Studio Lighting Class Portfolio, Fall 2022.

As an artist, I love to work outside of my comfort zone. I almost exclusively shoot other people in natural light, so with this class I wanted to accomplish 2 things: improve my studio lighting abilities and get more comfortable with self portraits. I also still wanted the images to have my own flare to them, so I accomplished this with either lens filters or presets that I’ve made in Lightroom. I try to emulate the look of film whenever possible.

Despite how stressful it was, my favorite assignment was probably the one where we worked with dancers. The images were the most rewarding and I had the most fun during that class! It was nice to shoot people that weren’t me or my classmates. I also enjoy long exposures and multiple exposures within the same image. Within most of my work I have to freeze motion using shutter speed, so it was cool to see another (non-shutter) way to freeze motion.

This class not only made me more comfortable with studio lighting and photographing myself, it also taught me how to be resourceful when working with limited equipment and lower quality equipment, which is probably the most valuable thing that I learned. I was told a while ago by a JU alum that “If you learn one thing from the JU photo program, it’s how to be resourceful and scrappy.” and that definitely rings true after this semester. I’m looking forward to using the skills I’ve learned in the real world!