Fashion Photography workshop with Dave
June 2nd, 2009Had another great private photography workshop last weekend with a super nice guy who came allllllll the way out from Ottawa Canada ! He also signed up for three days not just the two days !
The first day of the workshop I went over portfolio set up, size of prints, how they should be organized etc. I say “they” because you should have a portfolio for each one of your specialties. Dave has only been shooting for 4 months and he is very good. Aside from being creatively talented you must also know the business and how it works. I explained contracts and what should be included. We talked about how to get real models to shoot for your portfolio, how to direct them etc. I also covered tax write offs and most important I taught him about usage ! USAGE USAGE USAGE ! Dave had no idea he should be charging usage fees. So I really covered many areas on the business side that will increase his business sales. I then prepped him for the shoot with the model on the second day.
Most photographers these days when they are just starting out will build an in home photography studio which is a great idea. But many really don’t know how to go about it to make it practical and useful for everyone on the team, make up artist etc. So instead of renting a studio we shot in my home studio. We started the day with showing Dave how to direct a make up artist, what looks good with certain outfits. My make up artist explained about the different foundations etc. Dave gained a wealth of information seeing how I have set up my studio and how I have made it work for me. So I shot the model first. It was a great way for Dave to observe how I direct the model, what I say to the model, and basically how I conduct a fashion shoot.
So now you can see my in home studio. Obviously for large commercial shoots I rent a very large photography studio in LA, but for workshops, head shots etc. you’re in home studio will work perfectly !
You can see that we used a two light set up. That light that is facing Dave is for the flare. And here is the final shot not retouched btw. Dave did a great job and absorbed everything I taught him. Stay tuned for the third day !
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:23 am
Well well well….All the way from Ottawa is correct. Where would I start in order for me to describe my experience hangin out with Fashion Photographer Jason Christopher ?
Having only gotten into fashion photography about 4 months ago, I googled “fashion photography” and somehow Jason’s website popped up. After spending a few minutes browsing the site I came across the wind turbine shot and loved it !! So I sent him an email inquiring bout the lighting setup. Approx 30 mins later Jason sent me a reply and provided an indepth explanation of the setup etc..Which I thought was real cool of him to do. So I inquired about his workshop and after speaking with Jason on the phone it was a no brainer for me to make the trip down to Cali.
As Jason said I payed him for a 3 day workshop instead of 2 as I wanted to
learn as much as I could from him while I was down there.
Day 1 – I had no idea what to expect when I walked into Jasons home, but it became very obvious that this was a person who has dedicated his life to photography. Within minutes Jason was pouring over each of his portfoliios describing each of the shots from a concept and end result perspective. There really was no question that went unanswered and he definitely gave me what I felt was the unedited version into his world as a fashion photographer in LA. I had warned him that I had a slew of business questions and he answered each one again and again. So many things we went over, usage fees, Model agencies, Fee structure, branding, website design, photography equipment, portfolios etc etc. It was a non stop session into the business side of Jasons Christopher Photography and it was a hell of a learning session. Before we knew it 7 hours had flown by and it was time to head out and get a bit of rest. I’ll be honest, up until that point I had paid Jason $750 which was my deposit and I had told myself that if the first day was crap I would of jetted to go shoot landscapes. Well by end of day I knew that Jason was legit.
Saturday – Studio day. Obviously I had a bit of nerves when heading over to Jasons place for the all day shoot with Olga the aspiring super model. I had no idea what to expect but was definitely looking forward to it.
11am I showed up, I met one of Jasons makeup artists Casey who was a real pleasure to talk to. Olga and the clothing stylist showed up next and for the next 2 hours I was immersed into the world of fashion makeup. There was really no detail spared and I was shocked as to the amount of prep work it took to get our model ready for the shoot. Believe me Olga was beautiful to begin with but to see all of the prep work was amazing..I really had no idea..It was also good to see how involved Jason was with each styling decision, right down to the fingernail polish.
Once the shoot took place, Jason really came alive. There was no doubt that I had made the right decision to take the workshop. We went thru the lighting setup, model instruction, how to instruct the makeup artists etc
It was all done with a relatively simple setup in his living room but the results were amazing !! After watching Jason for the 1st hour, I then jumped in and got some of the best experience to date. Olga was awesome to work with and the entire group accepted me which in turn allowed me to learn and really have a blast !! We went thru 4 outfit changes thru out the day and by the end I felt I had learned a ton.
Day 3 – Outside shoot. I had stressed to Jason that I really wanted to spend a day outside, learning to use off camera fill flash. So that is exactly what we did. After a quick trip to the local camera store as I had to buy the PC cable to remotely fire my speedight we were off to our outside location. I got to work with another model Michael, who again was a real pleasure to work with. We went over different lighting techniques, use of backlighting which really seems to be Jasons signature look. It was another great day of experience for me, which I will definitely continue to improve on now that I am back home.
