photography workshops and seminars in 2012

full-day flash photography & lighting workshop – New York

I will be presenting three flash photography workshops in New York this year.
The first date is Tue, May 22   (follow the link for more details, and to book a spot.)
The other workshops will take place in July and October, with the specific dates to be announced.

Las Vegas mini-workshops: on-location flash photography

These mini-workshops are 4 hours long (1-5pm on each day), and the fee is $350 per person
Mon, Feb 20  ::  Tue, Feb 21
The mini-workshops will be limited to only 3 people at a time. Definitely un-crowded! Therefore these mini-workshops will be closer to being individual tutoring sessions, with a model to photograph. Contact me via email to book, or for more details.

After Dark Photography Education – Dallas, TX – Feb 27-29, 2012

This discount code: NVNP will save you $72 when you register
signing up and more details on the After Dark Education site.

Epic Summit – weddding & event business conference – Lodi, NJ – March 30, 2012

Beyond Just Images – photography convention, Atlanta, GA – April 20-22, 2012 

I’ll be teaching Flash photography techniques; and Amanda Andrews will be teaching how to photograph children & newborns over the course of this 3 day convention.

As mentioned in various posts last year, I had decided to pause the travelling workshops for the time being. The workshops in other areas of the USA, away from home, have been rewarding, but the time spent travelling has taken me away from my work as a wedding photographer, and I need to focus on that again.

However, if someone wants to help get a group together of 10 people, then we can figure out if a workshop away from New York is feasible.

I’m still finalizing dates and places for possible workshops in the UK and possibly the Netherlands. And maybe, maybe even Canada.

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photo seminar: Photography Tri-Age – January 11, 2012

Alongside my friends, Natalie Licini and Jennifer Rozenbaum, I’ll be co-presenting a photo shoot-out / seminar on January 11, 2012. The program is a varied one, with three groups alternating between us, the three presenters, over the course of the day. The subjects include boudoir photography and wedding photography, incl posing and lighting.

The fee to attend is $129, and the program runs from 9am to 6pm.

details:  Photo Tri-age Facebook page  |  signing up  |  PDF with details
(please note: details are subject to change)

To give you an idea of the venue, here is the sprawling mansion inside which we’ll be shooting.

The photo right at the top was shot by Natalie Licini, and it should give you an idea of just how large the venue is inside.

Natalie is a wedding photographer in Staten Island.
Jennifer is a boudoir photographer in New York.

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PhotoPlus Expo – NYC, 2011

I’ll be doing a short presentation on bounce flash photography at the PhotoPlus Expo trade-show, on three days this coming week. I’ll be at the Unique Photo booth (#464) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 12:30 – 1:15 on each of those days.  The presentation will be on how to use the black foamie thing with bounce flash, to get studio quality lighting.

Those who are familiar with the Tangents blog will recognize the topic (and photos), but come stop by anyway and say hi. I look forward to meeting everyone.

Details of all the presentations taking place at Unique Photo’s booth.

flash photography workshop – New York – Oct 25

The Oct 25 workshop is sold out … but there have been requests for any spots that might open up due to cancellations. This doesn’t usually happen … but if we can get 5 people together for a smaller workshop, then we can make one last workshop still happen this year. (The next workshop in New York will only happen in May 2012 sometime.)

So if you’re interested in attending a flash photography workshop sometime in the next two weeks, drop me a note before the end of this week. If there is enough response, then we can make it happen.

I’ll announce the workshops for 2012 later on some time. As always, check back .. or better yet, subscribe to the email list.

Check these posts on the Tangents forum for (unsolicited) feedback about the May 16th workshop, and also for feedback about a one-on-one tutoring session.

favorite images – After Dark Edu – Charlotte

As a mentor and presenter at the recent After Dark Education events in Charlotte, (much like what happens at any workshop or seminar that I present), I didn’t get to shoot much. I feel it is more important to let the people that are attending, get the time with fingers-on-the-camera’s-controls. But I did get to play with some of the lighting equipment in the bays there. That’s much of the attraction of the After Dark events – loads of lighting toys to play with and learn and figure out on your own, or with the help of someone.

With that, here are a few of my favorite images …

Josh was posing for another photographer in the one bay. I decided I like the look of the modeling lights – the look of the lighting setup and the quality of the light. So I took a few images just with the modeling lights. No flash.

