# Reddit Photoclass 2023 by u/hissoc

###### tags: `Reddit Photoclass 2023`

Hi. My Name is Nicolas or u/hissoc. I live in Switzerland.

I have been wanting to get into photography for a while, but didn't for miscellaneous reasons. I had the opportunity to get a good deal on a used Sony A7 recently. Now I am here to learn how to use it properly.
Unless otherwise mentioned, my photos are taken using a Sony A7 with the kit lens FE 3.5-5.6/28-70mm. I am using hackmd.io Markdown Editor to document my participation in the class.

## Main Assignments
### Initial Assignment
>"show us your 1 best photo and make 1 NEW photo of a tree."

My favourite photo thusfar is this one. The best part is the contrast between the calm water and the dramatic clouds. I took it on a point and shoot camera that I had a couple of years ago. The picture is edited.

 1/200s F4.9 ISO ???

Here is a new photo of a tree about to be chopped down. This one is unedited.
 1/160s F4 ISO 200

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### Assignment 1
>"write a comment on the 5 posts that have least comments or likes."

Here are the links to my comments:

https://www.reddit.com/r/photoclass2023/comments/yxlcr6/comment/j5o5eo0/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

https://www.reddit.com/r/photoclass2023/comments/yxlcr6/comment/j5o6pz7/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

https://www.reddit.com/r/photoclass2023/comments/yxlcr6/comment/j5o7vhd/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

https://www.reddit.com/r/photoclass2023/comments/yxlcr6/comment/j5ta2xi/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

https://www.reddit.com/r/photoclass2023/comments/yxlcr6/comment/j5tc13n/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

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### Assignment 2
>"check out the work of some famous photographers and look at their work."

> "select one of those photos and really look at it, try to understand it, look at what makes you select it, what makes you look at it even longer, how you look at it, the story you see and so on."

I looked at photographs by Robert Frank. What I really like about his work is that he is able to combine a documentary and an artistic style into one composition.

This photo of a woman and two children playing with a kite especially spoke to me. It is titled Cape Cod and was taken in 1959.
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/53414

It is an unusual composition since the family's faces are turned away from the camera. The triangle-like arrangement of the persons guides the viewer's gaze toward the kite. This provides a sense of connection and participation between the people in the photo and the viewer.

It is also significant that Frank chose only the sky as background to the picture, with just the very top of the grassy dune visible. This creates an atmosphere in which the family seems detached from everyday life and carefree. By far the largest part of the photo is seemingly empty, but it isn't boring at all. I love how this photo is both a snapshot of dynamic activity and a sophisticated composition at the same time.

Link to the original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/photoclass2023/comments/10317og/comment/j5zfwc8/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

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### Assignment 3
>"Take a good look at your camera, whatever its type, and try to identify each component we have discussed here. [...] Now look up a different camera online (for instance at dpreview) and compare their specifications. Try doing this for both a less advanced and a more advanced body, and for different lenses."

There are a lot of different cameras and systems out there. Since I have a Sony camera, I chose to compare my camera to other cameras from the same company. I have the original α7 mirrorless and will compare it to the α1, which is the latest and greatest of the α-Fullframe mirrorless series. I will also compare it to the DSC-RX100, which is a popular compact camera by Sony.
My α7 has the SEL2870 kit lens. The α1 doesn't come with a lens, so I chose the brutally expensive SEL2470GM2 for the sake of this comparison. It is the fanciest standard zoom that Sony makes.

| | Sony A7 | Sony A1 | Sony RX-100 |
|:------------- | ----------------------------- | ----------------------------- | -------------------- |
| Mount | E-Mount | E-Mount | Fixed Zoom lens |
| Sensor type | 35mm CMOS | 35mm CMOS | 1" CMOS |
| Resolution | 24mpx | 50.1mpx | 20.2mpx |
| ISO | 100-25600 | 100–32000 | 125-6400 |
| Shutter Speed | 1/8000s | 1/8000s or 1/32000s in AUTO | 10fps |
| Viewfinder | Electronic Viewfinder, 3" LCD | Electronic Viewfinder, 3" LCD | 3" LCD |
| Focal length | 28-70mm | 24-70mm | 10,4 – 37,1 mm |
| min. Aperture | f3.5-5.6 | f2.8 | f1.8-4.9 |
| Stabilization | Lens only | Lens and body | present, but unclear |

The A7 and the A1 are clearly similar cameras. The A1 just has more of everything. The most significant differences are however in capturing videos, where the A1 is much more advanced. It also has better connectivity and ergonomic improvements.
The RX-100 is clearly a different type of camera and has a much smaller sensor and a lower ISO sensitivity. This will reduce its performance, especially in low light.

