Thursday, February 12, 2015

Through the Lens :: Photo Challenge 1

It's been a few weeks since the new Camera Challenges & Tutorials series hosted by The Littlest Thistle was announced and I shared about my camera and where I am photography-wise. The first challenge was posted soon after and it's time to report in.

Here was the 1st challenge:
For each preset [on your camera], take a photo of a subject appropriate to the preset in both the preset mode and the full automatic mode.  

My camera's presets are:
Program
Automatic
Portraits
Landscapes
Close-ups
Moving Subjects
Portraits at Night

I chose to take each set of photos with three presets, Program, Automatic, and then 1 of each of the other modes. Hubby and I took the camera with us on a Saturday adventure to the city. Note location, presets, and shooting order in each photo.



Seattle Center ~ Portraits (l-r), shot in program, automatic, portraits

Kerry Park ~ Landscapes (l-r), shot in program, automatic, landscapes

Chihuly Garden and Glass ~ Close-ups (l-r), shot in program, automatic, close-ups

Seattle Center International Fountain ~ Moving Subjecs (l-r), shot in program, automatic, moving subjects
 
Writing this post, I realized I forgot to take portraits at night. And I see I need to work at taking the exact same frame if I want to accurately compare my shots. Lots to learn. But I'm anxious to see what others have done on this first challenge, as well as take in what Katy has to say. At the very least, I'm a tad more familiar with the camera settings available to me.
 
Linking up with Camera Challenge 1.

8 comments:

  1. When I taught in the Black and White Photo Lab at the University of California, bracketing each exposure was such a critical skill to learn, and we also had the students take notes of all the things you mention. Of course, now, with our digital cameras, we can see more quickly which exposure will work, but I think this is still a good thing to experiment with and a good way to get to know your camera's potential. I think it's interesting that your bracketing comes by using different settings on the camera, rather than lens aperture or light exposure, but it's the contrasting results that make us take notice, isn't it?

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  2. You got to see a Chihuly garden in person, lucky you. I found my camera book the other day, it is time for me to do this challenge too, thank you for the reminder. I can see already that there are advantages to knowing one's camera better.

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  3. Well done on completing the challenge, and thanks for joining in :o)

    It's interesting to see the different ways the camera handled some of these situations - the portrait one being a definite case in point! Did the flash fire in the portrait mode by any chance?

    It's a wee bit hard to see at this size, but I think in landscape mode, some of the further away buildings are a bit clearer than in the automatic/program modes, which I would expect, since the aim of landscape mode is to make everything clear.

    For your close ups one, I think this demonstrates the focussing point differences across the modes, as the main flower looks clearer than the auto mode one.

    With the moving subjects, there's not a huge difference - was the shutter speed chosen similar for all 3? It's probably the one with the least noticeable difference in auto mode if there's a fair amount of available light, so I'm not hugely surprised that they're similar.

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  4. I need to try some of this too. We recently got a new camera but I find I default back to the old point and shoot camera most of the time because I already know how to use it.

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  5. Great to see the space needle and how you made a photo shoot of the challenge. I lived in Seattle in 1993 and bought my first camera there!

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  6. I've never used a "good" camera so this seems so complicated. But really interesting to see the difference the settings make.

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  7. Thank you for sharing the views in and around your city.

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