Every year, I dedicate an “education budget” towards a few key areas to expand my learning and improve my business. One of those areas this year is Lighting. While I am comfortable with photographing natural light, as well as manipulating light, there is always room to learn new techniques. Last week I attended the Rock Your Reception II Lighting Workshop offered by ShootStyle. An intimate group of 20 photographers joined together in Worcester to talk, learn, and play with light; led by instructors (and fantastic photographers): Andree Kehn, Earl Christie, Jamie Wexler, Michelle Turner, Stacey Doyle and Zofia Photo (with Mark Crosby also documenting the event and assisting). We covered everything from on-camera flash, bounce-flash, off-camera flash, using sync cords, various speedlights, pocket wizards and radio triggers, and even a “light on a stick” technique and alienbee studio lighting. You name it, we covered it. It was a great refresher for me of some techniques, and an interesting new twist seeing how others approach light in different ways.

Above is a favorite photo I created of Stacey Doyle while she talked about off-camera back-lighting techniques; a great way to create drama to an image! I’ll be sharing some of my own personal Tips & Tricks regarding Lighting in the coming weeks.