When I was at WPPI I was able to attend a shooting workshop with the Bui Brothers. Two amazingly talented and smart guys who are fashion/ portrait photographers and cinemtographers. They do a lot of commerical work and work in the entertainment industry. I use on camera flash for wedding receptions and such but this was my first real time shooting with off camera lighting. I have been around it and seen it, read about it, but yet have played. I am super stoked with the results! Just like anything with photography, I read about lighting first and my brain just would hurt. Then I attended a PUG meeting where Patrick Tipton, local lighting guru, spoke about it. My face was scrunched with confusion for a few days after that. So when I went to Vegas and attended this shooting workshop it all started to click! I understood everything that was being explained and I was able to play and use the gear. One cool thing about this workshop and the Bui Brothers are they very innovative. As anyone who does photography and more so lighting, knows it is expensive! So they did the whole workshop with the total lighting gear under $300! Stands, flashes, umbrella, triggers…….. that is pretty cool. They even made a homemade snoot (channels light so it more concentrated, opposite of a diffuser) out of black cardboard and black coffee stir straws!! It goes to show that it isn’t about the expensive gear but knowing how to use it!
So we started the day out with just standard headshots. It was a very cloudy and even started to rain, so we didn’t get any challenging lighting situations with full sun.
The only one of the set models that showed up! She was a trooper and endured the rain and looked beautiful for us!
The next two jumped in as models for us last minute and are a husband and wife photography team out of Chicago, Stevi and Matt Savage. Super cute, so in love, and so chic!
The Bui Brothers and some workshop attendees……..
They spoke about all kinds of lighting situations. Here we found some beautiful light in a stairway underpass with light coming from the side. Love how the light hits her face in that first shot….
Then we went on to start playing with actually flashes. They showed us a one light, 2 light, and 3 light setups. The center image of him is just using one light and the other two are using 2 lights. They showed how lighting can give a more dramatic fashion look.
Lastly they showed us the 3 light setup. Gives very dramatic shadows.
One of the workshop attendees from Texas, Liu-Anderson, brought her little baby and I couldn’t resist photographing him and holding him! It gave mom a break and opportunity to shoot, while I pacified my baby craving. The white marble floor made for a great natural reflector. Love the one of him playing with his reflection! He was the happiest baby and did not peep the whole time!
Me and the brothers. This is the Asian Persuasion! I could be a sista to the brothers! Actually Vu looks A LOT like my nephew. Anyway, I don’t know what happened here but we all could not make a normal face at the same time, but I love it!
Thank you so much Lan and Vu! I had a great time and ready to play more with lighting!
by Tina
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