Practical assignment (1-5 days)
Take five pictures every day for the next five days. The subjects of your pictures can include a series of different objects, people and landscapes. The focus of this activity is to put into practice what you have learned so far about exposure and composition. This includes: Depth of Field, Motion Blurr, High Key, Low Key, Pattern, Symmetry, Texture, Lines, Framing, Perspective, Space, Balance and Colour. Apply the manual settings as explained. Submit your six best pictures at the end of the week, listing the following with each picture:
– ISO
– Aperture
– Shutter speed
I was outside taking pictures almost everyday this week. The lighting outside this time of year is not the best, as the sun is gone from November to January (I live north of the arctic circle), so I had some problems with getting the right light in the pictures. But I got some pictures that I am very satisfied with. None of the pictures are edited, only cropped.
These are the five pictures that I liked the most:
ISO: 800
Aperture: f/3.5
Shutter speed: 1/60 sec.
I took this picture at 09:03 in the morning. I like how the mountain is in the bottom middle of the image, and the clouds on the left and upper right corner balance each other.
ISO: 800
Aperture: f/3.5
Shutter speed: 1/50 sec.
What I like about this picture is the pattern on the roof. I like that the pattern is broken some places, and especially with the hole in the front. I think this makes the image more interesting.
ISO: 400
Aperture: f/4.8
Shutter speed: 1/500 sec.
Here I chose a higher shutter speed to capture the flames inside my wood stove. I originally planned to use a low shutter speed to get a “misty” look, but didn’t get what I had pictured in my head. I really like this picture, as the flames really stand out from the dark. This picture may also go under the term “low key”.
ISO: 1600
Aperture: f/3.5
Shutter speed: 1/40 sec.
This is an old timber wall on an old barn. What I like in this picture is the contrast between the dark wooden structure and the light and round parts where the twig would be. I also like the window in the background, as the lines in the timber leads the way to the window. I used the rule of third when cropping this image in Lightroom.
ISO: 200
Aperture: f/5.6
Shutter speed: 5 sec.
I saved the best to the last! (At least I think this is the best picture of all the five). I wanted to take pictures of running water with a long shutter speed to get the misty veil effect. Around this time of year, all of the rivers and streams in my area are usually frozen. Luckily (for this case) this year, December has been unusually mild, so I found some parts in a small river where the water was still running. The best part was that the water was surrounded with ice, creating beautiful motives. To get the misty veil effect I had to use long shutter speed which meant that I could not hold the camera in my hands. To solve this problem I found a rock in the middle of the river and placed the camera there. I couldn’t look through the viewfinder, so I didn’t see the result until the picture was captured.
