Monosus Camera Course - Beginner's - Learn the basics and change your photography

It's been five months since I started posting daily calendars on the Monosasu website.
In order to keep you updated on what's going on at Monosus, our staff posts articles every day, and photos are key to these.
I want to better convey what I want to say through my photos...

Many people felt the same way, so Monosus decided to hold a "Camera Course - Beginner's Edition" where people could learn the basics of how to use a camera and how to compose. It was a chance to learn how to use a camera directly from a professional photographer! So I participated with great enthusiasm.

This time, I would like to introduce what I learned in the camera course and the results of that experience, while looking back on what happened on the day.

The beginner's camera lesson begins with a review of the daily schedule.

This camera course was divided into two parts, a morning (practice → lecture) and an afternoon (lecture practice), so that participants could learn through hands-on experience how photos change before and after learning how to use a camera.

The lecturer was Masaya Abe .

This is a photographer that Monosas often works with, and he takes a wide range of photographs, from objects such as cars and food to portraits and landscapes.

After a greeting full of humor typical of people from the Kansai region, the practical training began immediately.

~ Morning session ~
First, try taking photos in your own style!

First, each participant will spend 30 minutes photographing the inside of the mono suspension, using all of their knowledge and senses.

Everyone looked serious as they took photos of the scenes that caught their eye.

Review session: Learn how to use a camera through the photos you have taken

After 30 minutes of shooting, it's time for a critique session.
The photos each person took were displayed on a monitor and Abe commented on them. Here are four points that stood out as particularly important from the valuable feedback we received.

Camera Basics:
Depth of field, exposure compensation, cropping, composition

Depth of Field

It may be easier to understand if you think of it as the range in focus from the foreground to the background. Depth of field varies according to the aperture value (F-stop), which indicates the amount of light passing through the lens.
A large F-number means a deep depth of field, and the image will be in focus over a wide range of depth. Conversely, a small F-number means a shallow depth of field, and the image will be in focus over a narrow range of depth, with the edges blurred.

Exposure compensation

Abe says that exposure compensation is one of the functions he uses most frequently while shooting.
The value is expressed as ±, and negative correction makes the whole image darker, while positive correction makes it brighter. When you want to emphasize black or capture a subject as a silhouette, negative correction is effective, and positive correction is effective when the subject you want to shoot is dark, such as in backlighting.

Exposure compensation example

From the left, "- negative correction", "default", and "positive correction".

trimming

Cropping was the area that most commonly could be improved for photos taken in the morning.
For example, the photo below.
It is a beautiful photograph with a neatly arranged combination of lines on the right side of the screen, but the contrast with the left side and the large number of elements captured in the image may cause some people to find their eyes confused.

I'll go ahead and trim it down to about half on the right side.

Although it's through a monitor, don't you think that by narrowing down the elements and making it clearer, you're able to directly convey what you wanted to capture?

In this way, other participants' photos were also trimmed one after another. For photos that they wanted to capture the other person's feelings, they were able to convey their message better by daring to trim the photo to focus on their facial expressions and gestures.

Composition tips

The key is to place what you want to show at the intersection of the diagonal and the perpendicular line of the screen. If you pay attention to this, the elements reflected on the screen will be reduced.

The basics of composition. The red circles are the points to keep in mind.

lunch time

Now that the morning critique is over, it's about time to get hungry.
The menu for the day was Arms ' delicious thick burger packed with vegetables.
It would be nice to bite into it and be like, "I've been waiting for this!" But today is a photography class. As they remembered the lecture they had just attended, they were seen holding their cameras, thinking, "This is my chance to take pictures of what I can eat."

Tanaka carefully places the burger on the box and takes a photo, while someone in the back seems to be having a lively discussion about cameras.

We also had lunch with Abe. We chatted lively about cameras during the meal.

~ Afternoon session ~
Using the knowledge gained in the morning, we tried shooting again.

Keeping in mind what they had learned in the morning's critique, the students started shooting again. Those using smartphones focused on screen composition, while those using SLR cameras also considered depth of field and exposure compensation.

So how did the photos actually change before and after the critique?
This time, let's take a look at Kawarazaki's photographs, which were taken by focusing on a single motif.

