Cheap, professional lighting workshop, London 28th April

[Tonster]

I just signed up for this






Having approximately bugger all experience in practically every field of photography going I wrote to them to ask if this was a thing n00bs could attend, the response was;

Thanks for the message.
Yes , I still have a few places left for our Lumedyne workshop on the 28th of april.

The course is for photographer at all levels & will cover indepth location lighting with Lumedyne , how to use light meters and radio triggers to mixing ambient light with
flash. It is a thorough course which aims to give all photographers indepth information on location lighting with Lumedyne.

On the day DJ will be running through the Lumedyne range , how this operates, how to achieve various lighting set ups as well as you having live hands on usage of the lighting equipment with live models & action shots on location.
Bringing your camera is a must.Its aimed at photographers who wnt to use lighting in their work regardless of level of photographer.

DJ & TFC staff will be available during the day to talk about the various products and how they operate.

Lunch & refreshments will be provided.

I hope this helps.
Places are limited so please get in touch if you are interested.

For 60 squids the chance to be able to use professional equipment with professional guidance photographing professional models and get professional critique (laughter) at the end of the day seemed like too good an opportunitely to miss. Yes it's a bit of a sales pitch by them, but still. If anyone feels like taking the plunge with me then get registering at http://www.theflashcentre.com/lumedyne- ... i1051.html

[Flomotion]

Did you go then?

[Tonster]

Yeah. When I first got there I realised exactly how far out of my depth I was just looking at the five grands worth of equipment hanging around most people's neck. I struck up conversations with a few before we got started and they were all talking about their business, the 40 portraits they shot last month, the safari shoot they'd just come back from etc. I didn't think my tales of occasionally shooting my son were really worth reciting. It's worth mentioning that this was an outfdoor flash photography course and I don't even own a flash

During the opening introduction the guy said "...any muppet can take digital photos these days, with cameras like the 400D...", so I kept mine out of view To be fair he wasn't slating the camera, he just meant you can get a DSLR relatively cheaply these days which is a threat to the profession.

The guy presenting was a bloody brilliant teacher, and thanks to having read up on a lot of stuff before hand I was able to follow everything he said. The morning comprised of him shooting 3 models with his camera tethered to an LCD screen so we could see exactly what difference the changes he made to each shot were. He showed situational uses for lighting set ups, rim lighting, coloured lighting, and a bunch of other stuff.

As he was shooting models I would frequently look at the guy next to me and wonder who the fuck he was, just another random ogler (there were plenty), mingled in to the 20 or so who were on the course. In fairness to them a couple of the models were gorgeous! Several people thought we were paparazzi shooting famous people

But then at lunchtime I got a message and had to leave, so I missed the afternoon which is when we were due to have a go with the equipment ourselves But 20+ people with 3 or 4 sets of equipment over a period of a few hours dodging the rain, learning the equipment, making mistakes etc would have meant we each got about 10 minutes having a go ourselves, barely worth it. Also my camera's not got a weather proof body like the more expensive models everyone else was carrying. I regretted not being able to shoot the BMXer model though, that would have been fun.

The one thing that really struck me was just how easy it all was with the right equipment. One lens, a light meter, 2 monolights, a reflector and a variety of softboxes meant he was able to shoot a single person in loads of situations.

It was just cool being able to see what a huge difference something simple like a gold vs a silver sun reflector was (gold makes people look slightly tanned).

Unfortunately I've got no photos from the day having left before we got to that bit. I've been trying to think what tips from it I can put on here but it's all so specific it's hard to convey

One thing I know, I need some more equipment and a lot more money

[Mongrel]

The one thing that really struck me was just how easy it all was with the right equipment. One lens, a light meter, 2 monolights, a reflector and a variety of softboxes meant he was able to shoot a single person in loads of situations.

HAH! I've got my own photography studio, if you want to come down and give it a try then please be my guest

Did you get any of the names of the models that went? I saw they were advertising for models to turn up for free in return for shots from the day...which I thought was a bit cheap.

[Tonster]

Be careful what you offer...

Thanks dude, I may take you up on that one day! And if you ever need a (free) dogsbody assistant for the weekend or a reasonably cute baby boy to shoot, give me a shout (parents are butt ugly though )

In all seriousness I am now starting to make serious enquiries with photographers just outside my area (Surrey/Middlesex) to be a free weekend assistant, so if you know of anyone looking...
[/pimp]

If you're interested I can easily get the names of the models for you, we were only told the first name of one of them (Lucy), the others were just shoved in front of us. Just say the word and I'll call the shop, I need to call them anyway.

[Jobabob]

nobody made a TFC joke

Id love to learn more about photography myself, but ive been pretty pleased at some of the random things I've captured with my 300d, it really is stupidly easy to get some good shots with only minor tinkering of the apeture/exposure and a quick preview of the histogram (and thousands and thousands of shots on my 2gig cf card, at least one has to be decent!)