Aperture and Shutter Speed

Aperture:
Aperture is the size of the shutter opening, varying if it's small or large. The smaller the number of the aperture on your camera, the bigger the shutter hole which will let more light in compared to a larger number, which has a smaller hole.

Here is an example of a photograph I have taken with a  narrow depth of field, using a large aperture - the pencil closest is in focus and as the line of pencils go further away they gradually go out of focus.

The oposite would be a smaller aperture, with a wider depth of field. It would mean more of the objects or things in the photo would be in focus.

This is another photo similar to the one above, but I wanted to experiment other ways so I took one where the pencils further away are in focus rather than the the other way around.

Shutter Speed: Shutter speed is the amount of time the lens hole is open for. So if the lens hole was left open for 1 second, the movement in the photo would be blury where as a shutter speed of 100th of a second would be sharper. Unless there was no movement in the photo.

This is an example of a slower shutter speed, which is shown by the blurriness of the cabs (this was purposely done to show the aliveness of New York).

Research on Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist, and a photo book collector. He is mainly known for his projects that take a critical view of modern life.

He wanted to become a documentary photographer since the age of 14, and it was his grandfather, an amateur photographer, who influenced him and encouraged him to do so. He became a professional photographer in mid 1970's, and he was first recognised for his black and white photography in 1982, but in 1984 he decided to move onto colour photography. Martin joined Magnum photography in 1988 and became a full member in 1994.
He quoted; "With Photography, I like to create fiction out of reality. I try and do this by taking society's natural prejudice and giving it a twist."


Martin Parr's work gives us an opportunity to see the world from his view. His photographs are very interesting, the way he uses colours and his chosen motifs are strange.

Homework: A person/figure in a space

For this homework I had an idea to take something like this for a shot. This is a nearby subway to where I live, and I find the space unusual which made it interesting for me to take some images of. Out of the ones I took I chose this one as I liked it the most. The space has a lot of depth which is leading into the photo and with just one person at the end of the subway (who is my Dad) makes a good photo. I intentionally took the photo so that the light would be emanating from my Dads head and I like the way it looks like he is walking into the light.

I felt that the photograph needed a bit of editing or just something added so I used Photoshop to create a better crop so the focus point wasn't so central, and also added black and white.

After trying out some different effects I decided to not have it cropped and I used Selenium which gave a nice look to the photo.

Linking an old photograph to a new one

I have chosen this photo of my mum when she was very young, and the picture below it is my new one that I have taken of me which links to it. In the picture of my mum she is quite a bit younger than I am now but I think the two photos together still work. My intention wasn't to create the exact same photo but with me in it, I just wanted them to look similar in a few ways - I like the fact that I wasn't born when this photo of my mum was taken, and with the photo of me below it it shows how my mum has grown up since and had a family.