Nikon D700

Nikon D700 & Nikkor 24-70mm 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson St. Petersburg - Kasia

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Kasia photographing her son during our 2nd 1-on-1 DSLR photography lesson in St. Petersburg with her Nikon D700Since our first 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson last week Kasia has gotten the excellent Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G lens.  For our second lesson she also brought her son who is a cheerful 11-month old fond of taking off his socks and throwing his pacifier (who isn't?).  Now that Kasia has had more time with her Nikon D700 and an actual lens to use on it, we began this lesson with a Q&A session where I had to dispel some amateur photography advice (like she needs a UV filter for her lens, ha!).  She asked about metering modes (stay in matrix) and the number of focus points (stay with a single one) as well as how to fix a photograph where the highlights are blown out.  

After that we headed over to South Straub Park to practice how to compose by either setting the focus and recomposing or by framing the shot then just moving the focus point onto the desired subject.  We found some shade and I had Kasia practice her portrait technique on me first to get the ergonomics of moving focus points down before attempting to make portraits of her more active son.  

I will see Kasia right again tomorrow afternoon where we will continue to build on her DSLR photography skills.

Nikon D700 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson St. Petersburg - Kasia

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Kasia with her brand new Nikon D700 during our first photography lesson in downtown St. PetersburgOn a humid evening in downtown St. Petersburg after a sudden rain fell, I met Kasia for our first 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson.  She is just getting started in the DSLR world, but enters it with the powerful Nikon D700.  That is plenty of DSLR to grow into!  Her D700 was brand, brand new.  We started the lesson with me helping her just setup the camera itself (date, time, file naming system) and then I showed her some of the more in-depth settings that I use from years of experience shooting Nikon.  We followed that with a basic tour of the camera body giving a name to each part (finger dial, thumb dial, D-pad, etc.) so that she could understand my instructions for changing settings.

The rain stopped and we began practicing how to get the best exposure by setting aperture, shutter speed and ISO and determining when using Aperture priority mode is good enough, and when it is much better to just use Manual mode.  

We concluded the lesson with me giving Kasia some lens buying advice.  I look forward to our second lesson once Kasia gets in a new lens next week.

Off Camera Flash DSLR Photography Lesson with Nikon D700 & SB-900 Speedlight

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Not done in a studio, but outside amongst fire ants and mosquitoes! - Nikon D700 with Nikkor 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 lens @ f/5.6 ISO 200 1/200th Strobist: Nikon SB-900 Speedlight @ 1/128th power on light stand to frame left triggered by Commander modeBarbie has started a new four DSLR Photography Lesson set with me.  We picked up right where we left off on Monday with some flash portrait practice.  However tonight, we got the flash off the camera for some strobist style shots.  Can you guess where the above shot was taken?  Looks like a studio right?  Actually, it was right in Vinoy Park around sunset time.  Such is the power of off camera flash combined with the right lens and exposure settings.  Almost anywhere can be made to look like you are working in a studio.   

For the above shot I used Barbie's kit (Nikon D700, Nikon SB-900 Speedlight bare, Nikkor 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6 lens) combined with my light stand.  The background, if it were in focus, is Tampa Bay at dusk.  This was my second time getting hands on with Barbie's SB-900 and all I can say is:  it is VERY powerful.  Most of the time tonight it needed to be manually set to 1/128th so as to not over expose either myself or her.  

As you can see, our setup for tonight's lesson was as simple as strobist photography gets, just a single strobe on a light stand, with not even a diffuser cap on the flash.  The SB-900 was triggered by commander mode on Barbie's D700.  All Nikon's D80 and above (D90, D300, D300s, D700) have this mode that uses the DSLR's built-in flash to trigger the Nikon strobe (SB-600, SB-800, SB-700, SB-900).  Now, this is a great feature to have standard in the camera, but it is not totally reliable as a line of sight is needed, so for proper strobist photographer I do recommend getting radio triggers.  

