JEA - Light It Up & Portfolio 2.0

I got some really good advice from these two workshops and I wanted to share it here. :) Casey and I have been considering making workshops for the juniors next semester based on this information.  We would get together with Rush/Caroline to see what else they learned and have a few workshops over a month or two. We'll have to see how to do it ourselves first, but that's the idea!

What I Learned from Light It Up! Workshop

• About Ambient Light: Use the ambient light to your advantage! Use it for fill light! Golden hour is a great time and the best time to take photos using only ambient lighting. It creates nice colors, flattering shadows, and interesting lighting.
• White Balance:  Arrive at your setting early and check which white balance looks best or creates the feeling you want to achieve. It doesn't matter if its "technically right." Whatever looks best to you!
• Theatre Lighting:  A tip to take clean, focused photos when you have a really slow shutter speed is put your camera against the door frame and push against it firmly so it won't move.  Look for Rembrandt lighting - triangles of light under one eye. It's very flattering!
• "Shape the Light" - Look for "twinkles" in the eyes! If there's no twinkle, you're looking a "zombie eyes!" You always want light in your subjects eyes! You don't want harsh shadows on people, they aren't flattering! In a dark hallway, point the flash at a white wall instead of at the ceiling! It creates a much more flattering, soft side lighting.
• Gym Lighting - In a gym, he suggest using a large studio light instead of the little flashes. While clearly that's impossible for some of us, it created REALLY great lighting in the photos he showed! If there was any way we could do that, it'd be awesome.

What I Learned In Portfolio 2.0

"A portfolio is a living, breathing beast!"

Questions You Should Ask Yourself:

• Do you know your strongest image?
• Do your images look the same?
• What is the story? The theme?
• What is the purpose? College, job, etc.?

For art colleges, you may be looking more at a thematic, artsy portfolio.  In photojournalism, you'll be looking at the widest variety of your BEST photojournalistic images.

Photo Placement: Lasting impressions are important. You want the viewer to remember your photos, so always START your portfolio with your absolute strongest image. Put your weakest in the middle somewhere, and then put your second strongest image LAST. You're only as good as your weakest image, so use your strongest images and make it count! ALWAYS use the absolute minimum amount of photos allowed! It's better to have a strong, small portfolio than have a strong portfolio that was ruined by an out of place image or several weaker ones only put in to use space.

Variety: Use different subjects, camera angles and points of view. Demonstrate your own style and the best of your skills. DON'T use random collections! Things to watch are: colors vs black and white, feature/sports/etc., and mood.

Ask MANY people before presenting your portfolio! Use a trained eye rather than someone who doesn't understand the technical parts of photography. Take their advice into consideration, but realize that you have the final say. Use criticism to your advantage!