Some Notes

Photography Assignment #5

Nope, I didn’t screw up the title… I sort of haven’t done assignment #4 yet.  We’ll come back to it, I promise.  It was to do with learning about zoom features, which I already understood and just never made time to shoot.

Assignment #5 was WAY cooler anyway. :) Night time class field trip to Chinatown!

The goal was to practice learning which aperture and exposure to use in different lighting situations.  There were also some situations to play with our flash (which I avoid as much as possible!) and my favourite was playing with quick zoom shots (I’m sure there’s an actual name for this).

As I walked up the street to meet the class I saw a couple of signs that I knew I wanted to use as the subject for my first set of shots.  I wanted to capture the neon of the FanTan Cafe sign alongside the metal FanTan Alley street sign.  It was actually fun fiddling to get my tripod in the right position, my camera on the right angle, and then choosing the right settings.

Starting point:

Close-up no flash:

Close-up with flash:

I did take quite a number of shots but this final one ended up being my favourite because it captured both signs pretty much perfectly and I love how straight it is!

My next idea was a simple neon sign I saw in a window across the street. 

I played with the zoom as my camera captured the shot:

Neat right??  I shot these on F5.6 (Av mode…which gave a 1 sec. exposure).  When discussing them with my instructor he suggested trying a lower aperture like F22 or lower to give a REALLY long exposure…during which you turn your zoom REALLY slowly to get a super fun shot…like this:

In some regards it was too bad it was raining (I got wet and freezing cold pretty fast) but it actually worked for us as far as the lights and wet road and sidewalks went.

My favourite shot of the night:

So many different lights captured, almost perfectly straight (based on the light post on the left), sky and ground included…and the best part is that some of my classmates are actually in the shot! :)

I wish we had more fun lit up places like this in Victoria…I would totally go play around taking shots again.  It was fun!

Assignment Review

Well here I am, way behind on assignment recaps again!

Last we spoke about photography class we had just completed our snow day field trip to Beacon Hill Park.

I handed in the three photos I posted last time and got great feedback.

For the bridge shot my instructor only pointed out that he would have liked to have been able to read the whole sign at the back of the scene.  My reasoning for not featuring the whole sign was because if I had taken that big step to the right to get the correct angle I would have lost the composition of the tree and the bamboo that I was going for.  I also really liked my angle on the bridge.

Side note:  Charmaine was shooting about 2 feet away from me so I would have either stepped into her shot or stepped on her!! :)

For the tree shots, my handing in two versions of the same shot totally worked.  He liked my first shot focusing on the tree, but was quick to draw attention to that little building that looks like a hat in the background.  Again he wanted me to step to my right and hide that hat (but there was stuff over to the left that I didn’t want in the background…so either way there was something!).

But when my second shot with the focus changed to the greenery in the foreground came up, everyone liked it!  The background blur took the emphasis off the little building and softened the whole shot.  Exactly what I was hoping he would say. :)

So I guess maybe I am learning something! haha.

Night Class

Photography Assignment #3

For our fifth photography class…which was also our third assignment…our whole class took a Saturday morning field trip to Beacon Hill Park!  It actually posed an extra challenge for us since the whole park was still completely covered in snow!! 

White is really hard to shoot!

Charmaine and I wandered around a bit and tried to set up in a few places before we finally landed up at this bridge that we liked.  (I borrowed a proper tripod…which made life exponentially easier!!)

My goal was to frame my shot with the bamboo on one side and that white-bark tree on the other.  I shifted my tripod spot and tilt a couple of times until I liked the positioning…mainly I wanted the tree flowing out the top corner of my shot.  The bright day made aperture and exposure quite easy so I really spent most of my time fiddling with the manual focus and zoom.

As we were thinking about leaving I wandered over to the other side of the path and found this tree that actually had some colour so I decided to grab a few more shots.  I’m glad I did! 

I ended up setting it up and just taking a set of shots with increasing aperture…then adjusting the focus onto the plants in the foreground and doing a set of shots with decreasing aperture.  I think it totally worked!

I did do a tiny bit of a crop when I got home but aside from that I’m really happy with how these shots turned out.

And to think I thought I’d be struggling to get action shots of freezing ducks all day. :)

Assignment Review

I’m a little late catching up on photography class.  I actually forgot to put my submissions for Project #2 on my jump drive so didn’t hand them in until this week.

I opted to go with one shot of each bench.  Aside from pointing out that my horizon is a bit crooked (which I knew) and that it might have been nicer if the bench leg didn’t run out of the frame (which totally makes sense to me now that he’s pointed it out), my instructor liked this shot.  The exposure and focus are nice and clear…which is really the big thing right now.

I ended up using this black and white shot with the people walking through it because I love it.  I knew that he would have a few things to say about the composition, but it’s still a good shot and meets the requirements of the project. 

He agreed with me that this would be even better if the bench was anchored to the right frame of the shot…and he made the whole class laugh because he was saying how he would have preferred to see the people a bit more to the left to fill some of that void space.  We laughed because they were actually an accident…which he understood, but said he would have sat there waiting for someone else to walk through at the right time!

Hard to pull off when using the self-timer to take the shot.  Maybe he should buy all of us cable releases?!  :)

Anyway, at the end of the day I felt good about this project. yay!

