Photography Class

Remember that one time I casually mentioned I was taking a photography class and then never talked about it again?
Woops.
Well, I finally uploaded some "project" pictures and figured it'd be a good time to talk about it.

I have to say, if you ever have a chance to take a Community Education class in an area you're interested in, do it. Not that I am, by any means, an expert in photography, but I can't tell you how nice it is to have at least a loose concept of how to "fix" my photos, now. Low light, but don't want to use your flash? Raise the ISO! Your photos have a golden, yellowy hue to them? Because you haven't changed your white balance! I'll show you some of the difference in the photos I took.

NONE of these have been touched with an editing program. This just goes to show you how much you can effect your photos just using your camera!

Before I show you some photos, here are some basic settings.

1. Spot Metering

When you turn your camera on, and all the settings appear on the back, you should see an icon that resembles the one above. You want your camera on Spot, ideally, and if not possible- Partial.

My camera (since it's only a Rebel T3) doesn't have "spot" metering, the best I could do was Partial.

Why is this important: This function is how you choose which part of the photo the camera focuses on. In evaluative, the camera decides which is most important, and focuses on that. Ever try to take a photo in front of a window, only to have the entire thing look white, and the subject dark? That's because your camera evaluates all of it equally, and it washes out the photo. '

Once you set this? leave it. 

2. Picture Style

See the above photo? See the bottom setting, "Picture Style"? Unless you're shooting landscapes, I was told this should remain in the "Neutral" setting. 

Why is this important: This effects color temperature. It'll soften wrinkles if on portrait, or make blues and greens brighter if on landscape. BUT, since you can do most of that in photoshop on the back end, it's best to leave this setting the same. 

3. ISO
ISO measures the camera's sensitivity to light. It determines how much "noise" there is in the photo. The higher the ISO, the grainer the photo. The higher the ISO, the faster the shutter speed, also. 

Why is this important: In low light situations, raising the ISO will brighten a photo, allowing you to shoot without a flash. (another way you can improve photos/low-light shooting is investing in a f.18, 50 mm lens. Most cameras come with a "kit" lens that shoots f 4.5 17-55 mm). 
  
4. AWB
In the above photo of the back of a camera, do you see the little "WB" below the \/ button?
I had no idea, but changing this can radically change the outcome of your photos. If you want your whites to appear white, and not "golden", it's especially important to change this. So if you click on WB, this pops up:

 From L-R, that's auto (AWB), sun, shade, clouds, tungsten, fluorescent, flash, and custom.

Why is this important: If you want your whites, white, it's important to adjust this off auto and to what the actual settings you're shooting in. To see what I mean, just play around with it. Take the same photo in every setting and watch the colors change. (You'll see some of what I mean below)

5. Exposure compensation 
This effects the overall exposure of the photos. Another way to make a photo appear lighter/darker.  The exposure compensation is that little bar you see below that says -3..2..1..0..1..2..+3. The "-" side will darken a photo, while the "+" side will brighten it.(Ignore the ISO explanation..it was the best photo I could find of exposure)

 In practice, here's how it looks.
Our field trip last week took us to the relatively famous Minneapolis landmark, the stone arch bridge. 
(ALL these photos were taken in Aperature Priority mode.)

 

This photo was taken by changing the "picture style" to "black and white." (I was just experimenting)

 

 The above photo was taken with the white balance set to "cloudy" since it was, in fact, a cloudy day

Here's what the exact same photo taken using the tungsten mode:

Neat, huh?

Here's another slight difference using just one function on the camera.

 Do you see how the bottom photo is slightly lighter? We were shooting the bridge on a cloudy night, which actually made it bright outside (all the lights on the buildings reflecting off the haze)...but we wanted to get those fabulous pitch black photos of the stone arch, illuminated, that you often see.

SO, to make it appear darker than it really is, we dropped our exposure down like I discussed above.

All these photos were taken on a tripod. You can see the 2nd photo above, the water looks really smooth and "fuzzy" almost.. whereas the first few photos, you can see the ripples. The difference there is the shutter speed. The slower shutter speed is also what gives the lights on the bridge that awesome "starry" effect.

This is my favorite pic from the night:

Squeee! (Fun fact, you can actually see the window to my office in this photo. No, I'm not telling which one. :P)

I think I'm going to frame a few of the shots to go next to this guy, that I painted at the MN Bloggers Painting Class:

I'm still thinking of doing a more detailed series on what some of these functions do, and why you want to do them. But, this is it for now. :)

So, that's a very broad overview of a few functions that can make a huge difference on your pictures!

