Finding My Shutter Finger
(You know, like finding your sea legs, but for photography.)
Yesterday, I promised myself I’d not only take my camera out with me, but that I’d commit to shooting at least three photos. And, so, I did. I’m not especially thrilled with how it went, but the results are here.
First thoughts: using a camera with thick gloves on is not much fun.
Also, I’d forgotten how incredibly critical I am of my photos. And wow, it’s so different to be taking photos from a device that writes them to a card, that I then have to plug into a computer of some sort to process (I always preferred shooting RAW) and share (how is it that Lightroom doesn’t have a connection to Flickr?). It’s a longer, slower process, but I’ve always enjoyed the almost ritualistic nature of producing a final image from the raw output of the camera’s sensor.
I remembered how aperture and shutter speed work against each other, but neglected to factor in sensitivity. There’s no reason for shooting these photos in broad (overcast) daylight at anything over base ISO. Which, on this camera is… I don’t even know. But I’m not loving the noise I see in the images.
I remembered how a RAW image needs way more massaging than the JPEG output from a digital camera. Levels and curves, sharpening. But mostly, I just did some cropping, and let Lightroom auto-process these, then tweaked the output a touch. They’re test images, and I don’t want to obsess over processing a bad capture because that’s just going to make me feel bad.
But these are technical issues that a little research and practice will always fix. In the end, the biggest challenge I’ve always faced with photography remains, be it while using a fancy dSLR with expensive glass, or the phone in my pocket: finding interesting subjects, and then not being shy to photograph them.