Mukilteo Lighthouse

Shutter Speed Assignment

Assignment from April's class was Using Your Shutter Speed to show or freeze motion. I wanted a minimum of 2 shots with the first being that of a slow shutter speed (at least 1/30 if not slower, play around) of a moving object within still life (water fall's are usually ideal but there are definitely other types of shots). The second shot I want you to freeze motion - again water is a great subject but really anything with motion can work (shutter will need to be very fast, at least 1/500 if not faster). Make sure your meter reading stays in the middle (close to 0 as possible) and you'll need to use a tripod or have your camera on a solid surface to ensure minimal to no movement when you press the shutter release button.

A great schoolhouse

So my mentor is now an official web guru at this site. She endorses it as a great place to learn really wonderful things about photography without the drama of other sites. If you hurry up and get an account you can join for free. They will be charging for accounts soon.

http://www.photographyschoolhouse.com/phototalk/index.php

enjoy!

Depth of Field

The background finally blurred a little in this depth of field excercise. Poor Gracie was almost swallowing the camera.

Aperture

2.8
4.0
I'm not sure that my subject or composition was the greatest for this excercise, but I had limited time so this is what I ended up with. I would love more suggestions on how I could have made this composition a better exercise. I also noticed that I am limited to 2.8 and 4.0 as my only options for aperture settings unless the camera decides. As in the previous post it looks like the setting can go as high as 8.0.

Metering

SPOT

CENTER WEIGHTED

MULTI

The aperture setting for all of these shots was 4.0 for the last two and 8.0 for the first (the camera decided because I shot in automatic mode).

March Assignment

I'm posting the assignment so that I don't have to dig through email to find it later.
1. In P-mode (or auto if you camera doesn’t offer P-mode) select a subject and take submit three photos each using a different metering mode (matrix, center weighted and spot).
a. Please indicate which photo used which metering mode AND for the spot metering indicate where you metered off of for your picture.

2. In Aperture Priority mode photograph a series of subject that have been lined up focusing somewhere in the middle of the series (say a row of crayons, focus on a crayon in the middle of the row). Fill your frame with the subjects and then take a picture using your lowest aperture setting (smallest number). For the second picture change your aperture to a little bit of a higher number and take another picture focusing on the same area as in the first photo. Do this a few more times while increasing your aperture setting between each picture.
a. Post three of your photos showing the change of the DOF as you increase your aperture setting – please indicate with each picture what aperture setting you used.

Assign. #1: Saving, editing and resaving a jpeg file- Don't do it

For this assignment I used this image of a steam engine that I thought would be fun to change into sepia and black and white. I altered the original image to black and white. Next I opened the black and white image and changed it to sepia. Then I opened the sepia image and changed it back to black and white. I did that back and forth 10 times all the while saving it as a jpeg file.

the original color file
this is the first sepia edit, test 2
this is the last sepia edit, test 10
It's kind of fun to see how it changes. Obviously it has lost a lot of the lighting, contrast and detail. Foggy is the one thing that I think as I look at the difference from the second photo. Test 10 almost looks like a picture out of a newspaper from the 1930's or something.

For those of you not in my class: If you are going to be editing photographs, don't save it as a jpeg because it compresses each time it is saved. Save it as a tiff which will allow you to make changes, save it and come back to make more changes later without compromising your photo. If it needs to be a jpeg file you can rename your photo when you are finished editing.

Assignment #1 LCD vs viewfinder

I still prefer shooting using the LCD screen. This was a really hard assignment for me. I have lots of bad habits to break. I know that using the viewfinder reduces blury pictures, but our camera has this antishake feature, so I don't notice a difference. Using the LCD screen also allows us to view what is being focused on while the viewfinder does not.

Here is the viewfinder photo.
This is using the LCD screen.

I like that the LCD screen shows exactly what the image will turn out to be.
The viewfinder adds things on all sides. When I was composing this image through the viewfinder, it matched what I did in the last photo. I guess that I could always crop the image afterward to have it match.

Assignment #1

This is what my next few posts should include.

1. Photograph some interesting scene (landscape/city) with lots of detail. Post 3-4 pictures noting the difference between shooting using the LCD screen or the viewfinder.

2. Take an original jpeg file named test. Do really minor editing and name it test 1, then close the file. Open test 1 and change the edited items back. Save and name test 2, then close the file. Repeat 8 times. Post the original photo and the tenth photo and state what was noticed at the end.

3. Optional: Using the same subject and composition, shoot:
1. the smallest and lowest quality
2. the largest jpeg size, same quality
3. the smallest jpeg size, finest quality
Post comments on what photo is what and list observations.

There, Ryan. Now you don't have to find my notes.

A New Blog

Last night we had our first class from the master photographer Rebecca. I am hoping that I will better learn how to use my camera in this class to aid my quest for capturing the little moments I have with my family. Our lesson last night included an assignment to see the difference in qualities and sizes of our pictures, the difference of using the viewfinder vs. LCD screen, and the differences in file formats (jpeg vs tiff). Hopefully my next post will be one of those assignments. FYI: The photo behind my title is my sister Kaisa and her husband Billy. I got to take some pictures of them when they were engaged. It was really fun.