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| Fargo Circa 1950 - textures, filters, overlays and blend modes |
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Last night was the first night of an eight week course in photography that I'm taking at our local college. Our instructor covered a wide range of topics and by 9:30 I wasn't listening anymore . . . well, I was trying but it was starting to sound like mumbo-jumbo. He said we need to concentrate on the five primary components of our camera; aperture, shutter, imaging chip, lens focusing, and lens focal length. I had taken his earlier course on camera essentials so I felt comfortable with all this and I thought it was a good start, but the process is like a tributary, running off into many directions until it gets to where its going. Its amazingly complicated! But I'm very excited. Most of this course is going to be about the artistic side to photography and we have assignments and everything! I feel like a kid! What fun! He wants to see some of our work, good and bad so he can critique it. Among others, I'm going to show him what I think is my number one top photo - my pride and joy - "Fargo, Circa 1950". I want to pick it apart with him, and get him to help me understand just what is so good about it, and perhaps what isn't. The most surprising advice he gave was that he can't really teach us how to make a good photo! There are techniques and guidelines, but you need to develop a feel for it and you do that by studying good photography and art from the masters. That's where you will learn what looks good so that when you are out shooting you will know a good photo when you see one. I thought that was great. Lastly, he is a firm believer in post-processing and he said that by the end of this course if you don't have Photoshop, you will
want it, you will
have to have it. I'm in heaven!
