Maxine realised she enjoyed the sound of his voice.
"And while the circular polarizing filter is particularly useful, I now want to talk to you about the neutral density filter. Let's say that you are shooting outdoors on a clear bright day. You want to use a wide aperture so that you can create a shallow depth of field."
Jefferson was walking around the classroom as he spoke. "However, with the bright ambient light you are constantly overexposing the scene. What would you normally do in this situation?"
Victoria raised her hand after a few seconds. "Use a fast shutter speed?"
"Yes, but what if it still doesn't work? That's when the neutral density filter comes in. You see, a neutral density filter works as a sunglass for your camera. It allows you to use a small f-number without risking overexposure." He looked triumphant as he said that.
For once, Maxine was actually paying attention.
It had been two weeks since she had shown Jefferson her selfies in the café. Two weeks of pleasant conversation before or after class. One week and two days since Victoria had told her to back off. One week since Maxine had told the Ice Queen to bite her. Three days since Maxine had found her room in a complete mess, with a warning written on the wall and a disturbing picture of herself placed on the bed. One day since she had decided Victoria and Nathan weren't worth her time.
"Let's take another example." He gestured to the smartboard, where a beautiful landscape photo was projected. "Let's say you are now shooting at the beach. It's afternoon and it's sunny. Let's also presume that you are trying to use a long shutter speed to capture the tide coming in, in fact trying to capture the misty effect of the water." Maxine realised she enjoyed the sound of his voice.
"Unfortunately, the meter of your camera is telling you that you are overexposing the scene way too much. If you take the shot regardless of what the meter says, the image will be completely washed out. To overcome the problem and get away with what you want, you will need to use a neutral density filter."
He had trimmed his beard and Maxine thought she preferred it this way. It looked cleaner, better kept.
She noticed Victoria giving her a look, but chose to ignore it. This wasn't a competition. Maxine wasn't trying to be the teacher's pet to get better grades. She just wanted to pursue her passion for art.
Thankfully not everyone was like Victoria. She had Warren and Kate, and had even gotten in touch with Chloe again. Her old (blue-haired, now) friend had moved to San Francisco years ago to start a band and the two girls had lost contact. With a little encouragement from Joyce, however, Maxine had finally sent Chloe a letter (hand-written, just like in Prehistory).
"Then there are some innovative uses too. Let's say you are shooting wildlife in Kenya. The sun is lower to the horizon and you decide to take a few shots of an African sunset.
Suddenly you notice some wild elephants at a distance. Quickly setting up your camera and taking a few shots you realize that the elephants are not quite 100% silhouetted. A grey tone is still comprehensible. To make the herd of elephants completely silhouetted you can use the neutral density filter to stop some light."
She had learned many things about Mark Jefferson, such as the fact that he didn't like coffee without sugar and milk (black coffee was too bitter for his tastes) or that he had a fondness for jazz and blues. Truth to be told, she had never expected him to be so open about his life. She had always admired him and thought he was a pretty cool person, and those feelings only intensified now that he seemed to be letting her in.
She wanted to learn so much more from him.
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NOTE: The information is from 'photographycourse' (as I am not familiar with photography myself).