Farewell Readers!

While running this blog I learned a great deal about journalism and photography! I learned running a blog is definitely not as easy as you think it would be. I struggled a lot with creating posts in a timely fashion. I think the posts I made  but I hope that the posts I made were as interesting to read as they were to create.

Photography is definitely a passion that I want to explore further as both an art form and as a medium to communicate a story as running this blog has taught me. I learned a lot about the different equipment used in photography and about the different settings on my camera’s manual mode. Thank you for reading my blog, unfortunately I won’t be continuing it but I may start up another one very soon. Running this blog has taught me a lot about Online Journalism and I do think I will want to get more involved in it when I have more time to spare.

Here are my top 5 posts that I made throughout the semester:

Different Lens Post

Different Types of Photography Post

Audio Interview With Professor Hawk

Camera Setting Post

The Whit’s Multimedia Editor Interview

The Whit’s Dynamo Multimedia Editor

For my final project, I decided to interview Jaryd Leady, the Multimedia Editor of Rowan University’s local newspaper, The Whit. The Whit began in 1938 and since then has become a major on-campus organization for Journalism students to get involved in. Jaryd has a serious passion for multimedia and broadcasting which is what drew me to interview him for this project. When I first reached out to him I was nervous that he would not be as interested in photography as he was with broadcasting. However, Jaryd clearly has a passion for photography and talked with me at length before and after our interview about how much fun photography is for him.

During the interview, Jaryd mentions Professor Timothy Hawk. Professor Hawk just so happens to be the professor I interviewed a couple of weeks ago. I did my audio post about him and it was interesting to see Professor Hawk’s passion for photography affect someone else that I interviewed.

However, Jaryds work goes beyond just photography. He has been writing for The Whit for some time now. Here is the most recent article he has written for The Whit, it came out on April 22.

Jaryd talked with me for a while about photography and some of his other hobbies as well. He mostly uses a crop sensor camera that he rents from the university’s Journalism Department and hasn’t gotten around to getting his own camera. He uses the university’s Canon T5i with the kit lens to capture the photographs he takes for The Whit . But that doesn’t stop him from shooting for fun. If you want to learn more about Jaryd, you can watch the above interview I conducted with him. I also got some good angles of him shooting with my camera!

In Class Video Assignment

Photography and Journalism Working Hand in Hand

Timothy Hawk is a professor at Rowan University, teaching Photojournalism in addition to photography and journalism classes. In addition to teaching about photography and its application in journalism, Professor Hawk is a professional photojournalist providing photos and stories for NJ.com and The South Jersey Times. However, he officially works as a multimedia specialist for NJ Advance Media.

Focusing in on Photography

The amazing thing about photography is the different subjects you can focus on, and the different skills required to properly capture these subjects. For example, a portrait photograph requires different composition and lighting than a landscape photograph or wildlife photography. I’ll discuss in this post three different styles of photography: wildlife photography, portrait photography, and landscape photography.

Wildlife photography is my personal favorite, mostly because of my love for nature and animals. Outside of my house is a bird feeder where colorful birds fly down to every day. I started practicing photography continuously because I loved capturing these beautiful animals every day. Here are some that I took:

A woodpecker on a bird feeder and a cardinal picking spilled seeds off the ground taken in Norwood, New Jersey. This is an example of wildlife photography. (Remo Baldassari)

Most wildlife photography is shot with a telephoto lens or one with a high focal length because the photographer is unable to get very close without scaring the animal away. For these photos I used a 75-300mm telephoto lens, but professionals sometimes use 600mm lenses or higher.

Portrait photography is a really popular form that is generally used for pictures of people or smaller objects. Headshots are also considered a form of portrait photography. Many people use portrait photography in art pieces and abstract pictures.

