ISO Epiphany

I mentioned in my last post that I've decided to focus on being a photographer through the month of September.  Not that I wasn't already doing that before September...or that I'll stop after, but I meant truly putting forth effort to develop my skills.  I've been "pushing the limit" so to speak with the amount of time I've put in to it, as well as doing things I haven't already done.



Singularity



Just Saturday night I had an epiphany of sorts.  I was shooting people indoors under low light conditions which I've avoided doing simply because I haven't spent a lot of time learning about lighting.  I've only had my DSLR since June, and though not much of my work is posted here yet, I'm quite pleased with what I have accomplished so far. 

Saturday night I was failing.  Every shot I took was under or over exposed.  If I angled the speedlight down to create more light, I'd blow out the faces.  If I angled it up the shots were too dark.  I messed with the shutter speed and aperture over and over and became rather frustrated.  Then it hit me...my ISO wasn't right.  How could I not know that?



I was out on a shoot with the photography club the very first time I used my camera in June .  One of the experienced photographers told me to set my ISO on 100 for the shoot.  The ISO setting is in the menu and not one of the outer adjustments, like the shutter speed or F-Stops.  Out of sight - Out of mind.  My ISO has been set on 100 for the past 3 months and I never gave it a thought.



Sunday evening I went downtown Chicago to Montrose Beach at dusk to experiment with my newly found ISO setting.  The whole purpose of the shoot was to test different settings.  I spent very little time trying to compose a picture.  My confidence in my ability to compose an interesting shot is no longer in question.  I always see it.  I just don't always know how to capture what I see so I can share it



Most of my photography doesn't happen by accident any more.  My experiments are more purposeful with anticipated outcomes.  First I follow the rules, then I break them.  Sometimes doing it "wrong" has a better outcome than doing it "right". 



Montrose Beach at Sunset



The two photographs posted here are examples of doing it "wrong" and liking the outcome.  Both shots were taken with the aperture wide open and ISO 800.  What I mean by "wrong" is that I normally would have closed down the aperture a step or two.  My personally preference is better clarity which I didn't get with either of these shots.  But...I like the outcome.

The first one was taken about an hour before sunset without a tripod.  The second one was taken ten minutes after sunset with a tripod. I only adjusted the shutter speed to control the exposure.

There are couple hundred shots to review yet.  Time to get back to work!