Workshop July 28, 2007: Lots of fun!

Lighting Essentials Workshop July 28, 2007
Originally uploaded by Wizwow

We had a full session this month. It was a really wonderful day, and the photographers, models and I had a fantastic time. We started out with the usual "Light is a Tool" part of the workshop. I really believe that lighting is the most important aspect of an image. Control it when you can, catch it when you can't.

After a discussion that included the Inverse Square Law and it's application as both a tool and a technique, we looked at the ways to modify light and the effect of each. We cover a lot of ground in that hour and a half.

Briana showed up right on time and got ready as we discussed several different lighting tools that are in my studio. We then spent the morning doing every kind of lighting imaginable with Briana. We built a headshot from ground up - from no fill to lots of fill, created a faux ringlight look and did some incredible one-light techniques that resulted in a lot of great images.

We decided to do lunch in and Scott (www.visualville.com) ran to get some subs. We shot all during lunch and were ready to go on location when Christina came.

Location lighting is really fun. We covered found light, natural light, modified natural light, fill flash and flash main outside. Whew... all of that on a summers afternoon in Phoenix. Everyone had a blast learning how to find locations with built-in lighting, and when we got to the part where we pulled a bunch of lights out... whoa. You could really sense the excitement. At one point we were using 3 different speedlights, an umbrella and fill - all outside on a bench.

We left as it started to rain and came back to the studio so we could do just a few more lighting techniques. The 'surround' was a big hit as was the quick tutorial on umbrella magic.

At the end of the day, everyone dragged out... but with some enthusiasm gained from the knowledge learned and excited to try it out on their own as soon as possible.

I love doing the workshops and hope to meet more photographers looking to learn how to light with power and finesse.

Next workshop on September 1, 2007.