david_randolph1

<p>Shooting Fashion, and Shooting Nudes, are two completely different things and need to be approached in very different ways.<br>

For both it is important to make sure that your subject feels comfortable with you, and you with them. That photographer subject interaction and communication is probably one of the most important aspects of photography and the most overlooked.<br>

Next is pre-production or having some type of game plan for what your going to shoot. Granted in most cases you'll throw out the play book and shoot more freely once your on set but having a vague idea to start with makes the whole shooting process just a little bit smoother.<br>

Next the most important thing is the photographers willingness to "learn to see", which is very different than just looking at the subject in front of you. This only comes from shooting as much as you possibly can and learning from your mistakes. No class or workshop can teach you this so don't be fooled by anyone saying that they can change your approach to visualizing your subject or make you a better photographer by taking a class or workshop.<br>

You need to put in those 10,000 hours of practice just like a musician and you really will see the changes over time.<br>

Select 10 photographers whose works you admire book mark them or reference them some where, and then after each shoot compare and contrast your images with those your working towards. toss out the bad ones that don't measure up and shoot again. Never hold on to the bad images they clutter your mind. if you ever question whether an image is good or not it probably isn't so toss it and move on. <br>

Look at images everyday, look at as many movies especially old movies and study the lighting the shadows how the light falls off, were the highlights are hitting. study the shadow density which is the biggest indication of the types of lighting used. and never buy into the idea that a piece of equipment will make you abetter photographer.<br>

The photo market is littered with companies trying to separate you from your money by selling you some: "magic bullet" that will magically transform you into the next Avedon.<br>

Persistence is the only way.</p>

<p>It really all depends on the workshop, and more importantly the instructor, and the instructors experience and their ability to communicate effectively with the class they are teaching. Over the last 2 years I've attended the photo assistant boot camp http://photoassistantbootcamp.com as well as the studio lighting workshop http://studiolightingworkshop.com both presented by James of 1prophoto.com. James previously worked as a photo assistant for a lot a big name photographers such as: Mark Seliger, Steven Klein, Annie Leibovitz among others before going on to shoot on his own. During his 2 day workshops he showed us and explained the details of the lighting setups he created for these photographers. Probably the best thing about these events is that it was a real hands-on workshop, and the depth of James photo lighting knowledge was astounding and just flowed out of him like a river. He explained in very clear concise details every aspect of the lighting setups, as well and making sure that we were all comfortable and well versed on the equipment we were using. Mostly Profoto studio strobes, but he did introduce some KinoFlo's and HMI's. and lots of lighting modifiers. Again the best thing about these workshops was James willingness to pass along his knowledge but more importantly his ability to make everyone feel that they were getting individual attention. I absolutely feel that these workshops were 2 of the best I have ever taken. And the proof was evident when I was able to apply everything I learn in the following weeks on the jobs I was shooting. Well worth the investment.</p>