curiousillusion

Owning a dslr is a whole new world for someone who’s been used to a point & shoot for the past 6 years.  A brand new world.  It’s so overwhelming to start learning about exposure, ISO, shutter speed… I mean, all I’ve worried about for the last few years was whether the picture was in focus.  And if it was too dark.  That’s about it.

The first day that I got the D90, I was kinda freaked.  I mean, here I had this powerful camera that I’d dreamed of for months… and there was so much to learn and there was so much I didn’t know.  Not only that, but now whenever I took a picture there were people telling me what I should have adjusted to make the shot better… and I had no idea what they were talking about.  Or how to change the settings that they were telling me to adjust.

But, I’ve been trying to learn.  Between the two books I’ve been reading, a few flickr friends and the fabulous Matt (check out that blog post, such a great wealth of information), I think I’m starting to understand how my camera works and, as a result, how to take better pictures.  Today’s shot is the perfect example.

And once again, I preface this by saying – I’m sure there are plenty of ways to improve this picture and by no means am I saying this is an all star shot.  However, the way that I got to this picture shows, I think, how much I have learned and how I’m starting to understand things.  And that makes me proud.

Okay.  So I wanted to take a picture of an ornament on the Christmas tree at home.  Bad lighting however, and even after I turned on a few more lights I noticed that the camera had set the ISO at 3200.  Which is far too high and would lead to a grainy shot when zoomed in.  Oh and for the record, 2 days ago I wouldn’t have even paid attention to the ISO so the fact that I did should tell you something.  Anyway, I decided to try the flash but, of course, the flash was too harsh.  So I put a piece of tissue paper in front of the flash to try to diffuse it… and it worked, but the picture came out a bit dark.  My dad suggested increasing the ISO (which at this point was back way down because of the flash) and so I did.  And after a few shots, and rearranging lights and changing angles, I came out with this:

Not too shabby, eh?

Like I said, I’m not claiming this to be the best shot ever.  But, I manually focused on the ornament, I set the f-stop to create the bokeh dots, I diffused the light from the flash *and* I paid attention to the  ISO to improve the lighting and prevent graininess.  Things are finally starting to click, and that’s kind of a good feeling.  Plus the next time that I take a similar shot, I’d like to think I’ll remember all of the steps (even the one that my dad prompted me on) and that’ll make me a better photographer for it.  Just think… I’ve only had the camera for less than a week.  Think of how much I’ll know this time next year!

*title from the song by Ciara, featured in one of my favorite scenes from the Sex and the City movie. :)

Related posts:

1. Serendipity. Serendipity.  A fortunate accident.   Also, the name of the movie...
2. Playing… and learning. Been playing with the new camera today, of course.  Ever...
3. Happiness. Let me start by saying that today was an amazing...
4. Wish, wish, wishing Okay, I have to be honest… the whole Christmas generosity,...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.