Photo workshops

As alluded to in my last post, I will be leading photo workshops in the new year.

I've done them before in the UK and Germany, where I gave classes to the families of US service personnel. For a while I even did some for Canon when they bought out the the beautiful T90. I would go to hotels etc and teach new owners about the camera and what it could do.

This time however will be a bit different as they will be given in German!

Luckily I was able to prepare myself for this by giving a private portrait photography workshop last weekend. Two ladies who had attended beginners photography courses wanted to expand their knowledge and learn more about portraiture with emphasis on how to create mood, how to work fast and simply and how to make use of depth of field.

The day went amazingly well. I first showed them a Powerpoint about the techniques we would be learning then I took them to the local railway station where we practised fill-in-flash and depth of field.

Then it was back home to try some portraiture using natural light, flash and diffusers.

Six hours later we finished off and I can honestly say that we had a great time. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm for photography. They had earlier learned the basics of photography but thanks to the extra tuition, had been able to see what they could actually achieve!

Two satisfied pupils! Beatrice and Sonja

To prepare my Powerpoint, I enlisted the aid of my favourite twin models (who just happen to live nearby and love using my camera themselves), Jeniya and Lera whom you may remember from this earlier post. The picture below shows me taking a shot of Lera with my 24mm lens. I did the same portraits at different focal lengths to show how the face can get distorted.

24mm for a portrait is not recommended

Since then, I've had several queries to give other workshops and I'll be starting that in earnest in the new year. First I have to work out dates and subjects to be covered. If you want to expand your photographic knowledge with a like minded group or on a one to one basis, then please contact me.

Of course the girls simply HAD to take photos of each other. They always produce some great work.

 Keeping track of the shoot.

 Jeniya shoots Lera

 Instant proofing!

 My final pictures. Too good an opportunity to miss.

If you are interested in attending a workshop or having a one on one session with me then please drop me an email.

Thanks for reading

 

Unplanned photo class

I went out for a walk on Sunday to try and catch some Autumn colours but things didn't go quite as planned.

Accompanying me and my wife and son were a friend and her twin daughters. 

I was travelling light and only had an EOS 5d MKII coupled with a 28 - 135 lens.

I took a few pics and was reviewing them on the monitor when one of that twins (I think it was Lera) asked if she could take a picture. "Sure" I replied and handed the camera over. Bringing the camera up to eye level she snapped three images in quick succession of her sister, Jeniya. One thing that I noticed was that she didn't hold the camera at arms length to look for an image on the rear monitor.

 Lera takes aim at Jeniya

 The resulting image

Lera then handed the camera over to her sister, who before I could say a word proceeded to take some pictures of her sister. This continued with the girls snapping away at each other and striking various poses.

 Now it's Jeniya's turn

Jeniya's portrait of Lera

They stopped after a few minutes and reviewed the images. The questions came thick and fast:

Reviewing the images

"Why is she not sharp?", "How can I make the background look soft?", "How can I delete that one?" "Why is it too dark / too light?".

I tried to answer as best I could in a non technical way and was surprised at how readily the twins absorbed the information. After each clarification, one of them would start taking a few pictures and eventually they would master that little bit of technique. The most difficult proved to be the focus lock, although that only took about five minutes (and maybe ten attempts) for them to master. After about forty five minutes, I had given up on taking pictures for myself and let the girls have free rein. With the basic techniques mastered, they snapped happily away for the next hour or so.

I didn't want to come away empty handed so I decided to snap a pic of the two girls jumping. They both readily agreed, threw off their coats and began jumping at my command!

My pic safely onboard, I handed the camera back and let them get on with it.

Here are some of the girls' images.

Jeniya by Lera:

 Lera shoots Jeniya

Two hundred and twenty six images later I was sat back on my PC for the download process. The girls had done well. Of 

the 226 images, 27 were rejected due to being unsharp. These were mainly from early in the day when the girls were getting to grips with the (admittedly heavy) camera.

I learnt three things that day: 

1. Switch off the continuous shooting mode. The girls don't need two or three nearly identical images.
2. Shoot RAW and JPG. Editing a couple of hundred images from RAW is time consuming and many of the images didn't need anything else done to them.
3. Take a spare camera for myself next time!

Luckily I had my Samsung with

me to record the day!

I think that photography now has two new converts!

Thanks for reading.