American photographer, photojournalist, news editor, and educator, Mr Chad Stuart Owsley, came to UIC to host a workshop on location portrait lighting. This event which was arranged by the International Journalism (IJ) programme as part of their “IJ Week” occurred on 20 March in the Staff and Student Activities Centre (SSAC). Mr Owsley demonstrated how to work with multiple lights to produce stronger editorial portraiture on the go with location lighting kits. Mr Owsley teaches photojournalism and visual news media at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. His current research is a film project on cultural immersion, focused on expat workers’ impressions of China.
Mr Owsley discussing portrait lighting
During this workshop, Mr Owsley explained the value of adding one and two-light scenarios to location photography or assignment editorial portrait shooting. The workshop was aimed at students studying photography, professional editorial and commercial photographers, photographers interested in improving their portrait photography and photography enthusiasts. Mr Owsley stressed several times the importance of “Showing the ‘spirit’” of the person he is photographing. He then followed up by giving an example where he was taking a photo of a child protégé, who is a concert pianist, which he was photographing for an editorial assignment, and that the boredom referred to was her boredom with the piano practice. To get the photo of the young girl looking bored, he did not tell her what he wanted but instead pretended to waste time purposely fidgeting with the camera so she got tired of waiting and started to look bored, then Mr Owsley quickly snapped her expression.
The fundamentals of lighting scenarios were discussed in detail, with layouts of each scenario shown on Mr Owsley’s accompanying presentation. Butterfly, loop, Rembrandt, side, broad and short were different types of lighting scenarios explained by Mr Owsley. He gave examples of how the angle of light can create different shadows on the face of the person being photographed and it can change the feel of the portrait. 50mm is the best “general” lens. 85mm is usually the “first choice’ for portrait photography. During his demonstration, he used 50mm because it is a suitable lens for environmental portraiture – where some background (environment) assists in portraying the individual. Mr Owsley will begin with a 50mm lens, and if he wants more environment he’ll move to a lens between 25-35mm, and if he want less environment, he’ll go to something between 85-110mm. Mr Owsley showed the different techniques and angles of the field lights to take photos were well explained and visually easy to understand from his easy demonstration.
Mr Owsley provides a live demostration
After the demonstration, Mr Owsley took part in a short question and answer session where one student asked if he preferred TTL (automatic) or manual set up. Mr Owsley explained both set-ups can be used and it depends mostly on time, because if he has more time, he prefers manual for greater control. With limited time, he can use TTL to quickly get the shot. After, he talked about how he often tells the person he is photographing to ignore the camera and instead talks to them naturally to bring more of their inner features out while shooting.
Live workshop
Finally, Mr Owsley invited the students to come on stage and showed them how to set up in a live workshop. He showed the students where to stand, how to position themselves as well as the person that they are taking photos of and the equipment. The students gained confidence in the workshop, and began to feel comfortable following Mr Owsley’s instruction while learning how to take photographs with different angles of light.
Reporter/Photographer: Samuel Burgess
Editors: Deen He, Samantha Burns
(from MPRO)
