Test photos in downtown Stockton

Like Record photographer Clifford Oto, I was inspired by the clouds that marked the skies around San Joaquin County this week. Unlike Cliff, however, I lack skill with a camera. I’m still learning.

After I left the gym Thursday and Friday morning I spent a few minutes taking test photos of the sky in downtown Stockton as seen looking east on Main Street from Hunter Square. Most of the photos I shot Thursday looked like this.

Far from ideal. You can see the sky somewhat, but its effects on the surrounding buildings are lost in darkness.

My camera was set to macro – I tried the night scene, night portrait and auto settings to no avail. I also made sure I was shooting at the highest speed on my camera – ISO 1600 – to capture as much light as possible (while also sacrificing some clarity.) Still, my photos did not improve.

Eventually on Friday I clicked to manual settings. I noticed the aperture was set to f/8, which after reading Cliff’s blog I thought might yield good results. I spun a dial to the right and set my sensitivity to the biggest positive number I could, +3 (I still need to learn  exactly what this means,) took a photo and got… darkness.

I spun the dial to the left, to -3, and got…

There is an image above – it’s just completely white. So I clicked my setting to -2.5 and this was the result.

All right! Now we’re getting somewhere. Next I moved the sensitivity to -1, and finally I was able to take some decent photos.

I didn’t capture the clouds, and the photo is grainy, but I’m happy that the buildings appear clearly.

After taking about 40 photos, I was able to get a shot I really liked. It shows the sky and, I think, has a relatively interesting composition.

I posted this photo on the Stockton Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Facebook Page in a nod to its Stockton Snapshot contest, which asks fans to identify where a photo was shot in the city. My photo shows the tip of the Hunter Square fountain, as you can see in snapshot below:

Before going to the office I took a few more shots to test the sensitivity settings. The photo below was shot at 0 or +1.

Here’s what the fountain looks like at -1.

Much brighter, much better. Next I need to learn how to get the sensitivity, aperture and ISO settings to work together so I can take decent photos in most lighting conditions. I also should learn the terminology – I’m sure there’s a name for the sensitivity settings.