Canon T3

Canon T3 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with Kristen in St. Petersburg Florida

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Kristen points her Canon T3 out at Tampa Bay during our 1-on-1 photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaOn a very humid, but thankfully overcast, Monday morning I met Kristen in downtown St. Petersburg for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with her long owned but never used Canon T3.  She received it as a present for Christmas, in 2012.  With an upcoming trip to Iceland planned, she decided she wanted to learn how to use it.  I am always glad to help someone make use of a long owned but little used DSLR.  There is a learning curve of course to manual photography, but it is not an overly steep one and with my 5-step process, I can actually teach someone theoretically all they need to know in less than 2-hours!

Kristen was a very careful notetaker during the lesson, something I encourage because even though I send a PDF photo guide of the things we cover during the lesson, having notes in your own words can really help.  She also asked questions too, which actually showed me she was grasping things very well about how to go about getting the exposure right and when to adjust aperture, shutter speed and ISO in the correct order to maximize image quality and exposure.  I look forward to seeing her results with all the knowledge she now has to shoot in manual mode with her Canon.

Johns Pass Village Florida DSLR Photography Lesson with Jenn & Canon 40D

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Jenn (center) and daughter visit from Canada and take a DSLR photography lesson at Johns Pass VillageVisiting all the way from Canada, I met Jenn & her daughter at Johns Pass Village for a very enjoyable DSLR photography lesson.  They definitely perpetuate the idea that all Canadians are very nice people!  We started out talking about how to set their Canon cameras to shoot in manual mode and why one wants to shoot in manual mode in the first place.  They had been bouncing around using the various scene modes and sometimes semi-auto modes like aperture priority without really doing it on purprose.  I assured them that those scene modes could be left behind and demonstrated that by checking out the supposed "sports" mode.  It set the camera to shutter speeds ranging from 1/320th to 1/400th of a second!  That is way below the minimum 1/500th needed to freeze sports action.  Hence, scene modes are useless and not to ever be used.

Coming down off the boardwalk we found an egret that did not mind being photographed (see above) and it allowed Jenn & her daughter to practice both changing settings (we were photographing fast action before) and how to get in best position to photograph a subject.  

They will be in Florida for over another week so I may meet them again for a second lesson.  

Canon T3 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg with Ken

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Ken focuses his Canon T3 during our 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in downtown St. Petersburg FloridaMy 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with Ken was a long time in the making.  He first contacted me in November of last year, and at last his schedule freed up so we could meet in downtown St. Petersburg.  Ken had some familiarity with photography terms and he did read his Canon DSLR manual.  We began the lesson by going over in detail how to change the necessary settings on his specific Canon T3 camera body for shooting in manul mode.  Up until then, Ken had been shooting in auto-mode.  My introductory 2-hour lessons are designed so that the person never has to use auto mode again and can shoot in manual mode just like the pros do, and really how a DSLR wants to be used.

After having that in-depth tour of his DSLR, we practiced how to control DoF and make the background disappear and create a subject surrounded by bokeh (photography term for out of focus background).  We also covered a few shooting tips including favoring shooting flowers in shade rather than the harsh midday sunlight of Florida, and as much as possible when shooting in direct sunlight, to get your back to the sun.

I look forward to seeing Ken's progress when we meet for our next photography lesson soon.

Macro Jewelry Product 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Canon T3 with James

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James making a macro shot of a ring in a lightbox during our 1-on-1 photography lessonThis morning I headed over to the BB&T Building in downtown St. Petersburg to meet James in his office for an atypical 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson.  He sells rings and other jewelry and wanted help making the best product shots he could using his Canon T3, lightbox and Canon 60mm macro lens.  He also wanted workflow instruction on how to cleanly remove the ring from the background and place it on a pure white one.

We started off with shooting instruction and the best settings to use and also where to place the lights to give the best look on the ring itself.  Since the lighting and subjects were constants, it did not take long to dial in the best settings.  We took those sample shots we made and opened them in Photoshop where I showed James my Quick Select & Refine Edge technique for putting a subject on a clean white background.  In order to produce the best looking edges, I had to use one extra setting I had not used before in the Refine Edge process, teaching myself something new on the fly as well as James!  In the end we were both very pleased with the results we were able to produce.  One other top tip for Photoshop, if you are having trouble selecting an image, do not crop the image at all, leave as much space between the frame and the object as possible, as this was how we were able to get a more accurate quick select.  I told James many times that Photoshop is alive and has feelings and needs to be coerced sometimes into doing things!

James only had a very short and flimsy tripod to put his Canon T3 on so right during the lesson I helped him pick out a very nice Induro tripod and also a cable release!  It was a fun and different lesson than my usual ones and I enjoyed learning about James' various businesses.

Canon T3 DSLR Photography Lesson 1-on-1 in St. Petersburg Florida with Monica

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Monica with her new Canon T3 during our DSLR Photography Lesson in downtown St. Petersburg North Straub ParkMonica's parents bought her a 2-hour DSLR Photography Lesson gift certificate for Christmas which she used for our first lesson this evening.  She has a Canon T3 along with a trio of lenses:  Canon 18-55mm, Canon 55-250mm, Canon 50mm f/1.8.  We had a chance to practice using all three during our lesson in donwtown St. Petersburg, along with her tripod.  

Monica had a lot of photography knowledge already from self-study, reading photography websites, etc.  During our lesson I helped her organize that knowledge into practical ways of making a variety of different photographs from single subject shallow depth of focus images to bird-in-flight shots to natural light golden hour portraits.  Our lesson was for sure one of the most information and gear packed 2-hours I have ever taught!

We ended the lesson using her Canon T3 on her tripod to make light trail shots of the little traffic that cruises down Beach Drive on a Monday night.  I expect Monica to be able to quickly build on all we covered in our first lesson and begin to be able to "self-teach" herself.  I look forward to seeing the results.

DSLR Photography Lesson with Sherri & her Canon T3

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St. Petersburg DSLR Photography Lessons - Sherri & her brand new Canon T3For a person who is new to the DSLR world, all the possible settings and just all the buttons and dials on the DSLR itself can be overwhelming.  That is why I try to simplify the shooting process by breaking it down into four main things in this order:  aperture, ISO, WB, focus mode.  So I proceeded during my first DSLR Photography Lesson with new student Sherri.  She has the Canon T3, a DSLR I had never even heard of being released until she inquired about lessons.  It is a very light and compact camera which seems well suited for travel, which is good since Sherri will soon visit China!  However, like all Canon DSLRs, I still find the ergonomics and button designations to be nonintuitive and overly complicated.  

Sherri said she had been trying out and using all the presets on the exposure dial.  Right away I advised her to just paint over them with a black marker as the only two you will ever need are Manual (M) and Aperture Priority (A, Av).  Sherri has some legacy knowledge from her past experience with 35mm film cameras, so I helped to refresh her memory about what is a large aperture (f/2.8) and which focus mode to use when shooting moving subjects (AF-C, Ai-Servo).  

It was a jam-packed 2-hour lesson of photography knowledge.  I advised Sherri to now go out and shoot at least 100 photos every day before her China trip to better familiarize herself with how to change settings on her T3, what settings to change to, and to know when it is best to use her 18-55mm lens or her 70-300mm lens.  

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