Learning Summary Wrap up. So podcast it is.

I chose learning my camera/photography for my learning project.  There was so much to learn about the camera settings and a ton of things to learn about lighting. I was surprised how much information there was and all the options for equipment.  These things are good to know if you want to learn how to take great photos. I do like photography but I can’t say I would pick this subject again for my learning project. It was a lot of technical information to learn and everything works together to take good photos.  Without learning about lighting and what equipment you sometimes need; you can’t make decisions about what would be best for different shoots without practicing and educating yourself on it.

I originally chose this learning project, because I was so unhappy with photos that I took when my niece was graduating. We were in Crescent Park in Moose Jaw when we started and ended up out at Buffalo Pound lake after that.  In the park it was really bright and I could have used a block for the sun I have now learned.  It was great daylight except for where we were taking pictures at the time, it was directly on us.  We were doing the photos at the end of June and there was a lot of forest fires going on at that time. We took a short break to eat and then the sun was clouded over from the smoke.  The pictures came out hazy and the lighting was terrible.  You can see in the pictures how smoky it was so not the best.

Once I got going I realized how many things that I needed to spend time on in order to have successful shoots.  I guess it was more than I bargained for. I would choose something different because it wasn’t that fun just researching techniques, equipment and lighting that is important to know.  I did take pictures on my trip with my husband during the winter break, and around my home at the lake. I found without understanding why two identical shots turn out differently or why the light or colors are off, leaves me still confused and needing to learn what I’m doing wrong.  Taking photos all the time is key to getting better for sure but I really felt I needed to lay the ground work.

I will continue to practice taking photos but I would choose something different for my learning project if I had another opportunity.

Week 9 finds me reading and learning about composition.  I’m still surprised at  how much information there is, and the many things there is to learn with photography.  Who knew?  Composition itself could take up a few weeks of learning posts. According to Wix Photography, there is fifteen things they compiled from their users that you should know about composition and photography.

  There are numerous photography composition rules proven to take photographs to the next level.  The way elements are arranged in a shot, play a large role in perception of the image afterwards.  One of these is the Rule of Thirds.  Basing this on the idea, that the human eye is more attracted on images divided into thirds.  This being likely the composition rule that is most well known. If it’s imagined your shot is divided into three equal sections,

(think tic-tac-toe) by putting the elements on your composition on the lines that divide this section.  Or place them on points where the lines meet.  Photography Life talks about depth and how capturing a three-dimensional format can be difficult to do.  This technique talks about placing elements on the foreground, middle ground and background.  Doing this will add a sense of depth to composition, being careful not to let additional objects steal attention from the main subject.

Natural Framing is when you draw the viewers attention to the main subject, you can use elements in the image to frame the main subject.  They can also create context or hide unwanted images within the shot.  Artificial and human elements can be used as frames as well.  Digital Photography school had a lot of good tips on natural framing.

The last one I read about was Negative spaces. Negative space is just simply the name given to the area that surrounds the main subject in a composition.  When making a lot of composition negative space, it makes for dramatic composition that catches peoples attention.  It’s noted with this technique, that it’s important to pay attention to how well the negative and the positive spaces work together.

This week I decided to check out more of what Learn Photography Canada has to offer. There is endless things to learn about lighting. The Digital II, Motion and Light course has a lot to offer new photographers.  It offers the same type of deal as the Digital I class in that there is training in a location in your city.  Private classes are also available for small groups up to eight people.  A couple of things that are very convenient about it is that the course includes comprehensive notes and options to access the information at later times.  One of my favorite things is that they also offer camera rentals so that you can try before you buy.  That is a really nice option because a lot of people are interested in photography but are uncertain (like myself) so if I’m able to try things out first I would definitely be a better sell.

The class promises to talk in depth about exposure, exposure compensation and how to capture spectacular images using LIGHT first. It also promises to spend time going deeper into the world of motion and how to speed it up and slow it down by manipulating the settings on the camera.  There is a list of things that the class will dive into, but there was a couple I decided to research. I had never heard the terms used before reading the list of the classes offerings.

Exposure compensation basically helps you override automatic exposure adjustments your camera makes in situations with uneven light distribution, filters non standard processing, or under exposure or overexposure.  It lets you take control of your images brightness by manually increasing or decreasing exposure. One really interesting one I learned about was light metering.  Simply put, a light meter is a device that measures light.  There are two different kinds, Incident and Reflective.  Incident light meters help a camera focus on a subject regardless of how light or dark the surrounding background is.  Reflective light meters do the opposite, measuring the light reflected or that bounces off a subject.  Last but not least was Sun starring.  Sun starring is commonly known as the sun star effect or the star burst effect.  It results in the image of the sun appearing as a star-like shape. Typically, you can see this effect  being used in conjunction with landscape or cityscape photography.  I am finding that there are endless things to learn about photography.

This week I went onto different websites looking for instruction or how to classes that offered a bit more options for learning.  The Photography beginner masterclass that I found at Udemy.com, was a cost to buy the course but seems like they have a lot to offer in terms of breaking everything down into separate how to videos on their welcome page.  With the purchase of their courses they promise you will be able to take amazing photos taken in different scenarios like family portraits, landscapes, aerial, wildlife and much more.

The course includes 31 0n-demand videos, different assignments, 66 articles to read, 44 downloadable resources, access on mobile and Tv as well as a certificate of completion.  When you first look at the site, there are 44 sections that have a short preview lectures of the course downloads.  Reviews are good for the cost and offering of this course.

