Manchester Rain

So yesterday I went on a 2 day course to learn how to use manual mode on my SLR.

I have to say I seriously enjoyed it! I was also the youngest one there. All the others were over 50 apart from one girl who was 27.

Saturday, we learnt how to use our camera's in full manual mode as well as using 'correct exposure'. This is created when using the ISO, Shutter speed and f-stop.



When taking the photo, I learned to use the Light Meter. I had always wondered what the hell it was for and now it is so useful!



So for 'correct exposure' the needle has to be at 0. Obviously you can still overexpose or underexpose if you choose but doing photos this way means that even if you move the camera a little bit, the needle moves because the light is always changing. So you have to change the shutter speed or f-stop to get it back to 0

On the first day we learnt all this and took photos just using these settings. We used long shutter speed and short shutter speeds on water too. We also practiced portraits but I already new a bit about that anyways.

















Then for Homework. YES! HOMEWORK! We had to do self portraits. I hate doing self portraits and really struggled to do them. I did eventually get some but I really didn't like them. The two people running the course, Richard and Peter, really liked my last one.



Today we did about composition and things like pattern, colour, shape, texture, thirds and viewpoints. I knew most of this before but never really put it into practice with photography. So that was a real nice change. We had to do a session on pattern and then we could choose from colour shape, texture and lines. I chose texture and I really enjoyed it











Then we stood around the G-Mex and took photos using what we had learnt that weekend :D








This one is my favorite one from the weekend and was one of my last photos

We also practiced panning. Making the moving car a still image and blurring the background instead :D



I have really enjoyed this weekend and I am so glad I did it, even at the cost. I feel now that I can take technically better photos which in turn will help me to take good photos. I am hoping that this will also means I have to do less photoshopping on my images (unless I want to obviously lol)

I hope you can see where I am coming from

Fiona xx