Creative Lighting I

I took a second photography class from NESOP. It was called Creative Lighting I. This was the class description:

This ten-week course is an intensive and thorough foundation that will help you produce more effective and consistent results using natural, ambient, and found light sources. It provides a complete review of essential camera functions including meter, exposure, histogram, highlight alert, dynamic range, autofocus, drive/advance, and white balance as well as strategies for addressing a variety of different and challenging lighting and subject situations indoors and out. Quantity, contrast, color, and direction of light are discussed in detail. Additionally, the course will provide instruction for backlit subjects, using window light, and the use of a reflector for fill, accent, and background lighting, helping you to use existing light effectively in your photographs.

To be honest, I wanted to take Creative Lighting II so that I could learn how to use a flash. But according to the website, you had to take this course before tackling the flash course. I said to myself "It can hurt have a strong foundation in the basics." At least the second half of the syllabus sounded neat.

So I signed up. The syllabus said that we'd get to the cool stuff (backlighting, reflectors, etc) around week 8. That was a long time to wait. I decided to sit through a class or two before dropping. Things progressed well enough...albiet, slow to my liking. I learned new things, and relearned some old things. Then we went past the drop date and things started to SUCK.

It wasn't the material or the instructor that sucked, it was fellow classmates. Week over week, we would go back to the same basic concept. Week over week, the instructor had to explain it again and again. Ugh. It got so bad that I started crocheting in class. At least it gave me time to work on what seemed like a never ending project.

I was able to bring in a couple of photos for critique. This class was structured much differently than my first. There wasn't a set amount of time set aside after lecture to review photos. We were just to bring them in when we wanted. Sometimes, we came really close to spending almost all 3 hours of class talking about photos. This usually happened because 1 or 2 people would bring in a ton of photos rather than just picking out a handful that they had specific questions on.

Anyways, the feedback from my photos was fantastic. I was told that I'm a risk taker, but it works in my favor since it results in very interesting shots. I do need to work on exposing my photos correctly. One thing I'm struggling with is figuring out how to make my photos less flat. Here are the photos I shared:

All images are straight out of camera (SOOC) and have not been retouched.
Top: Looking down from the observation deck of the Willis Tower, Chicago. Photo is too flat in terms of contrast.
Middle: Chicago at night looking towards Lake Michigan. The photos is a bit dark.
Bottom: Baby D. I didn't compensate for being in the shadows, so all my photos had a blue-ish tint.

Image SOOC. Should have changed the metering mode. My camera took into consideration
the super bright (white) sky underexposing the actual focal point (image on the camera's LCD)

After 10 weeks, I'm so glad to have my Tuesday nights back. I'm glad that I was able to finish the baby blanket I started. I'm glad that a learned some new things about photography. But I won't be signing up for the next class in the series. It's going to be the same cast of characters, thanks, but no thanks. I think I'll just stay home and read the manual for my flash.