Intro to the Photography Studio

Intro to the Photography Studio + Strobe Modifiers & Effects

A portrait is a record or keepsake to last a lifetime. As a studio photographer, much goes into creating that momento. From coordination of wardrobe, hair and makeup to setting up sets and lights and then directing, posing and shooting your client to reviewing select images with your client - these are just a few tasks involved with the actual shoot. However, as a new studio photographer, you will need to grasp all of the basics of being in a studio: the equipment available to you and how to use it - learning to crawl before you walk, and to walk before you run!

In this workshop, we will start by briefly going over many of the tasks involved in a portrait shoot as a primer before diving into a discussion and demonstrations on the following topics:

• Shooting space
• Tripods
• Background options & support systems
• How to properly use light stands and sandbags
• Odds and ends such as: gaffer tape, spring clamps, extension cords, surge protectors
• Different uses for strobes: key lights, fill lights, background lights, rim light, hair light, side light and floor lights
• How to use a light meter
• Tethering: why tether, what’s needed for tethering and how to tether
• And more…

We will ALSO cover the following modifiers, their various characteristics and effects through hands-on use:

• Collapsible reflectors: different shapes, sizes, colors
• Metal reflectors: short and throw
• Umbrellas: different sizes and colors
• Softboxes: different shapes
• Barndoors
• Beauty dishes: different colors
• Grids
• Snoots
• Gels: different colors

You will walk away from this workshop with a better comfort level of being in a photography studio, using a light meter, setting up light stands and a tripod, the functions of the class strobes, how to tether using Adobe Lightroom and when to use what modifier to achieve a particular effect when shooting in the studio.

Requirements: You must know the manual settings of your camera.

Optional: Feel free to bring your camera, but if you do, bring your camera’s USB cord. If there’s time in the end, you can practice shooting tethered in the studio. This workshop is mainly to get you acquainted with the studio equipment before other workshops where we will actually learn about lighting your subject and other studio techniques.