Showing posts with label Photography Class. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Photography Class. Show all posts
July 11, 2016
365 ~ 2016: Day 193
Got a mini lesson on Food photography at the Farm workshop I attended over the weekend. It was fun to watch how the instructors styled the food because that is really the most important and most difficult part of food photography. It definitely sparked something in me to work on my food styling so I can photograph some of my favorite recipes and dishes.
July 9, 2016
365 ~ 2016: Day 191
It's not every day you get to shoot a Revolutionary War reenactor shooting off a musket. One of the coolest Farm shoots yet! This is a fellow SOPHA member portraying Maj. Loammi Baldwin, best known for commanding the Woburn militia at the Battle of Lexington and Concord.
November 23, 2014
365 ~ 2014: Day 327
Lighting classes are fun, and it's always nice when I can get a shot of myself that isn't a "selfie".
June 21, 2014
365 ~ 2014: Day 172
A beautiful day to be "Down on the Farm" for a group shoot with the SOPHA community! I really go for the desserts, but it's fun to hang out and continue learning the ins and outs of location lighting.
May 24, 2014
365 ~ 2014: Day 144
Today I headed to Manchester for a Location Lighting Walkabout at SOPHA. Thankfully it didn't rain and the sun even showed his face. The class was to show how you can integrate studio light with natural light. This shot happens to be a natural light shot, using a white PLM as a diffuser. Now to put this new knowledge to work! Practice makes perfect!
June 29, 2013
365 ~ 2013: Day 179
Today I participated in a group shoot on a horse farm. It was put on by SOPHA, the studio that has helped me take my love of photography to the next level! This wasn't a class per se, but I did learn a lot and it was fun to be able to talk to other photographers. I must have taken about 300 images but I kept coming back to this one. I knew as soon as I shot it that it was going to be my favorite. This was on of the few set ups that was all natural light. I'm drawn to this one because it just feels natural to me. Shooting models is not something I am used to so all my favorite images are the candid ones! It's definitely more me!
February 20, 2013
365 ~ 2013: Day 51
A few weeks ago I took a class on how to use my flash off-camera. To do this at home, it required purchasing a few items (a light stand, transmitter and receiver and an umbrella) which you can see in the picture below. Today I was able to get it all set up and give it a try. I still need to play around with it more but it was fun to take a few comparison shots to see the difference!
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| David's portrait using the off-camera flash |
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| The equipment all set up! |
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| Here is the before and after, you can see a small difference in the eyes, and face has a more even tone |
November 10, 2012
Project 365 - Day 315
Thankful for the opportunity to learn and get some knowledge, and for my sister for watching the boys so they could play with their cousins!
Today I spent the day at The Sopha learning the art of studio lighting! It was SO FUN! We learned how to set up a standard 4 light portrait and then after lunch we were given a magazine image and a model (the lovely Mara seen below!). Then we were sent to a specific backdrop with the task of recreating the magazine image!
This image was shot using a beauty dish straight up above the model about 3ft and the best part was that my partner and I did this all on our own!
Today I spent the day at The Sopha learning the art of studio lighting! It was SO FUN! We learned how to set up a standard 4 light portrait and then after lunch we were given a magazine image and a model (the lovely Mara seen below!). Then we were sent to a specific backdrop with the task of recreating the magazine image!
This image was shot using a beauty dish straight up above the model about 3ft and the best part was that my partner and I did this all on our own!
September 21, 2011
Week 2 Homework Assignment
Part 1 of this weeks homework was to work more with understanding depth of field. We were to select a scene that had a close foreground and a distant background (like a person standing in front of a building that was off in the distant). Usually I try and get my boys to participate and be my subjects but they aren't always in the mood, plus these assignments require a subject to stay in the same place for more than 3 seconds!
So let me introduce you to Cat, one of the boys stuffed animals. By using a stuffed animal I can set the scene up that I need and keep it there while changing the settings or focus points to create the different images that I need to create.
In the first image we were to use a single autofocus point and focus on the forground, in this image the foreground will be sharp and the background blurry. This is done by using a large aperture.
In the second image we were to ignore the subject in the foreground, due to the shallow depth of field the foreground is now blurry.
Part 2 was all about white balance. White balance which is basically the color of light. In manual mode there are different settings for your white balance. Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent and Custom. The first part of this assignment was to set up a scene (in this case I used the same scene with Cat from above) and shoot an image using each of the different white balance settings.
