The good folks at UDEMY.com asked me to create a course for them.
Portrait Photography with Simple Gear
I chose doing a sort of overview for portraiture. Not your typical headshot stuff, although we do look at traditional beauty. In this course we look at using strobes, natural light, modified natural light and more. It is about 5.5 hours of video now, and will grow by at least another hour over the next few months.
I wanted to take a complete look at the simple way I do portraits, and how I think about both the taking and the making of the image.
We show the setup, talk about what I am thinking about, show how we set the lighting up, look through the camera to see the shots happening, and then do the Photoshop work that is planned for.
These are simple to do exercises, with solid training.
And while I will win no awards for awesome epicness in making videos, there is plenty to learn there.
Who is it for?
Beginners who want to make their portraits better… fast – with real world examples, lighting setups that can be reproduced easily and inexpensively and those who may want to add a few tricks and tips to their fledgling arsenal.
It is not an advanced portrait course (in the works as we type this), but instead a basic course with non-basic portrait situations.
If you follow along, you will be able to do the work as you see it here.
I have a free LoRes version of the current workbook (Sept 4, 2012) for you to download. The class workbook will be updated quite a bit over the next 4 months but it will only be available to the students who are enrolled.
Take a look at the workbook and decide if it is worth it for you to take the course.
We have hours and hours of video for you to follow along with, the Photoshop movies of how we achieved the look, and the layered Photoshop files for further study.
Below are a few images we cover in the workshop.
Mixing strobe and natural light for a “Faux Sun” look.
Natural Light or Large Strobe Bank? Find out when you take the course?
Create stunning fashion like headshots with minimal gear
Work with full strength back light with confidence – even in natural light situations.
Use the sun to advantage – as well as the surrounding landscape – for portraits that bring the viewer in.
Blend the light from outdoors into your strobe lit shots easily – and decide where you want to “place” that exposure.
High contrast locations can be made better with efficient use of strobes.
Sometimes we have to create interest by adding contrast in low contrast scenes.
Creating our own reality for a more mysterious and intriguing portrait.
Thanks for taking a look at this workshop.
Remember to use the code “Lighting Essentials” to get the course for an introductory price of $30. For a limited time.
Thanks for stopping by.
Sounds good. I’m in. And thanks for the discount code.
I’m really pleased I subscribed to your course – great value for money and nicely integrated with Udemy, Cheers Mandy
Hey Don- Thanks for launching another class, but it brings up a question. Do you actually shoot real assignments anymore or do you just go around teaching workshops and throwing online classes up on yet another format? I’d love to see a post on a half dozen or so of your real, paying assignments from the past year. Time to refresh the street cred a little dude. It’s slipping!
“Do you actually shoot real assignments anymore or do you just go around teaching workshops and throwing online classes up on yet another format?”
Absolutely not.
I find photography to be terribly icky. Makes me get the hives and eat peanut butter. I have no idea why it causes that reaction, but it does.
I may be allergic to sensor dust.
I am constantly looking for ways to “throw up classes in a new format as there are so many formats out there.
I have the UDEMY course, and the one I did FOR CreativeLIVE and the… uh… the uh…
Well, so many formats, so little time.
As to the workshops. Yes, I do them extensively all over the world. Nearly every weekend. And I charge gazoggles amounts of money for them.
You can see how much I love doing workshops by reading this post from last May. https://www.lighting-essentials.com/workshops-a-new-direction-after-a-break-maybe/ where I essentially stopped doing workshops.
In fact, I haven’t done a workshop in over a year.
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Except for the FREE one I did in August for 8 people at my studio at my expense, or that other free one I did for a small class of beginners.
I lose money on every workshop, but working on making it back in volume.
Of course those two hours a week spent working with photographers all over the world on building their books, creating marketing plans, dealing with RFP’s, portfolios, pricing issues and more… on that I clean UP, man. I am currently in my second year doing that (www.project52.org) and have made a whopping, get ready… nothing. I do it for free.
I thought about doing a blog where I simply blog what other photographers are doing, but there is currently one of those that is quite popular.
I thought about taking every free test I ever do with a model and calling it a “gig” – but hell, there are way too many of those.
I then thought I could complain about the industry and discuss the terrible destruction of photography… but, you guessed it. There are already too many of those.
And the ‘review the gear’, review the ‘current trends’, or how I can make cool snoots out of recycled barn wood blogs… but, hey… I am not so imaginative.
So I write here, and when UDEMY asks me to do a class, I respond.
As to street cred. I have seen what passes for street cred. I have seen and am totally aware of ‘street cred’ – senior shoots, wedding outtakes, model tests and more.
I don’t really have a need to develop street cred. You either read my works and like what I have to say or you don’t.
I teach. I am proud of that.
Much more proud of that than the crap I see passed off as ‘street cred’ these days.
I suggest strongly how to become more aware of your browsers ability to not go to sites that cause you personal angst or challenge your world view (those that can do and those that can’t teach – the underlying point of your comment), as that is disproved daily.
Thanks for the comment, though.
At least someone one is listening.
(I should write about new cameras and how fucked everything is, and how Joe McNalley is doing this and Chase Jarvis is doing that and how cool it is to be so cool that I am awesome and epic… get a bunch more readers and make even more nothing for it… I will be rich!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)