Your Personal Photography Evolution

The past two years, I've barely looked at or published to this blog due to a busy senior year of college and an even busier first year of "real" adult life.  As I was going through old blog posts, I still agreed with a lot of my old posts, but had to laugh a little at what I used to consider high-quality, blog-worthy work.  Granted, they weren't horrible pictures, but I feel I turn out much higher quality work at this point (and with less effort).  My Flickr page is a great example of that.  If you compare the photos on the first page to the photos on the last page, the difference is obvious.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/arait/

My main point in posting this is: Take time to look at your progress.  If you have never picked up a camera before and are just now getting into photography, don't feel bad if you aren't producing professional quality photographs from the first shot.  All you can do is practice, practice, practice!  The more photos you take, the more you will get a feel for your camera, your personal style, and angles that work.  Every year or two, take a look back at your old photos and compare them to your new ones.  If you've taken a lot, I can almost guarantee that you will see an obvious improvement.

The factors I feel have led to my progress are:

a) A nicer camera

 There's no way around it...an equipment upgrade helps.  My dSLR lets me do things I could only dream of doing with my little point-and-shoot.  However, it did take a lot of learning and research to produce better shots.  Initially, I think my pictures may have gotten a little WORSE with a nicer camera because I really had no clue how to use it.  Certain light situations and settings are still a little bit of a mystery to me, but overall, the upgrade was worth every dollar spent.

b) The desire to improve

I'm still not happy with most of my shots.  I have a degree of perfectionism that makes me want to continually improve until I've reached what I consider a professional level.  It's slow going, but maybe I'll get there some day.  You just have to research new techniques, settings you don't understand, and take as many shots as possible to reach your goal.  Honestly, a little money may need to be spent if you have high standards (see point A).

c) Patience

Most people--I say "most" because I'm sure there are natural photography geniuses out there--can't go from first picking up a camera to producing professional shots in a week.  It takes a lot of practice (and some frustration along the way) to gradually improve your technique.  If you want to accelerate your skills, taking a photography class is a good idea.  It's something I always wished I had done early on, but never seemed to get around to doing. I think my skills would have improved much more quickly if I had.

Overall, don't feel bad if you aren't getting the results you want on day one.  Just like anything else it takes times and work to get where you ultimately want to be.  :)

Final Suggestion: I would recommend starting a Flickr page if you don't have one.  Not only does it help you track you progress and receive feedback, but it provides literally millions of photos from other users as examples of wonderful and inspired work.  I've learned as much from viewing the photos on Flickr as I have from practicing on my own. :)

Light Scoop Deluxe Review

I haven't posted anything for awhile due to busyness and a lack of anything terribly interesting to share.  However, over Christmas I received a couple new photography and videography gadgets that I felt warranted posts.  Plus, I have some time to kill. :)

One of the new gadgets I received is called the Light Scoop Deluxe. It's basically mirror that you attach to the hot shoe on your DSLR to bounce flash off of walls/ceilings and onto your subject.  A picture is attached below for a visual reference.

 

I asked for this specific model for Christmas, but I know there are multiple products that do essentially the same thing.  For your camera, I would check compatibility (I believe the Light Scoop does not attach to Sony cameras) and reviews to see if the version you are interested in buying is worthwhile.

In my opinion, the greatest advantage to a flash bounce mirror is that it's FAR cheaper than buying an external flash unit and diffuser.  Any flash unit/diffuser worth buying is going to be much more expensive than the $30-$35 spent on this little mirror.  This is far more compact, easy to store in a smaller camera bag, and extremely simple to use.  Plus, I actually like the results almost better than the photos I've seen taken with an expensive diffuser. 

I took a few photos of the same object to compare no flash, pop-up flash, and bounce flash in the same dark lighting situation. All photos were taken in my bedroom with only a dim lamp providing light.  (I realize it's bad practice to place the only light source behind the subject, but I was trying to illustrate a point.)

This first picture was taken with no flash whatsoever.  I intended for this photo to look terrible, but I actually ended up kind of liking the ethereal-looking stuffed animal...  However, without flash, you can tell that photo clarity starts to suffer.  Shadows on the face is never a flattering look for portraits either.

A person in this position might try to correct the shadows and sharpness by using the pop-up flash on the camera.  The photo below shows the result of that strategy.  The subject is clear, but the color is completely washed out.  If this were a living dog or a human being, red-eye or shiny faces could also appear when direct flash is used.

Finally, here's the same subject shot with the Light Scoop mirror pointed to reflect straight upwards.  This is essentially a happy medium between the first two photos.  The shadows on the dog's face disappear, but the tone is warmer and the colors remain fairly vibrant.

If you still aren't happy with the result, the mirror will rotate side to side.  The pictures below show what happens when the mirror is tilted the the right (Picture 1) and to the left (Picture 2).  The mirror allows some control over the angle of the reflected light, which can be helpful if you find one side of an object or person's face to still looks too dark.

Overall, I'm extremely impressed that such a small and cheap little gadget could provide results like these.  As someone who hates the look of flash photography (and doesn't want to spend the money to buy expensive external flash equipment), this is a fantastic solution to my indoor photography woes.  I would highly recommend this product to anyone who is on a tight budget and who wants improved indoor photography.

Side Note: Online reviews by others have said that flash bounce mirrors do not work well on dark ceilings or walls.  I have not personally tried to use this product in a dark-walled room, but I wouldn't be surprised if that were true.  Despite that issue, I still think this product is worth every penny unless every room in your home is very dark-walled.