basic digital photo course at False Creek Community Centre

I'm teaching my next basic course at
False Creek beginning March 17,
1:30 to 4 pm on Saturdays. Learn how
to control your images better with
aperture, shutter speed, white balance,
flash, window light and the other
important camera functions. Learn
a bit about light and composition.
And get more excited about making
pictures.

playing with depth of field

I borrowed a tilt shift lens which allows you to
change where the depth of field is placed in
your image. By tilting the lens horizontally,
vertically or on an angle, you change the look
of the photo quite dramatically. Notice that the
plane of focus runs vertically through the stop
sign, whereas with a regular lens, it would run
horizontally on a plane parallel with the camera.

interiors photography vancouver

Shooting a dark interior is a problem when the
outdoor light is so bright. The window will burn
out and you see nothing outside.
The way around this is to shoot in the evening
at twilight when the outdoor light is lower.
Or as I did here, shoot several exposures, including
one for the outdoor bright light. Then combine
the exposure using layers and masks in Photoshop.

macro photography

The possibilities in shooting macro are endless.
I would like to offer a good tip on shooting it
but here's an even better site to go to see
Bryan Peterson explaining how to get a great
macro shot in a most unlikely place. It's all about
controlling the light and getting really close
to a very simple subject.
Bryan has books and lots of videos to explain
how to shoot better photos.
Take a look at this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqBVWlrHqG8

mining the photo files

One great advantage of having your pics
stored on your computer and hard drives
(I mean you should back up the images
on an external hard drive or two) is that it
is easy to go back and look at work you've
done a long time ago. Maybe there is a new
way to see it. Maybe you can spot a trend
in how you are shooting. Maybe you get
an idea for putting photos together.

I looked at images I made 7 years ago and
decided to make a new collection of black
and white abstract architectural photos.
It's easy to convert to b & w in Photoshop.