What I did well:
- For my first official attempt at fully manual photography I am surprised that I was able to accurately expose almost all of the photos I took in rapidly changing light conditions varying from cloudy to full sunlight at mid day.
- I managed to fill the frame in most cases although this is as far as my attempts at composition went due to inexperience
- I think I captured the action, mood, emotion or moment fairly well in most cases. In some cases, I managed to get more than one at a time. Perspective still needs some work.
What I did not do well:
- With practice, I am hoping that some the simple stuff like camera settings will become more automatic so I can focus more on composition. Most of the photos have the subject right in the middle of the image.
- Some of the photos have background details which give the photo context and add to the story but those are pure luck since I was focusing on the subject and ignoring the background. This is another area I need to work on.
- Had I used slightly faster shutter speeds, I would have had more keepers. Many of the rejected photos had too much motion blur in the subject. Attempting some panning techniques might also help create interesting blur while keeping the subject crisp.
- I still need to work on perspective. Hopefully I will have a better chance to work on this tonight.
Things I need to learn or work on:
From watching Jerome and asking questions, I understand what needs to be done so far. Practice and experience is still the biggest thing I need. Beyond that, I need to develop an eye or a feeling for the kind of shot I need to get and focus on making that happen when the moment presents itself.
I understand that the aperture controls depth of field and the shutter speed controls motion blur in a photo but I need to get a better feel for which settings will provide the results I am looking for. I cannot simply take a photo at every f-stop in a given range to get exactly the depth of field I am looking for. Similarly, I need to have a general idea of which shutter speed will blur or freeze a moving subject in just the right way.
As I already mentioned, I need to work on giving context to photos by including other people or details in the background or around the subject to add another dimension and additional layers to the photo. I need to learn to do this consciously rather than relying on pure luck as I am right now.
Using a flash! We will see tonight when I shoot the CDA Tribal School Graduation how this turns out.
The photos below are the best of the set.
They have been resized for faster uploading but are otherwise unprocessed.
Click on image to enlarge
You have some decent shots in here, but we need to get you out of "sniper" mode and get you in close. Remember to shoot with a purpose. See what you like about the frame, the reason you picked up the camera, and the make that the centerpiece of that image. So if you liked the look of the kids pulling on that rope and giving it their all, get in close and show that face and the peak moment when he's really struggling.
ReplyDeletePut this into effect tonight when you are shooting the graduation. Don't click the shutter until you have a reason to do it and you know why you're doing it.
Have fun and I'm excited to see what you get.