dreilly
Chillin' in Geneva
- Local time
- 6:49 PM
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2004
- Messages
- 1,045
I've been meaning to post this for a long while, but finally I have a spare moment to do it.
A few months back I had the pleasure of attending Frank Petronio's portrait workshop in Rochester. Well, I say "attend"...it was me, Frank and Sarah, the model. So it was really more of a tutorial, or private lesson, or...
...well, whatever the term, it was pretty awesome.
Frank's really good at what he does and he shares his experience and knowledge freely and fluently. And he chose his model really well. Sarah was bright, intuitive and had a great sense of what poses might work. Which was good because I was at a loss.
That was what I was trying to work on in the workshop. Beforehand, Frank asked me what I hoped to get out of it, and I said my biggest problem is that I've been training myself so long to be a documentary photographer (which is what the fly on the wall refers to itself as when the other flies accuse of it of being a...wall fly). But whenever I'm on a shoot (restaurant photography) and it crosses out of documentary work into portraiture, I kinda freeze up. My job is to wait for people to do something that looks good. I have no idea what this is beforehand (well, not true entirely, I do sometimes have a feeling, but it's still reactive, not directive). Anyway, working with a model was what we worked on, and it was really fun and very helpful.
One of the thing Frank told me was that models often need/like a lot of feedback to know that they look good in this or that pose. Funny, but my wife recently told me the same thing about actors--lots of feedback needed. Talking to girls...telling them they are pretty (especially when they are) was never my strong suit, and so my attempts were pretty comical. I always try to use my own awkwardness as a strength!
I learned quite a bit about light--artificial and natural--and how to position people relative to light. That was fascinating. Though harder to encapsulate in a rule like "the rule of thirds", a lot of what Frank showed me falls into the same category, relatively simple ideas that can totally change a person's photography. Now when I'm on a shoot and portrait time comes I'm a bit more confident moving people into better light, changing their footing, etc. I have a long, long way to go, but at least I have one or two tricks up my sleeve instead of...none.
So anyway, I could go on and on...y'all want to see some pics I am sure, and the bottom line is...Frank gives a great workshop, if you have any interest in portrait photography, well worth the time.
On the way back from our last location we passed the "eternal torch" at the Kodak campus...well, a little irony there I guess.
BTW, all of these were shot with an R-D1 and 35mm f1.2 lens, converted from Raw in lightroom or direct jpeg from the camera.
A few months back I had the pleasure of attending Frank Petronio's portrait workshop in Rochester. Well, I say "attend"...it was me, Frank and Sarah, the model. So it was really more of a tutorial, or private lesson, or...
...well, whatever the term, it was pretty awesome.
Frank's really good at what he does and he shares his experience and knowledge freely and fluently. And he chose his model really well. Sarah was bright, intuitive and had a great sense of what poses might work. Which was good because I was at a loss.
That was what I was trying to work on in the workshop. Beforehand, Frank asked me what I hoped to get out of it, and I said my biggest problem is that I've been training myself so long to be a documentary photographer (which is what the fly on the wall refers to itself as when the other flies accuse of it of being a...wall fly). But whenever I'm on a shoot (restaurant photography) and it crosses out of documentary work into portraiture, I kinda freeze up. My job is to wait for people to do something that looks good. I have no idea what this is beforehand (well, not true entirely, I do sometimes have a feeling, but it's still reactive, not directive). Anyway, working with a model was what we worked on, and it was really fun and very helpful.
One of the thing Frank told me was that models often need/like a lot of feedback to know that they look good in this or that pose. Funny, but my wife recently told me the same thing about actors--lots of feedback needed. Talking to girls...telling them they are pretty (especially when they are) was never my strong suit, and so my attempts were pretty comical. I always try to use my own awkwardness as a strength!
I learned quite a bit about light--artificial and natural--and how to position people relative to light. That was fascinating. Though harder to encapsulate in a rule like "the rule of thirds", a lot of what Frank showed me falls into the same category, relatively simple ideas that can totally change a person's photography. Now when I'm on a shoot and portrait time comes I'm a bit more confident moving people into better light, changing their footing, etc. I have a long, long way to go, but at least I have one or two tricks up my sleeve instead of...none.
So anyway, I could go on and on...y'all want to see some pics I am sure, and the bottom line is...Frank gives a great workshop, if you have any interest in portrait photography, well worth the time.
On the way back from our last location we passed the "eternal torch" at the Kodak campus...well, a little irony there I guess.
BTW, all of these were shot with an R-D1 and 35mm f1.2 lens, converted from Raw in lightroom or direct jpeg from the camera.
