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From the Sunday, January 14th Workshop:

Important Note: all images on this post were taken by attendees at the workshop.

Sunday's workshop was a lot of fun, and I finally recuperated last night just before 24 came on. Workshops are always exciting, and talking, waiving my arms around, working with multiple photographers, and creating lighting situations over and over again can really take its toll. (NOTE to self; drink some water while you are teaching. Man, I get really dehydrated.)

We started with the basics of lighting but quickly discovered that this group had a strong understanding of the fundamentals, so we moved to more advanced techniques. From softbox to umbrella to modified hard light, we looked at the uses of each, and how to finesse the light instead of just having light.

Our first models of the day were Michaila and Victoria. We alternated headshot lighting with the girls, and the attendees wanted to work with the simple tools and leave the big studio strobes packed. That is fine with me, as I am using the smaller stuff more and more these days.

First shoot was Victoria with a single umbrella and a hot light. We covered custom white balance, correct exposure and basic posing techniques. We also worked with placing the umbrella at optimum positions and working with the fill cards to produce the best, most flattering lighting. I really like using hot lights to show how the umbrellas can flatter the face, as well as showing how important placement can be. A few inches up or down can make a big difference.

Michaila was used for a demonstration on how to use a couple of fill cards and two Home Depot lights to make a gorgeous beauty shot. This is one of the techniques that is covered on my DVD, and we wanted to show them how fast and simply the lighting can be created.

Next up was creating a double headshot with a single umbrella, fill cards and secondary light on background. We used a Canon 550 for the main umbrella and a Canon 430 for the background. Placing a stand or tripod in front of the backlight gave a shadow shape on the background. Careful placement of the main light gave us very flattering light.

We took Victoria outside for a setup of single umbrella flash in the shade. Victoria was cold, but she did a great job and worked hard for the guys. Using an umbrella with small strobe can give a very flattering light for outside portraiture, and if you control the ratio of the strobe to the ambient, you can create a sense of drama.

As the morning was winding its way toward lunch, we decided to take Michaila outside for a simple technique I call "Instant Studio." It is a technique I used a lot when shooting editorial fashion in Chicago and LA. Simple and fast, I have always used this when I have little time to do a lot of images, and the client wants a natural look to the lighting. We looked at the difference between a gold and a white fill board, and I added a mirror for a variation. Take great care that the model does not get blasted in the face with the mirror light. It can be very dangerous.

Lunch: discussions and some great insights from Scott Condray of Visualville. Scott usually comes down to the workshops to meet the students and talk about stock photography, computers and photoshop techniques.

After lunch Christina came in and we packed up and headed downtown (10 minutes away). Downtown on a Sunday is usually quite empty, and even though there was a game going on, we still had the streets pretty much to ourselves.

Location lighting we covered was: natural fill, backlight, filtering sunlight through a small scrim, small strobe headshot, full sun and using shadow/light for defining the model. Finding a location like this block in downtown is fantastic. There are so many places to shoot, so many ways of using light, and so many colors and textures there that it is a photographers dream.

Christina brought a couple of outfits so the photographers got to experience how the models wardrobe can lend itself to the location, and how to use contrast in the location to enhance the model or clothes. One of her selections was a mini dress that she had purchased in Hawaii over the Christmas break. It was 40 degrees in the shade. Christina never complains, she just gets in there and does the job. When we took her out of the shade she had goosebumps on her goosebumps. What a trooper.

Beautiful dual headshot using small strobe in umbrella and small strobe with gel on background. A tripod is placed in front of the back light to create shadow interest.

We headed back to the studio to look at some of the captures and work with them in Photoshop. Careful attention to exposure and color meant that the images were pretty solid right off the cards. We used some actions (included in the workshop CD) to modify the images and show how post processing can add even more interest to the images.

We packed out around 5:45, exhausted but excited. Thanks to all the attendees, Victoria, Michaila and Christina for being there and working so hard. Thanks to my buddy David who came down and took some stills of us working and also for helping out whenever he can. Thanks, Scott, for being a great friend and for bringing some wonderful stories and insights to the workshop. Next workshop, February 10, 2007.