Specs: Av mode, +1 1/3, f/16, 1/125, ISO 400

Specs: Av mode, +1 1/3, f/18, 1/80, ISO 400