The Studio Lighting Workshops are usually my favorite workshops! And Today was that day. I get there right at 8am to get all setup, and turn on the all the Studio Lights, and get the Power Point for the workshop set up. Thirty min later, the student began to trickle in, and right at 9am the last student shows up and we begin our class.

The class always starts off with introductions. I introduce myself, and then ask the students to introduce themselves. Today was a fun and rare occurrence, the entire class were Canon Dslr Shooters. Just as I am, so I knew it was going to be a good day. Just before I start my power point, the models show up along with the Stylist. I introduce them to the class, Haley, and Sonja our two models, and Lisa was the Hair and makeup Stylist. They begin getting ready, as I continue the power point.

After going over the Exposure Triangle that has been modified for todays Studio Lighting workshop, I began talking about the lighting diagrams and then leaving them with some easy steps to remember while setting up lighting in the future. We take a quick break before transitioning into the shooting portion of the class.

The Models finish hair and make up right as we begin to get our first lighting set up dialed in. Haley our first model steps in and we start off with just one light, and get it completely set up for her. This is a three light set up, but we want to start off with one light at a time. . From there, we add more lights one at a time, and I have the students take photos as we add more lights, so they can see the difference, and have visual references when they leave. . The fist lighting set up is completed, and we all move to the second set up. That was the, “high key, “ lighting set up.. Next will be the Low Key, or moody lighting. .

The moody lighting is always a bit tricky to get perfect, since its one light, and very contrasty, but a great skill to learn. Sonja joins us for this look, and we get started. I want the students to get a hands on feeling for the lights, so we have them assist for this set up.. I basically explain what parts of the set up are, and have them help me raise and lower the lights, and feather them until its perfect.

A few minutes later we get it all dialed in, and its shooting time. I break the group into two, one will go with the high key lighting set up, and the other will go into the low-key set up. And I send them off to shoot. After everyone gets a few rotations in each lighting set up, we break for lunch. This gives the models time to change outfits for the next look after lunch.

Lunch ends, and we gather up and talk about what they have learned so far, and I answer a few questions and we are back up and shooting again. This time I let them do their own thing, and stand in the background checking images, and answering questions. This takes us to the last hour of class, where we begin to process the images.

I set up the room for editing. All the students get their own iMac with Photoshop and Ligthroom for this portion of the workshop. I start with importing and my suggested file management workflow. And then we start editing. I start off in Lightroom, and move to Photoshop. Starting off with the skin and moving down the image. This concluded our workshop.

Until Next time,

Ajay and the rest of the Aperture Academy Team!

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