Photography Project Page 

Photography is an extensive project area.  There are many aspects of photography that you can focus on in your project.

Here you will find many project ideas and places to look for information or supplies.

Basic Photography  -How a camera works, basic developing, making your own camera and shoe box photography, parts, light, types of cameras, taking better pictures, etc.

Advanced Photography - Different lenses, accessories, types of film and film speed s, aperture and F-stop settings and how they affect your photography, light, etc.  Many of these can be used together for Junior and Senior speeches with another related topic.

Every camera has a few basic parts.  The body, which is the part of the camera that you hold, the shutter, the part that moves when you press the button to take the picture, the lens or hole, which is the place that light come through, and the film, which is the thing that records the image.

A camera, in the simplest form, is simply a box (body) with a hole (lens) that lets light though when you move the covering over the hole (shutter).  The light "draws" images on the film, which then becomes, as it's exposed to light, a negative.

After you have your negative, you can develop it.  Developing film from a 35 mm camera is a long and rather difficult process when you are just starting.  However, developing film from a shoe box camera is very simple.  All you need is developer (the chemical that reveals the picture), stopbath (the chemical that stops the developing process.  You can use water for this if you're just using these pictures for a demonstration or simply doing this for fun), and fixer (the chemical that makes the picture stay as it is on the film).  You also need a completely dark room with a water supply (a bathroom works great, especially if it has no windows or small ones that you can easily cover up with black paper or cloth to make the room as dark as possible).  Along with all this, you need a safe light (a red or orange filtered light).  A flashlight with a red filter or a lamp or light bulb with red or orange cellophane securely blocking all regular light is also an easy and relatively inexpensive thing.  You can buy a red or orange bulb specifically designed for use in darkrooms, but those can be expensive.  You will need to follow the instructions that came with the photographic paper and/or chemicals that you are using to develop the pictures.  Also, you can refer to the link for this section at the bottom of this page for further details and instructions.

To make a shoe box camera, you can either buy an educational kit with everything you need in it, make your own completely from scratch, or you can do a combination of both.  If you buy a kit, you can use all the directions in the box.  If you are making your own camera, you will need:  a shoe box (not too big, with a lit that fits well with little cracks, and with no holes in it), black paint and a paintbrush to put several coats on the box, a thumbtack to punch a small hole that will serve as your lens, a piece of cardboard or thick material that you can cut into a small piece to fit over your hole, a dark room and supplies for the darkroom (see Basic Developing), a small piece of photographic paper, a piece of window glass slightly bigger than your   and masking tape.  Paint the show box and make sure the lid fits tightly.  Then push the thumbtack through the bottom of the box in approximately the center.  Then tape the cardboard piece over the hole.  This will be your shutter.  Go in your darkroom and put the piece of photographic paper in the lid of the box in approximately the center.  Tape it at the corners, with as little tape as possible on the corners of the paper.  Then put the lid on the box and tape it shut securely enough that it won't open accidentally, but loosely enough that you'll be able to open it again.  To take the picture, go outside where there's plenty of light and take the shutter (cardboard) off for a few seconds.  The right number of seconds is only determined by trial and error.  IT IS IMPERATIVE TO HOLD YOUR CAMERA STILL WHILE THE SHUTTER IS OFF!!!  If you move it, then your picture will be blurry.  After you put the shutter back on, take your camera into the darkroom and develop your negative (the photographic paper) according to the directions on your paper, chemicals, or kit.  Then take your negative and place it upside down on another piece of photographic paper (shinny sides together, negative on top).  Put the window glass down straight onto the 2 pieces of photographic paper on a firm surface.  Turn on the regular lights for about the same amount of time that you used to take the picture while holding the glass firmly at the edges (this is easiest when you have 2 people in the darkroom.  You can also use something to anchor the glass).  DO NOT PUT YOUR FINGERS OVER THE GLASS!!!!!  When you do this, the light transfers the picture from the negative to the other piece of paper, the positive, or picture.  IF YOU HAVE YOUR FINGERS IN THE WAY, YOUR WHOLE PICTURE WILL NOT COME THROUGH!!!  Instead, you will have your fingers in your picture.  After you develop the picture in the same way that you developed your negative, you will have a picture that you took and developed yourself.

Lighting is very important to photography.  It's light that makes an imprint on the film to take a picture.  Therefore, no light, no picture.  No one photographer has ever escaped having at least one picture with bad lighting.  The use of flashes is a very important part of photography, as well as the ability to gauge light.  This is an ability that one has to acquire.  Professional photographers use light meters to check the levels of light to make sure that they're correct.

There are many types of cameras:  35 mm, 110 mm, Advantix, digital, and all sizes of all of these cameras, big, small, and anywhere in between.  The type of camera you use depends on you, and you can find information on almost any camera on almost any web site that sells those cameras.  This is a great subject to do any level project on, especially if you have many examples of these cameras.  Also, the history of cameras, if you have older cameras, is a great topic.

Taking better pictures is a GREAT TOPIC.  But lots of people use this topic every competition.  Basically the topic includes getting rid of blurry and out of focus pictures (using a tripod helps) and using the right film (see Types of Film and Film Speeds).  The Kodak site is a great resource for this topic.

There are three main types of lenses; micro, macro, and standard.  The main standard lens for most cameras is a 28-80 mm lens (or one with somewhat similar numbers)  that comes with the camera body.  The macro lenses are lenses used for long distances (e.g., telescopic or telephoto lenses) while the micro lenses are used for extremely short distances and close-up photography (e.g., lenses used to take close up pictures of flowers).

There are many accessories that you can but to use with your camera.  These include extra flashes, remote shutter releases, tripods, bags, extra lenses, filters, filter holders, adapter rings, among many other things.  You can learn more about these accessories at a camera store.  Most owners and employees are happy to work with 4-Hers, so if you want to do your demonstration on this, try going to one of these stores and getting brochures on the subject that you

There are several different film speeds that you can use.  This is a great project topic for a Cloverleaf speech, and it's best used in conjunction with another topic for a Junior or Senior speech (e.g., aperture and f-stop).  Film speeds range from 16 to 1000.  There are 4 basic film speeds; 100, 200, 400, and 800.   100 is an extremely fine grain and very high sharpness film used for high light (outside on a sunny day).  200 film is for moderate action and some existing light situations (indoors with normal indoor lighting).  400 film offers flexibility in a variety of lighting and action situations (you can use it anywhere and still take good pictures).  800 high speed and high image quality. It provides sharp prints under the widest range of picture taking conditions (you can take good pictures with this film in any place plus some).  There is also color slide film and black and white print film along with the color print film that most people use.

The aperture is the size of the opening in the lens when you take a picture.  A f-stop is the setting that determines how long the shutter stays open.  See links below for more information.