Photography Assignment #2

What I’ve come to realize so far is that although I was looking forward to assignments I actually don’t like them.  Even though the topics are pretty vague and open to interpretation I find it restricting and stressful when trying to get the perfect shot.

I went into this class knowing I may very well come out not having any better skills than I went in with, and I know it’s early but so far I am mostly just confused.  Here’s hoping it gets better for me!

Our assignment #2:  Lines

Yup, that’s it.  Lines.  The rest of the information was the same as last time…get to know your camera, use a tripod, use the self-timer, shoot in any mode you are comfortable with.

I still opted to use manual focus because that requires a ton of practice, but rather than using manual mode I chose to stick with my usual favourite of Av mode (aperture).  He spoke a lot about light last class but I honestly didn’t get any of it…as such I think my shots are a bit too bright or overexposed, but such is life.

My first thought when I read “lines” was quite literal…benches…so I went with it.

Boring, but my subject is in focus.  Too centered though.  Although I do like the fence in the background (more lines) and my horizon is virtually straight.

Still boring but even though it’s just a bench I think it’s more interesting as a close up.  The composition is better too as it isn’t super centered and the focus is pretty clear.

Not sure that I want to hand either of those in tonight though.

I moved to a different bench not 50 feet away and liked the scene better…

…but I’m afraid shooting towards the sun created a bright yet washed out effect that my instructor won’t like.  I kind of dig the rainbow I wound up with but I’m sure that’s a no-no. But…the lines of the bench work, the top corner of the bench leads out of the frame in a good direction, the main subject isn’t smack in the center, and the bench is in focus.  So maybe this is right?

I’m actually seriously considering handing in the black and white version I took…

…mainly because the people walking by make it more interesting overall.  But…the placement of the bench in the shot isn’t awesome.

What’s a girl to do?!

Assignment Review

So two things came of the reviewing of our photos for Photography Assignment #1 last night.

1. He spent more time discussing composition, etc than he did exposure, focus or aperture.  I actually found it annoying because I was so proud that I had done everything fully manually and it wasn’t even mentioned.  Next time I’ll certainly stick with my strengths and spend more time looking for subject matter that I really like.
2. It turns out that my first photo was actually far better than my second photo.  I was so distracted by that stupid tree in the background that I felt like the shot was ruined, but it was a far better and more interesting shot…plus it wasn’t too bright like the second one.

On the overhead screen it was really obvious that shot #2 was too bright, there’s too much grass, the tops of the shrubs are cut off, and I’ve lost the most interesting feature…that cool wall and corner.

Goes to show I should always go with my gut instinct.  I have a good eye most of the time and I need to trust it.  I’m just so used to taking close-up food photos every day that I struggle with landscapes and portraits.  I suppose that’s exactly why I’m taking the class, no? :)

Photography Assignment #1

I know I haven’t talked much (at all!) about the photography class I started taking…  Mostly that is because we’ve only had two classes, my mind was reeling, and my notes are pretty bad. :)

Our first class was mostly about the course objectives, how an SLR camera works, some websites to check out, and other just general hoopla.

The second class we got into some of the explanations about shutter speeds, aperture, and exposure metering.  Our instructor had us switch off auto-focus and work manually. I felt really smart when I left that class…like it was a piece of cake. Yay! ha. And then I didn’t put any of the new information into practice for oh about 10 days and felt pretty lost when I went to shoot my project photos.

Our assignment (should we chose to accept it):

Winter Scene

1. Work in full manual mode or any one of the automatic or program modes (so on the Rebel that’s Av, Tv, or P), whatever is easiest for you.
2. Become familiar with the different functions on your camera.
3. Remember to use a tripod and a cable release (or self-timer).
4. Keep the images simple and try to have the subject anywhere in the frame except the middle of the image.

Another important thing he stresses is to take notes of your settings while you are shooting.  There are no set answers for which settings to use because every situation is going to be different.  So especially if you are working in full manual mode it is super helpful to make notes as you go.

And that’s exactly what I did!  I brought along my lame little tripod and my cute little notebook and set myself up with some bare trees and Winter mittens.  (There’s not much left around here as far as “Winter Scenes” go).  I don’t have a cable release yet so I was using the self-timer to ensure a nice, clean, wobble free shot.

(I should mention I was shooting with my 50mm lens, so no zoom function…) I started in Manual Mode, with manual focus, and 400ISO. Aperture was set to the biggest depth of field (F1.8 on this lens) and using the metering I matched that to 1/2500 shutter speed. To start I set white balance to “cloudy” but we haven’t learned about white balance yet.

I got a few blurry shots at first but with a few slight focusing adjustments I got this to hand in…

I switched to auto-white balance and fiddled with the aperture and shutter speed for a few shots, but didn’t love anything I got.  When I bumped the ISO to 1600 the shots were awful, but then I used the meter to match the aperture at F4.0 to 1/1250 shutter speed and wound up with my other favorite shot…

I changed the photo composition (subject layout) a bit because I didn’t like that random tree jutting up in the background of the first one.

So all in all I don’t LOVE these photos because they aren’t my usual subject matter and I find them boring.  But I think I covered all of the bases I was supposed to, I followed the rules, I proudly did everything manually, and my subject is in focus (the mittens)!

I hand these in to tonight’s class for discussion…scary!  If they don’t beat me up I’ll come back and let you know what is said. :)

Let it Begin

Shutters, and aperture, and meters…oh boy!

School Days