Time: 10.30pm till 5pm

£150

Sunday October 30 2011 at Mycenae House, Blackheath

Workflow is very much an individual process and while one photographer may prefer particular software to assist his or her workflow, others might favour another piece of software. There is more than one method of working, many routes to get to your destination. The thing to remember is that none is wrong; it’s a matter of what best suits your way of working.

The popular RAW software is Lightroom. However, we are also happy working with Capture 1 and Digital Photo Professional (DPP).

What makes life easy is the way we work with the software we have. This workshop is designed to help you work more quickly, more efficiently and more creatively and to speed up the processing of your images.

Topics covered

Why RAW

Why TIFF

Why JPEG

Importing your files

White balance an grey balance

Rating images

Colour management

Colour spaces

Converting to black and white

Exporting files

Calibration

Backing up your files

Digital Asset management (the cataloguing, storage, retrieval of images)

What you will need

A laptop and some cool images in raw, pen and paper for note taking

What do you do if you are about to photograph only your second wedding in a fortnight’s time and you’re filled with anxieties? Our two delegates found themselves in this position so we lent a hand, going through the highs and lows of a typical wedding day in our one-on-one wedding workshop.

At R&B Photo School we believe that the only way to learn is to do; so it was with this in mind that we took out two clients to the Royal Naval College in Greenwich to ‘photograph a wedding’.

The sun shone brilliantly, not always a good thing at a wedding, and ably assisted by our ‘bride’ Julie who was on hand to play her part as the blushing bride, we got to work.

Our delegates were well equipped with what is now considered by many in the industry as the perfect wedding pro’s tools of choice: a Canon 5D MKII, because of its high ISO capabilities, vertical grips, Speedlites 580EX II, and a full set of Lastolite light modifiers.

We started the wedding workshop by shooting into the light, teaching the rudiments of using the flash to overpower bright sunlight if necessary; using the environment and architecture as a photographic aid; posing the bride and groom; how to deal with ‘Uncle Bob’; making correct choices; the need to work quickly and efficiently; and how to always be on the lookout for the unexpected wow! image.

We also had a chance to shoot inside the Painted Chapel using high ISO, in this case anything from 800, as you will see from the images here.

Image by William Fitch

Image by William Fitch

Image by William Fitch

The city of London offers wonderful photographic opportunities and it was with this in mind that we held our last outdoor lighting workshop around the Spitalfields Market area of the capitol to show what can be achieved with daylight and flash, plus a few odds and sods as light modifiers. Simply, the brief was to find the best architecture to use as our natural backdrop to produce beautiful lighting, with a good pub lunch thrown in, of course.

Any location can become your studio if you look for the light. We found our studio in the city in an alley that led from Bishopsgate to Old Spitalfields Market, an area cloaked in brickwork with shadows and light spilling out from every nook and cranny.

The group soon got busy shooting against the brickwork and marvelling at the quality of light they were getting from simply bouncing the flash heads, in the case a Metz 45 CL, into the wall and on to the subject. We got busy taking advantage of the perfect cloud-covered sky and many more shots were achieved by balancing daylight and ambient and bouncing from umbrellas and soft boxes.

Finding ourselves actually in Old Spitafields Market, we were accosted by an elderly resident nosey enough to enquire what we were doing, after giving her a quick lesson in location lighting she offered to pose for some shots, bounced off the adjacent wall. Unorthodox but effective; she was pleases with the outcome, too.

The most challenging (and also spectacular) session of the outdoor lighting workshop came when we visited the bustling covered market in the renovated part of Spitalfields. Here traders were flogging their wares enticing customers, as were eager restaurateurs trying to lure weary shoppers inside their eateries.

In the covered market we were confronted by purple and orange neon lights, daylight, tungsten lighting and gridded stairwells; perfect for a location lighting challenge. But equipped with snoots, bubble wrap, a portable soft box and a muslin cloth we managed produced some extraordinary lighting from our workshop.

Our next outdoor lighting workshop will be held in May. Keep an eye on the blog (www.randbphotoschool.wordpress.com) for time, place and date.

Image by Antonio Caballero

Image by Antonio Caballero

Image by Antonio Caballero

Image by Antonio Cabarello

Sign up for our six-week studio lighting workshop starting on November 16

The aim of the workshop is to enable you to take professional-level photographs under the tutelage of Richard Liston and Ben Joseph, two published photographers with studio and location-based experience using Elinchrom lighting equipment. You will also be given the opportunity to shoot on location at the Tudor Barn’s beautiful and extensive grounds.

What you will learn:

• Week 1:         Introduction to lighting set ups (Butterfly, broad, short, Rembrandt)
• Week 2:         High key and low-key images and lighting ratios
• Week 3          How to control daylight and flash to your advantage
• Week 4    When and why to use light modifiers such as umbrellas, reflectors, softboxes, snoots, barn doors and beauty dishes
• Week 5   You’re in control. We ask you to work to a brief applying all you’ve learnt to produce a winning image
• Week 6          Digital workflow, including editing your images in Photoshop

At the end of the seven-week workshop you will have gained the knowledge and skill to confidently take a professional standard image and work unaided in a studio.

Dates: 16 November 2010 to 21 December

What to bring:

Appropriate camera and lenses, Memory cards, Triggering device (if you have one), Spare battery, A note pad and pen

Timetable:

Arrive 6.50pm for 7pm start.

We will commence the session with a short introduction of the evening’s topic and conclude with a general discussion of the session

Who should attend:

This course is recommended for photographers who wish to extend their knowledge of portraiture and lighting or those wishing to learn how to work in a studio environment. You should already have a basic understanding of how to use your Dslr in all modes.

Location:

Tudor Barn, Well Hall Pleasaunce, Well Hall Road, Eltham, London SE9 6SZ

To book, email Ben and Richard at ben.joseph@talk21.com