Kawarazaki (Designer, Creative Department) tries his hand at taking close-up photos of flowers with his favorite camera, the FUJIFILM X30.

before：morning

Aperture: f/2.0, Shutter speed: 1/60 sec, ISO: 320, Exposure compensation: +1.7, Focal length: 7mm (FUJIFILM X30)

after: Afternoon

Aperture: f/2.5, Shutter speed: 1/30 sec, ISO: 250, Exposure compensation: +1, Focal length: 7mm (FUJIFILM X30)

Kawarazaki said that in the morning, he was thinking, "The thing I want to show should be in the center of the screen."
What I wanted to do was a close-up shot, and I wanted to show a white world view, but in reality what stands out are the center of the flower, the shadow area that occupies the lower half of the screen, and the black shadows in the upper left and lower right.

After receiving the comments, he started to think more about the world view he wanted to capture in the afternoon. In order to express the white more vividly, he moved to a place with plenty of natural light.
This is why the camera settings such as aperture, ISO, and exposure compensation do not tend to take brighter pictures of darker subjects than in the first half of the video.

Following the tips I had learned about composition, I shifted the object I wanted to show away from the center of the screen.

Also, dealing with the dark stamens and pistils, which stood out the most in the morning photos, was tricky. I wanted to remove them from the white world if possible, but if they were not included, it would be difficult to tell which part of the flower I was photographing. By subtly including this obstacle in a bright world with controlled light and dark, and then adjusting the focus to blur, I was able to successfully create a well-balanced image. In the afternoon, I was able to create a worldview that everyone could agree on.

Through practice, I learned that even with the same motif, the persuasiveness of a photograph can change dramatically depending on how you use a camera and the tricks for taking photos.

Here are some other examples of photos taken during this camera class.

Work introduction (photography example)

Photo example 01: Takahiro Hayashi (representative)

Aperture: f/1.4, Shutter speed: 1/200 sec, ISO: 400, Exposure compensation: ±0, Focal length: 52mm

This photo shows two sisters, one approaching the other and the other patiently waiting for the right moment to take the photo. By focusing on the expression of the older sister on the right, the photo is dramatic, highlighting her characteristic gestures and kindness.

Photo example 02: Kanae Hayashi (4 years old, Hayashi's daughter)

Aperture: f/3.3, Shutter speed: 1/30 sec, ISO: 400, Exposure compensation: -0.33, Focal length: 30mm

On the other hand, this is a photo taken by Monosus's design manager, Onogi, from a child's perspective. When you look at an adult from a child's low perspective, they look so big. This is an interesting photo that shows how the world changes depending on the height of your gaze.

Photo example 03: Satoru Matsunaga (Creative Department)

Aperture: f/5.0, Shutter speed: 1/30 sec, ISO: 800, Exposure compensation: -0.67, Focal length: 57mm

The unusually densely-growing aloe plants in the courtyard are captured in this shot with exquisite balance. The composition is as explained in the "Composition Tips" above. The soft blur in the background is also effective.

Photo example 04: Makoto Yamauchi (Production Department)

Aperture: f/3.3, Shutter speed: 1/30 sec, ISO: 2000, Exposure compensation: ±0, Focal length: 46mm

Aperture: f/4.0, Shutter speed: 1/30 sec, ISO: 400, Exposure compensation: ±0, Focal length: 45mm

This is a series of photos taken from behind of a friend taking photos with an iPad, and it is a humorous work with a perspective that is typical of Yamauchi. Abe said, "It would be interesting to make this into a series." He also showed us an interesting work called " Follow Me " as an example of a series of photos taken on a single theme.

Photo example 04: Marie Fujiwara (Produce Department)

Aperture: f/2.2, Shutter speed: 1/30 sec, ISO: 200, Exposure compensation: ±0, Focal length: 29mm iPhone5s

These are photos I took. People taking pictures of each other, people concentrating on what they are doing, and children watching them - each drama is captured from a higher perspective. Changing the height of the viewpoint is said to be effective in bringing out freshness.

Camera Course - Beginner's Edition -
Thoughts and changes happening at Monosus

This camera course is packed with content that would normally take days to learn.
By learning how to use a camera and the tricks to do it while using all five senses, I was able to sort out a lot of the things that had previously caused me to wonder "How should I take pictures?"
And best of all, this photography class was attended by employees' families as well, turning into a fun event with adults and children taking photos together.

Finally, a follow-up.
Many of the photos for the daily posts were prepared by the Monosasu editorial team, but after the photography class, some people started saying, "I want to take my own photos!"
Next time you check out the daily posts, please pay attention to the photos! And if you have any thoughts, I'd be really happy if you could let me know.

In the future, I would like to take photographs that build on what I learned in this course, keeping in mind composition (cropping), depth of field, exposure compensation, etc., so that I can clearly convey what I want to say.

That concludes the camera lesson.