This is a slightly different post this weekend. Workshops! I try to attend 2 a year that come through Denver that covers a variety of different things in the photography world. Anything from posing, lighting, marketing, editing of images and running a photography business. I would like to say it’s all about the click of the button but there is a lot more behind that! I hope to attend a conference next year, there are 3 that I am looking at but I’m not sure which one I will attend. One that I’m interested in is all about High Seniors and that I can enter one of my own Seniors to possibly be a model for the event! We would spend 3 days in San Diego, CA and they would be a Senior model for 300 other photographers! If you are interested in hearing more about that – let me know!

These images have been taken at 2 different workshops in the past few years. I was able to meet and learn with some of the top photographers in the nation how they set up their lighting, why they use, where they use it and learn their best tips. The great thing about these workshops was that I was able to bring my camera and try out their equipment, backdrops and lighting.

Normally I would post the images and let them tell the story – this round I’ll explain what I did. Also note that I am also shooting with 20 other photographers, so sometimes the model is not looking at me directly as they are looking at someone else.

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These 2 were a focus of different backdrop and lighting. The left was edgy, straight direct light which can give harsh shadows. The one on the right was a soft light.

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Lighting and backdrop. Sometimes it’s fun to do something very different.

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This model is the sister to the one of above. We used a lot of props on this one and then for something different, I was given a shear cloth, I think it was tulle and put it over my lens which gave her a soft but grainy look. She is also featured at the top in color, again tulle was placed in front of my lens for a dramatic effect which alters the color of the final output. Other materials that were used was sarin wrap and plastic baggies.

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This was a different workshop where we worked indoor and outdoors, again different lighting and posing.

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Hello sun! Using the sun and a reflector to capture the best light.

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Here she is again indoors with a beauty dish. Beauty dishes are used for close ups to capture the gorgeous skin.

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I came in late with this model, the photographer teaching this class made false eyelashes with petals!

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This was a favorite for a lot of photographers, I think during this training session there was 20 photographers out there snapping away. This was shown to us that a particular brand of backdrops could go into the water, and they are heavy when they are wet! I know this – I took a turn at holding the end for a while. Wind had kicked in so it was like battling with a 50 pound of wet cloth. I’m showing you the pull back shot – you can see the photographer teaching our class was in the water holding a light that was cast upon her, 2 photographers – one on each side holding the backdrop but letting it go into the water and then….

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my edited version of the image. What a brave girl!

Something a little different – but I want to stay on the edge and try different things all the time!