Morean Arts Center

Strobist Classroom Portrait at the Morean Arts Center

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Students of my Morean Arts Center photography class. Four speedlights (all the students) were used to make this group portrait. Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/6.3 ISO 200 1/320th commander mode triggered flashes (1/16th power)In this morning's photography class at the Morean Arts Center I introduced my students to off camera flash.  Since everyone in the class now shoots Nikon (after one coverted from Canon after the 2nd class!) and has a Nikon Speedlight of some kind, I was able to setup everyone's Nikons (a pair of D90 & D7000) to remotely trigger everyone else's speedlights (two SB-700, SB-910, SB-600) using the Nikon Creative Lighting System via commander mode.  That meant anytime anyone pressed their shutter, all four speedlights went off!  

Well, we actually started off with just a two speedlight setup with Anne volunteering to be a great model!  We concluded the class with my suggested 4-strobe experiment.  As you can see in the shot above, one speedlight was on a chair behind everyone, another speedlight under the table, a speedlight in a 43" shoot-through umbrella in front and another speedlight on a light stand to frame left.

I hope our fun strobist experiements encourages everyone to try off camera flash portraits before our next class!

Morean Arts Center Intro to Photography Class Winter 2013

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Practicing using the meter and reading the histogram at my winter 2013 Morean Arts Center photo classLast week I started teaching a new intro to DSLR photography class at the Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg, Florida.  For the winter class I have five students, up one from the fall class!  It is a diverse group of people though most have pretty much the same photography experience level.  In the first two classes I have spent much of the time teaching each student how to use her/his specific DSLR and getting them all setup and on the same page with being able to change all five settings necessary for making a well exposed and sharp shot in any given shooting conditions.  

We have now moved on to learning how to use the meter to get a pretty good idea of exposure before pushing the shutter, and then how to read the histogram to understand the exposure exactly after pressing the shutter.  One student volunteers to be the subject while the others practice.  The classroom has white walls and a dark gray wall making for two distinct backgrounds for portraits.  

For the third class I think we will be ready to venture outside and make some shots in the field!