Lighting with Zack Arias

Wow, what a weekend I've had! I've had so much information that it almost feels as though I've been run over by a truck. At the same time, I have gained so much knowledge that I can't wait to share it with you.

Permission to use the image above given by (c) Wilfredo Valle.


In a previous blog I mentioned that the folks at CreativeLive are helping people all over the world improve their photography skills at no cost! Yup. You heard right. All you need is a decent internet connection and a desire to learn and you have a front seat from some of the best in the world such as David DuChemin, Zack Arias, Chase Jarvis, John Greengo and many more.

This past weekend, Zack Arias with a team of over 30 people, taught lighting for 3 days, starting Friday and going through to Sunday. Talk about a marathon session! He pulled out almost every piece of equipment that anyone could ever desire to own or want to use and demonstrated how it different from other types of lighting that he used. All these images and more will be posted up on his blog (www.zarias.com) in the coming weeks.

Permission to use the image above given by (c) Zack Arias.

There is no way that I can ever begin to summarize what Zack taught, but I managed to find a tentative schedule of topics for the weekend on his blog:


Friday

• My personal philosophy of having a studio space
• Considerations for getting a space of your own or turning a space you have into a studio space.
• The basics of exposure when using flash in studio. We will be using hotshoe flashes and strobes.
• Working with multiple lights and working with different lighting ratios
• Using a light meter and how to figure it out on the fly without a meter
• Overview of the modifiers we will be using over the weekend. Those include: Straight flash, Umbrellas, Softboxes, Octabanks, Beauty dish, Ring flash, Grids, Flags/Silks/Reflectors, DIY modifiers
• Q&A

Saturday

• The many uses of white seamless. I’ll be walking you through the entire process of shooting on a white seamless and getting the most out of one simple background
• Post production on the white seamless
• Q&A
• (lunch break somewhere between 1pm and 2pm.)
• Building a set. It will already be in place. I’ll just talk about the basic modular set pieces that went into making it.
• Grip equipment. How to put stuff together and do stuff with that stuff.
• Slowly moving away from the seamless and onto other background choices. IE: Fabric/Walls/Sets
• Working with subjects. Interaction and Posing. (I’ve had a lot of questions about this so I’m spending a lot of time on it.)
• Musicians. Duo and Trio. Group shots plus individuals. White seamless and other backgrounds + a simple set.
• Q&A

Sunday

• Quick recap of previous day and previous information about exposure. Not going to spend a lot of time on this but just a quick recap for those just joining.
• If I don’t cover the grip equipment on Saturday I’ll most likely do that Sunday morning.
• Art Direction! I will be pulling people from the live audience and giving them assignments to see what problems they run into and guide them through the process.
• More shooting. Different modifiers. Improv.
• Q&A
• (lunch break somewhere between 1pm and 2pm.)
• Working with a four piece band.
• Individuals and group shot.
• More shooting. Whatever we decide to do making sure I’ve used all the modifiers from the list above.
• Q&A

The good news is that YOU can (actually, you NEED to) buy this marathon lighting class from CreativeLive. It's a mere $129 for 25+ hours of a lighting workshop. So, instead of buying crappy equipment that you're going to have to replace in a 6 months, or struggling to get the "look" you wanted and then beating yourself up cuz your lighting sucks, just do yourself a favour and buy the download. It will be money well spent!  While you're at it, sign up to get notified of upcoming classes.

Thanks to Zack for an incredible weekend and for permission to use one of his images (the model on set with foot on apple box) in this blog. My thanks also go to Wilfredo Valle (www.wilfredovalle.com) who submitted a video entry and was able to attend the entire weekend at no cost (I hate the word free as it reminds me of a used car salesman!) and who has also given me permission to his image of Zack teaching the class.

That's it for another week! Have a great week.

John