Reflection Blog Post

I have really loved this course because it taught me to not be afraid to use Lightroom. Previously I had only stuck to Photoshop because I liked its Camera Raw feature, and I don't like to get carried away with edits. I had only used Lightroom in a very minor manner prior to this class. Now that I used Lightroom for this class, and seeing how much I can do with it without making a photo look ridiculous, I love how much more Lightroom can do for a photo than Photoshop.

I will admit that I never knew about the rules of dominance before this class. They make sense thinking about them, but I never had knowledge of them.

As a photographer, this class has helped me a little bit more with the eye of being a photographer. A lot of it is in editing. Before this class, I did minimal cropping and some exposure adjustments, but not much more than that. I never considered aspect ratios or lines of incidence or something in an image that might make the viewer uncomfortable. I did not consider lead-in viewing, how some people start at the lower corner of an image and go inward. I never thought about circles in an image—how the way the image is composed and how the viewer sees the image can be circular, like my picture at Norris Geyser Basin. I never thought to place the lens just above the water surface to get a good reflection.

Now when I go on photo trips, I will think about these things. I know I will not see them right away, but surely after, in post, I will notice them and get annoyed. It keeps me from potentially selling a crummy photo without me realizing it. I have really appreciated this class, and I think I would have been remiss if I didn't take it.

Thank you, Dave Shumway.