Motion blur with flash practice inside Tyrone Mall during our 3rd DSLR photography lessonFor out third of four lessons Natasha (1st, 2nd) wanted to practice getting the correct white balance and exposure when photographing under indoor lights. So we took a much welcomed break from the increasingly hot Florida spring and headed to the air conditioned oasis of Tyrone Mall in St. Petersburg. I have used this location before for a lesson and was very pleased with the relative freedom we had to do photography within various places in the mall. I find the TV section of Sears on the second floor particularly friendly!
Natasha is still limited to using her Canon XT 's pop-up flash, but we made the most of it eliminating early all shadows from portraits on both light and dark backgrounds. Over the course of this third lesson I got to learn some more interesting stuff about Natasha herself. She has second language skills and will perhaps someday work abroad for Gallup!
We ended the lesson with a little motion blur practice. We were in far from ideal conditions to do it, but I shared with Natasha what techniques and settings I have used in the past. The key is getting just the right shutter speed, and just the right flick of the camera as you push the shutter to create the blur, but freeze the subject.
Natasha will be helping out on a wedding photography shoot this upcoming Saturday, everybody wish her luck!