Aperture 3 Workflow Digital Photography Lesson on MacBook Pro St. Petersburg Florida

May 24, 2012 in Photography Lessons

Bill learning my Aperture 3 workflow right from my desk also getting emotional support from Kiki!Last week Bill came over to my apartment for a digital photography workflow lesson based on Aperture 3. This was my sixth time meeting up with Bill, but the first to focus on the part of digital photography that happens after you return from shooting, which is just as important as learning how to shoot out in the field. Once you start taking 200, 300, 400+ photos on any given outing with your DSLR then workflow and photo management becomes critical in making sure you showcase your best images and can find them one year down the road.

After Kiki gave Bill an enthusiastic greeting, we opened up our MacBook Pros at my desk and I went step-by-step with Bill first getting my preferred Aperture 3 settings into his version, and then showing him what you do once you insert a memory card into the SD slot on the side. Upon photo import in Aperture 3 you can imprint a lot of very useful metadata, as well as rename the files (so all your shots are not _DCC457) and put them into a new project to start off your workflow with good orginization.

Bill had photos from his daughter's prom night pre-dance getogether at his own home for us to use. I showed him my culling process for picking the best shot out of 3-4 similar shots. This involves a star-rating system and then a side-by-side full-screen comparison of shots. We finished the lesson with using some of the handy sliders and brushes in Aperture 3 to make the first round of edits on a given digital photograph.

Nikon D5000 50mm lens 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida with Angela

May 16, 2012 in Photography Lessons

Angela using her new 50mm lens to photograph architecture details in St. PetersburgSince our first 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in April, for our second of four lessons, Angela brought with her two new not insignificant pieces of gear, a 50mm lens and the Nikon SB-700 Speedlight. These two items are actually by far the most popular pieces of photography gear that my students have purchased first over the past three years. They are the least expensive ways to radically change the kinds of photographs one can make.

We started out the lesson practicing with the 50mm lens where I told Angela I look for the background perhaps even more than the subject when using my 50mm lens because I want the best possible bokeh in my 50mm shots. Lights of course easily make for cool looking bokeh, but also spectral slight coming through tree branches can create the same look.

For the last half of our 2-hour lesson Angela put her SB-700 on her Nikon D5000 and we practiced flash portraits at sunset and twilight time as our lesson went until 8:30pm, well after sunset. By manually setting the power on the SB-700 it was clear that TTL mode was choosing too much power making the subject (in this case, me!) look too "flashed" in the portrait. Manually setting the power allowed Angela to make a portrait of me that looked much more natural balancing the exposure on the subject with the background exposure so that neither seemed to stand out from the other.

Perhaps by our fourth lesson we will get that flash off the camera for some strobist portraits!

Canon 60D 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida at Dali Museum with Julie

May 05, 2012 in Photography Lessons

Julie with her new Canon 430 EX II Speedlight & her Canon 60D during our photography lesson at the Dali MuseumI chose the new Dali Museum as the location for the fourth of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons with Julie, who since our last lesson got a new external flash, the Canon 430 EX II Speedlite. I was glad to hear that Julie has been regularly practicing her photography and even had a chance to make maternity portraits of two of her friends. She told me that photographing people is hard! I cannot disagree, but I also think photographing people is the most interesting and one of the best ways to really push yourself as a photographer.

We started this morning's lesson with more 50mm lens practice using the great tree in the rear ground of the museum. The tree has ribbons all tied to it with messages (see third photo from the top here). Julie really liked the tree. It makes for a very interesting subject both from an abstract shooting standpoint and also as a prop when making a portrait.

Then Julie attached her 430 EX II to her 60D and we went over to the Mahaffey Theater where I showed her how the angle of the light from the flash effects how portraits turn out. Even in those outdoor conditions, although in the shade, it was very apparent that being able to bounce the light off of a side or rear wall produced the best results, as compared to pointing the flash directly at the subject.

Julie is interested in learning off camera flash so I look forward to seeing her for another four lessons over the summer. I will be looking forward to it!

Nikon D5000 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida with Angela

April 25, 2012 in Photography Lessons

Angela with her Nikon D5000 on our first of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons in St. Petersburg FloridaOn a surprisingly cool spring late afternoon I met Angela in downtown St. Petersburg for our first of four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons. She has been the owner of a Nikon D5000 for a couple of years, but all that time just using it on auto-mode. Since she regularly photographs her daughter racing motorcross, taking control of her DSLR and getting off auto-mode will definitely help her capture better action shots in a wide variety of conditions.

We said good-bye to auto-mode and hello to aperture priority mode to start out the lesson as I introduced Angela to my 4-step processing for making a well exposed and sharp photograph in any situation. By the end of the 2-hour lesson Angela was using manual mode to make flash portraits in North Straub Park in preparation for making prom night portraits of her daughter this upcoming Friday. She now has the practice and knowledge to be able to make well exposed and composed portraits in an outdoor setting that would also apply to indoors as well, with a few settings tweaks needed only.

I look forward to hearing how the prom and motorcross photos came out during our second lesson coming up soon!

Canon 5D Mark II 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson St. Petersburg Florida with Gina

April 18, 2012 in Photography Lessons

From setting the date to setting the aperture, a wide ranging DSLR photography lesson with GinaI have been in contact with Gina for the past few days helping her with everything from which DSLR to purchase to which lenses to get for it as she has a very strong need to add to her photography knowledge as quickly as possible. She has already been shooting for awhile, getting a few high profile jobs even. The Canon 5D Mark II was new to her and brand new store bought yesterday so we began the lesson from the very beginning, set the time and date and putting the neck strap on.

During our 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson Gina wanted me to go through every menu setting and every button on the camera leaving no stone unturned. This gave me my most indepth look yet at how a Canon DSLR works as I shoot Nikon. I have already had hands on with every Canon model made in the past five years, but before now not setting one up totally from scratch. I remain convinced the ergonomics of shooting with a Nikon of similar level are far, far better.

We finished the lesson with a review of the correct terms for referring to shutter speed, how to identify and describe a lens, among other terms.

I hope Gina's upcoming shoot goes well and I look forward to seeing the images.

Nikon D90 Architecture Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida with Bill

April 16, 2012 in Photography Lessons

Bill with his Nikon D90 practicing architecture photography outside of Signature Tower in downtown St. PetersburgMy third DSLR Photography Lesson with Bill on Saturday morning was our first 1-on-1 lesson as his wife Ria could not make it for this one. We met at the usual spot in downtown St. Petersburg on a typcially beautiful, sunny and warm Florida spring morning. The focus for this lesson was on making architecture shots, and how to use aperture priority mode to get a general idea of the exposure wanted, before switching to manual mode to fine tune it exactly to the desired results.

At the very beginning Bill showed me some shots of the St. Petersburg skyline and waterfront he took since our last lesson, homework so to speak. This was very useful to me in being able to show Bill which settings were correct, and which ones needed to be changed in order to produce a better shot. We then simulated some of those shot circumstances during our lesson so Bill could practice getting all settings correct for better results.

We had time during this lesson to start to discuss composition more, especially when photographing buildings. I showed Bill my parallel edge photography tip while saying that the entire building does not always need to be in the frame.

Our next lessons will start to include digital photography editing in addition to more shooting practice. I am looking forward to seeing Bill's early morning dawn shots of St. Petersburg with the help of the things we practiced this lesson.