Intermediate Lighting for Portraiture

Since the early days of science, photographers have searched for ways to artificially enhance the creative process. From the early days of limelight, through the use of flashpowder, we arrive today at electronic flash, the tool in trade of the fashion, beauty and portrait photographer.

In this ninety-minute presentation, Joey Quintero of the Gradus Group first takes us on a technical journey, exploring the ratio of light theory, the use of a light meter to accurately expose a scene or person and instructs us on the relationship between aperture, shutter speed and ISO. He goes to great lengths to stress that one doesn’t need huge banks of lights to obtain professional results.

For the final forty minutes, Quintero takes the class into the studio to put all of this information to practical use. With the aid of a live model, first with a single flash and then two, Joey demonstrates common modifiers—an umbrella, a softbox, a beauty dish. Every setup is individually explained in great detail and the result of each set of shots displayed and compared. The variety of effects is dramatic.