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workshops on flash photography and lighting

The flash photography workshops are spread over two days now.  The first day is a seminar and practical workshop, and is held in Jersey City, in a hotel with a great view of Manhattan, directly across the Hudson River.  The second day is an on-location workshop and will take place in the Meat-Packing District in Manhattan.  Anyone who has been there will know that it is a wonderful combination of quaint and urban – a perfect backdrop for a day out taking photographs.

Each workshop is limited to 10 people only.  This way I can make sure of individual attention with each photographer attending the workshop section of the day, and allow everyone plenty of time to work with the models and to get personal feedback.

Payment for the full-day workshop is due in full at the time of registration.
Once the 10 spaces are full, no more registrations will be accepted.

Workshop - Day 1 – (9 am until 8 pm) – $500.

Seminar Presentations   (Day 1)
The seminar presentations are based on the articles on this website and covered in my book on flash photography, but certain topics are extended.   I will answer all questions, and thoroughly cover a variety of topics, which will include:

* White Balance settings
* TTL / Auto flash .. vs .. manual flash
* Exposure metering for ambient light
* Implications of flash sync speed
* Adding fill-flash to available light outdoors
* Flash indoors
* Directional bounce flash
* Flash modifiers – uses & limitations
* Dragging the shutter
* Tungsten light & flash
* Wireless TTL flash
* Dealing with hard sunlight

Practical Application  (Day 1)
This part of the workshop is where we have hands-on photography to reinforce the information presented during the seminar portions.  There will be 2 models available during the photo sessions, and each attendee will be given the opportunity to work with the models, together and individually.

Several different lighting situations will be set up and each participant will get to practice the concepts covered in the morning’s presentation.  Pocket Wizards will be available for each attendee to use for the off-camera lighting / studio setup.  The practical exercises will include:

* metering for ambient light and fill flash
* using TTL flash and manual flash
* using video light
* off-camera flash and a softbox (manual and TTL)
* wireless TTL flash

On-location lighting – NYC  (Day2) – (10 am until 5 pm)- $300.

This part of the workshop is optional.  It will only be open to photographers who have attended either the workshop (now or in the past), or had an individual tutoring session.  We’ll go to several locations in Manhattan with our models.  We’ll find interesting backgrounds and set-ups, and use and practice what we had learnt the previous day.  Should we rain out, we’ll move it to the next day, Wednesday. If that somehow isn’t feasible, we’ll move it to the next week.  (For those who travel from far away – if we rain out consistently on the Tuesday and Wednesday, I will refund you that part of the workshop.)

What you need for the workshop:

• Be prepared:
  You will get the most out of the workshop if you are familiar with your camera’s basic operations. Make sure you know how to manually adjust your shutter speed, f-stop, and ISO. Know where your in-camera meter is and how to read it. You need to be familiar already with concepts such as depth-of-field, as well as the effect choice of shutter speed would have on the sharpness of the photo.

  Break out the manual and review these things before the workshop if necessary!

• Equipment:
  Your camera, a medium range zoom (hopefully f2.8 max aperture), but if you have them, also bring a 50mm and/or an 85mm lens, your flash, whatever flash modifiers you normally use, and (of course) a CF card. If you have a battery pack for your flashgun, it would also help. Bring a 70-200mm lens as well if you have one.

  I will have two softboxes and other lighting equipment and enough pocketwizards for the group.

Workshop Cancellation Policy:

• Note that no refunds will be issued for cancellations inside 30 days from the date of a workshop for any reason. However, you are welcome to sell or gift your spot to someone else.
• Also note that Paypal only allows a full refund within a 60 day window. Outside of that period Paypal fees are incurred, and I won’t be able to refund the full amount.
• No refunds will be given for cancellations of workshops that have been announced as being fully booked. Once a workshop is announced as being fully booked, it stops others from bookings those spots. Therefore it would simply not be possible to refund your fees should you cancel a workshop which has been announced as being fully booked. And again, you are welcome to sell or gift your spot to someone else.
• For those who travel from afar for the workshop – if we rain out on the second day of the workshop, as well as the following day, I will refund that part of the workshop fee.

register for a workshop

If you’d like to be updated about upcoming workshops (and other snippets of news and info), then there is the monthly newsletter that you can subscribe to.

Please feel free to e-mail me or phone me at 973-206-9490, for more information about the workshops.

thank you

Neil van Niekerk