Nordic Light Workshop Marathon Part II – Portraits


One of the teachers at the Nordic Light Workshop Marathon was Greg Gorman. If you haven’t heard about him, you definitely have seen some of his pictures.

You might have seen this photo of Andy Warhol that is the cover photo of the book Framed.

Or maybe the original poster for Pirates of the Caribbean, Curse of the black pearl.

So he is this guy that has taken photos of almost every big movie star or famous person, and he is also an extremely nice guy, great photographer and enthusiastic teacher. If you are able to attend some of his workshops, then please do so. It’s highly recommended.

Greg Gorman is a master of “sculpturing” photographs with light and shadows. His style is based on reason and planning, of taking your time with the motive and understanding the light. This is a technique that all photographers should at least try for themselves. It opens your eye to how you “paint with light“.

After three days with studying light and shadows, rotating faces, planning colors and contrasts I feel that I can never look at a face or a location again without getting lost in how the light runs around corners or plays on different textures. We were a bit too many in the group to really pick Greg’s mind, and learn how he sees the word though. Even so, his demonstrations, reviews and tips still gave all the participants a small starter on how to become even better photographers. The next thing is obviously to join him in one of his week long workshops in California.

I have included some of the photos that I took in Kristiansund during the workshop. Have a look and please … start looking at HOW light and shadows play on a motive, and not only on WHAT they show.

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