Photography Class #5 and Other Thoughts

Last night was the final photography class until March 23; the title of the class was “Light Inside and Out.” Lisa, Tony and I attended, although Derek and Morgan joined us for dinner at Rosie’s (yum!)

It seemed like Farley really got into this class. He loved demonstrating all the different types of flashes and the different flash accessories you can use while working with a flash. He even showed us some of his homemade tricks, which were quite funny – one thing he had was made out of what looked like a pudding pack. He admitted it was a cup from a restaurant. Funny. He went through the slides awfully fast and I wasn’t able to write everything down; but here are some of the things we learned:

• There are two possible sources of light to illuminate a subject – natural and artificial
• Whether your light source is natural or artificial, there are three main characteristics of light that are of interest to the photographer: direction, quality and temperature
• The three main directions of light are: front, side (emphasizes texture), and back (emphasizes shape and form)
• Direction can have a powerful effect on the outcome of your photo.
• Polarizing filters work best when the light source is a 90 degree angle to the subject
• An extreme form of backlighting creates a silhouette
• Back light is the most difficult to work with
• In photography, the quality of light is generally hard of soft
• Hard light is from a bright point
• Soft light is diffused light that seems to wrap around subjects and reduce or eliminate shadows
• Temperature is measured in degrees of Kelvin
• The warmest temperature (light wise) for natural light is at sunrise and sunset
• You can get really interesting photos at twilight (also a great book!)

The rest of the class was spent looking at different photos and Farley explaining to us what kind of light was used and also showing us the various gadgets. I didn’t think Farley was ever going to let us out of class last night. We didn’t leave there until almost 9:30!

A couple of non-photo related notes.

I watched American Idol when I got home last night and loved, loved, loved the guy that sand “Straight Up” – very original. I also liked that girl with the almost white hair. Ellen did okay as a judge, but I miss Paula – can’t believe I am saying that. Maybe Ellen will grow on me because I really like her otherwise.

Captain Phil Harris from the boat Cornelia Marie on The Deadliest Catch passed away last night after suffering a stroke on January 29. Captain Phil was one of my favorites and has been the source of many laughs throughout mine and Tony’s courtship; Tony even gave me a Cornelia Marie sweatshirt for Christmas. I’m very sad for his family and my prayers are with them at this time of loss. RIP Captain Phil.