Manual focus vs. Auto focus.

Manual focus has many advantages, unlike auto focus which is mainly for people who like to point and shoot their camera rather than take time in the work they are creating.


Advantage 1 of Manual Focus:
Macro work, (best done using a tripod, seeing as any movement of the camera can effect the final look of the image). The narrow depth of field needed in marco shots mean that you need to be incredibly precise with focusing and being just a smidgeon out or having your camera choose to focus on the wrong part of your subject can completely ruin a shot as marco images are often very beautiful, sharp and unique.


Advantage 2 of Manual Focus:
Portraits. When shooting with a person the focus is always on the eyes, and Auto focus can often not do this. To make a perfect portrait the viewers eyes must be drawn to a certain part of the image, and manual focus does this perfectly.


Advantage 3 of Manual Focus:
Glass. When shooting through glass Auto focus often finds it hard to look at the image behind and focuses on the smudges and reflections on it.


Advantage 4 of manual Focus:

Shooting in dimly lit environments can be difficult for some cameras and lenses when it comes to focusing. Often, when shooting in dim light the camera will become confused as to where to focus and jitter around alot, still not know what you need, this is where manual focusing comes in handy.

Pull / Split Focus Tutorial

example of Pull focus being used.

The techniques i will be using to create my  video:

• Pan from left to right/right to left - panning is the sweeping movement of a camera across a scene or the appearance of such movement in a video as created by EditDV's PZR filter.

• Close up shots - close-up tightly frames a person or an object.  Close-ups display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene. Moving in to a close-up or away from a close-up is a common type ofzooming.
• Wide angle shots taken from low points/high points - a wide angle lens is one that projects a substantially larger image circle than would be typical for a standard design lens of the same focal length; this enables either large tilt & shift movements with a view camera, or lenses with wide fields of view.
• Tilt shots from low to high/high to low
• Shots using manual focus with a object approaching the camera
• A pull focus shot

i will be making 3 shots as an example of each of these bullet points.

All About Camera Angles and Moving Shots : Uses of Tilt Shots: Camera Moves

examples of pan and tilt and the differences.

Creating a video.

the flip video camera.

Sony HDR-FX1 video camera.

These are the cameras i will be using to create a few different shots for a music video, so i will be researching them and their different properties.


Sony HDR-FX1 features - 
Switchable HDV/DV Format Recording
3.5" Wide Precision Hybrid SwivelScreen™ LCD Display
Manual Zoom and Manual Focus Ring
Shot Transition
Assignable Buttons
HDV Recording Format
Super SteadyShot Optical Stabilization System
there is a review of this camera online - http://www.dvuser.co.uk/content.php?CID=33
Flip camera features - 
Pocket sized for convenience.
Large 2-inch LCD screen to playback and delete videos.
Built in software that allows you to edit, email and upload.
Can capture up to 120 minutes using its 4GB internal memory.
Crystal HD creating a less stuttery image.

Andy Fallon

 Andy Fallon is a music photographer based in London, who mainly focuses on music and portrait photography. With over 15 years experience he has worked with over 100 different bands and artists as many magazines use him for their shoots.
many of his shoots are totally out of the ordinary, such as his shoot with the Liars, where he used giant bubbles to cover the band members. The majority of Andy's work is Location photography, he rarely does basic portraits such as the Beth Jeans shoot, however, this isn't so basic as her clothes and hair aren't very ordinary. 

 This Delphic shoot above was created using 5 police torches strapped to a piece of wood and the camera set to a long 30 second exposure. Andy said: "The idea was to create the feel of stress and electricity" 

Personally, this photo is my favourite from all of Andy's work. i love the colour and randomness and how the clothes work so well with the backdrop.

Tom Oxley is a music photographer that mainly does shoots for the magazine 'NME'. He varies everything he does and no shoots are similar. Some can be basic, based on fashion, out of the studio at a location, using props or even on tour at venues with some of the artists. He also does photo manipulation with some photographs. Tom uses a variety of different equipment, i cannot specify as the isn't much about tom Oxley on the internet, he seems to be very confidential about his work. i'd imagine that he has a variety of different cameras and lighting equipment for when he is either on location or in a studio. I would like to base some of my photos on Tom's prop work, but it may be to far fetched and hard to do.

One thing that is consistent through all of his work is colour, mainly on the shoots he does with women. he likes his photos to be bold and noticeable, much like any other photographer.

Examples of studio/fashion shoots:

Studio shoots with props:

personally, these shots are my favorite from them all. the colour and activity draws the eyes in.

Examples of location shoots:

Tom on tour with Artists:

This is the CD cover i created for my band 'The Lorens'. 
Firstly i went out and did a small shoot with no lighting, seeing as i only needed an outline, this wasn't necessary. i then edited it in Photoshop, adding text, making the people and bench into a silhouette and making into a square CD cover shape.