Recently I had a chance to attend a workshop on environmental portrait photography with Dave Brosha, a Canadian photographer based in Yellowknife, NWT. Dave is a rising star in the Canadian photo industry, specializing in commercial, wedding, and portrait imagery. After checking out his on-line portfolio, I got intrigued and decided that it is worth my effort to drive to attend his workshop that took place in Canmore, Alberta. The workshop was hosted by Darwin Wiggett and Samantha Chrysanthou, as a part of their oopoomoo series of public talks. Sam and Darwin posted a great interview with Dave on their web site.
What I wanted to learn from his “Mastering Environmental Light” workshop is how where to start with an outdoor portrait shoot. I am more of a landscape photographer and portraits are not my forte. However, I gave myself an assignment to learn a few outdoor portrait tricks that I can apply in the Ranching and Conservation project.
Probably the most useful take-home lesson I learned from Dave is to be very cautious about not getting carried away with fancy lighting set-ups. The person we are photographing is the most important element – if the photographer does not connect and tell a story about the subject, it does not matter if his lighting mastery is perfect. In the interview with Darwin and Sam, Dave kind of sums it up in this statement: “I think the key is not to get so hung up on the technical that you fail to make a connection with your subject, work with them, and really… just let your creativity bubble.”
Photographer Dave Brosha working hard as a model
Dave’s approach is to take care of the ambient light first, and then add artificial light if needed and, only to supplement the existing light with the lightest touch, to convey the mood and meaning. After the introduction to the topic and an overview of his outdoor portrait work, Dave set up a live demo with a talented, local model Talyn Stone . It was great to observe Dave work with various light sources and see the results immediately pop up on a projection screen.
Talyn Stone and Wayne Simpson hard at work, while Dave Brosha secures the light stand
After the workshop, Dave set up an outdoor shoot with Talyn. A small group of photographer braved the cold wind and tried a few tricks learned the previous day. We all benefited with Dave’s on-site generous advice on how to properly set up lighting for environmental portraits. Talyn was extremely helpful and patient with inexperienced portrait photographers in the group (read: myself). Thanks to Dave and Talyn for sharing their talents, and Darwin and Sam for organizing the whole event.
Model Talyn Stone
Watch a short video from a photo shoot with Dave Brosha and Talyn Stone (external link).