I mentioned I was finally getting to grips with the photography course. Please remember I am an absolute beginner, although I hope by June that I will be able to take good enough photographs for my book, and my blog. I realise these photography posts are not for everyone!!
The homework task is in Italics.
Depth of field
Pick subjects which are appropriate to a shallow or deep depth of field and take a picture to indicate this. Use Av or A mode.
I chose the table laid for dinner with three glasses in a row. You can see in A that I have focused on the furthest away glass, and with a large depth of field (f stop) I have got blurring at the front. You can see out of the window at the end. With B I have focused on the first glass and the third glass, even the second is blurred, and the window shows very little.
Freeze and melt
Shoot images which exploit different shutter speeds using Tv or S mode.
I more or less understand the theory here. But I don’t think my photographs show the effect very well. I probably need a proper waterfall (to freeze) or a moving creature (to melt) to get a better effect.
Mug shots
Take the subject straight on, from above and from below.
I really enjoyed this relatively simple experiment. I used my depth of field knowledge (notice the backgrounds are out of focus), to take reasonable “mug” shots of my very handsome “son in law” (strictly the partner of my step daughter Charlotte) Lee.
White balance
Take shots indoors and outside; shoot the model using daylight, tungsten (incandescent) and fluorescent settings.
Nick’s camera only has automatic, incandescent, daylight and flash. I won’t share the photographs, but I found that when taken inside the white balance can affect the heat of the photograph, making one bluish and the other yellowish.
Photo journalism project
Half term project – ten photographs to tell a story (these were the dawn and dusk landscapes that didn’t really come out, that I shared last time. I tried again with Nick’s camera and got a completely different effect than with Gus’s camera. Incomparable. I have decided what to do for my project and will share the outcome next time.
I want to thank Monica Wright for suggesting Understanding Exposure. I bought it and am finding it very helpful.
Gail
For freeze and melt, if it doesn’t need to be water you could demonstrate the effect with moving cars – stopping the motion with a fast shutter speed and blurring the car with a slow speed. Understanding Exposure is the BEST photography book.
Mary Funt
Ever since you mentioned your photography course, I’ve been hoping for a post of your work. For me, writing a blog meant learning how to take the necesssary photos to go along with the text. You’re right that a cell phone does a fairly good job but doesn’t compare with what can be done with a DSLR. I have a couple of Craftsy courses for photography but will check out the book you mentioned. I think your sample photos demonstrate the techniques you are showing very well. Thanks for this post and I hope you will show more of your photo work.
chiara
It’s nice to see people’s WIP of all kind 🙂
I am finding Instagram very useful at improving my photography (which is by no means great but getting better I feel). There are some accounts like dear_photographer, p52clicks, cameramama which give out a lot of tips on how to achieve ‘goodness’ with composition, light etc. I am finding them very useful, you might do too.
Thanks for the lovely blog!
Sydney Brown
More photos with Lee in them, please.
Kim
Next you’ve ignited an interest in the technical aspects of photography. Just as well I’m retired with nothing to do!