Sarah's Digital Media

The following are steps for adjusting the white balance on a camcorder or digital film camcorder according to the book. Locate the white balance settings on your camera and select the manual or custom WB option.   Have the subject or an assistant aim a white card or a sheet of paper at the camera.  The card should reflect the same light source hitting the subject. Zoom in on the card to fill 80-100% of the frame with white.  Be sure your exposure and focus settings are properly set.  Press and hold the Set button until the camera confirms that white balance has been acquired.  The following are steps for adjusting the manual white balance on a DSLR (Canon T6).   Click the Quick Settings button then select AWB.  Then you have the options to either set it to auto or Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten light, White fluorescent light, or custom.  Choose custom.  In order for this to be set, the Canon T6 requires a reference photo whi...

1.  Why should you avoid using autofocus when doing videography? Autofocus should be avoiding in videography because the camera will make mistakes such as focusing on the background instead of the subject.  If you film an entire video using autofocus and it automatically focused on the wrong thing, then you would have to refilm your video with the right focus.   2.  When is using the autofocus acceptable? Autofocus can be useful when filming a video with minimal movement and when the distance between the subject and the camera remains the same.   3.  What are the 4 steps to properly set your focus manually when shooting a static subject (such as an interview)? First, set the camera to manual focus.  Then zoom in on the static subject's face.  Adjust the focus so that their eyes are in focus.  Finally, zoom out to the desired frame. 4.  What does the term "rack focus" mean? The term "rack focus" refers to changing the focus...

1.  What is meant by White Balancing a camera? Because light appears as different colors, White Balancing a camera is essential to make your photos the correct color.  White Balancing a camera makes it add the opposite color to the image to make the color temperature neutral.  When the White Balance is off, whites appear to be blue or orange.   2. What is considered the "golden hour"? Golden hour refers to the time just after sunrise or just before sunset.  It isn't actually 60 minutes, as the length depends on where you are, what time of year it is, and the weather conditions.  The light at these times appears magical.  Why is this?  Well, the light at this time is in the yellow range of the light spectrum.  It also has to travel through more atmosphere than when the sun is at different points in the sky, so the light is softened and reduced.   3.  What is the color temperature of daylight, and what is its general hue? D...

The term Exposure Triangle contains the three main components that determine the exposure of a photograph: shutter speed, ISO, and aperture.  These three aspects directly affect one another and the Exposure Value (which is the sum of the three aspects' numerical values). Shutter Speed Shutter Speed is essentially just that - the speed of the shutter.  This is perhaps the most simple aspect of the exposure triangle.  The camera shutter is a curtain in front of the camera sensor that only opens when the camera takes a picture.  It opens to allow the sensor to collect light for the image and then it closes to stop light from hitting the sensor.  Long shutter speed is ideal for night photography or when creating a sense of motion like in a waterfall, however, this can also result in blurry images.  Fast shutter speeds are ideal for freezing action.  This affects exposure quite directly as the longer the shutter remains open, the more light is allowed i...

Aspect ratio displays the proportions of the width to the height of the screen in the form of x:y.  The width is represented by x and height by y. Aspect Ratios: 10" tablet: 4:3 Smartphone: 667:375 Leaderboard Ad: 364:45 HDTV : 16:9  Interlaced and Progressive scanning are the two main ways that devices scan images.  Computer monitors and some televisions use progressive scanning, which means that they scan from left to right and top to bottom.  Interlaced scanning refers to the method used by most televisions.  This system scans all of the odd lines first, and then it scans all of the even lines.  Interlaced scanning makes it easier on the viewer's eyes because they are actually only seeing half of the image at once, even though it happens so rapidly that they do not realize it.  It also reduces bandwidth use and flickering.  

Although the terms graphic and image are often used interchangeably, they actually refer to two different things.  Graphic refers to any type of visual presentation that is displayed on a physical surface.  This includes symbols, numbers, drawings, typography, and web buttons.  However, image refers to a two- or three- dimensional representation of a person, object, animal, or scene.  Because they can be still or moving, images range from photographs and charts to broadcast television and digital video.  One main difference between the two is that graphics remain still and images can be moving. Raster images and Vector graphics are the two main methods for displaying graphics.  Raster images are composed of pixels (little tiny squares of color), while Vector graphics are defined using paths (geometrics areas defined by curves and lines).  They have many differences including editing software (raster uses apps such as Adobe Photoshop and vector uses t...

Two important aspects of designing are kerning and leading.  To kern is to adjust the gap between letters (or other characters) in text.  Leading is the distance between the two baselines of rows of text; essentially it is just line spacing.  These are both essential because without them, text is extremely difficult to read. Here are two examples of terrible kerning:

The new bakery in town, "Main Street Sweets," has commissioned me to design its online presence.  Its mission is to be a homey and comfortable spot for teenagers or adults to hang out at or bring homework or work to.  They also have an event room to host birthday parties, small groups, study groups or other events of that type.  The main purpose of their website is simply to display their goods and the atmosphere of the place. Along with the above homepage, I also created menu, events, and about pages. The menu is essential because it displays to potential customers their food options at Main Street Sweets and also assists with online orders. Because Main Street Sweets contains a private events room, they have a webpage to display what it looks like and give people an idea of what their event could look like.  The text on this page describes the space, what type of events are held there, and also convinces the reader to hold their next event there. ...