Lessons Learnt: Part 1 and Assignment 1

Having completed Part 1 (bar writing up a few of the exercises) and Assignment 1, I thought I’d summarise what I feel I’ve learnt so far. The most interesting thing (something I should have known anywhere no doubt) is the effect on the subject of choosing wide-angle or telephoto. I’ve always thought that you use a wide-angle lens to take photos of something close to you, and the telephoto if the subject is far away. I’ve never noticed what a difference the two extremes make on how the picture of the subject turns out – the flattening effect of the telephoto (which I used for Assignment 1 to convey the effect I wanted for ‘straight’), and how much better colour, shape and depth of field are preserved with the wide angle.



I’ve also realised that I have to get used to using the tripod more, especially if I am using the telephoto lens. A couple of the images for Assignment 1 (‘Still’ and ‘Moving’) required relatively long exposure times – much longer than can reasonably be accommodated by hand-holding the camera, and ‘Still’ especially would have benefited from being much sharper.



Another thing that’s struck me is that, whatever the subject, there are only so many things you can do with the camera, and the trick (or skill) is to make sure that you’re using them in the right combination – shutter speed, aperture, focal length, format, decisions about what you leave in, what you leave out, where you position the objects in the frame, and so on. My problem at the moment is that I want to try every combination and wait until afterwards to see what works best, which is quite time consuming. Eventually I hope that I’ll have more of a sense of what combination of elements is going to convey what I’m trying to convey when I start.



For future assignments (and exercises) I shall do a lot more planning. I still have a tendency to hope that, as long as I’ve set aside some time to go out with the camera, and as long as I know what the exercise is, I’ll find a subject somewhere along the way. That hasn’t often worked. Much more successful have been the trips when I’ve known where I’m going and what I’m going to do when I get there. I’ve already started making more notes of potential subjects when I’m out without the camera. It means more reading ahead of the course material so that I know what’s coming up and have an opportunity to plan.