Two days of workshops, door prizes, lights, and cameras, this expo was a great learning experience. When I signed up, I was limited to two workshops a day. Fortunately, I was able to drop in on more than I had originally signed up for. I attended every class on lighting that I could. The all essentially said the same thing, but from different viewpoints and using different techniques. I did learn a few things.
Badly mixed lighting makes a great opportunity for black and white.
Continuous lighting is very easy to work with.
It’s okay for a woman to pose in a masculine pose (body towards the main light), but never put a guy in a feminine pose (body away from the main light).
Workshops should not be held outside on rainy days or in small, noisy hallways.
David Piazza adjusts a softbox in his lighting workshop.
The workshops were well done, except for a little poor planning for one, but at least the information was helpful in that one. My favorite workshop, by far, was the Lighting Basics Made Easy class, presented by Dave Piazza of Westcott. He was the only presenter I saw who actually set up his lighting in front of the class and shot tethered, so we could see the results of each and every lighting change. Not only did he demonstrate a basic portrait setup, he showed off some of Westcott’s products, including a seven foot parabolic reflecting umbrella.
Overall, the expo was a great experience and I hope that next year will be even better.