As most of you know by now, I was at Jerry Ghionis' seminar on Tuesday, and he taught this old dog some new tricks. As my class was shooting models on Thursday night, I was playing around with some tips that Jerry shared with us. As a wedding/event photographer, quite often I don't have the ability of using off camera flash. Due to moving around, drunk people, space, often times it's just not safe or reasonable to set a light on a stand. This first image of Matthew was taken using Jerry's helpful tip of just bouncing your "on camera" off a wall at 90 degrees from your subject, vs using a ceiling or a piece of tupperware. So of course I had to try it. And then I needed to test it at it's limits. You see, Matthew is standing on a sidewalk, and I bounced the light off a storefront 50 feet across the street. And it worked! My settings were ISO 1250, f/2.8, 1/50 sec, shot with my 5DMKII, 70-200 f/2.8IS, and the original 580EX.
Here is another shot using the same set-up with similar settings. Again, this isn't about the quality of the posing, this is about testing out a new technique.
I also worked with Virginia last night, again playing with some ideas I had. She was lit with a rechargable flash light I got at Home Depot for $20 similar to this...
For the next 2 shots, I added the 580EX hand held by Virginia's husband to add a little seperation. These were shot with a tungsten white balance also. Just going for something a little different, and to show that class that you don't need a bunch of lighting gear to get creative.
There will be a tutorial coming soon on Faded & Blurred soon about the technique used on the first image here.
I had the amazing opportunity to attend a seminar by Jerry Ghionis yesterday. For those of you that know me, or have been in my classes, you know that he is my all time favorite photographer. I am a HUGE fan. I am probably writing this too soon after the event, as my mind is still racing with ideas, concepts, and inspiration to be able to put together a cohesive, or even reasonably informational post. But know that many ideas that were shared will be past along to my classes as the weeks go on.
The seminar was in 2 parts, the first part was a seminar given in a ballroom at a hotel by LAX. It was attended by over 100 people. The 2nd portion was a group of 20 photographers getting to shoot with Jerry.
During the first portion, which went from 10am to 6:30, Jerry talked a lot about how he shoots, and where he gets his ideas and inspiration. He is a pop culture junky, and gathers ideas from music videos, fashion magazines, and movies. He showed a recent shoot that was heavily inspired by a Katy Perry video, even going so far as to show the video and specific scenes from it, and then showing his interpretation. Great stuff. He also went through some of his familiar work and showed us the inspiration behind those shots. During this portion, he talked a lot about the inspiration, and holding on to it, a visual memory bank. He used the metaphor of "having to remember where you put your keys". You've seen a particular image in your head before, now you need to remember how to get to the finished product. A lot of his shooting involves just taking his time. Slowing down. Working through his "Recipe" in order, which is:
Jerry Ghionis' recipe
Light
Location/Background
Concept/Action/Pose
Technique/Exposure
Finesse/Reaction/Expression
The most important element is always the light. Jerry talked a lot about being in amazing locations with bad lighting, which creates bad images, vs being in an ugly location with great light. The great light always wins. Always find the light first, and then move on to location.
He spent some time covering technique, marketing, selling, branding, posing, the schedule of a wedding day, people skills, album design, the list is very long. I will be covering many of his concepts in my wedding classes.
For the second portion, 20 of us headed over to the Proud Bird restaurant to watch and shoot with Jerry. We started off by just sitting down and chatting for about an hour. Then he fired up the camera, and we got to watch him work and see/hear his thought process as we went around the location with a model. What an amazing and unique experience. We got to see him work with on and off camera speedlights, flashlights, and available/ambient light. Many people shot over his shoulder, but I choose to keep the camera packed up and just watch/learn/observe. I don't regret that at all. It was a fantastic way to learn what he looks for in his light, the direction of light, the quality of light, and how he shapes and aims his own added light. Many of you in my Thursday night lighting class will be the beneficiaries of several new ideas I picked up.
If you are not familiar with Jerry's work, he is a master at simplicity and finding/creating great light. He really does make it look easy. And he spends a great deal of time talking about not getting bogged down and tripping over too much extra gear. He shoots weddings solo, and generally with 2 lenses, his 70-200, and a 17-40. He also only shoots JPEG. Crazy, ain't it? ;-)
I'm feeling inspired, and a great need to get off the computer, so I will see you all soon.
Thankful that fall is finally settling in. Cooler temperatures are always welcome, especially after the crazy hot September we had here. I'm not so happy about the shorter days. As a people shooter, it makes it a little easier to grab a model and go shoot when it's not 105 degrees. As a wedding photographer, your not as miserable shooting that wedding in the un-air conditioned church. Landscape shooters look forward to the fall colors. There is so much to enjoy over the next few weeks photographically.
A quick reminder that Faded and Blurred has the Pasadena ARTwalk photo walk coming up on 10/10. I do hope that you will attend, it should be a fun event, in a great city to shoot. And then, just 2 weeks later is our Griffith Park photo walk, so we are keeping busy, and taking advantage of the cooler weather too.
If you haven't backed up your images recently, why not do it now? Burn them to DVD, copy them to your external hard drive, or get yourself an automated back up program. I use Goodsync, and I highly recommend it for PC users. It will run as often as you want it too. I have mine run every 2 hours. Do you have a system that works for you? If so, share it in the comments.
Coming up in class this week:
Monday night we have models
Wednesday night: Album Design
Thursday night: The amazing wedding photography of Jerry Ghionis
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