Assignment 4

Manual Mode Scavenger Hunt

In this assignment, you will explore the relationship between aperture and shutter speed by capturing images using preset exposure settings. By adjusting these two variables, you’ll observe how they affect depth of field, motion blur, and overall exposure. You’ll photograph scenes that highlight these effects, analyze the trade-offs of each setting, and document your observations. The goal is to develop a hands-on understanding of how camera settings influence your final image. Finally, you’ll submit your best five images along with a short reflection on your experience and request feedback from peers and mentors.

Instructions

Step One: Capture Images with Different Outcomes

Your challenge is to find and photograph scenes that illustrate different effects based on aperture and shutter speed choices. Use manual mode (or a semi-manual mode like Shutter or Aperture Priority) to experiment. 

Try to Capture:

• A portrait with bokeh: Use a wide aperture and place your subject far from the background to create a shallow depth of field and blurred background. Bonus: experiment with bokeh shapes as seen in the advanced aperture techniques lesson.

• A landscape with deep focus: Use a narrow aperture to keep the entire scene in sharp focus.

• Frozen action: Use a fast shutter speed to stop motion. Some ideas: a jump photo, sports, running water, moving vehicles.

• Light trails: Use a slow shutter speed to record moving lights at night. Be creative! Any moving lights will create a light trail. Bonus: try light painting to write a message or draw an image with light.

• Smooth water: Use a slow shutter speed to blur the motion of water in a fountain, river, faucet, waterfall, etc.

• Intentional motion blur: Use a slow shutter speed to blur movement in a creative way, such as paning a moving subject or showing the chaos of a busy intersection.

Step Two: Analyze Exposure Trade-Offs

After capturing the images, compare the results and consider the following:

• How did adjusting aperture affect depth of field?

• How did different shutter speeds impact motion and light capture?

• What challenges did you encounter balancing exposure?

Step Three: Experiment with Adjustments (Bonus Challenge)

Pick one of your images and attempt to achieve a similar effect using different settings. For example, if you captured motion blur with a slow shutter speed, try to replicate a similar effect using intentional camera movement rather than subject motion.

Step Four: Submit your Images & Reflection

Pick your five best images, ensuring they showcase a variety of exposure effects. Include a brief written reflection addressing:

• What did you photograph, and why?

• How did different exposure settings affect your process and results?

• Which settings were the most challenging to work with?

• How did you organize your files?

• What kind of feedback would you like—technical, compositional, narrative?

tl;dr: What to Hand In

1. Your final five images.

2. A short paragraph or two reflecting on the points above.

3. (Optional) To make it engaging, upload your images without labeling the settings and let your peers guess which aperture and shutter speed you used!