Are you satisfied with having captured a great image? Maybe it’s time to learn to more than just capture but create great images. Learning and mastering the proper way to light will make creating a possibility.

This class will help you discover your own style, and not the style of the one conducting the seminar.

Seminar covers everything from basic to advance, the only lighting class you will ever need to take.

This seminar boast one of the best student to teacher ratio of 1:10, so sign up early for one of the limited 10 slots.

Feedbacks from past participants:

“Hi Ken, thank you for sharing with us your knowledge and expertise in the field of lighting. I truly learned so much from you and enjoyed the seminar a lot. Overall, i would rate the seminar 5 stars . Keeping the atmosphere light and fun helped us absorb the topics easier. Valuable knowledge was learned without information overload. The actual shoot was the highlight of it all. Being able to apply the topics hands on was the best training anyone could have. I would highly recommend your classes to my friends who are getting into photography like myself.”

“Once again, many thanks for the workshop. Honestly, I really did enjoy it. You explained the concepts clearly and you were also willing to answer all of our questions. Furthermore, I also liked the fact that you also talked about your experience as a professional photographer and the great sense of humor you have.”

“Thanks very much for the lighting class. Great class! In comparison to another lighting class that I took previously you are much more thorough. I have a much better understanding to setting up the lights, using the light meter, and ratios. I can honestly say I have much more confidence now than I did before.”

Where: Unit 602 Cityland 10 Tower 2, H.V. Dela Costa St. Salcedo Village, Makati City, behind RCBC Tower. Map to the studio.

Batch 46 (July 2010)

Day 1 July 27, 2010 Tuesday 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Day 2 July 29, 2010 Thursday 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Day 3 July 31, 2010 Saturday 10 a.m. or 3 p.m. (choose a timeslot)
Day 4 Aug 02, 2010 Monday 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Batch 47 (August 2010)

Day 1 Aug 17, 2010 Tuesday 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Day 2 Aug 19, 2010 Thursday 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Day 3 Aug 21, 2010 Saturday 10 a.m. or 3 p.m. (choose a timeslot)
Day 4 Aug 23, 2010 Monday 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

1st day topics:
Basic Photography refresher
Studio Equipment
Light modifiers
Triggering lights
Basic Portrait Lighting

2nd day topics:
Lighting ratios
Learning how to dissect the light set-up of a photo
Using a flash meter (hands on)

3rd day Actual Shoot with live models and professional make-up artist.

Class will be broken into 2 groups, 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., Participants should only come on their time slot, to avoid over crowding. During the shoot, each participant will be asked to conceptualize a lighting set-up to be done with their model, other participants on the same group will be assisting. After the participant finishes the shoot, other participant on the group will do the same, so the previous participant will now be acting as the assistant. (round robin system) this guarantees a hands- on set-up, thus learning from actually doing it rather than just listening. This will also make sure that the participants will the only one shooting at the time of his/her set-up, so he/she gets all the needed angles to complete the shoot, no more wrestling for a spot just to get the photo.

4th day topics:

Portable lighting equipment (strobist)
Simplified Post Processing workflow (Batch processing)
Critique session

For the critique session, participants will be asked to bring 1 to 2 of their favorite photo from the photo session printed on 5R, ink jet prints on photo paper are acceptable. All photos will be posted together on the wall for viewing.
Seminar Price is P. 4,000.00 – inclusive of handouts and certificates

* A non-refundable deposit of P. 1,000.00 will be required to reserve a slot

If you want to sign-up kindly send me the following info:
Name:
Email:
Cel. No.:
Preferred time slot for Saturday (10 a.m. or 3 p.m.):
Which batch:

seminars@photosbykengo.com

My basic definition of natural and surreal lighting is very simple, natural is things people can and usually see with their eyes while surreal is something they see in their mind but not with their eyes.

So what is more difficult to do? To me its natural lighting, since there are limitations on what you can do, a greater understanding on how people look at images is required. There are bounderies that one must stay within that everyone that has a pair of eyes know such bounderies. A natural lighting often requires the look of a subject being lit by only one light, since we only have one sun, but not necessarily the set-up was done with just a single light. So technically speaking one must learn to integrate multiple number of lights so that only one is noticeable to the viewer.

