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Remember, I'd like to know what you want to know about photography. So, if you have any questions, email me at sam@samdamico.com. And for what it's worth. When you send me an email, unless someone's lookin' over my shoulder, I'm the only one that sees it.

 Hello, .

Wanna take a trip down the photography-Alice-In Wonderland-rabbit hole?

Trust me, you'll be a better photographer if ya do.

It's a place of knowing and understanding why darker becomes brighter and brighter becomes darker.

It's when we get curious enough to leave the world of fully automatic exposures behind and enter the wonder-full lands of priority exposure and fully manual exposure modes.

It opens up a world of camera functionality, which opens up a world of compositional possibilities.

Your camera's most precise metering mode/pattern is one of the camera functions you should start using as soon as you get "curiouser and curiouser!".

When we meter, we're measuring a light intensity. This means we're using our meter to measure a light source's intensity or brightness. 

We're usually metering a reflected light source.

The darkest reflected light intensity is black, while the brightest reflected light intensity is white. 

We also have light intensities of black with detail and white with detail. 

Black with detail might be a pile of coal or the fur of a black dog or cat. White with detail might be snow or a crumpled piece of white paper.

When we meter to a standard exposure, whatever we meter records as a standard tonality in our photograph.

A standard tonality can also be called a mid-tonality, mid-grey, or a mid-whatever color.

And here's where the darker becomes brighter and brighter becomes darker part kicks in.

When we meter/measure black light intensities, they reproduce as a mid-tone in our picture. In this case, darker becomes brighter. 

On the other side of the door, when we meter/measure white light intensities, they reproduce as a mid-tone in our picture. In this case, brighter becomes darker.  

We should always meter to achieve a standard/mid-tonality because it's a known, consistent value.

But once we achieve that mid-tonality, we can change it using exposure or ISO to get the reflected light source we metered reproducing as the tonality we want.

This is one of the techniques we cover during the Introduction to Photography class, you'll learn it during meeting three of four. 

The Introduction to Photography classes scheduled for March are now open for registration.

Other scheduled group classes are below.

Smaller classes mean better learning, so no more than five participants and me are in each class. 

But smaller classes also mean spots fill up quicker. 

And remember, we learn and improve by doing, so practice making at least one picture daily. 

That's all for now; thanks for reading! 
Sam

I'll help you be a better photographer—study and practice photography with me. 

And what if the timing doesn't work for you in any of my scheduled group classes? If that's the case, let's schedule a one-time lesson or a series of in-person or online private instruction that covers the same things as my group classes. 

Ways to work with me are listed below.