3rd year photography student, need help learning new stuff.

[pyropenguin]

Hello everybody, I'm in my third year of photography at my school, and now my teacher is saying I can learn whatever I want, I just have to write out what I'm going to be doing and what my final product will be.

First I was planning on watching video podcasts about photography or photoshop, I can't find anything I don't know. What are some websites with tutorials on different techniques in photoshop for photographers besides the usual shadow/highlights, curves, channel mixer, color balance, masking, healing brushes, cloning tools, cropping and all that. Are there any tutorials past this point or am I on my own to experiment now?

Also, does anybody know anything about car photography here? I've started Autocrossing and have been really into photographing the race cars.


Thanks,
Kyle

btw, I shoot with a Nikon D50 and use CS2.


Edit:
Also, if you have any ideas on other things I could do to improve my photography, where I could create a final product to show my teacher, please post em!

 

[ladyphotog]

Does it have to be digital? How about the zone system if you haven't already learned that or different types of lighting. Using tungsten film in daylight and vice versa. Digital is limiting to a point. Althought you can get close to the same results in Photoshop, there is nothing like a nice transparency. What about other formats of cameras. If you would tell us basically what you have learned we might be better able to answer.

 

[pyropenguin]

It doesn't HAVE to be digital, but I'm really not interested in learning film right now.

I've experimented a bit with throwing off the white balance in the daylight to create blue colors. I pretty much understand the relationship between aperture and shutter speed to change the focal plane. I haven't really messed with lighting beyond adjusting the strength of the camera's flash.

I know there has to be a lot of techniques and things like that, that I don't know. I just can't find anything to learn about it. I've played with panoramas, night photography, long exposures.

Class is out so I have to go, but please post up any ideas you have.

Kyle

 

[ladyphotog]

Going from the digital aspect then, work on different lighting, natural, fill flash, flash, studio lighting, etc. There is endless things to learn about lighting, first and foremost is seeing the light and how it plays off of your subject. You could get into composition and the rule of thirds. Rely more on the shot you took than on photoshop, you will be infinitely better at your craft. There is a great book that talks about lighting and just about everything else related to photography that is called: Photography By Barbara and John Upton. It is on Amazon.com. Hope that helps.

 

[pyropenguin]

We've gone into composition, but not the lighting, I'll check that out.

 

[Luke]

YOU'VE BEEN DOING IT FOR 3 YEARS AND YOU HAVEN'T LEARNT ABOUT LIGHTING?
Okay, things you might want to learn about:
Portraiture: REAL portraiture where you try and convey someones essence in a photo
Street Photography: street photography there are guides and what not
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_photography
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/38038974/
Zone System: If you don't understand this you really can't be fully aware of what you are doing when you take a photo
there are three solid suggestions, if you don't know of any of them then there you go!

It doesn't HAVE to be digital, but I'm really not interested in learning film right now.

I've experimented a bit with throwing off the white balance in the daylight to create blue colors. I pretty much understand the relationship between aperture and shutter speed to change the focal plane. I haven't really messed with lighting beyond adjusting the strength of the camera's flash.

I know there has to be a lot of techniques and things like that, that I don't know. I just can't find anything to learn about it. I've played with panoramas, night photography, long exposures.

Class is out so I have to go, but please post up any ideas you have.

Kyle

Pretty much doesn't really cut it, i mean, aperture and shutter are the basis for photography, they are in short the only two elements that can change your exposure on a given iso and thus must be second nature to you. Practice spot metering, or even just not using a meter at all, that way you know what you really want out of your aperture and shutter.
And as for increasing flash, that covers about as much of lighting as a sprinkle on a doughnut. Theres different situations, with different contrasts, theres strobe lights, the sun, bounced flash bounced son, polarized light.
Looks to me like you have heaps to do, you just have to buckle down...

 

[benhasajeep]

I have to agree with above. Lighting IS photography! It is amazing on how much a portrait or a scene is changed by different lighting.

Take a picture of a garden in afternoon sun. Then take the same scene in morning light and evening light. You will have 3 very different pictures! Same goes with portraits. Lighting is key in "good" photography.

It does not matter if you have exposure dead on. You could have a spectacular picture and it will look dull due to lighting. I have tons of grand canyon pics from afternoon sun that are basically seen it done it pics. But then you look at the morning and evening shots and there is some pop to them. Same thing for snap shots of parties. Its amazing what a difference an angled flash head, or strobaframe, or sto-fen type bounce will enhance a pic.

There are endless projects you can do with lighting. And if you learn it well. You will become a better photographer than you are today.

 

[pyropenguin]

Thanks guys, I'll check out that . I never realized how big of a part lighting has! That street photography write-up is very interesting, I'll deffinetly be looking into it.

Kyle

 

[W.Smith]

How about doing some table top stuff? Small subjects/objects (including jewelry, coins (macro!), still lives, or e.g. small statuettes). You can experiment with hard light, soft light, fill-in/open shadows, reflectors, reflections (glass base), (horizonless) backgrounds – in various colors, and even with a light tent.
Besides a good tripod (I'm trusting a 3rd year photo student has one!) you won't need to buy much, if anything. You can create it all with D-I-Y. And you can do it all in the comfort of your own home, as and when it suits you.

Don't worry about 'specular highlights' (= sparkles). You can add those in PP. I often use Photoline32 for that (for Windows and Mac; FREE download, shareware). Like so:

 

[W.Smith]

[snip]

 

[DocFrankenstein]

Show us your portfolio and if you want, I can be extra critical.