The Santa Fe Photo Workshops
www.sfworkshop.com


PORTRAITS UNPLUGGED
July 2011 (exact dates to be announced)

The beauty of available light is that it's everywhere. Any time of day and any situation can be turned into a great opportunity for environmental portraits. This workshop will help develop your ability to "see" the quality of light and apply it to "real" people. We don't scout locations, we scout light and make the location work. We put our people in the light, critically aware of the direction as well as the quality, to create our interpretive portraits. The most important part of our picture is not the subject, but how we choose to define our subject. The emphasis is on utilizing all our tools: light, tonality, composition and color, to get our ideas stated visually.

The workshop will consist of demonstrations, field trips, working with models and personal projects. We will work with all kinds of existing light: hard, soft, bounced, reflected, diffused, etc. The only tools we use are reflectors. Portable flashes are optional but discouraged. We will work in both black and white and color and in any format. We will work on capturing the essence of the people by the use of posing and props. We will learn how to work with a variety of personalities and how to draw out the appropriate expressions. Santa Fe is the perfect location for this class because of the quality of light and the array of colorful characters.

This is not a tech course. It is for photographers who want to strengthen their people skills as well as their appreciation of light. A working knowledge of photography is required for this course.

Lighting: Big, Small, and Natural
Febuary 20 to 26, 2011

Lighting is the key to defining the mood, texture and concept of any photograph. It's the essential tool that every photographer needs to control so their photos have a greater depth and meaning. This dynamic workshop covers three types of lighting: studio strobes with umbrellas, soft boxes and grid spots; portable flash with modifiers, using off camera, and by remote, and natural light with reflectors and diffusers.

We start in the studio with power packs and monolights, covering all the standard grip equipment, one to three light set ups, metering techniques and exposure and color control. Next we work with the portable flash, understanding how they work and using them in locations with no access to AC power. We will diffuse and bounce and get them off the camera so the light doesn't look like flash.

Once we get to natural light, your ability to "see" and understand the direction, quality and depth of light has been refined, so it's easier to locate and work with the beauty of natural light. Finally, we will combine strobes and ambient to balance both the exposure and color, providing the photographer with great creative options. This is a technical but fun class, with demos and shooting every day.