Photog vocab

My first photography lesson 

Kodak sends a guy to Yellowstone every year to give beginning beginner photography tips. He gets to stay at the park for four weeks. Nice. I learned some new words so I can actually, slightly talk the talk now.

Fill flash - this is when you are in daylight and you use your flash too. See the photo example above. My picture is crummy but it shows the effect. I'm sure I can do something with this effect with some practice!

Framing - my fill flash example is also an example of using something in your foreground and sides to frame your shot. Even if you have just a tree branch sticking out on the side, it can provide a nice frame.

Rule of thirds - by having elements of interest intersect at the rule of thirds points, you can compose a more aesthetically pleasing photograph. I like the photo examples here better.

Bracketing - you take three pics of the same thing; one normal exposure, one lighter exposure, one darker exposure. The reason is your eyes see a wider range of greys than your camera does. In digital photography the too light data and too dark data is just lost, unlike film where the information is still on the film you just have to tell the photo finisher what you want. So you take a too light photo and a normal one and a too dark one and you can merge them if you wish.

Implied motion - if you're photographing an elk that's walking, don't crop it too close. Allow some negative space (you know, the empty meadow to the side for example) and the photo imparts the feeling that the animal is walking even though it's a still photo.

Backlighting - lighting is determined by how it hits the subject. Backlighting hits your subject from the back, front lighting from the front, and side lighting from the side. So even though the sun is in my eyes in front of me, if my subject is in front of me and the light is behind her, it's called backlighting. Try fill flash technique and get a nice photo or sometimes a silhouette is beautiful.

Water bottle mister - What! You can do this? You sure can. Have a dark background, mist a spider web with your water bottle to give it dew drops, and snap you picture. It's not cheating. Really! This is the inside scoop I got from an experienced and successful photographer.

Light - Morning and evening are best. Midday is bright and you can get vibrant color and beautiful pictures but they are also flat. No that flat is bad it's just that you get more drama and mood and shape from morning and evening light. The light can be the difference between a good picture and an awesome one.

Vantage point - Don't take every single picture from eyeball height. Stand on a rock to get higher, get on your knees to get lower. Take a couple minutes and walk around and look before you shoot.

And the teacher said break any rules you want. You can still create a wonderful photograph. He said you have to get out of the house and you have to take lots of pictures.

I had such a good day today. And my hair! I washed it and dried it before I went out at 8:00am, wore it down and straight. I had an all around good hair day. Amen!