Effective Outdoor Portraiture workshop in Freo

Effective Outdoor Portraiture workshop in Freo

You couldn’t have asked for better weather on Sunday for the “Effective Outdoor Portraiture” workshop, part of my Workshops in a SNAP! Spring Programme of photography workshops.

Clear blue skies and glorious sunlight brought the crowds into Fremantle, but we managed to head to the West End, where the streets were just a bit more sedate, for the location shoots.

This workshop, conducted by Greg Perry, focused on portrait photography in outdoor settings, using both natural light and flash light. Workshop participants learned all about reading natural light, and directing or augmenting it using reflectors and fill flash.

The West End of Fremantle is ripe with settings for creative outdoor portraiture. From grungy, graffiti-covered old doorways and entrances, to colonial buildings with their grand facades. We even found a great alleyway on Mouat Street, with soft, filtered light that made for some amazing portrait of models Sophie and Frank. The girls took this opportunity to get Frank shirtless and for a moment, the workshop became a bit more firemen calendar pin-up than portrait!

Curious onlookers stopped to look and ask who the celebrities being photographed were. One even wondered if Frank played for the Freo Dockers!

Towards late afternoon, the workshop ended up at the Round House, where a few wedding shoots were in progress.

As the sun dipped lower, Greg took the opportunity to show participants how to balance ambient with fill flash, creating brilliant, evocative portraits of Sophie using fill flash directed into a gold reflector.

After more than six hours shooting, participants were exhausted, but it looked like everyone had a ball, including yours truly!

Have a look at the images below, which document the workshop from the perspective of  participants.