Upper Moreland Students Transform Their Work Using Digital Photography

This week Upper Moreland Patch looks at the different forms of artwork produced by students in the Upper Moreland School District. There are a variety of different types of drawings and paintings done by various age groups of students.

• 'Distorted Faces' on Display
• Students Take to Pennypack Park
• Students Create Still Life Paintings

Speed of Light

Shutter Speed

The shutter is a set of metallic curtains that opens to allow light to enter through the lens and hit the sensor in the back of the camera. Adjusting the length of time that the shutter remains open determines how motion is recorded. Fast shutter speed freezes motion, while slow shutter speed can be used to blur motion and/or to photograph in low lighting.

In these images, very slow shutter speed was used to photograph various light sources in dark spaces, making them appear to be moving fast.

Bokeh Effect

Bokeh refers to the blur of the out-of-focus areas of an image, usually the background. When that happens, the background appears not only blurry, but light rays break into bright circles.

Students began by learning about the difference between wide and narrow depth of the field. In an image with the wide depth of field things in the foreground and background appear sharp. Narrow depth of field has a very shallow focus plan so that only a particular subject appears in focus while attempting to capture pure bokeh by photographing their subject against light sources and reflections.

Tlit-Shift Photography

Students learned how to use Photoshop techniques to create the effect of a miniature photos. To incorporate this effect, students began with one of their images they took outside. They took pictures of Upper Moreland High School and its parking lot from an elevated point of view. They then used selective blur to capture the narrow depth of field. The colors were enhanced to reinforce the idea of a miniature landscape.