Low Key Portraits course (1 day)

I attended Rory's Low Key Portraits course in London and was very impressed with the day. I'm delighted with the knowledge and skills I came away with.

To start the day, Rory gave a brief historical introduction to artists' painting styles, how they translated to photography, and what we had to do to get great portraits.

Our model arrived, and the rest of the day consisted of setting up many different lighting styles using a variety of modifiers, reflectors and backgrounds. We were shown how to meter the lights and direct the shoot.

In the last part of the day, we found some portraits online and tried to recreate the lighting setup.

The portraits I came away with were easily the best studio shots I've ever taken, and I'll definitely be using these techniques for my portraits from now on.

Rory was interesting, knowledgeable and friendly - and we were lucky to have a model who was relaxed and helpful as well as looking fantastic in our photos.

Minor negatives:
Calumet's room wasn't quite prepared for our arrival (e.g. not enough chairs, and a few cables and other bits and pieces not ready). Lunch wasn't terribly exciting (Meal deal from Sainsbury's). Tea and coffee was offered a couple of times though.