Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Final Blog Post - Goodbye, Dave!




           I had been looking forward to taking this photography class ever since I started going to Rocky more than three years ago. I watched my friends go through this class. I admired their photographs and I loved hearing about what they were learning, though at the time it went over my head. Aperture? Exposure? F-stop? Huh???

I had used a DSLR camera before, I had taken lots of photos before, and I had loved some of them. But to get a decent photograph, for me seemed like dumb luck. I didn't know where to start with the manual settings, I didn't know how to adjust anything, I didn't know any composition rules or editing. I knew I had a lot to learn with photography and it frustrated me to no end. I tried to learn on my own, but it just wasn't happening. Despite loving photography, after my camera broke I didn't get another one. I stopped.

This class taught me so much - I am a WAY, WAY WAY better photographer now than I was when I started, and significantly more confident in my work too! Below is my favorite picture taken by me before and after taking the class. Can you see a difference? I can. And I know I still have a long way to go, but I'm on my way now!


Above: Before this class
Below: After this class



                               Thanks Dave, and Goodbye! Good luck with your future classes :)






Macro Photography for Beginners

One subject we didn't really discuss in class that I'm mildly interested in was Macro Photography. Since I was interested in it, I did a quick google search and came up with a really good article explaining it and some techniques really well.

Really good link to Macro Photography for beginners

As it turns out, macro photography used to be really complicated and require a lot of specialized equipment, but nowadays a lot of newer DSLR cameras have a macro setting even. What I didn't know about shooting macro was that the best macro photography requires that you use the smallest aperture possible to gain image sharpness and depth of field. This means you need more light, so you have to extend the exposure time to get a well exposed photograph.

That's a little more complicated than I originally thought it would be, but I would love to be able to take pictures like the ones below by (in order) Alfian Ismail and Aaron Burden.



Buying a Camera


Now that I have some idea of how to use a camera, I need to buy a camera of my own so that I can develop my skills further and not lose everything I've learned this semester. It was hard to find information on buying cameras, specifically a Canon DSLR camera, that wasn't just advertising BS.

First, I choose Canon over Nikon because I have a personal preference towards Canon and because Canon cameras and gear is generally cheaper. I choose Canon over Sony because I'm comfortable and familiar with Canon, and again it is cheaper. So now that I know I want a Canon camera, and a DSLR and not just a point and shoot, I need to find the best one in my budget.

This site helped me get started on my decision making. It talks about the basic questions people ask themselves, from "I've never used a camera before besides on my phone, what camera should I buy?" to "What brand should I go with?" and "Where is the best place to purchase gear?"

After looking at what was available both by surfing the web (amazon) and by physically going into stores, I think I would buy this bundle package for $600 on amazon. It comes with three lenses, a tripod, the bag, memory cards, two batteries, filters, a monopod, and of course the camera itself, which is a Canon EOS Rebel T6. I chose this one because it's affordable and I've used one similar to this before, so I know how to use it and I'm happy with what it can do.


Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Final Photo Project Post


 
1. Above: I edited it by brightening the whites, cropping out some distracting background, and increasing the exposure. I used a larger lens with a f stop of 5ish because I wanted to really get in focus the whiskers and face, while keeping my distance since it is a wild animal.


2. Above: I adjusted the exposure when editing, this photo was underexposed. I used an (f/5.0) because I wanted to really focus on one detail and blur the rest, but not so much that it looked weird. I used a larger lens so that I could get a close up but keep my distance, to be safe.

 
3. Above: I added blue, took out a log that was jutting into the sky. I used a small ISO because the scene was already very bright.


4. Above: I wanted to make this scene look surreal, so I made the already blue much brighter with a filter. I used a smaller lens to capture the whole scene, and small f stop to bring everything into focus. I used the heal tool to get rid of some weird spots, but decided to leave the bright log in the foreground to lead the viewer in.


 
5. Above: I edited this by using the heal tool to remove some of the grass in the foreground and lowering some of the yellows and oranges to make the grass less distracting. I used a larger lens because the animal was far away, and a medium f stop to get more than just the eye in focus. My ISO is fairly high because the lighting was a little dark.


 
6. Above: I stood upwind of Old Faithful and used my smaller lens to capture more. I used a low ISO because the scene was already very bright, and a faster shutter speed because I wanted to capture the moment, freeze the action. During editing I just used the class preset and added some blue.


