I hopped on train last Tuesday night to travelled to Eastern Finland, Joensuu and did photography seminar there in local movie theater Tapio. Same night I hopped on a train again, travelled back to Western Finland, Tampere and yesterday morning I was already in Helsinki. So my trip to Eastern Finland was really short. But we had enough time to do seminar for local photography people. Seminar was organized by local photo dealer Kuvanmaailma and Canon. Themes for the seminar were Lighting & Posing tips in Portraiture.
I used two light sources in lighting demo. First one (1 mainlight) I used to lit model’s face, the other one was fill light (2). As background (3) there was white, translucent diffuser because I wanted to use simple and few equipment. Just basic lighting with basic equipment.
I placed diffuser diagonally in relation to model. This way right side of it (from camera’s direction) stays darker than other side. This helps to separate models’ face better from background from it’s light side (there’s enough separation in tone values between light side of face and background). And another reason for this diagonal placement was: this way light hits to diffuser unevenly, and it creates gradation on it. And simple white diffuser appears more interesting background for portrait.
I demonstrate here how to do vignetting with light – if you turn up light source, light hits less on model’s cleavage and it stays darker than face. This way you don’t have to do vignetting in retouching.
In this case I show how to bring background close enough to model, that main light hits also background, and you can use only two light sources to do basic portraiture lighting in studio. At the same time placement of background creates separation between it and model.
When image and words are not enough, let’s do diagrams and sketches…
I believe in practice – posing is easier for model if photographer shows what she/he wants model to do. Practice is more simple to understand than explanation.
And there was some lecturing too – I began seminar presenting tips for guiding models in photo shoot. And then it was time for demonstration.
Even though my visit to eastern Finland was short, I had great day. Old movie theater was glamorous, and I just love to share my passion to photography 🙂
And while all demos and presentation – local radio station made interview and we were able to invite some more people to join seminar via radio and social media 🙂
Thank You Joensuu – Thanks for all participants. And special thanks Kuvanmaailma/Vesa Kuukka for organizing everything, and for Pauli Järviluoto for being volunteer for modeling 🙂