So far This Quarter . . .
Looking back on this quarter it is fun to see the progression in the quality of the pictures that have been produced. I came into this class with a general understanding about how shutter speed worked, and a firm understanding of photoshop and that was about it. Learning how the three main adjustments on the camera, shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, function and interact with each other has drastically increased the quality of my photos. I can still remember struggling to balance the light meter at the beginning of this quarter, and what a chore it was. Now it’s second nature to change everything and it happens in little to no time. I think I would attribute the largest amount of my experience to one night when I decided to take pictures of the stars. It was one of the hardest things, not just to get the picture, but to find a good place as well. But I learned a lot and I would definitely do it again.
Taking pictures of color harmonies was an interesting experience, I have done many designs that utilize color theory, but up until this project I had not done any pictures with that as the focus. I will say that I prefer taking pictures out in nature opposed to the almost mathematical procedure of taking a still life. And mostly setting up a location that looked nice without being completely boring took a long while. The element of light also became a chore as I then had to find a way to light the scene that didn’t cast shadows the wrong way or made it look tacky.
I have learned a lot about lighting throughout this quarter, mainly how to deal with low lighting while not touching the ISO. I did not need to utilise external lighting equipment that much, I do my best to bring my subjects outside, where there is usually enough light to make a good exposure. And when I’m inside my biggest issue is finding a location that isn’t overly messy, as I have a nice window that catches a lot of sunlight. I did try out something interesting on the still life of the dragon and the book, I used candle light and a longer exposure to see what kind of highlights I could get on the dragon. I must say I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I got warm highlights on the metallic surface of the dragon while maintaining a fairly neutral overall white balance. I did have to laugh when we covered diffuse lighting, because I have taped a piece of paper over the light in my ceiling several times, to cut down on the harshness of the light being cast, without completely taking it out. And I couldn’t get the image of my brother out of my mind, he was looking at me like I was losing my mind. Or maybe that I had already lost it.
