Portrait Lighting and Retouching with Jim Lafferty

THIS EVENT BEGINS AT OUR SECOND LOCATION, 25 Dederick Street, Kingston, NY, 12401

Join photographer JIM LAFFERTY at CPW for a comprehensive overview of portrait photography workflow, from lighting to postproduction.

On the first day, we will focus on subject-driven lighting. Whether in studio or on location, this comprehensive overview of lighting for portraiture will focus on using your subject’s unique features to guide and inform your process, to achieve a striking, desired impact. We’ll begin at the foundation: set up remote strobe triggering, incorporate modifiers and distinguish between their variety, and consider in which scenarios you’d choose one over another. Following that, we’ll work our way up to more advanced, nuanced concepts in lighting: demonstrate key and fill ratios and feathering. We will also explore a variety of supporting tools, techniques, and approaches to create a smooth workflow, to deliver consistent and exceptional results. In this workshop, Lafferty will share personal experience on set shooting for editorial and commercial clients, hands-on exercises, and open time for Q&A.

On the second day, we will concentrate on making retouching elevated yet credible. To do this, we will start in Capture One, where Lafferty will demonstrate core tools and techniques to extract the most from raw files. From there, we will transfer images to Photoshop, where Lafferty will demonstrate the multistep workflow he consistently uses to enhance images, while maintaining a natural, luminous, and credible aesthetic. We will cover everything from retouching discrete details, removing skin blemishes, enhancing eyes and teeth, to addressing broader concepts such as adjusting tonality, contrast and color, all with a mindset toward being accurate and efficient. The workshop will wrap up with an open Q&A session.