My very favorite photography magazine has always been Popular Photography. I currently subscribe to the print version, and receive regular e-mails from them. When I saw an e-mail about their Digital Days seminars coming to both Boston and NYC, I jumped at the chance to attend one (I’m located about halfway between the two cities). I went to the Boston seminar a few weeks ago, and wanted to describe my experience.

The Saturday session is supposed to be for beginners and runs just in the afternoon. The full-day Sunday session covers more advanced topics and includes a live model shoot. Having never photographed people beyond your typical snapshot, I was anxious to try my hand at shooting in a makeshift studio.

I went into the Saturday session with very low expectations. Having shot a film SLR for over 20 years and a digital P&S for almost eight years, I already know the basics. However, I find that when listening to even very basic information, I sometimes pick out a gem that I didn’t already know. The instructor was well seasoned, having been a professional photographer who’s worked in the field for many years (he’s now an editor at Pop Photo), and was very comfortable with the subject matter and the audience. I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon, and actually did pick up on a few new nuggets (such as why a grey card is 18% grey; I already knew it was 18%, but didn’t know why).

I was really looking forward to Sunday. Most of the morning was spent with the same instructor as Saturday, and he indeed did cover more advanced topics (such as color balance and flash). Unfortunately, this time it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. A lot of time was spent on the technical side of things, but very little was spent on what goes into making a better picture. Oh sure, there was mention of the rule of thirds, but I was hoping for more tips and ideas for composition and lighting.

Late in the morning, we went into the model shoot. There were five shooting stations set up with backdrops and modeling lights. There were seven models and a variety of outfits and props. Here again, I was disappointed. At no point were we given pointers on what would make a high-quality shot. After spending two half days learning the technical side of things, we were let loose and simply told to take pictures.

I was also frustrated by the setups. First, there were about 80 people attending the seminar, all trying to get the best angle at just five shooting stations. I spent half the time just trying to get a clear line of sight past everyone’s arms and shoulders to even take a photo. The other bigger frustration was the lighting. Each station had just two modeling lights providing illumination, and sometimes one of those lights was turned off. We were told to set our cameras to ISO 800 and to open our apertures full. Even with that, I had a terrible time holding my camera steady enough to get a sharp picture with no camera shake (and I have a VR–vibration reduction—lens). I did OK with a wide angle, but switching to a longer lens to get in close on the model was a disaster. I took over 240 pictures in less than an hour and was happy with fewer than a dozen of them. So, having that many people shooting at once and without strobes was an experience I thought was a limited success. You can find some of the photos I felt were good enough to share on Flickr.

After lunch, things got much better. There was another instructor who specialized in the software side of things, and he went through a complete workflow using Adobe Lightroom. Since I also use Lightroom, I really enjoyed learning some new techniques. He also used some of the photos taken during the model shoot for a critiquing session, which is what I’d been hoping for earlier in the day. He gave us some tips and pointers that would have been helpful before the model shoot. He even used one of my shots to explain an artifact that I’d run into in the past and couldn’t figure out how to get rid of.

The fun didn’t end when I left Boston. We were told that there is a Facebook group where seminar alums can gather and chat, but I prefer Flickr. I was able to find photos on Flickr taken by other photographers at both this seminar and others around the country. However, I was surprised that there was no Digital Days group. So, I started one. There are close to 100 photos there at this writing, and I’m hoping more people search for such a group when they get home from their own seminar and add their photos.

Overall, I was very glad I attended and truly enjoyed the majority of the seminar. While the first day was billed as for beginners, it definitely was not for point-and-shoot users. Since most of the seminar dealt with the technical side of things, anyone planning to attend really needs to be using an SLR with its power and flexibility to appreciate the information being taught. Finally, I thank Popular Photography for the opportunity to attend.