Photographing People Part 1 class @ InStudio Photographics in Orem, Utah, USA on Saturday March 6th 2010.

Instructor: Kenneth Linge M.Photog. Cr. CPP. XXV. PFP 

Photographing People, part 1 in a three part series, is a fast-paced seminar style class for those looking to take their technique to the next level. It’s about lighting, perspective, color and creativity. Best of all, it’s about the thought process behind solving challenging situations. The class size is small, limited to 15 students, so you are sure to get the personal contact needed to understand the techniques. There will be diplomas for each student at the end of the course. You will learn:

* Outdoor Lighting-reflective, subtractive, diffused, tungsten and other location lighting techniques. Midday sun? No problem!
* Indoor Lighting-effective, powerful and simple set ups.
* Perspective-choose the right lenses and f-stops; a must for top notch photographs.
* Posing-how to do it, avoid it and some options in between.
* Digital Workflow-learn to be efficient so you still have a life. We will demonstrate and have for sale the Photoshop actions that cut our computer time in half without compromising quality.
* Photoshop Actions-your move-in expert.
* Color vs. black and white-how and when to use both.
* Proofing-we’ll demonstrate a digital proofing system that let’s others enjoy viewing large images without risking copyright infringements.
Inspiration-no burn out here, how to get and stay inspired!
* Photo Demonstration with Model-see the techniques put into practice so you will go home technically prepared to ROCK!

The next 10 students to sign up will get a free ticket to the sold out PhotoCamp Utah on Sat. March 20th

To sign up go to http://www.intsop.com

Part 1 US $299,  Part 2 Price $299, Part 3 $399, Early sign up discount for all 3 parts by Feb 27th US $899

Photographing People Part 2 class @ InStudio Photographics in Orem, Utah, USA on Saturday April 10th 2010.

Photographing People Part 3 class @ InStudio Photographics in Orem, Utah, USA on Saturday May 8th 2010.

PS. If you are interested in having a Photographing People class by Kenneth Linge in your city, state or country please contact me:  intsop@gmail.com. We can do it together! 

Looking into dark eyes is like an auto focus camera pointed at a white wall, it spins back and forth. When we look at people with no light in the eyes we react about the same way we keep searching for contact in the eyes but don't get it. So my simple rule is, if you don't have great light in the eyes have them look anywhere but in the camera!

This particular engagement shot is one of my all time favorites, see how even looking down you know how happy and in love they are. I carefully framed them inside the mountain to not have disturbing lines though their faces. 

The title of the blog is " If you can't get good light in the eyes? " I know that with the right equipment and time we can always get good light in the eyes, but sometimes it's moments that happens fast etc. In my workflow of shooting an engagement like this one I typically work like this: When I'm in a spot with great light I make sure to take good eye contact shots. If lets say the light change fast and the mood is good I have them look at each other or away, kiss, hug, etc.etc This way I get a good mix of style and emotions.

Hope all is well, I don't feel I'm very good at expressing myself this Monday morning, but.... :-)

I been in love with reflectors since long before they made fold ups. Remember working on a movie in Paris the first time a saw one pop open, so did my eyes! We used to buy silver cooking foil, step on it on the asphalt or cement to make mini bumps in it then tape it to foam boards. Still works great today. Then I remember I found actual sheets of reflection foil from Rosco, and I could tape them on. Reflection of light have always been used in photography, reflections from walls, windows, snow, water, a silver car in the parking lot etc etc .

My question today was HOW MANY do you need? It's not one correct answer to that question of course, but I want to bring up some points why I find a need for many. If you look in the image you will see some of mine along the camera room back wall. I think I  have about 30 total? A brand new reflector reflects so much more light light then it will do after a few months use. About every 10 months I keep buying the same silver reflector in my most used size 32" I write the date I bought it with a black marker on it for fun to keep track of their change.

