For this assignment, I tried to go out to as many local events as possible. For some reason, I captured better pictures from my tungston shoot than my daylight pictures, probably because I was less tired.
On my CT select, I shot from a distance from the left side of the stage. I had a clear view of her and the stage with relatively few interruptions. Because of the layout of Cherry Street Artisan, I felt it was obtrusive to be walking around a shooting, so I kept to a table. The lighting was fairly low, so I boosted my ISO up to 1000, and then used a telephoto lens (135 – 200) to get close. I opened my F-stop as far as I could go (F5.6), and then metered at a shutter speed of 1/25. I tried to meter an area of lighting that I felt the light was falling on the subject. To tell you the truth, I am still a little inexperienced at understanding exposure and metering. So I’m not exactly sure what I was going for, only that I felt the sharp contrast of light created a picture that showed some emotion. The subject wasn’t one to show a lot of emotion as she sang, so I thought the lighting could portray what she did show. Also, I struggle with editing my pictures, choosing a good select. So I’m not sure if this is the best choice or not, and I hope to get more confident in that, understanding the process of selection.
On my MT select, frankly I felt none of my pictures were that great. For those pictures that weren’t that great, I had great caption information. But, I didn’t feel they were as strong to choose from. I chose this picture because of the emotions on their faces, the way the light fell, and the colors. It creates a sense of fun and the viewer feels they are apart of the ride. I knew I needed a fast shutter speed to stop the action and to get relative detail on the subjects faces. So I chose 1/500 to stop the action. I then metered my light, and it came to F8. I kept my ISO at 200 because of the sunlight. However, I didn’t get a lot of caption information, which was my fault. I seem to be more concerned with the technical aspects, and forget the details of caption writing. I know I need to work on that. Hopefully, it will become second nature. But there is sooooo many details.
I noticed on many of my pictures that my subjects were looking down a lot. In many of them, the viewer can’t see their eyes. I sense in myself that I need to be more proactive in asking my subjects to look up if they are posing per se. Or to really be observant and aware of the subjects body language and act on that when necessary, so that I can get better shots of their faces. I also struggle with being quick enough to capture the subjects when they move.
Also, I come from an art photography background and I am struggling with the artistically posed shot, instead of capturing pictures that tell more of a story – movement, more people, interaction, etc. I found that my pictures were starting to look the same. I need to be more aware of that as well. How do I learn to shoot more journalistically, instead of artistically? I need some pointers on that.