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### Assignment 4
>"For today's assignment, I would like you to try and classify your own camera. Is it a compact, a mirrorless, DSLR or an exotic.
The second task is to try and find out why your current system is right or wrong for you.
The third task is to try and find out what it would take for you to want to change systems."

My camera is a fullframe mirrorless system. The Sony A7.

It is the right camera for me because:
- It was cheap and barely used. There are a lot of used lenses and other gear around.
- E-Mount fullframe cameras won't die out anytime soon.
- It is smaller and lighter than a DSLR but still big enough for me to hold it properly. (Big hands)
- The viewfinder is usable for someone wearing glasses.
- It is good enough to give me room to grow, without thinking about upgrading all the time.

Things that make me want to change system:
- Some of the design choices for the ergonomics are just weird.
- The trigger is combined with the On-Button. It also doesn't feel great. I can't really tell when the shutter is going to trigger.
- The MENU button is in a stupid location.
- I will at some point get a lens that goes lower than f3.5.

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### Assignment 5
>"getting a bit more familiar with focal lengths."

I went on a walk to do Assignment 5. It was pretty cold and the light was already fading, even tough it was early afternoon.

The normal zoom exercise was fairly straightforward. The riverbank was quite steep, so it was a challenge to line the stump up in the different pictures. 28 - 70mm.


The dolly zoom was much harder to pull off. I wasn't so happy with the background in the stump dolly zoom series. Therefore, I took a second series with the yellow can. The changing background is much more visible in that one. The ground being uneven made both dolly zooms challenging. Both are 28-70mm.



On a different note I learned today, that I need to concentrate better before starting to shoot. I had to restart twice, because I messed up the camera settings. A quick check beforehand could have avoided this.

I also learned that I loose a lot of situational awareness when I am concentrating on getting the shot. I barely noticed a dog approaching me and was quite surprised that it was right next to me when I set the camera down.

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### Assignment 6
>"The goal today is to get a bit more familiar with exposure and how it is affected by the main three parameters of shutter speed, ISO and aperture."

This Assignment wasn't too hard, but took some time and organisation to do it well. My camera refuses to under- or overexpose in Auto mode, so I skipped the Auto shot in the relevant sections. Please ignore the messy background in the photos.

1. Correct exposure in Auto, A, S, and M camera modes


2. Underexposure in A, S, and M


3. Overexposure in A, S, and M


4. Correct Exposure using f8 in A, S, M


5. Correct Exposure using 1/50s in A, S, M


6. Correct Exposure using f8 and ISO 400 and
7. "Correct Exposure" using ISO 200 and 1/4000s


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### Assignment 7

For this Assignment I added the histogram into the three photos from the last assignment. The relationship between the brightness of the photo and the curve in the histogram becomes clearly visible. The correct exposure peaks in the middle, whereas the over- and underexposed photos peak at opposite ends of the histogram.
The histograms are out of GIMP.




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### Assignment 8

>"The goal of this assignment is to determine your handheld limit."

With my stabilized 28-70mm lens, my handheld limit seems to be around 1/15s for the 28mm end. Longer exposures were hit or miss. Strangely one of the 1s exposures came out very well. I won't post the photos here since the motive was uninteresting.

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### Assignment 9

>"The idea is simply to play with aperture and see how it impacts depth of field and the effects of diffraction."

This exercise was fun. I struggled a little bit with the light, since I had to take these pictures at noon. As the subject I chose this stuffed animal squirrel and did some "pretend wildlife photography".

Focal length 70mm, f5.6 through f36

Focal length 70mm, f5.6 through f36, close up

Focal lenght 70mm, f5.6 through f36, far away

Focal lenght 28mm, f3.5 through f22, close up

>What I earned here is that the effect of the aperture on the depth of field is much more noticable if the subject is closer to the camera.

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### Assignment 10

>"Find a well lit subject and shoot it at every ISO your camera offers, starting at the base ISO and ending up at 12,800 or whatever the highest ISO that your camera offers. Repeat the assignment with a 2 stops underexposure."

I did this exercise two times because I initially misunderstood it. I did not change the other exposure setting when turning up the ISO. So I did it again, this time compensating the ISO with aperture and shutter speed.