By having many silver reflectors with different ware I get many choices of brightness, especially great when I can't choose the distance to the subject. It's kind of having a flash with one output or variable outputs. I also love using soft gold a lot, but I use them all even my blue one I bought from a german photographer. Color correction is a huge issue with them, getting to change color on a part of your image, create minorities. Like on a bride I might want to use a large white or silver one on the dress and a smaller soft gold just for the face. Keeping the dress white, while giving her a nice skin color. Often I will just use a different one on the face because the face need more brightness then a white dress.

This is such a huge subject I can write on it forever. In my seminars and workshops you will learn a lot about reflective light, but this blog post should get your mind running? NEVER trow away an old reflector it might be the only one weak enough on close distance on a bright day, you can also spray paint it in a cool color and you have a new portable pop up backdrop for portraits :-) 

In situations of low light or cloudy days a brand new silver reflector will almost be like a mirror to add some great catch lights in the eyes. What is so beautiful with reflectors is that what you see is what you get vs flash. This image is about 20 years old shot on the wonderful Polaroid Polapan B/W chrome film, loved it!!! I keep using old images for fun these days if I can. Show how great results we could get straight out of a film.Happy shooting, hope to see many of you around Europe in February.

I think one of the best qualities a photographer can have is to know your own limits at the moment, when it comes to take upon yourself jobs. It's NO limit how far you can go, but is it sometimes better and more right to pass it on? I remember years ago saying no to a job to photograph a lamp catalog. I new somebody else that was really good at that, then I passed it on to him. I got a little % from the other photographer and asked if I could go with him on the shoot to learn and assist. What a great "free" seminar!

Once I said no to an Art Director to do a complicated food shot. I recommended 2 different experts on food photography with kitchens in their studios etc. I said please come back to me when it's anything with people. A week later he gave me a whole clothing line to shoot! Have integrity and it will pay back. One of my proudest moments was when I quit as the drummer in a band  because I could see I was the weakest part of the band. I felt good, I saw it, reacted on it myself. The other band members are still among my best friends. PS. And I enjoy playing drums just for fun at home some times :-)

PS.This image was taken in the mid 90's. It's retro time :-) Nikon F3 Titanium, Nikkor 20mm 2.8 No retouch, scanned from original slide.

I have enjoyed posting some mages lately from the 80's. Todays image is from the early 90's shot, also on chrome film with NO retouch, straight scan.

This photograph was taken about 45 minutes after sunset. In Norway the sun sets very slowly and it takes about an hour at this time of the year before it gets dark. We call this extra time of light after the sun is down "the blue hour'.

I had taken pictures of the young lady (owner of a model agency) in the evening sun, but didn't feel I got what I wanted, so I'm glad that I had a tungsten light available and the blue hour. The background is a famous sculpture.

 So what is the difficulty here? It is dark, I want movement, no fast films was good enough. I was loving the Konicachrome R100 film for this kind of work at the time and that is what I used in this image. Exposure is 1/15 sec @ Nikkor 105 mm @f2.5 on a Nikon F3. The lamp lighting her up is a Kaiser 250w, 24volt tungsten lamp. The battery was so low, Im probably only getting around 125watts?

The HOW question? How to you get her sharp moving while the water from the fountain is blurred because of movement??? 

I remember being very excited when I saw this exposure on the light table with my magnifier, the way we viewed them back from the lab in those days. I got the ONE sharp image I needed! I shot many to get this one ( almost like digital :-))) The only thing we did retouch in print was the one backlight from a truck in the background as you can see in this untouched scan.

PS. I will tell you already tomorrow afternoon US MST how it is done, again old students might remember the answer? If so, let the people that have never been told get a go at this please.

PSS. Wednesday Dec.30, 2009. The answer to the trivia "How was this done?"

If you throw a rock straight up in the air there is a split second when it stands still before falling back to earth. I used this principle to get her sharp with the 1/15 sec exposure and capture the movement of the water. She swung her dress up and down and I caught the very moment (in one of the many tries and exposures) when the skirt stopped to turn back down.