Learning Photography Lighting with Ken Go

When I was invited to attend a photography class on lighting by Ken Go, I immediately grabbed the opportunity to learn from the master himself.

This is actually my very first formal class in photography. When I started getting into the hobby, I was keen on just teaching myself the craft and by experimenting.

However, there are so many other specific skills that are needed in order to be good at this and one of them is knowing the basics of lighting. Of course, access to a professional studio and equipments are essential to properly learning the craft and a hands-on experience helps a lot.

This wasn’t just any other basic photography class you normally encounter out there. Ken Go specializes in photography lighting and I learned a lot from his class. The 4-day seminar is spread in two weeks with around 3 hours per session. The 3rd day, we went to shoot the lighting concepts we wanted with a couple of models. This session is where we practice all the theories, concepts and all that math that was taught to us.

Here are some of the shots I took during our photoshoot:

Too bad I missed the 4th and last day of class (where they discussed strobist and batch post-processing) since I had to go to Malaysia.

All in all, it was a great session and there were a lot concepts I learned that was put to practice. It’s a class I’ve recommended to friends who are into photography, both as a hobby or just to improve their craft or want to go into the business.

My primary motivation in attending this class is actually to help me take better “product shots” of the gadgets I review here on YugaTech. Hopefully, I’d be able to apply what I learned from the class to make my un-boxing photos look more drool-worthy.

If you’re interested, you can check out Ken Go’s workshop schedules here. There’s an upcoming one later this July. Classes are usually held in the evenings (6-10pm) with shoots on week-ends (Saturday). Seminar fee is about Php4,000USD 68INR 5,778EUR 65CNY 496 for the whole 4 days.

The only drawback here is that after completing the class, I’m now looking into getting a basic lighting set of my own and that’s not gonna be a cheap investment.

Disclosure: I was given a complimentary slot in this photography class.