Modeling for Scott Robert's Photography Workshop

Scott Robert, an international award winning photographer, held his photography workshop for professional photographers in China a month ago. I have been invited to be the guest model for the workshop and spent two days with the group.

Below are some photos from the workshop and some articles about the workshop:

Behind the scenes Getting makeup done.

Look at the number of flash lights LoL

Love the photos from the workshop

Such a great group!

Online article written by Zabrina

http://www.jezaphoto.com/2009/12/j-e-z-a-loves-hong-kong-ii-featuring-miss-juju-chan/comment-page-1/#comment-13

DiGi Bi-Weekly Magazine Hong Kong

Issue 190 published on Nov 13th 2009

To Tell the Story One by One - Scott Robert Lim

Article by DiGi Reporter Chloe Wan

Translated by Zabrina Deng

A good photograph goes beyond merely displaying beauty, but also telling a good story. However, who can fully understand the philosophy behind a photograph and the photographer’s commitment behind the scene? For a photographer who charges ten thousand U.S. dollars per wedding, what exactly is his aspiration behind the lens? It was my great pleasure to exchange views on this subject with top notch wedding photographer Scott Robert Lim. I noticed that he is very keen on sharing his photography techniques and tips. Students coming from different parts of the world to attend his classes are solid proofs of his exceptional talent in photography.

Key: From Outside to Inside, a Translucent Photo

This interview with Scott Robert was conducted after his presentation of his workshop, thus I took the chance to secretly learn from the master as well. The entire lecture did not emphasize on the technical aspect of photography, instead it focused on what constitute to an eye-catching photograph - subject, emotion, light and shadow, environment and composition. Although these elements might not always be under our control, a beautiful picture is in the making should we be able to pay attention to these details and utilize them. If a photo can capture one’s attention, with the precise lights and shadow, top it of with a great sense of beauty, it would be a powerful image. If anyone wants to understand what it means by stellar and influential imageries, you can check out Scott Robert’s portfolio. From his work, some of them reminded me of narrative photo plots from classic movies. He has the ability to show and tell a story through his images.

Emotions in Portraiture

Many professional photographers would say that in order to make a stellar portraiture, it is essential to have adequate communication with the model. Besides giving instruction verbally, body language could also help, such as demonstrating the pose you have in mind. Yet, it is still far from ideal if we have a good pose but not catching the soul of which. Hence, Scott Robert told us that in order to have the model to pose with emotions naturally, you can tell her to think of a scenario and apply her own interpretation of the emotion to pose accordingly. For example, if you tell a model to portray the desire to be embraced, different models would come up with different poses, which in turn would enhance the room of creativity; while with less limitation, it would be easier for the model to get involved.

Creativity Inspiration

To have the models to pose the way they desire should be fairly simple, but to create different concept each time is probably not. Little that I know Scott Robert’s inspiration for poses came from movie and everyday life, therefore, a lot of his incredible images looked like classic scenes from the movie. His images are powerful and persuasive at the same time. Then I started to wonder, why would he allow models to create their poses themselves? Isn’t it easier to just instruct them what to do? Scott Robert believes not only the model would easily get involved into the emotional scene, by them grasping the emotion will allow their natural beauty to reveal. Scott Robert thinks women are gorgeous and stunning in many different ways. Perhaps understanding the uniqueness of each woman will transform your work into a higher level of beautiful portraiture.

Never Stop Learning, Never Stop Improving

Since Scott can receive such generous amount of fees from each wedding assignment, why does he still teach? It is because he thinks everyone has the potential to create beyond standard images with persisting effort to learn. Therefore, he truly enjoys sharing his photography and life skills to others. On the day of this interview, all his students flown-in from other parts of the world to photograph many special places of Hong Kong & Beijing with Scott. His students so far enjoyed their time in Hong Kong as well as their cultural exchange experience with local photographers from the evening of this lecture/social mixer event.

Afterword

After the interview, I realized that a model’s emotions could be derived from the energy of the photographer who can in return capture a moving picture. One can easily feel Scott Robert’s positive energy - not only from the way he speaks, but also through his body movement. Therefore, I want to take this time to express my gratitude to Scott Robert and to Kelvin Lau who told me about Scott’s time in Hong Kong. Through this interview I have gained new ideas on how to create great portraiture, as well as other aspects in photography with many new appreciations.