Looks great, Dave. Love the bindings.
As for photos, I don't have a tute as such, just a way of seeing a scene and trying to predict what the camera will do with it. Or TO it, as the case may be. First thing, lose the flash. When trying to evaluate lighting before the shot, all bets are off if you're using flash, unless you really know how to do lighting with flash, and even then, flash from the camera most often gives mediocre results at best. Then you'd want studio lighting, but it's not really needed for what we do here.
I think good photography is more about seeing than the equipment. Try to start looking at how light behaves. If you're outside on a bright day, notice the range of light/dark. The bright areas are very bright and the dark are very dark. Contrast is very high. Look at the edges of shadows. They're sharp. Most cameras will amplify these factors. In this lighting, it's easy to have a highlight go pure white or a shadow go pure black. On a day with light clouds that put a veil over the sun, notice how the lighting is softer, shadows have softer edges. Medium contrast. These usually make for nice photos. People don't have to squint and they don't have black shadows under their chins and eyebrows. This kind of lighting is the easiest to get good results with. Cloudy days, no shadows, dull colors, soft contrast, but you can get good results with a little work on the computer.
Get a tripod, even if you have shake control. It will really help your composition. Turn off the flash. Learn to use the color balance on your camera, to get accurate color under different lighting sources, since flourescents and incandescents and sun have different colors. When I was doing photography the only time I didn't use a tripod was when I really needed to be moving around, like at a party or wedding reception. I was force to use flash then.
I recall from one of the "show us your shop" threads (probably started by Hesh!) your shop is well lit. Try shooting in there for starters.
I've learned that if I'm standing comfortably with the camera at eye level, I'm probably shooting from the wrong angle, because I'm doing it for my own comfort and not for the sake of what will end up in the image. A mentor from years ago said, "start with the assumption that you're standing in the wrong place."
Also, bracket. Your camera should have a plus or minus exposure compensation feature, so shoot 1/2 or 1 stop above and below what the camera says. You'll be taking at least three shots every time, but you'll have three exposure levels to choose from. The less correction you have to do on the computer, the better. Remember that the camera is trying to make the average of all the light and dark in the image a medium gray.
Another approach is something like what Frank Ford has on frets.com if you want to go that route.
http://frets.com/FRETSPages/General/aboutphotos.html
John Mayes has put up some really nice photos, maybe he'll join in.
There's a web site that I can't find the link for, where a bass builder has tutes for using natural lighting to photograph her basses. Anybody have it?
|
![[:Y:]](./images/smilies/smiley20.gif "Thumbs Up")
![[clap]](./images/smilies/smiley32.gif "adulations")
.