Blog

Jason Collin radio interview on Picture This WTAN Clearwater Florida

2013-05-23T18:04:03Z

On Sunday May 19, 2013 I was a guest on the Picture This radio show on WTAN. It is a weekly radio show discussing photography hosted by Jeff Donald. I met Jeff soon after I moved back to the U.S. in early 2009 by joining one of his many photography meetups. Though I do not attend many photography meetups anymore due to shooting professionally full time, we have stayed in touch and he asked me if I would like to go on the air and talk about my photography history and career. I really enjoyed it! Thanks Jeff for inviting me.

Photography Tip - manage the background for less distraction

2013-05-23T17:40:56Z

This week's photography tip deals with the background of photographs. The background is one of three things that makes or breaks any photograph. In the examples above, I sat in the exact same spot to make each photograph. In the top example much of the background is visible and in varying degrees of focus. The subject is sharp and well exposed, but despite that the background still distracts from it. Plus, the subject is not big enough in the frame either.

For the second shot, I used a different lens, different settings, and different composition to make the background as much of a nonfactor as possible, and for the background to even try and complement the subject. Having a clean background allows the viewer to focus only on the intended subject of the photograph.

How the difference was accomplished:

17-50mm f/2.8 lens switched to 50mm f/1.8 lens
38mm focal length to 50mm
f/8 to f/2.8

About this subject . . . it is a large light bulb that I found floating in the water behind my apartment one morning. It is encrusted with barnacles. It fascinates me how something as fragile as a light bulb could survive in open water long enough to number one become barnacle encrusted and second to not simply have shattered. I keep it on a bookshelf in my living room as a reminder of how interesting the world is and how such extraordinary things are possible.

Rainbow over Smacks Bayou Snell Isle St. Petersburg Florida HDR

2013-05-22T01:24:14Z

Rainbow as seen from Smacks Bayou Snell Isle St. Petersburg Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRI rushed home from a networking event to pick up Kiki and get our usual evening dog park time in before an imposing storm on the horizon passed by. Basically, as soon as we got to the dog park a deluge opened up. After even a huge live oak could not provide adequate shelter, we headed back home. Naturally, as soon as we parked the rain stopped and the sun was out.

The storm that birthed this rainbow did wash out dog park time, but at least I got to make this photo - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRSo back on went Kiki's collar and leash as we headed out for a walk. That is when I saw this rainbow appear vividly over Smack's Bayou. Still we walked on and I let Kiki run around in a soccer field (see lower right corner of the above image for where we were earlier). I just hoped the rainbow would stay visible by the time we got back.

There was actually a double rainbow visible shortly, but not possible to capture by this time - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 ISO 200 7-exposure HDRIt did. So I mounted my Nikon onto my tripod quickly and was able to make the above photos. I could see a double rainbow with my eye, but getting it to come out in a photograph was not possible due to a number of factors. Still, I was glad that even though our usual plans got washed out, at least I was able to add another rainbow photo to my archives.

Ferrari 458 Spider in yellow on white background St. Petersburg Florida Car Photography

2013-05-21T18:58:45Z

Selected crop & edit of a Ferrari 458 Spider photographed in St. Petersburg FloridaGoing through my unedited car photography archives, I found this straight on view of a yellow Ferrari 458 Spider. It was originally photographed at the Grand Prix Gala inside a office building's lobby (see below). The background was of course busy and full of people. To put the focus on the car itself I decided to cut it out of its original background and place it on a digital white background. Below is the digital photo editing process for making the final image.

I cropped the Ferrari above its bumper to give it a kind of peaking up at the viewer look.

1-on-1 Nikon D5200 DSLR Photography Lesson with Janice in St. Petersburg Florida

2013-05-21T18:32:49Z

Janice with her brand new Nikon D5200 during our photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaOn a sunny Tuesday morning I met Janice with her brand new Nikon D5200 in downtown St. Petersburg Florida for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson. This was my first time to get hands on with the Nikon D5200 and the most noticable upgrade to this new model is the much improved graphics on the back LCD screen. Shutter speed, ISO and aperture are all very prominently displayed visually and numerically. I wish my old Nikon D80 had such a menu system back when I was learning!

Janice had a Nikon D60 for many years, but only ever used it in auto-mode and she did not want to continue shooting like that with her new Nikon D5200. For someone only ever shooting in auto-mode, Janice was one of the fastest students I have had to pick up on my 5-step system for making a well exposed and sharp shot in any given shooting situation. She also learned her way around the camera body quickly to adjust the necessary settings as well. I was impressed!

She has Nikon's great 17-5mm f/2.8 to pair with her D5200 body as well as the Nikkor 70-300mm lens and a 35mm f/1.8 lens too. During our first lesson we only had time to practice with the first two lenses though. I think Janice will be able to progress very quickly and I look forward to our next lesson.

1-on-1 Nikon D3100 DSLR Photography Lesson with Carol in St. Petersburg Florida

2013-05-21T17:19:29Z

Carol with her new red Nikon D3100 during our 1-on-1 photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaOn a stormy Florida evening I met Carol for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson along the waterfront of downtown St. Petersburg. She had very recently gotten a snazzy looking red Nikon D3100. Her reason for making the jump to the DSLR world was sparked by simply wanting to pursue photography as a hobby and be able to make great photographs. I think that is a pretty good reason!

