Light Painting & Night Photography DSLR Photography Lesson with Julie
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 11:49PM Jason Collin 
Light painting during Julie's DSLR Photography Lesson out at The Pier in St. Petersburg FloridaFor our third of four DSLR Photography Lessons I met Julie on a chilly St. Petersburg evening to practice long exposure and night photography. This type of shooting most definitely requires a tripod, and we pushed the legacy tripod Julie borrowed from her husband to its limits. We took the trolley out to The Pier, but first had a quick practice of on how to shoot abstract bokeh with her new 50mm lens.
Being a Monday night we basically had the entire Pier to ourselves, and especially so at my favorite water level spot upon a decaying concrete platform. Besides showing Julie how to make the usual long exposure shots of the St. Petersburg downtown skyline, we entered a kind of special effects world with light painting. For the above shot, I set my DSLR on my tripod with a 10 second shutter time. Using the LED light on the back of my iPhone 4 I "painted" from the tip of Julie's finger down onto the concrete. I did not astral project myself, I just moved quickly enough not to be fully exposed in the image.
We went on to practice light trail shots and a number of other things too. It was an action packed lesson for sure and Julie was great managing with an unfamiliar tripod and getting adept at changing the settings on her Canon 60D in the dark.
Safety Harbor Pier HDR & Panorama Clearwater Florida
Monday, February 13, 2012 at 2:43PM Jason Collin 
The view from under the Safety Harbor Pier - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm f/11 ISO 200 5-exposure HDR handheld
Due to a very low tide, I found myself with the opportunity to go under the Safety Harbor Pier. I did not go to Safety Harbor with the express purpose of photographing it, but I of course did have my DSLR with me, but not my tripod. The sun was still high in the sky and as you can see from the shadows starting to make its way toward the west. A single exposure shot would not capture much of the detail under the pier itself. However, since there was still quite a bit of available light I dared for a 5-exposure handheld HDR shot. I highly recommend using a tripod for HDR no matter what the light, but as you can see, in a pinch, and with enough light, even a 5-exposure shot can be handheld and still produce a sharp image.
Click for large 2000px version - Safety Harbor Pier and Tampa Bay panorama - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50 @ f/11 ISO 200 1/400th 5-frame panoramaLacking my tripod did not stop me from also making a 5-frame panorama of Tampa Bay and the Safety Harbor Pier. I used the gridlines in my viewfinder to keep each shot level with the horizon as I set the exposure to f/11 in aperture priority mode and rotated to make the five shots that I would later stitch together in Photoshop CS5 using the Photomerge function.
Safety Harbor Pier HDR image - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 5-exposure HDR handheldOnce again no tripod on hand, but I felt confident to be able to handhold this shot for five quick frames (using my Nikon D300's 6-frames per second burst mode) given the light available. My composition choice came from putting the horizon in the lower third of the frame and having the pier form a leading line toward the center.
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Architecture & Exposure DSLR Photography Lesson St. Petersburg Florida with Rebecca
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 12:51PM Jason Collin 
The Waterfall at Signature Place Tower in downtown St. Petersburg - Rebecca with her Canon XSiFor our second of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons I met Rebecca at the same spot in downtown St. Petersburg where we began by looking at some photographs she had taken since our first lesson with her Canon XSi. Rebecca is following my most recommended path for anyone taking my 4-pack of lessons (or even a single lesson) by first taking a lot of notes during the content heavy first lesson, then shooting a lot between the first and second lessons. This allowed me to see her progress and give very specific help to improve her shots. In fact, we spent the entire second lesson practicing how to get a correct exposure given differing lighting (backlight, side light, etc) with a focus on architecture subject matter.
For this practice I had Rebecca start in Aperture priority mode (A, Nikon; Av, Canon) at f/11 which is recommended for our typical sunny Florida days. Then depending on where the sun is relevant to the subject, we were able to find the limits of A-priority mode. This is how I taught Rebecca to find the limit: 1.) once the shutter speed goes below 1/60th, increase aperture 2.) Once the aperture limit of f/5.6 is hit along with the 1/60th shutter speed limit, then increase ISO
When A-priority mode was choosing a shutter speed too fast even at f/11, then I had her switch to manual mode, staying at f/11 while manually setting a slower shutter speed and tweaking the latter to produce the desired balalnce between for example enough blueness in the sky, but also enough detail in the shadows of buildings.
Using these real world skills for setting up a properly exposed shot, plus the architecture composition tips I passed on to her, I am sure Rebecca will be able to make some great shots when she visits New York City next week.
Photography Tip - sometimes blown out highlights are ok
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 4:05PM Jason Collin 
Blowing out some highlights is not always bad - Nikon D300 Nikkor 50mm @ f/2 ISO 200 1/100th handheldOne of the first things I teach to my DSLR photography students, is how to check for blown out highlights and how to correct the exposure to get rid of them. However, blown out highlights can be ok and actually compliment how a final image looks. In the above shot I asked the owner of a restaurant if I could photograph the pendant lights hanging over a row of tables. I am often looking for repeating patterns as a subject for photographs. By using my 50mm lens at a large aperture (f/2) I could making the repeating pattern shot I wanted to with bokeh while handholding my DSLR even though in a very dark interior space.
The part of the image where the bulbs are inside the pendant lights are totally blown out. However, I liked how this looks because it produces an overall exposure that fits the mood of the shot I wanted to make.
Go out and make your own photograph with some blown out highlights on purpose and post a link to your photo in the comments below.
50mm, DoF, Nikkor 50mm 1.8D, bokeh, highlights, repeating pattern in Photography Tips Shore Acres Real Estate Photography St. Petersburg Florida pool home
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 3:28PM Jason Collin 
Shore Acres Pool Home HDR Real Estate Photography - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 9-exposure HDR tripod mounted with cable releaseNot every real estate photography assignment in Florida is for a multi-million dollar water view home. There are plenty of other moderately priced homes on the market that need photographs made of them too, which is why I offer flexible rates for my commercial real estate photography services. The home featured in this blog post is in Shore Acres area of St. Petersburg. If you like it, the listing will be with Crown Realty Group. Tell Haike I sent you.
A new backsplash brightens things in this Shore Acres home - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1/2 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseI do not normally include HDR images when photographing a job in this price range, but for the lead pool shot I did as a bonus as it just looked night and day different. All the interiors were single exposures, like this one of the remodeled kitchen. I usually shoot at below eye level for interiors, but for kitchens I prefer to shoot from at or above eye level to show all the counter level features.
Huge flatscreen TV mounted in this Shore Acres living room - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1.6 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseWhen doing single exposure interiors, as you can see I keep window blinds closed and pointed up whenever possible. I close them pointed up so that no bright spots are cast onto the interior itself, but rather bounced off the ceiling making the light from them useful. I had the client move a large armchair from where I was standing so I could better photograph the living room.
Home office full of CDs in Shore Acres Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/8 ISO 200 1 sec tripod mounted with cable releaseFor small home interior rooms, I choose to shoot in portrait orientation from the door way. This creates the largest sense of space since floor to ceiling can be seen. I photograph bathrooms the same way since they often are not large enough to even enter and photograph, especially with a tripod.
This pool home for sale in Shore Acres St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 1/50th tripod mounted with cable releaseFor the exterior shot, I try to include as little of the neighboring properties as possible, even if it means making a tighter shot like the one above. I lowered my tripod enough so that the large live oak in the front yard framed the home rather than obscured the view of it.