New Sekonic Light Meter!

Full manual setting, here I come! With this bad boy, I don’t need the in-camera settings anymore. This is exciting for me because in my attempt build Covey Photography I have taken photos of various friends and their families. While doing so the one thing I found was, was that capturing the perfect exposure was challenging because each setting was different and let’s just say it…I am new to this. Moreover, capturing light perfectly was even a greater challenge. There were times when the pictures that  “counted” turned out to have something wrong. I wasn’t able to capture exactly what I wanted. So, I decided to purchase a light meter. Having done research, many books and articles I have read state that having a light meter will save you time and stress and soon become your best friend, especially in portrait/studio photography.

I found a link to a website that gives straight forward, simple directions for using the Sekonic L358 light meter. If, by chance you purchase one for your photography bag, use the above link to get you started.

The Camera

Every major field of study teaches you about the history of their existence and that is what I am studying today. It may be considered boring and tedious but I found parts of the history of cameras interesting. I learned that arguably the first camera built was by a Frenchman named Daguerre. From there it was really a worldly collaboration in that different countries throughout the world added pieces to the camera that make up what we have today. This progression took place within the last 150 years.  This thought leads to another idea. Imagine a world without camera. The truth is that the majority of our history was left to the interpretation of artists and sculptors. It wasn’t until the Civil War that we had the technology to capture moments of history. Pretty awesome to think about. The rest of this lesson spoke of the different types of cameras and how they have changed. They continued to speak about how even though we are in the digital age, photographers still find comfort in film style cameras. Although I found some interesting things in these lessons, I am looking forward to the more hands-on lessons.

The Eye of the Photographer

My first lesson came today. Everything looks great and very nicely put together. This is a distance learning course, which is essentially a college level course done at home. It allows those who are working, to learn a new craft at their own pace. It is made up of audio CDs, DVDs, and individual text manuals. It is a lot of information. My first impression of my first CD was I thought this was going to be a long course, but I quickly got into the feel of it. I have three instructors that basically talk about each lesson. It is as though they are in a classroom and you are listening to a lecture/discussion. They share their ideas, opinions, and expertise while you use the manual to follow along. All discussions are relevant to the information you just read, so it keeps  your attention. I am satisfied so far.

My first lesson was about developing an eye for certain photographs. According to NYIP there are three guidelines to follow for each photography taken. They are in a nutshell:

1. What is the subject/theme–I want this photograph to be about?

2. How can I focus attention on my subject and draw the viewer’s eye to it?

3. Have I simplified? have I included only what draws attention to my subject, and have I eliminated everything that is non-essential or distracting?

As I completed this lesson I felt that I did well recognizing things that attract or distract attention to or from my subject. However, there were some photos that I was completely off, a work in progress I suspect. So, to practice viewing photos with these questions in mind I want to go back and look at photos that I have taken in the past and analyze them. Please feel free to join me in this analysis. Comment on Facebook or directly on my blog. I am positive together we can both improve our photographers eye. Stay tuned!