shutter speed

[ironymaiden]

tonight was my second photo class. we met by the pig at the Market and spent the evening doing
hands-on shutter speed exercises. fun stuff - making waving arms disappear, stopping water mid-flow, panning to get a sharp moving object in the foreground and blur in the background.

my key takeaway from tonight was this: (per my teacher) the amount of information we have to absorb in the first few classes is overwhelming by design. we shouldn't really expect to feel competent about exposure until class six. and the shots we're taking now shouldn't be as good as ones we were taking before when we used auto settings because the camera on auto makes good choices and we don't know what the hell we're doing yet.

while ostensibly concentrating on shutter speed, i also absorbed more about choosing ISO and how to read histograms. i still don't feel the 18% gray thing in my bones, but tonight i feel more confident that it will make sense soon. also, i got more info about next week's critique: there's nothing wrong with choosing a favorite photo that is not my most technically proficient photo, because one of the things i will get out of the critique is what changes i need to make it a more ideal shot (and if i can correct that on the computer or if i need to recreate the shot with better settings).

so now i get to have more joy and less fear. i must fail in front of people in order to improve. it's going to be okay.

Comments

Histograms

[the-same-andrew.livejournal.com]

Histograms are so great, particularly helpful for people like me-- for whom red and green are frequently just conversation piece.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

It's going to be awesome. I have the envy--but I also have the delight, because you're going to do great things and I get to watch. :-)

[e-bourne.livejournal.com]

I'm very happy for you. Learning to not fear failing is the single most important artist's lesson. We did class critiques throughout my five million years of painting classes. An important thing was learning what to hear, and what to let roll away. Hard at first. Easy later. It's part of learning how to embed your vision in your bones. The technical part is easy. Learning what your vision is, and how to trust it, that's the fun part. (and sometimes very like a rollercoaster.)