Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it - a day at Scott Kelby's latest seminar

At the end of the lighting section of The Art of Photography I identified a need to learn more about studio lighting and suggested I should attend a course to assist with this.  On 28 April I attended Scott Kelby’s Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it seminar.

Scott Kelby’s books provided me with an introduction to photography a few years back and although his approach may be somewhat unconventional I found him useful when trying to find my way around a camera.  His books were certainly more informative that the manual that came with the camera.

When I learnt that he was bringing his latest seminar to the UK I felt it was worth going to. 

Here are some of my thoughts from the day.  

Content

The seminar consisted of various studio shoots using models.  The aim was to show you how to set up the lighting, how to do the shoot and then how to retouch it using Lightroom and Photoshop.  Each attendee was given a CD with the seminar workbook and all the information and tenchniques used during the day to take home.  This CD is pretty well put together and a lot more informative that the usual printed notes that are handed out at these types of courses. 

The duration of the seminar was approximately 6 hours which was quite long in comparison to some of the half day lighting courses I have seen offered elsewhere.  However, the main drawback with this seminar is that there were about 350 attendees whereas the shorter courses were more hands on. 

Scott Kelby’s presentation was good, but I have to say through my studies with the OCA and on this course (TAOP) he falls short when it comes to actually teaching.  He is funny and his sardonic wit filtered through in every lesson but he tends to (like in his books) try and simply photography and the techniques required to achieve the end results.  For example, he tends to give you instructions about how to take a shot without explaining why.  This was particularly frustrating when he carried out the retouching on his images where measurements and values were bandied about but no explanation as to why you would use these settings. 

Learning outcomes

I have given quite a bit of thought to what I learnt from this seminar and I feel that most of my learning was not about lighting at all.  I think that perhaps my feeling that I don’t understand or get studio work is a perceived weakness than an actual weakness that I have.  I think maybe I felt intimidated by it all at the beginning of the lighting section of the course and that these feelings have continued to grow.

I learnt the benefits of shooting tethered which is something I have never done.  However, as my camera is a Nikon shooting tethered means I have to purchase Camera Control Pro 2 in order to do this.

I enjoyed the retouching sections of the seminar as I don’t tend to shoot portraits very often and therefore haven’t explored the possibilities that Photoshop has to offer when it comes to enhancing portraits.  As there was a lot of information to take in on this part of the course I am glad to have the very detailed workbook notes on my CD. 

I also liked the quick overview they did on compositing.  I have heard this technique bandied about a lot lately and wondered what the big deal was.  The results of the shoot at the seminar were pretty good but I still haven’t made up my mind on how I feel about the ‘look’. 

Negatives

•          Large audience and no one-to-one hands on tuition
•          Big emphasis on the kit you need to have making you feel like if you didn’t part with your cash and invest in a big lighting set up all your images were going to be rubbish.

•          Targeted at individuals who feel that because they own a DSLR they should have the right to call themselves professional photographers.  Devalued the amount of learning and practice that is required to be a good photographer by giving the illusion that all you needed to know about photography could be learnt in one day.

•          Focussed solely on portrait photography, would have been nice to have a session on product photography.
•           The room in the Business Design Centre wasn’t the best when it came to layout.  Tiered seating would be advantageous and would also mean people could see the stage better.

•          Seemed to be a little bit of hero worshipping going on with the queues at each break to get Kelby’s autograph and have your picture taken with him.  I also felt a little disconcerted by the ‘who has the best kit’ competition that seemed to go on amongst the attendees as the day progressed.  Surely the aim of the seminar was to learn not to find out who had the biggest and most expensive lens. 

All in all I am glad that I attended the seminar as despite some of the negatives there were benefits for me too.  I think that the course reinforced for me how much I have learnt since I first read Scott Kelby’s books a number of years ago.  I learnt that I should consider exploring Photoshop more and see if how it can enhance my work.  I think for future learning I would benefit for the more hands on approach of a smaller group with a dedicated tutor. 

The Tea Horse Road by Michael Freeman

Michael Freeman’s talk on his latest book The Tea Horse Road was held at Asia House in London.   

The Tea Horse Road is one of the longest trade routes of the ancient world.  It facilitated a vital exchange between tea and horses for 13 centuries between China and Tibet.  The route stretches 3,000km via a network of trails, gorges and passes which were crossed by horse, mule and yaks caravans together with human porters. 

Over the course of two years, Freeman compiled this visual record from the Tea Mountains of Yunnan and Sichuan to Tibet. 

Although the talk was mainly aimed at the people there who had come to simply hear more about the region it was still interesting to view the images and the way they were presented. 

Freeman’s oeuvre is documentary reportage and his work really gave you an insight to how these people lived and worked from preparing the tea, transporting it and their cultural mores.

Puerh tea has long been known for its benefits and it is found along this route.

This body of work including the use of an infrared camera for shots of the tea trees where the people were at work, panoramas and many portraits. 

Through Freeman we were given an insight into the lives of these people, how they worked in the fields, prepared the tea cakes, their horses at work, the dangerous paths they crossed along the route.  But the focus was not just on the work and the tea, he also gave us an insight into their culture including; the annual festival held in thanksgiving for the gift of the tea leaves, their music and arts and crafts. 

Freeman also captures a way of life that is in decline – cormorant fishing – by spending time with a man who still uses this type of fishing to survive.

Included in the presentation were a couple of short films including Freeman himself going across a gorge by a cable suspended from one side to the other.  The use of these films enhanced his presentation as they were relevant and timely in his presentation.

Overall an impressive collection and some food for thought for me on capturing people and ways of life that are changing or in decline.