Review workshop One To One

One of the participants of the One to One write a few words about the workshop.

You can read below his review 

It all started on the internet.

I was looking for portraits made with Lensbaby lenses just to get an idea of their potential and value.

The best shots, the most interesting and powerful were from Cristina.

I was so impressed by her style and i decided to contact her.

Just few e-mails, we set up a 1on1 workshop in her studio in Botoşani, Romania.

After a couple of months from the first contact i finally landed at the Suceava Airport where i found Cristina and her husband Alex. We went to Botoşani with their car. Cristina and her family were so nice and Botoşaniis a beautiful quiet place; i really enjoyed every moment of my time spent there, even more than i expected.

The workshop consisted of two days: the first one for an indoor shooting in Cristina’s studio, the second one for the post production.

After the first day i decided to ask Cristina for an extra day of outdoor session. So at the and we had two days of shooting an a third one for retouching.

Cristina shoots with Nikon full frame cameras mounting prime lens from 35 to 85mm. She uses “standard Nikon lenses” (50mm 1.4) and also more “creative” lenses from Lensbaby (Twist60, Burnside, etc…) and Zenit Helios.

In Cristina’s photography the relationship between subject and background is a significant aspect.

She’s always able to create the right mood. It was very difficult to learn how to emulate the way she direct the subject: so effective. As a matter of fact i wasn’t able to direct the model in a proper way, that’s something i really have to work

I got all my flaws exposed and so i learned a lot of things: i improved the understanding on how to use Lensbaby lenses (Twist60 and Sweet 80 and 35) and inparticular i acquired knowledge about the scenarios in which they can be effective and when they can give some problems. From a technical point of view i practiced a lot with the use of manual focus using both viewfinder and live view (i never used live view for manual focus and it can be very effective in low light situations).

During the outdoor shooting Cristina suggested me to shoot more with the horizontal (landscape) orientation of the camera because i use to shoot a lot with the portrait orientation and i’ve found this advice very useful. The landscape orientation can be extremely effective for a dramatic composition and can be a so powerful way to communicate “the story” behind the shoot.

I also enjoyed a lot the post production session in the third day of the workshop.

The approach is friendly, very easy to understand.

At first Cristina showed me her way to process images in Camera Raw/Photoshop on her files and then it was my turn to do the same on a selection of the best shots from the two days shootings (she actually did all the work for me, now i can study the adjustments whenever i want with the psd files saved on my pc).

Cristina has her own style of post production, it perfectly matches her photographic purposes.

This final phase of her workflow gives her photos the final touch that makes them look so great, so artistic and compelling.

When i came back to Roma i was so sad, i definitely would stay longer in Botoşani; it has been a great experience not only as a practicing photographer but as an individual.

I will always be grateful to Cristina, her family and friends.

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