My Thoughts.

I know, I simply have too many of these, but I wanted to share them.

Most people who aren't really into the knowledge of photography, don't really know the levels of how hard something is. When I say this, I mean, they look at an end result of a photograph, and if it's pretty, they'll usually like it. But do they actually know how hard each category of photography is?

Let me give you a few examples. 

This shot - the one I took for my 365 - easy.
It takes a small f-stop lens, some deciding on what should be in an out of focus, and a snap.
The coloring is all done in photoshop. A tree is not this color.

These photographs are done with an f stop of 5 or smaller.

However, it is different from the real eye, so people tend to like this style photography. IT IS pretty and attractive, don't get me wrong. People love the colors. I'm just being honest on how easy it is to capture.

Then there is portrait photography. Let's focus on outdoor photography first.

This is a another thing that comes pretty easy to photographers.

Most of outdoor struggles come with shadows, which can be easily fixed with a reflector, if the photographer uses one, or fixed in photoshop (which all photographers are grateful for)

This is an example of that style.

Pretty, simple, easy shot done with an f-stop around 5.6.

However, some people use a more shallow depth of field. Which means maybe just the eyes and nose are in focus but everything else in a blur. I enjoy looking at these photographs, but I don't shoot them. They aren't appealing for me to shoot because I think that eventually down the road, people are going to look back and wish more things were in focus, or wish maybe more people who were posing in the background were in focus. But that's just my opinion. And blur is all of the rage right now.

Now - indoor photography. I still have a ton of work to conquer this one. But this so far has been the hardest thing to conquer in my time of schooling for photography.

So far, I have conquered one model for indoor lighting.

For indoor lighting - shallow depth of field isn't even an option for me. Well, maybe focusing wise, but not aperture wise.

I have to use f 8 to f 11 to get the images that I want, and usually it remains on f 11 with a shutter of 125. That seems to be the norm for all studio lighting. Each of the 3 studios I worked at, that was their settings as well - but there are other factors as in - if the entire room is consistent light every time. 

Another example - when I photographed Kristen, it was 11 in the morning.

I was able to provide two different types of images.

This was a blessing - but I had to figure out just exactly what I wanted to do with it and what f stops I wanted to use for my perfect photograph. To me, Kristen's face still looks a little blown out on the left, but that is my education speaking - and normally people will just tell me it's fine.. however, I will probably go back and add a darker layer to fix that.

Then we have night portrait photographer in the studio - which doesn't leave much playing around with for f stops - because you just have to get creative with the same light. Those images - look like this.

My lights were messing up during this shoot - and I actually had to do  A LOT in photoshop to revive them - but it worked. But by far, this was the hardest to conquer. Mike, was so tall that my lights kept blowing him out. It was quite frustrating, but in the end, I am VERY satisfied with my work.

The last type of photography that I do (that I am going to throw into one category) is Night - slow shutter, and surreal photography. This photography takes knowledge, but once that is learned, its more fun than hard. However, if you have a deadline, it obviously becomes a challenge. haha.

Here are some shots of that.

Overall, people tend to comment on my photography that takes a second to snap. I don't think people really understand that studio (especially home made studios) aren't too friendly until you have decent equipment, or that slow shutter speeds won't always turn out the way you want until you know what you're doing.

That's just the beauty of art. ;) hah.

Thanks for reading.