An exercise to help you get to know your camera and some photography skills.
July 21st 2008 10:51
Do you remember rick Sammon's 10 digital photography tips?
One of them was, always look behind you and this was one of mine, too, given to you many months ago.
Now to help you look around you as you photograph and what it all means I'm going to set you a fairly simple photography task.
When you have finished, collect prints of all those photographs together and line them up in the way you were instructed to.
One of the first things you should notice, is that a photograph does not look entirely like what you saw in your mind's eye and what you remember that you saw.
A photograph is just a flat image in two dimensions, what you saw was in three and your mind would have emphasized certain elements of the picture you were seeing.
What you have before you is simply a photograph of what was actually there and with the 3D flattened to 2D. This can be very disappointing and until you are an experienced photographer you may find this hard to accept.
The finished photo can, indeed, look very different from the image you saw.
Now, on a good day, without much breeze and with plenty of light I want you to go into your backyard or the local park.
Choose a spot from which you are going to take your photos and STAY there.
Now with your camera set on automatic as little as your equipment allows you, take a series of photos.
1. Look straight ahead, point and shoot.
2. Turn left and do the same.
3. Come back to the first position, turn right and do again.
4. Turn back to your first position.
5. Turn right around, to the back, that is through 180 degrees, take again.
Now that's all for that exercise.
Now, go out your front door and stand on the outside footpath.
Take a picture facing straight ahead, turn left, take another, turn right, take another, face back to your own house, that is 180 degrees from where you started, take a shot of your house.
That's it, you're done.
Throughout the whole exercise, don't adjust the camera, use the same setting for all of your photographs. Don't use the zoom.
When you have them printed out, arrange as you were instructed to take them and criticize your own work.
What do you notice, what were the lighting effects, what was in the photo that could be considered clutter, what were the good and bad features of the photos you took, how was the depth of field, did you fill the frame or were there unexpected gaps, how different do your photos look from the real thing, if you can't remember all you need to do is to go outside and have a look at what you have in front of you and how different is it from what appears in the photo.
What were the things that you would like your camera to do for you, what were its strengths and weaknesses.
After you have done this exercise you should realize the limitations of your camera and the settings used.
You should also understand more about the flat image you have captured in contrast to the 3D picture which you saw.
This or a similar exercise can be attempted with different settings and with the zoom and whatever else your camera allows you to do. Just remember to use the same settings throughout each exercise, or you will complicate what you are trying to learn.
Happy shooting. There are always those back posts to go over if you get lost.
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