About this Event
Instructor: Patrick Murphy-Racey (PM-R)
40 years of professional portrait photography
Known for clean, glowing, natural-looking lit portraits
Sponsored by FJ Westcott (lighting gear specialists)
💡 What You'll Learn
✨ Creating the “Glow”
How to use large light modifiers (like softboxes, umbrellas, scrims) to:
Soften shadows
Create flattering skin tones
Add dimensionality and “wrap” to light
Techniques for positioning lights for maximum effect with minimal fuss
🔦 Lighting Tools in Use
FJ Westcott 120B LED lights:
Used during the early part of the session so you can see light live on the subject
Learn how continuous lighting affects shadows, highlights, and mood
High-Speed Sync (HSS) flash:
How to overpower ambient light outdoors
Balancing flash with natural light for shallow depth of field portraits
Useful for creating professional-quality outdoor shots — fast
📷 Shooting Style & Approach
Working fast and effectively — key for real-world sessions
Shooting wide open apertures for shallow depth of field
Keeping the subject as the visual anchor
PM-R will show how to balance:
Exposure
Composition
Expression
Lighting — all in real time
👥 Hands-On Experience
Live models provided so you can:
Try the lighting setups yourself
Practice posing and composing on the spot
Bring: Your camera & a notebook or digital note-taking device
📝 Takeaways
Practical lighting techniques for portraits — indoors and out
How to use large modifiers + HSS to create flattering portraits quickly
A deeper understanding of light direction, intensity, and quality
Tips you can immediately apply to client sessions or creative shoots
Bio: Patrick Murphy-Racey – Sony Artisan of Imagery
Armed with his B.A., in Photojournalism from Marquette University, his twenty-five year career has only and always been about photography. Murphy-Racey has seen a great variety of assignments since his start in newspapers, through the peak years of being a magazine freelancer, his tenure as a regular contributor to Sports Illustrated, and into the corporate and industrial world of annual reports and advertising. While his assignments are varied and come from many different sources, photojournalism is his first love and constantly informs every assignment. Ever the chameleon, Murphy-Racey's career is a long series of re-inventions and rebirths, but the visual storytelling remains the same, even as the tools change. From 4x5 to 4K, he's technically inclined, and loves making great images. Patrick is more than competent covering just about any assignment, but his specialties include dramatic and creative use of strobe & LED lighting, sports action photography, environmental portraits, and powerful, well-lit HD interview video production. PM-R shoots both stills as well as motion and is always asking, What's next?
Event venue & nearby stays
3351 Pineville-Matthews Rd, 3351 Pineville-Matthews Road, Charlotte, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.