Learning Curves
January 16, 2012 By 2 Comments
So I’m trying to learn to take pictures. Good pictures. Honestly what I want to be able to do is take pictures of my knitting designs, my kids, my husband, and my dog. That’s about it. I don’t want to start a photography business. I just want my pictures of my family to speak to me, and I want my pictures of my knitting designs to sell stuff. That’s it.
This, apparently, is a very tall order. There are so many things to learn with the picture-taking. And photography people? They are mean. I joined a few photography forums and apparently the idea of constructive criticism is lost on (most of) these folks. They love nothing better than to rip an amateur photographer to shreds. I don’t get it. And then I go and look at the websites or flickr accounts of these so-called experts… and we are not impressed. At all. I guess I just don’t understand the not wanting to help people. I mean I guess technically they are sometimes giving good information, but it’s hard to see it when they are blasting you with the hate.
And just for the record, I haven’t really experienced the vitriol myself. I’ve just watched it. It’s like they take glee in shooting folks down. I tell you what, if I ever hire a photographer the first thing I’m gonna do is see if I can find them on those forums. Because if they are asshats (like so many of them are) they ain’t never getting my business.
But I digress. As usual. My point is, there’s tons of information out there, but I’m having trouble putting it into something cohesive that I can study. And Lord knows I can’t ask any of these folks. But I’ve been working through a Ben Long book that is written specifically for the camera I have, which is the Rebel T1i/500D. And I’m actually slowly learning stuff. Like how to use fill flash for something that is back-lit…
And how the different white balance presets work and how to create a custom white balance…
Although I think I might like one of those nifty grey cards. The thing is, for my business, I can’t decide if it’s better to try to learn these things on my own, or pony up and take a class. It’s a very slow time of year for my business, so it’s hard to justify the cost of a class. How did you learn to take awesome photographs?
Time for Showing!
September 10, 2011 By 3 Comments
First up a sneak peak of the fourth song, Profokiev. All the folks who have subscribed to the e-book have already received it, and it will be available for individual sale on Monday!
Next up, the fifth song! This one will be in Ever After Yarns, in the Classic base. I finally got to take a picture of the skein with my brand new camera. Swatching has been done and I really think this one is gonna be a stunner in this gorgeous blue.
I love, love, love, love my new camera. Although it’s very big compared to what I’m used to. I got a Canon Rebel T1i with the 18-55 kit lens, and also a 55-250 zoom lens, plus a bunch of accessories. Last night I used the zoom to look at the moon and I could see nooks and crannies! It was amazing!
And hey, who is this cute young man? Can you believe that he is already 13? The flash fired on this one, and though I need to invest in a good flash, I’m pretty pleased at how this looks. Yes, he’s 13. Yes he’s rocking a mini mustache. And he’s nearly as tall as me, and I’m 5’10″. Where did the time go?
And one more picture, just for posterity. I really want to be able to take those artsy fartsy photos where the background is all blurry and the front is all focused and awesome. So I’m super insanely excited that having just gotten the camera yesterday I was already able to take this:
Lots of learning to do, but I’m really excited about it all. If anyone has suggestions for tutorials or photo assignments or the like, I’d love to hear them. I’m gonna set up a 365 set on my flickr, and I’m reading like crazy, but I need all the help I can get!
Short Dollars.
February 5, 2010 By 3 Comments
So a couple of years ago, there was a group started on Ravelry. One of thousands. It’s called Yarnography, and it’s about being able to use your camera better – in general – and in specific to take better pictures of your knitting and your yarn. I joined right up. And promptly ignored the group.
For Christmas I got a new camera. A step up from the tiny point and shoot I had been using. It’s a Canon SX120 IS. And it’s very nice. In theory. See I never read the 144 page (!!!!) manual or tried to figure it out. Until today. Today I visited the Yarnography group and started doing the assignments that other folks did years ago.
The first lovely shot you see here is on manual settings. With a tight aperture and a deep depth of field. So everything is pretty much in focus. On a good day, this is the sort of pictures I take on the auto settings.
But today I figured out how to change the settings. So I opened the aperture up wide, and took the same picture with a nice shallow depth of field. See how the yarn is in focus, but not the stuff behind it? I’ve been dying to take shots like that all along. And the first couple of Yarnography lessons had me rocking and rolling and no time.
And finally we have the 2nd photo assignment for Yarnography. Take a picture of an egg. No, I’m not kidding. Doesn’t my egg look nice? You can even see all the bumpy parts on the shell. Although in hindsight it kind of looks like the yarn laid the egg, which is vaguely disturbing. To be honest, I’m still not sure what I was supposed to learn from this one, but I did have fun with it.
There’s a joke here somewhere about which came first, the yarn or the egg, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
