DEVELOPING YOUR EYE ! PART 1 OF A 10 PART SERIES:

Today starts a whole 10 part series titled: “SEEING A PHOTO”. This is a series that WordPress had developed for photographers, to learn about the art of learning to see. It takes a lot to really see a photo when you don’t know what to look for. I love to see a real good photographer go into a remote place and see something that we just don’t see at all. And they take the photo and it’s amazing. This 10 part series will help us to see the different types of lighting, composition, and so forth. And it is set up so that you can practice with each one of these series. I would love for everyone to participate if you want to take the assignments in here. If you want to submit a photo as you practice these techniques, please submit your photo to: question.123photogo@gmail.com

And here is our first of a series of 10:

Day One: “Warmth” — The Quality of Light

Photography means “drawing with light.” When you take a picture with your camera, you use and record light to create an image. When we’re out and about, we often use the sun — our most abundant light source — to capture our scenes.

The Hagia Sophia is an impressive mosque in Istanbul, Turkey. If you ever find yourself wandering inside, here’s what you’ll see when you look up:

The spotlights on the chandeliers — combined with lots of ambient and natural light filtering in from outside — create a warm scene of yellows and golds.

For your first shooting challenge, capture an image of warmth, using the sun as your source. If the sun is nowhere to be found today, not to worry — interpret warmth in your own way.

Today’s Tip: Consider the direction and quality of light. Front light is great for outdoor landscapes and group portraits; a front-lit subject faces the light source, making it even-lit. Side light is fun to experiment with: the mix of light and shadow shows more depth and can create unexpected results.

Visit the resource page for details. Remember to tag your post with #developingyoureye and check the Reader to see posts from fellow course participants!

Here’s just another idea: While taking a walk at night time you will find that street lighting produces a warm light to the scene. Here is one I took, while walking the street one night:

Photo of the Week – April 9th, 2021

This week’s Photo of the Week taken by Ron DePayola. Congratulations Ron.

HOW TO BECOME A BETTER PHOTOGRAPHER

I think most of us are always trying to become better photographers. But, as we go on taking pictures, perhaps you get stuck trying to figure out what to do next in order to have improvements in your photography. So, here is some tips that I found that are very useful.

1- Learn how to use your camera in manual mode.

But, automatic seems to work so well. Why would I go to all that work to learn something that seems so hard. It’s because you will be learning why the camera is doing what it’s doing in automatic mode, and there are photos that you take in automatic mode that you would like to learn how to fix it. If you understand your shutter speed settings and your aperture settings, and how you can control depth of field, you will vastly improve your photography.

2- Imitate a photo that you like:

We all have photos that we like, and don’t we wish we could take a photo like that. Take some time and study the photo you like. Is the lighting the key to why it is so good? Is it the composition? Is it a particular moody day? Study it out, and think about what makes it so good. One thing I think to look at the most while studying this photo is lighting. That is what photography is: Light caught on memory. Study that more than anything.

Learn to study lighting. Try to figure out where the light comes from. Photo by Valentina bacherer on Unsplash

3- Use patience in creating your photos:

Remember, there is no shortcut to being a good photographer. How good you get all boils down to the effort you put into the art form. Patience and persistence are key. You must be willing to do things over and over again. Keep yourself open to learning from every shot you take. Hard work is the absolute difference-maker and will definitely pay off.

A photo takes great patience to create a masterpiece. Photo by Andreas Kind on Unsplash

4- Avoid the mistake of wanting to upgrade your camera system

In the beginning, as you take pictures, and you notice that they aren’t coming out like you would hope, you may tend to blame it on the equipment. Stop thinking that and try to take the best photos with the equipment you have. It is probably just operator error (ouch! that’s a hard one to swallow). But as you improve your photo skills, you will know when it’s time to upgrade your photo equipment.

5- You will need to start innovating new ideas:

Learn to experiment with lighting, composition, etc. and see the artwork you can create. Photo by Oscar Keys on Unsplash

You will know when you have mastered photography a bit, because you will want to innovate your photos. You should try different things, and then print them so you can see it in reality. Pick different projects, not necessarily big projects, but, do it so you can follow what you have done.

“Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson

To help you out, I am starting a 10 part session on this blog site, starting next Monday, the 12th of April. 10 different lessons on “SEEING A PHOTOGRAPH”. And that will involve understanding light, composition and the way to look around for things that everyone else misses.

See you Monday.