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    External Flash DSLR Photography Lesson with Barbie & her Nikon D700

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    Barbie and her Nikon D700 with new Nikon SB-900 Speedlight! Flash is necessary for sunset portraits like this.Lately everytime Barbie and I have another DSLR Photography Lesson she comes with another significant new piece of photography gear.  For our fourth of four lessons Barbie debuted her new flagship Nikon Speedlight, the large and powerful SB-900.  Also, she got a BlackRapid RS-7 strap similar to my RS-Sport model! It was my first time to get hands on with the most powerful speedlight Nikon makes and although I was impressed with its power, there were some quirks with its controls.  Like to adjust the power there is not just a plus and minus adjustment button, another button must be pressed first to select the power on the rear LCD screen.  

    To practice sunset and twilight portraits Barbie and I headed out to Vinoy Park which offers a great background of the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront to the west and to the southeast is The Pier and a panoramic view of Tampa Bay.  It is my favorite spot in the whole city.  

    To get the most natural looking flash portraits in low light we had to use our speedlights in manual mode, dialing in low levels of power like 1/64th so as to not blow out the subjects (us).  Barbie will be buying another 4-pack of DSLR Photography Lessons starting on Friday when we will continue our flash practice, and get the flash off the camera!

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    Nikkor 85mm f/1.4G DSLR Photography Lesson with Barbie

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    Barbie's amazing new Nikkor 85mm f/1.4G lens on her Nikon D700 - lens used for photo: my Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8GMy recent DSLR Photography Lesson students just keep getting more and more great gear making me more and more envious!  In fact for our third of four lessons Barbie got so much new stuff we were only able to use some of it.  Last lesson if you recall she brought out her new tripod, this time it was the amazing new Nikkor 85m f/1.4G lens!!  I was very excited to get some hands on time with it and immediately was impressed.  It was by far the fastest and smoothest focusing lens I ever used.  The bokeh was stunning.  You may think that $2,000 for a lens is crazy expensive, but I think it's worth every penny.  It is the type of lens you almost cannot take a bad photo with, it is just that good.

    Much like a lesson I had last week with Golda just using her 50mm f/1.8 lens, this lesson I focused on showing Barbie how to get the most out of the magnificent bokeh her 85mm lens can make.  We also worked a lot on the mechanics of setting up and taking a shot, starting with the proper way to stand.  I advised her to leave the flip-flops at home for future lessons and wear more stable footwear.  She ended up taking most shots barefoot tonight actually!  Since we were both using prime lenses, our legs had to be the zoom.  My style is to get my body rock solid before even putting the camera to my eye.  Once I look through the viewfinder if I cannot compose the shot how I like, I do not lean or sway.  I pick up my feet and let them do the zooming.  I then reset to my normal rock solid shooting position.  If one does not start a photograph with this discipline, then it will be hard to repeatedly produce sharp images.  

    Barbie did get the new top-of-the-line Nikon SB-900 Speedlight as well, but we did not have anytime to use it at all.  It is something to look forward to for our fourth of four lessons next week.

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    DSLR Photography Lesson with Barbie & her Nikon D700

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    Nikon D700 DSLR Photography student Barbie in downtown St. PetersburgI was first contacted by Barbie back in December.  She sent a very enthusiastic e-mail.  However, due to various circumstances, we were unable to have our first DSLR Photography Lesson until just today.  Her enthusiasm never waned over those three months and resulted in today one of the most enjoyable lessons I have had in the nearly two years I have been offering 1-on-1 photography lessons in St. Petersburg.  Barbie was just like I expected her to be from her impassioned e-mails.  It is always nice to be around an enthusiastic person.  

    Barbie was given a very generous present late last year, a Nikon D700!  The D700 is a pro-level DSLR and definitely not the usual camera one first ventures into the DSLR world with!  So it is understandable to be a little intimidated by its complete lack of auto-exposure presets, labyrinth of menu settings and just overall physical girth.  However, the ergonomics of the D700 are excellent allowing for quick changing of all the major settings:  aperture, ISO, WB and focus mode, all of which have their own dedicated button or switch in the case of focus mode.

    As of right now Barbie has just one lens, the Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm f/3.5-5.6G, so we mostly practiced making photographs with bokeh and photographing moving subjects, two things that lens is best suited for.  I expect Barbie will soon be putting those skills to use to make action shots of her golden retrievers.  

    Barbie is already booked for three more lessons.  I am sure with her enthusiasm and strong motivation to be able to photograph everyone around her, we will continue to have fun and knowledge filled photography lessons. 

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