Introduction to Basic Photography
Photo Assignment # 1: “Exposure” Camera metering experiments, plus “Wild Card”
Due Thursday Sept 11
What is due?
1) 12 jpeg digital images, 1080 pixels on the long edge, placed in the Assignment_1 folder on our
vico_2521_ws server space at: afp://photoserver.viscom.ohiou.edu
2) A digital “contact sheet” in PDF format showing at least 50 of your camera raw images. Please place it
also on our class server space.
3) If you photographed anyone under 18 years of age or a friend/model in a private location (not in public
view), include a signed parental model release. A hard photocopy or PDF on the server is OK.
This is an exercise to help you understand in-camera metering and exposure controls. Try to shoot this
assignment early or late in the day, or on an overcast day. Avoid middle of the day sunlight. Use an ISO
setting of 400. Shoot in full manual mode - no automatic settings for now. Shoot in Camera-Raw format
on your camera. You’ll convert the files to jpegs in post-processing. This is a bit complicated, so read it
through a couple of times before you start shooting.
Exposure, Part 1 - Light on Light:
This is a technical exercise, no need to seek creative pictures for this part of the assignment, although
you can if you wish.
Compose a scene of a person dressed in white clothing against a white background. A sheet or painted
wall is fine. Fill the frame with the person and the background.
Meter the scene with your in-camera meter, and use the suggested shutter speed with your lens set at
f5.6. Before you take that first frame, hand your subject an index card with your camera settings written
on the card, example: 1/125th @ f5.6. Also, for this first frame, have the person hold up one finger to
designate this as your starting point.
Now you are going to bracket exposures with your shutter speeds. Shoot the same scene and adjust your
exposures in 1-stop increments down to 2 full stops below the original exposure, (darker). You’ll be using
progressively faster shutter speeds (bigger numbers on the “dial”).
Write the new exposures on a card for each frame and hand each one to the subject to be included in the
photo. This will take 2 additional frames.
Go back to your first original setting. Now, repeat the above procedure and adjust your exposures in
1-stop increments up to 2 full stops above the original exposure, (brighter). You’ll be using progressively
slower shutter speeds, (smaller numbers). Remember to write the exposures on the index cards. This will
take another 2 frames.
You should now have 5 exposures, the metered exposure, 2 stops over and 2 stops under.
List of Whole Stop Apertures List of Whole Stop Shutter Speeds
1 1.4 2 2.8 4 5.6 8 11 16 22 1 1/2 1/4 1/8 1/15 1/30 1/60
1/125 1/250 1/500 1/1000 1/2000
Exposure, Part 2 - Dark on Dark:
This is also a purely technical exercise. Creativity can be saved for later if desired, but it can be fun to
incorporate.
Now you are going to try the same thing again, but this time the subject will be dressed in black against a
dark wall or background. And, rather than bracketing with shutter speeds, you’ll bracket with lens aper-
tures.
Meter the scene with your in-camera meter, and use the suggested shutter speed with your lens set at
f8. Before you take that first frame, hand your subject an index card with your camera settings written on
the card, example: 1/60th @ f8. Also, for this first frame, have the person hold up one finger to designate
this as your starting point.
Now you are going to bracket exposures with your f-stops. Shoot the same scene and adjust your expo-
sures in 1 stop increments down to 2 full stops below the original exposure, (darker). You’ll be using pro-
gressively smaller f-stops (bigger aperture numbers). Write the new exposures on a card for each frame
and hand to the subject. This will take 2 additional frames.
Go back to your original exposure setting. Now, repeat the above procedure and adjust your exposures
in 1 stop increments up to 2 full stops over the original exposure, (brighter). You’ll be using progressively
larger f-stops (smaller aperture numbers). Remember to write the new exposures on the index cards and
hand to the subject. This will take another 2 frames.
You’ll now have 5 additional frames of black on black, each looking different exposure-wise.
5 white on white frames, 5 dark on dark frames for a total of 10 frames.
Wild Card:
Here’s where you can have some creative fun. You have 40 frames remaining to get to the required 50
frames for this assignment. Shoot anything that interests you that looks good. Be creative.
Submitting the Files:
In your folder, place the “metered exposure” white on white frame plus 4 other exposures, the “metered
exposure” black on black frame plus 4 others, and 2 exposures from the Wild Card creative warm-up - for
a total of 12 jpegs in your Assignment_1 turn-in folder.
Re-name your files as: LastName_FirstInitial_exp_01.jpg
Examples: Jones_R_exp_01.jpg Jones_R_exp_02.jpg Jones_R_exp_03.jpg
Re-name the PDF contact sheets with at least 50 images in a similar way: Jones_R_exp.pdf
Grading:
This set of photos is worth 100 points out of the 1200 total points for the class. The exposure exercises
will be judged on how well the technical instructions were followed. The Wild Card photos will be eval-
uated on technical merit (appropriate sharpness, exposure, appropriate color, etc.) as well as on the
creative vision of the photographer.