The next one I looked into was Learn Photography Canada, advertising hands-on photography courses. Their front page boasting, taking you from photography zero, to photography hero, one day at at time.  They offer 12 course options, 6 online and 6 in person classes. The digital 1 Beginner photography course offers teaching you how to use your camera in full manual mode, using a night lens and using angles.  

The course has a list of what it offers starting with how to use your camera, fundamentals of photography, shutter speed, aperture, and Iso and how they work together. Depth of field, shutter priority mode, aperture priority mode, low light photography using Iso, white balance, lens distortion and compression, choosing the right lens for the job, learning the foundations of composition and more.

One thing that I liked the best was their flexible scheduling.  They offer small group options of up to eight people or you can also do one on one sessions fully on your own. Their is also convenient times that they offer on the weekends for either 3 or 6 hour sessions.  Once you book the sessions with Learn Photography Canada, you have access as well to the complete online courses so that there is incredible post-course learning available to access whenever.  This course seems to have more options and people often prefer the personal instruction, especially at the beginning when a person is just getting to know how their camera works. The cost for this beginner course section is $297 compared to the first course at Udemy.com for a sale of $14.99.  The other sections cost the $297 as well .  Depending how serious you are about getting good at photography, this one would be my choice.

Onto another week of learning about lighting. The lighting I learned about this week I am unable to try for myself due to it being extra equipment I don’t own, but I am still able to get plenty of details on how they work and what they are used for with photography.

Lights and more lights!  So much to learn about different types of lights that enhance your photography.  Strobe lights are able to sync to your camera using sync ports on the side of the camera, using wireless radio control or other units can also be used together and fired in unison from one remote.  The amount of watts that is used varies.  Watts are the amount of energy measured, in watts available in one second of time. There’s a few different kinds of strobe lights that can be used. Strobe lights, also known as Monolights, are extremely bright and emit rapid bursts of light. They require more set up so are generally used for higher end studio lighting. Strobe lights and Speedlight’s are similar in that they both emit short bursts of light and both need low shutter speed.  Speedlight’s are often used for event photography, they attach to the camera and can light a subject in a dark room. They aren’t as fast as pack and head strobes, but it’s a much faster set up and break down.  Pack and head strobes are the most powerful options for a shoot.  They hold the energy in a generator and release through a flash head or heads. It offers the most power and fastest recycling time. There is some battery operated options for these lights but they are mostly AC powered.  It is a generator of extra flash power.  A battery replacement with adjustable outlets that can produce symmetrical or asymmetrical output through its 4 outlets.  It also offers tone light control.  Attached to the camera, it allows the subject lighting to be adjusted to any one of three levels per subject basis.  Lighting is the key to any successful photographs.  Cameras do a lot of adjusting for us automatically but it’s a good idea to learn about these extra supports if the goal is to take professional photographs.

There are so many things to learn about the camera and proper lighting, its a bit overwhelming!  The number one thing for successful pictures is definitely your lighting. There are many different types of lighting equipment that can assist you with photography depending on where your located, whether its sunny, overcast or in studio photos. There is lots of information and tips for beginner photographers. It seemed to be a similar consensus that natural daylight is the best lighting because of its broad spectrum.  Lighting is a bit more complicated than I expected as it isn’t  given a second thought in our everyday lives.

I have tried taking random pictures at different time of the day, making a wild guess has occasionally worked out for me, but a repeat performance never turns out.  Overcast lighting is a great time for photos if you have things set where they need to be.  I experienced taking some photos but if you don’t know the settings properly on your camera, the pictures do not turn out.    My husband and I were in Waterton National Park over the break in October.  I took some photos but still felt like it was hit and miss if I thought they were great or not with lighting.  Within seconds of each other too so that always doesn’t make sense to me.  I took some of the beautiful hotel on the hill and some amazing scenery as well.

There was so many beautiful places to take pictures there.  I find it difficult with the camera and the small screen and then transferring the photos to the computer often looks different as well.  I find it easier to take nature pictures.  I can take photos of my own kids or family and feel ok about it.  Important pictures like graduation photos, are going to have to wait until I can get a lot more practice with learning proper lighting scenarios.

I spent some time this week learning about what some different terms meant. So much to learn.  There are 3 Basic Terms Every Photographer Should Know.  Aperture, Shutter speed, The ISO Value. The Aperture is like the pupil, the wider it gets, the more light it lets in.  Inside the lens is a round curtain called a shutter, which is normally closed unless the photographer presses the button.  The opening of the shutter is the aperture. A wider aperture allows more light into the camera sensor and vice versa.  The main effect though is on the depth of field.  Narrow aperture creating a deeper background and a wider aperture creates a shallow field.  It’s measured on a funny scale called f stops.  Ex. f/1.4, f/2.8, f/4.  The smaller the number, the wider the aperture.

The Shutter speed is when taking a photo, the shutter opens for a certain amount of time, which can vary, it may last less than a second or a few seconds.  The higher the shutter speed, the shorter the shutter is opened and the less exposure.  Slow shutter means more light comes in but this also creates risk for a blurry photo.  Higher shutter speed allows for a crisper photo although with less light. Night time photos and moving target photos are very dependent on these settings for a successful photo.

The ISO Value is the value regarding  the camera’s light sensor.  A higher ISO means a bigger sensitivity to light.  ISO values are usually 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 5200 and 6400. This makes the photo look grainy and more obvious in low light conditions.  Interior or night photographs requires using a high ISO sensitivity setting or in good lighting, a low ISO value is ideal to prevent graininess.