Rock and Roll Portrait Lighting Workshop Follow-Up

Last weekend, I held my Rock and Roll Portrait Lighting Workshop at Eagles Nest Studios in New York City. We had a great group of shooters come out and I managed to keep them awake for seven hours or so while I gave away all my secrets.

To demonstrate different lighting scenarios, I did a live shoot with cool rock/pop/electronica band Cruel Black Dove. I warned them that they were going to hear everything that goes on in the mind of a photographer during a shoot but normally isn’t said out loud. Things like, “I have no idea how this is going to look but I’ll try it anyway.”

Fortunately, I was able to make a decent image or two in a very short amount of time. Everything was lit using only Nikon Speedlights.

This frame was made with two SB-900’s in a large softbox. The white walls supply the fill. I went way overboard with the post-processing, but wanted to show how much you can do to the image after the fact.

(Nikon D3, 24-70, ISO 200, 1/250, f/8)

For the next setup, I used a Honl snoot to focus the light on Anastasia (in white) and also had two VALs (Voice Activated Lightstands named Josh and Mike) holding strobes with Honl grids on them.

Thanks to Peter Preston and Mike Wren for the behind the scenes pics.

(Nikon D3, 24-70, ISO 400, 1/250, f/11)

If you want to experience the workshop yourself, I’ll be doing it again at Adorama in New York, NY on February 21, 2010. More info on the workshops@adorama site. I’ll have another live shoot with a different band so I hope you’ll join me then.

I’ve also had a few inquiries about bringing the workshop to other cities. If you are interested in helping organize one in your area, contact me and we’ll set it up.

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