UNIT 31 CTM Callum Monro: Technical Controls P3 (b)

Still Life

Best

All my favourite shots use these settings as they give a diffused/painterly effect. Although we filmed in low light conditions using only a lamp to light our scene we experimented with various ISO's, Shutter Speeds and Aperture values.

In the end we settled with the highest ISO setting possible, 6400 as this was the most light sensitive. This was to compensate for the high aperture we also used a high shutter speed to block off light so to diffuse the light evenly across each object. This gave the picture a more atmospheric feel as it looks warmer supported by the low key lighting.

2nd Best

Although this shot uses the same settings as the first I chose it as it's composed slightly differently in that the objects aren't to close in the frame however this wasn't my first choice due to the streak of light on the grenade.

3rd Best

After a while we moved the lighting to the opposite side of the scene to experiment. I think this image does actually create the most painterly effect as we used an umbrella to diffuse the light, however this wasn't the most suitable image as I wanted the light on the food as I was trying to convey a message of the divide between the positive and negative aspects of a soldiers life which is why I composited the image with the uniform, ammo pouches and grenade on one side and the cooking equipment and food on the other side to metaphorically split the image in half to convey this message I also made sure to use the oranges to brighten up the right half.

Worst Pictures

This image was taken when we were experimenting with the ISO we gradually increased it until it reached 6400 which fitted perfectly with our other settings in the low light conditions. However we did also change the aperture and shutter speed later on to try and get a different effect however this did not work as well.

This is an example of what happened when we set the ISO too low and the aperture too high.

White Balance

To set up the white balance on the canon 7D we took a picture of a well lit white piece of paper that filled the frame and was in focus we also made sure that the image wasn't over exposed, this was so the camera could recognise the paper as pure white and could apply that data to correct the lighting in the room (tungsten). To apply the custom white balance we went to settings and set the custom white balance to the image of the paper and selected custom white balance from the other presets.