Homework

Since I had a meeting at the crack of dawn today I had time this afternoon head home a little early to work on my homework before I had to go pick up the kids. I am taking an online photography class. And this is the first week. I have high hopes that it will teach me practical ways to use my DLSR.


This week's lesson was on shutter speeds. So I took pictures of the fountain at the duck pond, bubbles, and every other water features in a 2 mile radius. :) And in fact I learned quite a lot. Like what the Tv setting on my camera means. It stands for time value, by the way. I also learned:

- If I use shutter priority over 1/250 the photos start getting a little dark. I am guessing that means time to bump up the ISO...
- I see noticeably nice flow/blur at 1/40 in things like water. 1/4 seems to be my sweet spot for dreamy waterfall pics.
- I shake like a leaf. A tripod is required for anything below 1/40.
- You can go too low in shutter priority which results in totally white/washed out pictures. There is such a thing as too much light. Who knew?
- 1/400 seems to be the sweet spot for freezing action in flight (if you remember to bump up the ISO).