This past Sunday we ran a lighting workshop in Madison, NJ. The goal of the day was for people to better understand the power of light and how to better control it. The morning was dedicated to coming to grips with the flash unit you attach to the top of your camera. The best thing that one can do when using one these is to get the camera out of AUTO! This workshop discussed the many different ways in which one can configure camera and flash to get technically accurate and more pleasing flash images. Techniques discussed included bounce flash, directional flash, omni-directional flash, shoot-thru flash, and wireless flash setups. We then enjoyed lunch
The afternoon portion of the workshop allowed participants to put the morning’s lecture to practice with a hands-on photo shoot with a model we hired. Before the model shoot, we went over how to use studio strobe units, discussed their similarities and differences to electronic flash units, and discussed how to use a flash meter. Once all the techno-jumble stuff was out of the way, the next three hours were spent photographing a very sweet, very relaxed, and very experienced model named Bergelink.
A shot of the studio setup
The shot above sort of gives you an idea as to how we were able to work. My assistants setup the various lighting arrangements for me, we metered and I shot tethered to my laptop which allowed me to send the image directly onto a projector screen and enabled workshop participants to get instant feedback of what to expect, allowed my lighting assistants to make any necessary positioning changes, but also gave our model an immediate sense of what she might need to correct after a series of shots. This type of shooting setup can be useful to all parties involved.
A workshop participant talks with the model
I, unfortunately did not get to take as many photographs as I would have liked, but it was my job to guide all participants through the shooting events of the day, and of course I was happy to do so. I ended up only taking 1 photograph per lighting arrangement, per outfit for the model which came to a total of 22 images. There were many that I liked, but the following image was my favorite one of the day:
Nikon D3 85mm f/1.4 ISO 200
