Photography Lessons

Digital Photograph Editing Lesson with Sarina - the power of cropping

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Photo by Sarina used with permission; cropping by Jason

For our second DSLR Photography Lesson, Sarina and I once again split the lesson time between (first) shooting and then editing.  She had the chance to photograph a dancer (see photo above) since we last met so for the shooting portion of the lesson I gave her feedback and demonstrated more ideal settings she could have used for those shots.  

Then in the editing digital photos half of the lesson I really emphasized how cropping can make a tremendous difference on the overall impact of a photograph.  Plus, cropping is the easiest edit to do on a digital photograph.  Therefore, a photography tip for you is to start your editing process by cropping.  That is what I do.  Many times I do frame the shot in the field exactly how I want, but sometimes once viewing the image on my 24" monitor at home I see the potential for an even better composition.  Or, I decide I want the focus of the image to be on something other than what I originally intended.  

There seems to be hesitation in new photographers to crop off the top of someone's head.  Do not be afraid, it will not hurt them and it will often help your image!  If you are an experienced photographer now, go back and look at your early work.  I bet you will see a progression of always trying to include the entire body or upper half of a person in a portrait to not being afraid to make radical crops that remove large sections of the subject's head.

Cropping in closer creates a stronger connection between viewer and photograph.  In the above example which one of the two feels more personal?  For me, it is the tightly cropped image.

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    DSLR Photography Lesson with Chris & his Nikon D300 in St. Petersburg

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    Chris concentrating on getting a shot in downtown St. Petersburg during our 3rd DSLR Photography LessonIt was an extra hot morning for my third DSLR Photography Lesson with Chris in downtown St. Petersburg.  The past two mornings had been almost pleasant, but not so today, even with an early-ish 9:30am start.  After I met Chris and had the usual pre-shooting chat we hopped on the trolley to The Pier to practice photographing moving subjects, i.e. pelicans.  Early on the pelicans were very obliging by flying right in front of us, however, catching them in frame is another story.  I showed Chris my method of holding the view finder just below my eye and using the length of the lens to track the bird in flight with, all the while holding the shutter half-way in continuous focus mode until the bird comes into range.  Then it's a matter of putting your eye in the view finder and being quick on getting the bird properly framed before it soars by.  In case you were wondering, this is not an easy skill to master and takes lots of practice and a very fast focusing DSLR / lens combo.  

    Ovation Luxury Waterfront Condominium - downtown St. Petersburg commercial photographyAfter nearly melting out at The Pier we headed to the shade of downtown for a little architecture photography and random street photography as well.  The Ovation Luxury Waterfront Condominium building can be seen above, or at least just the top of it.  I had on my Nikkor AF-S 105mm VR micro f/2.8G lens on so no wide shooting for me, but I like to get close-up detail shots of architecture anyway.  Chris was in a similar situation using his 70-200mm lens.  After seeing his first shot I suggested that he use a titled axis for a more visually interesting shot of the top of the building rather than just framing it straight up as one can see with the naked eye.  I always try and have the point of the building or subject point into a corner of the frame.  

    Next up Chris and I will return to our laptops for an editing lesson before he does some traveling and puts to use all we have practiced over our eight hours of lessons.

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    DSLR Strobist Photography Lesson with Sarina & her Nikon D90

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    Sarina with her Nikon D90 & newly bought (on my advice) Yongnuo RF 602 radio triggers - St. Petersburg Photography LessonsA rain-free evening allowed me to show Sarina how to practice off camera flash technique at our own pace during her first of four DSLR Photography Lessons.  It was actually a 3-hour lesson, one more than the usual 2-hours, split evenly between shooting practice with her Nikon D90 and then digital photo editing practice.  Sarina has been around cameras and photography for several years, but wanted to add some formal shooting technique to her skill set.  I really stress following the same, methodical way of setting your DSLR for each shot in order to avoid hunting around the camera body wondering what should I do.  Regular readings of this blog know my technique is the following (in this order):

    • set aperture (then shutter speed if in manual mode)
    • set ISO
    • set white balance (WB)
    • set focus mode (AF) 

    After outlining this methodology to Sarina we went behind the St. Petersburg Museum of History and applied it to setting up strobist shots.  The first thing to know about making off camera flash portraits is that the speedlight (flash) lights the subject and the camera's exposure settings control the ambient light.  Without knowing this, it is hard to make purposefully overall well exposed shots.

    If all that were not enough we retired to a small Beach Drive cafe for a crash course in introduction to Photoshop CS5!  Sarina is wisely interested in learning how to edit her shots at the same time as learning how to shoot better shots.  I recommend this simultaneous learning in this blog post.  You can also get a PDF of the most common keyboard shortcuts I use in Photoshop CS5 here.  

    By the end of our four lessons Sarina will have the knowledge to shoot off camera flash portraits with confidence, and edit them into a finished product as well.

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    DSLR Photography Lesson with Golda & her Canon XTi

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    Golda photographing in the twilight sky of downtown St. Petersburg during our DSLR photography lessonI am starting to really like having DSLR Photography Lessons start at 7pm as the final 30-minutes of the lesson carries us into twilight.  Such was the case for my first of four lessons with Golda in downtown St. Petersburg.  She has had her Canon XTi for years, but for years was just using the various auto-modes.  In a total 180, I had her shooting in manual mode most of the time and she caught on quickly.  Having never really changed any settings on her DSLR before, she remembered surprisingly well how to adjust aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance and focus mode in the ever changing light of a Florida sunset sky.

