Trial-ing out Topaz Adjust

A sample candid portrait I processed in Topaz Adjust which took some fiddling about to produce (original below)

I am a strong supporter of Nik's suite of apps, especially Color Efex Pro 3 and Silver Efex Pro.  However, I have been coming across more and more mentions of Topaz Labs' Topaz Adjust app, which is actually a plug-in for Photoshop.  The before and after photos on the Topaz Adjust product page are impressive.  Several totally blah photographs are miraculously transformed into strikingly colorful portfolio shots.  

The above photograph is my first attempt at adding some of that Topaz style pop to one of my images.  I was teaching a DSLR photography lesson to student Danielle in Sunken Gardens, actually practicing flash outdoor portraits, when this woman (visiting Florida from Michigan) and her friends passed by and said hello.  I already had my Nikon D300 in hand and my SB-600 Speedlight raised as this woman let out a big smile.  I quickly asked her, "may I take your photo," she did not protest so I pushed the shutter.  Personally, this is my favorite kind of photo to make and I do not often get a chance in public to make one of these in Saint Petersburg, as it is sparsely populated.

So using one of the softer presets in Topaz Adjust I added a little bit of skin smoothing and then adjusted the color sliders to make the image more vivid.  There are quite a few presets and they did not immediately produce an image I liked, so it took quite a bit of playing with several of the presets and adjusting them to produce results that I liked for the photo.  Some may find any results with Topaz Adjust look too unreal or too HDR-ish.  However, for adding color pop and pulling details out of shadows, I found Topaz Adjust to be a very useful tool.

I will continue to experiment with Topaz Adjust as there is a learning curve involved.  Topaz Labs offers a free trial of Topaz Adjust.

The original image with only Aperture's basic RAW file processing.

DSLR Photography Lesson #2 with Danielle in Sunken Gardens

Danielle making a Nikon D80 look stylish during our DSLR photography lesson in Sunken GardensI often find that I never exactly know what will happen in one of my DSLR Photography Lessons.  And I like that.  I feel that keeping the lesson content and structure fluid allows me to adapt the lesson on the fly to what the photography student specifically needs or wants to learn that lesson.  

Thus, Danielle and I began our second lesson today in Sunken Gardens with an in-depth conversation about what settings might have better helped her make portraits of her son's school classmates and how to take the first steps toward potentially making some money from photography in the semi-near future.  I did not have this planned, but I think it turned out to be a very productive use of our lesson time.  

My plan was for Danielle to practice making photographs using her tripod, which I learned was given to her by her father.  The tripod was of a certain vintage, i.e. a bit old.  As she was setting it up I started to feel uncomfortable about her putting her Nikon D80 on it.  My gut was right, as a leg fell right off the tripod!  So much for practicing tripod photography and won't the Sunken Gardens staff be surprised to see a large tripod in a trash can in the middle of the gardens!

It was all for the best as we had plenty of new photography ground to cover, the most useful of which I feel was how flash can radically improve outdoor photography.  I had Danielle photograph a flower in semi-shade without flash, which looked ok.  Then I had her useonly the D80's built-in popup flash to eliminate shadows and expose details in the flower that just were not present in the non-flash photo.  I was even surprised by the improvement.  

In an exciting note, Danielle will be investing in some new photography gear that we will put to good use in our next DSLR photography lesson.  I literally get just as excited about somebody else getting new photo gear as I would getting it myself!  

Thanks to Danielle for asking so many good questions during the lesson, which actually makes my job easier.  The time went by quickly. 

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DSLR Photography Lesson with Rhonda . . . and Mike!

Rhonda focuses her new Sigma 70-300mm lens mounted on her Canon XT during our first DSLR photography lesson in downtown Saint PetersburgThe sun made a semi-surprising appearance for the first DSLR photography lesson with Rhonda...and Mike who was there unofficially, though most welcome.  The forecast had rain in it, but hardly even any clouds and temperatures warm enough for my first jacket-less lesson in awhile.  Mike called me up last week wanting to book a lesson for his wife Rhonda as a present, which is becoming an increasingly popular type of lesson booking.  

We met at the usual downtown Saint Petersburg spot and having ample sunlight could start out with positioning ourselves to make the best exposure possible by putting our back to the sun and pointing our shadows at the subject we wanted to photograph.  

Mike was a good sport being a model for Rhonda all day during our DSLR photography lesson!

We covered a fairly wide range of photography topics during the 2-hour lesson, even having time to practice a little daylight flash portrait photography.  I learned from Rhonda, the family photographer, that there are many photos of Mike in the places they have traveled to, but few of her since she is always behind the lens.  It seems like for our next lesson we should practice using the tripod and self-timer so Rhonda can get into the shot too!

Rhonda and Mike make a good photography team and I am sure with what we learned in our first lesson today that Rhonda will have even better photographs of Mike at the next place they travel too!  Thanks to Mike for being a good sport all day long being our test subject and to Rhonda for being such an attentive student.  

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DSLR Photography Lesson with Anne in chilly downtown Saint Petersburg

DSLR Photography Student, Anne, photographs the boats in the marina in front of the Vinoy

Cold and clouds returned to my latest DSLR photography lesson with new student, Anne.  Friday's scheduled second lesson with Danielle had to be postponed, so I was just glad it was not raining.  Anne shoots with a Nikon D60 and the two kit lenses that come with it.  She told me she was an auto-mode shooter, but she had good knowledge of the meaning of aperture and knew how to navigate her D60's menus well.  What we did in our lesson was of course get her off of auto-mode and into control of her D60 by taking what she knew about aperture and applying it to specific aperture settings to get the best results in various photography scenarios.  

