For my STEP signature project, I participated in a Night Skies Photography workshop where I learned about the functions, settings, and art of photography. I traveled to Saguaro National Park to shoot a variety of landscape and sky shots: including stars, dark skies, sunsets, and the milky way specifically. Upon these photo shoots, we also learned how to use the pre-set functions (that I will discuss later) to edit our photos for their full effect with Adobe Lightroom.
Over this project, my understanding of photography, traveling, and myself was transformed and intensified. This project was only the 2nd time that I have traveled in a plane, giving me an opportunity to not only immerse myself in photography, but also another aspect of understanding the world outside of my own “bubble”- in Arizona and the journey to get there. Beyond the experience itself, my view of photography was also made more intense. Through the techniques, settings, and details of photography that I learned, I was able to understand how photography is an art: how photos can tell more than just what is in front of you, how to put your own style on a photo, and how photography can mean more.
With this being said, I specifically learned how to see the world through a lens. I’ve always loved taking photos, but with this workshop I was able to take that to another level and actually understand what I was doing, how to create photos that were accurate representations of what I was seeing, how to see beyond what the eye can see, and how to pull the beauty of a moment into a photo. This could not have been shown to me without this real-life opportunity.
Here you can see how different the photos I had taken appeared compared to what you would see me shooting– due to the knowledge and tools I had
This change was formed through the culmination of everything this project gave me: the travel, the new environment, the expert knowledge, the trial-and-error, and my new camera. Specifically, I would not have been able to adjust the colors, saturation, light, focus, etc. of the photos I took without the experts explaining this to me. I would also not have been able to test this out without the Canon camera I was able to purchase. With these tools, I was then able to truly transform my mind because I was able to actually practice and shoot in a new location, where I learned the best time and locations to shoot certain things.
In addition to the knowledge and tools I was given that encouraged this growth, the ability to actually prove the claims told to me was especially transformational. For example, because of research, learning, and understanding that the camera can pull out things our eyes can’t see if there is little-to-no light pollution, we were only able to shoot and see our Milky Way shoot in a specific location known for no light pollution. However, what really impacted the shift in my understanding of how amazing this was: was when it actually happened, and I shot a photo that showed the Milky Way even though I had no faith it was there.
With all of the broad concepts, beauty, and understanding of photography that I gained: I was also given the education of physical settings and technical skills to shoot accurate, beautiful photos. In photography there is an “exposure triangle”, containing the 3 settings necessary to control the camera exposure while shooting. The workshop allowed me to test this out when I would adjust each setting one at a time and actually be able to control and see a difference in the photos that was made by this simple adjustment.
Here you can see a side-by-side of the same photo, where the different exposure settings can actually pull out the colors of the Milky Way.
Finally, another huge takeaway that contributed to my enhanced understanding and worldview of photography is the ability of post-production. One of the technical tools we learned was how the format of the photo when taken can control how much you can edit the photo after its taken. When photos are taken in RAW format: you can pull out colors or change exposure later as if you took it with different settings in real time. When photographing, this is so important to understanding how much of an art it can be to control how you want a photo to be portrayed. For the workshop, I found myself spending almost too much time getting entranced in the editing and how drastically I could adjust my photo to portray such different emotions and perspective- teaching me so much and, once again, enhancing how effective photography is at how we view the world through our lens.
Here you can see the same photo, four times, where the colors have been adjusted post-production to portray a completely different perspective.
This transformation on my view of art, photography, visual representation and the effect it can have completely on the mood of the viewer could directly impact my education and career. As a computer science major, we often deal with the User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) of our products. With my enhanced understanding of how these colors can be pulled out and completely change a viewer’s perspective: I can create better products with better UI. The file formatting and how that controls storage size, color effects, etc is also very important when building a software product- and I can now understand when to use RAW vs JPEG more effectively. Finally, in my graphic design class I took, I would have been better able to understand what the toolkits would change in my images and how I could represent my art and style.
However, in just as important way, this project has impacted the way I view photography as a personal hobby. I have a huge passion for traveling, hiking, exploring the world, etc. and have always been sad that I cannot describe to others just how amazing something is in person. Although, experiences and moments are always going to be more immense in person– now I can use this photography knowledge to better document and portray my experiences, adventures, and sights more accurately, showing my art, perspective and what the eye cannot see.
Alexandria Howell, 2020