Laura did a workshop on her practice which is studio based photography. She explores still life and also fashion photography. This workshop was very useful as she created a still life set up and allowed us (the students) to light it. When encountering a problem she advised a solution and then allowed us to experiement with the lighting in order to create the perfect soft lighting. She taught us a lot of helpful techniques to use when using lighting wether in the studio or using the outdoor lighting kit. Such as the best ways in which to use your lights to their fullest potential which was extremely helpful to me as I'm working outside in the dark.
She mentioned the use of call sheets in order to get information from the client where the shoot is based, names of who will be there and all the other information nessasary in order for the shoot to be as straight forward as possible, which I didn't know about until she mentioned. She also mentioned that she shoots one or two stops over exposed (to the right of the histogram) in order to keep the detail within the shadows, she then pulls back the highlights in post production. She showed us how to use different filters on the lights - CTB & CTO - in order to create different tones with the lights. CTB for a cooler image, to create a natural light aesthetic. CTO to create a softer tone when shooting portraits, allowing skin tones to become more natural.
I was then able to have a one to one with Laura. She gave me several artists to look at: Alex Majoli, William Eggleston - night ride
Laura explained that throughout the years she has seen several landscapes that all appear similar in aesthetic, composition etc, therefore, her advice was to focus on something within shot - Lampost, fence, anything in order to make a different image.
She lives near Canals and advised they create a completely different aesthetic at night and early in the morning as suppose to during the day so try shooting some of them. Potentially record some of the sounds and play them whilst viewing the images.
Create a series - Create a series of images from dusk till dawn potentially in a book or even as a series of images to place on the wall. Rather than just one stand alone image, a series would work better with the work I am creating.
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