Classes

Looking to master shooting with creative lighting without flash? Within this course you will learn to create the amazing results with constant lights! Montoya will show you how to control ambient lighting and modification of constant lights, thus creating dramatic light that is flattering for stills & video.

You will also learn about light modifier choices for LED and the how and when around using them.

* Bring your camera + a portrait lens (a f1.2, f1.4, f1.8.etc..)

When I started this photography journey I built many relationships with stylists and designers. Using multiple light setups to enhance a look or highlight some details. Let’s add to your portfolio with some multiple light studio setups, including gels, for some fashion flare.

In this friendly, down-to-earth class, we’ll pull back the curtain on the must-have gear we use to create top-notch video and audio content. We’ll get you acquainted with various cameras and lenses, and we’ll shine a light on how to best use your lighting equipment for filming. But that’s not all! We’ll also break down the ins and outs of audio recording – think microphones, audio interfaces, and the coolest sound editing software to get that perfect, crystal-clear sound. By the time we’re done, you’ll feel like a pro, ready to create your own professional-grade multimedia content.

In this class, I will walk you through my favorite simple, yet effective hand-editing techniques in Photoshop to turn regular images into scroll stoppers. Bring your laptops or take notes, you’re not going to want to miss this!

Jeff covers posing and lighting male subjects, how lighting impacts composition, and his approach to creating strong frames for your male portraiture.

Are you ready to embrace the daring and sensual side of male boudoir photography? In this class, we will briefly explore the rising popularity of men seeking out a boudoir experience for themselves and delve into how you can incorporate this growing client base into your brand. I will quickly walk you through how I work with male clients building rapport and how I use the clients natural movements and body language to capture seductive poses. Then, you will have the opportunity to create images for your portfolio.

This hands-on seminar will equip filmmakers and photographers alike with the knowledge and techniques to create visually stunning and emotionally evocative images through the art of cinematic lighting. Participants will learn the fundamental principles of Hollywood lighting and how to apply them to their work.

-Understanding light: qualities, color temperature, and exposure
-Ambient light vs Controlled light: harnessing the best of both worlds
-Techniques for shaping and controlling light
-Creating depth and dimension: the role of shadows and contrast
-Mood and atmosphere: crafting visual narratives through light
-Lighting for different genres: portraits, landscapes, documentaries, and narratives.

Join this community-focused photography networking class and get connected! Discover the importance of local group shoots regardless of your photography genre (yes, they ARE important)! They’re a fantastic opportunity to step out of the box, get creative, earn some extra cash, and network with other photographers. They also provide a collaborative environment that encourages experimentation, artistic expression, and the chance to learn from and connect with other photographers in your community. No matter your genre, join me to learn the ropes of local group shoots from planning to promotion to execution. After the discussion, we’ll put what we’ve learned into practice with a hands-on group shoot.

Join an international portrait master in using effective lighting techniques and styling to create beautiful female portraits in the style of magazine covers. Using a mixture of soft and hard light to produce stunning images that will add skills to you in order to show your clients that they can look like the stars.

What if you could turn 2x more visitors on your website into paying clients? What if they became loyal, returning clients who happily ordered prints and albums after every session? Would that double or triple your income? Would it change your life? When you apply a proven system to turn leads into clients, and clients into consumers, the result is a win-win experience for all. Learn The Blumes’ simple (yet not easy!) step-by-step method to create ideal clients.. and dramatically increase your income. The Blumes built an official “fastest-growing business”  in one of the worst markets in small-town America. For nearly a decade, they have taught photographers to build successful businesses that provide freedom and give back.

It’s time to re-think your studio’s so-called limits! In 2010 with nothing to lose, Phillip and Eileen Blume took a risky new approach to portrait sessions. It was a final effort to save their failing business. The immediate result was $8,000 in one weekend. But the even larger outcome was a revolutionary plan that transformed their studio into a six-figure “fastest-growing business” that thrives while they travel!

In their platform course, you’ll learn how to:
1. Get your life back, or even travel the world full-time while your business booms back home!
2. Structure and execute short photo shoots that average the Blumes up to $10,000 per weekend
3. Earn loyal clients who return to you every year

This is the official program that launched the “Backyard Business” movement to help photographers replace lost income in 2020. Beyond profitability, the Blumes’ Maximizing Minis system is a transformational tool to grow and protect your personal brand.