As we walked around the waterfront under overcast skies I taught Carol my established process for making a well exposed and sharp shot in any given shooting situation, and how to use the meter and histogram together to determine how to get better results. Being a photographer is not a matter of getting the first shot perfect each time, it is getting that second or third attempt perfect. Once you can get the results you want in your images, and be able to repeat that process in different shooting conditions, then you know you have gotten the hang of photography.

A few rain drops did chase after us toward the end of the lesson, but not before we had a chance to practice a little landscape portrait shooting utilizing the pop-up flash. Even using the limited pop-up flash we were able to get pretty good results out along the waterfront. I look forward to seeing Carol use what she learned during our lesson as she photographs dragonboat racing!

Canon DSLR Photography Lesson 1-on-1 in downtown St. Petersburg Florida with Sandy

2013-05-20T19:39:48Z

Sandy lining up a shot using leading line composition during our photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaIt had been nearly a month since I saw Sandy as we met this past Saturday morning for our second of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons in downtown St. Petersburg Florida. It was a bright and sunny morning, as is typical for Florida in May, though thankfully not too hot at our 9:30am lesson start time.

Sandy had done some practicing with her DSLR applying what we learned during the first lesson and realizing what she would like to practice and review in our second lesson. There is nothing more important when learning photography than actually going out and shooting!

We made our way through the Saturday Market finding some challenging lighting situations. Normally during the day increasing ISO is not necessary, but when photographing subjects under shelters like at the market, using a 200mm+ focal length, with a max f/5.6 aperture lens, those deep shade shooting conditions do require a bump in ISO in order to maintain a safe 1-to-1 shutter speed to focal length ratio.

Canon T3i 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg with Pamela

2013-05-17T19:04:44Z

The Pier in the background of our evening photography lesson with Pam and her Canon T3iI have not had many evening lessons yet this year, but yesterday I met Pamela in downtown St. Petersburg for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with her Canon T3i. She has had her DSLR for over a year, but had only been using it in auto-mode. With an upcoming trip to Alaska to photograph grizzly bears, she wanted to learn more about what her camera can do to improve her chances of getting great nature shots.

Pamela told me at the start of the lesson that she knew nothing, and many people actually say that, but it is never really true as everyone knows at least a little about photography. Either way, Pamela was a quick learner of my 5-step system for making a well exposed and sharp shot in any given situation, and with the fading evening light there was a wide range of settings needing to be used to get a good exposure. The Canon T3i has buttons for all the things you need to change, though it lacks a top LCD, it is still an ok camera egonomically for setting up a shot (though suffers for reviewing shots due to the usual Canon making you hit the review button twice before you can actually properly review a shot).

While Pamela practices she will be deciding which new lenses to invest in for her wildlife photography hobby.

Dandelion Florida Fine Art Photography 50mm bokeh

2013-05-16T18:44:23Z

Dandelion ready to be plucked and blown in the wind - Nikon D300 Nikkor 50mm @ f/4 ISO 200 1/400thJust a simple dandelion at the end of its flowering life ready for the wind or a young child to come by and send its parachuted seeds in flight. Do kids still even do such things on warm spring days out in open green spaces? I hope so.

Digital Photo Editing Lesson with Stacy - prom couple before and after

2013-05-15T19:54:21Z

The past few weeks I have been teaching former Morean Arts Center photography student, Stacy, how to develop a Mac digital photo editing workflow. She is new to Mac as well, so I have been showing her some of my top tips for using OS X as efficiently as possible (hint, use Expose every day). She also got the same apps I have so she could learn my exact photo editing workflow which starts in Aperture 3, then Color Efex Pro 3, then finally Photoshop CS5.

Stacy made this photo of her daughter and her boyfriend on their junior prom night. No flash was used, only natural light. Here is the process for how the photo was transformed:

Aperture 3 workflow:

white balance slider increased toward cooler (blue)
shadows slider increased
mid-level contrast slider increased
dodging brush used on all skin areas

Color Efex Pro 4 (she has 4, I use 3):

Polarization filter applied
Pro Contrast filter applied

Photoshop CS5 (approximate steps):

Quick Select Tool used on all skin areas
Dodge Brush used selectively
Healing Brush used for blemish removal
Clone Stamp Tool used for more complex blemish removal and slight skin softening in general
Dodge Brush used in highlights mode to brighten eyes & teeth
Clone Stamp Tool used to lighten under the eyes
Quick Select Tool used on water
Contrast adjustment made selectively to water
Quick Select Tool used on sky
Highlights adjustment made selectively to sky
Saturation adjustment made selectively to sky
Unsharp Mask filter applied

None of these individual techniques is advanced. To a properly trained Photoshop professional they might even seem crude. However, what each technique lacks in complexity, the complexity comes from knowing when and how to use each one to accomplish a photo retouching goal. At each stage of editing the photo looked better. Through experience it can be learned how to keep adding yet another stage to one's editing workflow to make a photograph reach its full potential, or in some cases, save a photo that would otherwise be culled.