Photography Tips

1-on-1 Canon 7D DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg with Alison

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Alison learning how to use her Canon 7D so she can make great photos of her baby during our 1-on-1 photography lesson in downtown St. PetersburgI met Alison on a sunny spring Friday morning in downtown St. Petersburg for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with her Canon 7D.  Exactly one week earlier I met her friend Loni for the same type of photography lesson.  Now that I have spent 2-hours with Alison as well, they can pool their knowledge and help each other continue what I taught them.  

Alison had an 18-135mm lens for her Canon 7D which I suggested she think of as two lenses, an 18-50mm and a 50mm-135mm because when changing from one focal range to the other, the typical subject matter changes, and thus the aperture one would want to use likely would change also.  For 18-50mm I recommended by default starting with f/11 and for 50mm-135mm to default to an aperture of f/5.6.

Alison will be having a baby soon (see photo above!) and wanted to learn how to use her Canon 7D for what I would estimate to be quite a few baby photos!  Years from now having DSLR quality photos of her baby from the time of the baby's birth all through growing up will be of great value.  Digital photography will revolutionize the personal human visual record of every day life.  I often tell my students the story of how I have only one photograph of my first car, a 1979 Ford Mustang, something I loved more than pretty much anything.  For a high school student today, it would be unimaginable to have only one photograph of their favorite thing.  Such is the revolution of digital photography, and the culture of taking photos on a daily basis.

Photography Tip -- shoot gritty

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Just a coincidence in the name of this dumpster or a sly joke?It seems a majority of photographs are about beautiful subjects, like sunset landscapes, Aston Martins, flowers, etc.  Where you mostly get to see other types of photographs are in press photos.  When I lived in Tokyo, I used to always go to the World Press Photo exhibit and there I was able to see gritty photos.  

So the next time you go out shooting, try not to look for only beautiful subjects.  Go out with the purpose of photographing something gritty, something less than beautiful, something that will force the viewer to think.  

1-on-1 Canon T2i DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg with Loni

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Loni with her Canon T2i in North Straub Park during our 1-on-1 DSLR photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaWith the sound of racecars in the background, I met Loni for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson in downtown St. Petersburg.  The reason for the engine noise was that the Grand Prix was going to be raced a few days later.  Fortunately the noise came and went and I was able teach my 5-step process for shooting in manual mode on a DSLR to Loni without having to talk over racecars the entire time.  Like many people that take my photography lessons, this was her first DSLR and to this point had pretty much only been shooting in auto-mode.  It is commonly thought that manual mode means changing ten or more settings to make a photograph each and every time.  Even I thought that long ago.  However, there really is no large complexity with shooting in manual mode, especially if you have the benefit of learning my tried and true step-by-step methodology.

Even though her Canon is an older model, it was actually more useful than many of the latest models as she pretty much had a physical button on the DSLR body for every one of the five things that need to be set for shooting in manual mode.  Many newer cameras make you go into menus to change some things.  

Loni caught on well in how to use the meter to get help in choosing a shutter speed as we practiced making shallow depth of field photographs, moving subject photographs and even natural light portraits in the shade.  It was another info packed 2-hour introductory lesson.  Loni wants to keep learing so I will be seeing her again soon.  

1-on-1 Nikon D5100 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg with Renita

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Renita visiting from Melbourne with her Nikon D5100 for our 1-on-1 photography lesson in St. Petersburg FloridaOn a surprisingly chilly spring morning in downtown St. Petersburg Florida, I met Renita visiting all the way from Melbourne for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with her Nikon D5100.  In what is somewhat unusual for a photographer nowadays, Renita had several prime lenses.  Back in the old days zoom lenses were not sharp enough for pros, so they carried around bags full of prime lenses.  Renita shoots high school basketball a lot and needs the larger apertures afforded by prime lenses.  

