The Hill Tribes

Question 1 (50 Marks)

• Subject Matter 1: Portraits of the Hill tribes

Jason wants to spend some time taking half body portraits of the long neck ladies, I would recommand him to consider investing in a telephoto lens. Generally, the image quality of prime lenses are higher and the weight of the lenses are lighter than zoom lenses, which are very desirable for Jason to carry out to take human features.

For portrait photography, in my opinion, prime lens with focal length between 70-135mm are very suitable for taking human portraits. The focal length of the lens affects the image quality. Firstly, when Jason takes a photo for the long neck lady, the image will appear too much background if the maximum focal length is less than 70mm, and

As mentioned in the question, the workshops are poorly lit by fluorescent tubes, which means the lighting condition is low when the amount of light diminishes slowly during sunset, and some corners without a direct light from the fluorescent tubes might be even darker. After doing some reseach, I noticed the structure of some teakwood carving workshops are half open-air that allow some sunlight to come in, but some of them are enclosed without sunlight. Also, the workshops do not appear to be very spacious due to the place is full of wood, materials and art works. Jason will be focusing on the progress of a craftmen working on the artwork, so a lot of close-ups will be taken. In this case, Jason does not need a wide angle for this scenario and for better image quality, he can consider investing in a prime lens that support slow-light condition. As we know, the bigger the aperture, the faster the shutter speed. With the setting of a higher ISO, the image can be quite clear without using a

Lens H can be good choice for its adjustable focal length function, however, the variable aperture of f/3.5-5.6 does not really support low-light condition that well when we compare it to a lens with a much bigger fixed aperture of more than f/2.8. Afixed aperture refers to the lens is able to reach to the maximum aperture throughout the entire zoom range, such as f/2.8 or f/1.4. This function allows faster shutter speed, which can be perfect for low-light photography if the photographer does not use flashlight or a tripod. Jason, as a guest to the workshop, should not be creating disturbance, such as using flashlights, to the craftmen working in progress. Also, he might not bring a tripod because of the heavy weight. Furthermore, Lens E and F are prime lenses with big fixed aperture, which are very suitable for taking portraits.

As Jason will be focusing on not only the craftmen, he will be taking shots for the surrounding artworks as well. In this case, a 85mm lens might not be enough for this scenario. In my opinion, Lens E, a 50mm lens with fix aperture of f/1.8 will be perfect for him – It’s great for portrait, closer to human eye level perspective, light-weight (505 gram), able to maximize the image quality under low-light condition, and having a shallower depth of field function with big