On Sunday October 30^th, I attended the Edmonton Photographic Trade Show hosted by McBain Camera. I took in a number of workshops that day, and here are summaries of two more.

“Conveying Meaning through Portraiture” was taught by Angie Sobota. Angie was great. She talked about how to tell a better story in our picture-taking. Some of the basic things to keep in mind are:

• Depth of field – shallower will blur your background out and focus attention on your subject
• Focal length
• Color temperature – warmer or cooler, depending on how you want people viewing the pictures to feel
• Composition
  • includes your rule of thirds (placing subjects on an imaginary grid on intersecting thirds of the composition space, rather than centering them)
  • Perspective – different angles (shooting from above or below your subject) and different lenses (wide vs. narrow) can change the meaning of the photo drastically. Wide angles can distort your portrait subject, but if your want a playful, goofy photo that might be a good thing
  • Background – it’s more effective to have a contextual background e.g. brushing your teeth in front of a backdrop versus brushing your teeth in a bathroom

• Angle of light
  • coming from the top is very natural and instinctual to humans (the sun has shone down on us for eons), while light from the side, bottom or backlight can create very moody and exaggerated emotions

• Diffusion of light
  • A cloudy day is like a giant soft box in the sky and is great for portraiture
  • Diffuse light is easy on shadows and is soft
  • Direct light makes hard shadows and can convey toughness or scariness

• Color of light – similar to color temperature, you can add light by adding colored paper or gels to your flash. Angie gave us an example of a photo of a man in a parka looking miserable – taken with a yellow filter and a blue filter. The blue of course was much more effective in making the man look cold and miserable

Keeping these basic techniques in mind should really take your photography up a notch.

“Speedlight University” was taught by the very eccentric Larry Frank. I won’t get into too many details here either, as it was a fairly technical workshop (a lot of it went over my head). Larry encouraged using an off camera (speedlight type) flash. With off camera you have more control of the direction of your light and more control over red-eye. Interesting note – blondes are more prone to red-eye than brunettes or red heads. Larry showed us how to sync up 3 or more external flashes with a very cool (but hideously expensive) pocket wizard TTI, to essentially have your own lighting studio without all of the lighting equipment. His results were really amazing. He showed us an incredible photo: he set up an external flash behind (and blocked by) his subject – a leaf. He cranked his shutter speed up to 1/8000 to create a tiny amount of light coming into the camera. The result was unreal – a completely black photo (due to the shutter speed) with a glowing neon leaf in the centre. It looked Photoshopped, but was achieved simply with a backlit subject. The audience let out quite the “Wow” when he revealed the dramatic photo. If I could only win the lottery and buy two or three more external flashes and $300 worth of the pocket wizard gear…. Oh the photos I could take.

Check back soon, I still have one other workshop to let you know about. I’ll give you a hint. B & W. If you have any questions, comments or requests, please drop me a line. TTFN.