Photography Lessons

DSLR Photography Lesson with Marcia & her Canon 7D in St. Petersburg Florida

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Marcia on a new swing in downtown St. Petersburg with her Canon 7D during our photography lessonI met new DSLR Photography Lesson student Marcia for a rare Saturday morning lesson in downtown St. Petersburg.  She has owned a DSLR for awhile, having previously shot with a Canon 30D before getting the new Canon 7D.  She is even personal friends with Scott Kelby!  Marcia has a bag full of gear:  3 lenses, a tripod, external flash, etc. but for the first lesson we concentrated on the faily standard focal range of 18mm to 200mm which was covered entirely by her Canon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS lens.  

I taught Marcia my 4-settings method of producing the correct exposure for any given type of shot ranging from midday sunny widangle shots to being able to eliminate a distracting background to produce a good looking portrait anywhere.  Despite the strong sunshine, thunder rumbled from somewhere so we concluded the lesson under the safety of the big kapok silk-cotton tree beside the Museum of Fine Arts.  Presumably the museum put up the new swing hanging from one of the tree's large branches which makes for a nice prop for portrait practice.  Only using her external flash for for a few minutes, Marcia realized we could have an entire lesson just on it.  I said that is exactly right, as the first lesson usually covers a broad topic range, with each subsequent lesson focusing on one particular area of photography.

I look forward to seeing Marcia's photos of her poodles and travel related images she likes to make.

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    DSLR Photography Lesson using Canon 70-200mm f/4 at The Pier St. Petersburg

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    The front element of Pam's new Canon 70-200mm f/4 IS lens at the end of our evening lesson at The Pier in St. PetersburgThis evening Pam and I dodged rain and humidity in pursuit of photographing pelicans in flight at The Pier using her new Canon 70-200mm f/4 IS L lens.  This was also the first lesson of the second four pack of DSLR Photography Lessons Pam has reserved.  

    We met in downtown St. Petersburg and made our way on foot out to The Pier where along the way we got our settings for photographing moving subjects dialed in.  Due to the overcast skies, light was already fading two hours before sunset, so we immediately went into manual mode setting the shutter speed at 1/800th of a second to insure we could freeze gliding pelicans.  To compensate for this fast shutter speed Pam needed to use the max aperture setting of f/4 for her lens, along with ISOs that eventually topped out at 1600 by lesson's end!

    The pelicans always seemed to stay 50 meters ahead of us, but eventually we were able to photograph some in flight.  I taught Pam my tracking technique which is not an easy thing to pick up on if you are not used to using your lens as a scope and then quickly ducking your eye into the viewfinder, all the while trying to get a focus lock on a small, rapidly moving subject.  However, Pam now knows the technique and can practice it on her own before our next lesson next week.

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    DSLR Photography Lesson Basics with Jeff & his Nikon D3100

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    Jeff with his Nikon D3100 in Vinoy Park; The Pier of St. Petersburg in the background - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm lens @ f/2.8 ISO 200 1/250th natural lightNew DSLR Photography Lesson student Jeff was a referral from old high school friend and one-time photo lesson student himself, Mark.  Jeff has an impressive traveling resume and wants to be able to make better photographs on future trips, like one soon to Sydney, Australia.  Thus, he upgraded from a point & shoot camera to a new Nikon D3100.  

    As I went through my four step process of setting a DSLR for any type of shot, Jeff seemed to be catching on quick and soon we were leaving aperture priority behind during the lesson and moving onto manual mode.  Having the lesson late in the evening helped hasten our transition to manual mode as the fading light did not allow aperture priority mode to produce acceptable exposures for very long, especially when we practiced photographing moving objects.  

    Jeff also took a lot of handwritten notes during the lesson, which is something I recommend unless one has a photographic memory!

    I look forward to introducing more advanced photography topics in our future lessons.

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    DSLR Photography Lesson with Terri and her Nikon D80 in St. Petersburg Florida

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    Terri with her Nikon D80 showing good handholding technique on a bench in North Straub Park in downtown St. Petersburg - setup: f/11 ISO 200 1/60th SB-800 Speedlight in TTL mode hotshoe mountedMy first morning lesson in awhile was my first DSLR Photography Lesson with Terri and her Nikon D80.  Terri has experience from the film SLR world, but needed to know how to translate that to the DSLR world.  I enjoyed hearing Terri refer to adjusting the ISO on her D80 in terms of using film speed!  Isn't it hard to imagine now that changing your ISO in the pre-digital world required changing your entire roll of film?  