Auto:
Daylight:
Shade:
Cloudy:
Tungsten:
Flourescent:
If you look closely at each image you can see that the coloring is different in each one. Especially as you get down to Tungsten and Fluorescent. Notice the blueish hues.
Now for the second part of the white balance assignment was to custom set the white balance. To do this you need a gray card (or if you don't have one a white sheet of paper will work). Snap a photo in the lighting your shooting in with at least 80% of the image being the gray card (or white sheet of paper). It doesn't have to be in focus, you just have to make sure that the majority of the image is the gray card (or white paper). Under your menu settings go to custom white balance and select the image you took of the gray card or the white paper and hit OK! Now any image you shoot in that same lighting will all be correct.
You can see the above image is the best quality straight out of camera! It was very cool learning this feature since I did a lot of my photographing at the Rec center in terrible fluorescent lighting. If only I had known this I could have customized my white balance before each party!
Tonight is the lens class! I cannot wait to try out all the lenses that I have had my eye on! And now that I have a better understanding of Depth of Field, I am really looking forward to trying out the 50mm 1.4 prime again!
So let me introduce you to Cat, one of the boys stuffed animals. By using a stuffed animal I can set the scene up that I need and keep it there while changing the settings or focus points to create the different images that I need to create.
In the first image we were to use a single autofocus point and focus on the forground, in this image the foreground will be sharp and the background blurry. This is done by using a large aperture.
In the second image we were to ignore the subject in the foreground, due to the shallow depth of field the foreground is now blurry.
Part 2 was all about white balance. White balance which is basically the color of light. In manual mode there are different settings for your white balance. Auto, Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, Fluorescent and Custom. The first part of this assignment was to set up a scene (in this case I used the same scene with Cat from above) and shoot an image using each of the different white balance settings.
Auto:
Daylight:
Shade:
Cloudy:
Tungsten:
Flourescent:
If you look closely at each image you can see that the coloring is different in each one. Especially as you get down to Tungsten and Fluorescent. Notice the blueish hues.
Now for the second part of the white balance assignment was to custom set the white balance. To do this you need a gray card (or if you don't have one a white sheet of paper will work). Snap a photo in the lighting your shooting in with at least 80% of the image being the gray card (or white sheet of paper). It doesn't have to be in focus, you just have to make sure that the majority of the image is the gray card (or white paper). Under your menu settings go to custom white balance and select the image you took of the gray card or the white paper and hit OK! Now any image you shoot in that same lighting will all be correct.
You can see the above image is the best quality straight out of camera! It was very cool learning this feature since I did a lot of my photographing at the Rec center in terrible fluorescent lighting. If only I had known this I could have customized my white balance before each party!
Tonight is the lens class! I cannot wait to try out all the lenses that I have had my eye on! And now that I have a better understanding of Depth of Field, I am really looking forward to trying out the 50mm 1.4 prime again!
September 14, 2011
Week 1 Homework Assignment - Exposure Compensation
Tonight is my second photography class and so I am spent a little time this afternoon practicing the last part of the homework assignment, exposure compensation. This was something completely new to me. I have always seen the button on my camera but had no idea what it did. I set the camera in program mode or P on my camera settings and then pushing down on the +/- button I adjusted it to underexpose -1 and snapped a picture of David, he volunteered to be my test subject!
Then I changed the settings to so that it was overexposed +1.
And to have a control, an image back to 0 (or the middle!)
After taking the images we were asked to look at the histograms of each image. The first image's histogram would be skewed to the left, showing that the image was underexposed whereas the second images's histogram would be skewed to the right showing it was overexposed. That will bring us to the start of tonight's class which will cover topics like white balance and more on the histograms!
I also feel the need point out that all of my homework assignment images that I am posting are of the images straight out of the camera. I usually like to edit all of my images before posting but editing them would defeat the purpose of the assignments!
Then I changed the settings to so that it was overexposed +1.
And to have a control, an image back to 0 (or the middle!)
After taking the images we were asked to look at the histograms of each image. The first image's histogram would be skewed to the left, showing that the image was underexposed whereas the second images's histogram would be skewed to the right showing it was overexposed. That will bring us to the start of tonight's class which will cover topics like white balance and more on the histograms!
I also feel the need point out that all of my homework assignment images that I am posting are of the images straight out of the camera. I usually like to edit all of my images before posting but editing them would defeat the purpose of the assignments!
