Danté's Inferno

Learn To Light!

The weekend of October 23 and 24 I had the pleasure of attending a “Learn to Light workshop with Don Giannatti as instructor. As some of you that read my blog may remember, I have a passion for photography that I gave up on for about 20 years. I have been poking around the web for awhile looking for courses and instructors that I thought I would be able to learn from. This is definitely not a knock on the courses and instructors out there that didn’t interest me at this time, it’s just that this type of workshop meets my goals. Since I’m approaching this as a business, it’s very important to state your goals for any endeavor you undertake. A cost-benefit analysis is also appropriate, but not as mandatory in this case. Later in this post I’ll give you a CBA that I’ve used for other professional training and see how that compares to this course. If you would like to jump there, hit this link

First some housekeeping! Special thanks to our hosts studio, Brian Mullins Photography in Apex, NC. Here’s a nice picture of Brian and our hostess, Jenn Our Hosts. Also, if you want to skip my text and look at the pictures (plus some more) head to my Workshop Gallery

Also, check out the Lighting Essentials site for some pictures from my classmates at this seminar: http://www.lighting-essentials.com/dispatch-from-raleigh-nc-notes-on-the-lighting-essentials-workshop-2010/

You may be wondering why I would be taking a course in Apex, NC? Well, it turns out that I’m working for a customer in Raleigh and I had the weekend free, so it worked out well!.

My Goals

• Find an instructor with many years of practical experience with
• Commercial
• Product
• Fashion
• Product
• Portaits
• An instructor with strong opinions on what is the best way to take a particular shot, not one bound by a specific pattern, e.g. one-light, strobes only, no natural light
• Both hands on and instruction as I think both are equally important at this stage of my re-awakening
• Limited Class Size which speaks for itself; I’m willing to pay more to have a smaller class.
• A class where I could bring some rental equipment like lights and cameras that I would use in real life and learn from the classmates and instructor how to actually use these items.
• Class where you aren’t bound to some weird NDA
• Where I can meet other photographers in formal and informally to learn and make some friends!

The important thing here is to define a set of goals. In reality you may not find that you’ve met your goals, but in the case of this course I believe that I have met my goals!

One thing to mention is that I didn’t approach this course as one where I would end up with 200 portpholio grade shots! I’d be happy with one shot that came out decently:)

Katya by Train

This shot is a demonstration of working in bright sunlight. A single strobe was used, about eye level with Katia. In fact, I way underexposed this shot as I was just getting used to my rental camera and had to do some work in Bibble 5 to salvage it! BTW, I’m using Bibble 5 instead of Lightroom because in my IT business I’m an open source advocate so I’ve been searching and trying different software that runs on open source platforms, like Ubuntu Linux and other *nix systems

Katya with Guitar

This shot demonstrates using multiple strobes on the shady side of a building. There is an umbrella off to camera right, another to camera left and a bare strobe lighting the background. The bike was loaned to the class by the Apex Bike shop right across the street. One thing I really wanted to get out of this class was an understanding of the modern way of working with models. Back when I did photography, it was very hands-off. Art directors or directors from the customer did all the interfacing and I was there just to click the shutter! Thank god that has changed!!!

Ella in Natural Light

If my notes are correct, this is a shot of Ella using natural light with a strobe on minimum power shot through an umbrella! Emphasis is because this was one of my goals, working with Natural Light as well as strobes, studio lights, scrims, etc! It is a total and complete bonus when one of your goals actually results in a decent shot

Yuliya In Beach Lights

This shot was to demonstrate some studio lighting techniques. Don calls this “Beach Lighting”. I added a twist by having Yuliya hold up her ring, so it could like like a product shot. Not bad considering I’ve never done this before Oh, and the modeling and the lighting really helped out!

Katya on Stairs

This was an interesting shot and many thanks to Jen for giving me a new perspective. I had taken some shots at “normal” height and you can see lighting out the doors at the bottom of the stairs that just didn’t look right. Jen told me to lay on the ground and try a shot or two. Well, Thanks Jen! It worked. And thanks to Katya who was a real trouper, holding this pose for-ever!

Brian and Jen on Street

I got somewhat separated from our models and was working on a lighting setup in the street with my classmates. When it came time to take some shots, all the models were taken! In stepped Brian and Jen! Lighting setup is a single strobe, camera left and about 2 feet higher than me, so it was about eye level with Brian! (He’s very tall)!

