OscarWilde
TPF Noob!
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2012
- Messages
- 229
- Reaction score
- 51
- Location
- Canada
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
Hey All!
This thread is intended as a collaborative posting of exercises for the beginner (to novice; to, perhaps, even advanced) photographer to increase their skill, or understanding.
There is no specific area I was intending to target so please feel free to post exercises that will help with composition, elements of design, processing, anything!
I'll start it off with a few I picked up from books and sites along the way. I'll give credit where I can and everyone else should as well (when necessary)
Exercise: Knowing what your lenses see (Bryan Peterson; Learning to See Creatively (book))
Set your camera's focal length to a specific number (ie. 35mm, 28mm, 100mm...) and DON'T change it during this entire exercise.
Take a picture of a subject (preferably something that isn't going to move during the course of the exercise) so that the subject is in the "middle" of the frame with a lot of empty space all around.
Keeping the camera at your eye begin walking towards the subject. Every five paces take another exposure while keeping the subject in focus. Keep getting closer until your camera can no longer get the subject in focus.
The purpose of this is to understand the "vision" of your camera, ie. what your camera "sees" from different angles and distances. You'll notice that the original image contains the subject as well as a lot of other unnecessary things and as you get closer the subject will become more focal. As you get closer you may also notice that important parts of the image are cut out. This is the intended result. To understand at what distance that specific focal length is useful for capturing what kind/ size/ shape of subject.
The exercise should then be repeated on your knees (starting at the same point) and then on your belly.
Once you take the last picture on your belly, roll over onto your back in that position and take on last shot looking UP at your subject.
The entire exercise should be repeated with other focal lengths and lens sizes!
Bryan recommends "maintaining a regimen of this exercise once a week for three months" which will result in "you having a vision that is shared by fewer than 10 percent of all photographers".
He explains that the end result of this is: the ability to "stand at the edge of a meadow or lake and scan the entire scene, picking out a host of compositions even before you place the camera to your eye". This is because you now have the "vision" of your lenses in your minds eye. Meaning you can see what your camera would see, before actually looking through it!
(More in a minute)
This thread is intended as a collaborative posting of exercises for the beginner (to novice; to, perhaps, even advanced) photographer to increase their skill, or understanding.
There is no specific area I was intending to target so please feel free to post exercises that will help with composition, elements of design, processing, anything!
I'll start it off with a few I picked up from books and sites along the way. I'll give credit where I can and everyone else should as well (when necessary)
Exercise: Knowing what your lenses see (Bryan Peterson; Learning to See Creatively (book))
Set your camera's focal length to a specific number (ie. 35mm, 28mm, 100mm...) and DON'T change it during this entire exercise.
Take a picture of a subject (preferably something that isn't going to move during the course of the exercise) so that the subject is in the "middle" of the frame with a lot of empty space all around.
Keeping the camera at your eye begin walking towards the subject. Every five paces take another exposure while keeping the subject in focus. Keep getting closer until your camera can no longer get the subject in focus.
The purpose of this is to understand the "vision" of your camera, ie. what your camera "sees" from different angles and distances. You'll notice that the original image contains the subject as well as a lot of other unnecessary things and as you get closer the subject will become more focal. As you get closer you may also notice that important parts of the image are cut out. This is the intended result. To understand at what distance that specific focal length is useful for capturing what kind/ size/ shape of subject.
The exercise should then be repeated on your knees (starting at the same point) and then on your belly.
Once you take the last picture on your belly, roll over onto your back in that position and take on last shot looking UP at your subject.
The entire exercise should be repeated with other focal lengths and lens sizes!
Bryan recommends "maintaining a regimen of this exercise once a week for three months" which will result in "you having a vision that is shared by fewer than 10 percent of all photographers".
He explains that the end result of this is: the ability to "stand at the edge of a meadow or lake and scan the entire scene, picking out a host of compositions even before you place the camera to your eye". This is because you now have the "vision" of your lenses in your minds eye. Meaning you can see what your camera would see, before actually looking through it!
(More in a minute)