So if natural lighting is more difficult, is surreal lighting easier? Easier, yes since in a surreal effect there is nothing that bounds a photographer but his imagination. It may be easier in my opinion but not necessarily easy; it’s quite difficult to break the boundaries of lighting if one doesn’t have a good grasp of the basics. Surreal photography often start as an imagination, skill is required to translate that imagination into a camera. Since we really can’t see a person’s imagination, we always presume that the photo being represented is indeed that person’s imagination. The photographer may have planned a natural looking photo but ended up getting a surreal photo, the beauty of this is no one knows this was purely accidental.

My examples of natural and surreal lighting:

Natural – Shot using strobes indoor, but was set to look like it was shoot under available light outdoor.

Surreal – Used a combination of strobes and continous lighting, shot to show some movements within a still photo. Lights crossing the path of the model and motion blur is not something we get to see with our naked eye.

I use to have a totally different view on these types of cheap photographers, I use to hate them, thinking they would eventually bring down the industry.  Now, because of the trust of my clients I have realized, the negative effect I was worried about affected them (cheap photographers) more than those who are already well established in the industry.

I have always believed that to be a success in this industry, that you must be hired for what you can create and not for how less you charge. I am blessed with clients who believes in my ability to provide them photos they need rather than because I am cheaper, which is rarely the case.

Here are my thoughts on this:

1. Photography should not always be about money, but Business should always be about money, if you want to make your photography as a business then money becomes very important. If you are doing it for the passion, you are better of not charging than being labeled as a cheap photographer.

2. No one can dictate how much you charge, but make sure what you charge covers everything, not just “GIMIK” money or “GADGETS” money. The biggest mistake newcomers make is only costing for their time and often neglect adding enough money for gear replacement, depreciation, repair and acquisition. Majority of other business start acquiring equipment with clear intention to use it in the business, thus costing of the equipment is included in their overhead expenses. In photography on the other hand, many newcomer acquired their equipment during their hobbyist days, that when they started charging they have forgotten to include the gear as part of the computation, as if it was free.

3. If you charge low (or cheap), you need to accept the fact that you will be labeled as a cheap photographer, weather or not that is an insult or not. So don’t be insulted, in the same way those Jollyjeep food stall owners take no offense when people say “dito na lang tayo, cheap kasi”. Clients who cater to the AB market, tends to get suppliers (photographers included) who also cater to the same market, it could be because both have better understanding of the market or it could also be protecting their own reputation, so do not expect the AB market to start rolling in, because of your label as cheap photographer.

4. If you have to charge really low, since this is the only thing you think you have to do to get into the industry, then you are not ready to get into the industry. Entry to the industry is only part of the battle, longevity is the bigger battle, sadly cheap rates doesn’t help on the longevity department.

5. By charging cheap, you are targeting a budget concious market who hire photographer based on rates and not on quality, so no matter how much better you get in your photography, you run the big risk of loosing all your clients the moment you increase your price.  Most companies / clients do budgeting of projects in advance, and tend to use current rates as basis for the budgeting of future projects, so as soon as you increase your rates, they have no other choice but to find someone else willing to do the project at your old rate (or the rate they budgeted for). You can’t really blame them for doing so, since you yourself were the one who made them realize that photographers can be hired cheap.

A few photos from the June 2010 Seminar.

Lighting Set-up, concept and photography by the participants.

Participants:

Francis Armand I. Palacio, Paolo Reyes, Jeamie Salvatierra, Abdullah B. Abubakar, Christopher Carlos, Abe Olandres, Ma. Lynnette Redublo, Michael Carlo Caparas and Gayson Gale C. Galeon

Behind the scenes:

Here is my presentation when I was invited as one of the speakers during the PHPHOTO EB and PHPHOTO website launch last June 19, 2010 held during the 15th Graphic Expo 2010 held at SMX Convention center.

Good day PHPHOTO, I would like to talk about strobe misconceptions, in hopes of making you all want to use your flash more often. The very first misconception is people presume that photos shot with a strobe will make it look unnatural. Though by proper use, an image can still look natural even when you use a strobe. Here is an example, where I used a flash to the model’s left to substitute where the Sun would have lit the model.

I can also use a flash to fill in shadows, the flash will help bring out details on the dark areas without making it look unnatural.

I can also use a flash to replicate an outdoor scene, this photo was in-fact shot indoors, I had to add lights to the background to help make the scene.

Another misconception people have, is that you can control a flash with your shutter speed. That’s totally false, because a flash can only be controlled with the aperture, here you can see as I change the shutter speed, only the ambient scene is changed and not the exposure of the flash on the model.

Since the shutter speed doesn’t affect your flash exposure, you can increase the speed to underexpose the ambient light to achieve a bluer sky.

