This post has been created and written by attendees of the 10 day JarvieDigital Bootcamp 2011 – (Interns for summer 2011)
Each post that we will release in the coming days will be about what they learned on that day.
(Photos by Laurel Scott)
INTERN 1
Day 3 - “Know when to hold them… know when to fold them.”
This morning we worked on practicing workflow – rejecting images that are blurry, timing each other, and helping each other learn. It is important to help each other because Scott doesn’t have all the time in the world (obviously), and if someone catches onto something faster than others, they can help everyone else learn and catch up.
The teaching experience is a very powerful one. Sometimes when teaching someone else, I end up learning more about what I’m teaching about in the process. To have to explain something to someone else means that I have to be able to put it into words that make sense… which is much harder than simply “knowing” something. Putting the knowledge into words helps reinforce it.
In the orchard:
(Photos by Laurel Scott)
It was wet and rainy and my shoes got soaked through with cold water – and my pants were wet up to my knees – so that was not so fun, but the day itself was. We took photos of the girls from the Renaissance Hair Academy who had done all their own hair and makeup for our shoot. We took them out to an orchard and practiced assisting each other, using flash, using props, and working with the weather. It rained on and off during the day and it was chilly – so we had to be careful with the equipment and our models.
The most beneficial thing of the day was learning to work with lots of different kinds of people. Giving the models directions and interacting with them was great experience. Watching how they reacted to different approaches. Some responded well to humor, others to serious directions only, and some didn’t seem to respond to much at all, which just means that maybe I needed to try something else with them.
(Photos by Laurel Scott)
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(Photos by Britney Brent)
INTERN 2
Don’t judge me, I’ll flash you if I want!
WOW! What a difference using a flash when taking portraits makes! I’ve been a “natural light” type of photographer. I loved that there were less shadows, and a really soft look to the pictures. But after looking at pictures from our photo shoot with 30 beautiful Renaissance Hair School students, I saw that using a flash can bring their true beauty to life in a picture.
(Photo by Britney Brent)
Our eyes are attracted to what is lightest in the picture: when you add a flash you help bring the onlooking eye toward what is important; their beautiful faces. When you add a flash the contrast in the picture becomes much higher and the crispness rises. Their eyes literally come to life more.
(Photos by Britney Brent)
I am in LOVE with using a flash now. LOVE IT!!!
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(Photo by Angela Terry)
INTERN 3
Posey Pose
- Today was a super fun day! We were able to photograph the girls from the Renaissance Hair Academy in Provo, Utah in an orchard. They were bubbly and had lots of energy, which made it fun to photograph.
- Today, in the orchard, I worked on assisting, lighting and working on flashes but I want to focus on what I learned about posing.
- Working off the client’s energy and personality.
- Letting them find a natural pose and making small adjustments. Having them look to the light, then away from the light.
- Just moving the eyes to look at me but keeping their head in the same position.
- Mixing up the natural poses.
- Playing little games with them like, making a different pose every 3 seconds, having them switch from a serious look to a funny look and then back to a serious look then a funny look. It really loosens them up and makes it fun.
(Photos by Angela Terry)
- When posing a group it is good just to give general directions. Most people have been photographed in a group and know the tall people go in the back and shorter in the front. Also if you tell the group to have the front row knee down, you will find out, by who kneels down, who will be willing to kneel on the front row. Again, you will want to just do minor adjustments, or then the people will just hold still and wait for you to pose them, which takes time to do. Pick your battles in posing.
(Photos by Angela Terry)
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(Photos by Jeff Bushaw)
INTERN 4
Today we did an awesome photoshoot with the Renaissance Hair Academy of Provo. Scott has arranged for a huge group of cosmetology students to get all dressed up, hair done by each other and ready for a photoshoot in the middle of an orchard.
The best part of this photoshoot aside from the learning is that these girls are all in wonderful bubbly moods and ready to have fun. We first start out with Scott teaching us some methods of getting group shots. He taught something that should be obvious but we as photographer will usually try to control, and this is the fact that these are adults and in general, adults know how to arrange themselves in order of height to get into a group for a photo. After the general grouping is established, we as the photographer can then make adjustments to fill in space. Scott showed us how if we as the photographer were to intervene too quickly, all of the adults will automatically stop forming and sit and wait for us to place each and every one of them. Scott then taught about lighting large groups with a sort of cross lighting. For example, an assistant or a light stand will be placed on the right side of the group and aimed towards the left side of the group to avoid super bright lighting on the side the light is on. This is then done from the other side as well to create… cross light.
(Photos by Jeff Bushaw)
As we go through taking individual shots and small groups, we learned to have fun with our models in order to bring out their personalities. This will get us photos with a true look for each person vs. looking like they were “over posed.”
(Photos by Jeff Bushaw)
