These emails come with the intent of helping you be a better photographer. 

And if you want more photography stuff to read, there's a place on the interwebs where past emails I wrote are stored. You'll find 'em in the "Newsletter Hub." 

Remember, I'd like to know what you want to know about photography. So, If you have any questions, ask by sending an email to 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 ,

If you've noticed snow or anything else that might be white isn't white in your pictures, there's a reason.

If you work in an automatic exposure mode, or if you're working in manual exposure mode and rely on your camera's average exposure, the white in your picture will be darker than the white you see.

Your camera's not broken.

This is what cameras do because, based on whatever influences the camera's meters, cameras are manufactured to set our apertures and shutter speeds to give us an exposure that produces a medium grey exposure, also known as an 18% gray.

I call this a mid-tone or mid-value.

And if we want white to be white, that mid-tone the camera gives us isn't going to do it.

We can't do anything about this while working in a fully automatic exposure mode.

But we can switch to aperture, shutter priority, or manual exposure modes and use a more precise metering pattern, like spot metering, to make tonal adjustments.

We can adjust for tonality using exposure compensation if working in aperture and shutter priority modes.

However, if we reframe our picture and the meter becomes influenced by something else, that could throw everything off.

The most reliable way to get the exposures that'll give us the tonalities cities we want is in manual exposure mode because we have complete control of the camera.

And when we have complete control of the camera, we get the picture we want, not the picture the camera gives us.

The next series of the Introduction to Photography class starts in February.

And there are other scheduled group classes 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.