Studio One Photography Workshop
These photos are from last weekend in the Gold Coast Photography Studio when we ran a Studio 1 Workshop, and our model was Jess Palmer who is one of our favourite models for the workshops as not only does she look great, but she's also very easy to shoot and has a great friendly attitude, which is just as important as looks during photoshoots!
In the Studio 1 Workshops, we start right from the beginning as it's aimed at those who have never tried studio photography before, and so we spend a bit of time going through how the lights work, the camera settings and some of the basic principles of studio photography. Studio photography is, in fact, very easy – at least I think so – because absolutely everything is under your control, there's time to experiment, and even if you get it wrong, you can have another go! You don't need a top of the range camera and lens for a studio photoshoot - in the studio, we shoot in fully manual mode, so a relatively modest camera can take shots as good as a top of the line camera. Big, fast zoom lenses aren't required either and can, in fact, be a disadvantage in the studio. Sometimes I shoot with a 6-year-old cropped frame camera and a cheap-as-chips 50mm prime lens and I still get great shots in the studio!
During the Gold Coast Studio Photography Workshop 1, once we've got the basics dialled in, we shoot in a number of different styles. Even though, for this workshop, we use relatively simple lighting set-ups so that you can shoot for as long as possible, it's possible to change from a high-key (very bright, almost over-exposed) to a low-key (dark and shadowed) photograph very quickly. We also do a simple portrait set-up, which produces beautiful flattering images. You can see a few of the different styles in the gallery above - there are some portraits, some high- and low-key images, plus one or two that sit sort of in the middle.
For a simple studio photoshoot like this, I'd be aiming at shots that don't need much work in Photoshop afterwards. Some of them have been adjusted in Lightroom so they match some of my favourite styles, but you don't want to spend hours on a portrait makeover if you're shooting in a studio - it should be possible to set the lights up so that you can use the images straight out of the camera!
The Gold Coast studio photography workshops are a lot of fun and will improve your photographic technique, no matter what type of photography you're into. As well as Studio Workshop 1, which is a good introduction to studio photography, there are workshops for more advanced photographers as well as themed and location photoshoots so that you can join with a real shoot and get some truly unique photos!
Cheersmatt g