and see what’s in your camera!
Find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the light and dark which that thing provides.
JunichiroTanizaki
You don’t need to travel to exotic locations or buy expensive lighting to create unique photos but you do need to learn what your camera has to offer.
When’s the last time you scrolled through the menu in your camera to see what it can do?
When’s the last time you tried some of those features?
I can’t relate to the mindset of having a camera, setting it to auto, and then taking pictures. If that’s all you’re going to do you might be better served just pulling out your phone and using that to take the picture. I recently loaded the Lightroom ap onto my ipad and when I use that to take a photo I first jump into LR and click on the camera from there. Try it, you’ll see the difference!
Phones, ipads, and tablets have come a long way in the last while and can take some very nice photos especially for sharing on social media where the file size doesn’t matter. Try to blow those up though and you will run into some issues.
A good jumping off point from auto is to start using your scene settings. Match them to the conditions that you’re shooting in and then look at the settings that the camera chose. You will soon start to see what kind of settings are required for different conditions.
From there it’s a quick leap to going fully manual and taking creative control.
A feature of many of the Nikons in the DSLR line-up is the ability to do double exposure and then if the two shots that I want can’t be coordinated at the same time…in camera image overlay.
While you can create these types of shots in photoshop I like the challenge of combining them right in the camera.
Today’s shot was an image overlay. The secret to them is to visualize your lights and darks and plan where you want them to fall. They can be a lot of fun and really change the mood of a photo. I did a head shot outside and for my second image used the rainbow reflections that showed up when the sun hit my wood stove glass door. Beautiful, soft out of focus images can also be perfect for these types of shots.
What’s in your camera? What will you try today?
it's (almost always) about the water... 
Kind of an irony of our time: devices become more and more feature-rich, and do most if not all of the thinking for the user, who becomes more of a director and less of a creator. Learning how to do things ”the hard way” or the ”old fashioned way” was one of the most creatively liberating things I’ve ever done. It’s kind of like learning to drive a standard transmission after having driven nothing but auto.
Very true. It’s kind of why I don’t use “filters” to create a look. To me anyways, it never looks as good as one that has been shot that way. You can learn so much more by working at getting a shot instead of simply manipulating afterwards. My thoughts on this though are probably considered archaic though lol!
good suggestions! Great shot!
Thanks Carmen! You are a perfect candidate for putting LR on your ipad, I think you’d enjoy it!
White light contains all the colours of that rainbow đŸ™‚
What a shining light he is!
He very much is, thanks Jenny!
I recently completed an online class that walked me through every menu item on my Nikon and explained what it was for. Of course, it’s up to me to go out and challenge myself to learn how to do more with my camera. And what fun that can be!
Good for you! Experimentation is so much fun, thanks for commenting.
You have created a very warm, lovely picture. And what a calm, dutiful puppy you have to work with.
Thank you, he’s learning!