New York Institute of Photography - Assignment 1

This week I submitted the first 3 images for my photography course. I had some real problems with the first image - I found this very hard, but knew what I wanted and eventually everything seemed to fall into place. The second image was much easier - the subject was obedient and posed long enough for me to get the right shot. Image 3 was very tough... I was completely uninspired and although I had 6 different ideas in mind I really was not enthused by any of them.

1) Use the shutter speed to depict a sense of motion.

ISO 200, f3.5, 1/15 sec, focal length 18mm.

Assessor Comments: "It amazes me that you got such a crisp shot at 1/15 of a second. That is absolutley amazing... A really interesting shot and I applaud your effort... If you look at the composition you've got the 'action' part of it and I am really impressed that it is so crisp, seeing as you are travelling at the same speed as the other cars. You wonder if everybody is heading for the light at the end of the tunnel. Where is everybody going? It is very mystical.There is a mystery to it. I really like it and I think you were very successful. Good for you, it worked out really great".

2) Use a shallow depth of field to highlight the focus on a subject.

ISO 200, f5.6, 1/80 sec, focal length 120mm.

Assessor Comment: "A lot of branches that could be potentially distracting are included in this picture, but because of your soft focus they aren't and the image has a more 'impressionist' feel to it. You have good light which is not too severe. A nice composition, but you could make the butterfly a little larger if you wanted too".

3) Use a large depth of field to give the impression of distance.

ISO 200, f14, 1/500 sec, focal length 35mm

Assessor Comments: "You have leading, converging lines and a sense of desolation with this. I would avoid having the railway lines in the center of the picture, I would prefer to have them come from the side. But, you have broken the image up nicely by having the tower on the left. Your work is really beautiful.