Photo Meets and Histograms

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to engage in a photo meet here in San Antonio. This was my first photography meet I've ever attended. I met some very enthusiastic photographers, and I hope to network even more as I become a regular at the gatherings. 


Again I've expressed an interest to network with other avid photographers, associations and clubs as I believe marketing is the key to any business' success. If I don't have people to experiment on, how else will I be able to improve and further learn? One needs to establish credibility. People help.


I along with other photographers of all skill levels gathered around the Dominion country club. For those of you who are unaware but interested, the "San Antonio Photography Meet-Up Group" meets every second Thursday of the month at the prestigious country club. Every month the group features a different speaker in regards to all aspects of photography.


This week featured a presentation on exposure and how to utilize our camera to judge and create better exposed photos. Here's what I pulled from the presenation:


Histogram. One of the most effective ways to judge exposure.
It's been my experience that simply depending on a camera's lcd just does not cut it. There've been way too many times when I've thought, by looking at a photo on my camera's lcd panel, pictures were rich and full of color-perfectly exposed. Only when I upload the photos onto my computer do I see that I was far from the truth. 


By learning how to effectively read a histogram of each picture can one actually gauge whether a camera is exposed well or not. Histograms show how dark and light a photo is. In addition, if there is little or much contrast, histograms will show it. Finally, histograms also capture how much detail a photo has. Here's the breakdown:


A tall spike to the very right side:  too bright
A tall spike to the very left side:  too dark
Spikes in the middle of the screen: distinct colors and contrast
A broad, wide curve: good contrast
Amounts of blue, green, and red colors

Philippines, 2011.

Here's a histogram for the corresponding photo to the left. 
First of all, you can see that there is much blue in this picture due to the tallest spike being in blue, In addition, this spike is to the right of the area, which symbolizes brightness. Even though this spike of blue is to the right, it doesn't go all the way to the very most right edge of the plane; if it did, this would represent over-exposure.


In addition, there is a broad curve  which symbolizes good contrast and detail. I also have lots of green, red, and yellow in the picture. 


Finally, there is a slight spike to the very left of the plane. This is due to the darkest area of the photo, the girl's hair. In a nut shell, this picture provides bright and colorful detail without being overexposed. 


By attending the photo meet, I obtained a better understanding of my camera's histogram and how it works. Instead of just depending on an image of a photo on my camera's lcd, I will rely more so on my histogram in order to judge how effective the exposure is. 


Overall I rate photo meets a valuable learning source. Its support group is phenomenal (42 people attended), and yes, the group even served freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I'm hooked!

Light Experiment I

Hi!
I wanted to create a spontaneous rough draft on the effects of lighting. The subject, a Japanese doll. Main source of light, a flash-light that I held approximately 13 inches away from all directions. I utilized nine different angles of light: 

• Top Center
• Center
• Camera right profile
• Camera left profile
• 45 degree top camera right
• 45 degree top camera left
• 45 degree bottom camera right
• 45 degree bottom camera left
• 45 degree bottom center

The first picture is without the flash-light. In addition, the camera left profile has much more ambient lighting than it's camera right profile picture due to the angle of the flash-light to the wall.

The pictures' objective is to gain more comprehension on the effects of lighting and its angles. Of course it's open to interpretation but my favorite perspective reflects the 45 degree top left and right images, in addition to the direct top center angle. It would seem as if these directions of light would yield a soft, clear, and gentle portrayal of an individual. Then again, it also depends on what theme and effect one would hope to depict; many combinations and effects here. =)

Happy Fourth!

Happy Independence Day, everyone! I hope you're grilling brats and hamburgers outside with great friends and family. My family and I are about to grill pretty soon as well. Earlier I sliced a good half of a sack of potatoes to make french fries. We'll be baking those in the oven in the next hour. 

July 4th, 2011

Before the sun had risen this morning, my Dad hung our 8 ft by 5 ft U.S. flag over our garage. It looks beautiful. I photographed it a few minutes ago; while doing so, I recollected on how thankful I am to live in a country where my rights, along with others', are held to the utmost priority. I owe it to our founding fathers that have made this country a strong and independent nation.


In the midst of patriotic excitement and celebration, I am simultaneously celebrating the start of my blog, Foto Kitty. There is so much to learn in the realm of photography but so little patience I possess. I have no choice though. Time waits for no one, and if that means persevering and waiting for overwhelming results then that's what I shall do.


I currently work as an insurance agent for one of the big property & casualty companies. Not the most exciting job out there, but it pays my school loans among other bills. My main dream, however, would be to own my own photography company; do what I love and profit from it. But again, patience is a virtue. I shall reap a much greater reward when it actually happens, right? Yep. I think so too. 


So to help me achieve this sooner rather than later, I have created my blog. I'm giving myself five years starting from today, to reach my entrepreneurial, photographic endeavor. I intend to turn Foto Kitty into a cyber work book for me and anyone else interested in photography. Foto Kitty will be a collage of different techniques which will lean towards more strobist ideology.


In addition, I hope Foto Kitty will help in creating business for me when I'm ready. I am all for building my portfolio and gaining real-time experience currently, even without a fee. However, I plan to soak my feet into wedding, editorial, and/or advertising photography in a couple of years from now. In the next couple of blogs from now, I'll create a visual time-map of  all my main tasks and when I plan to achieve them in order to reach my objective of full-time professional photographer. 


I assume I'm the only one out here that's currently reading my blog. I hope that as months go by, I'll develop a circle of friends that can support each other in our photographic endeavors. If you have any ideas or suggestions then please let me know. Thanks in advance and welcome to Foto Kitty.