Jane Wetherholt http://www.salem.edu daily 1 2011-01-04T11:28:42Z Week Three http://www.salem.edu/blogs/january-term-2011/jane-wetherholt/week-three Adventures with a malfunctioning light meter. This week, faithful readers, I developed my film and started printing. Unfortunately, many of my prints didn't turn out. The camera I'm using is running out of battery power, I think, and the light meter is giving me incorrect light readings. Which means that all my pictures were overexposed, unfortunately. The good news, however, is that I have one more roll of film left. I also have two rolls of film from junior year of high school. They're still good, so I'll be using those rolls of film to bolster my portfolio.

I lent my other film camera to a girl in my class, but unfortunately she had to drop out before she could use her film. So I'm also using that camera which I know has a functioning light meter to take more pictures. And of course I'm also using my digital camera as part of the digital portion of the class, so I think I'll have plenty of images to use.

There's not really much to talk about this week, since my film didn't come out as well as expected. We also shot a lot of film this week, so there isn't much new to talk about in that respect until I can develop it and see how it turned out.

We did, however, learn how to better utilize our aperture settings on our cameras. My aperture on my digital camera is always set at 5.6, which is a larger aperture setting and allows more light to get through. Aperture is also connected to focus as well. For instance, if you're focused in on an object, that object will appear clear and everything around it, particularly the background, will be out of focus. Looking back on my past photos, I utilize this technique very often. However, if you're taking a wide-angle shot, the smaller aperture will still allow everything in the picture to remain in sharp focus. It was interesting to learn how to manipulate the aperture, though in general I think I'll keep the aperture at 5.6. There are still situations where this information will be useful. If I'm shooting on a particularly bright day, I can set the aperture at 16, a smaller aperture, which lets less light into the lens. Or if it's dark, I can set the aperture smaller than 5.6, to 4.0 perhaps, and let more light in. As I stated in one of my earlier posts, simply relying on changing the shutter speed to take pictures is a bad habit I picked up and utilizing more of the functions on my camera will widen my range.

Hopefully, I will be able to figure out my scanner by the time this class ends. Then I will be able to post some of the prints I've made and perhaps my photograms as well. Otherwise, I shall continue to post my digital prints and my photoshop efforts.

This week will be the last week of Jan Term. In class, we'll be doing photoshop on Monday and Tuesday and picking out our best images for our portfolios, and then Wednesday we'll be in the dark room all day, developing our last rolls of film and doing our last prints and picking prints for our portfolios. We'll see what I turn out.

]]> No publisher Jane Wetherholt 2011-01-23T22:20:43Z Page Week Two http://www.salem.edu/blogs/january-term-2011/jane-wetherholt/week-two Technologically advanced or really complicated paperweight? Hello, readers! I apologize for the delay in my post. Thousands of my readers have contacted me to complain that they missed my weekly posting. Who blames them, really? My sparkling wit cannot be kept from the world. It would be inhumane. So, without further ado, I give the people what they want.

The reason there has been such a gap between postings is that my fancy, intricate printer (you remember: I talked about it in my first post), which I asked for specifically for its scanning capabilities, is apparently incapable of scanning. Feel free to be appalled, readers. I was, too. Here's the kicker, though: I went to the trouble shooter section of the printer company's website to find out what was wrong with my scanner. One of the links was "No scanning options," which is what my printer keeps saying when I try to scan. So I click on it, expecting to find some magical solution. It tells me to refer to the device documentation. So I pull out the manuals that came with the printer. I got two manuals: one starting guide for wireless and one starting guide for fax. There is no documentation for the scanner. It's probably somewhere on the installation disc but I can't look at my printer without wanting to smash it with a bat a la Office Space, so I guess I'll wait until I calm down and figure it out later. The only reason I wanted this device is for its scanning capabilities. I couldn't care less about its other capabilities. As Alanis Morisette would say, "Isn't it ironic?" However, unlike many of the situations in her song, this is actually ironic.

This week we made photograms, which involves placing various objects on a piece of photo paper and exposing the paper to light on an enlarger. The result is very cool. I was going to scan my photograms onto my computer and post them to this blog, but if you've gotten to this portion of the blog, you've read about my printer mishaps, so I won't continue to harp. Hopefully, I will eventually be able to post my photograms online.

We also used our pinhole cameras. I actually got an image this time, unlike my attempts in high school. I wish it hadn't been so cold, otherwise the experience of waiting to expose our paper wouldn't have been quite as miserable. Now that I know how to make a proper pin hole camera, I can perhaps fashion one this spring and use it when it's warmer and sunnier.

This week we continued our Photoshop tutorial. I'm still not a true believer in Photoshop, but I did make some pretty cool-looking pieces. These I will be posting to this blog. I was inspired by the art I did in elementary school, where you make a picture using oil pastels, then paint over it with black paint. Once the paint dries,  you etch patterns into the paint, allowing the colors underneath to show through. Did anyone else do that in elementary school? Well, it's fun. It's also fun on Photoshop, but less messy. Which I think is probably less fun. But then again, I like messy. I think these images turned out well. I consider it less photography-related and more studio art-related. In some of my Photoshop images, the photograph is actually not at all visible.

