Thanks, glee46.
WIP - Work in Progress. Meaning I didn't put too much time in white balacing, cropping, contrast etc etc. This is in particular true with todays pictures.
I've decided I'll publish the photo's after it's all over. It's too much for now. I was out today and had planned to stay till dark, to put my Metz to some use and gain experience on that area. I have very limited experience with this so it also means I didn't get as good pictures as I wanted.. but hey, I have to start somewhere.
I noticed early on that people were *very* cooperative today. In fact I had many more photo requests than the previous two days - combined! I'm thinking this is because of 3 things. It's the 3rd day and I bet lot's attended at least one event before. Media exposure and (I hope) me being more confident and showing this through body language. I was snappier and more direct today whereas before I'd hesitate or think too much before taking the shots. I'd imagine this could send some kind of an awkward wipe.
I got rather frustrated by the lack of light because I didn't feel I could adjust the cam as I wanted except in Manual mode. and although I have most experience with the Manual mode,(not with people), I didn't want to use that.
Copenhagen Distortion - Day Three
01: I wanted to shoot a row of people sitting by the kerb but changed my mind and photographed this girl and then quickly moved on... because I am still a chicken
Should have stayed few more seconds. Could have resulted in a better picture.
02: I like the flash in this one. Slightly overexposed background though and the composition could have been much better. This importance of this photo is that a crowd was gathered at a distance and were watching this band perform. I arrived at the area perhaps 15 minutes earlier and thought I better jump right into it, so I walked into the open area and began photographing the band. That "broke the ice" however I still did leave the place as quickly as I entered it
03: I paied a lot attention to the exposure settings today but I kept having problems with slow shutterspeeds. the cam would behave "normal" with the flash off, but as soon it was on, the shutterspeed dropped to something slow. Adjusting the cam EV didn't do anything.. I'm very puzzled about this :S Oh, and heads are often still in the dead center.. meh.
04: A lucky mistake? I think the cam was on continuous focusing.
12: The backs looked too bright when I checked the LCD but looked much better on the computer.. can't get used to that LCD :| I've noticed the LCD being *very* off before too.
13: Had the flash EV turned down because of pic 12 - got an underexposed pic but managed to save it somewhat in post processing. I am still self-conscious. Took three pics of these girls and this is the best one. why didn't I check the feet? Would have been a much better pic then.
15: Auto focus started to fail. This is in particular because of the Sigma I was using. It also tend to hunt for too long even if it's brighter. I turned to manual focusing. That didn't work well for me.
17: Thought this could make a good pic, and I kinda like it - but too bright flash.
24: After I had left the crowds and wanted to head home. A guy was being rather psychotic across the street and naturally everyone looked, including me. Then it hit me: I should capture the expression of the spectators.
It was overall a good evening in the sense that I noticed I really lack experience with low light/night photography and that I in general need much more routine with compositions. I'm also getting the feeling that these evenings are helping out a lot regarding being self-conscious however I recognize that it's very different than shooting some random day at some random place. But still, one of my problems are that some people may look like don't want to have a picture taken when in fact they wouldn't mind at all. I also still get to learn how to communicate with eyes and/or body language. And that, I believe is something I can gain from elsewhere.