Motion Photography Project

    I have had to resurface my photography knowledge for my capstone project since I am taking a photoshoot for my dad’s business. I wanted to talk about some of the main things that helped me build my skills that I learned when I took this class. There was one project that stood out to me and was turning point in how I took photos. I learned so much within the settings of my camera and how to capture motion. 

    I was shocked to know it is easier to control the type of photo you take when manually changing the settings instead of using the auto setting. There were three basic settings we learned which were the ISO speed, shutter speed and aperture. The ISO speed determines how sensitive the camera is to incoming light. The higher the ISO speed, the more light sensitive it is which means a brighter photo. The shutter speed is responsible for two particular things: changing the brightness of your photo and creating dramatic effects by either freezing action or a blurring motion. The faster the shutter speed is, the quicker it takes the photo which means less light is getting through. The slower the shutter speed is, the longer it takes the photo which means more light is being exposed. The aperture is the opening in a lens where light passes through to enter the camera. It’s an easy concept to understand if you just think about how your eyes work. As you move between brightness and darkness, the iris in your eye expands or shrinks and controls the size of your pupil. The “pupil” of a lens is the aperture. 

    For the motion project, I decided to photograph my younger sister, Ella, while she did her gymnastic moves in our backyard. I am really proud of the final result of these photos. If you have a camera at home I highly encourage you to familiarize yourselves with the ISO speed, shutter speed and aperture settings. Play around with it, get comfortable with how it can change your photos and see if this has improved your photography skills.