Photos & More Photos

Ever since I was little, but old enough to use a camera, I have been taking pictures. But, as much as I liked Photography, I never took the time to learn how to use all of the different settings and features on my camera. I was one of those people who used a "point and shoot" camera (what a standard digital camera is referred to as, in the photography world.) With a camera like that, all I did was just take pictures. Never once did I utilize the settings to enhance my pictures.

Maybe it was because I did not know how to, but it was partially because I did not understand why I needed to do these things. However now, it makes more sense. I am not a professional photographer, and I have never taken a class before, so I was not thinking like a photographer. I was snapping pictures of things I thought were pretty, not creating beautiful pictures using the features of the camera.

Over these next couple of weeks, I hope to learn how to actually use my camera (which is a Nikon D3100, in case you were wondering) and all of the settings that come with it. I also hope to learn how to use Photoshop Elements 11 so I can improve the quality of my pictures. Even though Elements is a step down from Photoshop, it still provides the basic tools I need and it is aimed more at beginners. I was told when buying this software that unless I was a professional photographer, Elements would have more than enough features for me.

In the first week of my six, I will spend it taking random pictures. No theme, little skill- just pointing and shooting. I will also be experimenting with the different functions and settings as I go along and learn about them, by reading the book Nikon D3100: From Snapshots to Great Shots. I'll probably read the owners manual too, considering I have not yet read it in the two years I have had my camera.

The next two weeks will be spent applying the knowledge I have learned. My plan is to go out and take a bunch of pictures with different themes, subjects, lighting, settings, etc. With these pictures, I want to spend time and change the functions to meet the picture's needs, not just capture the object.

After I finish taking my photos, I want to learn how to use Photoshop. I will read the second book of my project, The Photoshop Elements Book 11. While learning, I'll play around with the different settings and edit photos I have previously taken.

Finally, in the last two weeks of my project, I will edit some of the pictures I have taken before. I will probably end up taking more to edit.

After that is all finished I'll compare the pictures I took at the beginning to the ones I edited at the end. I'm sure there will be a great difference between those pictures and the ones I take now.

Though the pictures of the books I will be reading are shown above, here are the citations:

Revell, Jeff. Nikon D3100: From Snapshots to Great Shots. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.