Weekend Photography

I spent a lot of time this weekend working on my photography. As pdxknitterati asked about a few posts ago, I've indeed been working on depth of field as well as some other techniques.

I'm trying to get comfortable using my camera in Manual mode, and it's been a really good experience so far.

I took some photos starting in the early to late evening (after most of the natural light was gone)to practice getting good photos even with unnatural light. I still have a lot to learn in this department, but it gave me a new appreciation for how different light works and just how much I need to value the natural kind!

The natural light in some of the photos is a bit greater than others.

I took these at a wide (2.8) aperture and very slow shutter speeds (I messed around with these, but most are slower than 1/60).

Some of these have a very yellow tinge to them. Now I have to learn how to adjust that! They have an interesting look to them too...not sure how I feel about it yet.

The next two photos were taken in the evening using Sepia mode. I love the way they turned out. Now if only that one petal was straightened out!

This photo was taken the next day with natural light. Not as focused/sharp as it should be though. The framing isn't that great either, need to remember to pay more attention to that!

My camera is a Canon Powershot a630 and while I love it, it doesn't have all the benefits of a pro or semi-pro camera so I'm a little limited in that. For instance, a question for those of you with DSLR cameras; does having different lens (50mm or other) make a difference in getting the "bokeh" (the out-of-focus/blurry background stuff) effect? So far, I've only really been able to get that in macro mode. Even when I have the camera set to the widest aperture (2.8) I still can't get the dramatic focus/out-of-focus looks...

If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I've been reading some of the tutorials from PioneerWoman Photography but I've still got a lot to learn! :)