My name is Bill Wadman and I've made portraits of Pulitzer Prize winning authors, Grammy Award winning musicians, TV and Internet personalities, newspaper editors, billionaires, and even a few of the men who walked on the moon.
Now I want to impart my knowledge and experience to you. So over the course of the next few months I will be offering a series of small class workshops in New York City.
Composite Portrait Photography from Pre-Vis to Print
Saturday, July 14th 10AM-5PM
This workshop is being planned for the Seattle, Washington area! Exact location to be determined.
Sometimes you want to make a portrait in a setting which doesn't exist in reality. Compositing together multiple images can make this possible, but is fraught with challenges. It takes creativity, planning, technical skill, and patience.
This is a two part lecture where I will walk the audience interactively, step-by-step through the process.
Part One in the morning will involve brainstorming and pre-visualizing the idea before going out and actually shooting the source material images. Discussion will include pitfalls such as angles, light-matching between available like and strobe, perspective tricks, and being flexible enough to change the plan on the fly if better ideas come along.
After lunch, Part Two has me doing the post-production and retouching work in front of a live audience. Again, talking through the process step-by-step. Compositing multiple images in Photoshop, how to get the layers to blend into a cohesive whole, how shadows can be your nemesis and your saving grace, local contrast adjustment tricks and tips, and more.
Workshop Fee for ‘Composite Portrait Photography from Pre-Vis to Print’: $400 + $25 model fee
Upcoming Workshops:
Workflow, Retouching, & Post-Production - Date TBD
- Image storage and organization using Adobe Lightroom
- Advantages/disadvantages of manufacturer's RAW, DNG, JPEG, TIF, PSD file formats
- Using adjustment layers and masks to sculpt light and increase local contrast.
Completed Workshops:
Mastering Portrait Lighting - Saturday, May 12th 1-5PM
Mastery of light is the most important skill in portrait photography. Learn how to solve real-world problems by sculpting and control available and intentional lighting.
- Over the course of four hours, I'll show what you need to know to use diffusers, reflectors, umbrellas, and speedlights to create effective lighting setups just about anywhere, all in a package that will fit into a backpack.
- We'll talk about the advantages and disadvantages of big studio strobes and modifiers, and when you'd want to use them and when they're overkill. I'll show you all the tips and tricks I use in my own images.
- Most importantly, you'll learn how not to let light get in the way of your relationship with your subject, because that is where the real magic happens. Making subjects feel at ease in order to get the best images. I'm sure I'll also discuss why I like shooting people with wide-angle lenses despite popular wisdom.
- Bring yourself and your camera; I'll provide an attractive model with which to experiment with. We'll talk, shoot, and then sit down and look through the results.
Workshop Fee for ‘Light’: $250 + $50 model fee
Bill Wadman has been a contributor to TIME magazine, BusinessWeek, Improper Bostonian, POZ, and others. Advertising work for Publicis Worldwide, Matthews|Evans|Albertazzi and (RED).
His images have been featured worldwide in Popular Photography, The New York Times, La Monde, Der Spiegel, Wharton Magazine, Times of London, USA Today, The University of Chicago Magazine, Fast Company, WIRED.com, and Corriere della Sera.
Member of American Society of Media Photographers