1. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I. Assignment Image - Critical Review 39 slides Copyright 2003 - 2009 Kenji Tachibana

2. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review M onday Evening: After 6:15 PM 1. 1.You’ve signed in. 2. 2.Your name tag is up facing my work station Mac, 3.Your Mac has been ‘fresh’ booted. 4.Your assignment images and report(s) are already delivered to the appropriate Artshare > art1145w > Assign folder.

3. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review A n Aside: Archery as process Goal of archery is to hit the bull’s eye. But you start off feeling lucky to just get close to hitting the target. It takes a while just to hit the target. Once you start hitting the target, getting a consistent pattern becomes important. Shooting a close group is about Pattern and Predictability. With predictable patterns, it becomes possible to move the pattern towards the bull’s eye in incremental stages. ‘Re-shoot to make incremental improvements.’

4. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review I ncremental Improvements: That’s what we want to do in this class. Every class and homework activity is designed to establish basic skills using the camera, light, and design to clearly tell your story.

5. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review Y our Responsibility: To yourself and your team What ever you do in this class, ask yourself how it’s contributing to your learning process. If the core idea doesn’t seem to make sense to you, please do several things: 1.Ask for clarification during class hours. 2.Talk about your confusion during class with your team mates during Open Topic team work time. 3.Come talk to me outside class hours in my office. Make an Office Hour appointment with me to do so by calling me @ 206.526.0070.

6. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review P rocedure: Assignment folder content I expect to see all 4 images in the ‘root’ and the report to be in the ‘report’ sub-folder. All assignment images to be in numbered groups. And each group to be displayed in alphabetical order. Group:1_firstnameBest.jpg from every students Group:2_firstnameNext.jpg from every students Group:3_firstnameLeast.jpg from every students Group:4_firstnameLight.jpg from every students firstnameReport.doc goes into the ‘report‘ sub-folder. Try to save the3 Word document in the Office 97-2003 ‘doc’ file extension. The new Office 2007 defaults to saving in the new ‘.docs’ file extension. which may not exhibit properly on the Mac.

7. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review Procedure: Open the Adobe Bridge™ 1.Click on the Br icon on the taskbar at the bottom of the Desktop. 2.Bridge application has radically changed from the previous versions. 3.Bride has Display Options like your digital camera. The default setting, choice 1, is similar to the previous versions. On the top left panel, point to Artshare and select the current assignment folder.

8. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review Procedure: Assign folder and thumbnail size 4.Assignment folder is Artshare > art1145w > assign > XXX. 5.Selecting XXX folder will display everyone’s assignment images in the center column as small thumbnail images in both numbered and alphabetical order. 6.Use the slider bar at the bottom right to enlarge the images so that only the ‘Best’ image group is displayed in the ‘Content’ pane.

9. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review Procedure: Compare and decide… 7.You’re probably seeing 5 images across in 4 rows. 8.This thumbnail size is just right for comparing your work in relationship to everyone else. 9.Make a gut judgment as to the top 3 most successful solutions to the XXX assignment (read the next slide).

10. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review A n Aside: Truism It’s easy to see the faults of others. And it’s near impossibility to see one’s own faults. This generalization also holds true when applied to photography. There is a strong tendency for our own creations to be perfect. And notice how poorly other’s have executed the assignment. This tendency is true for creative people with 5 minute or 50 years of experience…

11. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review Team Work: Assignment review Once you’ve made your personal judgments, it’s time for a team review process. This review will be facilitated by the team leaders. Team leader will make sure that the process is done with a focus on full team participation. And the team leader is responsible for the overall timing and to keep the group from getting side tracked.

12. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review Team Review Process: 2 parts 1.Every member of the team will present using a conversational manner. Use the following ‘talking point’ format: Pro – what workedPro – what worked Con – what was a big problemCon – what was a big problem Constructive Conclusion – solution to Con.Constructive Conclusion – solution to Con. 2.Every member of the team will choose 2 or 3 other student assignment images and present them… as their own. Read the next slide before starting…

13. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review Audience Responsibility: 1.Use active listening…. to get it. 2.Make sure the title is appropriate for the image. Does it work?Does it work? Does it add depth to the story?Does it add depth to the story? Does it miss. If so, how? And what would be a better title?Does it miss. If so, how? And what would be a better title? 3.If you don’t get it, be sure to ask clarification questions when prompted by the presenter.

14. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review Team Representative: Present to class Every team will field one student to present to the class. The style will be more formal but the delivery must remain conversational and using the same Presentation formula: Pro – what workedPro – what worked Con – what was a big problemCon – what was a big problem Constructive Conclusion – solution to Con.Constructive Conclusion – solution to Con. Read the next slide before starting…

15. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review Class Present: Process 1.Do it from the front of the class and keep it focused and relatively short. 2.Start by stating your first and last name clearly. While you do this, scan the room making eye contact with every student to make sure that you have everyone’s attention. 3.State your story title clearly and with confidence. 4.Then deliver the Pro, Con, & Conclusion in a confident but conversational manner. 5.When finished, thank the audience and ask for questions and feedback.

16. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review Feedback: Responsibility It’s sometimes difficult to be honest. But, that’s what’s required if we’re to learn from each other in this class. Although, the honest feedback must be given after a carefully considered solution In mind. And the feedback must be both constructive and supportive.

17. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review Feedback: Presenter responsibility The presenters main goal is to listen for useful ideas to implement in the re-shoot. And except for asking clarification, the presenter is not allowed to confront the person giving the feedback. To that end, it’s vital that feedback be given in the spirit of helping (be constructive).

18. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review Start The Process: 1.Start with the informal team presentation of your own assignment image using your own computer. 2.Continue on with presenting 2 or 3 other team members assignment … as your own. 3.Each team will field 1 member to present to the class in a more formal ‘front of the class’ Presentation. I will be displaying the Presenter’s image using the data projector.

19. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I. A n Aside: Successful careers My advertising photography career in Los Angeles resulted in many local, regional, national, and international awards of excellence. I moved to Seattle in 1982 and started working in flat (stained) glass, freehand blown glass, and ‘bending’ Neon sculptures. I ultimately ended up in a partnership in a multimedia business creating web sites and providing design, photography, and video production needs for local and regional clients. My previous career was as a Computer Interface Designer specializing in ‘Usability’ working mostly for Microsoft.

20. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review C ase Study: I am using Alfonso’s assignment image. Alfonso turned out to be an excellent student who I have helped to put together his portfolio for submission to a special photography program at the University of Washington. He, along with another good student Jennifer, have teamed up to do some paid photography jobs…

21. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Photoshop Lab Work: M agnify To: Actual Pixels in Photoshop 1.Any view other than Actual Pixel is a false (interpolated) display image. 2.Single-click on the Magnify Tool in Tools which will automatically change the Tools Options menu to reflect the new tool as shown below. 3.Select Actual Pixels to see what the real image looks like. 4.All critical assignment image inspection must be done at the 100% Actual Pixel display.

22. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I …kkk… C ritical Inspection: DSLR image @ 100% This DSLR image should have looked photographic. Instead it’s soft, under exposed, off color, and granular. An excellent starting point for Alfonso. All of these errors have simple technical solutions. The under exposure can be easily EC correct. Once the exposure is correct, lot of the poor image quality issue will be reduced. Although most of the granular look comes from the NOT recommended use of ISO 1600. 50 – 100 – 200 – 400 – 800 – 1600 Hi-QBestOK +OKOk?Not Ok

23. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review C ompact Digital ISO: Restricted to 100 50 – 100 – 200 – 400 – 800 50 – 100 – 200 – 400 – 800 Hi-QUse ThisEmergencyNot Ok Never For all practical purposes, the compact digital is limited to using the slow ISO 100. Yes, ISO 50 will result in the highest quality image but it’s impractically slow.

24. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review C ompact Digital ISO: Speed ratings 50 – 100 – 200 – 400 – 800 – 1600 V.SlowSlowMediumFastVery FastUltra Fast ISO is a legacy term from film. The term started out as ASA. ASA was an American standard. ISO is an International term. ISO-25 is 1-stop slower than ISO-50. And it was considered very fast speed for color film in the late 50’s. Kodachrome color slide film was considered amazing when it reached the ultra fast speed of ASA 32.

25. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review S hooting Notes: EXIF meta data Meta data is the technical shooting notes for the image. The example list to the right does not show the complete list… Some of the information is made available on your digital camera Playback screen. Your camera came with an application that gives you access to the image EXIF. You can also view it in Photoshop. You will be providing relevant EXIF information in your assignment report. EXIF information: Olympus: C70Z, C700Z Olympus: C70Z, C700Z Date: Jan. 6, 2007 Date: Jan. 6, 2007 Time: 7:38 PM Time: 7:38 PM Exposure Time: 1/40 Exposure Time: 1/40 Exposure Prog: Normal Exposure Prog: Normal F-Stop: f/2.8 F-Stop: f/2.8 F-Stop Max: f/2.8 F-Stop Max: f/2.8 ISO: 100 ISO: 100 Focal Length: 7.9 mm Focal Length: 7.9 mm Pixel X: 2304 Pixel X: 2304 Pixel Y: 1728 Pixel Y: 1728 Color Space: sRGB Color Space: sRGB Exposure Bias: None Exposure Bias: None Exposure Mode: Auto Exposure Mode: Auto White Balance: Auto White Balance: Auto

26. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review M eta Data: Image relevant meaning The image softness is due to hand-holding a DSLR with the zoom set to 170 mm telephoto using a very slow 1/60 sec shutter speed. A better shutter speed would have been 1/250 sec. 1/8 - 1/15 - 1/30 – 1/60 – 1/125 – 1/250 – 1/500 – 1/1000 – 1/2000 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 There is a 2 f/stop difference between 1/60 and 1/250 shutter speeds. That would have meant 2-stops less light. The aperture was already set to wide–open. So, it wasn't possible to open up 2 more stops.

27. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Learning opportunity B rightness: Relative thing… When I asked Alfonso’s class Mates to comment on the image brightness. Most students thought that it was just right. They did not realize that the image was seriously under exposed. The students actually responded positively to the pleasing aesthetics rather than the poor exposure technique.

28. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Learning opportunity B rightness: Exposure consideration When considering brightness, it helps to compare it with both lighter and darker images. Other different value images gives concrete reference points. And that’s important in photography and story telling. It will help you to judge color, lighting, composition, etc. Under Exposed Normal Exposure

29. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Learning opportunity B racketing Exposure: Making darker and lighter exposures of the same scene is called bracketing, which is a time tested technique. I still used it myself when its called for…

30. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Learning opportunity B racketing Color: Making darker and lighter exposures of the same scene is called bracketing, which is a time tested technique. I still used it myself when its called for…

31. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Learning opportunity H istogram: Exposure graph The exposure graph in the Histogram clearly shows that the image is seriously under exposed, dark. It’s important that you learn to recognize this severe amount of under exposure with your naked eye. Use the Histogram to help you learn but please don’t start operating your camera ‘by the numbers’.

32. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Learning opportunity A nother Tool: Grayscale image Use the provided grayscale image and paste it into your assignment image. It’s the grayscale that was part of your monitor calibration process. Now learn to use it in direct relation within your image. Current exercise – squint view the example image to determine its middle gray-point. Do it now… You will find that the middle gray of the image is much darker than the middle gray of the grayscale.

33. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Learning opportunity L earning Exercise: See it? Try to find the new element in the Image first. Use the keyboard Up and Down arrow keys to switch between this and the previous image to find the difference. Do it now…

34. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Learning opportunity L earning Exercise: Yes, a dark gray block was added near the center of the image.

35. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Learning opportunity L earning Exercise: Reference points I put two more gray blocks in the center. One is darker and the other is lighter. And both gray blocks stand out much more than the previous gray block. Use the Up and Down keys again to experience the visual differences.

36. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Learning opportunity B asic Lab Work: Hopefully, most assignment images will not need this much help with exposure. But all digital images will Require basic image processing. The lab work is done using Photoshop Layer adjustments: 1)Levels adjustment. 2)Brightness/Contrast adjustment. 3)Color balance adjustments.

37. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Photoshop Basic Image Processing L ab Work: All three adjustments and cropping frame applied… The ‘cropping frame’ layer Is a 4:3 ratio, image shape. Image Processing Guide: I visualize what might have inspired Alfonso in the original scene. He agreed that my visualization matched his experience. Next Step: Alfonzo also took Art 115 at the SSCC Campus. He Along with Jennifer did a great job of team leading the Art-114 students.

38. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Advanced Image Processing Concept F inal Solution: A simple change… to make this AFTER image. One more missing thing was the lack of a focal point. Even in this visual poem, a focal point is very important to the Composition. Use the keyboard Up and Down arrows to judge for yourself if the AFTER image looks better than the previous basic process only image Alfonzo with his poetic eye immediately saw that the simple change made a big difference…

39. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review T itle: Use ‘ing’ words Coming up with good titles was not his strong suit. The one word title ‘Rain’ is a noun describing a thing. A verb like ‘Raining’, an action word might have been a stronger starting point. An image of an action has a better chance of being more visually interesting than just a static Thing shot. In the class textbook, there is an example in the ‘Half-Full’ Story showing both a static ID and a pouring action-shot.

40. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: EXIF – meta data M ore on Metadata: EXIF info There are two types of metadata. First is ‘File Property’ containing general computer data information such as date, time, and type. The other is ‘EXIF‘ which contain more photography specific information such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO, exposure bias, and etc. Please consider the EXIF to be your information treasure chest and mine it for learning opportunity!

41. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: EXIF – meta data E XIF: Photography notes For the date/time information to be accurate, you must set the camera date/time correctly. Beyond that, there are more important photography specific information in the meta data… Exposure Time: Shutter speed F-Stop:Aperture Exposure Program:Auto-P ISO Speed Rating:ISO number Have a team discussion about the 4 topics listed above…

42. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Learning opportunity R e-shoot: Various concerns In a classroom discussion about the re-shooting Alfonso’s image, weather issues came up. My feedback 1.Shoot a different ‘Rain’ scene. 2.Use a water hose to create the rain. 3.Play with ‘Raining’ idea. 4.Shoot a smaller part of the scene. General Warning: Choose your subject wisely to begin with. If you’re shooting a thing, make it a small object that can easily be transport to a perfect location with good predictable lighting.

43. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Learning opportunity I mprove Camera Stability: Use a tripod It should be sturdy but light weight. It needs to be sturdy to do its job of steadying the camera. It needs to be light weight so that you won’t leave it at home. Besides being NOT plastic and shaky, it should bring the camera to your eye level when your standing straight The example to the right is showing the rubber tip extended. Screw in the rubber tip to expose the steel spike.

44. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Learning opportunity M ore: Good tripod characteristics Next to being sturdy and light weight, the tripod head is a critical part. A sign of a good tripod is a removable head. I prefer the simple ball head which function very intuitively. More traditional heads are bigger with more knobs and handles which allow for more precise angle control more useful in the studio. Although neither are perfect for all purposes. Expect to dish out about $90 to $145 for a light weight but sturdy carbon-fiber tripod. Being real – until a good tripod is affordable for you, learn to work with cheap aluminum/plastic tripods available for about $30 to $60.

45. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I Assignment Image: Critical Review Summary: You get back what you put into this class. Hopefully, you gave your best effort on all previous shooting assignments. If not, it’s not too late. Figure out ‘Why not?’. And be sure to do your best in the ‘re-shoot’. Don’t rush either. Try to give yourself enough time (overnight minimum) to assimilate the assignment feedback. And be ready to ask more ‘clarifying’ questions on Wednesday.

46. Teacher: Kenji Tachibana Digital Photography I x End