Since the invention of film, the human face has been the most photographed subject on the planet. Anyone can take a snapshot, but capturing a person's essence and soul demands a wide set of skills. Exploring methods to push yourself out of your comfort zone can lead to a whole new world of self discovery with your photography. This course will help you discover and develop your own personal vision and individual style and push yourself to get images you've always imagined. Capture the spirit of a person in the decisive moment. Understand the subtleties of light and shadow. Analyze your subject to know what it will take to get the look and mood you want, and produce an image that will move others.

Learn how to feel and see light differently and understand the impact of light in your photographs. Learn about equipment that can expand your skills and give you the impact in a person or child's face that you have always wanted. Explore camera angles, lens choices, backgrounds, shooting indoors and out, framing the shot, shooting while traveling and much more. Thinking outside the box will help you grow as a photographer and expand your creativity at the same time.

Understanding and working with light, composition, equipment, locations and your subject most of all is only the beginning. Making a powerful image is much more than point and shoot and hope that it looks good. The art of capturing ones presona develops over time, but armed with knowledge and ideas from this course, you will acquire the skills needed to craft great photographs of the face.

Lesson 1: Think Different
• Learn the importance of camera angles, head and body positions, lens choices and how they affect your image, using a macro lens for faces, what f/stop makes for the best image, when to use a tripod and image stabilization, focus points and the importance of sharp eyes.

Lesson 2: It's all about the light
• Understanding exposure, discover how lighting can make or break the shot, using reflectors & diffusers in bouncing and diffusing light onto the face, how to make the eyes pop and working with the light at the best time of the day.

Lesson 3: The Decisive Moment
• Capturing the spirit and essence of a child, photographing faces when you travel, shooting more than one person, working with different expressions, looks and poses, dealing with make up and clothes and why the eyes are the key to a great shot.

Lesson 4: Discovering your own style
• Discovering your own style shooting faces, shooting with ambient light indoors, shooting indoors using only a single light, using the Ray Flash, using a super telephoto, playing with the Lens Baby, shooting faces by candlelight and choosing and working with backgrounds that make the face stand out.

The only lighting equipment required for the course is a soft/gold or white reflector for the second lesson. There will be other optional equipment that we will be exploring and talking about during the course. Certain pieces will be extremely useful such as tripod, camera flash, silk diffuser, hot light, cold light or inexpensive portrait light set up, a macro lens and the Lens Baby. The soft/gold reflector, silk diffuser and indoor lights are all discussed at the end of the first lesson. Everything except for the soft gold reflector is optional and only mentioned to help give you choices on how to vary and improve your photography.