Exercise: Bad Photo

To demonstrate you have full control of your digital camera, you are asked to take 5 technically bad photographs that cannot be taken with automatic features AND you have to make them interesting or aesthetically compelling. (You may need to reference your camera manual. If you cannot do one, explain why)

Obviously overexposed or underexposed photograph
Two images with motion blur. One with main subject blurred (so most likely things moving fast) and the other with background blurred (panning the camera following the subject moving?)
A photograph with nothing in focus
A photograph with only a very small area in focus.
Flash photo #1 (use of flash will be covered soon!) -- with foreground lit with flash and exposed well but background still dark
Bonus (because this is usually considered a good photo) Flash photo #2: same scene as flash photo #1 but with background well-exposed as well

Submit to to google drive using template [here]

Technical Hints: doing this with a modern digital camera

Modern cameras work hard to "fix" these mistakes for you, so most of this exercise is about finding the settings that turn the automation off. Look for these in your camera's menus (names vary by brand).

General setup for all of these

Shoot in M (manual) (or S/Tv (shutter priority) and A/Av (aperture priority) when only one setting matters.)
Turn Auto ISO off and set ISO yourself. Otherwise the camera will quietly raise or lower ISO and undo your "mistake."
Shoot RAW + JPEG. Do not rescue the image later in editing; the point is to get it in camera.

1. Over / underexposed

In M mode, ignore the meter and set it 2 to 4 stops off. In A or S mode, you can use exposure compensation (the +/- dial), often limited to ±3 or ±5 stops.

2. Motion blur

Pick a slow shutter speed: roughly 1/15 to 1/2 sec for a moving subject, longer for water or crowds. (Use tripod or stabilize the camera against something)
Subject blurred: put the camera on a tripod (or a wall, or a table) and let the subject move through the frame.
Background blurred (panning): try around 1/30 to 1/8 sec, follow the subject smoothly, and keep moving after you press the shutter.
If your lens or body has stabilization, look for a panning mode (IS Mode 2). Otherwise stabilization may fight your pan.
In bright daylight a slow shutter overexposes. Lower ISO, close the aperture

3. Nothing in focus

Switch the lens or camera to MF (manual focus). Autofocus will always find something.
Turn the focus ring all the way to its closest distance and photograph something far away (or focus at infinity and shoot something very close).
Open the aperture wide (lowest f-number) so the blur is strong. Use shapes, colors, and points of light (bokeh) as the subject matter

4. Very small area in focus

Use widest aperture your lens has (f/1.8, f/2.8, or whatever the lowest number is).
Get close to the subject and keep the background far away. A longer focal length (zoom in) makes the effect stronger.

to understand the effect of distance/aperture/focal length review the depth of field calculator

Use manual focus. (If that is not possible, use single-point AF (auto focus) -- not wide area area auto focus and place the point exactly where you want sharpness)

5. Flash #1: foreground lit, background dark

See flash slides

6. Bonus, Flash #2: background exposed too

See flash slides

I suggest using a digital camera. If you must use a phone camera,the built-in camera app will fight you on almost all of these. Use a Pro / Manual mode (or an app like Halide, ProCam, or Lightroom Mobile. I have not tested these apps) that lets you set shutter speed, ISO, and manual focus. Turn off Night mode, Live Photo, and auto HDR.