Lesson 5 Assignment

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  • #18537
    ChristopherP
    Participant

    Thanks for looking.

    #20797
    Duncan Rawlinson
    Keymaster

    Hey Christopher!

    I’m happy that you’re really doing well and progressing through the course.

    Now for this assignment the idea is to “understand how to simplify a photograph using color as your primary element” and “see colors in your world and know how to separate them to create a visually appealing photograph.”

    There is no doubt you’ve understand and accomplished the first part of this assignment. The color part. Overall the palette of your image is very simple and elegant. The only problem is that given that you chose to auto white balance with your Sony A100 the overall frame has a very yellowish white balance. In other words your camera chose an incorrect white balance and as a result the whole frame has is very yellow.

    I’ve tweaked the white balance in this image and it now feels more real:

    [attachment=0:2btmerrv]DSC04153 edited.JPG[/attachment:2btmerrv]

    Do you see the difference?

    Just be aware of your white balance and ideally set it manually.

    Now the second part of this assignment is to create a visually appealing photograph. This photograph certainly has that but it’s missing something. Perhaps re-shoot this when the water is glass calm early in the morning or at magic hour. Also for this type of image shoot at a higher f-stop so that more of the image is in focus. You’ll notice the foreground and the background corners are slightly out of focus because this was shot at f6. Of course at higher fstops you’ll need to shoot slower shutter speeds assuming all else is equal…

    Ask yourself, would you blow this up and put it up as a piece of art?

    Overall you’ve done well here and I look forward to seeing what you shoot next.

    Keep it up!

    🙂

    #20798
    ChristopherP
    Participant

    Thanks. I was wondering why the back and forefront was out of focus. I’m not sure I know when it is a good time to raise or lower the f-stop. And I am struggling big time with the white balance as you’ve called it out twice now. There are settings on the camera for tungsten, fluorescents, daylight, etc. is that what you mean? There is also something with 500k that goes up and down. Also, intake a lot of product photography with that camera and I always have to completely take out the yellow hue from the photo in photoshop. Could it be the camera?

    In video, all I had to do was zoom in on something stark white and hit the white balance button and it was done. Here, it is quite different for sure.

    #20799
    Duncan Rawlinson
    Keymaster

    It’s not an easy thing to figure out those fstops… Assuming everything else is the same a higher fstop will mean more depth of field (more stuff is in focus) a lower fstop will mean less is in focus. For landscape photos like this one the ideal situation is to shoot at the highest fstop you can. Just be aware that a higher stop usually means you need a longer shutter so if there is movement you need to think abou that…

    Yes the settings tungsten, fluorescent, daylight is the white balance setting. Just match the setting to what you are shooting in. So if you’re shooting in daylight set it to daylight. If you’re under fluorescent light set to fluorescent…. What that does is it sets the color temperature to a preset that roughly matches the color temperature of the light in those environments… The 500k thing is for when you want to set your white balance to an exact color temperature. For example you’re shooting a sports event and you know the exact color temperature of the lighting being used… That’s pretty advanced so I wouldn’t get into that now.

    If all your photos are yellow it probably means you have adjusted the 500k setting somehow. You will want to reset the camera to factory settings if that’s the case.

    Try to play with the white balance setting.

    Go outside and put the camera on a tripod and take one photo on each setting. You will see how dramatically this setting impacts the color on your photographs.

    Thanks!

    🙂

    #20800
    ChristopherP
    Participant

    I just wanted to re-upload the same pic retouched for final submission on this lesson. I fixed the white balance.

    #20801
    Duncan Rawlinson
    Keymaster

    Excellent. Although the trick of course is to achieve the correct white balance in camera when you shoot.

    Although keep this in mind…

    I just want you to understand white balance. Once you understand it you can use it like any other creative tool in your arsenal. The only time white balance is really really important to nail perfectly is in product photography… The rest of the time you should do what you think looks good or what works for you.

    In other words feel free to break the ‘rules’ once you know them….

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