In just a short time Anne was controlling the DoF (depth of focus) of her images by selecting the correct aperture and focal length to do so.  Hello bokeh!

One feature of my DSLR photography lessons is I make one portrait of the student. Here Anne smiles happy with the knowledge that she can make better photographs.Anne and I already started talking about her next lesson where she wants to practice photographing crashing waves and sunset photography.  We will head to Pass-A-Grille beach for that lesson as downtown Saint Petersburg has no waves and only obstructed sunsets.

I appreciated Anne's enthusiasm and being able to see her passion for photography reignited after our lesson.  It makes teaching photography all the more fun.

DSLR Photography Lesson with Danielle in actual Florida sunshine!

Danielle photographs some artwork during our DSLR photography lesson in Vinoy Park

Finally, sunshine returned to a DSLR Photography Lesson!  My first lesson with Danielle in the usual downtown Saint Petersburg locations was basked in bright sunlight, albeit still very cool temperatures.  However, I was just glad we had the chance to photograph some color instead of just gray during the lesson.  Danielle shoots with a Nikon D80, the very first DSLR I owned.  I still have fond memories of that camera and am relieved I was able to sell it to a good friend who now takes great care of it and makes good use of it too.

Danielle has training in photography, and has produced some nice portraits of her children.  What we focused on was how to take more control of the camera and know which settings to use for which situations instead of relying on automatic ones, especially for which focus mode to use, which aperture and which focal length.  

I demonstrated to Danielle how to use off camera flash in this portrait of her before Saint Petersburg's "skyscrapers"

Danielle had an older Quantaray external flash (strobe) that worked well with her Nikon D80.  The sunshine allowed us to practice using our strobes to make portraits in broad daylight and also on a shaded bench.  

Our lesson went by quickly.  I look forward to my next lesson with Danielle as she is a quick learner and will no doubt be making even better portraits and actions shots of her children.  I hope the sun joins us again as well!

Pet Photography lesson with Linda at North Shore Dog Park

DSLR Photography Student Linda with her Yorkshire Terrier Benji

The string of cold, overcast DSLR photography lessons continued yet again for Linda's third lesson in as many weekends.  For this lesson Linda brought along Benji, her Yorkshire Terrier to be her practice model.  She wanted to learn how to photograph Benji in action.  We went to North Shore Dog Park in the old northeast section of Saint Petersburg.  Since there was no sunshine at all that morning we really had to pay close attention to maintaining a fast enough minimum shutter speed in order to keep Benji looking sharp.  So just like in Carmen's lesson the day before, I again advised a student to use the auto-ISO feature.  We set the max ISO to 1600 and the minimum shutter speed to 1/500th of a second as Benji was a quick little guy when he wanted to be.  

4 month old pug puppy, Beatrice, always warmly greeted Linda when she knelt down.

We were not alone in the small dog section of the North Shore Dog park.  Other sub-20 pound dogs were running about including fawn pug Beatrice who never failed to come over and nuzzle and give kisses to anyone she could reach.  She was a very cuddly and sweet puppy.

Linda and I ended the DSLR photography lesson by practicing landscape shots with her new tripod.  The overcast skies did not provide for any stunning views of Tampa Bay, but at least we could practice what settings to use and Linda wisely wrote them down into her notebook so she can practice on her own.  

It was a fun lesson with Linda and Benji, and visiting Beatrice too.

DSLR Photography Lesson with Carmen at Taylor Park in Largo

Carmen on her second DSLR Photography lesson making a portrait of her son in Taylor Park in Largo

The wind continues to blow through all DSLR photography lessons in the Tampa Bay area lately.  I met Carmen for her second photography lesson this morning at Taylor Park in Largo.  She brought her son, Aiden, this time to be her practice model for action shots and portraits.  We had Aiden running all over the place through the woods, climbing over everything in two playgrounds and even pausing for a few moments for a portrait or two.  

Today I taught Carmen how to really track and get a focus lock on a moving subject, even in challenging lighting conditions like the heavy overcast skies we had to deal with most of the time.  To help maintain a fast enough shutter speed we used the auto-ISO feature of her Nikon D5000.  Auto-ISO is a great feature that has been added to DSLR cameras in the past few years.  You set the minimum shutter speed you want and the maximum ISO you want, and the camera then actively chooses the ISO to maintain at least that minimum shutter speed.  When the sun keeps jumping in and out from behind clouds, auto-ISO is a great help.

Using flash to freeze action in cloudy overcast conditions

We finished with using flash for both portraits and actions shots.  I told Carmen that I basically never photograph a person without using flash, unless they are playing sports.  Using even just the D5000's on camera flash Carmen was able to make portraits of Aiden with good fill flash in the shadows of the playground.  We set ourselves the challenge of trying to freeze Aiden in the air jumping off a "cliff face," though I must admit I cheated and used my Nikon SB-600 Speedlight off camera for the above frozen action shot.  Shhhh.

I felt by the end of our fun and active 2-hour lesson that Carmen was really starting to put together how aperture, ISO and shutter speed relate to one another and I am sure she will have some great photographs to show me before our next lesson.