Lighting

Hey everyone, it's a new week, which means I have new pictures to show you.

Last week in my Photography & Convergent Journalism we discussed the use of external lighting and flash.  I was really drawn to a particular part of the lesson that talked about ratios in lighting.  The example that we used was in wedding and portrait photography; the subject of the shot seemed to be perfectly exposed while the background was much dimmer.  A simple contrast would show a 3:1 ratio, while a more dramatic approach would show a 5:1 ratio.  Basically, the difference is in the appearance of the shot due to the different stops between lights.

Instead of drowning you with too much information, how about you have a look for yourself at what I came up with that night.

Keiler Brown, a Digital Media Major, looking for something to do on the 24" iMac computer in the Digital Media Center at VFCC.

Sports Broadcasting at VFCC

This week is all about my favorite part of being a student here at Valley Forge Christian College, the Digital Media Major.  One of the classes that is offered at VFCC inside of the Digital Media Program is Sports Broadcasting I and II.  The class is comprised of about 10 students who rotate on a week by week basis to broadcast the Men's and Women's basketball games on Campus.  These students also have the chance to travel with the teams to the NCCAA Tournament in the Spring to broadcast the entire event.  This class is a great class to take if you want to know all about the "behind the scenes" aspect of a sporting event, while at the same time being able to actually use all the equipment that is needed to produce a stunning broadcast.

The pictures below provide a small glimpse into the responsibilities of our Sports Broadcasting team.

Ben Franco, the Sports Broadcasting professor at Valley Forge Christian College, directing the team during the VFCC Patriots and Penn State Lehigh Valley.

All smiles just after an amazing slam dunk by Lance Harris.

Mixing between the two different cameras on the control board.

Witnessing an amazing play on the court, the camera operator smiles as he continues to "capture" the moment.

A view from the camera operators perspective during the game.

Our sports announcers describing the game stats and eagerly awaiting the outcome of this intense game.

Advantages of Using Depth-of-field

This week I wanted to feature one photo that truly brings out an amazing feature that you can achieve on virtually any DSLR camera.  The use of depth-of-field is an amazing technique that allows the photographer to separate the subject from the background, as seen in the photo below.  On a standard 18-55mm lens with an aperture of f/3.5, it may be hard to achieve the same photo as this one.

This particular picture was taken with a 50mm prime lens with an aperture of f/1.8.  In order to get such a soft background, I mad sure that I gave enough distance between my subject and the background, which is why you only see the subjects face and not his whole body.  Testing a variety of lenses with different f stops will give you different results and I think it is great practice for anyone who wants to go into the field of photography.

Capturing the subject with a soft focus on the background in Philadelphia, PA.  Pictured: Michael McGary of Valley Forge Christian College.