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In Love With Light - part 1 of 1 2 3 4

by Jerry Ghionis Published 01/12/2012

The last time Jerry Ghionis was in town for the Societies' Convention he delivered a series of sellout workshops and for good measure picked up an unprecedented eight awards including Overall Society Photographer of the Year. No wonder his return in 2013 is so eagerly anticipated, and the man who travels the world sharing his skills and his distinctive brand of high-octane enthusiasm is pretty much guaranteed to fill every seat yet again as delegates can't get enough of his addictive teaching style.

Jerry clearly eats, lives and breathes photography, and he barely pauses for breath as he passes on techniques and tips at breakneck speed, interspersing the advice with healthy doses of inspiration as he shares his amazing collection of wedding and fashion images. At the next Convention he's due to deliver workshops on posing at weddings and business advice for professional photographers, and he finishes up on the final Monday with a full day workshop on his undoubted speciality, the use of any light source to create supremely beautiful wedding images. His wife, Melissa is also a speaker (Sat 12 Jan).

"I always prefer quality of lighting above a great location," he confesses.

"I'm constantly looking for pockets of light everywhere I go. I usually look for strong directions of light no matter where it comes from, whether it's the sun, window light, off-camera flash or video light. I use lighting as well as the subtraction of light to create depth, drama and to add dimension to my images. I very much prefer to take my time and to create in-camera what some would achieve afterwards in Photoshop.

If I had to pick a favourite quality of natural light it would be window light for its versatility, but I've also become obsessed with the Ice Light handheld LED daylight light source (which Jerry designed and which is made by Westcott) because of its ability to be used in every kind of environment I find myself in."

Conventional flash also finds its way into Jerry's repertoire, although he only works with speedlights. "When working with off-camera flash I use it to create drama or to overpower the sun," he says. "And when it's being used on-camera it's always bounced and I very rarely use any modifiers."

At his full day seminar Jerry will be showing examples of almost every lighting situation imaginable, including shooting using sunlight, shade, window light, video light, reflectors and diffusers. "With the quantity of attendees expected I think it would be impractical to have a live demonstration because it would be impossible to give every attendee a good learning experience," he says. "So instead I'll show a variety of environments that I have worked in and will then show delegates the resulting image I was able to take there. I also have several video clips that were taken while I was working at a wedding so you can see how I've worked with light in a practical setting. I'm very much looking forward to sharing some all-new material with the Societies' audience."

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1st Published 01/12/2012
last update 09/12/2022 14:56:09

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