Summary
Today was the last class for the semester; we will continue in the new semester beginning on April 26, 2010.
We continued our discussion of photographing people by reviewing camera angles for capturing likenesses of faces. We talked about street photography and comfort level when approaching others to take their picture. Longer focal length lenses allow a greater working distance, avoiding the necessity of invading a person's space and thus obtaining a more natural expression.
For on camera flash, we discovered it may be desirable to work from a greater distance as the built-in flash of some cameras may over expose. For standard portraiture, most photographers tend shoot with medium telephone lens (zoom in with your point-and-shoot camera) to obtain a more formal look. Wide angle lenses will enlarge objects closest to the camera such as a person's nose, resulting in a less than flattering portrait.
For those with SLRs (and certain other high-end cameras) it's possible to use an external flash with your camera. Today I demonstrated a professional studio flash unit with fast recycle time (it plugs into the wall socket, obviating the need to recharge from batteries) and high light output. I let students experiment with various light positions in both a one light and two light configuration (using the camera's built-in flash to fill in shadows).
Media
Lecture 9 audio:
