Shutter Speed: 1/1000 Aperture: 4.5 ISO: 1600

Wide Aperture/Low Number/Shallow Depth of Field 

Shutter Speed: 1/25 Aperture: 29 ISO: 1600

Narrow Aperture/Small Number/Deep Depth of Field

Reading 2 Assessment Questions

1. “To interpret an image is to make sense of it. To interpret is to see something as ‘representing something, or expressing something, or being about something, or being a response to something, or belonging in a certain tradition, or exhibiting certain formal features, etc.’”

2. The author supports all of these ideas about what the message and being a photograph represents through interpretation through the reading. He defines interpretation clearly to understand exactly what it is as well as creating a quality system in order to understand reliability.

3. Barrett defines interpretation as analyzing an imagine and discovering your own viewpoint of what the photo may represent or be about. The interpretation is the being of the photograph beyond its tactile presence.

4. Interpretation is important in the criticism of photographs because it provides the reader more information about how the photograph may relate to a certain time in history or to other works of art. It provides more in depth descriptions of the photograph for the reader to fully digest and understand.

5. I was interested in the interpretive strategy of Intentionalist Interpretation. This interpretation is based off of attempting to analyze a photography by figuring out what the artist’s intensional creative purpose, meaning, or intent was when they created and published the work. This interests me because I am commonly told that art is subjective and open to one’s personal interpretation, which I completely agree with but I think this approach is worth doing. It is rare an artist makes work without an intent or vision behind the message it will portray, so I think this strategy would be very helpful.

6. The author is trying to explain that not interpretations of a photograph or art are necessarily incorrect or false, but there are interpretation that are more likely or less likely to be accurate or possible. An interpretation is not a direct opinion one gains from a photograph, rather it is corresponding and relating to content in the photograph to come to the conclusion.

7. The author is explaining how when a photographer presence an image they may believe their work has a very clear and deliberate intent but often their work reveals more than they think it is capable of. It is sometimes difficult to figure out what a photograph is about simply by viewing. Also, it is sometimes distracting and misleading when a viewer reads what an artist’s intent was suppose to be.

8. Feeling about a particular piece of art can change drastically over a short amount of time. In order to cope with that responsibility I learned it is helpful to define what my gut feeling about a photograph is quickly and see how that evolve over further investigation. Also, I learned an interpretation can be implausible or unreliable of it does not pertain to the work. An opinion cannot be wrong but there is a system to see how creditable the interpretation is.

9. The author concludes explaining how the community of interpreters is especially important when selecting the best interpretations. Each individual has had a different experiences throughout life which shapes our perspective and ultimately our interpretation of photographs.

Assignment 2 Shutter Speed

Fast Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed: 1/500 Aperture: 8.0 ISO: 1600

Slow Shutter Speed

Shutter Speed: 1/40 Aperture 29 ISO: 1600

Reading Assessment 1

1.  “Descriptive information includes statements about the photographer’s subject matter, medium, and form, and then more generally, about the photographer's casual environment, including information about the photographer who made it, the times during which it was made, and the social milieu from which it emerged.”

2. He further defines and explains what subject matter (pg 21-26), medium (pg 29-31), and form (pg 26-29) is. Also, Barrett explains how there are many more components which go into a photograph that build the environment. He goes into depth of how a message and social context (pg 34-35) can be interpreted within photographs internally as well as externally (pg 33-34).  

3a. Description is the logical way of examining the photographs based off of what it displays by simply observing and stating facts not opinions or interpretations.

3b. Subject is the interpretation of what the photographer's message or intention they are trying to portray. The subject matter is the physical object or thing within the photograph that helps convey the meaning of the photograph.

3c. Form is the content which builds the photographs structure such as: dots, lines, shape, light, color, texture, mass, space, and volume.

3d. Medium is how the objects or things within the photographs came to be. It can be simply a colored digital photograph or if the photographer altered the environment that would also be considered the medium.

3e. Style is how the photographer chooses to use all of the above elements in order to personalize and create their artistic vision and recognizable quality.

4a. Comparing and contrasting is taking a piece of work and finding similar qualities and differences with all types of work which could include the photographer’s own work or others.

4b. Internal sources of information is what the view can decipher in the photograph based off of what they see. External sources of information is when a viewer uses outside research to learn more about a particular piece they cannot retrieve from just looking at the photograph.

5a. Barrett believes that description and interpretation are related and constantly working in a balance with each other. In order to describe something one must interpret the content in the photograph to create understanding of what it is. When one interprets a photograph that have to have some understanding of the descriptive content in the photograph.  

5b. Description and interpretation work in a circular context constantly in relation to one another. One must understand the content in order to construct an interpretation.

6a. I think the author was also trying to make the point that photography is a subjective art that can be artistically interpreted in many ways but there are fundamental components which are facts was derive from the photographs that all people can agree on. Barrett is making the point that there is a lot of other obstacles and other factors that are in play when creating a photograph which is not possible to have knowledge of my viewing the piece of work.

6b. I learned it is difficult to simply describe an image soley without using other techniques such as interpretation. I also learned that the subject and subject matter are related but completely different ideas. Subject is what the piece is trying to portray to an audience. The subject matter is the material within the photograph that helps translate the subject.

6c. The author concludes explains the importance of description to readers. He cites that photographs should not be looked at are real life or real events rathers as a picture construct. Photographs have values such as lines, form, subject, etc. and it should be looked at as such.

6d. I think this reading definitely informative and gave me a vocabulary which enables me to speak about photography from a more educated viewpoint. Also, it made me think of photography in a different way artistically. I understand that dance can be interpreted and critiqued in many different ways based off of a set of values and photography is no different.

Assignment 1 Part 1

SS: 1/200 F11 ISO: 400 Meter: 0

SS: 1/200 F5.6 ISO: 400 Meter: +2

SS: 1/200 F22 ISO: 400 Meter: -2

Bracketing is taking the exact same photo several times but adjusting your exposure by changing the shutter speed, F stop, and/or ISO. I kept my shutter speed and ISO consistent throughout the whole process and changed my F stop. In my first image I set the F stop at 11 in order to balance the amount of light. Then I over exposed my image by adjusting the F stop from 11 to 5.6 to allow in even more light which was a 2 click increment change. To under expose my image I brought the F stop back to the even exposed F11 and altered it to 22 to let in less light. This was a 2 click increment change.