April's Precision Camera University Lighting Classes
Posted by Tani James, Education Director on 4th May 2016
April was a busy month! In addition to PCU 2016 Weekend in Kerrville, TX, we hosted some great lighting classes.
On April 13th, Master Photographer and Certified Professional Photographer, Doug Box joined us for our first ever 7 Easy Steps to Portrait Lighting where Doug introduced us to how easy it is to set up 1 and 2 light portraits with Westcott constant lighting. If you haven't taken a lighting class with Doug yet, you're really missing out! Doug is an amazing instructor when it comes to deconstructing the mysteries of lighting- especially if lighting is something you struggle with understanding. I'm sure you're wondering how Doug can break it down in 7 steps right? It's simple! Let me share a few of Doug's lighting recipe with you:
- Light Quality
- Light Direction
- Light Quantity
- Lighting Pattern(s)
If you pay attention to these 4 basics, then you're on your way to lighting a beautiful portrait whether you're using constant lighting, off camera flash or studio strobes. For this class, Doug focused on constant lighting, using reflectors for fill, and using off camera flash. Normally, I'd have some behind the scene photos for you, but I took an active part in Doug's workshop as his model! Don't feel bad if you missed out though, because we've got this class back on the calendar for Thursday, June 16th from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.! You can sign up here.
On April 19th, special guest instructors Randy and Laura Ann Pollard, Photographic Craftsmen and Certified Professional Photographers joined us from Victoria, Texas joined Precision Camera University for a Family Portrait Workshop. The Pollards run L-Ann Imaging, an extremely successful boutique photography studio in Victoria, TX. We were thrilled here at Precision Camera University that they were able to come in and share with us how they approach family portraiture and what has worked for them in regards to the business side of running their boutique portrait studio.
We worked with a Profoto D1 4 light set up: 2 strip boxes for some lovely kick light, a main light and a fill light. Our kickers metered at f/2.8 each, and our main + fill metered at f/5.6 at 1/160th a second. Here's how everything was set up:
Here is a behind the scenes shot:
Lastly, on April 22nd, Precision Camera University welcomed long time instructor Scott Sitkiewitz for a Studio Strobe 101 Boot-camp. What makes Scott so awesome? Take a look at his work to find out why we love Scott so much!
We kept our boot-camp sweet and simple, and again we started with a Profoto D1 one light setup and moved to a 1 light plus reflector setup, and finally a 2 light setup as main + hair and reflector for fill to create some lovely and simple portrait lighting for our wonderful model Sharmita Bhattacharya.
Here is a couple of BTS shots from the class where Scott is explaining light quality, quantity, placement and lighting pattern (remember Doug's simple steps?).
Talk to you again soon, and if you have any questions about upcoming lighting classes, or want to request a lighting class shoot me an email: tjames@precision-camera.com.
We're looking forward to Tim Babiak's new 4 week series: Portraits in Depth starting May 17th. PCU is welcoming Josh Baker and Andrew Fritz as our newest lighting class instructors for Anytime Lighting coming up June 4th.
Tani James, Education Director
