Workshop in Oslo, Norway together with Roy Gabrielsen and Michal Tomazewicz

When I do workshops I love to challange myself to do something nice with not ideal conditions. Of course the location here is faboulous, it's the new Opera in Oslo. I really liked the glass corner as you see. So i took the challange of hard dirct sun, sometimes we get forced to photograph with light like that, normally I will go up against the sun since I love backlight. Then add whatever ligthsource is best for the given situation. Anyhow here I am shooting in direct sunlight as you can see very well in image number 2, see how hard the shadows are on the ground. It's June 8th at 5:57 pm and that day the sun went down 10:34 pm, yes it is some very nice long days in Oslo this time of year:-) The diffussion panel we had was big but not large enough to diffuse her and the building, so no diffusion. I'm shooting laying on the ground under the reflector shooting @ 28mm full frame. To make my model look good I have her lean forward to get more in level with the camera plane. Have her keep her hips back. This way I avoid distorting her getting big hips, small head etc etc. I use a silver/gold reflector to add a touch of warmth and to lighten up the hard shadows somehow. I tilt her head up more than normal so the sun will hit the triangle on her face. It is really important that everything face the sun right to not get unplesent shadows on her and the dress. Some other things that makes this image work well: She is the most important part of the image, so her skin/hair etc is the minority, the blue creates depth. Blue and yellow are also complimentary colors as you know. So there are several elements that make your eyes go to her more than the surroundings. Hope to see you somewhere in the world soon :-) Thanks for following my blog. 

I'm just back from 2 weeks in Europe meeting some great Photographers and new friends, Great as in Great Britain :-) Today's blog is from my Workshop at the Fresh Academy in London, England June 2nd. I got what I wanted bright midday sun! When you can be in cities or anywhere with buildings it is my favorite time of day for people photography. Of course I loved the never ending sunsets I had in Norway, but I love a challenge. People always told me how midday sun is the worst, so long ago I took the challenge to be good at it. Especially because I often HAD TO photograph then, Weddings etc. NOON is not necessarily at 12 o'clock like most people seem to think. This day the sun was at it's highest at 12:59. I strongly recommend the iPhone application Darkness to keep track of sun positions etc. (Thanks Mike Jeide) This picture was taken at 12:12. It is a great time to shoot on one side of the street where you will find a little shade, on the other side the sun will be bouncing across to you. I like to keep the subject close to the sun where it is also a lot of good light coming right from inside the sun area. Try to watch a face as a person walk from shade towards sun and see how it change when they get close to the edge. Also added a little Photoflex Softgold reflector. The warm little touch + the cold blue background help adding depth and dimension. The Image is ran in Linge's PS Workflow Actions, ColorPerfect + auto contrast on face to give it an extra punch. Thanks to all you wonderful people attending this workshop, look forward to more English Breakfast soon?

Dear Readers. First of all thank you to all the students that have already participated in these classes. It's been such a great success and we have had to keep adding more here in Utah. We just added one for July 18th. As most of you know I been teaching other programs worldwide for many years, next week I'm leaving for Europe again to teach in England and Norway.

Always when I post about these classes on my Facebook I have people from all over writing wishing I was having a PP class  where they live? This is what I want to write a little about. I would love to do them Worldwide. If you wish to have one where you live, help me get 15 people together, your award will be that the class is free for you. We will market them together. Please let me know if this is of interest ?

Respectfully, Kenneth 

PS. Here is a link to more info on my classes and InStudio.

Last Saturday we had a truly great Photographing People Part 3 class here in Orem, Utah. We where suppose to have it in Salt Lake City but moved it to InStudio and Utah Valley because of rain :-) We set up 4 work stations, my main camera room for shooting with strobes , showroom for window light, classroom as an experimental studio with metal halide light etc. Workstation 4 was to go outside regardless of weather and make the best of it. We put two and two students working together pr model. They get one hour to alternate shooting and assisting at each work station. In Part 3 MaryLyn and myself coach going from team to team helping out. This way they can truly learn and experience how much better they can shoot with an assistant. After our Pizza break we all went outside for the night as a group. It was so much fun, we brought portable tungsten spots, reflectors etc. The highlight of the day was when we photographed a Wedding couple 10 ft from a train passing full speed! I want to give you a link to one of the great students, Raquel's Blog here you can see some fun samples from the pictures she shot this day. I think going through the Photographing People Part 1-3 truly help you move up to a level of truly having more professional looking images. Learning to create more depth and dimension in your shots controlling color temperature and also more 3 dimensional lighting. The lamp you see in this overview shots (Thanks Joel Jenkins) is a Lowel 650w Fresnel Spot running with an inverter of a running cars battery. For more info and dates on my classes please go to www.IntSOP.com If you would like one where you live ? then please help me get 15 people together and let's do it :-) 

The SUN-SWATTER - the mobile shade on the long pole - is the perfect tool when there is too much or unwanted light. The exclusive development by CALIFORNIA SUNBOUNCE (patent pending) looks like an oversized fly-swatter and enables you to make the shade/diffusion follow the model's movements. Great to create nice diffused sunlight directly to a persons face. Soften backlight when you bounce on a face etc .....so many uses. I LOVE IT! It comes in different amount of blocking light 1/3 which is my personal favorite, also in 2/3 and 3/3. Check it out!