"Taking a photo" or "Making a photo"

What is the difference? Taking a photo or photos isn't pre-planned. It is usually spur of the moment. You see something or someone and you point the camera and take the photo. I would say most people "take" photos. There is little thought given to it. They can still be good photos but they have little control over the elements of the photo. The lighting could be bad or they don't have enough time to compose the image they want. To "make" a photo a photographer has to think ahead of time about how they want to image to look. They consider the subject, the lighting, the location, etc.. I would say 99% of photos are taken. Not that it is a bad thing. Some of the best photos can be spontaneous. Photo journalists have to depend on capturing "the moment" and they get paid handsomely for it. It does take a knack though to create good "spontaneous" photos. The people that "make" photos can spend hours, days or even weeks preparing for a shoot. For me it can be very difficut to "make" a good photo. I remember once having to do an assignment and nothing came to mind. Fortunately a friend came up with a suggestion and it turned out well.

Applied Photographic Science

Here is some of what I was supposed to learn in my Applied Photographic Science class at Brooks Institute.


Exam 1

Convert inches to centimeters to millimeters and vice versa.

Understand the concept of “model” in science.

Explain and recognize examples of direct and inverse proportions.

Explain the difference between longitudinal and transverse waves.

Explain constructive and destructive interference.

Know the names of the regions of the electromagnetic spectrum in the proper order and relate the energy to the position in the spectrum.

Explain beating, resonance, and interference and use the vocabulary of waves and vibrations properly.

Know the order of the colors of the visible spectrum and relate this to their frequency, wavelength, and energy.

Explain infrared film and predict the color shifts. Contrast the performance of film with that of sensors.

Understand the concept of “photon” and explain color, energy, frequency, and brightness in terms of photons.

Understand the cause of fluorescence and phosphorescence.

Recognize the spectral distribution of low pressure gases, high pressure gases, and solids.

Recognize how temperature and filtration affect the distribution of energy of a source. Interpret graphs of spectral distribution.

Use the concept of “energy level” to explain how atoms produce spectra. Be able to predict the spectra from the energy level diagram.

Relate “object color”, “perceived color”, and “illumination source”.

Contrast sound waves and light waves.

Predict the color shift of film with different sources.

Apply the inverse-square law to the calculation of illumination levels. Use the terms candle, foot-candle, lumen, lux.

Explain the fundamental principles of holograms.

Understand the concept of stimulated emission.

Explain the concepts “color temperature” and “black body”.

Explain the behavior of safelights as a photoelectric phenomenon.

Know the speed of light and relate the variables “speed”, “frequency”, and “wavelength” to each other.

Vocabulary: velocity, frequency, wave length, continuous spectrum, line spectrum, emission spectrum, absorption spectrum, interference, diffraction, hologram, Kelvin temperature, direct proportion, inverse proportion, quantum, inverse square, stimulated emission, photoelectric, phase angle, amplitude, resonance, beats, opaque, coherent light, color shift, intensity, illumination, foot-candle, candle, temperature, color temperature, black body, spectrum, spectra, constructive, destructive, radiation, graph slope

I got a B- in the class.