Which means you can turn day into night by this underexposure technique. Just making sure that you use your flash on your subject so that the subject is still well lit.

You can also turn night into day, but this time slowing down the shutter speed to gather enough light left in the ambient scene, just like this photo that was taken close to 7:00 PM

Since a flash will always fire at a high speed, it will stop motion and freeze your subject.

With means you can intentionally move your camera during a long exposure to create unique light trails and still keep your subject sharp due to the freezing action of the flash.

You can also keep your camera steady with a tripod and move any continuous lights during a long exposure to create the light pattern.

People seems to expect that when you use a flash it should make the subject brighly lit. Well lit doesn’t always mean perfectly exposure. Here are some examples of underexposed shot that still look right.

Here is another example of an intentional dark shot. So remember when you use a flash it doesn’t have to always make everythng bright.

Well lit can also mean overexposure, in this case I wanted to overexpose the background so that the food stands over the background.

In these two examples I use overexposure to add some glow to the faces of my models.

When using a flash, it doesn’t mean you have to eliminate shadows, which are very critical to a photograph. In can help add drama to a photo.

Shadows help bring out texture to your subjects, specialy when you shoot food and products.

No shadows, means flat photo, thus no texture.

Shadows help show form, to highlight curves.

If you still feel you are in the dark, feel free to visit my website and enroll in my lighting seminar.

A few photos from the May 2010 Seminar.

Lighting Set-up, concept and photography by the participants.

Participants:

Juan Carlo Francisco, Bea Caisip, Melody P. Abuan, Armand Ansaldo, George F. Ventayen, Zando Escultura, Joey Radovan and Duane Middlebrook

Behind the scenes:

Are you satisfied with having captured a great image? Maybe it’s time to learn to more than just capture but create great images. Learning and mastering the proper way to light will make creating a possibility.

This class will help you discover your own style, and not the style of the one conducting the seminar.

Seminar covers everything from basic to advance, the only lighting class you will ever need to take.

This seminar boast one of the best student to teacher ratio of 1:10, so sign up early for one of the limited 10 slots.

Feedbacks from past participants:

“Hi Ken, thank you for sharing with us your knowledge and expertise in the field of lighting. I truly learned so much from you and enjoyed the seminar a lot. Overall, i would rate the seminar 5 stars . Keeping the atmosphere light and fun helped us absorb the topics easier. Valuable knowledge was learned without information overload. The actual shoot was the highlight of it all. Being able to apply the topics hands on was the best training anyone could have. I would highly recommend your classes to my friends who are getting into photography like myself.”

“Once again, many thanks for the workshop. Honestly, I really did enjoy it. You explained the concepts clearly and you were also willing to answer all of our questions. Furthermore, I also liked the fact that you also talked about your experience as a professional photographer and the great sense of humor you have.”

“Thanks very much for the lighting class. Great class! In comparison to another lighting class that I took previously you are much more thorough. I have a much better understanding to setting up the lights, using the light meter, and ratios. I can honestly say I have much more confidence now than I did before.”

Where: Unit 602 Cityland 10 Tower 2, H.V. Dela Costa St. Salcedo Village, Makati City, behind RCBC Tower. Map to the studio.

Batch 45 (June 2010)

Day 1 June 22, 2010 Tuesday 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Day 2 June 24, 2010 Thursday 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Day 3 June 26, 2010 Saturday 10 a.m. or 3 p.m. (choose a timeslot)
Day 4 June 28, 2010 Monday 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

1st day topics:
Basic Photography refresher
Studio Equipment
Light modifiers
Triggering lights
Basic Portrait Lighting

2nd day topics:
Lighting ratios
Learning how to dissect the light set-up of a photo
Using a flash meter (hands on)

3rd day Actual Shoot with live models and professional make-up artist.

Class will be broken into 2 groups, 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., Participants should only come on their time slot, to avoid over crowding. During the shoot, each participant will be asked to conceptualize a lighting set-up to be done with their model, other participants on the same group will be assisting. After the participant finishes the shoot, other participant on the group will do the same, so the previous participant will now be acting as the assistant. (round robin system) this guarantees a hands- on set-up, thus learning from actually doing it rather than just listening. This will also make sure that the participants will the only one shooting at the time of his/her set-up, so he/she gets all the needed angles to complete the shoot, no more wrestling for a spot just to get the photo.

