Montreal Lighting Workshop

Last Saturday we held a lighting 101 workshop in Montreal. CANADA! (Hey – this is all still kind of exciting for us since remember, we’ve only been shooting for about a year.) Now – if you ask most photography instructors, they rarely ever get to take any photos during class – because they’re running around teaching, checking shots, giving tips, moving lights – everything except shooting. So I made it a point to take a little bit of video (even if it IS from my phone and uploaded immediately using the qik.com app so I could post it to facebook/twitter asap. (ha – you can hear them all speaking French!)

We had about 15 photographers from all over Montreal attend the workshop. There were many, many different levels of photography experience – and about half of them were ‘working’ professional photographers. After we all got our name tags and introduced ourselves to the group – I went through the basic gear components, basic concepts (shutter speed controls ambient light, f/stops control flash) – and then we started shooting. Because even though I can do a text book job of covering the technical aspects, the real benefit of a workshop with us is that you actually start shooting, but even more importantly, you can experiment.

I went through a few different setups, showing how changing shutter speed or aperture (f/stops) can affect the photo – all without ever touching the power levels on my flash.

Along with showing everyone different looks as I took the photos for demonstration – there were a few shots that I ‘setup’, and then had each photographer make roughly the same photo with the same settings. You do this so that they have undeniable proof that with a little practice – they can make the exact same type of photos with the camera they own right now. Then we had them go back and experiment some more with different models in different conditions.

Of course I was running around answering any questions.

In case you haven’t noticed – we’re a little selective with who we want to work with. Whether it’s clients, or Interns, or even people that attend our workshops. With so many competitive photographers out there – we choose to work with photographers who understand that we’re all still learning – and just because you can take good photos it doesn’t mean that you need be mean to other photographers who are just beginning. In the same way that we look for ‘friendly’ people when selecting our Interns – we want the same type of photographers attending our workshops – and everyone in this group was quite awesome.

I’ll update this with links to photos taken by the attendees – but here’s one for now – a gallery by TOM!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/faintscrawl/sets/72157625332743760/with/5155234920/

(Esther!) http://blog.esthergibbons.com/2010/11/09/workshop-with-leahandmark/

We had a really great time in Montreal – and we even had dinner with a group of the attendees afterwards.

We have a lot going on this week – including  a day trip (flight) up to Philadelphia for a family portrait on Wednesday.

On Thursday I’ll be speaking on a Panel about using Social Media for better collaboration over at my Studio Space at Renew Social Ventures. It’s from 2-4pm THIS Thursday. I hope you can make it. CLICK HERE for more information.

Then on Thursday evening we’ll be holding our Lighting 101 workshop that we hold specifically for our Interns. We actually have two more workshops that we give – an editing overview and our big one, the Photography Business Marketing workshop. Although we’ve begun holding lighting workshops to the public – the photography marketing workshop will always be only for our Interns. Hey – there’s gotta be some kind of benefit for being our Interns right? Especially since some of them move here from other states for the three month period.

See you tomorrow.

Photography. Lighting. Workshop. Off. Camera. Flash. Montreal. Atlanta.