Before I Take a Picture...

The first thing that comes to my mind just before I take a picture is if my exposure is correct. One thing I can't stand is when I think I've taken the perfect picture and when I look at it it's either over or underexposed (usually overexposed for me). That means that the picture has too much light and the photo comes out too white and you can't make out what the picture is even of. An underexposed picture is the exact opposite but the same concept where there isn't enough light and the picture comes out too dark. I was so used to taking pictures on my phone where what you see is what you get essentially. Whatever lighting you see while taking a picture is what comes out but with cameras, you need to have the correct settings or else your picture will come out wrong.

Another thing that comes to mind is if my subject's framing is right. I didn't realize how hard framing was until I started using an actual professional camera instead of a phone because like with lighting, when I take a picture with my phone, I can see where my subject is going to be. But when I first started taking pictures with a camera my framing was always off, there was either too much space over the person's head or their head was cut off. I learned that even if I followed the guidlines in the viewfinder of the camera, my framing was still off. So, I had to adapt and find the correct placement in order to get good framing for my pictures. I also consider if I'm zoomed in enough, or if it's worth it to zoom in. Zooming in takes a long time for me becuase when I zoom in I have to fix the focus and it's this whole process and if I'm trying to take a picture of something in action, like a bird in flight, I'll miss it becuase I was busy adjusting the zoom and focus. But, sometimes I'll take a picture I'll regret not zooming in because my subject just looks like a blob. So that's another thing I think about before I take a picture.Something I think about when I'm experimenting with different picture taking techniques like using blur is whether or not my vision will come out or if everything will just look like it's out of focus, which happens a lot when trying to come up with different concepts to make a nice picture. Using different techniques like making things out of focus to create a cool image or playing with different exposure scales sometimes won't come out right so in the process of taking the picture. So I have to think and remind myself that I have to keep practicing becuase the picture will most likely come out bad due to a lot of different reasons like ISO, shutter speed, lighting, aperature, the f stop and so on. As you can see, there's a lot of things I think about in that split second before the camera clicks. But, that's all a part of being a photographer.