Hollywood Portrait Workshop
I attended the Hollywood Portrait Workshop held by Andy Cubin from http://www.photographyworkshops.co.uk at Spitfire Studio. Here is my write up of the evening.
The evening ran from 6.30pm to 9.30pm which made it very convenient and easy to fit in to my diary. We started off with a presentation looking at both the history and practices of the time, identifying the key characteristics of the Hollywood portrait (lighting type and direction, shadows, poses etc). We then set about analysis the images of the one, two and three light setups to recreate them in the studio. Andy had invited along the beautiful Manon Parpworth to be our model for the evening and with her lovely nature and array of clothes she was every bit the Hollywood starlet for us.
Starting with a simple one light setup we progressed through to two and three lights as we changed the scene and Manon changed her look. At each stage Andy involved the group in the setting of the lights ensure everyone knew how and why we were setting them up in that way and looking at the effect of each one. Throughout the evening each of the 6 photographers on the workshop had ample time to get the shots they wanted. Andy reviewing everyone’s images after each set of shots to provide critic and pointers to what was working and where improvements could be made.
The last segment of the evening was to take the images we had from that evenings shoot and take them from colour into the black and white Hollywood look. Andy worked through an example on the big screen while we did one on our own on our own machines. With the crib sheets provided together with Andy's overview the result was that within a few minutes we had the first image processed and ready. Like all post processing though, Andy had given us the recipe and helped us bake the first one and I can now see that I will spend a good few hours refining the contrast, blurs and channels to suit my own personal taste and style. The important thing being I now have the right tools to do the job.
The evening was both relaxed and informative with a great bunch of people.
In conclusion, if you’re considering doing this style of photography this workshop is a no brainer. In fact if you want any type of training check out http://www.photographyworkshops.co.uk this is the second workshop I have done with them and both have been well worth ever penny and I shall be on the look out for the next one.
