Peter Coulson

We traveled up to sydney for a day trip to the Peter Coulson lighting workshop at Sun Studios.

Peter Coulson is the current AIPP photographer of the year and the workshop really showed us why he is is.

He started off showing us how he usually lights is images
He showed us how he does everything using 1 light and he was getting amazing results, this is something all of our teachers have been telling us to do for the past 2 years. Stripping everything back to basics using only one light can go a long way.

He also showed us how to use harsh lighting to its best by using bar bulbs on the flashes using only 2 light and getting very amazing results playing with the shadows. Also showed us how to use direct sunlight in the middle of the day very harsh shadows and still got amazing results. Its all about really looking close at where the light is hitting.

I was a bit worried when is said he shoots auto white balance though, but he did corrected it in lightroom while shooting tethered which didn't matter at all once it was in being corrected on the spot.

We also went through lighting a corporate portrait to a high standard using more lights. the best technique i got out of this was the backlighting check by shooting the backlights without the front lights to check exactly where it is hitting, very simple but very effective.


All of his shoots he used butterfly lighting which looked great.