Dave taught me a lot of stuff that I have never heard of in my life. I thought taking decent pictures was complicated enough, but after what I have newly learnt, I think it is an insurmountable task. I will cope eventually as time goes by, I hope.
So far, I have been practicing framing my shots. I have learnt about this thing called "The Rule Of Thirds", which is a framing rule. It's about the golden ratio of placing your subjects in two-thirds of the frame and never directly at the center as your subjects will look dull in such captures. It's something to do with psychology, I think. I roughly know what it is but I don't know how to explain it to my viewers. So, here's the link for better understanding. All hail Wikipedia! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thirds
Also, Dave taught me something called "The Golden Hour" in photography. Apparently, it's very important to consider the time of the day when you decide to shoot. The worse time to shoot is either on a clear, late morning or a clear, early afternoon as the Sun will cause a lot of white washes in the background of the picture. As a rule, if you eyes squint at something that you want to shoot, then don't bother taking the shot, it's too glaring and the picture will not turn out well. "The Golden Hour" is usually in the early morning or very late in the afternoon to early evening. That way, the photos will turn out to be more radiant. I guess it has something to do with taking advantage of the Sun's lighting at the correct moment.
Many factors also come into play such as weather and angle. Dave gave me tips on how to angle and use my subjects to block out street lights at night. I thought that was quite a neat technique to learn.
Initially, I was quite worried about things like ISO, exposure values, shutter speed ect. but Dave told me not to worry about that too much in the beginning and just concentrate on taking as many pictures as possible and brush up on my framing skills, and that I will get the feel of those manual settings when I am used to it. It kind of comes naturally? He did teach me about the triangular relationship of ISO, exposure values, and shutter speed - changing one setting will affect the other two, something to keep in mind.
Okay, enough talking, let's look at some shots I took that day. I have chosen only the better ones to show you. They have not been processed in anyway. So, enjoy. You feedback is very much appreciated!
Later that day, we received a Whatsapp message from Gary. He told us that he will be deploying his telescope at Toa Payoh to conduct a sidewalk session together with Haz. We still had some time in our hands and so we went down to a camera shop at Peninsular Plaza to get some memory cards and a hand-held remote control for my camera. Dave advised that, to take astrophotographs, it is a must to have at least a remote control to operate the shutter instead of using my finger as it will cause a lot of vibrations on the device. John bought one as well.
After that, we took a train down to look for Gary and Haz. Once there, Dave taught me about night shooting. We shot the crowd lining up to look through their telescopes. Dave told me that it is important to capture the subject's eyes when it comes to shooting people. The eyes are the essence. I have also learnt how to adopt the proper stance while shooting. I am quite a tall for an Asian, so I often had to kneel on a knee and place my elbow on my thigh to take a stable, leveled shot. It's just like holding a rifle and adopting the kneeling position when I was in the army. So, it was something that came easily for me but it was tiring as hell, There's no two ways about it, a leveled shot is very important.
Then came the part that I have been waiting for. Dave gave me a crash course astrophotography lesson. After unboxing the new remote control I have bought earlier, I jacked it into the DSLR and mounted the camera onto the tripod. Dave told me to change everything to manual on the camera, even the lens. Next, he explained to me why I have to set the timer to +2 seconds delay when I am using the remote control, reason being, there will be some slight vibration after I have pressed the button on the remote. The extra two seconds of delay are for the vibration to dissipate and the camera to stabilize. All these minute details are able to determine the outcome of a photograph.
The ISO was set to 800. The DSLR was able to handle at max a 1600 if there's a need to push it up. Anything higher, the "noise" will cause the picture to look grainy. I think Dave said it has something to do with sensor size.
Dave told me to half-hold the shutter button to check out the exposure value, making sure it doesn't reach a +2. Somewhere between +0.3 to +1 is still okay. However, there is an exception to this rule; when doing street photography, it is always at -0.3, only during astrophotography should it be set at a positive value. Changing the shutter speed affects the exposure value. He also taught me how to go to the live view and read the histogram which is also equally vital. When the histogram spikes to the extreme left, it means that it is being underexposed, making the pictures dark. When it spikes to the extreme right, it means that it is being overexposed, making the pictures look washout in the background. It's best if the spike hits the middle, that's the sweet spot. We set the shutter time for the first shot at 2 seconds, 18mm, F3.5, ISO 800.
After the technicalities, Dave looked through the viewfinder, pointed the camera at the constellation of Orion, looked for the brightest star which was Rigel and focused the camera until the star became pinpoint. I did the honour of pushing the button on the remote to take the picture. The subsequent pictures were at the settings of 5 seconds, 85mm, F5, ISO 800. and 4 seconds, 50mm, F4, ISO 800.
Here are the pictures. They have not been processed either. I know it was not very well-taken. Hey, it was my first try.
I don't know if my interest for photography will continue to grow. I told Dave that if it doesn't, if it dies off, then at the very least, I have learnt something out of it - that's very important to me. That's why I created this blog: To learn and store my memories.
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