Lighting is not easy. Executing technically perfect lighting is a huge challenge in itself, but for wedding and portrait photographers that shoot “real people” (not models), have limited time and budget with unpredictable shooting situations it is understandable why many photographers are anxious about it. You asked for it, and we delivered the first workshop of 2010, Mastering Light.

We love teaching, we love meeting new people, and the best part was leaving yesterday feeling completely inspired and energized. We are so thankful that we get to do what we love and a huge bonus is that we got to spend the day with some super RAD photographers! We started the day off with me covering the importance of lighting and why it has been such a critical element to the growth and success of our business. Eric took everyone through an extremely deep dive into covering the gear, including what we use, why we use it, and when we use it, which we followed with shooting and a critique. The day was very intensive (we even worked through lunch), and I think it was very obvious to everyone how passionate, technical, and self admittedly a little geeky Eric is when it comes to off-camera lighting. I personally wish that we had video rolling to show you everyone’s faces when Eric started covering The Inverse Square Law, but I have to say, once shooting began it was so amazing to see all of the technical concepts just click for everyone.

Thank you to Jeff and Lindsey for being our awesome models! A big thank you also to the Palace Theater in Danbury, for giving us full rein to shoot in your venue for our workshop! You will see in the images below that I shot available light all day and used very little post processing to hopefully demonstrate the dramatic impact that lighting has on Eric’s images below. Let us know what you think!

Jeff getting ready for his big jump…

Eric & I love New Haven, so do Courtney & Leo. A perfect fit. Enjoy!

I won’t bother with the commentary, stay posted for more Raw Photo Design “Best of 2009″ coming up! Thank you to these awesome clients for letting us post their gorgeous images and click here to view the details for the awesome $50 off Boudoir Winter Promotion we are currently offering! We also want to thank & give credit to the insanely talented Lindsey Gallagher & Stacey Palancia that make our job so easy by handling the hair, makeup & styling for these shoots!

Don’t be shy, let us know if you agree with our picks for “Best of”…

John Michael Cooper said it best, “I run a lot faster when I am being chased”. We have lots in store for 2010 – we will continue to raise the bar & do our best to innovate the Boudoir category, definitely check out our Boudoir feature in the 2010 issue of Grace Ormonde Wedding Style New England!