Technologies and Materials

 

Nikon D610 Camera

In order to truly capture fantastic photographs for my magazine editorial layout project, I first selected the camera that will best assist me. A technology that is central to my project is the Nikon D610 DSLR camera that I am borrowing from my school’s art department for an advanced commercial photography class that I am taking this semester. I have chosen to continue to use this camera for my magazine editorial layout project because it takes very clear and crisp photographs, as opposed to the other Canon cameras and older model cameras that I have available to me. The Nikon D610 also allows for excellent framing of shots as the guidelines within the camera are the best and easy to use along with the zoom of the lens.

Features

This camera, like most DSLR cameras, allows for the user to utilize Manual mode, which allows for the user to change and control every feature of the way the camera takes photos. One of these features of the camera that I have to master is the ISO. The ISO refers to the camera’s sensitivity to light, and a higher ISO level means a higher sensitivity to light. I plan to master this prior to my project by learning what the levels of ISO will do to a picture. By raising the ISO, the exposure of an image raises, as does the grain level of a photo. I will mostly be shooting inside in a studio which means I will normally be keeping the ISO fairly low at around 200.

Another feature of the camera that I must master is the aperture, which is also known as the f-stop of the camera. The aperture refers to the depth of field and level of focus of the resulting photo. A higher numbered f-stop, small aperture, means that there is a large depth of field and almost everything in the photo will be in focus. A large aperture will blur the background. I will master this feature by changing the aperture to change the level of focus I want within my images. Since I will be shooting in a studio, I will learn how to utilize larger apertures to add dramatic focus to my images.

Another feature of the camera is the white balance. The white balance is a feature of the camera that assists with the coloration of the final image. You can change it from auto to a specific setting that allows you to photograph in different lighting. I will master this feature by using the white balance setting for fluorescent lights, which is the type of lights we have within the studio. By doing this, we allow the camera to prepare for more yellow-tinted lighting and counteract it in the images.

Social

The camera is social in some ways, one of the ways that the Nikon D610 DSLR camera is social is that it allows us to easily and quickly capture images of people that we love with people we love. This camera can be used to retain photos of moments and experiences that we have with people that we care about. The photos we capture from the camera can also help connect us with others, which is another way in which it can be social. The camera allows us to share images with one another, showing people photos that we have taken and starting conversations between people about the pictures. The camera is social because it changes a way in which we communicate by providing us with pictures to communicate with. People are able to send and share photos that they have taken to communicate in a new way then just with words.

Cultural Values

The Nikon D610 DSLR camera reflects a cultural value of loving to capture the world around us. It shows that people love to take images and have pictures of their experiences and memories so that they can always remember that time. We love to have something that we can look at that allows us to look back on other moments in time. The camera shows our value of taking pictures of our lives. The camera also shows a cultural value of being able to capture those photos and moments at anytime, anywhere. The camera is mobile and can be brought anywhere the user wants to take it in order to capture what is important to them. It shows the cultural value of wanting to take pictures anywhere we want at any time. It also shows the cultural value of creativity and art. Photography is an art form and many people take it beyond just capturing memories, but creating beautiful images and creations. The camera shows a value of having control over the camera’s settings to really make photos one’s own, allowing one to express themselves however they might want to.

Affordances

There are many things that the Nikon D610 camera allows and affords the user to do. One of the camera’s most obvious affordances is that you are able to take pictures. The camera will allow me to capture photos for my project. Another affordance is that the camera is mobile and portable. As I said previously, the camera is not attached or bound to anything, which means I can take it anywhere, such as the studio or anywhere else I might need, and take pictures for my project. Another affordance of the camera is the way it allows me to have the option to have complete control over the ways in which the photos look. All the features within the camera will allow me to change the lighting, the color, the focus, and so much more of the photos as I take them throughout my project process.

Constraints

There are also some things that will be difficult with the camera. One of the constraints of the Nikon D610 is that there is a battery charge to the camera. The camera can only take photos for as long as the battery lasts, which means I will need to charge the battery as much as I can before each time I need to use it. Another constraint is that the images are in the SD card when I take them, and in order to work with them I need them to be on my laptop or hard drive. This is easily done, but the camera only allows me assistance with so much of the process. Another constraint is that, even though I have been using this camera for a little bit now, it is still fairly new to me, even though working with DSLR cameras is not. It is continuing to take me some time to get used to it, but it has not stopped me from capturing amazing photographs. The final constraint is that the camera is delicate and fancy. It is a nice DSLR camera that belongs to the university, and I am responsible for it for the semester. I have to be careful when using it to a certain extent to ensure the nice camera does not take any damage as I use it.