Summer school

Summer is here! Maybe not technically "here," but it's the time of year when its 100 degrees outside everyday of the week, and the sun doesn't go down until after 9pm. In other words: my favorite time of year!

I'm blessed that I am not committed to a 40-hour/week job, so I have more time for playing Rev and enjoying the sunshine... well, almost. This summer I have committed to 9 weeks of summer school. While meeting 3 consecutive days a week from 8-5 doesn't seem like fun, it has it's perks. For one thing, I have access to a versatile photo studio space. I'll be posting my class assignments for all to enjoy.

As a review, lets look at how my previous experience with lighting.

Semester 1 in Photo classes, barely learning about lighting patterns and the small studio set-up only had tungsten lights (eek), hence the yellow color cast.


Family event, first use of strobes (outside of the classroom). As you can see, I had no idea what I was doing with the background light... it's very "hot." Other than that, not too bad considering I didn't know how to use a light meter back then.


Semester 1 in Photo classes had just ended. I had to do some company portraits for a Christmas card using available light (in this case fluorescent lighting) and my limited knowledge of using reflectors. Of course, as I had no assistants, I had to use myself to check lighting and set-up the shots.


Semester 2 in Photo classes had just commenced. Again, company portraits. This time for the company website. By this time, I had a little more understanding of lighting patterns, but still no grasp of how to control the background light (see hotspot under my left arm). And again, I had to use myself to check the lighting. Love the haircut!



Semester 3-Summer school. My first assignment was "Basic Portrait" and we basically did portraits of eachother in class, just to familiarize ourselves with the basic lighting patterns. Here's my classmate, Stephen, lit using a "short loop" lighting pattern.