The last occasion of the portrait photography class has arrived. Martin Szipal, our instructor is lively and energetic. And he shares the secret: “I’ve taken an annual 125.000mg vitamin C throughout 14 year. Today I take 30 vitamin pills every morning and evening. Look at my hands. Do these hands look like ones of an 80-year-old? No. It’s because of the antioxidants I take.”

A kind of and exam session is announced, however not a serious one, since the class does not give any certificate.

We had two models for the session and we started to work in groups. I started to light one of the models. It was only one bare bulb flash firing into a white reflecting board. The light spread around the room and arrived to her face from many directions. This makes the light silky. There are shadow areas - or rather less lit areas - on her face but no harsh shadows at all.

I was thinking of wrapping up the learnings of the eight sessions of this photography class. I list a few points below that I collected throughout the class, however I’m convinced that reading is not enough for fully understanding them:

• You have to have a concept when shooting a picture.
• There must be angles and geometric shapes.
• Portrait (head shot) to be shot from eye level with long lens at F 2.8.
• Start with the shadows.
• Shadow is the essence of a photo. Shadow gives dimension.
• Light reflected in the eyes is important.
• Golden ration is important.
• Use a tripod. Instruct your model with your mouth and hands.
• Always talk to your model.
• Always have safety-pins, clothes-pegs and duct tape with you when shooting.
• Nose must not stand out from the face (only when shooting a profile photo).
• Shadow of the nose must not fall onto the mouth.
• You must not cut the eyes.
• Weight must be on the rare foot.
• Consider buttoning direction of shirts, coats or jackets.
• Even hands should be in geometric shapes.
• Fingers are to be kept closed. One finger might be apart only.

I created some illustrations for the geometric shapes and angles thing that was mentioned so many times. Click on the picture for some examples.

As closing the day some group photos have been taken and then we were asked to give feedback on our experiences in email to the studio which organized the class. They are interested in what we enjoyed the most and could have been better.
Martin shared his cell phone number encouraging the class participants to call him whenever having a question. I think he really meant it.

I enjoyed this class very much. I hardly believe that all the things could have been gathered from books or articles on the Internet. Without Martin’s charismatic, and sometimes harsh personality it would’ve taken a few years to understand and remember all the minor details he’s drawn our attention to.

I hope you found my articles about the class useful.

Now it’s time to start practicing.

Read about the other sessions:
Portrait Photography Class - Session #1
Portrait Photography Class - Session #2
Portrait Photography Class - Session #3
Portrait Photography Class - Session #4
Portrait Photography Class - Session #5
Portrait Photography Class - Session #6
Portrait Photography Class - Session #7