Last Friday I attended a combined birthday party for my mom and her good friend as the “official photographer”. I set up a mini studio in the bedroom and after fueling their guests with a few drinks they slowly trickled in to let me photograph them.
I’ve been sitting on these shots for a few days fretting over the quality and debating whether or not I would share them. The lighting was all wrong, faces were flushed and glowing from alcohol, I was nervous and Isla (what I have named my camera) and I were having a disagreement.
Isla and I typically shoot in natural light outside. We favor Program Mode as she usually knows what she’s talking about when it comes to f/stops and shutter speeds. I’ve come to trust her judgment in most scenarios. However, in this particular setting we were shooting at night, indoors, with a boost of artificial light and she was waaaaaay wrong on every setting in every creative mode I tried. I will say on her behalf that she really wasn’t familiar with this new 50mm 1.4 lens and I was a nervous wreck feeling the pressure of wanting to impress my mom’s coworkers who’ve known me for years and who’s families I want to have the opportunity of photographing in the future – for profit.
That being said, I could not for the life of me figure out which combination of buttons and dials to press and turn so I could get a decent exposure. I went home that night feeling like a major screw up ready to crawl in a hole and hide – forever. Luckily, there was home-brew and a husband waiting at home to talk me off the edge.
Before Friday night I had always relied on my knowledge as a FILM photographer in a PROFESSIONAL PORTRAIT STUDIO where lights and cameras and printers are all calibrated to their most perfect settings. I know how to pose people; I know how to get natural expressions; I can put my subjects at ease and give lots of direction. I understand the concept of f/stops and shutter speeds and embrace the rule of thirds.
What I did not understand was how to set up my own lights and why people pay a lot of money for a light kit instead of creating their own make-shift light design. I did not fully grasp the concept of light sensors and spot metering nor could I figure out the correct direction to spin my dial to slow down that damn shutter speed. And I definitely did not consider the reality of shiny heads and noses from drinking and dancing in a house full of partying woman.
I spent the rest of the weekend studying that silly little book that came with my camera and I even cracked a bigger book that my husband bought me months ago which claims to be the “guide to digital photography.” I have resisted this reading for so long. I hate getting all technical and frankly most of what I read goes in one eyeball and out the other. In order to follow any of these instructions or have any of it sink in I would have to actually think about what I want to photograph and how I want it to look in it’s finished form before snapping the picture. Gasp! I “never had time” for that stuff so I just did what was easy and relied on Photoshop to save my ass.
Those days are gone now. I’m ready to step up to the next level. I know what I want to shoot and I know {basically} how to do it. Practice. Practice. Practice. What I read was invaluable and I really wasn’t ready to digest it before this weekend. The following pictures aren’t nearly as horrible as I feared they were days ago but I would definitely do them “better” if I were granted a do-over. This was a great experience and I’ll be soooo ready next time.
P.S. Isla is forgiven. It’s not her fault I gave such poor direction. The photographer must know how to work her tools not the other way around.
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