All in all the workshop was better that I could of hoped for. Jason is a great teacher and I had a blast for the 3 days hangin out with him. His passion for Fashion photography was obvious from the minute I met him.
We all have our own styles but I have no doubt that i will be incorporating alot of the techniques I learned from the 3 days with Jason Christopher.
Jason thanks again. It was a pleasure to meet you and your crew. You have definitely steered me in the right direction and I look forward to hooking up again.
For those of you reading this and are not sure if the workshop will help you. Well stop thinking and start doing. Its a small price to pay to work with someone like Jason and I can assure you it will be worth the investment.
Cheers
Dave Clee
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June 4th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Dave, thank you so much ! You were a pleasure to work with. You’re super cool and easy going
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June 6th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Your home is BEAUTIFUL. And thanks for this post, it’s so useful in teaching people how to set up a studio given a common place.
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Jason Christopher Reply:
June 7th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Thank you Ainee. I hope to see you attend my workshop.
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June 23rd, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Definitely a great down to earth read. Jason, you’re really a great guy and I don’t even know you, but from what I’ve read and from what a fellow Canadian has got to say, it surely can’t be false. Thanks for sharing all the knowledge you’ve obtained over your career so far.
I’m not sure how I came across your site, but I’ve plugged you in at http://www.digitalsoftbox.com and would love to interview you sometime if you’re down for that.
All the best to you man.
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Jason Christopher Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Hi Brian,
Thank you for the compliments, that is very nice of you. I went to digitalsoftbox.com and it looks like a great site. I would love to have you interview me.
Cheers !
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July 2nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Hi Jason
My question is about lighting for beauty shots. I shoot in our garage so I’m working in a small area. I usually use a beauty dish as my main light placed slightly to my right tilted roughly at a 45 deg angle above the model and a reflector placed about 6-12in below the model’s face.
How can I get my beauty shots to stand out and pop more rather than looking kind of flat lighting wise?
Thank you for your “bits of info” Jason
Jackie
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Jason Christopher Reply:
July 6th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Hi Jackie ! So good to hear from you.
The first thing I want to know is if your beauty dish is white or silver and do you place a “sock” over the front ? In my opinion because I have tried many light modifiers, I don’t like beauty dishes. I use a small satin umbrella with a silver reflector just under the model’s breasts. Sometimes I place the umbrella at a 45 degree angle and sometimes I go for butterfly lighting.
So reply with your answer to my question and I can offer some more advice.
And be sure to click the RSS FEED at the top of my main blog page. Every time I answer your questions you will be notified.
Thanx hun
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July 6th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Hey Jason,
Thanks for replying. To answer your question my beauty dish is silver and I do not put a sock on it (sorry I don’t know what that is
). I was actually thinking about using a small satin umbrella with reflector before you mentioned it and I think I’ll try the butterfly lighting for beauty shots too.
I’m supposed to have 2 beauty shot shoots this week or I’ll try both techniques you mentioned and I’ll post the images so you can see how I did.
PS.. I got the email notification that you replied to my question
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Jason Christopher Reply:
July 9th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Hey Jackie ! A sock is just slang for the diffusion piece that attaches to the front of the beauty dish. Imagine a large shower cap made out of white diffusion fabric.
I can’t wait to see the results !
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July 21st, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Jason in your opinion which is better for promotion? Web,mailers,drop off portfoilo? In person meeting would probably be the best but I’m sure that can’t always happen. Would you say some sort of combination? And what kind of promo things do you do? Thanks
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Jason Christopher Reply:
July 22nd, 2009 at 10:22 am
Hi Rashod ! Very good question ! All three are what you need to do. Having a photography website is absolutely essential and making sure it is optimized for search engines. I don’t just mean keywords and all that. Your site needs to be coded up to Google standards otherwise you will not have a snowballs chance in hell in ranking. The company that takes care of optimizing my site is Dreamrow. As you can tell they have done an amazing job at keeping me at the top. They are very personable and answer any questions you may have.
Promotional mailers should be sent out as well. Actually this is a great opportunity to create a special category that talks about promoting yourself as a photographer in detail. I am going to do that today. For now I will still answer your questions.
Dropping off your portfolio is also something you need to do. But that comes after you are called in from a potential client. Sure you can walk into any ad agency or designer and ask to drop off your book but turn the situation around. What if a make up artist knocked on your door without an appointment and asked to come in and show her book?
That’s not very cool. This is my promo card . Aside from all this I make cold calls which I must admit I hate but it’s gotta be done.
Thank you for the question Rashod. Feel free to click the RSS button to keep up to date and I added a social plugin as you can see. If you like this post or any other posts please click the social network buttons to share with other networks.
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July 22nd, 2009 at 11:03 am
thanks jason! that helps a lot going to get my promo stuff started.
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Jason Christopher Reply:
July 22nd, 2009 at 11:34 am
You’re very welcome Rashod !
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