7. Above: For this image I was using my wider lens with a medium  f-stop. I was using a higher shutter speed to capture the crow moving, and a low ISO because the scene was bright. I edited the image by cropping it, adding whites and shadows, and highlights, and overall increasing contrast.


8. Above: I edited out a few bright yellow spots for this one, and slightly lowered the yellow to decrease the color of the grass. I cropped this image significantly too. I used a long lens for distance and focus, a medium f-stop for focus on more than just a small region, and a medium ISO because of lighting. I also had a fast shutter speed which was my priority.


9. Above: I used a large lens to compensate for distance and a fast shutter speed. I edited it by cropping significantly and throwing a few presets on.


10. Above: I used a large lens with fast shutter speed to capture the moment at a safe distance. As for editing, I cropped it significantly and used a preset to brighten it.


11. Above: I used a wide lens and landscape settings to take this picture. When editing, I cropped it down, brightened the yellows and used a skypop filter (graduated filter) to brighten the blue. I brightened the shadows as well and increased contrast.





12. Above: I used a larger lens for zoom because the bird was far away, and a faster shutter speed because I expected it to move (but not so fast that it unbalanced everything else). I cropped it quite a bit, and used a BW preset because the colors seemed weird and I like the BW.


13. Above: I used a larger lens for this picture to avoid disturbing the animal with my proximity. There was little light, so I used a higher ISO and the fastest shutter speed I thought I could get away with. I turned it BW with a preset because I love how dark the crow is compared to the background and that feeling was lost a little when the background included some colorful lichen and bright green needles.



 14. Above: I used a preset to brighten this image because it was a little underexposed, and a faster shutter speed to capture the splash as they crossed. I used a larger lens to get as close as I could and a higher ISO because the light was poor.



15. Above: I used a graduated filter to make the sky more dramatic and kept a good section of the sky in order to both show off the clouds and keep both goats on the 1/3 line. I used a bw preset. I used a longer lens to get the focus I wanted and a lower ISO because it was bright out.



 16. Above: I used a wider lens for this since it is almost a landscape photo, and I brightened it some. I added a graduated filter to the sky, but wanted the focus to remain on the tree. I used a higher ISO because of the clouds, and cropped the sky off to bring more focus to the subject.


17. Above: I used a high ISO here because the light was low and I used a wider lens to capture as much of the scene as I could. I cropped out some distractions, and brightened the image slightly.



18. Above: I used a higher ISO because of light conditions, a wider lens for landscape photography, and a large f stop for focus. I cropped out some distractions and brightened it.

19. Above: I used a higher ISO because of poor lighting and a wider lens for the landscape photography. I used a higher f-stop to focus on more of the scene. I cropped out some distractions and used a BW preset because I love how mysterious it makes it feel.


20. Above: I used a low ISO because it was a bright scene, and a wider lens to capture all of it. I cropped the image down so there wasn't so much black at the bottom, and used a BW preset to make the clouds and the sunburst look more impressive, since the colors weren't that great.


21. Above: I used a lower ISO because it was a medium light scene and a wider lens turned portrait because the subject is taller than it is wide. I brightened the scene and used the heal brush for some spots.



22. Above: I used a lower ISO because it was a bright scene, a small f-stop because I wanted focus to be on the chipmunk with the background blurred, and a larger lens to get close to the subject. I cropped the image significantly, which is why there is a lot of granite still in the foreground (too much to crop) and I brightened the scene. I love the red raspberry in it's paw.



23. Above: I used the low ISO because the scene was very bright already, and I had a higher f-stop and slow shutter speed in order to get the motion blur of the water. I brightened the scene, the took some of the yellow and green out to make the background less bright. It didn't look as good when the background was cropped out, so I left it in.


24. Above: I used a lower ISO because the sun was out, a smaller f-stop to get my focus area smaller, and my wider lens for the macrophotography. I brightened the scene, cropped it significantly, added a present vignette from Lightroom, and increased the contrast slightly.



25. Above: I used medium ISO because the sun was setting, so it wasn't really too bright or too dark. I used a higher shutter speed to freeze movement in the animal and a larger lens to get the zoom I needed. I cropped the photo significantly, and brightened it.