Denver Darkroom, Portrait and Lighting

It doesn't matter how good you may think you are, you can always get better. There's always someone better than you, taller, faster, more creative. Don't worry about other people. But don't let yourself get barn blind either. By that I mean, don't stop looking and comparing other people's work. Not to be critical of them, but of yourself. Being barn blind means that you think you have the best looking and conformed animals around. But you never step outside of your barn, so you're blind to reality. Along that same vane, I signed up for a Portraiture and Lighting seminar at the Denver Darkroom. Located on Tejon St. in Denver, more information about this school can be found here. The seminar is affordable and meets in 3 sessions. Yesterday was the first and was a very fun time.


We met at the Darkroom studio at 10am. For the first hour and a half Standish Lawder (founder of the Darkroom) showed us a slide show and discussed portrait photography and lighting. His presentation was interesting and informative. Following that discussion we moved two models into the room, Curtis was in front of a black background and Renee was in front of a white backgroud. My six classmates and I were split into two groups. Within our groups we spent 20 minutes directing the shoot and model and then switched to let another of our group members direct. Afterwards we switched to a new model and teacher. Standish directed the group shooting Curtis and Jeffrey Rupp directed the group shooting Renee. This week we worked with Halogen (hot lights - APTLY named). Next week our class will shoot outside and also work with strobe lighting, using two new models. Then on May 9th we'll have a wine and dine and critique session. I've enjoyed the group immensly and am looking forward to next weekend. I've attached some shots I got from yesterday.