Portraiture and Color Management Seminar in Cebu

Last April 4, 2010, I attended a "Portraiture and Color Management Seminar" at Crown Regency, Cebu together with friends-slash-photo buddies, Nike Cagulada and Edd Buenaviaje. The event was a project of i-Mag Photography Magazine in cooperation with CANON Marketing Philippines.

The event was limited to 40 photographers, although I'm sure there were only 35 to 38 of those who signed up at i-Mag's forum who made it. Admission was free (erf is good, right?) inclusive of a model shoot, printing, snacks and a buffet lunch at Wang Shan Lo Chinese restaurant (GASP!).

Ms. Dail Deri of the Philippine Center for Creative Imaging or PCCI gave us an informative discussion on portraiture. She gave us a dozen tips on how to become an effective photographer. One of the things that she said which truly struck me is that a photographer must also be a model and a makeup artist (YES, seriously!). And yes, I do agree with her. Directing a shoot is probably one of the most difficult things that an inexperienced photographer has to go through. Once you're there, you have to know what you want. There are models who can give you what you want to achieve, but let's admit it, that's not the case all the time. As a photographer, you have to know a gazillion of poses (I'm not exaggerating) and an unlimited stock of creativity. After Ms. Dail's mini lecture, we had an opportunity to shoot 4 models in 2 different settings. The photographers were divided into 4 groups. My friends and I had a chance to shoot "outside" first.

Here are my outputs:

The location and time of the shoot wasn't the most appropriate. We had to battle against the wind and the harsh rays of the sun. I'm glad the model is really easy to work with (and very pretty, too!). Now the only problem that I had was MY height. Jeeeeeez! You don't know how difficult it is to take photos with huge (and I don't mean FAT) guys around you. I have to make it a point to be in front ALL the time. I can go in and out with ease because I'm shorter and I guess smaller than all of them but then, I don't always get the angle that I want. Nevertheless, it was a fun shoot.

The most unforgettable moment that I had was when Sir Neil suddenly asked one of the photographers, "OK. What's your setting?" In text form, this isn't really scary. But at that moment, I felt like somebody threw a glass of water at me (exaggerating, yes?).

It was a moment of realization.

If you want to learn, you have to take charge. Be assertive not aggressive. Know what you want. Learn things. Practice.

After an an hour or less, my group and I had to go back inside and shoot models in another setting. For this one, I had a difficult time. First of all, I didn't know how to work with a "lighting" setup. I didn't even know how to use a trigger (or even own one! Haha). I had a couple of shots using somebody else's trigger, but I'm not confident with my output.

I definitely have to learn more about this. HAHA. Since I had to let others use the trigger, I worked on available light instead.
I'm goin' retro this time. Hurrrr. :))

Here are more photos using "available" light.

The last model that I worked with was really good. She definitely knows how to please the photographers. Little direction of poses is needed. She knows her craft well.

In the afternoon, we had another lecture by Sir Jun Miranda of PCCI, "An Imprint That Lasts: Lecture on Color Management". Sir Jun discussed the whats, whys and hows of color management as well as CMS in Photoshop. There were a lot of color jargon (monitor profiling, sRGB vs CMYK, anyone?). Although techspeak was used, Sir Jun made it a point to help us understand color in the best possible way.

Aside from the lecture that we had, Canon also introduced two of their new SLR products:  EOS 550D and EOS 1D Mark IV, together with some of their new printers.

And lookie here!

We even got free printing of the photo/s of our choice! Lalala.

Thank you i-Mag, Canon Philippines and our instructors from PCCI. It was truly a successful event!

CHEERIO!

At the end of the day, we we did not just fill ourselves with good food and an unlimited coffee. We learned a lot of things. We were satisfied participants. To the people behind this event, cheers to you! See you again next year?

:)