Photo focus

I'm spending more than a little time these days trying to master (or at least muddle through) some of the photography techniques I see and read about. I'm currently enrolled in Maggie Holmes' online photography workshop. This six-week class is designed for beginner/intermediate amateur shooters, and I certainly fit the "beginner" bill.

The purpose of the class is to become more familiar with one's camera, learn how to take it off auto and use the settings to create photos that tell stories. In other words, we're wrestling control of our images from the camera and taking on that responsibility ourselves. I've had my Canon Rebel xsi since July, and while I've experimented with some of the settings, this is pretty much virgin territory for me.

Our first lesson focused on ISO, also known as "film speed." While pertinent to film cameras, ISO setting is important in digital, too, as it defines how sensitive the camera's sensor is to light.

This week we moved to shutter speed and aperture. For shutter speed, I made Scott run and jump around our parking lot so I could both freeze motion and record motion. Here are my photos:

The left photo demonstrates fast shutter speed, enabling me to capture him in stride as he ran up and down our parking lot.

I call the second one "the human moth" as I purposely slowed the shutter speed to blur Scott as he did jumping jacks.

 

Moving on to aperature mode, I used depth of field to focus my photos so as to tell different stories. (btw, when the camera is in this mode, it automatically selects a shutter speed.) I took these photos in my studio. I like to display on my desk little knick-knacks and items that are colorful and inspirational to me. The first photo is set on a high aperture - f/9.0 - which allows me to focus pretty much everything in this shot.

Now, in this photo, I wanted to focus in on just one of the items on my desk. This is a pendant that Scott bought for me on one of our Bisbee trips.

You can see how the base of the lamp and other items on my desk fade into the blurred background (bokeh), while the pendant is the only item in focus and stands out clearly, enabling me to place emphasis on it and better tell my story.

While I am struggling a bit with balancing the ISO to ensure my exposure is right while at the same time trying to minimize digital noise (or grain), I'm really enjoying the freedom of playing with the settings to create my photos. It's more challenging but a lot more fun than just snapping away and seeing what comes out of the camera.

No doubt this will get more difficult as we move into our next lesson where I believe we venture into manual mode, allowing us to set shutter speed, ISO and aperture to achieve the look we're going for.

And I have to confess I did cheat with this photo as I shot it with my point-and-shoot, which REALLY limits the photographer's options. There's no doubt I am wearing out my family's desire to model for me, so I'm in the market for new victims. Meanwhile, this photo is a nice one of Stacy that I took just before she and I celebrated her birthday with dinner out at a new hip restaurant here in downtown Phoenix called The Pasta Bar. The is a new favorite of ours as is Sens. I will write more about these later.

Comments

[Colleen]

I'm going to have to sign up for this course. Good stuff.

[Gwen]

I can't wait to take that class! I only use manual settings... sniff sniff. You allready take great photos! Why don't you guys come over for dinner one of these Fri or Saturday's!!! You can "practice" your shot on my little guys, is constant moving, spastic targets part of your class? ;-)
Bring your camera and show me what you've learned, I have the Cannon G10 and need to get better so I can take beautiful pics of our new baby girl! Yay!

[Gwen]

P.S. Isn't it great we have husbands who will do goofy things for us! HaaHa!!!
Also, I L.O.V.E Sens! Yummmee!