Introductions, Housekeeping
We begin with handouts, making sure everyone is registered. We check that people have the correct date and time, are shooting at the highest quality settings, and are using image stabilization, if that is available.
ISO Settings to Control Light Sensitivity, Noise
We learn to adjust the camera’s ISO setting, which varies the sensitivity of the camera sensor. Camera sensor sensitivity is like that of your own eyes. If you step from sunny outdoors into a dim house, it takes a few minutes for your eyes to adjust, to become more sensitive to lower light. Cameras work somewhat similarly. In dark situations, their sensors need to increase in sensitivity to be able to “see” in dimmer light.
Unfortunately, when sensor sensitivity is increased, the quality of the image suffers. Colors are less faithful, details are less sharp, and image-sensor noise increases, adding random variations of color intensity and hue. These random variations are called “noise”, using a term from audio engineering. See: http://www.dannyschweers.com/explore-your-cameras-iso-setting/
Rule of Thirds
Every class we talk about aesthetics, about what makes a good photo, and talk about basic rules of composition that make for better images. We begin with the Rule of Thirds, which claims that elements in a composition work better when they are placed on lines cutting the image into thirds. See:
https://dannyschweers.com/rule-of-thirds/
Shooting in Class
We then take time to take pairs of photos, using the lowest and highest ISO settings. At the same time, we use the Rule of Thirds to compose the image. We then look at what we shot.