I learned 9-22-11

My nephew asked if I would take his senior pictures. I have never done this before but I was up for the challenge. 

I only have iphoto for editing. I've been holding off on purchasing photoshop because I want to get as much practice getting great pics with my camera before I purchase such a powerful editing tool. Fortunately (or so I thought) I had a trial version of photoshop. So I thought I would try and get rid of the words on the fence.

I very quickly learned that I need more than 15 out of 30 days to master this program. I don't have a ton of time currently to spend on practicing with PS so I ended up getting extremely frustrated.  As you can see by the picture below. I did get rid of the words but ended up having a hard time making the fence line up. I also learned that I may need to take a photo shop class in order to understand how to use it effectively. I tried to add some texture and different lighting to this photo but couldn't get it to work how I wanted it to.

I learned

 

At Click It Up A Notch she challenged us to show our progress by showing one of our first photos shot in manual and than  show a more recent photo shot in manual.

I took this picture during the alumni game at the beginning of the season in November 2010. This was the first time I decided to shoot in manual other than the two or three pics that I had taken of some apples just to see the difference when I changed ISO, f stop, etc.  I had started taking some basketball pictures during my son's games that summer so I was just starting to become familiar with taking sports pictures.

NOVEMBER 2010

Camera model:NIKON D40

Focal length:18 mm

Focal length (35mm):27 mm

Max lens aperture:f/3.5

Exposure:1/100 at f/5.6

Flash:Not fired

Exposure bias:0 EV

Exposure mode:Manual

Exposure prog.:Manual

ISO speed:ISO 1600

Metering mode:Pattern

I took this picture during the final tournament of the season.


MARCH 2011

Camera model:NIKON D40

Focal length:18 mm

Focal length (35mm):27 mm

Max lens aperture:f/3.5

Exposure:1/100 at f/3.5

Flash:Not fired

Exposure bias:0 EV

Exposure mode:Manual

Exposure prog.:Manual

ISO speed:ISO 1600

Metering mode:Pattern

Some of the things I learned during the basketball season:

1. Take pictures during warm up to check lighting
2. Frame pictures more carefully.  
3. Look to tell a story. Even though most of the pictures are action shots look for those shots that tell a story of the individual or team.

Things I would like to improve

1.  Frame pictures more carefully
2. Take more pictures with a purpose.  Instead of just shooting with a continuous high shutter release and going through hundreds of photos after the game, I would like to capture the one great picture in the sequence.
3. Learn how to get more light into my less with less noise.

I recently upgraded to a Nikon D90 and I'm hoping I can get the 85mm 1.4 lens within the next year.  Photoshop is also on my wish list, but for now I will be happy with iphoto.