Natural Light Portrait Photography Workshop

 

In my last blog post I gave an overview of some of the great activities that made up the NPF Photography Conference that I attended last weekend. The photo above captured by my gorgeous photographer friend Corina shows perfectly what I thought of the weekend.

Lots of people ask me how I got into photography and how I learnt to take nice photos. Well, I have owned a camera since I was a teenager, starting in the days of film photography when every photo was carefully thought out and composed because film and processing was super expensive.

I really got back into photography when I had my kids first with a small film camera and then a pretty low quality digital. I really took it to the next level when I was travelling overseas with Luke and purchased a Samsung Mirrorless. From there I quickly discovered its limitations when using it in low light for concert photography and became a Nikon fan when I purchased my first DSLR the D7100. I have since upgrade to a Nikon D500 which is awesome in low light.

How did I get better? I used my camera almost every day and I asked every photographer I came across for tips and advice and I observed them as they worked. I also used You Tube and some online photo courses. I learnt the most from the various one day workshops I have attended which lead me to this post.

Clare and David Oliver ran a short natural light photography workshop which reminded me of lots of the things I have learnt before but not practised. Every time I take a course I learn something new and get a chance to practise my skills in a fun environment.

We were lucky enough to have two beautiful models to help us out which meant we coudl concentrate on taking the photos because they made the posing part easy for us.

I began in the inside group with David Oliver and the lovely Ashley.  David started by explaining his set up at a south facing window with a reflector used as a filter to soften the light coming straight onto our model and another reflector facing the window to bounce some light back onto the side of their face to lift the shadows.

I only had my  18-200mm zoom lens so used it at 90mm zoom with ISO 1600 at 1/125th sec. David started with demonstrating his technique then we took turns. We only had time for a few shots so had to make any adjustments quickly and then get out of the way for the next person.

Our group moved outside with Clare Oliver as our instructor explaining some of the ways she uses natural light for portraits outdoors. The afternoon sun was quite bright and I had my camera set on an ISO of 100 at 70mm and at 1/250th second. Our model for the outdoor shoot was Danielle and she was quite cold as it was a breezy winters afternoon. There were quite a few of us to take turns so we were as quick as possible so we could get her out of the wind as quicly as possible.

 

It was a fun and informative way to finish the weekend and I am so grateful to Brad Le Brocque for inviting me along and also for Clare and David Oliver for how generous they were with their time and expertise.