Photography Lessons

DSLR Photography Lesson #2 with Chris & SB-600s

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Chris demonstrating my "quick & dirty" off camera flash method - f/11 ISO 200 1/320th SB-600 held off camera just like pictured!I have recently mentioned my "quick & dirty" off camera flash technique several times, but had no photo to demonstrate it until now.  During our second DSLR Photography Lesson, I started to teach Chris the "quick & dirty" technique at John's Pass Village.  For the shot above I asked him to take the position, but we both forgot that his Nikon SB-600 Speedlight was still on and set to the same channel my Nikon D300's commander mode was, so it was a nice bit of luck that his SB-600 went off to help with the demonstration.  When you do not have a light stand or tripod with you, the "quick and dirty" off camera flash technique can still produce good results.  It just takes a bit of practice to balance a DSLR in just your right hand and maintain the strobe in your left hand pointing at your subject.  

During our lesson I was the model allowing me to instruct Chris to point his strobe a little more this, a little more up, etc.  With practice, one can get a feel for pointing the strobe directly at the subject without having to even look at your left hand. 

Another accidental firing of Chris' SB-600! Cool effect or just a fail shot? Make your comment below.

For our next lesson we may try out the street portrait act that Kelley and I have done before and see who we can get to be models for us, as Chris' skills continue to improve and before he gets tired of only having me as a model for our lessons!

Emily's 1st DSLR Photography Lesson - John's Pass Village

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Emily & her Canon XSi - f/5.6 ISO 200 1/160th SB-600 handheld off camera; processing in Color Efex Pro 3 & Topaz Adjust 3

Emily got her Canon XSi about a year ago.  She knew her way around her camera pretty well, and she even took about 6 weeks of classroom photography lessons.  However, once you are out on your own with your camera, that is a whole other thing, which is why I offer 1-on-1 private DSLR Photography Lessons where we actually learn and shoot at the same time.

Emily had a lens I had not had any hands on experience with yet, the Tamron 10-24mm ultra wide.  John's Pass Village does not have many sweeping landscapes, but having an ultra wide angle lens is still great for photographing all its colorful shop fronts.  

We covered many of the usual things I do with a student on her/his first lesson, like controlling DoF (depth of focus) using aperture and focal length, positioning yourself with your back to the sun whenever possible, and some basic composition techniques like the rule of thirds.

Emily also had an external flash, so we ended the lesson with some portrait practice.  I had Emily use her flash and not use her flash for the exact same portrait to show the different having an external flash can make.

Emily is new to Florida so it was fun to see excitement at seeing dolphins, etc.  I look forward to showing her more of what Pinellas County has to offer and helping her make even better photographs with her Canon XSi.

DSLR Photography Lesson in downtown Tampa Theatre area

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DSLR Photography Lesson in the Tampa Theater area was lesson #6 with Andrea!

Andrea and I broke new ground again for a DSLR Photography Lesson location, this time downtown Tampa in and around historic Tampa Theatre (our 6th lesson!).  Andrea did her homework and got a nearly perfect score on the photography quiz I sent her.  Our last lesson was in rain and some of the least ideal conditions for photography possible.  This time things were totally opposite with blue skies and nice temperatures.  The only thing that was missing was . . . people!

Andrea wanted to start with practicing street photography, but unfortunately downtown Tampa was nearly desolate.  However, with some strategic searching and quick fingers to the shutter button, Andrea got a great shot of a cyclist heading uphill with a cool city bokeh background.  

We then returned to practicing manual focus of her Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens.  Andrea was greatly improved from last time.  We found an interesting sculpture to practice on first, then went on to shooting the Tampa Theatre itself.

I believe Andrea has been steadily improving and I am excited to see her shots from today's lesson.

DSLR Street Photography & Macro Lesson with Eric

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Eric aims his Nikon D300s at some flowers during the macro portion of our DSLR photography lesson in St Petersburg

On a warm Saturday early afternoon, referral DSLR photography student (thank you Libby!) Eric and I visited St. Petersburg's downtown Saturday Market to practice some street photography.  The market certainly did not disappoint as there were plenty of interesting people, including an extremely talented hula hoop dancer.  

Eric recently upgraded to the Nikon D300s and had other pro gear like the fantastic Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G lens, arguable the sharpest zoom lens Nikon makes.  He knew his way around all his gear well, but wanted to see what more he could do and get from his gear, as well as to see what practices I could pass on to him.  One of the first was to make sure you always place the palm of your left hand under your lens, in order to hold your kit in the most stable position.  

I shared some of my street photography strategies, which Eric quickly put into action.  We finished the lesson by trying DSLR macro photography without a dedicated macro lens.  I have Nikkon's flagship macro lens, the 105mm VR f/2.8G micro, but that stayed in my bag as I showed Eric what his Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.4D lens was capable of.  A while back in Japan I produced one of my favorite flower shots with my 50mm f/1.8D len.  There were, unfortunately, no cosmos hills around, but we worked on an out of the way patch of flowers in a small park.  After dialing in the best settings on his D300s and 50mm lens, I showed him the even better results we could get using off camera flash.

