So last Thursday I met up with my mentor. Her name is Amber Anger. She used to work for Lifetouch, and she also does a lot of photo shoots for people. I explained to her how this project works, and what the purpose of it is. I also told her what I have learned already, what I want to learn, and what some of my main goals for this project are. She offered to come with me when I plan on doing the photo shoot for my friend, so that she could give me some tips. I'm not sure if I will take her up on her offer or not yet, and I also still have no idea when I'm going to do it. She asked me if I wanted to take pictures for an event at my church on December 6, so I will probably do it so that I can get more experience. I also asked her some questions that I had and she provided me with answers.
One thing that was kind of difficult is that she works with Nikon cameras, and my camera is a Canon. Although most of the cameras have similar functions (if not the same for the most part) there was a bit of confusion when she was showing me some things on my camera, and explaining them.
Our little meeting went by rather fast, and only ended up being around an hour. In that hour I feel that I learned a lot more things and understood them better. I learned how to change the white balance on my camera, and also what and when to change it. That part was super easy because its just straight forward. For example if you are inside, you should change the white balance setting to the tungsten light setting, which looks like a little lightbulb. I had never changed the white balance on my camera, so seeing the difference in the pictures I took was pretty cool.
I also learned more about when I should be changing my ISO settings, and when. I learned that if I am taking pictures outside, I should have my ISO at a lower, or lowest level depending how sunny or cloudy it is. Usually if you are outside you should have your ISO at 100, or 200, and if you are taking pictures inside, you should have it at a higher level. In case you didn't know, ISO is basically the level of sensitivity of your camera available to light. If you have a lower ISO number, your camera will be less sensitive to the light, and more clear. If you have a higher ISO number your camera will be a lot more sensitive to light, and your picture may also be blurry, or grainy.
