Parag with his Canon 60D & Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens in downtown St. Petersburg for our 2nd photography lessonFor our second of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons I met Parag once again in downtown St. Petersburg this time focusing on using his Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens on his Canon 60D DSLR. I often teach photography lessons based on just using a 50mm lens as besides being the cheapest lens one can buy, it is also one of the most fun to use because it can easily create bokeh, is good in low light, can be used for portraits and is small and light physically.
We spent most of our time in the interior of downtown St. Petersburg looking for abstract patterns to photograph, as well as motorcycles and lights for bokeh. In between we stopped to practice making natural light portraits using the 50mm lens. I stressed to Parag that when using large apertures like f/2.8 and even f/2 that it is important not to set the focus on the eyes and recompose, but rather first frame the shot as you like then move the focus point in the frame to fall upon the subject's eyes. It is an extra step to take in making a shot, but an important one in order to insure maximum sharpness of the portrait subject's eyes.
I had another very good time talking with Parag on subjects beyond photography too. I discovered we both share a great enthusiasm for the E46 M3! Hopefully he will get one soon so we can photograph it in one of our two remaining lessons!
