Why I Need Another Photography Class

While I was extremely pleased with the photos I took during my November 2013 course I am far from thrilled with is my note taking.  I was trying to practice the type of shots the instructor was guiding us through and take notes at the same time. As I switched over to my new phone this summer I copied all important notes and my scribbles to myself from that day read as follows:

Photo. Program mode. Focusing. Half way down focus nearest subject
Force camera to change mind aim to background to focus, hold to get distaste,  focus is a distance, reframe and take. … More control over telling autofocus where you want to be .. works in ash or single shot focus
Have auto focus on
Vr image stabilize (no idea?)

The Golden hour – first and last hour all colors fall under what camera can do – shadow is twice your body length 

Aperture shutter speed, ISO 

ISO is the sensitivity to light
– 100 or 200 bright light
– 400 shadow
– 800 dark
– 1600 darkest possible
– The higher up in number the more noise and pixelation

Single focus point  (another very insightful note… not) 

95% of the time if your camera will not take a picture it is because autofocus can not figure out what you’re trying to make a picture of 

Info button > af-area > af-s  (back when I had a Nikon) 

Take three photos of everything. Vary perspective. Up and down. Frame the shot
Exposure -5 to 5.  Try something with lights and shadows on -2. 0, and +.  There will be a huge difference! 

ISO Settings
– Shutter speed. Blur and static. Frozen subjects. Panning
– Frozen motion. Motion panning. Panning  1/4000 freeze wings of hummingbird.  1/500 freeze all human motion
– Panning – 1/15 to 1/60 depending
– The more you slow down your shutter the more blur
– Bright lights, warm colors
– Think about how is my viewer going to see my photo?

Aperture is the opening. It affects the depth of field and the shallow of depth of field. It is affected by three things.
   1) Distance
   2) Aperture number – lower number, smaller depth of field 3.8 low . Zoom 35-50 – closer you are, the more blurry background – minimum focus distance – 1.48 feet – sensor
   3) Zoom, focal length

Granted, some of these are obvious – to really use your DSLR, take it off auto. Duh.  Others I think I need another photography course, or six. And just for the heck of it I flipped through a handful of old photos and found the one above of the Palazzo Vecchio I took while in FLorence a few summers ago. 

I have purchased a Groupon for another photography classes and are looking at dates in the New Year to schedule it but in the meantime I really love the photography series on my Style Icon Grace‘s blog where her boyfriend, Andrew, shares his tips!