Washington Photo Safari - Informal Indoor Portraiture (Beginner Level)

Think you’re pretty good at taking pictures of people but would like to be even better?  Good!  We have the perfect safari for you: an introduction to the principles of good indoor portrait lighting and posing  WITHOUT expensive professional studio lighting equipment, taught by professional portrait photographer Bob Blanken at his studio in Bethesda, MD.

If you want to learn how to photograph your children indoors, or your  friends and colleagues in their homes or offices, or if you want to become a part-time informal portrait photographer in your neighborhood, come join us for a half-day beginner-level session on how to :

1) pose children and adults indoors in natural window light:
2) use bounce and swivel flash units and reflectors to achieve fill lighting;
3) select a plain background in the home environment WITHOUT professional backdrops
4) determine correct exposure and lighting on the face;
5) achieve a pose or composition that best reflects the subject's personality or interest;
6) place more light on one side of the face (main) and less light on the other (fill)
7) use  simple slave flash units, like the Wein, for balanced lighting;
8) select lenses for portrait work (for SLR's AND point and shoots) that blur the background.

(This Safari, or its equivalent in experience, is required for admission to the Informal Indoor Portraiture Intermediate Level Safari)

Bob Blanken is past president of The Professional Photographers Society of Greater Washington and the Maryland Professional Photographers Association. His photographs and albums have won numerous awards. He is VP of Education for the Greater Washington, DC Chapter of International Special Events Society.