I even liked the warmth, and retained much of it, for the images I originally posted here. (Like the one shown below.) Even if the White Balance technically isn’t correct, I just like the look. But I had several people comment immediately that the photos looked wrong, so I changed the images that were originally at the top, for those with a better WB setting. Ones with a WB that looks more pleasing than the overly warm images.

camera settings: 1/80 @ f2.8 @ 1600 ISO
Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S (B&H) … handheld at 70mm

Here is the pull-back shot to give some idea of the lighting setup.

The lovely Amanda, who I met when she modeled at the previous After Dark event in Cincinnati. This photo was the one demonstration shot during my presentation on bounce flash photography.

1/250 @ f3.2 @ 800 ISO
Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II (B&H)

One of the several adorable kids we had as models. Tons of attitude and confidence. An excellent model.

For lighting we used one of the Larson softboxes and  the Photogenic CL500 continuous light (with daylight balanced bulb), which gave out a huge amount of light.

The background here was the elevator doors, thrown out of focus with a telephoto zoom used wide open.

As I mentioned, the beauty of After Dark’s setup is that you have 10 bays with different lighting setups and kits, and if there is one open, you can play around. Megan was our gorgeous (and patient) model here.

the pull-back shot of the lighting setup:

The next two images were taken in a different bay. There was a large softbox to the camera left, and then we worked with the placement of the reflector on camera right. The first image was without a reflector, and the second we positioned the reflector to do its thing.

Everyone was also fascinated by the fluorescent ring-light. Blindingly bright when you get close to it as a model. The photographer’s view is one of flat even light. Quite wonderful if that’s your thing. The ring-light leaves its calling card as that perfectly round highlight in your subject’s eyes. Strange to see the first time, and really bizarre when your subject looks up and the white halo intersects with the iris of the eye.

Blonnie – a Delaware wedding photographer – indulged me by posing for a few photos. The catch-light here in her eye isn’t perfectly circular around the iris because I had her turn her head away from the camera.

I also did a presentation / shoot on boudoir posing & lighting. Chris was our kinetic model … so much more interesting that when I showed a few of the poses. (It even makes sense to internalize and memorize the basic boudoir posing by doing it yourself, same as learning the basics of posing for photographs in general.)

(photo by Blonnie Brooks)

A final image – one which I posted earlier on in the convention, when Britney posed for us during an impromptu session using handheld video lights.

For more info on upcoming After Dark Education events.

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After Dark photography education – Charlotte, NC – Sept 26-28, 2011

This striking portrait is of Britney, one of the number of models that are at this, the current After Dark convention. Regular followers of the Tangents blog will easily recognize the lighting as being a video light. In this case, I reverted to the Lowel ID-light because it creates a stronger beam of light which can be spread wider than an LED video light. Typical of After Dark, this photo session / mini-presentation was an impromptu one that started after the evenings classes and presentations had already ended at midnight.

Meeting up with Britney and her sister Nicole (who is also a model), and two other photographers, the group of photographers eventually spilled out to the lobby of the hotel and swelled to a group of about 30 photographers all taking part. And that’s the reason I wanted to use the Lowel ID-light … the person holding up the video light, could stand further back and we’d still get decent camera settings.  An LED video light would not have been powerful enough for this situation.

image details:
1/160 @ f2.8 @ 1000 ISO … with video light; no flash
Nikon D3;  Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II (B&H)
The lens was used at 200mm to compress the background – an out-of-focus piece of artwork.

more articles about the use of video light for photography

Enough of the video light though. I’ve gushed about the After Dark experience before when I presented at the Cincinatti event, and when I had a quick look-in at the Las Vegas event …

Of all the multi-day photography seminar / workshop events, I would honestly say that After Dark is the best that I have experienced. So I was quite happy at being invited again as a mentor for this After Dark event in Charlotte.

And was quite a thrill to see this when I arrived on Sunday afternoon. Made me feel like a star! I have my own banner.

I’ve had a number of followers of this website come up and chat. That’s always great … so if you do see me around, come up and say hi.

Here is a list of the mentors for this current event.

