Garry Edwards
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- Garry Edwards
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Now that I’ve been demoted to moderator, I think it’s time to get people involved in their lighting journey.
Years ago, before I retired, I occasionally hosted lighting workshops for TP members and also sometimes invited members to attend shoots, all paid for by the lighting firm that I worked with at the time, but I can’t do that now. Also, there used to be a lot of threads about lighting techniques, but most of the threads today seem to be about equipment choices and issues about equipment. Maybe that’s just a sign of the times, but I would like to see whether this forum can move forward and provide a better learning experience to our membership.
What do I have in mind?
If we go ahead with this we may need a dedicated Lighting Challenge sub-forum, this is something that I can raise with the admins.
Years ago, before I retired, I occasionally hosted lighting workshops for TP members and also sometimes invited members to attend shoots, all paid for by the lighting firm that I worked with at the time, but I can’t do that now. Also, there used to be a lot of threads about lighting techniques, but most of the threads today seem to be about equipment choices and issues about equipment. Maybe that’s just a sign of the times, but I would like to see whether this forum can move forward and provide a better learning experience to our membership.
What do I have in mind?
- Each month, the challenge leader will post a new thread, showing how the subject was lit, showing the thinking behind all of the various aspects, the position of the lights and so on and, if possible, including stepback shots. It will be all about the lighting, so ideally there should be NO post-processing work, we want to show the faults and challenges, not mask them.
- All other members are then invited to photograph a subject that shares the same type of lighting challenge, and post their results as a reply. I think that one new challenge each month should be about right, giving everyone a month to add their own input.
- The subject should be something that most people can photograph in a small space, because we want to include people who only have a small space – very few of us have a large studio.
- The lighting equipment can be literally anything, from flashguns to studio flash, from desklights to window light, top brands to DIY, it’s all about creating light and shadow, the right gear can make life easier but not everyone has it.
- The subject should be something that most of us have available. As an example, I can post one on photographing snooker cues, a lot of people will have a snooker cue available but anything similar, with a shiny cylindrical surface, will be a fine alternative. I once did a tutorial about photographing rifles, but that would be a much more difficult type of subject for most of us to undertake. I also feel that we should avoid nudes, because we want the threads to be safe for work, and TP already has a dedicated forum for this type of photography. Other than that, the subject range will be open.
- I’ll be happy to start things off, and to step back in from time to time, but I’m hoping that other people will set their own lighting challenge, because I have my own way of doing things and we will be able to learn more if other people, with different approaches, mount their own challenges. Just PM me if you want to do this.
If we go ahead with this we may need a dedicated Lighting Challenge sub-forum, this is something that I can raise with the admins.