Manual Setting - Other Tricks and Techniques

In an effort to improve my photography skills, I've been practicing the manual setting, playing around with black and white photography, using filters, and trying different tricks to get more interesting photos. You'll see that this last one is the one I'm worst at. 

If you keep up with Elsie's blog, A Beautiful Mess, and I'm sure you do (seriously, raise your hand if you don't read that blog), then you might remember her recent guest post about free-lensing. Well, I tried it. I can't figure out how Sarah got her pictures to look so...normal...and interesting. The color in mine is always super weird, and I can't figure out how she got the cool looking angles, either. So, I'm slightly disappointed that my photos didn't come out like I wanted them too, but I still kind of like them. Some of them look kind of like messed up film. 

 These last two are almost exactly the same, but in the second one I tilted the lens a little more and adjusted the exposure differently so it made it look lighter.

Love,

Scout

Manual Setting - Filters and a DIY Tip

Technically, filters aren't a manual setting. Whatever. I'm just going to keep saying "manual setting" to mean anything I'm doing with my camera to learn to take better pictures. Anyway, one of the things I wanted to mess around with was different filters and techniques to change how my photos look. I found some filters for a film camera my uncle gave me and fitted them to Regulus (did you know that's my camera's name? I'll show you a picture sometime). I also used saran-wrap and my glasses. 

This particular filter is a foggilizer or something. Seriously, it says "foggilizer" on the side. I didn't make it up - promise. 

You can hardly tell I used a filter on this one.

Then I decided to use my glasses as a filter. I don't really know how or why this idea popped into my head, but it did, so I tried it. Some of these pictures looked pretty cool. Some of them looked like I was holding my glasses in front of my camera. Also, taking my glasses off and holding them in front of the camera made it kind of difficult to tell if things were in focus or not. 

If you don't have a Foggilizer filter, you could put saran-wrap over your lens. It makes it kind of difficult to use zoom/focus, and it's not a huge difference, but it gives it a slight wavy/hazy look. The wrinklier you have the saran wrap, the better! 

Original

Saran-wrapped.

Original.

Saran-wrapped.

P.S. I didn't make this bracelet - it was given to me by a wonderful cousin.

Have y'all tried any filters? Which are your favorites?

Love,
Scout

Manual Setting - Black and White

I have a confession: I don't really like black and white photography. I mean, sometimes it's okay - especially when the contrast is really striking. Most of the time, though, I just think black and white photos are bland.

That being said, when I was going through my camera to see different things I could do, I stumbled upon the black and white option. Honestly, I was a little surprised to find that my camera had that option, but that was mostly because it never occurred to me to take black and white photos, so I never bothered looking for it. Anyway, I decided to mess around with it some, even though black and white photos aren't my favorite. Here's what I came up with.

I've decided that I kind of like taking black and white photographs, because I can play around with the exposure to make the photos look how I want, but...I still prefer color.

What's the best black and white photograph you've ever taken or seen? This is one of my absolute favorites, found on this website.

Love,
Scout

Manual Setting

This month I made it my goal to figure out how to work the Manual setting on my camera - something I intended to do last October when I first got my camera. I made it a rule that I had to have my camera on manual, that way if I wanted to take pictures, I'd have to figure out how to use it. I spent that evening reading various articles from Digital Photography School to get me started. 

The next day, my mom and I went to a greenhouse. It was just the motivation I needed. I figured out a lot that day, and have been practicing new things this whole month. There were a couple times when I was more concerned with capturing moments than enhancing my photography skills, so I put my camera back on auto. Generally, though, I switched back pretty quickly, because I've been happier with the results when I can control how my pictures look. 

Mostly I've just been practicing how/when to adjust aperature/ISO/shutter speed. I've also played around with filters, the black and white setting, and today I finally meddled in the area of white balance.
What I really want to learn is how to get my photos to look light and airy like film photos.

Do you guys have any tips? Have y'all figured out the manual setting on your cameras?

Love,
Scout