Three Things I Learned This Week

For this week's 300 photos, these are the three main things that stuck out to me:

1. Making photographic sacrifices is not easy.
I wanted to experiment shooting in different kinds of lighting this week, so I could get a better handle on how to adjust ISO, aperture, and shutter speed based on differing environments. For me, the biggest struggle was making pictures in relatively low light. I always want a sharp images with high quality, but I knew I couldn't only rely on the F-stop settings, so I found myself continually trying to juggle between a slightly lower-quality image at a higher ISO, with a shutter speed that would be quick enough to eliminate camera-shake. There were many times that I simply had to sacrifice a shutter speed of 1/60 or higher in order to get a quality image. However, as my pictures progressed, I found that I was able to hold the camera more steadily and still get a sharp image at around 1/5 of a second.

2. Focus is essential.
This sounds like a no-brainer, but it was hard to remember in the moment. Trying to take three images of the same thing on different settings challenged my ability to keep my eye on the viewfinder and the subject of my photo. However, in the images where I was more focused, the quality tended to be higher and the frame remained pretty constant.

3. The camera doesn't have to be in control.
Before this class, I would take pictures without knowing anything about standard ISO, f-stop, and shutter speed settings, so in a way it's like the camera was in control of the result. However, understanding the technology behind the camera has allowed me to take control and actually become a photographer, not merely someone standing behind the camera and seeing what happens. Instead of taking a snapshot and seeing if it turns out okay, I am able to engineer the images I make. Rather than documenting, I'm creating photos.