Today, I’m breaking down how to photograph an event with three major, and very different, lighting conditions:

Indoors, outdoor sunny, and outdoor shade.

I definitely made a bunch of mistakes with this event and learned a lot, so I want to help you skip the making mistakes part and go right to the learning part!

First though, I need your opinion on something. I started this podcast very broad, covering the whole of creativity as a focus for the show.

I realized that’s way too much and I don’t know enough to make that podcast, and so I decided to focus on just photography and that’s where we’ve been at for the past couple episodes.

Since It’s just focused on photography now, does the show need a new name?

I love “Live Life Creative” as a name and it’s great to put on a hat or a tshirt, but does it fit this podcast anymore?

Let me know what you think, send me a message on IG @livelifecreativepodcast or tweet me @dkphotoxyz.

Thanks for listening again this week,
Dylan

My Personal Notes:

• Disability Advocates of Kent County is pretty much what is sounds like
  • They work to make public spaces more accessible and do community projects like build wheelchair ramps for people’s homes, things like that
  • The ADA Celebration is the party for the anniversary when the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed
  • The library has a nice lawn behind it with a large patio-style stage, a tidy little performance space

• Hot day, around 90, zero clouds in the sky, outdoor vendors and stage performance, indoors more vendors, green tinted light, gross
• First time shooting with two cameras
  • One on a regular neck strap off left shoulder, the other on a sling strap at right hip
• First time trying to shoot video and photo at the same time
  • Really tough, not used to having to stay at certain shutter speed, so was adjusting aperture
  • Had my video settings saved to User Preset 1 and user preset 2 for 24 fps and 60 fps respectively
    • U1 and U2 were saved using shutter-priority for shooting mode instead of manual
  • For some reason auto-ISO wouldn’t turn off, made it hard to get correct exposure
    • When I got home I messed with it more and got it off auto-ISO
    • Since shooting video in shutter priority, for some reason auto-ISO can’t be turned off
    • Have to shoot in manual for full control (obviously)
  • Hard to remember to take video of the important stuff after taking photos of it, different part of the brain sort of
  • I did take enough clips to put together a one-minute highlight video, which was more fun and easier than expected
    • The clips were not well exposed, almost always too bright, but there were enough of them close enough to make the video
    • Certainly nothing too great, but I had fun making it
    • I used DaVinci Resolve to edit and music from freemusicarchive.org
    • Looking forward to learning more about DaVinci and video editing
• Shot with “spot-protect highlights”
  • Largely caused underexposure – learned that D750 can handle a lot of exposure pushing in post
  • ISO 100 underexposed then pushed very similar to ISO 1600 at proper exposure
• Extreme light situation – pure bright sunlight, then shadows, and also indoor
  • Sometimes forgot to adjust settings from one situation to the next
    • Caused me to lose shots
  • Also dappled light under trees – just can’t balance highlights and shadows when the camera thinks it has a proper exposure
    • In that situation, best to underexpose and try to keep highlights as bringing up exposure in post
  • Saved by dynamic range and the shadows-highlights sliders
    • Pushed those as much as I dared
    • Still messed around a good bit in other modules to get the right tone and exposure
• In processing the images, I did something I’ve never done before, which is use the same preset on all my images
  • I use a free and open source photo editor called darktable, they call them styles instead of presets, but the same thing
  • The only preset/style pack I’ve installed is a set of film emulations by Joao Pedro Almeida: https://blog.joaoalmeidaphotography.com/en/t3mujinpack-film-darktable/
  • I’ve never used VSCO in Lightroom or any other presets, so not sure how it compares, but I like it
  • For this event and couple others I’ve shot since I’ve used the Fuji Pro 400H based on the recommendation of Cameron Whitman, who was a guest on this show and one of the hosts of the Cameras or Whatever podcast
    • Of course, he was talking about the 400H preset from VSCO, but I like Almeida’s as well
  • Still did a lot of work in other modules, mostly for adjusting exposure

• That was a lot, right now it feels like the most I’ve talked about shooting a single event ever
• But probably not true though
• Two things, let me know what you think about changing the name of the show, message me on instagram @livelifecreativepodcast or tweet @dkphotoxyz
• Also, if you’re interested in learning more about darktable, cuz it’s freeeee, also let me know in a message or tweet
• I may just do it regardless and take you along for the ride

• I’m Dylan Kraayenbrink thanks for spending time with me on possibly to be renamed Live Life Creative