A photography deep dive or high jump?

by Rick Etkin, Workshop leader and photographer

This September I was honoured to have the fourth opportunity to work with a motivated and energetic group of the 3rd year students to give a basic working and practical overview of lighting and photography techniques for the studio. The course plan offers the basics that a designer could use to light simple products and people for use in their layouts. It is designed for the participants to be able to shoot some of their own projects but also understand what it takes to collaborate with photographers.

Not surprisingly when you get a group of talented designers from IDEA, not settling on the basics appears to the be norm and the results are often great creative surprises. With only four 5 hour sessions to cover topics that can take years to learn, it can be a challenge to get anything more than a taste, but I am always impressed with the overall results from the participants.

With the department’s investment in LED and strobe lighting gear along with standard studio accessories, we were able to get 2 or 3 sets up and running so there is more hands-on time for the class. Shooting tethered into a laptop during the demos allows for instant viewing of the lighting, posing and prop placement. This can lead to a bit of fun while learning, as you can see from the photos.

We cover everything from lens choice and angle of view to choosing the right lighting source to get the feel you desire—all while creating technically sound images for reproduction in print or online. I encourage strong art direction and design within the images and creative and consistent results for e-commerce or communication of a concept. The final project for the workshop creates a layout that uses images of people and still life or products that tells some kind of story.

This year our class ended on the day of the Climate Strike in Vancouver and the class took a fieldtrip to participate and learn a little about photojournalism. As a real benefit to the class, a few students very successfully incorporated a climate theme into their projects and added another dimension to the workshop outcomes.

Feedback from the students

“Thanks for running the workshop and helping me with my art direction! It was super valuable and fun.”

“I knew virtually nothing about photography and these 4 weeks not only enlightened me on the process but also inspired me to want to improve my photography skills much more.”

“I enjoyed your class the past few weeks, and have learned a lot of essential tools to help improve my photography skills. Thank you so much for teaching this workshop!”

For more on Rick see ricketkin.com or on Insta @rick_etkin.