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I have recently begun an eight week portraiture workshop led by Don Giannatti of Lighting Essentials for Photographers. Each week, we study a photographer to learn his/her lighting technique and style. Then, we take our inspiration from that information to create a portrait that will be critiqued the following week. The images above are my portraits from the first two assignments of the workshop.

The first three images are self-portraits inspired by the work of Victor Skrebneski (warning: there are some images on his site that contain nudity). Skrebneski mostly uses one light in his work and uses shadows to create mood. In this case, I used one speed light to create a similar mood.

The last two are portraits of my niece inspired by the work of Yousuf Karsh. If you look at his body of work, you will probably recognize many of his portraits. His images of Hemingway, Churchill, and JFK have been used in many publications. Karsh mostly used three lights to create his images. In my case, I used three speedlights, two behind and to the side of the subject, and one just above camera facing the subject.

I am currently working on my next assignment, Sarah Moon (warning: there is nudity). She is a real departure from anything I would normally shoot! I have shot my images, but must now work on the editing to create something close to a Sarah Moon look. I will post those at a later time.

This class has been a lot of fun, and has been very intensive! I look forward to getting to know the rest of the photographers’ work. If anyone is interested in being a model for one of these shoots, please contact me