Twelve weeks to better photography: week three

Woohoo... chuggin' right along, aren't we?

Lesson three is all about light. I don't know anything about light, in terms of photography, other than I hate using the flash. This was a great lesson focusing on how to set your Custom White Balance. If you're anything like me, before you read this lesson you were like "custom what what?" So I was excited to learn something new this week... especially if it meant learning how to take pictures with better lighting without using the flash.

Basically if you set your camera to AWB your camera will select what it thinks is white. So in a room where there is not a lot of natural light and you are having to use artificial lighting, your pictures will come across orangey and have a yellow cast to them. This is where learning to set your white balance comes into play. White balance is simply a fancy way of setting the color temperature of your image. The human eye is very adept at compensating for color changes in light and allowing us to view light in a very large spectrum. Most film cameras handle white balance in the film itself and you simply purchase film to match the lighting situation. Camera sensors, however, are not quite as intelligent, and they must be told what color the light is for a given situation in order to compensate for that color. To help with this, digital cameras come with some pre-set white balance settings such as Auto (AWB), Daylight, and Tungsten, among others. Properly setting your white balance for your lighting situation will greatly increase the impact of your photos and decrease the amount of time you spend editing them.

This weeks challenge was to take 3 pictures. First one with the AWB setting, second with the Tungsten setting, then the third you would set your own custom white balance. And without further ado... here's my pictures:

{AWB setting}
{Tungsten setting}
{Custom White Balance}

A HUGE difference, right? It's not always the most convenient thing to carry around a big piece of white paper in order to set my custom white balance every time I'm out taking pictures, so that's why the camera has lots of different settings for you to choose from, instead of always defaulting to the auto white balance. But for the important pictures, you'll definitely see me sportin' a big piece of white paper. :)

I am seriously loving these lessons and seeing all of my other "classmates" pictures too! To see their pictures, go to "our host" Meredith's blog and see her post along with everyone else's!

A rainy day ... from Jaxon's eyes.

Dear Jesus, why does it rain? It is so dark and dreary outside. It makes Mommy tired and she just wants to sleep all day long.
I thought if I hid behind the curtain the sun would come out. Maybe it's playing hide & go seek?
I asked Mom if I could go and ride my trike outside yet and she said no. Something about catching pneumonia.
Dear Jesus, will you please send the sun tomorrow? I promise to be really good and eat all my veggies that Mommy tries to feed me.

Love, Jaxon

No phone zone.

I am typically not a huge fan of Oprah but I have watched a few of her recent episodes and at the end of each one she asks her audience and viewers at home if they have taken the "No Phone Zone" pledge yet. I have to admit that I used to text and drive a lot, but once Jaxon came along and rode with me I vowed to quit and I haven't since. Nothing is worth the risk... and having a Claims Adjuster for an insurance company as your Dad you get to hear lots of horror stories involving accidents and texting. No texting conversation is worth the risk. So here's the deal... on Oprah's website you can choose which 'level' you'd like to pledge.


Option 1: I will not text while I am driving

Option 2: I will not text while driving and will use only handsfree calling if I need to speak on the phone while I am driving.

Option 3: I will not text or use my phone while I am driving. If I need to use my phone, I will pull over to the side of the road.


Click here to take the pledge now!

Twelve weeks to better photography: week two

Week two's class {located here} is about ISO and shutter speed. Because I took a photography class in high school I knew a little bit about this, but again was not taught back then on DSLR cameras, so a refresher course was just what I needed!

Here's the short break down: The higher the ISO, the quicker the image will be captured and the less light that is required. The lower the ISO, the longer it takes for the image to be captured and the more light you will need. A little confusing, but basically for me it helps to just imagine myself outside and knowing that the more natural light I have, the lower my ISO number. And if I'm inside and need help with light to crank that baby up to a higher ISO number, although my images will be more grainy.

Your shutter speed is how quickly the shutter, or the little door that opens in front of your film or image sensor, operates. The numbers that you see representing shutter speed like 60, 120, 250, 1000 represent 1/60th of a second or 1/120th of a second, and so on. So the higher the bottom number on the fraction, the faster the shutter speed. The smaller the number, the slower the shutter speed.

As for this weeks challenge, we were to find our kitchen sink - (easy enough right?), then find an object to "block" the water. Turn your camera to the "TV" mode, and take 1 picture at 1/80th of a second, then at 1/1000 of a second. Here's my pictures:

{ISO 800, exposure time 1/80}
{ISO 800, exposure time 1/1000}

I don't have a tripod, so I couldn't participate in the bonus challenge... boo!

One last thing... I tried operating in the "M" mode for the end of the lesson where she was giving you 5 steps and talking about setting your f/stop, ISO, shutter speed, etc... and all of my pictures were black. I turned up the ISO number and it didn't matter, all of the images still came out completely black. Any of my fellow students have an idea why? I figured out how to change the shutter speed but couldn't figure out how to change the f/stop and I wasn't sure if that was the reason or not. I'm stuck.

See ya next week! :)

Right now ...

... My stomach is in knots and I think I could vomit. I am 99% sure my stress ulcer is back. Expensive to treat and painful to deal with. Not the ideal situation right now.

... I am appreciative for our great weekend with my family. Just what I needed. My mom + my sister = a sure way to make me smile.

... My house is silent. Really unusual {and a little eerie}.

... I have a weird mix of emotions about the possibility of a lot of changes happening in our near future.

... My heart feels heavy for someone I love. Lots of tough decisions and possible heartache coming up for her. So I am reminded to pray for her.

... I am getting to the point of realizing how freeing it is to truly trust God. Freeing indeed.