Photographic Techniques

In general, there are hundreds of types of Photography. Instead of specializing in one type, I decided to "average" my skills in as many genres of Photography as possible. I typically use a Nikon D5100 DSLR, a film-based Konica SLR camera, and a shoe box (my trusty pinhole camera, of course!).

Some types of photography I have on the blog so far are...

I. Cliché Verre

This is a type of photography that combines drawing and printing.

After a picture is drawn, having used various forms of writing utensils of course, a "contact print" is made by placing the picture face-down on top of a piece of Photography Printing Paper. This gives the *Negative Print*.

A high contrast filter was used in the enlarger to bring the whites and blacks out more for full effect. 

After the *negative print* is placed through the development cycle, the print is placed on top of another piece of printing paper. This gives the *Positive Print*.

Let me know what you think!

II. Low-Light Photography

This is a type of Photography that revolves around strict low light.

Such shots were taken with low shutter speeds with open apertures for near distance shooting, and low shutter speeds with closed apertures for far distance shooting.

In addition to low shutter speeds, a "bulb" setting was used to open the shutter for a custom amount of time, which is a great technique for very dark lit shots. Tripods are recommended for this part in order to avoid a common problem called "camera shake".

Moreover,the concept of "light writing" uses the "B" (or "bulb") setting for opening the shutter while a vibrant source of light is moved around a very dark lit room.

While the room stays still (and potentially the person moving the vibrant light) the camera intakes only the path of the light which gives the "trailing" effect.

III. Naturalistic Photography

This is a type of Photography that revolves around nature!

Such shots were taken with varying shutter speeds and f/stops, all based on the lighting present, mind you. 

Other than that, "nature" shots are the very basic of photography!

IV. Portraiture

This is a type of photography that centralizes around "people", in which the photography they are in describes something about them.

Again, shutter speeds and f/stops are typically varied based on the lighting present. 

Now, there are two types of portrait-type photographs: Informal and Formal. Informal portraiture involves taking picture of the individual(s) that are not "prepared" to take said shot. In other words, informal portraiture involves taking pictures in an environment that is not specifically for portraiture-type photography (IE: a person in a car, at a movie theater, etc). Conversely, formal portraiture is quite the opposite--taking pictures in an environment specifically for portraiture-type photography (IE: Photography studio, yearbook pictures in a high school, etc).

V. Street Photography

This is a type of Photography that revolves around random people in random locations around cities, suburbs, etc.

The apertures and shutter speeds used were all varied due to the impulsive shooting technique used; shots were taken randomly to capture everyday people doing whatever it was they were doing which resulted in using the view finder as less as possible, thus having to estimate the distance, shutter speed, and aperture.

To avoid wasteful shots, a single shutter speed reading was noted before each take as well as the corresponding f/stop (aka: aperture), and then finally altered based upon their reciprocal relationships (so long as the lighting remained the same).

In addition to this, while printing, a solarization technique was used. The process was exposing, putting into developer for 5 minutes, taking out and exposing to raw enlarger light (instead of a negative, the enlarger easel was empty), putting back into developer for a minute, taking out and exposing to actual florescent light outside of the darkroom, placing back into developer for a few minutes, taking out, placing back into developer for three minutes, and then following the regular chemistry line (Stop Bath, Fixer, etc). 

VI. Self-Portraiture

This is a type of Photography that centers around the Photographer.

Typically speaking, a 60th of a second shutter speed was used in addition to varying f/stops (due to lighting, mind you).

Props were used to define my persona as well as the composition. 
For example, I used a mallet in some shots because (get ready) my middle name is Mallot. 

My family are sick people.

VII. Distressed Negatives

This is a type of Photography that centers around negatives that are altered, deformed, etc.

For example, let's say I decided to "melt" one of my photographic negatives. When I go to print said negative, it will appear distorted in the actual print.

Now, there are hundreds of techniques used in distressing negatives. In my opinion, experimentation is practically key in achieving a good distressed negative! 

