Dr. Robert C. Wisemen
Eastern Illinois University
In my time here at Pittsburg State University I have taken two photography classes for my degree, and have learned so much. Although in today’s world film and dark rooms are not the ideal way to produce a picture, Dr. Robert C. Wiseman took the students in his presentation back to the days of film and the dark room. As for himself he has seen the art of photography change overtime. All the way from black and white process, to the ages of all digital. Dr. Wiseman reviewed a lot of basic photography knowledge, and left us with a few goodies also. He gave us a nice light up pen and a small scratch pad to use. Some of the terms he reviewed and talked about were f/stop, ISO, and shutter speed. If someone is wanting to master the art of photography these terms need to be known and come to mind quickly.
ISO is the international standards organization or the controlled development expose of film, and the sensitivity of film. With ISO comes the shutter, and shutter speeds. There are standard shutter speed that can be used depending on the type of picture you are trying to take, and the lighting that is being portrayed. The shutter is nothing more than a devise designed to prevent light from entering the camera and to select the length of time light enters the camera. With the shutter comes standard shutter speeds, and they are as follows; 1,2,4,8,15,30,60,125,250,500,1000. Although the shutter speeds are listed as whole numbers, they are understood to be listed over the number 1. For example 1/60 would be a standard shutter speed. Depending on what you set your shutter speed at is what you will set your f/stop at. The f/stop is the use of different size holes resulting in changing the amount of light that will fall on the film or capture medium. F/stops can be found by using the formula that Dr. Wiseman presented which is focal length divided by diameter. The standard f/stops are f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11 and so on. F/1.4 is said to be the fastest f/stop.
In conclusion Dr. Wiseman told us some interesting facts, and showed us some very neat photos that he produced in dark rooms by using positive and negative films, and different techniques to get the final product. He showed us how a homeade pin-hole camera will take a picture just like a modern camera will today. A pin-hole camera is one with no lens, and you use the same f/stop formula to know what to set the settings at. He took a picture of the students and showed us that it really would turn out. Not only did he show us all this he also talked about Polaroid and made the statement that Polaroid was not worried about how good the picture looked but how much film was used by consumers.
