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The final SPW Studio Lighting workshop for 09 has been hailed a great success.

The workshop started promptly at 8:30am where a mix of new and familiar faces gathered at the new Light Pro Sydney studios in Artarmon.

The day began with a short presentation by Daniel Linnet running through some theory of basic lighting techniques. There was also a short slideshow of images from both Daniel’s and Scott McGale’s portfolio, showcasing some of their high and low key images to which the students will be shooting today.

After the initial presentation Scott McGale took the students on a walk through the huge Dragon image showroom, going through each light and explaining the effect they could expect to get when using it. Meanwhile, our two models for the day, Olivia and Tara were having their makeup done and choosing the first of about 3 outfits each.

By this stage it was obvious that the students where keen to start shooting! We broke up into 2 groups; 6 students in the low key set with Daniel and 6 students on the high key set with Scott.

Both Scott and Daniel got straight into it, starting with a blank canvas and adding one light at a time to produce the desired effect. The students were given plenty of shooting time. Of course, all this with the help of the ever-so hard-working-assistants for the day; Kieron Dobbin and Jose Fernandez.

Lunch was the usual SPW feast; wraps, sandwiches, sushi and fruit to fuel the students for the afternoon session.

There was a quick costume change for the models and then back on the sets for the afternoon session. Again, different lighting techniques explained and lots of time for the students to go one-on-one with the model.

For the finale of the day in the low key set, the props included a mini tramp and a smoke machine which produced some stunning images, as you can see in the images attached to this post.

The day finished at approximately 6pm (I reckon the students would have stayed on until 9pm if they could) and there were happy faces all round. That is, except for Daniel and I who were left feeling a little jealous that we weren’t getting the opportunity to produce some of the fantastic shots that the students were getting!

Check out the photos and behind the scenes from the day!

Jose

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Low Key Set Diagram from recent Studio Lighting Workshop

One of the best ways to keep improving your lighting skills is to keep track of your images along with their respective lighting setups and shot details. For many years, at the end of any shoot I have often scribbled a rough lighting diagram of my final set-up on the back of a half oil soaked sandwich bag, which then invariably got tossed out with the rest of the shoot rubbish. Even if the piece of paper made it back to the studio, eventually it would still get lost. I didn’t think much of it then, but many years down the track every time I needed a point of reference, I wish I had kept that piece of paper.

In more recent times however, I have found that on most shoots, as we try to squeeze as much into the day as possible, having a pre-determined idea of the final lighting set up is almost imperative. So now before each shoot, I try to imagine what I want the final shot to look like and then methodically work out the lighting scheme and ratios. This process would often take a couple of hours, as I explore various lighting options drawing diagram after diagram until I was happy with the outcome…….that was until I discovered this little gem.

A Photoshop (PSD) file that gives you all the tools you need to create a perfect lighting diagram……., and best of all, it’s absolutely free thanks to Kevin Kertz.

Now I don’t have to run through reams of paper, I just open the file and move my lights around on layers. What could be easier!

Later on when the printouts are covered in shoot debris or lost altogether, I still have my original files which get zipped up and archived with the rest of the shoot info. Alternately, If I stumble across an interesting and unexpected result during the shoot, I always have the blank master file handy on my desktop.

LightingSetup.psd

If you’re not using Photoshop, there is another solution. The Online Lighting Diagram Creator allows you to create them online and then export as a Jpg, PNG or even create a URL, although this is still in beta mode. This method is definitely not as portable but still does a great job.

Give either of these a go! At worst you’ll have a little bit of fun moving lights around an imaginary studio and at best, you’ll start having more of a think about your lighting rather than just winging it on the day.

Have fun!

by Daniel Linnet – www.linnetfoto.com