Despite a lot of shooting experience, she had just started using aperture priority mode after only using auto-mode.  These two modes are actually the worst choices for sports photography so I began the lesson by teaching Renita my 5-step process for shooting in manual mode in order to get well exposed and sharp images shot after shot.  Like many people, she thought shooting in manual might require adjusting 10, 15 or more things as a DSLR is covered in buttons and dials.  At the most it is only five things and in reality, very rarely do you have to change all five between shots.

I think Renita will take what we practiced during the 2-hour lesson and improve her photography quickly and get better results from the very next time she goes shooting.  It was a fun time with her and she may come over to the west coast again for another photography lesson.

Photography Tip - turn your flash off sometimes when shooting indoors

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I have recommended getting a speedlight (external flash) to many of my photography students who want to make photographs indoors.  In fact, I say it is a must have piece of gear for any photographer really.  Is use my speedlights off camera for portraits, and on camera for photographing events (where quick mobility is needed).  A speedlight is useful in so many ways for all kinds of shooting.  

That said, a photography tip to add to your memory banks is to not fall in love with exclusively using flash for indoor event photography.  Using a speedlight for indoor event photography will produce very consistent results, which is a good thing of course.  If you are photographing a business conference where there is no need for creative shots, then keep that speedlight on.  However, for getting the most variety out of your event shooting, turn the speedlight off sometimes.  

In the above examples, the exact same camera settings were used.  In fact, the bottom photo was taken only 4 seconds after the first.  Everything about shooting was the same, except no flash fired in shooting the bottom photo.  As you can see, the photos are totally different.  Using the speedlight we can see all details in the artist and in the background.  The ambient light of the room is all but drowned out.  In the second shot we see only the slightest details of the artist and the ambient light provides a cool backlighting.  The impression the photos give the viewer end up being quite different.

Now I must confess the second shot was not done on purpose!  My flash could not recycle fast enough and simply did not fire.  Many the time though in my photography experience I have learned something from a happy accident like this.  So now when I photograph events that do not all require the uniform flashed look, I turn my speedlight off and use ambient light to create an entirely different photo.  Give this a try the next time you are shooting indoors.

1-on-1 Nikon D3200 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida with Al

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Al composing a shot with his Nikon D3200 in downtown St. Petersburg Florida during our 1-on-1 photography lesson.On a very sunny late winter Florida afternoon I met longtime networking friend Al for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson.  I have known Al for several years and we have referred business to each other (him more to me, thanks Al!).  He is the owner of Bayprint.  He got a Nikon D3200 a little while ago and has past photography knowledge from the film days, but like many people who book a lesson, just needed some help organizing and putting that knowledge to use in a very specific and exact manner.  That is exactly what my 5-step process for getting a well exposed and sharp shot in any shooting conditions is designed to do.  

After overcoming an unusual shutter action when having Al for the first time shoot in manual mode (quiet shutter mode activated itself!), we made our way around beautiful downtown St. Pete practicing how to control DoF to make the background be a non-factor in a shot and also how to photograph moving subjects.  The St. Pete Grand Prix is coming up this weekend and Al is going to be track side.  We practiced on far slower cars on Beach Drive, but the technique is the same.  We finished covering how to make motion blur shots in broad daylight.  I look forward to seeing Al's grand prix shots!

Photography Tip - use harsh sunlight to backlight your subject

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Photography Tip - incorporating harsh sunlight as a part of your photographIn Florida especially, there is often harsh sunlight to deal with when making outdoor portraits.  In the above example, I was working with a model on a portfolio shoot close to sunset time.  Having such an abudnance of light, I decided to make it an element of the photograph.  Putting the sun partially or entirely behind the subject can create a very strong, backlit effect.  Depending on your lens and position, some lens flare may be visible and add yet another element to the image.  I still used a speedlight off camera to frame right to help get enough exposure on the model then let the sun do the rest in the background.

Instead of fighting against the sun, try working with it to create unusual lighting effects in your portraits.