Showing posts with label photography workshop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photography workshop. Show all posts
365 Challenge #222 - learnin' about exposure
So, I went to Session #2 of the Colour I Course at the Brisbane College of Photography and Art tonight.
This week we talked about quality of light and then got onto metering. As with some of the topics last week, I'd heard discussions about metering before, but it was helpful to hear about the pros and cons of the various metering options, like evaluative, centre-weighted, partial and spot metering. Until now, I've pretty much not moved the dial off evaluative - kinda like the Auto of the metering world.
My mission after tonight's workshop is to get a bit more specific about what I meter off in each shot.
According to the Canon website, evaluative metering "is directly linked to, and concentrated on, the active Autofocus (AF) point. Light values measured at the active AF point are compared with light values measured from the metering segments surrounding the active point, and the camera's metering system attempts to provide an accurate exposure based on that comparison." Basically, as the tutor pointed out, the camera tries to average out the whole scene - which may or may not be appropriate. If you have obvious highlights and lowlights, this probably isn't gonna be a good mode to use.
Centre-weighted Average: This metering mode averages the exposure for the entire picture area, but with greater emphasis on the centre metering zones.
Partial: This metering mode is similar to Spot Metering, but covers a slightly larger area, reading only the cross-shaped central five metering zones (approximately 10% of the total picture area).
Spot: This metering mode gets exposure information only from the single exposure zone in the center of the frame (approximately 3% of the total picture area).
The tutor reckoned that even seasoned pros struggle with metering, and that using spot metering mode can be tricky and far less forgiving than something like partial metering mode. He said he liked to use this mode for shooting portraits, like those at weddings. I'm thinking I'll have the perfect opportunity to test out this theory this weekend.
This led into a discussion about bracketing (as you can by the scrawl above, I thought this was pretty important). Autobracketing is where you set the camera to take several successive shots (usually three) with slightly different settings. Later, the best-looking image can be picked from the batch.
The most common type of autobracketing is exposure autobracketing, where the camera is set to capture the same image several times with different exposure settings, both over-exposed and under-exposed (lighter and darker) compared to the current setting on the camera. It's kinda like hedging your bets as to whether you're doing it right. I'm a hedger. I like it!
We also had a bit of revision about composition; guidelines like the Rule of Thirds, the centre of interest, merges, framing and leading lines. There's something about hearing this information, seeing images that illustrate the points, chattin' about it, then actually going out and looking for these elements in shots, that's starting to make it all sink in (at leats theorectically).
Like learning any new skill, there's different phases of learning:
1) Unconscious incompetence
2) Conscious incompetence
3) Conscious competence
4) Unconscious competence
I reckon I'm at about the conscious incompetence phase with my photography, but I also reckon that if I continue to have as much fun learning about it as I currently am, I will never tire of it.
Now...can I just fast forward to unconscious competence? :)
The course junkie strikes again
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| Copyright Brisbane College of Photography & Art |
I've done a few photography workshops in the last 18 months, and while they were awesome, I found that there was a lot of information to take in on these intensive all day courses. Perhaps I'm a slow learner, but I think I definitely absorb technical information (such as theory about aperture, exposure, guide numbers and f-stops) slowly. S-l-o-w-l-y I say. Not even the new glasses and supposed increase in IQ are helping my information absorption and retention rates these days. I need time to think about what I'm learning, play with the camera settings, experiment, and generally take A LOT of pictures while I put a particular technique into practice.
So, in the interests of improving the consistency of my photography, and specifically my understanding of the magical element in any photo, light, I signed up for the 8-week Colour Level 1 course at the Brisbane College of Photography & Art in Fortitude Valley.
I did an 8-week photoshop workshop last semester with them, and liked the 2-hour a night, 1-night a week format. It gave this slow learner time to experiment, ask questions and practice - which I reckon is ultimately what it all comes down to.
This course covers everything from exposure and metering, to on and off camera flash work, and all sorts of other little tips along the way. It started tonight!
Our lecturer, Steve Lispet is an architectural photographer and Canon shooter - so he must know what he's talking about. (And, what's more, what is it about Steve's and photography???) :).
He gave us a refresher of the relationship between aperture and shutter speed, which I'd heard before. BUT, it was great to go over it again, having taken some 30,000 images since the last time I did a workshop that talked about the same stuff, and with a far better practical understanding of what it all meant.
The fact that Steve shoots with a 5D II is brilliant, because he's now going to be my personal help manual for the next 8 weeks. Gotta love that as you're working your way round a new camera!
I also learnt a few little tips about getting the correct exposure for shooting weddings - making the whites whiter and the blacks blacker, which is handy, cos I've been invited to tag along to shoot one the weekend after next. That's a tad scaryciting (scaryciting = as scary as it is exciting), but that's a whole other blog post.
We were given an assignment too. It's all about seeing the different quality and colour of light around sunset at various intervals. Methinks Southbank or the Kangaroo Point cliffs will get a bit of a visit some time this weekend. Stay tuned!
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