More about the After Dark experience in general …

As I described in that one previous link, After Dark has a certain structure – 10 areas / pods set up for seminar presentations; and 10 studio bays set up where Mentors can teach in a direct hands-on manner. But all this doesn’t really describe the easy-going flow of activity and learning and sharing that goes on. In that earlier post I described After Dark as ‘controlled anarchy‘. And that is what makes it so unique. You can move around between presentations and shoots, and learn from anyone. You can even ask any of the Mentors or attendees to help you. It’s an incredibly supportive and nourishing environment for any photographer.

Just as cool is that there are studio bays that are open, which might not be busy at any point. You can then mark down that you want to spend some time there. You also get the opportunity to play with a huge variety of lighting gear. You can play around on your own, or have someone help you. You can make mistakes. You don’t have to impress anyone. You just have to learn and have fun with it all.

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flash photography workshops – Dublin, Ireland

It’s been a hectic week, flying in to Dublin (Ireland), for two sold-out workshops there over the past weekend. (Sept 17 & 18) Barely any time for sight-seeing, but it’s been a fantastic trip over.

In the photo, from left to right: Roz, our one model (an entrant for the Miss Universe competition for Ireland!); myself; Hanna, our other model, (an entrant to Ireland and UK’s Next Top Model competition for 2011); Liam Ramsell of Pro Foto Training (host of the workshops); Jesssica, my infamous assistant with a ‘tood; and Peter Kane, our make-up artist extraordinaire.

Here is a short video clip shot during the bounce flash session of the workshop:

Thank you to everyone who attended and helped put this together.
You all helped make it a great experience.

The feedback about the workshops has been really good:

As always, I like to post images from the workshops with some snippets of useful information.

More info about my photography workshops & seminars.
Stay informed of workshops and seminars via the monthly newsletter.

using high-speed flash sync / Auto FP

A fun image taken during an individual workshop today  - our model, Aleona caught-mid-air … with a fast shutter speed and flash, to freeze the movement. Even Jessica, my assistant with the ‘tood, was positively elevated with the experience of photographing Aleona today.

A quick overview of when you’d use high-speed flash sync / Auto FP:
- when you need that shallow depth-of-field, or
- when you need that fast shutter speed, and
- you have the flash power to spare.

As mentioned in the tutorial on high-speed flash sync (HSS), there is a considerable loss of power in going into high-speed flash sync territory. So you wouldn’t immediately use HSS in very bright light if you are trying to over-power the sun with flash. While the higher shutter speeds brings the ambient exposure down, it brings the effective flash power down faster than it affects the ambient light. So the sweet spot will always be at maximum flash sync speed. Therefore, using HSS shouldn’t just be a default way of working flash.

With that image, Jessica was close enough to Aleona that we were able to get good flash exposure on her, even at a high shutter speed. We did remove the one baffle of the softbox.

camera settings: 1/1000 @ f4 @ 800 ISO
Nikon D3s  (B&H);  Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S (B&H)

That about sums it up – use high-speed flash sync when you need the higher shutter speed OR shallower depth field, AND can afford the subsequent loss in power.

(photo by Jeff Kennedy – portrait photographer, Montrose, Alabama)

For more details about workshops & seminars, as well as individual workshops

equipment used during this part of the photo session:
Nikon D3s  (B&H);  Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S (B&H)
Lastolite EZYBOX Softbox Kit (24?x24?) (B&H)
Nikon SB-900 (B&H);  Nikon SD-9 battery pack (B&H)
(2x) PocketWizard FlexTT5 transceiver (B&H)
PocketWizard AC3 Zone Controller (B&H)

If you find these articles interesting and of value, then you can help by using
these affiliate links to order equipment & other goodies.   Thank you!

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webinar: don’t fear your flash (part 2)

Continuing further on the topic where we make Flash Photography truly accessible, Clickin Moms forums are hosting the next webinar in the series – Don’t Fear Your Flash.

This webinar will take place on Tuesday, June 7th at 1pm New York time. (I know, I know, it’s officially EST, but I like calling it New York time.)

If you’d like to register, please follow this link to the Clickin Moms registration page.
The fee to watch and participate in the live webinar, is $35

related posts:
- details of the webinar: don’t fear your flash (part 1)
- don’t fear your flash – webinar now available for download
- New to flash photography? Where to even start