Physical Camera

This lesson gives a sample lesson plan for involving the Physical Camera module into a lecture.

The Physical Camera is a digital representation of a real-world camera and all the terminology and rules of photography apply here as well
You may start with discussing the basic settings of a camera
- Aperture – how it’s measured and how going from one F-stop/F-number to the next affects the exposure
- Shutter speed – different cameras use different ways to determine the speed of the shutter
  - Still cameras specify the shutter speed in seconds or fractions of a second
  - Cinematic cameras have a circular rotating shutter and the time the shutter is open is defined in degrees
  - In CG, we can also determine the shutter speed in frames
- ISO – the sensor sensitivity directly affects the exposure. Higher values are need in dark conditions. Real-world sensors have an issue where using higher values for the ISO introduces noise into the image. This however is not the case in CG.
- EV – exposure value allows us to keep a constant exposure while adjusting Aperture and Shutter Speed settings
- Focal length affects the angle of view and is important when setting up the shot
- White balance allows us to color correct the image to account for the color of the illumination
Then you can move to the settings of the Physical Camera and relate its settings to each of the properties of real world cameras described previously

In this cycle, you can use the provided scene and handout to demonstrate the settings of the Physical Camera

In this cycle, you are going to let your students experiment with the provided scene. You may want to give them the provided handout to use as a guideline