    Quick photo tip: flash lights your subject, aperture & shutter speed control ambient light in portraits like thisAs we made our way toward Vinoy Park to photograph The Pier and the the downtown St. Petersburg skyline we practiced some action shots and talked more about the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and exposure while in manual mode.  Once at Vinoy Park, we were treated to a typically vivid sunset and then later twilight sky.  Despite having no tripod, I showed Golda how to as steadily as possible hold a DSLR for a low-light landscape shot.  We finished with a quick practice of flash portraits which we will resume in our next lesson.

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    DSLR Photography Lesson with Daniel & his Canon 60D

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    Daniel practices an indoor shot with his Canon 60D & 70-300mm lens inside a St. Petersburg Panera Bread due to rainIt was a most unusual first DSLR Photography Lesson with Daniel last Friday evening.  In fact it was the first time I had an entirely indoors, sit-down photo lesson that was not focused on editing digital photos.  This was due to Daniel being short on time before he left for a south Florida vacation and Friday's all-day rain not allowing for the usual downtown St. Petersburg walkabout.  However, if anyone I had previously taught was more well suited for this type of lesson, then I cannot think of who.  

    The sit-down lesson style allowed Daniel to ask many technical questions about what settings for what situations.  We were able to delve into photography theory quite a bit.  There was a lot of info and numbers spoken of, but Daniel says he has an outstanding memory (and I believe him) so I really think he will be able to put all of the above to practical use in the field.  

    Despite being within the confines of a Panera Bread, we still had the opportunity for shooting practice (see above photo).

    Canon 70-300mm EF f/4-5.6 IS lens -- if you do not want to spend $2,000 then this is the Canon telephoto lens to getI taught Daniel how to use his Canon 70-30mm EF f/4-5.6 IS lens in low light, how to use it to produce a shot with bokeh, how to best it and what minimum shutter speeds he could expect to use and still get a sharp shot.  After that we popped up the flash on his Canon 60D to see how that affected the same shots we had previously took.  

    Once Daniel returns from vacation I look forward to our first in the field lesson and seeing how he applies all that tech and theory knowledge in practical shooting.

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    DSLR Photography Lesson with Cherryl & her new Nikon D5000

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    Cherryl with her new Nikon D5000 during our first DSLR Photography Lesson in downtown St. PetersburgWith this point in the summer in Florida, one always has to keep an eye to the sky for rain.  I would say that for our first DSLR Photography Lesson together, Cherryl and I were 80% lucky.  There were definitely rainstorms all around downtown St. Petersburg, but for the first 100 minutes of our two-hour lesson they merely provided a pleasant overcast sky and a nice breeze.  During this time I introduced Cherryl to the photography terms one needs to know before pressing the shutter in any kind of purposefulness.  

    We also spent a lot of time practicing how to get the subject of a photograph in focus, both when moving and when not.  There is a bit of finger skill one must demonstrate with the shutter, specifically the ability to keep it pressed half way down the entire time during composing the shot, and not releasing it until you have the shot you want.  When photographing a moving subject one never releases the shutter from the half way position the entire time.  

    With further practice this skill set will come easier to Cherryl and I look forward to seeing some great soccer action shots!

    About the last 20-minutes of our lesson . . . well, the rain came but we took shelter in front of the Chihuly Museum and ended the lesson as I would have rain or shine, with some flash portrait practice.  I was impressed with the range of the pop-up flash on Cherryl's Nikon D5000. 

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    Digital Photograph Editing Lesson with Chris

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    Selective contrast edits in Photoshop can make a big impact on your photos - image used by permission 

    Chris took his first DSLR Photography Lesson on Tuesday where we went out into the field to practice shooting.  For our second of four lessons Chris wanted to learn digital photograph editing, which I believe is a very wise thing to do (read more here about my feelings on learning shooting & editing at the same time).

    The cruise ship is Chris' own photograph.  The original is well composed with good contrast in the foreground plants.  However, the cruise ship itself appears to be covered in a haze.  I taught Chris the following techniques using Photoshop CS5 to selectively enhance the cruise ship first, then the water, then finally the sky.

    For the Cruise Ship: 

    • Use the Quick Select Tool (W) to select the entire cruise ship
    • Go to Images --> Adjustments --> Brightness/Contrast
    • Increase contrast to your preference 

    For the Water: 

    • Use the Quick Select Tool (W) to select the entire water area
    • Go to Images --> Adjustments --> Brightness/Contrast
    • Increase contrast to your preference
    • Go to Images --> Adjustments --> Color Balance (Command-B)
    • Enhance the color sliders to your preference

    For the Sky: 

    • Use the Quick Select Tool (W) to select the entire sky
    • Go to Images --> Adjustments --> Color Balance
    • Enhance the color sliders to your preference

    The real key to this type of digital photo editing is the use of selected adjustments.  If we had not selected just the cruise ship, and instead universally adjusted the contrast on the entire photograph, then the plants would have suffered from too much contrast in getting the cruise ship right.  Of course making the sky look a deeper blue if done universally would make even the green plants start to look blue.  Therefore, the key is starting with the Quick Select Tool (W) and selecting only the area you want to adjust.  

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