Use of Motion

When capturing this simple composition of an S-curve on Interstate 5 approaching downtown Seattle, I was presented with six possible options of recording a correct exposure, three of which you see here (Images 6, 7, and 8). In terms of their ‘quantitative value’, all three of these images are exactly the same exposure, BUT one can clearly see that they are vastly different in their creative exposure, with the creative emphasis on the use of motion. It has and will always be my goal to present motion-filled opportunities in the most motion-filled way and more often than not when there is a motion filled scene, the longer the exposure time, the greater the motion is conveyed. In our first example, Image 6 was captured at f/4 for 1/2s, Image 7 was shot at f/8 for 2s and Image 8 was shot at f/16 for 8s. All three of these exposures were made with my Nikon D2X and Nikkor 200-400mm zoom at the focal length of 400mm, mounted on tripod with my ISO set to 100 and my WB set to Cloudy.

Image 6

Image 7

Image 8

An exercise such as this is truly eye-opening. The next time you head out the door to shoot city lights at dusk, there won’t be a lot of hesitation on your part about using the slower shutter speeds, since by this example, the slowest shutter speed exposure had the best effect. (I am assuming that you prefer the third image, the image taken at f/22 for 8s and just so there is no confusion, this is not ‘bracketing’ since they are all the same exposure in terms of their quantitative value. I will cover bracketing and other issues related to “where should I take my meter reading” in a future article).

Flower Composition

Head outside with your camera set to 200 ISO and a telephoto lens, say a 200mm, and frame up a flower. Once you focus on the flower, shoot six correct exposures, each one using a different aperture and shutter speed. For example, with the aperture set to f/4, you get a correct exposure indication at 1/1000s. Shoot this one exposure and than move on to f/5.6 and then shoot another at 1/500s, f/8 at 1/250s and another at f/11 at 1/125 second, f/16 at 1/60s and finally another at f/22 at 1/30s. You will soon see that all six exposures are correct in their quantitative value, but radically different in their “visual weight”. Note in just these two examples where the first image was shot at f/5.6 at 1/500 second and the second image shot at f/22 at 1/30s. They are the “same” exposure in their quantitative value, but oh my, look at how much busier the background is in the correct exposure taken at f/22 versus the much cleaner and more isolated flower composition of the correct exposure taken at f/5.6 at 1/500s.

Image 3

Image 4

Image 5

All three of these images are exactly the same exposure (Images 3, 4, and 5). Their quantitative volume of aperture, (light) and shutter speed (duration of time) is exactly the same, yet you can clearly see that visually they are each different. All three photographs were taken with my tripod mounted Nikon D2X and 200mm Micro-Nikkor lens.
Image 3 was taken at f/5.6 at a 1/500 second, Image 4 was taken at f/11 at 1/125s and Image 5 was taken at f/22 at 1/30s. Again, their quantitative values are identical, which is to say that the volume of light that passed through the lens and the amount of time that light was allowed to render an image on the CCD or film was the same. When I composed all three of these images, they looked exactly the same inside my cameras viewfinder. Yet when I reviewed these same three exposures on the camera’s digital monitor, they were clearly different and that difference in this case was with their backgrounds.
In Image 3, the background is limited to subtle out-of-focus tones, color and very few shapes. In Image 4, the background begins to offer up a bit more information in both shapes and sharper tones and by Image 5, it’s ‘clear’ that the background, consists of other nearby flowers due to the much greater defined shapes and tones that are presented. All three are the same exposure, but as is often the case, only one, and sometimes two, are the “creatively” correct exposure.

The rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is a compositional rule of thumb in visual arts such as painting, photography and design. The rule states that an image should be imagined as divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. Proponents of the technique claim that aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would.

The photograph to the right demonstrates the application of the rule of thirds. The horizon sits at the horizontal line dividing the lower third of the photo from the upper two-thirds. The tree sits at the intersection of two lines, sometimes called a power point or a crash point. Points of interest in the photo don't have to actually touch one of these lines to take advantage of the rule of thirds. For example, the brightest part of the sky near the horizon where the sun recently set does not fall directly on one of the lines, but does fall near the intersection of two of the lines, close enough to take advantage of the rule.

Sony NEX-VG10 Handycam

Not content to simply let its nearly pocket-sized NEX-5 Camera shoot 1080p video, Sony's taken the next step and built an actual camcorder around its 14.2 megapixel APS-C sensor. The result is the Sony NEX-VG10 Handycam ($2,000), which Sony claims is the "world's first consumer interchangeable lens camcorder." Powered by the aforementioned Exmor sensor, the VG10 sports a camcorder-like body, with a Quad Capsule Spatial Array Stereo Microphone, 3-inch LCD, dual accessory shoes, a high-res traditional viewfinder, Memory Stick and SDXC storage, and an included E-Mount 18-200mm Optical SteadyShot lens that's augmented by compatibility with all E-Mount lenses, as well as most A-mount glass via an optional adapter. Oh, and it also shoots full 14-megapixel stills, just in case you're wondering.

 

Phantom HD Camera

 

Sure, it costs as much as 47 Canon 5D MK IIs, but you'd need nearly that many — configured in some sort of crazy, Matrix-like setup — to match the unbelievable 1,052 fps high-speed 1080p recording of the Phantom HD Camera ($118,000). Other jaw-dropping specs include ISO 640 sensitivity, the ability to achieve 35mm depth-of-field, up to 32GB of in-camera memory with hot-swappable CineMag flash memory magazines up to 512GB, compatibility with 35mm accessories, an 11-stop dynamic range, 14-bit sensor depth, a maximum resolution of 2048x2048, and the ability to capture slow-motion gems like this and this.

Docufiction

Docufiction (or docu-fiction, often confused with docudrama) is a neologism which refers to the cinematographic combination of fiction and documentary.
Concerning a film genre in expansion, the new term appeared at the beginning of the 21st century. It is now commonly used in several languages and widely accepted for classification by the most important international film festivals.
Docudrama is often used as a synonym for docufiction. Drama is confused with fiction, and the concept turns ambiguous. Widely used, it refers specifically to telefilms or other television media recreations, such as a documentary that dramatizes certain events often with actors. The term docudrama is more apt in this sense.
The word docufiction is also sometimes used to refer to literary journalism (creative nonfiction).
Either in cinema or television, docufiction is, anyway, a film genre in full development during the first decade of this century.

Digital Cinematography

Digital Cinematography is the process of capturing motion pictures as digital images, rather than on film. Digital capture may occur on tape, hard disks, flash memory, or other media which can record digital data. As digital technology has improved, this practice has become increasingly common. Many mainstream Hollywood movies now are shot partly or fully digitally.
Many vendors have brought products to market, including traditional film camera vendors like Arri and Panavision, as well as new vendors like RED and Silicon Imaging, and companies which have traditionally focused on consumer and broadcast video equipment, like Sony and Panasonic.
Digital cinematography's acceptance was cemented 2009 when Slumdog Millionaire became the first movie shot mainly in digital to be awarded the Academy Award for Best Cinematography and the highest grossing movie in the history of cinema, Avatar, not only was shot on digital cameras as well, but also made the main revenues at the box office no longer by film, but digital projection. In 2010 the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film, El secreto de sus ojos, was won by a movie shot digitally.