Category: Daily Photography Project

Now that I’ve been working at this nearly two weeks, I thought it might be useful to pause and think: What have I learned?

Mostly technique. Getting a sense of how flash works, how light falls off, how far I can angle a flash/soft box from the subject and still get reasonable light. I’ve gained some useful sense of how different surfaces reflect (or not) light. I’ve gained a sense of how much power I need to light the subject but not the table or the wall behind it. I’ve gained some sense of how to get a black background or a white one (though I don’t really like the bright white backgrounds, not as much as the darker background).

I should say: I’ve taken all the photos on my dining room table with the lights on and no background. So I’ve also begun to gain some idea about how to balance flash with ambient light (the cool kids might say, I’ve learned how to control light, but that’s too sophisticated for what I do, which is closer to plead with light to cooperate).

I should also say that I’ve come to realize that these daily photography projects get in the way of my taking photos. I find that I am too fixated on taking the photograph for the project and, consequently, I don’t take as many photographs when I am out and about. And taking a photograph every night tires me. It is a labor that is not particularly fun.