Seniors Name Senior Project Title

Abstract for Senior Project

Jon Provencher Strobism: Off-Camera Lighting Photography

My senior project is to learn off-camera lighting photography techniquesspecifically using natural-light modifiers (reflector) and an external flash unit. Lighting is a crucial part of photography (after all, photography means writing with light), and learning how to change and add light is a way to improve the quality and dynamics of an image. As I study and attempt the techniques, I will apply them to taking photos for a school team. This project is valuable to me because it expands upon my knowledge and understanding of photography, something I love doing. While it does not fit into my primary plans after high school, it will improve my proficientness in my hobby and may lead to more opportunities if I ever decide to extend my hobby beyond remaining an amateur. Abstract for STEM Content in your Senior Project Composition in photos is complemented by exposure of the photo (how much light is recorded), which is the technical aspect of photography. Controlling light has to deal with aperture, shutter speed, and ISO sensitivity. When an additional light source is added, such as a flash unit, the technical aspect expands to how to properly utilize the equipment, which involves knowing how to sync the flash to shutter how much power to use/light to add, etc. Deliverables Preliminary resources (Equipment acquired, project blog started, school teams contacted) Practice photos taken School Team photos taken Delivery Date 19 Dec 2013 Comments

17 Feb 2014 31 Mar 2014

Mentor Name Mentor Profession Mentor Email

Tony Gondola Challenger Center Educator-Museum of Flight, former professional photographer TGondola@museumofflight.org Approval Date

Mentor Signature Student Signature Advisor Signature

Part One: Introduction to You, Your Post-High School Plans, and Your Senior Project A: Who are you? I am Jon Provencher, a member of the Class of 2014 at Raisbeck Aviation High School. All my life, my passion has been in aviation. Living in an aerospace-driven community and constantly seeing airplanes fly overhead have fostered my interest in aviation and inspire me to be a professional commercial pilot. After high school, I currently plan to attend Central Washington University and earn a four-year B.S. degree in the Professional pilot program, which will get me the ratings and certifications needed to be a commercial pilot. I am uncertain what the path after college will be, as I can either enter the airline workforce or fly for corporate entities in the business aviation sector. Aside from my career goal of being a pilot, my personal interests include photography. Taking photos has been a hobby I have been developing in ever since middle school. It allows me to take a break from the intensive field of aviation, acting as an artistic outlet. Photography is a fun yet challenging form of visual art, since it requires both creativity (composition) and technical ability (exposure). Learning this hobby is a never-ending process because photography is a very diverse field and technology/equipment advancements always expand the horizons of what a photographer can do. My senior project will explore this. B: What is your project and how is it value to you? My senior project is to learn off-camera lighting photography techniquesspecifically using natural-light modifiers (reflector) and an external flash unit. Lighting is a crucial part of photography (after all, photography means writing with light), and learning how to change and add light is a way to improve the quality and dynamics of an image. As I study and attempt the techniques, I will apply them to taking photos for a school team. This project is valuable to me because it expands upon my knowledge and understanding of photography, something I love doing. While it does not fit into my primary plans after high school, it will improve my proficientness in my hobby and may lead to more opportunities if I ever decide to extend my hobby beyond remaining an amateur. Part Two: Project Description and Criteria for Judging Success A: What is the project goal? The overall goal of my project is to grow my understanding of how light works in photography. This is an essential element of taking photos for any photographer, because the quality of light and how its used can either accentuate the photos content or destroy its appeal. I wish to learn this because I already understand how to take photos using just a camera, and I feel that figuring out how to manipulate light is the next step I should take to improve in my hobby. In addition, having this experience can create additional job options if I wish to pursue photography in the future. B: What exactly IS the project? I will learn photography lighting techniques, including modifying available natural light (using reflectors), and adding light with flash. Learning how to use a flash unit will involve understanding how different features work (synchronization with the camera, TTL compensation, the different powers/intensities) and how light works (inverse square law). I will use my knowledge and equipment to create multiple products in the form of photo images, demonstrating how lighting greatly affects the dynamics of portraiture.

