Studio Lesson - 06/10/11

In our lesson last week we were shown the college photography studio in more detail and were shown how to use the equipment and the camera.

Even though I have chosen location photography and not studio photography for my first assignment I thought it would be useful for me to learn more about lighting and more of the technical sides to the camera so that when I come to take my own images I know more about which settings I will need to use and what the settings are.

Our tutor Steve showed us the different lights that can be used in the studio to give different effects in the images, different backdrops and how the shutter speed, ISO and f-stop have to be altered depending on what light (artificial or natural) are being used.

Below are some photographs that were taken in this session. We used a manual setting and changed the shutter speed, ISO and f-stop to experiment and show the different outcome.

This first image is slightly overexposed which means the camera has let too much light in. This means that the balance of the shutter speed and f-stop was not correct and didn't fit well with the light that was already in the shot.

This second image is slightly darker and is better than the first image because there is not as much light bouncing off the subject of the photograph and has a much better balance. The f-stop would have been altered here to a higher f number so that less light is allowed through the camera's lens.

This final image may be slightly too dark for me. I think that somewhere between this image and the second image would have been perfect. An even higher f number would have been used here to create a darker look in the photograph.

I like the neutral tones in the photographs and the fact that the composition is simple. I would like to look at portrait photography in the future as after having this practice session has made me think that it is something I could really enjoy.


Health & Safety

We all had to take care using the equipment in the studio and we could only operate the camera. If any lighting needed to be altered then we needed Steve to change that for us because of the safety implications. We also needed to make sure that the camera was secure enough on the tripod to ensure it didn't come loose.

I feel I have learnt a lot from this studio session and will take all of this research and experiment with these different settings and use them in my own photographs going forward.

It has been really interesting to see how the camera works on more of a technical level and to find out how all of these elements effect the outcome of the image has really opened my eyes to the photography world.