NEVER USE BRIGHTNESS OR CONTRAST???

[table1349]

those who cannot do, teach.

And those that cannot teach, teach gym.

 

[Bebulamar]

A professor when telling you to do or not to do something shouldn't he explain why? Shouldn't he even prove it?

 

[vintagesnaps]

My background's in education (infant development) but still... my style would be more likely to give guidelines and a purpose for an assignment. I'm guessing the instructor wants students to learn proper exposure instead of relying on adjusting exposure and brightness?? But that doesn't really explain it being OK to use auto, so I'm not sure what the instructor is going for here. Ask your teacher why, reread the syllabus and see if you can figure out the point of the assignment, etc.

I shoot film and have done darkroom work, and shoot digitally, and either way it could get time consuming to have to do a lot of adjustments to make up for mistakes, so I suppose there's something you're supposed to be learning... what, I'm not sure.

Maybe it's just this particular instructor (good, bad, whatever) and you'll need to ask and follow the guidelines as best you can and give appropriate feedback at the end of the course (assuming it's too late for Drop/Add if this is for credit). Or just stop going and you're out the money unfortunately I guess if this is for personal enrichment. Sometimes you just end up with the bad apple of the bunch.

 

[70Dstudent]

Thank you so much everyone, the feedback has been informative and useful!
My next step will be to learn levels.
My professor tried to explain why, but he didn't convince me, but you all have. He was not entirely wrong, just did not explain it well.
Thanks everybody!

 

[DanOstergren]

Thank you so much everyone, the feedback has been informative and useful!
My next step will be to learn levels.
My professor tried to explain why, but he didn't convince me, but you all have. He was not entirely wrong, just did not explain it well.
Thanks everybody!

Oooh, you should also look into learning about using Curves, as well as Selective Color. But use them as adjustment layers in photoshop. Same goes for Levels. I know it's bad to use words such as "always" and "never" when teaching someone how to do something, but I cannot emphasize more how important non-destructive editing is. Adjustment layers in Photoshop are your best friend.

 

[chuasam]

Brightness and Contrast are exceedingly blunt and crude tools. I use them time to time for a large group of photos when I'm shooting an event and want to brighten an image up a bit.

But when I delivering headshots or better final products, I prefer using curves and masks.

 

[smoke665]

use Levels or Curves for your adjustments

Levels has a couple of neat Auto options on the drop down menu. One it will find the whitest white, and the blackest black in the image to set the white balance. Good place to start. It also has an Auto option to boost the colors/brightness. Was this what he was maybe talking about????