Some of my favorites from our COMM316 Idaho Portrait Photoshoot Workshop

Back in January I went with a group of other students taking COMM316 at BYU-Idaho to Sky Mountain Lodge located in Victor, ID for a 4-day photo workshop.

On the third day of our excursion we spent a lot of time working on portraits. Being a photographer in Idaho is somewhat difficult due to the amount of competition we have here, so it’s important to learn various and different lighting techniques that allow us to differentiate ourselves from the competition and give us a competitive edge. All of these pictures were taken using various forms of auxiliary lighting – whether it be the Einstein strobes, continuous lights modified with soft boxes or the wonderful speedlights with octobox modifiers.

Helaman in this picture looks like John Mayer. While I can’t remember if he actually played the guitar, I do remember this lighting was AWESOME. This is a great example of the Rembrandt lighting pattern. I love his pose, the direction of the light and the overall environment. This Idaho portrait would be the perfect cover for a country album!

I will say that this pose might seem totally unnatural, but it totally wasn’t! When I got to shoot Emily Birkmeyer’s Idaho portrait, she was doing something with her hands on her head and I absolutely love it. I think the reason why the pose works so well for this picture is the fact that it helps frame her face. In addition I love how only the brightest of colors are located between her hands — her lipstick, eyes, and the yellow in her glasses!

Meet Emily Froelich! She’s an awesome designer and a great photographer! I love all three of these Idaho portraits that I captured of her because her look is timeless and the background is different yet works! When editing Emily’s portraits I focused on evening out the lighting on her skin and sharpening her eyes!

Check out more awesome Idaho portraits by Janae Harker.