I have attended two of the leading workshops on child photography – the Secret Workshop by Cheryl Muhr that I attended in June 2008 and Brianna Graham’s workshop that I attended in October of 2008. With price tags at $1,100 and $1,300 respectively they are both rather expensive, so one needs to consider their value carefully before committing.
In this post I review Brianna Graham’s workshop. I first became interested in attending Brianna’s workshop after she served as the “secret guest” at Cheryl’s workshop (you can read the review of Cheryl’s workshop here). I was intrigued by Brianna’s approach to studio lighting, her philosophy to keep things simple, and her rapport with the models. When I met Brianna at Cheryl’s workshop I did not know that she was “famous,” that she had already made a name of herself. She was very down to earth and approachable.
One thing that resonated with me then, and that I learned more about at this workshop, is Brianna’s philosophy to remove as many parameters as possible from your shooting and production workflow. As one example, she typically uses one large light instead of two small lights. It is simpler, of course, but still effective because a large light source can wrap around smaller subjects. She creates great results using a fairly simple set of techniques. She still encourages experimentation, but suggests you change only one thing at a time.
The 3-day workshop was held in Grand Rapids, close to Brianna’s studio. Patrick, Brianna’s husband, helped run things. The first day was focused on natural light in an urban setting, the second day was in the studio and the third day centered on editing, workflow and marketing.
On the first day we started by getting to know each other: Learning why we were there, and what we wanted to get out of the workshop. I really enjoyed the diversity of participants; we were two dozen photographers at various levels of expertise and backgrounds. There were 2 men, and the age distribution included folks from their early twenties to mid fifties. After the personal introductions Brianna gave us a 90 minute overview of her approach, ranging from planning, laying out the shot, finding and controlling the light, compositional elements to complementary clothing.The second part of the day consisted of shooting with models; there were about 20 models. Before cutting us loose to shoot on our own, Brianna spent about 45 minutes showing us how she selected locations and posed models. She illustrated 3-4 different settings near the area of the workshop.
I teamed up with my neighbor and we grabbed a model. Most photographers were grouped in teams of two or three, but there were a few singletons as well. As we roamed a few blocks in downtown Grand Rapids, near the workshop site, we occasionally switched models. We set up the shots ourselves – trying to learn the new tools that we had (hopefully) learned. Our first model was a spunky girl with colorful clothes and we asked her to change into more neutral clothing to give us more flexibility of the outdoor settings. The models were mostly beginner models and some got tired easily – and that was a slight disadvantage, but on the other hand I also respect that they were out there with 20+ photographers.
Later in the day I decided to forget about shooting to shadow Brianna and observe her shoot and listen to her narration. After all, I came to the workshop to learn how she got her shots. This turned out to be a good decision for me, and I learned a lot.
Shooting ended around 5 PM. We wrapped up the day at a neighborhood restaurant with Patrick and Brianna. This may have been my favorite part of the workshop. They (Brianna and Patrick) stationed themselves at opposite ends of a long dinner table so everyone was close to one of them. The dinner provided a great venue for us to learn more. I was towards Brianna’s end, and I was pleased to hear her “let her hair down” and give us more insights into her experiences.
The topic for the second day was studio lighting. We started with a lecture. Brianna covered various lighting setups, ranging in size, number of lights, direction and light modifiers. Brianna encouraged learning by experimenting. That rang well with me – I like to just do it and see what happens. She re-emphasized her philosophy that the key is to remove or control all the variables. The studio is all about controlling the light. I think this part was very helpful and provided a nice introduction to light and how it affects the subjects.
After lunch we practiced what we had learned in the morning. The workshop now was set up with 6-7 studio station elements –with different light sources and backgrounds. Brianna started off by illustrating how to trigger the lights and pose the model with the light. We were divided into groups of three then we shot on our own. This portion was a bit chaotic. It was hard to grab fresh models for a station and I hardly got a turn to shoot in my group. Although I have experience with shooting multiple speed lights in studio I got a bad start and initially had technical difficulties. Neither Brianna nor Patrick was available to help. We rotated to a different station every 20-30 minutes, but a lot of that time was spent on finding a fresh and willing model and familiarizing ourselves with the new station – or waiting for the next station. I think this was the low point of the workshop and unfortunately people seemed to get anxious here –- with each other, other groups and taking turns, finding models and lack of guidance.I think Brianna and Patrick have recognized the problems with the studio portion of the workshop. They have changed this portion so there are only 10 participants in the studio at a time. This sounds about right to me.
On the third day we focused on editing and business. We met in Brianna’s studio. When we arrived Brianna gave us a studio tour – including an overview of her marketing material and business approach. Her studio was impeccable and so was her marketing material. We later sat down and went through workflow and editing techniques. We wrapped up the day with portfolio reviews. I could not attend the last portion due to time constraints with my “day” job.
Bottom Line: Even though there are a few points that need polishing, this is a good workshop, and I felt my money was well invested.
Pros: Great overview of lighting and composition rules of thumb from a successful photographer. It is a good introduction to a useful shooting philosophy. The workshop benefited from having a smaller group of participants than the Secret Workshop. That helps a lot. There were 26 participants so it small enough for some one-on-one interaction with the organizers.
Cons: Still not as much one-on-one interaction with the organizer as I would have liked. I suppose this is an issue with most workshops of this size and it is probably even worse at larger workshops. The studio portion especially needed improvement, but it seems like the organizers for future workshops have addressed those issues.
Suggestions: I think the organizers should figure out a way to reach all the participants individually (as mentioned before I think they are moving in that direction). Or at least make the participants feel like they are reached on a one-on-one level. A challenge for them is that the market that they are targeting their workshop towards are the folks just starting in this business so they may not have the money to spend on a more expensive workshop.
My result - set up the shot myself and minor post processing - (after studio hints from Brianna of-course):
Studio portion (Day 2):
Urban day - Day 1 (Brianna in action illustrating how to see the light):
Urban Day - Day 1 (I think you can tell here how involved Brianna gets with the models (: and workshop - she brings it!):