September 11, 2011
Week 1 Homework Assignment
On Wednesday I started my first photography class. I signed up for a four week Intro class at a studio located in Manchester. I really enjoyed it and I am very glad that I signed up. The class is a lot of fun, very laid back. I am already excited for next weeks class, though I am most looking forward to week 3 when we get to try out all kinds of amazing expensive lenses! Just in time to start my wish list to Santa!
In the first class we discussed the 4 basic exposure modes and what makes up an exposure. A lot of this I had already read about online and in books so I did have a basic understanding of the concepts but it was still nice to have an actual person explain it face to face. His analogies helped me grasp the concepts better too! We were given a homework assignment but we don't have to turn anything in, so I though I would use my blog to post my assignments and keep me accountable!
The first assignment was to practice using the exposure modes on the camera. Part 1 was to capture motion using the Shutter Priority feature (TV on Canon or S on Nikon). To capture motion you are looking for a slow shutter speed like 1/15.
I took a bunch of pictures of moving things like David riding his bike down the driveway. This one of the pinwheel is my favorite. You can see that the spinning motion of the pinwheel is blurry but the background is relatively sharp.
Shutter: 1/15
Aperture: f/20
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 200
Part 2 of the assignment was to stop motion. Ever wonder how you could get that perfect picture of your kids jumping up in the air and have it all be in focus? Well this is how! To stop motion you want a fast shutter speed. So if you are using 1/15 for capturing motion you would want something much, much faster to stop it. For this assignment I used the recommended 1/1000 and spinning the same pinwheel you can see that it looks like it's perfectly still.
Shutter: 1/1000
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal length: 50mm
ISO: 200
Part 3 & 4 of the assignment related to Depth of Field. A deep depth of field, will have foregrounds and backgrounds in focus whereas a shallow depth of field will have a sharp focus on the foreground and a blurry background. To create a deep depth of field you want a small aperture like f/22 and for a shallow depth of field you would want a large aperture like f/4 (and yes that is correct, aperture is backwards the small number = large aperture).
Shutter: 1/1250
There is one more part of the assignment that I haven't worked on yet but I will this week. It is using the exposure compensation feature on the camera. I am looking forward to seeing how these ones turn out. It will be a good intro into really learning how to read the cameras histogram.
In the first class we discussed the 4 basic exposure modes and what makes up an exposure. A lot of this I had already read about online and in books so I did have a basic understanding of the concepts but it was still nice to have an actual person explain it face to face. His analogies helped me grasp the concepts better too! We were given a homework assignment but we don't have to turn anything in, so I though I would use my blog to post my assignments and keep me accountable!
The first assignment was to practice using the exposure modes on the camera. Part 1 was to capture motion using the Shutter Priority feature (TV on Canon or S on Nikon). To capture motion you are looking for a slow shutter speed like 1/15.
I took a bunch of pictures of moving things like David riding his bike down the driveway. This one of the pinwheel is my favorite. You can see that the spinning motion of the pinwheel is blurry but the background is relatively sharp.
Shutter: 1/15
Aperture: f/20
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO: 200
Part 2 of the assignment was to stop motion. Ever wonder how you could get that perfect picture of your kids jumping up in the air and have it all be in focus? Well this is how! To stop motion you want a fast shutter speed. So if you are using 1/15 for capturing motion you would want something much, much faster to stop it. For this assignment I used the recommended 1/1000 and spinning the same pinwheel you can see that it looks like it's perfectly still.
Shutter: 1/1000
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal length: 50mm
ISO: 200
Part 3 & 4 of the assignment related to Depth of Field. A deep depth of field, will have foregrounds and backgrounds in focus whereas a shallow depth of field will have a sharp focus on the foreground and a blurry background. To create a deep depth of field you want a small aperture like f/22 and for a shallow depth of field you would want a large aperture like f/4 (and yes that is correct, aperture is backwards the small number = large aperture).
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: f/22
Focal length: 90mm
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/1250
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal length: 90mm
ISO: 200
My lens is very limiting. Some of the nicer (more expensive) lenses will have apertures that are as low as f/1.4. But you can still see a difference in the background in the two pictures.
My lens is very limiting. Some of the nicer (more expensive) lenses will have apertures that are as low as f/1.4. But you can still see a difference in the background in the two pictures.
There is one more part of the assignment that I haven't worked on yet but I will this week. It is using the exposure compensation feature on the camera. I am looking forward to seeing how these ones turn out. It will be a good intro into really learning how to read the cameras histogram.
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