You guys have any questions? I can try to answer them. haha. OH, and head over to Jess's blog, she was going to post some more tips and tricks today, too!

Peeves

We all have them, right?
Well today (after seeing one of them used) I realized there are certain words/phrases that just make my skin crawl, annoy me, or that fill me with irrational rage. I realized there are enough of them that I could compile a (pathetic?) blog post out of them. Maybe I'm not alone in some of these. And no, they're not necessarily the traditional female "gross words" like "moist" (although that's just automatically included on the list), they're just my own weird issues. Some of you probably think I'm crazy for devoting energy to annoyances of this nature, and to that I say, boo on you. I'm here to bring you a short list of the offenders that come to mind presently:

1."retarded" /"gay": as an adjective to describe something unpleasant or something that you dislike.
All this tells me is that of the vast number of adjectives in our english language, you can't rub together enough brain cells to conjure up something more descriptive and/or less offensive. I judge you (silently) accordingly and make zero apologies for it.

2. "nummy"/"yummy": as an adjective to describe food.
Are you 6 years old? are you speaking TO a 6 year old? I'll admit that I've slipped and used this but it still makes me cringe coming out of the mouths of others. Once again, let's get more descriptive adjectives, people.

3. "duds": when referring to clothes.
Seriously, nothing says "awesome new piece of clothing" quite like calling it a dud. This just doesn't even make sense. Another adjective that should've died in the 90s.

4. Any word that involves the soft "g" sound: I seriously yell at Matt for using words like this, I have no explanation, the sound of that soft "G" makes me want to STAB someone.
Found in the word "regime" --- BLLAGGGHHH I can't even type it because I say it in my head and then I die. When he's trying to get me super riled up, he says the phrase "vagine regime" (yes, vagine as in vagina.. we're nothing, if not classy...) both with soft 'g's and then I hit him. I can't even think of any other words besides the "R" one that use it --and with all the business in Iraq/Iran/wherever else we're presently bombing or considering going to war with-- the nightly news LOVES to refer to that country's ruler's "re_ime" and gawwwdddd I hate it.

5. "Isle/Aisle"
This may be one of the most common offenders, but it just makes me squirm. Aisle's exist in places like grocery stores, Target, and movie theaters. Isle's are rivers (sometimes) or an island surrounded by water. I.e. the Isle of Capri - is, you guessed it- an Island!

6. Commonly misused colloquialisms:
You guys, this one takes the cake, and I'm not sure why it bothers me SO MUCH but it makes me cringe like none of the others. I can't even think of all of the ones I've seen but here are a few examples I've seen recently:

• "Rod Iron": with the explosion of pinterest, a lot of people are discussing this particular type of fixture of a forged metal variety. It's called WROUGHT Iron. Not rod iron. I realize when spoken they sound very similar, but how this is not common knowledge I don't even know.
• "For all intensive purposes": "all intents and purposes" ... I can see where it is easy to mishear, but.. I mean.. SAY it out loud. What is an intensive purpose? Does that even make sense? It shouldn't.
• "Mute point": A silent point? No. No no no. it's MOOT. moot. "of little or no practical value" according to the dictionary.
• "Beckon call": actually supposed to be beck and call. Although according to some brief research, "beckon call" is becoming an adequate substitute (shame), and beck is actually an old-timey shortening of the word "beckon."

Annnddd I think it's clear at this point in our programming I need a hobby.  I'm going to get my shit together and draft some posts this weekend. Promise, guys.

Unrelated: Tuesday was my first photography class. I know I told ya'll I'd update you and OMG I am in love with it. Seriously. I leared some VERY basic things about my camera that will make a world of difference, and that was just week 1. This is totally sadistic of me to say, but I miss the classroom. I miss learning things. I miss the gunners. Not. Except, we have one in our class and it totally makes me laugh because apparently law school and camera class are the same thing. (Gunner: a term law students (and others? I'm not sure. I first heard it in law school) use to talk about that one kid who asks 1,000 questions, reads ahead in the book, tries to bring up terms and subjects we haven't covered yet to look smart. You love to hate him/her).

We also learned how to make people disappear in photos. Seriously. Stay tuned for an update on that. I bring this up because Sar  (hiiii!) commented on Jess's IG of us from class this week and said we should do a little series recapping our class, and telling you guys about any tips and tricks we've learned. Is this something you'd be interested in? (yays? nays?)

(I was thinking about it this morning and how I'd explain to you guys some of the things we learned and I've already forgot WHY I want my camera on spot metering, but I just know it's something that you should do, so it certainly won't be a technical definition of most things... but it can't hurt. haha).