4th day topics:

Portable lighting equipment (strobist)
Simplified Post Processing workflow (Batch processing)
Critique session

For the critique session, participants will be asked to bring 1 to 2 of their favorite photo from the photo session printed on 5R, ink jet prints on photo paper are acceptable. All photos will be posted together on the wall for viewing.
Seminar Price is P. 4,000.00 – inclusive of handouts and certificates

* A non-refundable deposit of P. 1,000.00 will be required to reserve a slot

If you want to sign-up kindly send me the following info:
Name:
Email:
Cel. No.:
Preferred time slot for Saturday (10 a.m. or 3 p.m.):
Which batch:

seminars@photosbykengo.com

Are you satisfied with having captured a great image? Maybe it’s time to learn to more than just capture but create great images. Learning and mastering the proper way to light will make creating a possibility.

This class will help you discover your own style, and not the style of the one conducting the seminar.

Seminar covers everything from basic to advance, the only lighting class you will ever need to take.

This seminar boast one of the best student to teacher ratio of 1:10, so sign up early for one of the limited 10 slots.

Feedbacks from past participants:

“Hi Ken, thank you for sharing with us your knowledge and expertise in the field of lighting. I truly learned so much from you and enjoyed the seminar a lot. Overall, i would rate the seminar 5 stars . Keeping the atmosphere light and fun helped us absorb the topics easier. Valuable knowledge was learned without information overload. The actual shoot was the highlight of it all. Being able to apply the topics hands on was the best training anyone could have. I would highly recommend your classes to my friends who are getting into photography like myself.”

“Once again, many thanks for the workshop. Honestly, I really did enjoy it. You explained the concepts clearly and you were also willing to answer all of our questions. Furthermore, I also liked the fact that you also talked about your experience as a professional photographer and the great sense of humor you have.”

“Thanks very much for the lighting class. Great class! In comparison to another lighting class that I took previously you are much more thorough. I have a much better understanding to setting up the lights, using the light meter, and ratios. I can honestly say I have much more confidence now than I did before.”

Where: Unit 602 Cityland 10 Tower 2, H.V. Dela Costa St. Salcedo Village, Makati City, behind RCBC Tower. Map to the studio.

Batch 44 (May 2010)

Day 1 May 25, 2010 Tuesday 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Day 2 May 27, 2010 Thursday 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Day 3 May 29, 2010 Saturday 10 a.m. or 3 p.m. (choose a timeslot)
Day 4 May 31, 2010 Monday 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

1st day topics:
Basic Photography refresher
Studio Equipment
Light modifiers
Triggering lights
Basic Portrait Lighting

2nd day topics:
Lighting ratios
Learning how to dissect the light set-up of a photo
Using a flash meter (hands on)

3rd day Actual Shoot with live models and professional make-up artist.

Class will be broken into 2 groups, 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., Participants should only come on their time slot, to avoid over crowding. During the shoot, each participant will be asked to conceptualize a lighting set-up to be done with their model, other participants on the same group will be assisting. After the participant finishes the shoot, other participant on the group will do the same, so the previous participant will now be acting as the assistant. (round robin system) this guarantees a hands- on set-up, thus learning from actually doing it rather than just listening. This will also make sure that the participants will the only one shooting at the time of his/her set-up, so he/she gets all the needed angles to complete the shoot, no more wrestling for a spot just to get the photo.

4th day topics:
Portable lighting equipment (strobist)
Critique session

For the critique session, participants will be asked to bring 1 to 2 of their favorite photo from the photo session printed on 5R, ink jet prints on photo paper are acceptable. All photos will be posted together on the wall for viewing.
Seminar Price is P. 4,000.00 – inclusive of handouts and certificates

* A non-refundable deposit of P. 1,000.00 will be required to reserve a slot

If you want to sign-up kindly send me the following info:
Name:
Email:
Cel. No.:
Preferred time slot for Saturday (10 a.m. or 3 p.m.):
Which batch:

seminars@photosbykengo.com

A few photos from the April 2010 Seminar.

Lighting Set-up, concept and photography by the participants.

Participants:

Dennison Tan, Dojo L. Tia, Dino Maniquiz, Tess Maniquiz, Anthony Toledo, Mikee Palomaria Nazareno and Raymond Peralta

Behind the scenes:

A few photos from the March 2010 Seminar.

Lighting Set-up, concept and photography by the participants.

Participants:

Jonathan L Salvacion, Louie Arcilla, Erwin Rommel C. Cajigal, Abigail Aumentado, Vivienne Austria, J. Arnold P. Gonzales, Jeffrey Pua Belgica, Janben Edward C. Olimpo and Ruben Salvador

Behind the scenes: