Learning My Way Around the Camera

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Over the past few weeks in my Wayne State photojournalism class (COM 2280 with Lori King) we have been learning the basics of the camera. I have always had an eye for photography, but I longed to learn more about the capabilities of the camera. In order to produce the best possible images, you have to understand how to manipulate the tool that is capturing them.

The assignment began with reading through the camera manual. I am working with a Nikon D5300. I typically just use the kit lens, a 18-140mm. However, my fiancé has a Nikon D750 and she has let me in on her stash of lenses. Her kit lens is a 24-120mm, and she also has let me use a 85mm lens. I didn’t know that different lenses allow for different apertures until this week’s assignment.

The main stepping stone we learned in class was reciprocity. Instructor King explained the relationship between ISO, aperture and shutter speed, and how taking light away from one means giving it back to another. She showed the ideal settings in certain situations and explained the steps to take when playing with the settings in order to capture the best image.

This information alone has opened a whole new world of photography to me. And we are only in the very beginning of the semester. I am eager to absorb even more details about the technical inner workings of the camera. Becoming familiar with it alongside the instruction of a professional makes it easy and fun to learn.

After going through the reading, we were given a list of a variety of photos to take. We were asked to showcase examples of things like shallow depth of field, panned action, silhouettes, etc. You will see the results in my gallery. This portion of the assignment was not only a great learning experience in being hands-on with the camera, it was also extremely fun. We were allowed to choose our subjects, so I worked with my newest muse: my baby boy Marcel. My old black Labrador, Royce, was also a great help for some of the action shots.

The challenge in shooting was that you know the desired result you’re looking for, you just have to keep tinkering with settings to get it just right. It took patience and plenty of trial and error. This experience will be beneficial when it comes to capturing shots on the fly where you only get one chance to get the image you need for a story.

We brought our images to class where we were able to edit under our instructor’s guidance. We were shown Photo Mechanic and Photoshop. I hadn’t used Photoshop since around 2006, so it has come a long way since then. We barely scratched the surface on photo editing, at least locating the tools we needed for cropping, and adjusting color levels and white balance. I look forward to learning more in the editing department because the software has just as many, if not more, features as the camera.

Overall this assignment was a great start to the semester and I am excited to get back out into the field and capture many more great images. Excluding the occasional growing pains, my work should only improve from here on out. Keep checking back to see my progress throughout the semester!