Chris Knight is a photographer based in New York City. We sat down to talk about his upcoming book, The Dramatic Portrait.

He combines his unconditional love of art history with his conditional love of technology, topping it off with a flare for the cinematic and an uncompromising eye for detail.

Chris also has a full blown workshop via RGGEDU.com called Dramatic Portraiture & Lighting With Chris Knight.

Use the code: TIFFINBOX (to get 15% off for a very limited time)

The Interview

The questions I asked Chris:

1) I love reading biographies on photographer's websites and yours stands out a bit.

Speaking of yourself you say: “He combines his unconditional love of art history with his conditional love of technology, topping it off with a flare for the cinematic and an uncompromising eye for detail.”

Where did you acquire that kind of discipline?

2) Your photographs remind me of paintings that one would see in a museum. Is that your end goal?

3) Why is drama so important to you in portraits?

4) You give light and shadow almost equal value in telling a story. Most of your photographs don't draw attention to the use of artificial light. Is that a skill that was taught to you or is it something that you have honed yourself?

5) Let's talk about your book, The Dramatic Portrait: The Art of Crafting Light and Shadow. What prompted you to write this book and who is it for?

6) Most photography books about portraits jump right into loop lighting or Rembrandt lighting. You spend nearly 40 pages describing the history of portraiture? Why do you believe this is important?

7) You say: “The hows and whys are inextricably entangled in a successful photograph, and hitting both of those points shows mastery of the technical medium.” Can you explain that briefly?

8) What does it mean to you to have a published book? Does it open more doors for you to teach?

9) What can we expect from you next?

10) How can people find you and your work online?

The Dramatic Portrait

Buy Chris Knight's book now or buy the PROEDU.com tutorial today. For a limited time, PROEDU.com is including the book with the purchase of the tutorial.

Do you prefer to buy The Dramatic Portrait on Amazon?

You can also catch Chris Knight teaching at CreativeLive in these online workshops:

Exploring Low Key Portraiture

Creating Advanced Masks

How To Work Faster In Adobe Photoshop CC

Feel free to use this affiliate link for CreativeLive when you browse through Chris Knight's courses.

The Portrait Portfolio

Here's a small sample of Chris' portrait photography. I urge you to visit his website and bookmark it. It's absolutely stunning work!

The Food Photographer

Simi Jois, started as a marketing and branding professional but transitioned to becoming a food photographer. Now based in Chicago, Illinois, her food photography has been featured on MSN, Fox News Magazine, Better Homes, and theKitchn. She is a frequent contributor on the Daily Meal.

Raised in an art-emphasized home subconsciously trained her mind to engage creatively with color, texture, light, shadow and composition. Simi uses photographic images as her canvas and the lens as her brush. She did not have to look far for a subject – her passion for creating flavors provided her with infinite permutations of expression. Painting with ingredients, pairing exotic spices for mutual enhancement and richness of flavor, Simi narrates her stories through the play of light and bold strokes of color.

The Interview

A few weeks back, we sat down to chat about her journey as a food photographer:

Interview Highlights

You will learn that:

1) Simi's parents, both artists, inspired her
2) Her becoming a mom was the catalyst for taking up photography
3) She loves to cook
4) Finding comfort in the ingredients, aroma, and texture motivate her to try different set-ups
5) Her other inspiration are painters from the Renaissance period
6) Simi is creatively challenged to produce photographs that don't look overly styled
7) How the power of observation in day-to-day events and places can help your photography
8) She loves to play with light and uses speed lights, reflectors, and Nikon cameras
9) She is intrigued by shadows just as much as the light
10) How a simple garnish of mint on blueberries can create a punchy image

Simi Jois' Food Photography

Additional Resources

Check out Simi's tutorial on painting prop boards.

Do you want to learn more about food photography? Check out the CreativeLive courses offered here.

Lastly, Don Giannatti is offering a spectacular 8-week food photography course that you simply can't pass up. For $75, it is a no-brainer and in my opinion, there is no better photography instructor to guide you through this wonderful genre of photography.

If you take a moment to think about it, Mario Masitti is right. Lighting, posing, editing, sales, and marketing are all topics that are critical for portrait photographers.

Over the last five years, Mario has taught photographers the in's and out's of portrait photography – both the craft and the business.

Five Courses In One

After making multiple individual courses available, Mario recently bundled them all up for you, the portrait photographer.

The Modern Portraits Master Course by Mario Masitti is a bit of a monopoly. You get Mario's take on Lighting, Posing, Marketing, Editing and Sales.

Go ahead and click the links above to explore each of the options. You'll notice that they are each marked at $94.99. But you can score the entire course – all five “modules” – for only $394.99 (and if you are quick, you can get 25% off that price when you use the code: NEWYEAR25.

