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120/365 and the end of April

120/365

This photo marks the end of April! 4 months down!

April 2014 4/12

Things I’ve learned in April:

– Using all black and white this month has really reinforced to me how different it is shooting for something that you know will be converted. Black and white is a totally different ball game to colour, it really isn’t a matter of simply converting it in post. When you take away the aesthetic and psychological influences of colour, you really need to rely on not only light and dark, but texture and form and shape and line. And colour is never abandoned completely – in order to have an effective conversion, you need a big tonal range between black and white; all the different subtle shades of grey in between. Without it, you risk having a “muddy” black and white conversion (there have been a few in my photos this month, this one being a good example).

– When I’m not doing too great, I tend to rely on phone photography and this is something I want to change next month. Part of this for me is the practice it is giving me with my DSLR, and it defeats the purpose if I am using my phone. If I am travelling it is one thing, but if I’m feeling bad I need to push myself to do it.

Things to try in May:

– Going back to colour, and concentrating on white balance in different situations

– More photos of people

– More freelensing

– Nailing my focus – I’ve tried back button focusing, focus and recompose and using individual focus points and I still find I’m not nailing my focus as much as I want to. I’m going to keep working at it, but I may need to try calibrating my lenses, and even maybe getting my eyes checked as a last resort :/