When it comes to portrait photography, many people's first thought is that they need to use a lot of tools such as flash to shoot in order to achieve good results.

However, the basics of portrait photography often start from the most basic parts. My portrait photography course focuses on how to understand the characteristics of light and shadow and understand your own photographic equipment, plus different shooting techniques, self-cultivation and observation of visual aesthetics, and how to establish a theme concept for shooting. Finally, how to have good communication and guidance with the model to interpret extraordinary portraits.

Before pressing the shutter, let yourself observe the surrounding environment. The different artistic conception brought out can push your work to another level. Good photos can touch people's hearts and make people savor them.

Our portrait photography course hopes to teach you how to take portraits with this kind of feeling.

This course combines theoretical and practical knowledge to give everyone a different experience and understanding of portrait photography.

(Since Luke Sir has moved to the UK, the internship will be suspended. When Luke Sir returns to Hong Kong, we will organize some internship activities for students to participate. Please pay attention.)

The course is led by a professional portrait photographer and our Cabin Crew Afterwork models are used as training subjects.

The theoretical photography course consists of three parts:

Understanding Light

• Understand the four characteristics of light (directivity / softness / hardness / intensity / color temperature), and take these characteristics into consideration when shooting to take photos that better suit your feelings.

• Understand the concept of main light source, so that you can take photos that make the subject stand out more under natural light

• Understand how light differences affect the look of your photos, and how to use tools to adjust them to your desired effect

• Learn how to improve a photo when there are reflections, or how to make adjustments when in some cases the reflections may make the photo look undesirable.

• Share different works to show how to use light and shadow to make photos more distinctive

Understand equipment and photographic aesthetics

• Understand the differences in field of view/perspective/distortion/depth of field when shooting portraits with lenses of different focal lengths, and what kind of effects and atmosphere can be brought out, so that the photos can more easily bring out the feeling you want

• Share how to better utilize the shallow depth of field effect produced by a large aperture lens that is often used in portrait photography

• Learn photography aesthetics, including how to use color theory to highlight the subject, shooting angles, and different concepts in composition techniques (balance/guidance/contrast/structure) to more effectively express the meaning of the photo.

Communicate with the subject and instruct them on posing, as well as how to take photos that tell a story

• Teach a series of effective communication skills, so that you can effectively give instructions and express your ideas during the shooting process, and create a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere to build trust with the subjects.

• Understand the concept of posing, and share different posing techniques for models, such as how to pose naturally and beautifully in different situations such as head/hands/feet, standing/sitting, etc. In addition, another posing technique will be taught for those who are not good at posing.

• Learn references and set themes/images to take more special and distinctive photos.

• Teach how to enhance the storytelling of portraits, and what preparations are needed before shooting such works (scene/costume/makeup/hairstyle/lighting/props)

Remarks:

• During the internship, students will also be taught how to use different shooting aids, such as reflectors and LED lights, according to the environment and weather.

• Students who have attended the portrait photography class can then join our internship class. We will have different themes each time to let students experience the methods and techniques that we need to pay attention to and can use when shooting portraits of different themes. (For example, wedding dress, couple, cheongsam theme portrait practice)

• We have overseas portrait practice classes every year (such as Japanese cherry blossom and autumn leaf themed portrait photography) to make the practice process more interesting.

It is recommended to use a SLR or mirrorless camera with interchangeable lenses during internship.

For portrait photography, it is best to use a fixed-focus large aperture lens such as F1.4 / F1.8 / F2.0. A 50mm or 35mm focal length lens is recommended.

In addition, a lens with a focal length of 85mm or above can take photos that highlight the subject.

If you are interested in more details about the photography class, please leave a message on the Cabin Crew Afterwork Facebook page .