Light It. Shoot It. Retouch It. A review.

ian408ian408 Administrators Posts: 21,904 moderator
edited December 8, 2011 in The Big Picture
Scott Kelby is currently running a seminar series called "Light It. Shoot It. Retouch It.".

The seminar runs most of the day (10AM to 5PM) and costs $99. There's a discount for NAPP members. This is a basic course with regard to lighting and probably intermediate with regard to the Photoshop portions. Attendees receive a workbook, a Photoshop "shortcuts" book (very handy!), access to some downloadable goodies and also to a revised workbook (he adds things to the books as he receives feedback).

The day includes several different lighting setups with three different models. Each is set up from scratch and uses one, two or three lights to achieve the desired look. Several shots are made from which one image is chosen for retouching. Scott spends time explaining the techniques he uses to retouch each image and for the most part, these are all easy to understand (and make changes) which is cool and although the models are different, the techniques are detailed in the workbook--you could easily use them on an image when you got home.

Scott asks you to hold questions until the breaks to keep things moving. He's also available during lunch for additional questions. All of this helps to keep the day moving at a good pace.

The seminar uses studio lights. The settinga are pretty much 1/125, f/11 and ISO 200 every time. Kelby uses Elinchrom lights with Skyport triggers--gotta say these don't seem like the most reliable setup as lights often didn't fire (all within a few hundred square feet). To be fair, some of the failure was pilot error.

Light modifiers included a beauty dish, several different softboxes and a deep octabox. If you wanted to duplicate the lighting setup, it would cost about $1800--and B&H as conveniently provided a kit for you.

As with many seminars, there are displays from the seminar's sponsors. Gabriel from B&H was there, WACOM with several of their tablets, on1 Software and of course, NAPP with a bunch of books and videos.

If you're new to lighting, this seminar would be awesome. If you're new to portrait photography and want some Photoshop tips and techniques to improve your retouching skills, this would be a great start.
However, if you are looking for new lighting techniques or already have a very good set of Photoshop skills, this probably won't be as valuable. For me, the retouching parts were the most helpful.

Read more about "Light It. Shoot It. Retouch It." on Kelby's website.
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Comments

  • ThatCanonGuyThatCanonGuy Registered Users Posts: 1,778 Major grins
    edited November 15, 2011
    Thanks man! They have one in DC soon... I oughtta look into it. I've been wanting to get into lighting but know pretty much nothing about it. Did you take any pics there?
  • ian408ian408 Administrators Posts: 21,904 moderator
    edited November 15, 2011
    I think it's a great value and if you're just getting into it, it'll get you off on the right foot.

    I took an itty bitty pano with the iphone so no. Not really anything to speak of.
    Moderator Journeys/Sports/Big Picture :: Need some help with dgrin?
  • vdotmatrixvdotmatrix Registered Users Posts: 343 Major grins
    edited December 7, 2011
    Yippers...I attended last friday here in the DC area. The seminar is fabulous and a breakthrough moment as far as different lighting, shooting and retouching techniques so vital in our occupation. The following is a link to the free download and a taste of what the seminar was about.http://kelbytraining.com/live/lsrdownloads
    He shot everything at 1/125, and your native ISO , either 200 for nikon and 100 for canon, then started the exposure at f11.

    The great thing about this was your shoot and then immediately evaluate your shot tethered in light room. He shot a grey card, bumped up the temp a little and used the color picker to set the WB, setting the WB setting to use previous so every shot thereafter would have these settings.

    I was skeptical. But I soon became a believer. Anyway, he went through a number of lighteing situtions, lit the models ,shot them then retouched them right before our eyes.

    He had a great technique for shooting outdoors with a flash...I can go on and on about the neat little things we did in photoshop or using lightroom or holy shit the gear he used and the kit you can buy at B&H. The kit is awesome yo have to check it out......you'll want it.....anyway....

    I bought his professional portrait retouching techniques book and the matching seminar book: light it, shoot it and retouch it...

    I don't know about the rest of you but for the price and what I personally got out of it all I can say is that I have been immersed in Scott Kelby for the last 5 days....

    If it comes to a city near you I would have to say, if you are a photographer and you think you are a know it all in your technique you probably will have a closed mind but I cannot see even the most seasoned professional not crawling away with enriched.

    One thing I did notice was Lightroom crapped out 3 times during the presentation in an auditorium filled with 500 people. I would have been sweating bullets. I heard him say that that had never happened which i really thought was very hard to believe. Light room craps out on me during a shoot from time to time. It is unnerving. The other day, since i wasn't on a shoot casually had lightroom running, my camera tethered all day almost and the damn thing worked like a dream! Bring a paying client into the room and the computer will begin to smoke...hahahahaha..
  • ian408ian408 Administrators Posts: 21,904 moderator
    edited December 8, 2011
    Lightroom crapped out for us as well. I think how you handle things like that really helps sell your experience and confidence.
    Moderator Journeys/Sports/Big Picture :: Need some help with dgrin?
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