Connor Drabik posing in the woods near my house in Glassboro, New Jersey at sunset. This is an example of portrait photography. (Remo Baldassari)

Because the subject is generally much closer a smaller focal length is used rather than a telephoto like in wildlife photography. But a larger focal length than landscape photography, which I’ll get to, must be used. So generally anywhere from 35mm to 85mm is used in portrait photography. For this photo I used my 50mm lens which falls in between the focal lengths mentioned before.

Finally, Landscape photography is as the name states. It is a photograph of a landscape or wide area. Many famous landscape photographs are of rolling fields, mountain ranges or cliffs. However, landscape photography can be of any area. For instance I took this photo recently for a friend:

My friend’s house in Glassboro, New Jersey. This is an example of landscape photography. (Remo Baldassari)

Because landscape photography requires a wide angle to see as much of the landscape as possible a smaller focal length must be used. Focal lengths can get pretty small and even go into fish eye lenses that rap around the field of view. For this photo I used the kit lens thats focal length is 18mm-55mm and set it to 18mm to be able to see as much of the property as possible.

I hope this post was informative and you learned new information about photography! In this post I went over three different forms of photography, wildlife photography, portrait photography, and landscape photography. Until next time!

 

In Class Audio Assignment

 

The Differences in Lenses

Of course, to those who don’t use cameras like DSLR’s it’s easy to assume that the different cameras produce different quality photographs. Although this can be true in some cases, for the most part the major difference in quality and appearance of photographs comes from the different lenses.  You can get different quality photos and different types of photos using different equipment. To help show the difference I used my friends as subjects and used some other photographs to show the affect locations and different subjects can do to an image.

Thomas Oakes, 20, from Harrington Park, New Jersey; Taken by Ray Baldassari

This photo was taken with the Helios 44-2 50mm, this lens is famous for amount of focus it gives on the foreground and the beautiful way it softens the background. Although this lens is technically an antique, an adapter makes it usable on a modern camera and gives great results! 

Thomas Oakes, 20, from Harrington Park, New Jersey; Taken by Ray Baldassari

This photo was taken from the same angle, however, a different lens occupied my camera this time. The 18-55mm Canon kit lens changes the photo drastically. Although it’s a bit better composed, the background doesn’t have that soft blur and the foreground doesn’t have the sharp detail like the Helios offers.

Daniel Novarro, 21, from Norwood, New Jersey; Taken by Ray Baldassari

For this photo I used my Canon 75-300mm telephoto lens. Telephoto lenses are made to keep detail in longer distance shots. So, I used it in a portrait photo to get a closer shot of my friend Dan without getting too close to him, of course I had to stay on the lower side of the focal length available with this lens.

Daniel Novarro, 21, from Norwood, New Jersey; Taken by Ray Baldassari

In contrast, here is a photo of dan taken with the Helios. Although you can’t see it I had to get a bit closer to get this photo of him, and he is no where near as zoomed in as he was in the previous photo.

Taken by Ray Baldassari

In contrast, I needed to zoom in much more and use a higher shutter speed to get this shot of a woodpecker resting on a bird feeder. 

Daniel Novarro, 21, from Norwood, New Jersey; Taken by Ray Baldassari

On top of different lenses, you can add different adapters as well. What Daniel is showing me on his camera is an anamorphic lens adapter that allows the adapted lens to take a wider shot than it normally would by squishing the image and later stretching it out in post production to reveal a wider photo.Thomas Oakes, 20 and Aristide Muscariello, 20, both from Harrington Park, New Jersey; Taken by Ray Baldassari

Here, Dan held up the anamorphic lens adapter to my Helios lens for a picture of our friends. You can see how it compresses the image so more of the sides can fit in the image.

Thomas Oakes, 20 and Aristide Muscariello, 20, both from Harrington Park, New Jersey; Taken by Ray Baldassari

Here is the photo stretched out so that it’s a bit clearer. Instead of using a wider lens, the adapter does the job instead.