Embark on an extraordinary journey where you become the artist behind the lens in our immersive course! Get ready for an unparalleled hands-on experience as you receive personalized coaching from the industry’s leading Santa photographer. Capture the magic in real-time as you photograph a live Santa alongside a child, allowing you to hone your skills and unleash your creative potential. Under the expert guidance of our acclaimed instructor, you’ll master the art of Santa photography, discovering techniques and secrets that will elevate your work to new heights. Don’t miss this exclusive opportunity to learn from the best and create timeless, enchanting images that will leave a lasting impression.

We can talk about how amazing it is to sell prints, but if you show up to the session and aren’t actively thinking about the final product – you’re leaving money on the table. Not anymore! This class is all about how to combine soft sales skills, deep product knowledge, and flow posing so you walk home with images that lend themselves right into your top package!

Do you struggle getting higher sales from your clients? Learn to master In Person Sales. Sales is a PROCESS! Gary will walk you through each layer of the process. It all matters, miss a step, you’ll miss the money. What to show. How to price. What to say and do. He consistently hears from people who implement what he teaches that their sales increase from 50=150%. He will also show how to increase each and every album sale by $300-800. You don’t want to miss this if you care about money.

Wanna up your veil game? Join our hands-on photography class designed just for you! We’ll teach you how to get those perfect veil shots in a fun and interactive way. We’ll cover all the different types of veils and fabrics, styles to recommend to your clients, show you lighting techniques, and give you tips on how to work with clients to capture that perfect shot. Plus, you’ll get to practice your new skills with hands-on shooting and collaborate with others in the class. We’re even bringing our collection of cathedral length veils to throw. By the end of it, you’ll be a veil pro and ready to capture stunning veil shots at your next wedding!

How to use OCF really quickly with settings that don’t fail and with minimal equipment.

In this class, learn how to create stunning portraits using multiple light setups! In this hands-on class, you’ll discover how to take your portrait photography skills to the next level by expertly using one, two, and three lights to create stunning portraits both on location and in-studio. You’ll also learn how to incorporate Gels to add vibrant color and create unique effects. I will share my favorite light modifiers and guide you through the process of creating incredible portraits that will impress your clients and take your photography to new heights. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned photographer, this class will provide you with the skills and knowledge to master multiple light setups and create breathtaking portraits.

Learn the secret of the pose I sell every single time I shoot it, no matter the age. This pose works for kids, seniors, and adults. We will use single and multiple model set ups to perfect the pose that wins every time.

Let’s face it, that’s what wedding and couples photography really is! This class will help you guide your clients away from their resting bitch face to expressions that you can sell later. Learn how to:
– make your clients feel comfortable
– keep the session MOVING along
– pull every expression from your couples from sexy to silly
– body language comes into play

Hefty lease payments and annoying utility bills don’t have to equate to studio-quality images….and no, this won’t be a class on how to convert PortaPots into studios. That’s gross.

Learn the very tools and techniques I use on an everyday basis to create studio images for headshots, portraits, and more – regardless of location. You’ll see portable backdrop solutions that fit in the back of a car, gelled lighting techniques that can transform any space, and finally how to make any space look its best by identifying the best background and lighting for that space.

I know posing scares you. Heck it scared me in the beginning too! But what if I told you that treating your clients more like friends helps those posing jitters go away? Or even interacting with them on a more relaxed comical manner works too! We overthink posing and even let it eat away at us. Watch me pose different couples who are COMPLETE STRANGERS TO ME the EXACT SAME WAY with the way I talk to them, interact with them and joke with them to get better results from them in front of my camera. You will pose, you will laugh, you will look at things differently and start your next session with me on your mind. Let’s let go of the technical mentality and just have a good time with our couples so they will book you over and over again because you posed them with ease and made them feel comfortable and more importantly seen.

3 key takeaways:

Gain confidence and show confidence as you practice posing using the mental framework and mnemonic devices/acronyms I will teach you.
Practice perfecting the pose before you click the shutter.
Quickly work through a variety of poses in a shorter time.

This is how you become experienced and confident at posing. Practice, practice, practice. You will have the mental framework and mnemonic devices/acronyms you can use to practice with your subject. Cement the posing prompts in your head by practicing them in real time. Practice guiding your client quickly through a variety of poses and practice perfecting the poses before you click the shutter.

Join the return of a classic workshop, now for family portrait sessions! This class first debuted as couples’ posing at Shutterfest #2, then took the industry by storm. If awkward posing or unpolished direction is an obstacle for your photo shoots, sign up for Posed to Playful right now! Phillip & Eileen’s playful techniques have been adopted by thousands of photographers and make direction easy. Plus the authentic emotion they add to portraits naturally results in incredible customer reviews and sales. Interact with the Blumes during this popular Photo Walk, and don’t be a poser!

