Wisteria's Scrap Book [Photography]

[Rival Max]

Id like to see the photo spread of you robbing a bank..LOL

Could show pictures of you scouting it out, pic with you getting read :P

[[Desolate Divine]]

So I was planning to upload some photos tonight. However when do things ever go to plan?

I went to Church to do some work and arrived there and noticed that I was smack bang in the middle of the Golden Hour. It bathed the grounds in this beautiful golden light. I had my camera in the car for a moment like this, so spent about half an hour taking photos, as I remembered @Neo Emolga being curious as to what my Church looked like, and honestly the place looked beautiful. Then I got home and looked at them on my PC and realised very quickly that it wasn't my best work, and why.

When working with a camera there are six main settings/elements I adjust.

White Balance: White Balance basically tells the camera what colour the light is. For example the light is a different colour if you go from a sunny day to a room with white LED lighting. If you don't tell the camera what colour light you are in, it won't capture the colours as well as it could. It is something I tend to forget about until the last minute.

Shutter speed: Shutter speed is how long the shutter stays open and reveals the sensor. This affects the shot in two main ways. Firstly is motion blur. In some shots you want a little bit of blur for effect so you let the shutter stay open a little longer. In others you want it crisp and perfect, like an action shot. The other way it affect the shot is the amount of light that gets let in. The quicker the shutter speed the less time there is for the sensor to detect light so if it is too quick and you don't adjust the other settings to compensate, it will be too dark. Or the other way around. If you leave it open too long and don't adjust the other settings it'll be washed out and white.

Aperture: The aperture is basically a hole that can be adjusted in size (referred to as F stops). Basically, the wider the hole is the more light gets let in and that's it. At least, that's what I thought. Turns out it does something else as well. The wider the aperture is, the shallower the depth of field is. Basically if you take two shots that are exactly the same, one with the widest aperture and the other settings compensating, and one with the smallest aperture with the other settings compensating, the first one (wide) will have much more blur on the stuff that isn't the subject than one with the smaller aperture.

ISO: I am not 100% sure about how to use ISO properly yet. I see it as a last resort to affect the light. My camera has the settings for ISO as 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200 and 6400. Each one of these lets more light into the shot (somehow). However there is an unfortunate side effect, which is that the photos become grainy if the ISO is too high. Because of this I tend to leave it on 100, only increasing it when necessary.

Focal Length: Focal Length is basically how zoomed in the lense is. It is measured in mm. The higher the focal length, the shallower the depth of field. The lower the focal length the wider the shot.

Focal distance: How far away the subject of focus is. If I am focusing the camera on a subject five meters away, the focal distance will be five meters.

My way of using the camera tends to be this. I pick the white balance setting best suited for what I want to do. Or I forget and do that last. I frame the shot and focus it to get the right wideness and depth of field, and take a test shot with the fairly quick shutter speed (as I rarely use slow shutter speed) to see how I need to adjust the other settings. Basically, I keep the ISO at 100 and widen the aperture until I have enough light. If the aperture is as wide as it goes but it's still too dark, I lower the shutter speed gradually until I reach the maximum I am willing to use. Then I start pulling up the ISO.

Basically I had that mentality today for the shots I did. I was using a fixed 40mm lense that has a wider aperture then my others. I would have usually been using my 18-55mm lense for this, but decided I hadn't used my 40mm enough since I got it. Long story short, instead of slowing down the shutter speed and increasing the ISO, I widened the aperture too much when I wanted more light. The result of this was a bunch of images that were crisp and clear on the focal point, which was one small part of the shot, but blurry as f*** everywhere else because the wide aperture made the depth of field really shallow. Lesson learnt. Don't hate the ISO. If you use it right, it stops s*** like this from happening.

On a side note, tomorrow looks fairly clear and sunny. The way I drive home from church has an amazing view of the sunset (It was perfect last week but I didn't have my camera...) so maybe if I'm lucky I can get a few nice shots then.

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

That all sounds so complex, but good to know. Whenever I take photos, I just use auto xD

Shame the photos didn't work out this time. I hope it goes well today, and that everything's fine!

[[Desolate Divine]]

So I have been taking a lot of photos recently! Unfortunately, they are all for youth events. On the plus side, I am getting better and more confident at taking shots with people. On the negative side, I can't show 99% of those shots here for legal reasons.

Apollo Bay

Spoiler:

For my dads 50th Birthday, we went away to Apollo Bay. I was only there for three days, but got a few shots.

This was technically at home. My family were at Apollo Bay, but I came out one morning and saw this guy. My dad loves the King Parrot's that we get in our backyard so I got a snap of him.


