Mommy Bloggers Philippines Mini Photography Workshop Rocks!
February 23, 2015
Last Saturday's AM Session of Mommy Bloggers Philippines Mini Photography Workshop was indeed a very fruitful and fun time for me. I considered it as my ultimate day-off after months of not being able to go out of the house for more that two hours! Yipee!
Makati area wasn't that familiar to me but I successfully arrived at Kabila Filipino Bistro on time. You have no idea how many times I asked different people before I reached the venue! Kaloka!
Mommies Lani Lluch and Louisa Mercado, the dynamic top ladies of MBP, were very busy preparing the materials and entertaining the participants as I arrived. I was handed by this loot bag with goodies from Villa Del Conte, Oil of Argan, and Henry's Professional.
When everything and everyone were all settled down, Lani gave us a backgrounder of what Mommy Bloggers Philippines was and introduced the Marketing Head of The Raintree Restaurants, Miss Mela Sison. She and her team warmly welcomed all of us and told us what their chain of restaurants offer.
It was followed by the workshop proper by the very bubbly and quirky, Mommy Joy Gurtiza of Joybites!
Raffle was done in between discussions. I was a person who wasn't gifted with winner's luck and winning that day was so shocking for me! I felt delighted to be chosen to bring home a gift pack from Nature Republic Philippines. I had a good experience using its Argan Mask. I felt so happy that it was included in the bag!
The following were my most favorite tips learned from the workshop:
1 Making and using DIY reflectors using illustration boards and crumpled aluminum foils
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| The DIY silver reflector can brighten up your photo while the gold one can make it look warmer. (Courtesy: Slide Gurtiza) |
2 Applying the "Top Six Camera Angles"
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| TILT TOWARDS the right is my most favorite camera angle. You can notice it on my photos on Instagram and other articles. According to Joy, this angle makes the dish welcoming you in, motivating the spectator to indulge in image. |
3 Prop Styling
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| "Props make photographs better and create an atmosphere and environment. Props create a setting or mood in photos that makes a viewer think about what the photographer is trying to communicate."- Joy Gurtiza |
4 Using Natural Light a.k.a. SUNLIGHT
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| Do your photo shoot during the "golden hour". Depending on the weather condition, the best time to shoot is from 8:00-9:00 AM and 3:00-4:30 PM. |
5 Setting the camera to WHITE BALANCE
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| White Balance makes the photo brighter and nicer under natural light. |
6 Experimenting by adjusting the camera settings
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| Experimenting like adjusting the camera settings and exposure compensation is encouraged for us to see which works best and make our photos nicer and post worthy. Here, I used indoor and sunset setting which made this photo look warmer. |
I never noticed that three hours already passed. We learned so much from Joy in a non-boring way, had our hands-on which made it more thrilling, and tasted the scrumptious dishes and desserts that we used as subjects. I also had a chance to see other MBP Members in person and meet new friends.
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| Any event is incomplete without a group photo op! (Courtesy: Slide Gurtiza) |
You may go HERE to see more photos of the workshop proper.
Guess what? Upon arriving home, I immediately placed a set-up near our window where I could practice what I learned while waiting for the golden hour. I still had no reflector made with foil so I used a whiteboard in taking this photo.
The following day, I waited again for the golden hour in the morning. It was very obvious that I was really, really excited. I tried using colored background to see if the reflector would work well despite the fact that the background wasn't white. The objects' image popped up! Amazing! Take note, the two photos below were not post-processed/edited.
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| Facial soap and 100% Morrocan oil from Oil of Argan |
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| Beauty products from Nature Republic Philippines |
I also wanted to see the difference among my raw photos and post-processed ones. Honestly, the difference was just minimal after following Joy's tips.
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| The two photos above were edited using Microsoft Office 2010. Joy suggested to use Lightroom due to being user-friendly. Papa got me an installer. I'm so happy! |
During lunch time at exactly 12:30 PM, I tried taking this photo to see how it would look like since it wouldn't be taken during the golden hour. See, the photo was bluish.
It really pays to wait for the golden hour.
This afternoon, I learned from Joy when Mommy Olive asked her on Facebook on how to focus on a certain object while the background would look faded. She said that the camera should be set to MACRO. I took the photo below at exactly 3:30 PM using white balance and macro settings, and white reflector. The focus on this photo was the brand name.
I hope that I gave justice to Joy's photography tips. There were so much areas that were tackled in the workshop that were not mentioned here. I suggest that it would be best for you to attend the next round of her workshop.
For me it's a must to see, hear, and do it yourself. I will keep you posted regarding the next seminar's schedule, promise!
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