Good boudoir posing is essential in your boudoir photography! Learn the ins and outs of boudoir posing and elevate your boudoir photos with 25 stunning poses.

1) Flatter your client’s curves: Boudoir photography aims to capture your client’s beauty and sensuality. Proper posing techniques help accentuate their best features and minimize any perceived flaws. It allows you to highlight your client’s curves, elongate their body, and showcase their unique attributes.

2) Boost your client’s confidence – so they feel empowered: Boudoir photography is a transformative experience for many women. When guided into poses that showcase their beauty and strength, it can boost their confidence and empower them to embrace their body and sensuality.

3) Create emotions: Boudoir photography often aims to convey a story, mood, or emotion. Through posing, you can communicate intimacy, vulnerability, strength, playfulness, or any desired sentiment. Well-executed poses can evoke emotions and add depth and meaning to the images, creating a captivating visual narrative.

Ultimately, good boudoir posing is about creating an atmosphere of trust, celebrating the women’s unique beauty, and capturing images that make them feel empowered, confident, and proud of their bodies and sensuality.

We will show you how to pose couples to make them look their best. You will also learn some posing tricks to make couples look confident and powerful in front of a camera .

3 key takeaways:

Walk away with a set of mnemonic devices/acronyms devices to easily remember posing prompts.
See in action how integrating these prompts speeds up your workflow.
Learn effective communication strategies to interact with clients.

In this demo we will be applying a couple of mnemonic devices/acronyms to easily remember posing prompts. As I photograph the models, I will keep a shutter count so you can see how many images we get in our time frame. As we pose our subject you will see tips and tricks to interact with clients for a greater variety of poses in a short amount of time and gain ideas on creative posing you will now have time for in your sessions.

3 key takeaways:

1. Walk away with mental framework of 4 mnemonic devices/acronyms to easily remember posing prompts.

2. Gain confidence and appear confident in knowing what to say to your clients,

3. Increase the number and range of images you get in a shorter time period which will increase sales.

Class outline.
In this class, we will cover a set of mnemonic devices/acronyms designed to assist you in easily recalling posing prompts. This will enable you to establish a mental framework for posing allowing you to:
1 Direct your client with confidence (even if you aren’t)
2 Transition swiftly between poses, capturing a greater range of images in a shorter time frame.
3 Provide additional time to craft more creative poses that will resonate with your client without extending the length of the session.

Pricing Pitfalls for Wedding Photographers
– Mistakes most wedding photographers make in pricing and how to fix them
– The psychology of the pricing structure
– How to communicate value so pricing is never an issue
– Why positioning matters in the market
– Overcome pricing objections before they ever happen

This wildly successful light projection class is back, featuring all-new setups, fresh images, and more powerful projection tools. These enhancements ensure every attendee can capture their own unique, creative images.

Projection photography starts with a simple idea: using a digital projector to display images onto human subjects for a photo. While that’s pretty neat, we can do better. A lot better. In this class, we take it to 11.

We’ll begin with a completely novel setup, employing side-by-side projectors to immerse a dancer in light and art. This segment is open to both photography and videography enthusiasts and is guaranteed to amaze you.

After about 30 minutes, we’ll divide the room into two side-by-side shooting bays, providing ample time for every attendee to create their art. As in previous sessions, we’ll offer a wide range of props and wardrobe accessories, as well as LED tube lights and hundreds of entirely new images to choose from. You can even project custom text or geometric patterns onto the models.

This year, we’re also introducing a unique addition called “The Cage.” If the main shooting bays become too crowded, The Cage offers a third location to help spread participants out. The Cage, roughly the size of an old-fashioned phone booth, will contain a model surrounded by programmable LED lights that can display any color and a variety of patterns. To make it even more intriguing, we’ll project images onto The Cage using a basic form of projection mapping technology, ensuring that the projection remains confined within the structure.

As in the previous year, we’ll be using Projection Studio, my custom light projection software (yes, I created it from scratch and it is compatible with both Mac and Windows). The software is freely available for everyone to use.

What to bring: a camera and your favorite lens!

Learn how to create virtual environments using a combination of projected backdrops, set dressing, and props. Ryan will show some examples of prior work for inspiration, and after a brief explanation of the setup, attendees will be able to photograph our models in unique environments. We will pause quickly after everyone has had a chance to get some photos and change our backdrops to completely new scenes. It’s as easy as the press of a button when using a projector!