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YEAR-I
NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
What is art?
Art can be defined a way of communicating with others. Any creation when connects
or communicates to the person involved is referred as an art.
Art can also be referred as a vehicle for expressions or of emotions which drives the
person deep inside him and acknowledge him about the truth. As it is wisely quoted
that "We have our Arts so we wont die of Truth."- Michelangelo Pistoletto.
Art gives us an inner sight of ourselves and makes us think deep to know the truth.
Leo Tolstoy identified art as a use of indirect means to communicate from one
person to another.
There are various types of arts such as ceramics, drawing, sculpture, architecture,
printmaking, painting, electronic media such as computer and digital graphics, visual
design, graphic design, collage, photography and post-modern appropriation and re-
contextualisation.
The nature of art, and related concepts such as creativity and interpretation, are
explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics
MY TOPIC
NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY
Night photography refers to photographs taken outdoors between dusk and dawn.
Night photographers generally have a choice between using artificial light and using
a long exposure, exposing the scene for seconds, minutes, and even hours in order
to give the film or digital sensor enough time to capture a usable image. With the
progress of high-speed films, higher-sensitivity digital image sensors, wide-aperture
lenses, and the ever-greater power of urban lights, night photography is increasingly
possible using available light.
Types
Celestial bodies
City skylines
Fireworks
Caves
Abandoned buildings and artificial structures that are lit only by moonlight
Thunderstorms
Amusement rides
Techniques
The following techniques and equipment are generally used in night photography.
A tripod is usually necessary due to the long exposure times. Alternatively, the
camera may be placed on a steady, flat object e.g. a table or chair, low wall, window
sill, etc.
A shutter release cable or self-timer is almost always used to prevent camera shake
when the shutter is released.
Manual focus, since autofocus systems usually operate poorly in low light conditions.
Newer digital cameras incorporate a Live View mode which often allows very
accurate manual focusing.
A stopwatch or remote timer, to time very long exposures where the camera's bulb
setting is used.
Photographers control the camera and lens to "expose" the light recording material
(such as film) to the required amount of light to form a "latent image" (on film)
or RAW file (in digital cameras) which, after appropriate processing, is converted to a
usable image. Digital cameras use an electronic image sensor based on light-
sensitive electronics such as charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal-
oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The resulting digital image is stored
electronically, but can be reproduced on paper or film.
The movie camera is a type of photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence
of photographs on strips of film. In contrast to a still camera, which captures a single
snapshot at a time, the movie camera takes a series of images, each called a
"frame". This is accomplished through an intermittent mechanism. The frames are
later played back in a movie projector at a specific speed, called the "frame rate"
(number of frames per second). While viewing, a person's eyes and brain merge the
separate pictures together to create the illusion of motion.
When the correct equipment is used such as a tripod and shutter release cable, the
photographer can use long exposures to photograph images of light. For example,
when photographing a subject try switching the exposure to manual and selecting
the bulb setting on the camera. Once this is achieved trip the shutter and photograph
your subject moving a flashlight or any small light in various patterns. Experiment
with this outcome to produce artistic results. Multiple attempts are usually needed to
produce a desired result
Camera controls
In all but certain specialized cameras, the process of obtaining a usable exposure
must involve the use, manually or automatically, of a few controls to ensure the
photograph is clear, sharp and well illuminated. The controls usually include but are
not limited to the following:
Control Description
Traditionally used to "tell the camera" the film speed of the selected film
on film cameras, ISO speeds are employed on modern digital cameras
as an indication of the system's gainfrom light to numerical output and
to control the automatic exposure system. The higher the ISO number
ISO speed the greater the film sensitivity to light, whereas with a lower ISO
number, the film is less sensitive to light. A correct combination of ISO
speed, aperture, and shutter speed leads to an image that is neither too
dark nor too light, hence it is 'correctly exposed', indicated by a centered
meter.
Autofocus On some cameras, the selection of a point in the imaging frame upon
Many other elements of the imaging device itself may have a pronounced effect on
the quality and/or aesthetic effect of a given photograph; among them are:
Filters placed between the subject and the light recording material, either in
front of or behind the lens
The nature of the light recording material, for example its resolution as
measured in pixels or grains of silver halide.
Brassai
Jeff Brouws
Alan Delaney
Neil Folberg
Karekin Goekjian
Peter Hujar
Photography as an art
During the 20th century, both fine art photography and documentary
photography became accepted by the English-speaking art world and
the gallerysystem. In the United States, a handful of photographers, including Alfred
Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, John Szarkowski, F. Holland Day, and Edward Weston,
spent their lives advocating for photography as a fine art. At first, fine art
photographers tried to imitate painting styles. This movement is calledPictorialism,
often using soft focus for a dreamy, 'romantic' look. In reaction to that, Weston, Ansel
Adams, and others formed the Group f/64 to advocate 'straight photography', the
photograph as a (sharply focused) thing in itself and not an imitation of something
else.
Clive Bell in his classic essay Art states that only "significant form" can distinguish art
from what is not art.
CONCLUSION
All the top "no" arguments are basically arguing that machines don't make art. Their
focus is on the gear, not the artist, which is clearly dumb. It'd be like arguing Mark
Twain was a hack because he used a typewriter instead of his bare hands like
ARTISTS.
I'm trying to think like those people, and I have a feeling what they really mean is
something along the lines of "the photography I see every day isn't art" because of
Facebook and Instagram and their own personal usage of photography for utilitarian
purposes like making a record of a thing, or "not all photography is art," because it
isn't and nobody would argue against that. I have a hard time believing everybody
voting no truly believes there has never existed a photograph that qualifies as art.
They've got to be conflating the concept of art with the medium. In that regard,
arguing against the possibility of photography as art would be as silly as arguing
against the possibility of as art because the majority that has ever been created
doesn't rise to the level of widely accepted artistic prominence.
A camera is nothing more than an empty canvas, and light is nothing more than the
paintbrush. The camera is told what to do by the operator. It does not act alone. It is
a tool used for creation. Photography began by studying other art forms ; drawing,
painting, etc. the skills and techniques are the same, the medium is the only
difference. You can create reactions through photography that you achieve in all
other forms of art: emotions, triggered memories, thoughts, messages. So why is it
not art? Put my skills and knowledge of shapes, lighting, rules of thirds, etc... Up
John Ruskin, a well known artist in the late 1800's is quoted as saying "Fine art is
the product of the head, the hand and the heart." My observation is: the head - the
organization of the visual elements as well as an original concept; the hand -
technical proficiency and the heart - there needs to be an emotional aspect the
photographer feels which can be transmitted to an observer. Both abstract and
realism can be art. (Obviously, the majority of photographs are documents, and are
important in there own right."
Whether color, black and white, abstract or documentary, photos tell a story without
the need for words. Sometimes photographs that were never meant to be viewed as
art become art just through their narrative superiority. Anyone who has seen
photographs of intense moments of human emotion in war, poverty, or social conflict
can confirm that photographs express emotions that could otherwise not be
expressed merely by literary or painterly methods. For this reason, photography has
rooted itself so deeply in our culture that we now rely on photography to tell stories,
advertise products, record history, and communicate visual ideas. It not only
documents the human experience, but it also helps us understand more about
ourselves and our existence in this world.