I will primarily use online resources for my research. Specifically, I plan to use the Strobist blog and its Lighting 101 course, which was created by professional photographer David Hobby and is renowned as the go-to online resource for learning how to use flash. Learning from this website will provide me with the basic ideas of what techniques there are and how to apply them. To practice the techniques I learn, I will create a photographic portfolio for one of RAHSs school teams (such as Science Olympiad or Speech and Debate). Making this product will provide will provide a realworld environment to practice in as well as give the teams records of their activities for sharing and publicity. As I work, I will document what I learn through my own online blog. By keeping a blog, I can both share my what I learn in the Strobist course and also reflect on my progress (how I feel about the techniques, any troubles I faced, etc.). C: In what was is this project multi-disciplinary? This project is multi-disciplinary in that it features both artistic and technical components. On the creative side of photography, there is composition. The point of composition is to showcase the subject of the photo in a way that is appealing to the viewers eye, and composition changes the photo through framing, perspective, and focal point. Composition is complemented by exposure of the photo (how much light is recorded), which is part of the technical side of photography. Controlling light has to deal with aperture, shutter speed, and ISO sensitivity. When an additional light source is added, such as a flash unit, the technical aspect expands to how to properly utilize the equipment, which involves knowing how to sync the flash to shutter how much power to use/light to add, etc. D: In what ways is this project connected to the community? This project is connected to the community in the sense that I will be taking photos for a school team. While RAHSs flagship team, Skunkworks Robotics, has a marketing team and maintains strong publicity, other school organizations like Speech and Debate and Science Olympiad are left in the shadow. By taking photos for one of the smaller teams, I will provide images that can be shared with the school to show what they do and how they do it. Even if my photos do not get used for marketing purposes, they can be shared among team members to save memories. E: On what criteria will this project be judged? My project will be judged upon whether I can show that I learned off-camera lighting techniques and applied them to creating a professional photo portfolio for a school organization. Part 3: Project Rationale A: In what ways is this project a learning challenge for you? This project will require me to learn how to use different equipment to manipulate light in photos. This is the next step to take in my photography, because I know how to use a camera to capture an image using just available light. Adding more equipment increases the complexity of a shot, requiring more planning and thinking of how the final image should look. This project shows that I can learn on my outside of a class because RAHS does not offer any course related to photography, which means that I

will have to use other resources to research and practice the techniques I want to use. B: In what ways does this project show your ability to think? Photography with off-camera lighting involves planning and thinking on how to create each shot. To light each shot and make a decent image, I will need to think about how to set up the equipment properly. This includes placement and what settings to input (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, flash sync, flash power based on subject distance and ambient lighting). When an image does not turn out, I will need to determine what the issue is and retry using different set-up. The technical side to the project compliments the creative aspect, since manipulating light will be what creates different effects in photos. C: In what ways does this project show your problem-solving ability? In order to be successful in this project, I will need to continuously try new things to achieve quality photos. If I dont get the results Im looking for, Ill need to analyze the effects of my previous set-up figure out how to improve it through trial-and-error. Part 4: Project Plan A: What is your work plan and/or timeline? My plan is to acquire the equipment and resources that I will utilize in December and begin my research over winter break. Over the course of the following couple of months, I will get as much practice shooting photos as possible. Then, in Spring, I will take my final photos for a school team. B: What resources will you need for this project? For this project, I will have two different kits. My normal photography kit is comprised of my camera (Pentax K-x), three lenses (18-55mm, 28-200mm, and 55mm Prime), accompanying accessories (batteries, SD cards, cleaning tools), and Adobe Lightroom 5 to post-process the digital files. The second kit, which I will need to acquire, is what I will need for off-camera lighting. My research through online forums as well as the Strobist blog has pointed me in the direction of the following items: a flash unit (Yongnuo YN560 speedlight), a trigger to sync the flash to the camera shutter, a light stand and umbrella for a basic studio setup, and a 5-in-1 32inch reflector. I am hoping to limit my expenses on the second kit by buying used equipment online. For expert assistance, I can turn to my mentor, Tony Gondola, who was a professional photographer and now works for the Museum of Flight as a program director. Also available are the countless forums and discussion groups online, which can connect me many other individuals who are experienced in this field. C: What form will your project documentation take? I will document my project on an online blog. Through this blog I can post photos as physical evidence of what I learn in the Strobist course and also provide personal feedback on how I feel about the techniques, what Ill do differently, etc.