Digital Photography - Week 1

So I've had my Nikon for almost a year now but haven't actually sat down to read through the manual. I think part of it's my "jump-in-and-figure-things-out-as-you-go" personality, which tends to work when I put together furniture (most of the time), but I'm realizing now this strategy will not work if I want to become a better photographer.

Ryan and I met in the photo studio and started testing my camera with an old Nikon flash of his. It took a while to figure out the right settings and white balance but we finally got it. For one of my first projects I wanted to setup a still life using my old pointe shoes. Ballet is a huge part of my life. I danced since I was 4 years old and spent four years with the Rochester City Ballet in high school. Although I don't practice much anymore it has shaped me into the person I am and will always be one of my true passions in life.

We set the shoes in the light box and tried different ISO and F stop settings. I can't seem to remember what each combination does to the overall effect but I hope with practice and constant referencing it will come to mind more naturally. After about an hour of shooting the pointe shoes we opened Photoshop and starting adjusting the images. It's amazing how many effects you can get with a click of the mouse. However, my goal is to take photos that do not need much manipulation in the end. I'd like to use Photoshop as a tool to enhance the photos rather than change them entirely.

So this is what I learned after Week 1:

• F-Stop: AKA the "aperature" determines how much light hits the sensor. The aperature setting works the opposite of what you would think- the higher the number the less light is let in. The lower the number the more light is let in. This little graphic helps me visualize this better:

• ISO- ISO determines the film speed and how sensitive the image sensor is to the amount of light being let in. The lower the ISO the less sensitive, the higher the ISO the more sensitive.
• Lastly- I learned I need to get to know my camera. This means reading and re-reading the manual.  

Below is a before and after shot of one of the photos I took in the studio. I used the following tools in the Photoshop Raw Editing program:

• Curve Adjustment
• Saturation
• Hue/Saturation
• Photo Filter --> Cooling filter/low density

Unfortunately I didn't track the specific changes or settings this time around but will begin doing that moving forward. It will be nice to look back and see what I did to achieve the final result and will help if I want to recreate an image in the future.

BEFORE EDITING

AFTER EDITING