Windows + Reflectors

I am posting an educational blog post, that (for once!) hopefully will not leave you feeling like your brain has been fried. :P It is just about using a reflector in indoor photography. 

Ever seen those lovely photos that are highly grainy and orange tinted? Taken in low unnatural light inside a house? I have...lots of them.

I've even taken them. Like most people. :) But there are some ways to fix indoor-photography-that-isn't-so-great. 

1. Use your flash. Try making yourself a diffuser. I posted a little about the one I made HERE. 
2. Check your white balance. If you set it correctly, it can effectively reduce yellow-orangish lighting.
3. Shoot at a higher ISO or lower shutter speed to prevent underexposed photos.
4. Get near those windows! Or a door! They usually provide the best indoor light.
5. Use a reflector. [This is what my post today is mainly about]

 What? Reflector?

A reflector helps bounce light so that your subject is evenly lit.

Like so:

See how the left side of her face and her hair are all in shadow?

But after strategically placing a reflector beside her, her face is more evenly lit. 

The below photo demonstrates the way I set the reflector up. 

A window on her left and a reflector on her right! Voila. 

Okay... what do you use for a reflector? 

I use that shiny grey thing. I think it is called foam core, but I'm not sure... It works very well though!

When using a reflector, you often need an assistant to hold the reflector while you take the photo. Kind of inconvenient sometimes, but worth it in the end.

Left: without reflector | Right: with reflector

Post #50! Wow! And it's only been 3 months!

Quarter's End

Well, the first quarter in school is almost up... that means that I am halfway through my photography class.

*sniff*

   

It's been wonderful learning how to take a photo manually... you change anything to make the photo look the way you want it! 

I remember trying to take photos manually just 2 or 3 months ago... I got so frustrated because I understood almost nothing about changing the settings, and all my photos turned out blurry, or dark, or overexposed... It was kind of sad, and I was discouraged.

But after just 2 months of studying and working to "get it," I can finally take photos manually. (and understand what I'm doing. That has been one of the most rewarding things in my class so far.

 I'd like to mention this resource:

click button to visit...

This series has been a huge help to me so far! The author, Darcy, writes so clearly and explains everything very well. (Her photography is also amazing!) I highly recommend this for beginner photographers. Or any photographer for that matter. :D I now understand aperture, ISO, shutter speed, white balance, and histograms thanks to this website!

31 Days to a Better Photo has been my "textbook" for this course. I've basically gone through two posts each week, and done projects and photography that correspond with the concepts I learned from reading the posts.

There were 3 settings that I learned about that really helped me to understand photography. Aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. If you study anything about photography, study those 3 concepts. They are really useful. And essential if you want to get a good photo! 

The Mannequin

{3 Ways to Correct Underexposure}

Meet Manny the Mannequin.  

I rediscovered him today.
He was abandoned on a shelf after being bought at a garage sale last year.

And he's a great poser.

:)

See, he's waving at you.

He loves it when people wave back. *hinthint*

HAH!

Did you wave?

Now he is bowing to you. What a gentleman.

Sadly, these poor photos are very dark. Technically speaking, they are underexposed.

:( Not enough light.

But never fear, dear reader. I have been learning how to fix that here, and here also.

:D

This is cool. But don't worry if you don't understand it. I didn't understand it the first time I heard it.

You can fix an overexposed (or underexposed) photo three different ways. 

Photo 1

This underexposed photo, number 1, was taken at f-stop 8.0, at 1/5 sec. shutter speed, with an ISO of 80.

How to fix an over (or under) exposed photo?

You can change the aperture. For Photo 2 I just changed the aperture from f-stop 8.0 to f-stop 3.4. The lens opened wider, which let more light in.

Compare it with the photo above. It looks a bit better. 

And notice the wire in the background is blurry? Yes. That is what happens when the aperture is set to a lower number ;) 

Photo 2

Alright. Photo 3 looks even better.

I just changed the shutter speed here.

F-stop was 8.0, and ISO was 80, same as Photo 1.

But I changed the shutter speed from 1/5 to being open for a full 5 seconds!

That let lots of light in. :) Thus, a better exposure.

Photo 3

And for this last photo, number 4, I changed the ISO. That basically controls how fast the camera lets in light. The higher the ISO, the faster it lets light in. BUT, the image quality decreases the faster you let light in. 

The ISO for the previous 3 photos was at 80, but the below photo's ISO is 1600.
So again, more light was let into the camera! But the image is much grainier.

Photo 4

Alrighty. So the three ways to correct overexposed or underexposed photos are:
Change the aperture.

Change the shutter speed.

Change the ISO.

Manny, quit showing off. You know your ballet isn't anything to write home about.

Brownie points if you learned anything from this post.

Redeemable for virtual brownies.

:)