This Term

We are supposed to write about what we learned this term I suppose. There are so many things that I don't even know where to start. Slade always asks us what the most important thing we learned was. I always have trouble with this because I can never pick just one thing. But anyway, here goes. The first things we learned was uploading pictures, photoshopping them, printing them, putting them on the blog, and concrete stuff like that. I say concrete meaning that these things have certain rules and are fairly easy to follow. At the beginning we all had trouble practicing and getting these techniques down and were feeling overwhelmed. But, after we started shooting more and more and learning how to make better and better images, thats when the hard learning started. Now, looking back, the photoshop stuff and the rest seem really straightforward because of how difficult the actual picture-taking is. That is the real tough part. There is no right way to take an image. Sometimes you want one thing, sometime you want another, it all depends. One thing I learned is that the light can really make an image. You can take an image just of light, like Hannah's project. Light can do some really amazing things. Another thing I learned is that it doesn't matter if the subject is pretty, or interesting, or big, or small. What matters is the light, composition, angle, and what it tells the viewer. Another thing that I worked on was taking everyday objects and making them interesting and so people think about them in different ways than normal. I really worked on this during my final project, taking pictures of things around my room. Another thing I learned is that the picture will make itself. At first, I tried taking more candid pictures and just trying to get in the moment. However, I learned that setting up an image a little bit is ohkay. I didn't want to set up the whole image, but I've gotten more used to that. Getting the right light by using a lamp for example, instead of just trying to make do with what it was. Another thing I learned was focus. There were many images that I really liked, but were out of focus. That made me really mad. Blur is really good sometimes, if its enough that you know it was on purpose. Another thing was that some images were made to be mysterious. In a picture, you might not want to show everything. Images of people not looking at the camera are sometimes more interesting than one looking right at the camera because it makes the person think and wonder about the picture. Also, I learned that composition is very important and you have to think about the whole picture and what will end up in the frame before you take the image. You don't normally want to center the subject right in the middle of the frame. It's more interesting if it isn't right smack dab in the middle. Also, you have to pay attention to the background. The background/ foreground relationship is very important and you can't have a background and foreground that compete. Sometimes you want a good background that tells more of a story and helps out the main subject, but sometimes you don't even want anything except a plain background. It all depends on the image. You have to go with how it feels. You can't just use a formula for making a good picture. It has to feel right and get a message across. I loved this term and learned so much! So hopefully I will be able to incorporate this in my shooting and improve even more next term in the dark room where you can't fix the picture as much after its taken.
Oh and I also learned not to be happy with your first picture or idea. It is most likely not the best you can do. My reshoot was a really good example of this. I loved loved my original picture and when Slade told me to reshoot it I was mad and stressed. I thought it was amazing and had no idea how to fix it. But, I used different light, got closer, and took it at a different angle. So, if you think about it and reshoot it might turn out better than you think. You can always improve. Because if you think the first is the best, you will never get that better shot. Once you settle, you won't keep improving. The only way to get better is to push yourself and criticize your work and take good constructive critizism.