PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY AND ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING

Collated below are testimonials from participants of Portrait Photography and Artificial Lighting workshops.

Megha Nagpal

The workshop was an enlightening experience. It was a totally new experience for me as I have never been exposed to flash photography before this. It was interesting to know how artificial light can be manipulated to create an image. The presentation before the hands-on experience was a great help & actually shooting with lights was superb. Flash photography excites me as it adds to my knowledge of the fashion industry. 

I’m glad I was a part of this workshop…thanks a lot

Ruchika Sachdeva

The workshop was a good introduction and a great insight into flash photography …i had never used a flash before… learnt a lot … got really motivated … but the only thing is that I can’t remember all the technical terms… and i couldn’t even make notes… so I suggest that it would be of great help if u could give out some handouts giving a list of all the technical terms, with a brief description … besides that it was a brilliant experience … and I don’t need to mention that you and shailan sir are awesome teachers because you already know that ;)… thanks for such a terrific workshop … looking forward to more of these kinds 

Benoit Marquet

overall I found the workshop very interesting, it gave me knowledge about something I had no idea about so far. 

I found it sometimes a bit difficult to follow though – maybe because i started completely ignorant. it would be good to insist more on the very important principles, the ones to really keep in mind, compared to things that are not essential.

it would be good to get the print-out of the presentation too because I took only a few notes, and I feel that I’m already starting to forget things.

regarding the practical part – studio and flash shoots – that was great too. To improve it, I would recommend to have it a bit more organized in terms of timing: we could work in pairs (model/photographer), with 15 minutes session, and then the model becomes the photographer and vice versa; after 30 min, a second pair can work. I realize today that I have not practised enough and made the most of my presence in the studio, which I regret a little bit – but I am the one to blame here.

Vibhor Taneja

the introductory workshop to the universe of flash photography was a good exposure 

it was really an eye-opener – I did have some idea about studio photography 

but the workshop was a great help for me get the real picture

after the workshop, my interest in studio lighting has gone on nitro boost 

and I can’t wait to do more and more of it

what I missed was an extreme practice session – which was not possible in a two-day session

I also wanted to explore tabletop/ product shots…just waiting to get my hands on a set of lights to get started!!!

till then will manage with table lamps 😛

Mohit Gupta

Thanks, Jogi and Shailan for such a nice workshop. It was a very well organized workshop building from the foundations and then with some hands-on training in the end. I don’t see anything lacking. Thanks for making me comfortable with the flash/studio lights. I know there’s much more to lighting than we covered in two days but the basics were there. 🙂

Ankit Gulati

I really loved the workshop. I believe the entire concept of learning by doing makes the workshop special. There was always so much to try & experiment & so much to pizzas to feast on 🙂 It took me some time to realize why we were not relying on the metering mode though 🙂

There is only one apprehension I have (nothing related to workshop directly), as is the case in any kind of work if u don’t practice, u forget. I really doubt I would get much opportunity to shoot with studio lights. Keeping this in mind, would have liked to know abt more Jugaads (truly photosensitive style :))) ) which I could use at home to get similar kinds of effects. or probably get to shoot with lights again someday in one of the workshops

Preeta Agarwal

I have been wanting to learn artificial lights for a long time but as one doesn’t have a setup at home so it is not possible. With this workshop, I got to work with a full setup and used it myself … to get a better understanding.

The best part about the workshop was that each team had a full setup to explore with. Inputs were basic but I guess for a 4-day workshop the inputs were enough. Inputs and explorations can be endless. I was lucky to have a group who wanted to try everything and we actually worked as a team to get good results and had fun.

What I would suggest is that you make extend these workshops to a four-weekend workshop. Because most of us who are taking these workshops don’t have a setup at our houses and it would be better is the students can spend more time to get the hang of the equipment. In our batch, there were some people who still don’t have a good understanding of the lights. Also, I feel that we should have done a little bit more of products. We concentrated more on portraits and it left very little time to explore products.

But all in all you guys rock.. everything is always so well organized that I guess we guys have got used to by now and have taken it for granted that you guys will take care of everything. But it takes a lot of effort and it is very well appreciated by all.

Shubhra Chaturvedi

The 4 days of workshop at the end just left me thinking one thing… wow, that was good leaning but how do I get better as I do not have lights at home to practice?

I reached the conclusion in my head to keep trying with whatever light I have, at least the basics right… in terms of placing the light and seeing the basic nuances, composition etc. I also figured out that one could once in a while practice at Sachin’s place. So that eased me a bit…

Coming to my learning, I did find the workshop of use from the point of figuring out in my head what the various lights and their intensity and positioning can do to the composition. I did get a lot of clarity to my own questions. What I still couldn’t understand was the focal length to use when doing portraits, I mean I understood it from the demo u showed but there was always a tendency to go closer and tighter… and have seen pictures on the net using all kind of focal length so a bit hazy in the head on that account. Maybe I’ll try more pictures at home and figure it out.

Overall it was indeed an enlightening workshop. I learnt a lot.