Basic Photography Skills Session for GWL Volunteers

Glasgow Women’s Library hosted a two hour Basic Photography session on Tuesday 18th August for some of the volunteers. Hosted by Maeva and Gabrielle, the session explored some of the core elements that are altered to allow better control over your pictures. After finding out why we might like to take pictures – to document the history of GWL and the women who make it what it is, to build memories,  – we looked at the relationship between ISO, shutter speed and aperture, and went through some common troubleshooting issues. We had a quick chat about the difference between point and shoot cameras and the more advanced DSLRs, weighing up the pros and cons of each.

Handy, simple tips like not shooting your subject in front of a window and trying not to cut off interesting parts of a subject, like their hands or feet were shared. Maeva explained it’s generally best not to use a flash as you get flat pictures; we looked at the difference between over exposed and underexposed pictures – the later being preferable as there is scope to fix them in editing.

After the discussion about principles of photography, we were given the chance to play around with the library’s cameras: a Canon 600d and some point and shoot cameras. For those who were interested, Maeva went through the many functions of the DSLR.

Though a short session, it provided an excellent starting point for the volunteers to build confidence in their photography skills.