    It was a pleasant overcast morning in downtown St. Petersburg, the first time I had a lesson all summer that did not require taking an immediate shower upon returning home.  I began the lesson as I do most by explaining aperture, then the rest of the 4-step setup for making any photograph.  Terri liked my "top of the mountain" explanation for aperture and how the smaller numbers are larger apertures with shallower depths of field.  The next great revelation was that of which focus mode to use when.  She had been using AF-A which is useless.  The camera is not good at deciding which to use on the fly as AF-A claims to do.  Only AF-S and AF-C should ever be used.  

    We concluded the lesson with some park bench portraits with me having Terri take one shot without flash and then the next using her pop-up flash.  Even with just the pop-up flash on her D80 the difference flash made in the overall exposure was great.  The background was less blown out because the flash exposed the subject and the rest of the exposure settings exposed the background much more accurately.  

    I look forward to next working with Terri out at The Pier using her 200-400mm lens!

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    DSLR Macro Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida with Pam & her Canon 60D

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    Pam's Canon 60D with Canon 60mm f/2.8 macro lens tripod mounted photographing one of my turtles (inset)Before I entered the DSLR world I had an Olympus 5060 bridge camera.  One of the reasons I held onto it for so long was because of its articulating LCD screen.  I was just really useful for low angle and high angle shots.  Pam's Canon 60D has a flip-out LCD screen that makes macro photography much more comfortable, if not just plain easier.  For our fourth of four DSLR Photography Lessons I met her at the usual downtown St. Petersburg spot for a lesson on the very difficult macro photography.  

    Here is what I used to think:  just buy a macro lens, and boom, you can get those insect shots where you see each segment of the insect's eye.  Umm, no.  In reality those shots use a very complex setup and either a dead, or at least drugged, insect.  

    For our lesson we used the available flora around Beach Drive, which provided a surprisingly ample selection from berries on an evergreen bush, to red flowers not yet in bloom, to a full bloom bird of paradise flower.  

    Rain did force us back into cover on the Museum of Fine Arts' front promenade, but that was fine as I was ready for such an occassion for inside my pocket nestled one of my turtle friends who normally resides on my desk.  These shooting conditions also allowed use of Pam's 430 EX II external flash.  Without the flash, we needed an exposure of two minutes to produce a well exposed shot!  With the flash, we were able to use 1/60th of a second.  

    Though this was the last lesson of a 4-pack of lessons, Pam will sign-up for another 4-pack and continue our weekly lessons next week debuting her new Canon 70-200mm f/4 lens.  Thanks Pam and I look forward to introducing you to some of my pelican friends at The Pier!

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    Nikon SB-700 Speedlight Off Camera Flash DSLR Photography Lesson with Kamila

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    Kamila's new Nikon SB-700 Speedlight being used in Commander Mode during our second DSLR Photography LessonMy first DSLR Photography Lesson with Kamila was back in May when she brought a friend to model for her as I instructed her on off camera flash (strobist) portrait photography.  This second lesson tonight was a refresher on the basics of using Nikon's CLS (creative lighting system) Commander Mode to natively trigger a Nikon Speedlight off camera.  However, at the very beginning of the lesson a massive thunderstorm broke out in sunny weather producing some of the most blasting lightning I have felt in nearly 15 years.  Luckily, we met at the Museum of Fine Arts and could use its covered front archway deck to practice while the lightning slammed the earth.

    Since May Kamila added the new Nikon SB-700 Speedlight to her camera bag.  Getting hands on with the SB-700 for the first time tonight meant that in the past week I now have experience using both of Nikon's new (and only) speedlights.  I really like the much improved button usage on both the SB-700 and SB-900, although the power switch that also has the dedicated remote and master settings is awkward to use since it requires pressing in a button while moving the small switch.  

    Before our next lesson Kamila will be going back to the camera shop to get a couple of light stands which make using speedlights off camera infinitely easier as light stands have a very small footprint and can reach heights of 9 to 12 feet.  A tripod can be used but it has a large footprint and only reaches about six feet.

    Learning how to use off camera flash is as simple as owning a Nikon D80 or above (D90, D7000, D300, D300s, D700) and a Nikon speedlight.  Canon users with a 7D have a similar ability.  

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    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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