Creative live: childrens portrait photography

ttcomet

This 3 day course stars tonight. It is being run in conjunction with Tamra Lackey. It starts at about 6, here.

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Children's Portrait Photography with Tamara Lackey
Instructor:
Tamara Lackey
Date:
Fri, Nov 19 – Sun, Nov 21, 2010
Starts:
November 19, 2010 10:00AM
Ends:
November 21, 2010 10:00AM

This November, celebrated children's photographer Tamara Lackey leads a special 3-day worldwide workshop on the magic, art, and business of child portrait photography.

Take a live, front-row seat with Tamara as she works with a wide range of kids. You'll watch as she works to put them at ease, gets them laughing, and coaxes out their natural personality for fun poses and great family portraits.

Course Sponsored by B & H.

*eadaoin

umm, just wondering, is it free? i can't see anywhere on that link that it's charged for.

AnCatDubh

yes free.

Event Dates: Friday, Saturday, Sunday November 19, 20, 21
Event Times:
10 AM to 6 PM — California (PST)
1 PM to 9 PM — New York (EST)
6 PM to 2 AM — London (GMT)
3 AM to 11am — Tokyo (GMT +9)

Watch the LIVE Event FREE:

At creativeLIVE, the LIVE events are always FREE. Use these links to watch and participate this class:

Live Video: creativelive.com/live
Low Bandwidth: creativelive.com/low
iPad/iPhone: creativelive.com/ipad
LIVE Chatroom: creativelive.com/chat
Twitter Questions: #askTamara

Thecageyone

Way too many sound issues with their set up, I joined about 2 hrs in and it's just been a mess for the past couple of hours since. Pity, I had a bit of free time here and was ready to settle in and watch, but my patience has run out.

daycent

Thecageyone wrote: »

Way too many sound issues with their set up, I joined about 2 hrs in and it's just been a mess for the past couple of hours since. Pity, I had a bit of free time here and was ready to settle in and watch, but my patience has run out.

Haven't looked at this one yet, but for the Jasmine Star one, the sound was a disaster. You would have though they would have got that sorted by now...

pearljamfan

im cosy in bed watching it, not bothered about the sound, but im getting bored with the slow pace.

chisel

mmm. No sound issues here at all. Seems pretty good actually, just finished watching a critique session which was good I thought. Jesus, the accents are terrible though

AnCatDubh

pearljamfan wrote: »

im cosy in bed watching it, not bothered about the sound, but im getting bored with the slow pace.

Agree. The first couple of hours were very slow....... The critique picked up the pace a little, but by the time they were onto the 5th or 6th image, there was simply the same ole same ole.

I think there appears to be a formula that makes the great child portrait. No difficulty with that except, imho, you can end up stifling creativity. Bambi and Tamara's approach to that from what I gathered was that this is what professionals do as others (amateurs) with good cameras don't like rules because they don't know how to master them.

I therefore thought their critique of this image was quite inflexible imho - the image doesn't meet the template format that they had in their minds, so it didn't cut it. It is probably more a candid portraiture and fair enough if that aint your thing you won't go for it. I personally think there is a uniqueness to the image. It has some technical and composition weakness (particularly in relation to a shift not to be shooting straight between the childs legs - this as pointed out), but I still reckon it to be a great image.

Anyhow, as with previous creative live events, the pace on days two and three tends to be far more palatable.

Sound is ok here. It was poor at the beginning but fine now for me.

Is this over and done with now?


How do people find out about these streams? I always find out when it's too late. Wouldn't mind a few days notice. Is there an email you can subscribe to or somesuch?

Winnieacre

'Rewatch' - repeat running now!

You can register as a member and enroll for different programmes. They send out reminders in advance of sessions to those enrolled.

W

pearljamfan

i fell asleep on the last hour, and woke up this morning with it still chattering away at me !! aarrgghhhh!! will give it another go tonight. after x factor that is.....

oshead

It's turning into photography 101. She's explaining what aperture is at the moment.

oshead

That last part was a bit of a joke. She is clearly disorganized and should use an assistant. Just like Zack did. Plus using continous lighting in that environment is a joke. The "key" light is way underpowered by the set lights and the window light. Not to mention the bg light seems to a different colour to the rest. oh.... and the window light is definitely cooler than the westcott. Bet she was glad time lunch came when it did.

chisel

I'm hearing all yer saying oshead....


However, what I'm finding very good is the way she handles the kids. I mean, I can usually get my own kids to do what I want (they're great little models) but a strange kid, or a 2 year old I don't know etc etc.

That's what I'm getting out of it so far. Most of the tech stuff definitely seems to take a back seat, but the way she can shoot with the camera off to one side - from the shoulder if not the hip, is pretty cool.

hold on, did I just type an americanism? Noooooo. I've been watching/listening too long!!

oshead

Yeah, she handles kids really well, has a nice personality and over all, I like the cut of her jib. She seems to have a good eye too. That's important IMO.

Although some of the high contrast b&w images she did yesterday were nice, I believe they were processed that way to save them from the bin. In one shot, the shadows on the 2 yo boy's face when in the boat house were not flattering. In PS she just did a high contrast treatment to the image which removed all shadows from the face and thus saved the image. Something i'd never think of doing. I guess that's art.... :pac:

chisel

I like the cut of her jib

In the words of Mr. Burns...



I'd say she'd slice you and dice you and serve you back on a plate....

WheresMyCamera?

I haven't managed to watch it right through each night, but I have already managed to put some of her ideas into practice.
The reason I have been watching this was always about her interactions with kids. And I've had 9 shoots over the weekend with kids involved so I tried a few of her things out. (well the ones I could given the type of work I do) And I have to say some of them have worked and others I know will work but haven't quite got my head around doing it yet.
It's been an interesting webcast as I've been fortunate to try things out so quickly. (It does annoy me how much she used sound effects in normal conversation with adults though!

chisel

Yes, it was how she managed the kids that I thought was the best stuff. Remmber that bit where she or one of the trainees wanted the brother and sister to get closer and they wouldn't? She took a few other pics, then commented on their shoes... then said I want to get a pic with their shoes close together... and of course they stood together for that! Just clever stuff like that really. I've been trying out some of the tips and like you say, some of it will work and more won't.

Zxc

I saw several hours of this over the three days - thanks to the OP for bringing it to our attention here on Boards.

Unfortunately, I didn't see any of TL's actual shoots that were promised which I would love to have seen. Thanks to other posters who have mentioned some of the tips and tricks TL used. So I feel I haven't missed out entirely after all.