Essential Skills of Photography

      In the Essential Skills section of Nature Photography by Tim Fitzharris we learned about many different techniques to capture the best photo.  The broad subjects we studied in this section were; Exposure, Reading the Light, Depth of Field, Motion Effects, Modifying Natural Light, Designing the Picture Space and Photographs as Impressions.  These areas all consisted of detailed information regarding photography and what it takes to capture the best photo possible.
      Exposure is the first section brought to our attention and to me was one of the most complex and new areas to me.  Exposure is defined as the "through-the-lens light meter readings that transmit the luminance of the scene to the camera's onboard computer.  One of the ways we read our exposure is by viewing the histogram on our cameras LCD screen.  The histogram allows us to read the luminance values being displayed in the frame and decide whether or not these are the values desired in the picture.  A histogram reading will show dark to bright from left to right and will then graph to this scale according to the picture.  By reading the range and peaks in the histogram you are able to tell if you need to set more or less exposure to create a successful photo.  We also learned about different things such as metering which consists of evaluative/matrix metering, average metering, spot metering, and center-weighted metering.  Lastly we learned about the different modes used to best control exposure when working with your camera.
       The next thing we read about was Reading the Light which consisted of some obvious things and also some more advanced skills.  Some obvious things were things such as staying out of the midday sun, the effects of direct light and the concept of lens flare.   Some aspects that were a little newer to me were the different flash uses and the effects clouds can have on your picture.  I never really thought of a cloudy day as being a "picturesque" time of scene and how the clouds actually serve as a natural light reflector while keep the glare and unfavorable light effects away. 
        Our next couple sections involved depth of field and motion.  In depth of field it talked about the different aspects regarding the range of your photo and how to bring the most detail and sharpness to those areas you want to capture.  It also introduced the ways of bringing the main character to focus while cause a blurring trait to the background of the photo.  In the motion section I thought the panning area was interesting even though it really is almost common sense but I hadn't really though about it. How the best way to capture something in motion is to move the camera with the object to keep it from blurring but while keeping the movement from the still background. 
       The last two sections involved modifying natural light and designing the picture space.  In modifying natural light it talked about things such as different filters. I personally do not have any experience with camera filters so this stuff to me is all new and very interesting. I think the aspect of the split neutral density and the graduated neutral density filters is a great idea.  Just because you often are dealing with very different lighting, reflections and sources of exposure and this filter creates a sense of fit to the scene instead of having a solid filter applied to the entire photo. Lastly the Essential Skills section talked about the designing the picture space. This area talked about bringing balance to the photo with aspects such as color, space,  point of interest, and the division of the photo to keep a balance.
       Overall this section had a lot of detail and techniques that were new but also had a lot of things that are familiar in some way.  It was an interesting area to read about and created a new understanding of photography and the essential skills necessary to create a great photo.