Photography Tips

1-on-1 Nikon D3100 DSLR Photography Lesson with Amy at Lettuce Lake Park Tampa Florida

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Inside the visitor's center at Lettuce Lake Park with Amy & her Nikon D3100 for a photography lessonAmy and I planned to meet at Lettuce Lake Park in Tampa, Florida for the second of our four 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lessons this morning, but a deluge interrupted those plans, although perhaps for the better.  Instead of strolling on the long boardwalks in sunshine looking for birds to photograph, we were stranded inside the visitor's center the whole time.  Fortunately, since our first lesson Amy got an external flash, so actually being inside was more advantageous for practicing how to get the best use of it on camera.  

So in a setting of old bird photographs and lots of wood paneling (see photo above!), and in between a large group of school kids coming in, I answered Amy's questions from since we last met and then reviewed my 5-step process for getting a well exposed and sharp photograph in any shooting conditions.  

Then we put her new Nikon SB-700 Speedlight onto her Nikon D3100 and practiced photographing people indoors focusing on only changing the direction of the flash head as otherwise all our settings were locked in at indoor defaults of:  f/5.6 1/60th ISO 800 & 1/4 power for the flash.  Just changing the angle of the flash was enough to produce dramatically different results given the different ceiling heights in the visitor center, the location of the subject within the lobby itself, and also the type of background.  We plan on returning to Lettuce Lake Park for our third lesson to hopefully better weather!

Photography Tip - use a telephoto lens for subjects that are close to you, not just far away

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Many of the 155+ photography tips I have posted on my site come from the over 300+ one-on-one photography lessons I have taught over the past five years.  From a photography student's question, or from something I teach in the field, I find things that can make for a photography tip blog post.  Such is the case with the subject matter of this photography tip.  During a recent 1-on-1 photography lesson I had a student switch from a wide angle lens to a telephoto lens to help fill the frame with a subject and to make the background disappear and become bokeh.  This is something that I have had every photography student do during lessons, but only upon reading email feedback from this particular student did it occur to me that it may not be obvious to use a telephoto lens to photograph subjects that are close or even very close to you.

Using a telephoto lens for subjects that are close creates bokeh easily and adds another use for a long lens.He told me that he had not thought to use his 70-300mm lens for subjects that were close to him before, but only rather for subjects that were far away.  He went on to say this changed his entire perspective on using that lens.  Thus, I decided to make it a photography tip so that in case anyone else has not necessarily used their telephoto lens for close subjects before can do so and get the benefits of using a lens with a long focal length on a subject close to the photographer.

In the above portrait example, the model was very close to where I was standing, but I still used the lens' maximum focal length of 200mm to create a more personal composition and also of course bokeh in the background.  So try going out this weekend with your telephoto lens and photograph close by subjects and let me know the results. 

1-on-1 Nikon D90 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg Florida with Chris

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Chris with his Nikon D90 during out 1-on-1 DSLR photography lesson in downtown St. Petersburg FloridaOn a rather warm spring morning I met Chris in downtown St. Petersburg for a 1-on-1 DSLR Photography Lesson with his Nikon D90.  He has had the camera for four years, but was only mostly shooting in Program mode and other auto-modes.  He has a couple of significant trips coming up and wanted to make the best travel photographs possible with his Nikon, so getting him off of Program mode and onto Manual Mode was the first step in that process.  

Chris had two lenses allowing us to practice a variety of shooting techniques for making photos with a shallow depth of focus, moving subjects and also natural light portraits.  Using his Nikkor 70-300mm lens at a focal length of 200mm and f/5.6 I showed Chris how to make the background essentially disappear so that a busy background could be eliminated and not distract from the main subject.  This is just one example of the many specific and practical topics we covered in our 2-hour 1-on-1 DSLR photography lesson.  I look forward to meeting Chris for a second lesson in the near future.

