In just ten short days Teresa took all 8-hours of her DSLR Photography Lesson discount package. This afternoon was another strobist and digital photo editing lesson. Teresa showed up from New Port Richey with all kinds of new gear that made things go much smoother than last time. Now with a proper light stand in tow, as well as the same Yongnuo flash radio triggers I have, we were ready to get down to some more in-depth off camera flash photography practice.
We shot exclusively in manual mode all day. For strobist photography it is best to be in manual mode because there are only finite shutter speeds can use with the Yongnuo radio triggers anyway since they only sync up to 1/250th of a second. In addition to using manual settings on her Canon 7D, now since we are using the aforementioned radio triggers we have to use her Nissin flash in manual mode too. So now for the type of shot we were practicing today you have to manually set your aperture, shutter speed, and of course ISO, white balance and focus mode too, plus the power on your flash and then on top of all that think of how to best pose your subject for the given location! There is also the matter of how to best position your light stand. Therefore, it is good to have a good mastery of setting your DSLR for non-flash photography before moving on to strobist shots.
Teresa did really well remembering and putting into use all the tips, knowledge, practices and advice I gave her over the course of our three lessons together. She now has a fairly wide ranging skill set that she can build on herself with more solo practice. We also got her established in a fairly seamless RAW workflow using Adobe Camera RAW and Photoshop Elements 9. I showed her the basic ways I edit a portrait by using the dodge and burn brushes especially.
I look forward to seeing the infant photographs Teresa makes in the future and her continuing progress as a strobist photographer!