Photo Class Update

Assignment #3 Freeze Motion SOOC 

I have to confess. When I signed up for Lesley's  Intro to Photography Class, I didn't think I would learn much. I've been shooting tons over the past year. I somehow felt like I had a grasp of my camera and its abilities even though I was shooting in automatic mode!  Talk about being overly confident. Some of my photos are even enlarged poster size and framed in my house! Ha.

Before taking the class, I didn't even know the basic functions of my camera. Learning how to change the f/stop, shutter speeds, etc was the first homework assignment before we entered class. It immediately put me in my place. For example, the curved W/B button? I've never pressed it. That stands for White Balance. Completely changes everything. The Q inside a square? I never even noticed it! When pressed, it makes it so much easier and faster to change the settings. These two buttons are so important to me now.

My favorite thing I learned at class was about SOOC. It's a nerdy acronym photographers use that means "straight out of camera". No edits, no color enhancements, nothing. Just a beautiful image without the help from editing software. And here I thought I was just being lazy when I didn't edit! Turns out it's like some sort of badge of honor. So for this post, the images are SOOC and are labeled such. Nerd!

The biggest lesson for me was learning about proper exposure. I had no idea I've been over exposing just about every one of my images! Even in perfect lighting! Lesley helped us train our eyes to see the difference between over, under, and perfectly exposed images. I know it's going to take years before I really can tell the slight difference, but for now, I can already sense an awareness I never had before.

My third and final class is going to be a lighting demo outside. It's going to be awesome! But first I have to catch up on some late assignments first. I only did 9/13.

Check out all of my completed assignments after the jump. #10 was the hardest to accomplish. #11 is one of my favorites, despite Oscar's funky facial expression. Critiques welcome.

For my dad: Click the tiny "Read More" Button below. :)


UPDATE: A lot of people have been asking about taking one of Lesley's classes.  I'll keep you posted if she decides to do it again! I hope she does. It's great!

Assignment #1 Shallow Depth of Field SOOC

Assignment #2 Large Depth of Field SOOC

Assignment #4 Capture Motion SOOC

Assignment #6 and #7 Underexpose/Overexpose Images
*I was actually told that the left image is correctly exposed despite the blown out flowers and sky. Interesting! Good to know.

Assignment #8 Front Lighting SOOC

Assignment #9 Side Lighting SOOC

Assignment #10 Take photo with your favorite 90210 character. 

Assignment #11 Back Lighting SOOC