In next (this) week's blog, I shall discuss my first roll of film and the drawbacks of using a camera that has a malfuntioning light meter. That's right: it's as entertaining as it sounds. I shall also discuss the drawbacks of having a scanner that doesn't actually scan and how technology, as a whole, is useless because you can't actually use it. Which is hardly the point. Also, I'll discuss photography. Some.

]]> No publisher Jane Wetherholt 2011-01-20T00:45:00Z Page Week One http://www.salem.edu/blogs/january-term-2011/jane-wetherholt/week-one Learning About Elements of Design, Photoshop, Shutter Speed and Aperture, and How to Use Our Cameras. This week we were introduced to a lot of information. Steve Acesta, our instructor for the digital portions of the course, introduced us to the elements of design and photoshop, as well as instructing us on aperture and shutter speed. We were able to use our digital cameras to shoot pictures of whatever we wanted. We uploaded these pictures onto the computers at The Sawtooth and got to experiment with Photoshop. I have mixed feelings about Photoshop. I like a more natural aesthetic and I try to keep my photos as close to the original image as possible. For me, the effects on Photoshop seem contrived. There are some cool things that they can do, but they just don't appeal to me. However, learning how to utilize Photoshop is still very helpful and it's possible to create images that wouldn't appear otherwise. For instance, I took layered three photos on top of each other and made two of the photos very opaque, so there are layers of shapes and colors that create a very cool image. Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to bring a thumb drive to class that day, so I'll just have to remember to upload that image to next week's blog.

We were also given rolls of black and white film! This weekend I'll be shooting around campus and Winston to see what I can come up with. We'll be developing the film on Monday and making prints. I think I'll be able to bring one of the prints back so that I can scan it to my computer and upload it, too. Monday we'll also be using the pinhole camera we made today. There are a variety of ways to make this type of camera, but we used metal popcorn tins and painted the inside black (so no light is reflected inside the camera). We drilled a hole in one side of our tins, which is where the image and light will come in. Then we made miniscule holes in a strip of metal that we aligned with the hole in the tin. This is the aperture of our camera. It will project light and an image onto the photo paper we secure to the inside of our tin. Using these cameras is fun, but also tricky, because you have to pay very close attention to how much time you expose the paper. I did this in high school, but it didn't turn out well at all, so I'm looking forward to learning how to do it this time.

Though much of the information is familiar to me, I find that I have been developing bad habits. For instance, on my digital SLR, I shoot in manual mode so I can change the shutter speed. But I never change the aperture. I've limited myself by making the shutter speed do all the work and not exploring what changing the aperture will do for my photos.

I think this class will really expand my creative horizons and cause my photography to evolve. It will also change my lazy habits and make me look at photography in a completely different light.

]]> No publisher Jane Wetherholt 2011-01-07T23:00:00Z Page Open Aperture http://www.salem.edu/blogs/january-term-2011/jane-wetherholt/open-aperture A short introduction of who I am and what I hope to accomplish this Jan Term.

Hello! My name is Jane Wetherholt. This Jan Term I will be taking a class at the Sawtooth Center focusing on photography. I will be using a single-lens reflex (SLR) film camera that belonged to my grandfather. He passed away in August, so it will be really special to be using something that belonged to him. 

I started becoming interested in photography in high school. I took a class my junior year of high school and my dad got a refurbished Canon SLR film camera, so I've had some experience with dark room photography. I wasn't very good at all, and I didn't really improve much that first year because there was a misunderstanding and I ended up almost teaching myself. However, I did learn a lot about the mechanics of an SLR and the mechanics of the dark room. My first year in college, my dad got me a digital SLR camera and it's been a learning process ever since. I've learned the most just taking pictures recreationally and learning what works and what doesn't. It's been really great to have the digital SLR because I can see immediately what works and what doesn't and really get a chance to experiment without wasting film. It may sound conceited, but I really think I've improved over the last few years and really firmed the basics of photography. The summer after my first year I also took a week-long photography course with a camera similar to the one I'll be using for this class. The course was extremely helpful in learning the basics of SLR film photography and dark room mechanics. 

Though photography is one my hobbies and has been since high school, there are still several areas in which I need improvement. I'm not very good at taking pictures in low light or with a flash. I'd also like to learn more about taking pictures of people and landscapes. I think some of my framing definitely needs improvement and I could probably use more practice at finding patterns and focal points. Having a basic working knowledge of photography and SLR cameras will help me in this class because I can hone in on the areas that need improvement. I also want to find out if I've cultivated bad habits in taking pictures. It could be that I've got the basics completely wrong. 

I've been meaning to take more photography courses, but I've never had time in my schedule, so this Jan Term is a perfect way to accomplish this. I'd also like to learn how to use my grandfather's camera, since I've been used to more modern cameras.

I'm very excited about this Jan Term! I'll also be posting the photographs I'll be taking and developing, since I just got a snazzy new printer for Christmas and can scan the photographs onto my computer. 

I hope you enjoy reading this blog as much as I'll be enjoying making it!

- Jane Wetherholt

]]> No publisher Jane Wetherholt 2011-01-03T17:20:00Z Page