Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Julie (130) - Matthew modelling for us


Matthew was by far the most knowledgeable photographer on the course: but he wasn't up himself and joined in all the exercises and helped the rest of us when we struggled - which was frequently.

Once again, the shooting data in order:
F5.6, 1/200, ISO 400, 84mm
F5.6, 1/250, ISO 400, 179mm
F5.6, 1/8, ISO 800, 163mm
The interesting stats are for that last shot in profile. Same aperture, but the shutter speed was way lower and I had to increase the ISO. He was away from the window, against the way and I was further away from him than the feature photo. All this is starting to fall into place in this poor old brain!

6 comments:

Ann said...

You are putting me to shame. I'm trying to get my head around all this and am gradually figuring out that I need to watch out for slow shutter speeds. Trouble is I can't see much difference in the results. Maybe it will show up when I get them on the computer. If he doesn't give us one, I'm going to print out a cheat sheet a bit further down the track. I need to know the settings I should be using before I can experiment.

Julie said...

A cheat sheet is a good idea. I think I have one forming in my head.

ISO - the brighter it is then the lower the ISO.

WB - just press until the right selection for the conditions, except that I often use cloudy when shooting indoors as I like it warm and glowy.

Aperture - this is my big breakthrough. I have a established a personal fulcrum about F8. If it is a glarey sun then go up to F11. If is is a weak sun then go down to F5.6. I then adjust the shutter speed until the exposure meter is zero - actually I go half a stop toward minus as I like them just a bit darker.

Shutter speed - having said that I set the aperture like that, there are times when I want the s/s to be paramount, eg at the SWF that lady knitting. I should have gone with a fast s/s (about 1/200) to freeze the needles and then adjust the F-stop until the exposure was right.

I have stopped making quite as many stuff-ups. But I do take routinely about 30 photos a day. This is to keep me learning.

If the heavens don't open this arvo, a friend and I are going to the World Press Photo exhibit. Arvo meaning 6pm!!

Ann said...

You are way ahead of me although I am starting to figure out that for most things its F8 or F11. I keep forgetting about ISO and WB although I did go to cloudy today but didn't think to up the ISO a bit. I think the problem was that he spent nowhere near enough time explaining it in class last week. Hopefully he'll do it this weekend. I'm assuming you got all that from Michaela.

Julie said...

It is cumulative.

Day 1 Fundamentals with Michaela.
Natural Portraiture day with Michaela.
Week 1 with Marko.

Then what I have done, too, is take photos and check each and every time and then retake. Then I take them home and look at the shooting data on the computer. I compare: what light was I in; was the subject moving; how close was the lens. I have trained myself to check WB and ISO every session. They do not change much from taking the lens cap off to putting it back on again. But I check those two things as soon as I take the lens cap off. Then I can forget about them. Then I set my aperture depending on the exact conditions of the shot. Then twizzle the wheel until the dot is where I want it.

Not in the least a piece of cake! I pulled back from a portrait yesterday because I worried that I would not do all that fast enough. Will practice on my father and son a bit more to get more proficient. The man drinking the beer today on the Eye is my son.

Ann said...

I'm having trouble working out what to expose for. When I exposed for the buildings the result (on camera at least) looked okay but it was telling me the sky was overexposed, yet if I exposed for the sky the buildings were too dark. Trouble with the small screen is that I can't tell what the DoF is doing. What I do know is that I can't get really, really good DoF without a tripod but I need to look on the computer to see what F11 and F8 have done.

Ann said...

I'm spending a lot time stabbing around going wtf is the aperture button and getting thumb prints on my glasses.