August 21 – 23 2020
Wendover, Utah
Organization: Professional Photographers of Idaho
I’ll be teaching an awesome lighting class soon out on the Salt Flats. And we’ll spend some time too at the Wendover Army Airfield.
As artists, we usually try to align the stars in our favor by photographing only at golden light for instance, or photographing families in shady areas so we don’t get squinty eyes or harsh light on faces.
But true creativity comes through problem solving and pushing ourselves beyond our current comfort zone.The Utah Salt Flats is a harsh and fast changing environment. There’s no shade or dark backgrounds for easy portraits, and desert winds and storms can come through quickly. Just relying on natural light
there will mean dark, muddy faces, and washed out skies and backgrounds – no matter how much you digitally push your image later.
Instead, get great skin tones at any time of day (daytime, afternoon, sunset, twilight), while also getting fantastic and emotionally vivid backgrounds and skies. Learn to do this quickly and efficiently so that
you can shoot manually for complete control and consistent results, while also being completely engaged with your client for wonderful expressions.
Knowing how to master those harsh environments and really nail your images there will result in great new portfolio samples, while helping your other portrait work as well.
As photographers we often have to show up to a situation and make the lighting work without excuse. Maybe we had a high school senior scheduled for golden light, but now she can only come when the
sun is harsh. Or maybe we show up to a wedding to find it dark, rainy, and windy.
Being adaptive in your lighting techniques and knowing these skills will make you and your work stand out from the competition, you’ll be more creative, a better problem solver, and you’ll save an
immense amount of time in post production as well.
So whether you just have some small speedlights or more powerful mobile lighting, come to the Salt Flats event with the Professional Photographers of Idaho, and let’s rock your lighting. This will change
how you shoot both outside and in the studio, while improving your ability to photograph families, children, seniors, and weddings anywhere.
This event is limited in class size. If you’d like to come to this event, register by contacting the Professional Photographers of Idaho.
Here are more of my portrait samples from this location. Look at the variety of colors and lighting. When the sun moves at this location, the entire feel changes – and it happens fast. Come to this event to really learn how to master this fast changing environment with your lighting.
