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I've been so preoccupied with Thirteen that I haven't posted about the past two photography classes. They've been really good; I'm getting a lot out of the class. Last week we talked about quality of light, i.e. which lights are warmer, which are cooler, and which (fluorescent) are just nasty.

Our homework assignment for this week was to take photos in a variety of lighting environments, with no white balance or color correction, and then bring the photos to class. She wanted us to bring "bad" photos so that we could discuss the problems and how they could be fixed. Unfortunately, several people's photo labs did color correction, even though they asked them not to. So those photos didn't really teach us anything, except that we should use those photo labs when we want our photos to look nice.

I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't even bring any photos. I did the assignment, but I always sort through my photos and print out the ones for class on Thursday and Friday evenings. Well, Thursday night I spent at the emergency vet with Thirteen. Friday during the day I was working, and last night I was too exhausted to do anything but watch a dumb movie (Mr. Lucky, to be written up here as soon as I get a chance) and fall asleep early.

In today's class we talked about controlled lighting. She brought a couple of lights and set up a backdrop, so we could move things around and take light readings and so forth. I had my nifty light meter that my dad sent me, so I could take incident light readings too. yay!

(The Weston Master III on this page looks to be the same meter that I got from my dad, which he bought new in 1961. His [now mine!] is the UK version in the main photo, not the US version pictured at the bottom of the page. It reads the light from the back, and the slide rule thingie on the front tells you what exposure settings to use. It comes in a leather case that snaps open on both sides, so you can use it without removing it from the case.)

At one point the teacher, Sonia, had one of the students sit down and she arranged the lights so he was side lit and back lit. She held up a reflector so the dark side of his face would be softer & show more detail, but I honestly preferred the more contrasty & dramatic version without the reflector.

Another student brought a really neat thing called "warm cards." Apparently digital cameras are known to make photos look too cold. Warm cards are these light blue cards which you use to adjust the white balance, so the image is warmed up. The woman who bought them wants to do wedding photography, which makes sense. I can imagine her clients will want to look warm and happy in their wedding photos, not cold and blue!

The warm cards also came with a green card you can use to counteract the green tint of fluorescent lighting. I tested it while Sonia was holding up the card, and it does make a big difference! Although I have to say, the image with the corrected white balance looks awfully pink to me. The uncorrected one is greenish, true, but I kind of like it better.

Now I think I'm going to do my homework for this week, which is to practice with side lighting and back lighting. Seems like I'm always either super busy, or so worried about Thirteen I can't think straight. But things are calm right now so I'm going to do the photography while I can. I'm not going to be there next week (dang!) so I'll have to email my photos to the teacher. She has a great website by the way. She took some amazing photos of Muhammed Ali in the 70s. She was at the fight between Ali and Foreman in Zaire!