“I never have enough time!” It sounds familiar, doesn’t it? We’re all pressed for time and it can be tough to carve out a section of your week so that you can work on your photography. But the reality is you don’t need to wait till you have a huge chunk of time to work on your craft. You can get “photofit” in just 5 minutes a day.
In this episode, Gina and Valerie discuss how you can improve your photography with a range of smart exercises that you can do in just five minutes a day. And you don’t need any fancy gear to make to happen. All these exercises can be done with what you have one hand, at home or in the office.
#ginachallenge #photofit
Click play to listen to the podcast or find it on iTunes here. If you don’t use iTunes you can get the feed here, or listen to us on Stitcher radio.
Show notes
Yishan Chan
Hi, hoping to pick your brains on what type of gear you’d recommend for event photography such as this slideshow here. In particular the “celebrity shots” and which flash modifiers you’d recommend. Thanks!
pangshi® 8×12″ in. (20 x 30 cm) Collapsible Softbox Light Modifier for On – Camera / Off – Camera
Paul Aracic
Valerie mentions this computer skin where you can feature your own photos
Natalie Ord
Natalie is a finalist in this prize.
Photofit: How to improve your photography skills in just 5 minutes a day
This episode topic was inspired by Gold Community member Danette Zak who wrote:
“Well, today I’ve been a productive lil’ bugger! I watched almost every tutorial that Gina has done on the community.ginamilicia.com and I think I’ve gotten my worst fears out of the way for doing better edits in Lightroom. In doing so I’ve realized that one never, ever really wants to “pixel peep” at your own photo in Lightroom (especially when you’re over 50), but it needed to be done so I could do the edit properly (I hope). Below is the photo I edited. I took the photo last night in my semi, with the curtains closed, I used off camera flash on TTL (I think on this one) and I took this with my Nikon D5300 off to my right with my 35 mm lens and the light was to my left in front of the passenger seat. . Go ahead and CC I need to know what I can do better on the next one. Thanks again Gina and Valerie for the website and the Gold Membership! I definitely got my money’s worth today!”
Do you need to give up your day job to develop your photography skills?
1. Set realistic expectations
2. Schedule your activities and protect them
3. When is the best time to work on your photography training?
4. Fitting your photography workout into your day
30 Day photo fit challenge
- Spend 5 minutes looking at the work of the following masters
- Shoot an image with all the different metering modes
Spit matrix and center weighted - Shoot a silhouette (one of the kids in the back yard)
- Shoot a starburst use the dog or cat as a model. Try f11 f16 f22
- Shoot a window lit image
- Shoot backlit
- Shoot a long exposure with tripod. (this could be a shot of the shower running)
- Try a fast shutter speed to freeze motion. Water splashing. The train rushing past.
- Track focus continuous vs – 1 shot of kids running towards you or people walking towards you on a busy street.
- Shoot extreme high ISO indoors at shallow depth of field.
- Over expose all your images by 1 stop
- Tape up the lcd and shoot something old school.
- Guess the exposure. Spend 5 minutes guessing the exposure in a room or outside. Test it with your camera meter or light meter.
- Get someone to jump for you and try and get the image sharp.
- Shoot flash on camera with different modifiers.
- Photograph a location morning noon and night
- Ask a stranger to take their portrait.
- Ask a work colleague or family member to pose for you
- Arrive at a random location and look for the best light
- Dissect an image a day. How was it lit and what are the camera settings.
- Set up a speedlight on a lightstand and shoot at ⅛ ¼ 1/16th power
- Test each F-stop of your lenses for sharpness
- Test your camera bracing skill. How slow a shutterspeed can you hand hold for?
#photofit #ginachallenge