Another "atomic cocktail" was served at the Portrait and Art of Pin-up Workshop last Sunday. Combining a nostalgic pin-up theme with fun, eager to learn students, experienced Aperture Academy instructors, professional studio strobes, Aperture gallery turned studio, and of course beautiful, incredibly styled models! Another successful day of one of our newest workshops providing participants new found information and skills and images that will be the envy of all!

Aperture Academy instructors Glen McDowell and Scott Davis, on a beautiful sunny Sunday day, conducted 2 separate portraiture workshops at our Aperture gallery. It wasn't very hard for the attendees to get into the "retro" spirit after quick rounds of introductions followed by an in depth but brief lecture on directional lighting, exposure and lighting ratios, posing theory and how to direct your subject and an introduction to equipment. After a quick demonstration on 2 different sets participants were off and running in manual mode with their own camera and flash set ups, many having never used their flash on manual. As in our last pin-up workshop this was the first time many had ever worked in full manual mode, not to mention with a strobe of any kind so it was especially thrilling to finally understand the workings of their camera and how to figure settings for the optimum exposure.

Students spent well over 2 hours shooting, one after the other on each set with each model then again after models changed outfits. All the while receiving critique from the instructors, reviewing images on their LCD screens and fine tuning exposure and flash settings for impeccable images, something the Academy takes great pride in. Small class size (limited to 10 students) gave plenty of one on one with class facilitators. Combine this with experienced models everyone left with a success and the confidence (invaluable, especially with this genre) that comes with it to take to their next portrait experience.

Until next time...Glen, Scott and the rest of the Aperture Academy team!

P.S. If you'd like to join us at one of our workshops, you can find the schedule/sign up here.