Sunday Spotlight On: Getting It Right On Site

My first day in “Art School” as my daughter calls it, I was given a camera and told to go shoot and come back. I started off at The Art Institute of Raleigh Durham and I thought that I was the best student photographer amongst my peers. After I arrived back in the classroom and loaded the photos onto the screen I was mortified by the gasps and the critique that I had received.  I didn’t know what was wrong! I mean certainly my images were on the level of a professional who charges $1000 an hour. In actuality I was so wrong! The images were blurry, camera shake, white balance was off and just all around terrible! One thing that I will never forget is a Professor of mine telling me that if I do not know it, then to cheat. What?! Yes, cheat. She advised me to write down almost everything from the white balance, aperture and shutter speed and always refer to it when I am shooting until I no longer need it. Today there are tons of websites that offers the same thing.

Courtesy of lifehack.org

Photoshop has spoiled a lot of photographers out there. Making things too easy to edit in post production limits some photographers to "get it right on site." Proper lighting is essential to a good photographer's practice. I could only imagine photographing a session and you let your clients view the photos on your camera and they are all wrong. Imagine what they will think if they see themselves too warm or too cool on camera.

Courtesy of lifehack.org

F-stops are numbers that all real photographers must know. Don't be caught without knowledge of what each one of these mean! These numbers depends on your DOF and how much light your camera is letting in.

Courtesy of lifehack.org

As students and professionals we are always learning every time we pick up our camera to shoot. I will admit that if I am in a class that is a studio setting and then I go back and shoot outside of the studio I have to think for a minute on what my settings should go back to. I have made it a habit for me to daily check my settings on my camera and take a shot in the conditions that I am in and time myself on how fast I can get to the right settings. I like to keep my skills sharp because I never know when I might come across the one event that I need to capture but I missed it fumbling with my camera settings.

Happy Shooting!

I am your Funday Sunday Ambassador!



Work Cited:

Life Hack. "The Ultimate Photography Cheat Sheet Every Photography Lover Needs." Life Hack. ND. Web. 29 March 2014.