Last Photo Class but.....

it's not completely over. Sunday is the "test photo shoot" and what an exciting day it will be. We will take all of the information we have learned in class PLUS the mini sessions we had on portraits and apply those skills in Sally's studio. She will have her lights and cameras set up and we will use all of her equipment to take portraits of the model we bring. To give you a little background, after each class, we were given instruction on taking portraits. The dos and don'ts, how to make adjustments for people of different weights, male and female, etc. In one class, we had to line up and photograph a model. Sounds easy? No! We had to take a photo that was different from ones that were previously taken using the portrait information we were given. I now have a REAL appreciation for photographers. After our portrait session, we are heading to a nearby semi-private park to do some outdoor photos. We are suppose to have great weather this weekend so I'm really looking forward to this last opportunity with Sally.

Last night we learned the difference between shooting photos in RAW vs. JPEG. This was a lot of information to process and I don't know if I'm completely sold on shooting exclusively in RAW. But, knowing the pros of shooting RAW, I will use it if that once in a life time photo opportunity arises.

We also finished up on Composition. Composition is an art and it is so easy to get lost in the photo moment that you break one of the composition rules. Composition is made up of leading lines, body positions, angles, diagonal photo positioning, frames, textures, etc. One of my weaknesses is leading lines. I have them in most of my photos but have since discovered, some of my leading lines need work.

Before I get too long winded, I thought I would share some photos from a shoot I did this past weekend with my son. This was a weird shoot in that we would get to the location and it would start raining. We would go back home and the sun would come out. Finally, we got a small window of opportunity and took advantage of it.....






This one has a bad leading line going straight through the head! Arggg! But I still like it!


And this is the photo I NAILED!! I got nearly perfect composition on this one!


One of the most important things I learned was to always print your photos. Your computer monitor does not show exposure levels correctly. I had a couple of photos from this shoot that were overexposed by a couple of stops. This was not discovered until I got the photos back from the lab. Also, printing your photos helps you to not only see the mistakes but to also train your eye to see the settings the photos were taken in. Trained photographers are challenged to take repeat photos by only looking at a photo. In other words, can you take the same photo months from now by only looking at the photo and not using your camera's history?

I hope you have enjoyed my photo learning adventure. I'll hopefully be back next week with some "test" photos. Wish me luck!