Dramatic Portraiture & Overpowering the Sun | San Francisco

In-depth Level

Portrait Lighting & Posing III

Shooting Dramatic Portraiture in Full Sun

Highlights

Shoot dramatic portraits that look like fashion magazine covers

Mastering light: Expose the ambient light and and overpower the sun.

More on high speed sync: shoot in full sun in the middle of the day, handle hard light with ease

This workshop prepares you for the fashion and commercial photography stream.

Small class size (maximum 4 attendees).

This class is for adults only (18+).

Quick Facts

Workshop time:

12:00pm-7:00pm

Length of workshop

7 hours

Classroom session

535 Mission Street, 14th Floor, San Francisco

Outdoor session

Shoot in hard light

Overpowering the sun

(light equipment provided)

Please bring a wide angle lens

Small class

4 attendees only

Pricing

$420/person

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FAQ

What is the prerequisite?
- The Beginner & Intermediate I & II Photography Workshops OR ability to use the manual mode of your camera: Attendees are required to adjust the exposure in the manual mode VERY proficiently.
- Portrait Lighting I
Do I need to bring my own camera?

Attendees are expected to bring their own cameras & lenses for this workshop.
What lenses will you recommend?

Wide angle lenses (equivalent focal lengths ranging from 12-35mm) are preferred as we need to get the background in the shots:

16-35mm F4
17-40mm F4
12-24mm F2.8 or F4
12-24mm F4
24-70mm F2.8 or F4

Wide angle prime lenses are also great choices if you want to blur the background using high speed sync, but they are optional:

35mm F1.4
50mm F1.2/ F1.4/ F1.8
85mm F1.4
(focal lengths longer than 85mm are not quite needed for this class)

Class Dates

Gift it

What will you learn?

1. First thing first. Determine the Exposure for the Ambient Light

Normally, we expose for the subject in portraiture. In this class, we are going to create dramatic looking photos by exposing for the ambient light, and then adding a strobe. Dramatic looking photos are created when the strobe can overpower the sun.

*Overpowering the sun means making the artificial light on the subject stronger than the sun.

2. Finding a suitable background

What kind of background makes the photo look dramatic when the ambient light is underexposed? A blue sky in a sunny day is for sure one of them, because the color of the sky looks more vibrant and vivid when it is underexposed. Learn more in this class.

3. Composition and camera angle

Composition with telephoto and wide angle lenses
When to use deep depth of field in your composition, and when to use shallow DOF?

4. High Speed Sync (HSS)

We normally place the subject in an open shade in portraiture. However, if we are working with HSS and a powerful strobe light, it doesn't really matter if the subject is in the shade or full sun.

We recommend you bring a wide aperture prime lens (e.g 35mm F1.4, 50mm F1.4, 85mm F1.4) to this class to fully maximize the high speed sync experience. Make sure your camera's shutter speed can go up to 1/8000s.