Portraiture: Learning from the Masters

Have you ever wondered how Richard Avedon took those larger-than-life portraits, or perhaps wanted to copy the lighting and posing of a Weston nude? Do you find inspiration in the portrait paintings of Sargent, Matisse, and Picasso? Maybe you’d like to emulate Annie Leibovitz, Mary Ellen Mark, or Paolo Roversi but don’t know where to start.

Whatever your intention, this workshop gives you the permission and freedom to educate yourself by duplicating work of the masters. Analyzing and recreating works of art teaches you so much about composition, lighting, posing, and post-processing that it’ll make your head spin. Plus, it’s really fun!

As you begin to identify how these images are put together, Fritz Liedtke breaks down each of the visual elements so you can internalize them. Using live demonstrations, he recreates master images while sharing the post-processing techniques that help them achieve their final look.

Through regular assignments, you make your own master images, each one growing stronger with feedback. (Of course, all of this is just a starting place—eventually, you use those new skills to create work of your own!) You finish our time together with beautiful images, surprised at how much you’ve learned and excited to become a master photographer yourself.