Jan 2011 Review

The second kick-start course completed today and despite the cold weather it went very well.

We kicked off in the Botanic Gardens, getting right down to some of the basics…

• Manually selecting focus points
• Adjusting settings to shoot in RAW
• Discussing aperture (Av mode) and seeing the difference it makes
• Checking exposure with the histogram and compensating when required

We then ironed out some of the various camera controls while walking around the gardens. After a while we made our way up to some of the waterfalls and discussed shutter priority (‘Tv’ or ‘S’ mode, depending on the manufacturer) and used the flowing water to demonstrate the aesthetic impact shutter speed makes on an image

As we made our way to the pub we discussed flash, and the limitations of on-camera flash. We did a little bounce flash and off-camera basics, plus made sure everyone set the cameras to rear-curtain (or second curtain) sync… Ken was kind enough to step in front of the lens for a demonstration:

On-Camera flash bounced off a white wall, making the light bigger and softerYou’ll see from the metadata on the image above that I didn’t quite follow my own advice to always set the ISO (and other settings) back to their standard values, so this was shot at ISO 1600 when it should have been a nice clean 100. Photography is full of “aww shit” moments, and mistakes are a good way to learn. Despite the blunder I still really like the image.

Off-camera flash shot through an umbrella with a high shutter speed to darken the sky (Still shooting at 1600!)Once we got to the pub we went through the workflow and editing side of digital imaging using Lightroom, and more importantly warmed up with a bit. The Tolka House do a good Guinness if you’re ever in the area and thirsty.

All-in-all an enjoyable day with good feedback from the participants!

More coming soon…

Daithí