I had a very good time during our lesson and it was a fun coincidence to find out we both have ties to Rhode Island and an appreciation for quality automobiles. 

50mm DSLR Photography Lesson in the rain at Crescent Lake Park!

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Danielle trying to master the tough task of manually focusing a 50mm f/1.8 lens

Many past DSLR Photography Lessons have very nicely managed to end right before rain arrived.  Well, this Sunday the luck ran out as most of Andrea's 5th! lesson (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th) was in at least light rain.  That was not the only thing that made today's lesson unique, it was also the first lesson to exclusively use a 50mm lens and the first to be all manual focusing too!

Ah, and another first, the first lesson at Crescent Lake Park in St. Petersburg.  Andrea recently bought the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens, but I did not point out in time that her Nikon D3000 will not be able to autofocus it because the D3000 lacks an internal focusing motor.  Thus, today we practiced manual focusing.  

Even with autofocus, the 50mm f/1.8 lens is very tricky to use.  It has a very shallow DoF even through f/2.8, and even beyond.  Then add in the challenge of trying to stay dry in the second hour of the lesson, and I ended up very impressed with Andrea's determination to get a good, sharp shot with appealing bokeh.

50mm manually focused bokeh, in rain

The above shot was the kind we set as our goal for that day's shooting, though the conditions were not conducive to it.  The first photograph of mine that got any attention was a green leaf bokeh shot (view it here).  

Andrea did well in the very challenging conditions taking time to ask questions and making sure she understood why we changed the settings on our DSLRs.  In the end we were able to make a few photographs that met our preset goal for the day.  Thank you Andrea for being so tough and patient!

John's Pass Village DSLR Lesson with young Libby

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John's Pass Village has convenient statues like this pirate for helping with a DSLR Photography Lesson

Libby is my youngest DSLR Photography student to date.  She is a teenager with aspirations of a career in photography or journalism, or perhaps photojournalism?  Her parents told me she carried a camera (Nikon L100, superzoom model) with her everywhere she went.  I always like to hear things like that.  I was even more glad to hear that a generous family friend gave her his old Nikon D40x just the night before!  She did not have a lens that could autofocus on the D40x, so I let her use my Tamron XR Di II 17-50mm f/2.8 lens for the whole lesson.

Her L100 had basically no manual functions so we started from the very beginning, which was an explanation of what aperture is and does.  In my own photography work, the setting I adjust first on my D300 is the aperture.  From that aperture foundation, I then base all the other settings the scene requires.  I try to instill this practice into all my DSLR photography students as well.  

During our lesson at John's Pass Village, I revealed to Libby how shooting a shaded flower actually produces a better exposure than shooting a flower in direct sunlight.  Then if you add a bit of well placed flash into the equation, you can really bring out a flower's detail.  Of course, the best thing to do would be to just shoot the flower in natural sunrise or sunset light, but when that is not possible, shading the flower with your own shadow is a useful trick.  

I had a very good time listening to Libby's plans for the future and seeing her excitement for photography.  I look forward to our next lesson and seeing what she has done with the skills she learned at John's Pass Village.

Kelly a Canon 7D and 2 Strobe DSLR Photography Lesson

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Kelly checks the angles for his 2 off camera strobes during our 4th lesson - UT Campus

Very quickly Kelley has taken his 4th DSLR Photography Lesson with me (1st, 2nd, 3rd).  Also, the streak of lessons on the University of Tampa campus continued today (follow me on Gowalla to confirm this).  Though not without a few hiccups still, it is getting easier to setup Kelley with his two Nissin strobes and Canon 7D out on location, and get the 7D to trigger the two strobes remotely without using a dedicated trigger and receiver.  

We also put into practice our "street model" practice to best effect today.  In all we were able to get nine people to let us make their portrait today!  I will be putting up a dedicated post on the street model methodology soon.

We continued to practice using manual settings to achieve the strobist results we wanted.  However, we also witnessed how Aperture priority mode, with the exact same shutter speed, can produce a different exposure!  There are still ghosts in machines in 2010.  

A lot more attention was paid today to the setup and position of Kelley's two strobes in order to achieve the least amount of shadows on the person's face, as well as controlling the ambient light using shutter speed to show as much or little of the background that we wanted to.  This skill proved necessary when photographing a person being backlit by two open windows.  Increasing the shutter speed all the way to the max flash sync speed of 1/250th (max for a Canon 7D) allowed us to make a well exposed portrait subject and not blow out the windows behind the subject.  

Kelley will be doing some traveling abroad in the next few weeks.  His 7D will of course be traveling with him and I hope he practices the street model style in Amsterdam!  I look forward to seeing his travel photographs!  Have a good trip Kelley, see you when you get back.