This is the view from the house we stayed at. Also the first good shot I got with my polarizing filter!


Whilst the colours aren't too great, I like the view. This beach was where my stepbrother planned on bodyboarding. Before we got there. Turned out to be way too dangerous for that...


We stopped at a little general store for lunch, and out the window I noticed the birds, so got a couple of shots with my zoom lens.


This is close to being one of my favorites. I hate how out of focus it is, but love the way the light hits the boardwalk!


This was in our rental house, and I had a bit of fun with it...



This is my grandpa's dog Maxx (yes it is spelt like that...)


Seeing as the day before my idea was ignored and the place we went to sucked, and this place was on the way home, we stopped at Sheoak Falls in Lorne, where I had gone a few months earlier. It was cool seeing it in summer with it mostly dried up, as opposed to crossing water in spring. My family complained about the hike most of the way. Weak...


One of the natives of Sheoak Falls

New Lens

Spoiler:

So yesterday I shelled out $180 (which isn't too much for a lens) and bought a new lens. The 40mm one I bought in Janurary wasn't cutting it in low light and I wasn't a fan of it. So I got this one (which was actually cheaper) to use. I am keen to put it to the test at Youth Group, as that's when I need it's low light capabilities. Anyway, here are some test shots.


So this is my dog that lives with my nanna. Spud. He is nearly ten. He usually doesn't like the camera.




You guys know I wear glasses sometimes right?


Old Doggo.




My brother keeps stealing my hoodie. It is one of my church's ones so I told him I'd get him one if he'd come to one of our Young Adults gatherings, that I know he'll like. He just doesn't know it yet.


So this is my Grandad's old piano. Before he died, he hadn't played much for a while, due to his Parkinson's Disease. I play it most times when I visit Grandma, though it is badly out of tune.

@Pokemon Trainer Sarah @Neo Emolga @Suicune's Fire @Rival Max

[Suicune's Fire]

THE KING PARROT!!!!!!!!!!! Soooo cute! The new lens looks sweet. Love the Maxx shots. C: And the piano one is sweet. :) The lizard is also awesome. :D Great shots! The scenery is so pretty.

[Neo Emolga]

I wanna King parrot now! They look really cool.

Those are awesome shots! And yeah, your brother needs to quit stealing hoodies.

[[Desolate Divine]]

Trying to be creative
So tonight I had a friend's birthday dinner. I asked her if I should bring my camera along, and she said I could if I want. I wanted to as I wanted an excuse to test out my new lens. Unfortunately, I didn't know many people at the party so wasn't comfortable taking photos of people. However one of my mates and I got a little bored and decided to try and be creative with the things on our table.

Spoiler:

To be fair this was my mates shot. Due to the lens having a very shallow depth of field, the only way we could keep my half eaten cake and the glass in focus was by having my mate take the shot, as they were directly next to each other from his point of view, but slightly behind from mine (if that makes sense). Still a good shot, and I can take credit for configuring the camera.


This one was mine. It was my mates idea, however he couldn't seem to get the shot. I think he was struggling with just how shallow the depth of field really was. He was struggling to focus on the right point. I'm proud to say I got it first go!


I really like this shot in that it reflects the light well and gives it a whole other look than just a phone sitting on the table. Upon seeing the outcome, I then changed to a setting I hadn't used much before to test it out...

Wasn't as nice as the original but it got me thinking of how to use Monochrome. I then had an idea based on Chloe's bedroom wall from Life Is Strange. Lucky for me, my other friend Beck, always has a notepad and pen with her...

I wish I had have spent more time on this to perfect that focus! This is the best shot, and all of them has a slight part of the writing out of focus!


When I began running out of ideas, I pulled my zoom lens from my camera bag, and began trying to capture the light reflections in the glass of it, and had a little fun.

That's it! See you next time around!
@Neo Emolga @Suicune's Fire @Pokemon Trainer Sarah @Rival Max

Last time I tag you guys for a while! I just really like these shots haha

[Neo Emolga]

These are definitely great. Like you said, working with focus and depth of field can be tricky, but these still look neat.

That's definitely a unique light in that second picture.

[Suicune's Fire]

I love that you took a picture of a part of the camera. XD Those shots are great. I like the "I'm going to die here" one. c: My favourite shots are shots of animals though. x3

[Pokemon Trainer Sarah]

I looked at all these and then forgot to comment haha. I love the rainforest boardwalk one. It looks really great and the lighting came out just right!

I like your creative shots too! You should do more of them! The phone one and the lens have some pretty cool lighting going on. :)

Do you do any editing after you take the photos?