Saturday night, after a nice round of homemade pizzas at Tony‘s place, he offered to show me the ropes of studio photography. With Sean as our model (since he needed portraits anyway) we went to work in Tony’s dining room converted studio.
I haven’t done much photography work with people in general. And I’ve never done any studio work. Tony was a very big help. It was amazing to watch him direct Sean into position after position. It reminded me of how I write code. I’ve done it so many times that, in most cases, I don’t really have to think about what I’m writing… it just comes out.
The "studio" aspect of things I grasped pretty quickly, I think. I know how to arrange the lights. I know what the basic goal is. I know how to solve problems in the image. I know how to determine proper exposure. I also learned a little about working with people. In the end, grasping that portion of photography seems as though it will be my most difficult task.
This image is one that was taken Saturday night. I think it turned out okay for my first attempt. I know have a huge desire to get all sorts of studio equipment so that I can play around and learn. For my purposes it doesn’t have to be state-of-the-art, or even in good condition. In fact, I’d almost prefer that it wasn’t as it would make learning that much more difficult and that much more rewarding in the end. If you have any leads on where to get used strobes, soft boxes, umbrellas, refectors, backdrops, power sources, and light stands… let me know.
Thanks, Tony, for being a generous host and a good teacher.