Photography Class

Today was our first "Tech Time"!  Starting in October we're going to have "Tech Time" with Ms Blacker once a week while 50 kids from our school go to the IcePlex to take part in the Jets Hockey Academy.  We're the grade 4/5 students who are not in hockey!  We're excited to do some cool technology projects!

Today, we learned about the awesome life of cameras!  Ms Blacker showed us how to use the digital cameras.  We now know how to turn it on, zoom in and out, playback our photos and much more.  We also learned about the rules of photography.  Did you know there are seven rules of photography?  There could be more but we decided to just focus on 7, lucky #7!  This is what we discovered:

The first rule is: COLOUR.  Colour is important because it makes pictures 'pop out' when you look at them.  It shows feelings, emotions and the meaning of the pictures, for example an orange tree would mean fall.  Another example is if a picture is really dark it can make you feel sad.

Our playground has colourful equipment!

The second rule is: THE RULE OF THIRDS.  The rule of thirds is when you think of the picture window as having 9 squares or three horizontal lines and three vertical lines.  You want to take pictures using the rule of thirds because it can enhance the picture by making objects look like they are moving closer or further away.  It also helps you to focus on the main object or person in the picture.

These boys are in the first vertical third.

The third rule is: SYMMETRY.  The rule of symmetry means that you centre the object that you are taking a picture of. You put the object dead in the middle.  If you were to fold the picture in half it would be a mirror image.  Some people think the rule of symmetry is boring, but sometimes you just gotta do it!

Our Hippo has a vertical line of symmetry.

The fourth rule is: STRAIGHT HORIZON LINE.  It is important to make sure that the horizon (the imaginary line where the ground and the earth meets) is straight.  You don't want it to be crooked because then the line of the earth would look silly.

So this isn't perfectly straight, but it was our first attempt with cameras!

The fifth rule is: SIMPLICITY.  Simplicity means exactly what you think - keeping your pictures simple!  You don't need to focus on everything, but maybe just ONE thing.

Here our basketball net is the focus

The sixth rule is: FRAMING.  Sometimes you can find a natural frame for the image you are taking a picture of.  An example would be a tree framing something.

We found a frame on our play structure!

The seventh rule is: PERSPECTIVE.  Perspective means the way that you look at things.  You may not always stand to take a picture, you might sit or lay down.  Or you might look through another object to see the shot that you want to capture.

Do you see what I see?  Rings!  But what's that peeking out the other end?

Here are some more fun shots we took while we were out exploring, getting familiar with the cameras and learning about the seven rules of photography:

Written by the Grade 4/5 Technology Students and Ms Blacker as shared writing