Emily on Street

This shot, Don helped us to properly use a scrim with natural light on the street! I won’t reveal the secret, but it’s not how I learned to use scrims way back in college days! What a difference it makes. When used in this manner, the scrim really brought out Emily’s beautiful eyes and I tried to capture that beauty as best I could!

Lena Under Fall Foliage

This is one of the first setups on day 2 of the workshop. I was getting more familiar with the rental gear and the shots really showed it. Fewer were screwed up, like out of focus, really wacky exposures, etc. This shot of Lena was taken under a tree in downtown Apex. We had 2 strobes in front and one behind for a hair light. Lena’s clothing was very earth tone and looked perfect for a fall portrait. That made things very easy! BTW, I’m loving those 2.8 lenses for Portraits!!!

Lena in Natural Light

Here’s another, somewhat unorthodox pose, fall portrait of Lena. This shot is in natural light and was taken during setup of one of the classmates shots. You always read in every single photo book, to keep your camera ready because you never know when you’ll see the shot. I’m glad I did for this one of Lena

Assignment: Double Truck with Text Left

Now, I know I’ve got that title incorrect The assignment is to have a 2 page shot, with text on the left hand page. I hated shooting these when I was young as these are some of the most challenging to have the model look good, the product look good, but flow backwards as far as English text is concerned. I try to have the model flowing from right to left for shots like this. That doesn’t necessarily mean this particular pose, you use the models best assets if you know what I mean. She or he can have their body facing left, their face to the camera/reader and their leg kicked up in the back, pointing to the left page. Use your imagination! There was a police car that I wanted to use, but we would have needed studio lights and permission from the Apex PD!

Emily Close Up double truck!

A close up from the above shoot. We had a hair light that I messed up the power on and had it on FULL POWER which looked totally fake, but in this shot, it really lit up her hair and looked OK since the sun actually poked through the tree making it look more natural. Oh, sometimes luck is very important in photography

Emily with Jenn’s Doggy

Not even anywhere near perfect (I know, you’re not supposed to publish anything that’s imperfect), but I like this shot. Nothing technical about it, just fun.

This reminds me of why I gave up photography many years ago. The shoots we did back in the day, you couldn’t have any fun. They were dead serious. How the f are you supposed to do anything creative when you can’t have fun??? Everyone was always uptight, screaming, yelling, crying. Man it got old fast. I hope things have changed and if I’m doing this for myself and don’t get so critical like I had to be back then, well, maybe I’ll just enjoy it now!

Emily in Power Pose

This was a bit if a different pose than we had been doing. The motivation was Emily is now a Rock Star and is back in her home town, flaunting her success! My job, as photographer, is to catch her eyes properly and let the lighting do the work. We had a bare strobe lighting the leaves in the foreground and in the background to give the shot some pop!

Emily Close Up – Eyes!

Same lighting setup as above, but shot from a different angle. I know some folks will have some issues with her eyes picking up the specular of the strobes below the horizon, but who cares when someone’s eyes photograph so beautifully!

Don!

Cost Benefit Analysis

Basically you have to figure out your total costs and then decide if the benefit justifies the costs. This isn’t an exact science as there are many intangibles (see my goals above). One thing I see most people leave out is the cost of not working! For example, the last IT Professional Training class I took had the following costs:

• $4,000 course fee (yes, it was that much)
• The cost of not working that week, $100/hr x 40 hours = $4,000
• Travel costs (this course was in DC)
• Airfare – $500
• Food – $300 (lot’s of beer and wine)
• Hotel – $200/night for 4 nights – $800
• Rental Car & Gas – $200

So, for this class, my costs were a wopping $9,000!!! To make it worthwhile, just on costs, I would need to work 90 hours or over two weeks, just to make back the monies. But, that would have to be an additional 90 hours! Yes, think about it, that’s the benefit. This course needed me to make an additional $9,000 just to cover the costs!

Now this totally ignores the intangibles, like getting more and better work through friends made at the class, the value of a new certification, the opening of additional doors by having a new skill! So, remember, if you’re approaching this as a business, then you need to do this kind of exercise. You don’t need exact numbers, just general numbers and you’ll be on your way to running your business properly