David Arnold: Park Cameras Photographic Courses with John Clements

As an aspiring photographer I spent two lovely Saturdays learning to take piccies with studio lights and how exposure and colour affects images.  The courses were run by John Clements at Park Cameras in Burgess Hill.

Studio Lighting Course

 I got to the venue nice and early and had chance to chat to the other people on the course who were all very friendly.  John introduced himself and before long we were fixing radio flash triggers onto our camera and taking pictures with each other with one or two studio lights.  We learnt how to expose each light and how they interact with each other.  We slowly added more lights for backgrounds and other effects while the model booked for the session posed for us.

At the end of the session John showed us to get dramatic effects with just one light.

Metering and Exposure

The second Saturday had two more courses, the first one being metering and exposure.  John explained about the exposure triangle in depth, how one element of the triangle effects one or both of the other elements.  John also used his real world experience to explain how to gain the correct exposure for you subject, not worry about the whole scene.  

Mastering in Camera Colour

The afternoon of the second Saturday was learning about colour in camera.  John explained about using the correct picture style and white balance.  We were shown how to get the correct white balance (to stop the picture looking to warm or cold).  John even explained what the colour histograms when toggling through the picture settings with the info button meant!

John was very enthusiastic and passionate about photography and I found him to be very knowledgeable and approachable. The staff at Park Cameras were also very friendly and helpful and served up a great lunch!

To infinity and beyond!

Well not quite!  The future looks bright for Exploring Senses images.  David and Louis have asked me to help design a miniature studio in which will enable us to take high quality pictures of the public’s creations at the toy hacks.  The principles are the same as a normal studio only on a smaller scale using speedlites (flashguns).  I already have a couple of speedlites and a variety of diffusers to use in the mini studio. 

All the other skills I have learnt will enable me ‘get it right in camera’ and not have to worry about post production, which will mean more natural looking pictures enable quicker transfer of images to the website.

Now which way is infinity??

Below are the images, dates and course notes of the workshops I attended at Park Cameras;

Bespoke CommuniToys

IdentiToy

Robotic CommuniToy

CommuniToy animations

CommuniToy Kits

CommuniToy Performances