Variety & Depth

I haven't seen anyone offer so much under one banner course. And, if there are such an options out in the interwebs, I suspect it costs twice or thrice as much.

Poking into some of the course material, I can tell you that the master course has a ton of visual examples; photographs from actual photo shoots with clients and links to videos, where Mario talks you through situations that you will encounter. Each module has its PDF ebook to go with it, so you never feel left out in the cold.

The Modern Lighting course, for example, includes a 56-pae PDF ebook, a 25-minute supplmental lighting video and two special bonuses.

Mario's Crazy Guarantee

This straight from Mario's website: “Every Sessions With Mario product is backed by a 100% Money Back Guarantee. If you don’t absolutely love the course, it’s on me!”

Feel more comfortable now buying Mario's The Modern Portraits Master Course

Mario's promise:

This Master Course was designed for portrait photographers looking to take their portraits AND their business to the next level – to shoot better images, edit faster, market smarter, and sell bigger. With no-frill videos, beautiful PDFs, and awesome challenges, the Master Course equips you with what you need to grow into a 6-figure portrait photography business and rock your next seasons in 2017!

Interviewing Mario

It was a pleasure to connect with Mario, especially to discuss this new venture called The Modern Portraits Master Course. Check out our chat below:

Pete Wright, a photographer, teacher, speaker and author, is obsessed with everything George Hurrell.

Glamor Portrait Photography

If you think of glamor and Hollywood these days, you might think of Annie Leibovitz and you wouldn't be wrong. But for Pete Wright, almost all of us portrait photographers need to tip our hat to Mr. Hurrell who was a pioneer in cinematic portraits.

Yet, Pete Wright has his own spin on the genre of cinematic portraits. He essentially wrote the book on the topic.

From Goodreads:

Pete Wright teaches you how to re-create mysterious, dark, and glamorous cinematic portraits reminiscent of those taken of 1920s’ and 1930s’ stars and starlets. The book contains 60 discrete sections which contain 60 of Wright’s most impressive, nostalgic black & white portraits, along with some alternate poses and lighting diagrams. In each section, the author details the steps taken to create the final portrait.

The Interview About Cinematic Portraits

When I found out that he was going to be presenting a workshop for CTPPA members on June 22nd, we hastily made arrangements to speak about cinematic portraits, his connection to Canon and how he is now on the road for most of the year bringing photographers full circle – teaching them about capture, processing and printing their artwork.

It's quite a mission and I applaud him and Canon for it. If you are in or near Connecticut on June 22nd and June 23rd, register for the workshop and do NOT miss this opportunity to learn from a master craftsman.

Pete Wright's Portfolio

Please visit Pete Wright's website for even more examples of his cinematic portraits. Here is a small sample for your viewing pleasure!

Register For the CTPPA Workshop

On June 22nd and June 23rd, you can learn the skills to create your own version of cinematic portraits. But you must register today!

In addition to Canon's sponsorship of Pete's presentation over the two days, we have to thank Elinchrom for making their studio strobe equipment available to participants.

If you have any questions for Pete Wright about cinematic portraits, please comment below.

Mary & Justin Marantz are wedding photographers based in New Haven, Connecticut with clients who span the globe. They are also active educators and mentors to many photographers.

Skip Cohen loves to refer to their gorgeous website and work, so I am going to send you there to take a quick peek. When you come back, do me a favor and comment below, a word or two that best describes their website. I am curious to know what you came up with.

To say the Marantz are busy would be an understatement. I am not quite sure how they are able to do it all – photographing weddings, running a successful business, blogging on three separate websites, teach sold-out workshops and travel to some of the most amazing destinations.

The short answer to my own question: they've worked for it.

Curious to know where they blog? Here you go:

Well Groomed Groom
The Black Tie Bride
Justin & Mary Blog

Thanks to ShootDotEdit, Justin and Mary Marantz will present a FREE webinar on May 27th on how photographers like you can create stand-out images in the toughest of situations just like them. Register for the webinar here.

Given that they are sort of neighbors (we live about an hour away from each other, so “neighbors” may be a bit of stretch), I invited them to chat about their business, how and why they love shooting in tough situations and what kinds of solutions they bring with them when they are photographing weddings across the country.

Curious to know more about their business marketing guide and lighting guide? Visit their shop now.

I asked nicely and Mary & Justin gladly offered to give away their new Lighting Guide to one Tiffinbox fan. Will that be you? Do you want to win it? Go here for the Lighting Guide giveaway.

If you don't want to wait that long, and want to buy it, do so before the price bumps back up to $179! Right now you can download it for $129. [Not an affiliate link]