Suggestions for Class Exercises

[subseasniper]

Hey there,

I a bit different this one. I am teaching a beginners evening class in photography next month and the students are real greenhorns.

I have been trying to devise various practical demonstrations to help show the theory behind what I will be teaching them.

Does anybody have any ideas for simple exercises that we do quickly that show the following topics.

Aperture - how depth of field can be varied

Shutter Speed - how blur can be controlled or used creatively

Exposure - what a stop is and how exposure can be altered

I know these are very basic but I have been struggling to come up with a really stimulating exercise that will help the theory stick in their brains.

Does anyboydy out there have any ideas for exercises?

Cheers,

SSS

 

[RobertP]

Aperture and depth of field is easy. put something in front of you at the minimum focus distance for a 100mm lens and set the camera to f22. Because you view through the lens wide open at say f4 (or whatever it is) the background will be blurred. Press the depth of field preview button and the background magically gets sharper because you are now viewing at f22 (albeit a bit darker to view).

Shutter speed. hmmm pictures of a pendulum swinging side to side at different shutter speeds?

Exposure and stops is a big one. people write books on understanding exposure
There are plenty of web sites with explanations this one is quite good. As to exercises you could prove that changing one setting by a stop can be balanced by changing one of the others by a stop the other way?

 

[AliB]

The aperture one is easy. Take an object to photograph. Place it in a location where there is a distance between the subject and background. Focus on said object. Without moving, photograph the object at different apertures. See the difference in how much of the background is in focus. Talk about subject isolation and using aperture for landscapes.

Shutter speed? Go play with the traffic. Shoot at different shutter speeds and see what happens. Use an aperture like f11 and prefocus manually. Do it with no panning and then with.

Exposure is harder to demonstrate as it a combination of the two and I find it best understood theoretically.

I hope that helps and good luck!

 

[Slapo]

As a part of shutter speed exercises, I'd suggest making them use the on board flash of their cameras IF they can change its sync modes , such as slow sync and rear-curtain sync (which I think is very valuable).
They would probably be best of by doing a few shots on full auto, then on aperture priority mode followed by shutter speed priority mode and full manual, with the rest of the class after that sticking to full manual to make them get used to its possibilities.
Also, they should practise some of these 'rules':
http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=1175&page_number=1

Some of that could be done as homework, such as the sunny 16.

They should try taking portrait style shots of each other with available light as well (they might need a tripod or a monopod for that).
To teach them how to use subject motion and panning creatively, take them to a sports match or to some river where there are at least seagulls. They're not very fast, but fast enough to make them sweat if they don't have telephoto lens attached and are decent for panning and motion blur training You can make one of them run up and down the classroom as well, but that might not be as much fun. It would be better if they only have e.g. compacts with full manual, though.

 

[subseasniper]

Thanks guys.

Slapo, that link is pretty nice, love the open palm to replace an 18% gray card, lovely tip and one I am sure I will use.

I had the same thoughts about an aperture exercise but the shutter speed one has taken a bit more thinking. Dependent on weather and light conditions I may have the opportunity to shoot traffic trails which would be nice but I need a back up exercise I can demonstrate indoors.

I was thinking in my oblique mad way about using a pink radio controlled car belonging to my daughter and having somebody drive that from left to right across frame and demonstrate fast shutter speed, slow shutter speed, panning and 2nd curtain flash sync.

As for exposure exercises it may be just a case of taking a decent shot then tweaking the values to overexpose and under expose, not clever but if it helps with theory its about all I can do.

I will be covering composition as well but I am thinking about just letting the students loose with their cameras and trying to capture photogprahs containing various compositional elements.

Cheers

 

[Slapo]

One more suggestion: make them take shots of simple stuff (person in front of a plain background, can be the sky or something else) and of lots of stuff (like a factory... or a classroom).