Johns Pass Village Florida DSLR Photography Lesson with Jenn & Canon 40D

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Jenn (center) and daughter visit from Canada and take a DSLR photography lesson at Johns Pass VillageVisiting all the way from Canada, I met Jenn & her daughter at Johns Pass Village for a very enjoyable DSLR photography lesson.  They definitely perpetuate the idea that all Canadians are very nice people!  We started out talking about how to set their Canon cameras to shoot in manual mode and why one wants to shoot in manual mode in the first place.  They had been bouncing around using the various scene modes and sometimes semi-auto modes like aperture priority without really doing it on purprose.  I assured them that those scene modes could be left behind and demonstrated that by checking out the supposed "sports" mode.  It set the camera to shutter speeds ranging from 1/320th to 1/400th of a second!  That is way below the minimum 1/500th needed to freeze sports action.  Hence, scene modes are useless and not to ever be used.

Coming down off the boardwalk we found an egret that did not mind being photographed (see above) and it allowed Jenn & her daughter to practice both changing settings (we were photographing fast action before) and how to get in best position to photograph a subject.  

They will be in Florida for over another week so I may meet them again for a second lesson.  

1-on-1 Canon XS DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg with Sarah

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Sarah with her Canon XS in Vinoy Park during our 1-on-1 DSLR photography lesson in St. Petersburg Florida

Sarah and her family not so long ago moved to Florida.  She recently also got her first DSLR.  So on Friday morning I got to introduce her to both her Canon XS and the beauty of the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront.  It was a warm spring morning with plenty of sunshine, but we started out in the shade of the Museum of Fine Arts where I explained all the photography terms Sarah will need to know in order to shoot in manual mode with her Canon.  

Even for a total beginner like Sarah, by the end of the two hours using my 5-step system, she was able to use the meter to help her manually get the exposure correct for both still and moving subjects.  We even concluded the lesson with a little portrait practice.  Sarah said she has already ordered a new camera so I look forward to helping her continue to advance her photography knowledge when that comes in soon.

Photography Tip - turn on and use the view finder's grid display on your DSLR

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When people ask me for feedback on their photographs, one of the most common mistakes I see is a horizon that is not level.  This is a very simple thing to do and without it, the photograph is ruined.  To help get horizon's level, use the grid display in your DSLR's viewfinder.  Not every DSLR has this option, and not every DSLR that does has it on be default.  So look in your menus (for Nikon cameras check the Custom Settings Menu) to see if you can turn on something usually called "grid display."  Not only will it lay a grid over what you see so you can get horizons level, it also shows the framing for the rule of thirds.  

For the sunset portrait above, I placed the lower third grid line right on the horizon itself, insuring a level horizon.  Also note on the upper third lines interset right at the main focus point of the subjects (their heads).  This is a composition style you will see commonly in many of my photographs, even ones without people in them.  

So be sure and turn on your DSLR's grid lines in the viewfinder and get every horizon level with easy!

1-on-1 Nikon D5200 DSLR Photography Lesson in St. Petersburg with Lisa

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Lisa returned to Florida this time for a 1-on-1 photography lesson with her Nikon D5200 in St. Petersburg Florida

I first met Lisa back in October of last year when she visited St. Petersburg Florida and wanted sunset portraits made.  She told me she visits Florida regularly and we stayed in touch in the meantime and thus we setup a 1-on-1 DSLR photography lesson for this morning.  She got a Nikon D5200 in December and had only been using the automatic modes for making her nature and sunset landscape shots.  Lisa did have a lot of photography knowledge though, and really wanted to learn what was essential and how to apply that to actually using her camera.  In this way I taught her my 5-step process for producing a well exposed and sharp shot in any shooting conditions shaping her existing photography knowledge into a system she can use every time she presses the shutter.

We concluded the lesson with a demonstration of how her 55-300mm lens is much, much better than her 18-55mm at producing a photograph with a shallow DoF and very nice bokeh.  It is just about choosing the right lens to produce the desired stye of shot and not forcing something to do what it is not good at.  I look forward to seeing Lisa again on her next visit to Florida and how her photography improves between now and then.