Brooke Snow Photography Basics Series: Week One

Well here we are! Week One of my first photography workshop complete, and so far I am feeling as though this will be a fantastic experience. Aside from the technical aspects of shooting, I will be gaining a valuable lesson about courage. This is my very first blog-ever. I have been so timid about putting my work out there at this stage for fear of criticism. Putting images on the internet just seems so...permanent. But! I am here to grow as a photographer. I'm here to learn all I can to be comfortable shooting manual in any situation so that I can allow myself room for creativity.

So, Week One focused on Aperture. The assignment was to find a storytelling opportunity, a single-subject opportunity, a "who-cares" opportunity and take three shots of each (f/22, f/8, f/2.8). The below shots are all straight out of the camera with no post processing. Eek. These are not my most creative masterpieces, but I was challenged to find different subjects and scenarios than I am used to, which is great practice.

Storytelling

50mm, ISO 100, f/22, 1/20 sec

(This is supposed to be the "correct" aperture for this scenario)

50mm, ISO 100, f/8, 1/125 sec

50mm, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/1250 sec

Single Subject

50mm, ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/200 sec

(This is supposed to be the "correct" aperture)

50mm, ISO 100, f/8, 1/20

50mm, ISO 100, f/22, 1/4 sec

"Who Cares?"

50mm, ISO 100, f/8, 1/40 sec
(This is supposed to be the "correct" aperture)

50mm, ISO 100, f/22, 1/3

50mm, ISO 100, f/2.5, 1/320 sec

So...

Not so bad! I do see things I wish I would have done differently, however. When shooting at f/22, I noticed that it was very difficult to avoid camera shake. I should have increased the ISO or become more comfortable with using the tripod. Also, my white balance issues need some help. The photos of my handsome pup look way underexposed, yet they appeared ok in the viewfinder. I suspect that has a lot to do with being in front of the very white fence, I should have metered off of something else. Likewise, the photos of my lovely Mom turned out to be a bit too cool as the camera metered off the dark green leaves. I could have metered off of her skin to avoid that issue. 

Just for fun, I ran the "correct aperture" photos through a quick clean edit in Lightroom. Much better, eh? Even though the slight edits made a big difference, there is no way I would have had as much success shooting in manual mode two months ago. We're making progress :)

("Who Cares" f/8)

(Single Subject f/2.8)

(Storytelling f/22)