Keep in mind that as long as the negative is altered in some way (be that solarization, burned, scratched, etc), it can be considered "distressed" in some way, shape, or form.

VIII. The American Classroom

This is a type of Photography that expresses the look of "The American Classroom"

In other words, "schools" in America!

Simply put, anything revolving around a school building in America is practically subject to photography.

IX. Toy Photography

This is a type of Photography that revolves around action figures, figurines, stuffed animals, etc.

There are almost hundreds of ways one can specialize in "Toy Photography"; a most popular type of toy photography would be the "Day in the Life of..." series, in which the photographer takes a specific "toy" and places it through a photo shoot in which said photos show and express just what that specific "toy" would do in its daily life!

X. Abstract Photography

This is a type of Photography that... well, can be just about anything! A rule of thumb, however, is that abstract photographs are typically images that aren't easily distinguishable in terms of "content" (IE: Distortion of an image through distressing negatives). When the viewer cannot accurately explain what is happening in said picture, 9 times out of 10 that picture is abstract!

XI. Parts of Things

"Parts of things" in photography is basically just a very general category of photography altogether--any type of photography is really allowed, but the main focus of the subject is a part of the subject.

Have you ever heard "several parts make a whole"? This type of photography, typically, centralizes its focus on the "parts" of the subject matter. It's really self-explanatory, actually. ;) 

XII. Pinhole Camera Prints

Pinhole photography is a rather unique style of photography. Typically, most people tend to take a shoe box, spray every ounce of it with black spray paint, seal it closed with a piece of unexposed photography printing paper nudged inside, and then subsequently poke a hole (by using a tiny needle point, hence "pinhole") so that light can be exposed to the printing paper. The hole is, of course, covered with a small aluminum/brass sheet (although tinfoil works just as well!) and electrical tape.

In order to get a proper image, people usually take it out into the environment, uncover the pinhole for an estimated amount of time (depending on the lighting of the scenery), recovered, and then taken back into the dark room to collect the printing paper for developing! 

XIII. Macrophotography

Macrophotography deals with the field of photography in which pictures are "shot" at close range. I typically used a macro-converter lens to take the majority of the shots--a few others were just me being very close to the subject matter!

XIV. Astrophotography 

Astrophotography is the art of photographing the stars. Admittedly, the better equipment you have during a shoot, the deeper the cosmos you can peer into. In my work, specifically, I use a Nikon D5100 and its standard kit lens. In addition, I tend to zoom all the way out for the widest angle possible, all with using very long shutter speeds and the widest aperture for my given lens. However, there is an initial difficulty when trying to photograph the stars with very basic tools-- "focus".

Generally, one would need to focus on "infinity" to capture the stars crisply, but many lenses these days do not have a symbol to indicate whether or not that field of view is selected on the lens. To avoid this, I would recommend trying to "auto-focus" on the moon, if it is indeed bright enough for the camera to focus on. IF this doesn't work, it's mainly a process of trial and error: take a picture, zoom all the way in and see if the stars are dots (and NOT thick circles). If they are not tiny dots, then simply focus a little bit more on the sky and repeat this process until the stars come out to be "little dots". 

Granted, this is a very tedious process at first. However, if you do it enough times, you'll be capturing stars in no time. And it is so worth every second.

XV. Light Writing (Light Trails, Light Painting, Etc...)

Light Writing is probably one of the most experimental aspects of photography. Generally, I use longer shutter speeds more often than not (usually the "B" setting), and wide apertures. Afterwards, I'll usually take some test shots with a bright light source to properly focus my shots. 

From there, it's really only a matter of what YOU can come up with. Take any sources of light (IE: Flashlights, Lighters, iPods, Fire, etc) and let your heart decide what to create. In some cases, you can mix Light Writing and Astrophotography together, capturing either airplane light trails, shooting star trails, and so on. And if planning the shot doesn't work to your advantage, you could always try to flail about randomly, hoping to pick up something very beautiful at which to gaze. Some pictures can just leave you in awe... and really anyone with a camera that has a controllable shutter speed can do this.