The noise starts to be perceptible at around 1000 when viewed at 100%. The images are generally usable up to 3200. Over that it gets kind of difficult. I think I could save the image with post processing up to about ISO 5000. If the exposure is darker, the noise is much more noticable.

Correct exposure

Underexposure -2

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### Assignment 11

White Balance and its associated settings were not intuitive to grasp to me. It took some experimenting and this exercise for me to understand what was happening.

I ran through all the settings on my camera. Once outdoors and once indoors. Obviously some of the settings don't make sense for the motive.
The larger picture is my manual WB adjustment with postprocessing.

Settings used
Auto -> Daylight -> Shadow -> Cloudy -> Tungsten -> Fluorescent -1 -> Fluorescent 0 -> Fluorsecent +1 -> Fluorescent +2 -> Flash -> Underwater -> Filter 5500K

WB settings series outdoors

WB settings series indoors, two different light sources
> The light sources are warm room lights and the bright cold light from the right from a LED flashlight.

Things I learned during this exercise:
- The temperature of the light in the photo affects the mood a lot.
- On Auto WB, my camera tends to take photos that are slightly more cool and blueish than my eyes judge the scene.
- I will probably leave the settings on Auto WB and adress any issues with WB in postprocessing. The camera settings are not fine enough to produce a nice result and I shoot RAW anyway.

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### Assignment 12

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## Weekend Assignments
### Weekend Assignment 1: 10^3
I took the tram for 10 minutes. Then I had to cheat slightly with the steps, because I would have ended up on the road. It is still really close by. The light was challenging, it was overcast and very grey. Below are my ten pictures. Some are slightly cropped, otherwise unedited. I mainly used the automatic setting since I just got this camera and don't feel confident with it yet.

1/160s F4.5 ISO 450
> This is where I got off the tram.

1/160s F5.6 ISO 1250
> Does this count as street art?

1/160s F4.5 ISO 1000
> I like the vibrant color.


1/160s F5.6 ISO 1000
> Fun with flags. It isn't that sharp, sadly.

1/80s F5.6 ISO 400
> The offset positioning of the sign on this store bothers me.

1/60s F4 ISO 400
> The plants left interesting shapes on a wall. The photo turned out somewhat boring.

1/160s F4 ISO 1000
> Abstract shapes on the road.

1/60s F4 ISO 400
> I like how this turned out. I had to wait for a car to pass to make the background more interesting. I don't usually like to use the LCD to shoot but my head didn't fit next to the wall.

1/160s F5.6 ISO 640
> The different shades of yellow pop out infront of the dull sky.

1/160s F4 ISO 2500
> The remains of the weekend. I am very proud of this one. I had to focus manually. Jägermeister sponsorship when?

When I got back home, I realized I had taken all photos in in jpeg instead of RAW. Major bummer. At least I won't make that mistake again.

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### Weekend Assignment 2

I finally got around to doing this one. Taking pictures of a can is easy. Making it look good is pretty hard. I combined the requirements into three photos.

**Camera above the can, can in the middle**
I couldn't take a photo with the camera above the can that wasn't boring. I don't like this photo at all.
F5.6, 1/50s, ISO 2000

**Camera on the same level as the can, roughly 1/3 of the frame, artificial lighting**
This is ok, except for the too bright reflection on the can. I wasn't able to fix this in post.
F4.5, 1/6s, ISO 500, lightly edited

**Camera below the can**
I like this one. The hero perspective works even for boring cans. Sadly, the top of the can is slightly out of focus.
F5.6, 1/50s, ISO 1000, heavily edited

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### Weekend Assignment 3

> "make 1 photo focussed as close as your lens goes."

This one was quite challenging. I struggled with the autofocus. In the end, I took this photo on manual focus. Interestingly, focusing manually let me get closer to the scene than the autofocus was able to. I am quite happy that this photo came out reasonably sharp, because of the slow shutter speed.

f3.5, 1/4s, ISO 2000

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### Weekend Assignment 4

> "make a photo that is an optical illusion by making something seem smaller or larger than it is in real life."

Here is my best attempt at this Assignment. It took me quite a while to take this. Even at F36 I struggled to get the bottle at the rear into focus. The size difference between the objects was probably too big for the space I was working with.

Due to the extreme aperture setting, the ISO got jacked up to 6400, which is why there is a lot of noise. Better lighting would have helped. I may try this again on a sunnier day.

F36, 1/20s, ISO 6400, 70mm

Original size

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### Weekend Assignment 5

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