WR: Understanding Exposure *Read p. 1-33 + Take 1 & Study 1 Picture*

I completely missed my Featured Photographer Friday this week.  Sorry about that.  But I have a good excuse.

It was my birthday.  And we got snow.  AND I got two packages in the mail.  A picture order and Lightroom.  Woohoo!  So...next week I will feature a photographer.  I have quite a few lined up...just need to take the time to write about them.

But, onto the purpose of this post.  My weekly report.  I actually finished my reading assignment on Tuesday, but I'm just now getting around to posting.

The bulk of the reading was review for me - ISO, aperture, and shutter speed and how they interact.  I understand this on a basic level, but there were some details that caught my attention.

I really appreciated how Peterson explains how those three things work together.  His example of the faucet opening (aperture), the faucet handle (shutter speed), and the worker bees with buckets (ISO) (p. 22) Finally solidified how these three things are related.  I understood on a basic level before, but now I feel that I would be able to explain it to someone else.  And that is, after all, how you know if you actually understand something.

I also gained a better understanding of stops from this reading (p. 17-19).  I knew what a stop was before, but now I know what numbers equal whole stops and that current cameras also have one-third stops.  So if someone says to "stop it down," you can change the shutter speed from 1/60 to 1/30 or the aperture from f/8 to f/11 (as an example).

Lastly, I appreciated Peterson's focus on creative exposures.  As someone who recently learned how to really use her camera's light meter, it is helpful to know that it is sometimes wrong.  Well, it's always "right" in terms of exposure, but not necessarily for the picture I want to achieve.  I have been better this week about sometimes ignoring what the light meter is telling me.

All in all, a helpful chapter and a good start.

My picture this week was taken for the Phototique weekly contest.  I have just joined this new site and really like it.  I hope to spend some more time this week learning my way around the forums and submitting a photo for critique.  I am very happy that they have a critique section since the boards I've seen lately that say they offer critiques have so many members that you just get a bunch of compliments.  Critiquing and being critiqued is something I really need to work on.

Anyway...enough of the tangent.  The theme this week at Phototique was "Oriental."  I took a fake money tree that I had and formed it into the shape of a heart to make it a bit more interesting.  I'm sure I could have done more with professional lighting, but I was trying to be efficient, so I put it in front of a window.  And, I'll admit, I took 7 exposures instead of 5.   Also, looks like I should have darkened the top right corner a little more in post.  Oh well.

Here's the picture for this week:

I won the weekly theme with this pic :)  Ok, so there was only one other competitor, but it's like I keep hearing, you just have to put yourself out there and enter contests.  You just never know.  At least this is a start for me.