The brand new Nikon D5100 on tripod with Karin's new light setup for her pillow product shots.I returned to Northern Pinellas County this morning for my second DSLR Photography Lesson with Karin, but the first with her brand new just arrived Nikon D5100! This was of course my first time hands on with that Nikon as well and I came away impressed by its fit, finish & image quality. The D5100 was not her only new gear though, she also got a cable release for it, a tripod and a 3-light studio package! Karin wants to be able to produce great product shots for her pillows and she is not afraid to get the tools she needs to do it! I can respect that.
Assembling the lights was not that difficult, but it was definitely nice to have two pairs of hands to get them together. Setting up her Nikon D5100 was no problem for me as Nikon has kept things fairly consistent across its product line for some time now. So in just a matter of minutes we had her product shot lighting studio all setup and running! Getting the correct white balance and other settings were super simple thanks to working with continuous lighting.
With the D5100 on the tripod with a cable release, and all the pillows being basically the same size, and the lights being continuous, it really is no mess no fuss to produce absolutely consistent results shot after shot with minimal effort required on the photographer's part. Karin was very delighted with this.
We ended the lesson with a setting the settings hands-on quiz, so I could see if Karin can reproduce the results we got earlier when I am not there. First I changed every setting on the camera so that Karin would have to go through the settings progression I recommend when in manual mode: aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance and then finally focus mode. She passed and is now ready to add another hat (product photographer) to the many others she already wears for her business. I am really pleased to have been able to help her with her business in some way.
What Karin said about today's lesson:
"I'm very excited about what I'm learning and you are a great teacher for beginners!"