External Flash Nikon SB-600 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 4:30PM Jason Collin 
Making use of the excellent columns at the Museum of Fine Arts in downtown St. PetersburgJust three shorts days after her first DSLR Photography Lesson, I once again met Linda in downtown St. Petersburg. In that time she had gotten some new gear, a Nikon SB-600 Speedlight! She wanted to be able to make portraits of her family when they visit her from Minnesota. So with the SB-600 and her still new Nikon D3100 we practiced on the front porch of the Museum of Fine Arts how to take advantage of the directional aspects of her new external flash.
The top of the SB-600 can swivel around and angle forwards and backwards. I told Linda my preferred method of bouncing the flash for the most part is in this order: a wall behind me, a wall to the side of me, the ceiling. Then we tried each way from the same spot and Linda could see the benefits/disadvantages/differences of each bounce direction.
One of the famous banyan trees in downtown St. Petersburg provides a shady backdrop for portraits.
I also continued to teach her how to read and understand the histogram displayed on the back of her Nikon D3100. With the very useful "show highlights" menu option enabled, any blown out areas of the image flash on the display alerting us that we need to adjust settings or flash direction to produce a properly exposed image.
Linda has already booked her third lesson! I look forward to building on what she has already learned in the lessons over the past week.
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