Taken by Ray Baldassari

At one point Canon started making lenses called FD lenses that only fit their film cameras, and sat the lens farther away from the film. In relation to modern digital cameras it means that the lens would sit too far away from the sensor to be used, so to correct this an adapter must be fitted onto the lens. With some research it becomes clear that either the photo quality will suffer or the photo will have a slight haze to it thanks to this adapter. The above photo was taken with a 50mm FD lens and the adapter to correct the distance adds a bit of haze to the image, but I found this image doesn’t have too much to affect the quality of it.

Taken by Ray Baldassari

Finally, here is a Canon 28mm FD macro lens. The “macro” in the lens means it can take very close up shots with good detail. Although, because it is an FD it adds a little haze. The leaf in this image has good detail and I enjoyed how the background looks out of focus as well.

I hope this was as informative to you as it was to me! I learned a lot using the different lenses and adapters. Including how to set up different shots taking the focal length of the lens into account. If you don’t have all different types of lenses to try out, it’s okay! There are camera shops you can rent lenses from or if you’re like me, you can ask some friends if you can borrow them to try them out. Also, it comes in handy to remember, if you’re ever in a thrift store or goodwill, check out their electronics section for any antique camera lenses, you can always buy an adapter!

Photo caption assignment

These photos show 21 year-old Tatyana Davis, a junior broadcast journalism major, showing off her necklace on March 6, 2018 outside of 301 High St. (Remo Baldassari)

“This necklace has significant value to me, since my mom gave it to me, as long as I have it I will have a piece of my mother with me.”

Shutter Speed, ISO, Aperture

Before I started photography, I had always heard that the most important thing to keep in mind was lighting. However, although I agree lighting can make the difference between a good picture and a bad picture, the three most important things I have found are: shutter speed, ISO, and aperture. I have linked some well-written articles by  Photographylife that explain them clearly because I will be discussing their relation to each other rather than their definition.

The above visual shows just how in unison these three concepts are. Each one influenced by the other and related to how light hits the cameras sensor. If your shutterspeed is raised, it gives the sensor less time to receive light. Therefore, it would make sense to open up your aperture to allow more light to hit the exposed sensor. I usually keep my shutterspeed on the higher side due to my hands shaking slightly. So, for uncontrolled environments, my aperture is open more and ISO is on the higher side.

However, ISO is a different story regarding picture quality. ISO is used to make a picture seem brighter to aid in dark environments. However, with post production software advancing the way it is, fixing exposure or grain in post is becoming easier and easier. That being said it’s still important if you want to do the least amount of editing on your photos as possible.

Understanding these concepts is important, but easier to grasp in practice. So, play around with settings and find what works for you in the setting you’re in.

Post 1: Introduction

Hello readers! My name is Remo Baldassari and this is my blog: ISOperature. More information about me can be found on the “about” page of my blog. This first post will outline more or less what this blog’s topic will be. First and foremost, this is a photography blog; aimed to teach new photographers how to use cameras, its settings, related equipment, and how to edit in post. I also hope to find an experienced photographer to interview in the coming weeks. The types of photographs I will be taking will range from landscape photography to portrait photography and hopefully some wildlife photography.

As far as cameras, unfortunately, I do not have access to a variety of different camera bodies. Right now, I am using a Canon Rebel T3i DSLR that I bought because of how famous the line is with beginners in both ease of use and relatively low price. However, despite my limited access to different camera bodies I’m sure any tips and tricks I discover will help with any type of camera.

Thankfully, I have accumulated a small collection of lenses thanks to finding antique lenses that can be fitted with an adapter to fit on my camera. So, a few posts will consist of the different kinds of lenses and discussing the positives of using older lenses and some of the drawbacks as well. Different lenses do different things and show different images, so learning to understand those differences is what I am most excited for for this blog!

Posts written about equipment and editing will be accompanied by comparable images. This way readers can visually see what using the different equipment does to the photographs. Similarly, using editing to bring different colors to the foreground will become easier to understand when visually comparing photographs.

I am excited to start learning more about photography and refining my skills and I hope you readers are excited as well!