Portrait Workshop - Park Cameras

I'm just winding down after a great day teaching a superb bunch of photographers the basics of portrait photography. Thank you to everyone for making my day so enjoyable and to our patient model Alexandra Harris for her part in creating some stunning images.

For my part I don't have any images to show as my role is to get the photographers creating images, not creating photographs for my book! With any luck some of the students will post their images on the UK Photo Walks Flickr group for all to see.

A few of the photographers asked what kit I was using for the lighting demonstrations, so here's a breakdown:

• My camera & lens - Canon EOS 50D + 50 mm f1.4, with the 1.6 x magnification factor for the APS-C sensor is like an 80 mm lens on full frame.
• My exposure meter is 15 + year old Sekonic which until today hadn't been used in anger for some time. Much of the time I use the histogram to judge exposure with a tad of experience thrown in for good measure.
• The lights - Elinchrom D-Lite 2/4 IT To Go Kit. 200j & 400j studio flash heads with stands, silver & translucent white brolly, Skyport trigger and two sturdy and compact carry cases.
• More lights - Elinchrom D-Lite 4 IT To Go Kit. 2 x studio flash heads with stands, 2 x soft boxes, Skyport trigger and two sturdy and compact carry cases.
• Square soft box - Elinchrom Rotalux 100 cm.
• Octagonal soft box - Elinchrom Rotalux 135 cm.
• For the coloured background exercise I used a Rosco Cinegel Sampler Kit which has a selection of colour correction, diffusion and effects gels. Today we used Primary Red 26, Moss Green 89, Pale Lavender 78 on a grey paper background for maximum effect.
• Reflectors - Kenro Easy Grip Translucent. California Sunbounce Mini Micro, white/zebra. I think the group worked out which is may favourite, and it's not the least expensive of the two! Sorry.
• Lastolite Tri-Flector and stand. This is the thing with wings we stuck under Alexandra's chin that gave the wonderful fill from just one light. A very versatile bit of kit, but not one for use on location.

Keep you eyes on this blog for news of my new off-camera flash workshop. This will show you how to get the best from your hot shoe flash both on and off camera in a variety of situations.

There was a lot of talk of events photography at the workshop - if anyone's interested in me designing a workshop specific to events photographers do let me know either directly or via the comments section in this blog.

I going to close now as it's getting close to 1:00 AM, the clocks have gone or going forward an hour to Summer Time and I'm knackered.

TTFN

Ian