Florida Photo Caravan 10th Shoot: South Beach

January 27, 2012 in NIghtime Photography, South Beach

Last night's South Beach shoot started with the focus on nighttime photography.

I encouraged the students to work with reflections, as illustrated above.

Tips:
– The best time for nighttime photography is actually not at night, but at dusk, when lights come on and when there is still a bit of light in the sky.
– Use a sturdy tripod and a ball head for maximum flexibility.
– Go wide when it comes to lenses. (See all my gear here.)
– Use a low ISO to minimum noise.
– To streak tail lights, experiment with different slow shutter speeds, maybe between 5 and 20 seconds.
– Watch for noise and reduce it in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw.
– Watch out for cars! Safety first.

Explore the light,
Rick

Florida Photo Caravan 7th Shoot: Model at the Colony

January 25, 2012 in Delray Beach, Nik Software, Photo Workshop., Photoshop plug-ins

Today was our first model shoot - at the Colony Hotel in Delray Beach.

We had a blast photographing or model and then processing our HDR images and straight image – and applying plug-ins for added creative effects. (We will be doing similar shoots on my Digital Delray Days next week.)

Above: Nik HDR Efex Pro and Polaroid Transfer in Nik Color Efex Pro.

Above: Film Noir filter in Nik's Silver Efex Pro.

Above: Black and white conversion in Nik's Color Efex Pro.

Above: Dynamic Skin Softener in Nik's Color Efex Pro.

Above: Duplex filter in Nik's Color Efex Pro.

Click here to save a few bucks on the plug-ins I use.

Scroll down to see previous posts from the road.

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. If you want to learn more about lighting, check out my workshop in a couple of weeks in Oldsmar, FL.

Florida Photo Caravan 6th Shoot: Delray Beach

January 25, 2012 in Florida Photo Workshops, googleplex. HDR photography

Topaz Adjust/Portrait Smooth. © Rick Sammon

Today my Florida Photo Caravan students will be shooting in and around the Colony Hotel in Delray Beach.

HDR will be the focus in the AM. Model photography in the PM.

Nik Color Efex Pro/Indian Summer. © Rick Sammon

For the HDR images, I'll encourage my new friends to experiment with different plug-in settings as a final touch. Experimenting often results in pleasing results, as illustrated above.

To learn more about the plug-ins I use, see my Creative Plug-ins page. Save a few bucks while you are there.

Scroll down to see previous posts from the road.

Explore the light,
Rick

Florida Photo Caravan 4th and 5th Shoots: Merritt Island

January 23, 2012 in Florida, Merritt Island, sunset photos., telephoto lenses

It's day two of my Florida Photo Caravan and all the workshop participants continue to explore the light.

This afternoon we shot at Merritt Island. Talk about great sunsets. I used my Canon 7D and my Canon 100-400mm IS lens for both of these sunset shots.

Sunset Tips:
– Place the sun off center.
– Pray for clouds.
– Underexpose a bit to prevent the sun from being overexposed.
– Pray for clouds. :-)
– If possible, place the sun behind an object: tree, clouds, fence, person, and so on.
– Use a low ISO to get the cleanest possible picture.
– Remove all filters when shooting into the sun to avoid ghost images.

I also used my 100-400mm IS lens for all my birds shots, too. More to come. Gotta finishing downloading and getting ready for tomorrow.

Click here to read about all my gear.

Scroll down to see previous posts from my Florida Photo Caravan. I hope you can join me on a workshop in 2012. Shoot me an email for info.

Explore the light,
Rick

We're just back from our 5th shoot: Merritt Island in the AM. This morning we focused on BIF shots - Birds in Flight. For shot like this, use a shutter speed of 1/1000th second or higher.

Florida Photo Caravan 3rd Shoot: Horse & Rider

January 23, 2012 in St. Augustine, horses on the beach

We're just back from the 3rd shoot of my Florida Photo Caravan: Horse & Rider on the beach.

Once again, we had great light - and a great horse and rider. And of course a great group. Who could ask for more?

Tips:
– Experiment with slow and fast shutter speeds to blur and freeze the action, respectively.
– Shoot on rapid frame advance so you get a shot with the horse with all the hooves off the ground.
– Don't have the horizon line running through the rider's neck.
– Leave some room in the frame into which the horse can "run."

I enhanced this picture with the Pastel filter in Nik's Color Efex Pro. Then I used the Smooth and Flat filter in Topaz Adjust.

To read about the creative plug-ins I use, and to save a few bucks on plug-ins, click here.

Shoot me an email for info about my 2013 Florida Photo Caravan and other workshops.

By the way, when we arrived at the beach, we were totally socked in by fog! No worries. We made pictures until it got a bit brighter. Patience pays . . . .

Explore the light,
Rick

P.S. Here's an iPhoine "Behind the scenes by Susan" shot. Read about her cool iPhone lenses here.