1:30–3:00 PM // SESSION 3 — PORTRAIT + STUDIO / HANDS-ON PORTRAIT EXPERIENCE
Three Creative Portrait Bays. One Collaborative Studio Experience.
Participants will get the opportunity to create imagery in three different portrait bays, each offering a different approach to lighting, mood, and visual storytelling. Instead of relying on traditional models, photographers will be encouraged to pair up with someone new, learn their name, exchange contact information, and take turns photographing one another.
Each set up introduces a different creative approach: creative portraiture focused on connection, RGB continuous lighting focused on color theory and mood, and a final spooky portrait featuring pumpkin heads, props, and layered scene design.
What Participants Can Expect
This is designed to be hands-on and collaborative. Photographers can move between the three bays, observe how each setup is built, photograph within the scene, experiment with direction, and then step in front of the camera themselves. Because portrait photography is personal. The more we understand what it feels like to stand in front of someone else’s camera, the better we become at creating space, trust, and authenticity for the people we photograph.
Throughout the experience, we’ll encourage photographers to:
• Meet and collaborate with other photographers
• Take turns as photographer and subject
• Practice directing someone they have just met
• Explore how mood changes through light, color, and environment
• Walk away with new portraits of themselves and new friends
• Build relationships with people in the Seattle photography community
BAY ONE — CREATIVE PORTRAIT
A modern take on the classic studio portrait where connection creates the portrait.
This bay will use white and bi-color continuous lighting in a layered three-to-five-light setup designed to create shape, depth, highlight, and shadow. Participants will be able to see how multiple lights work together to create dimension. The focus here is about how connection with your subject enhances the lighting, posing, and creative set.
Participants can experiment with:
• Building depth through highlight and shadow
• Posing and body positioning
• Expression and communication
• Creating an authentic polished portrait of another photographer
BAY TWO — COLOR PORTRAIT
Color is not just decoration. Color communicates.
With creative RGB continuous light, photographers will explore how color relationships can completely change the mood and emotional tone of an image. Using either monochromatic, analogous, complementary palettes, the setup will demonstrate how color can become part of the storytelling rather than simply an effect.
Photographers can experiment with:
• Color placement across the face and background
• Saturation and intensity
• Matching expression and pose to the mood of the lighting
BAY THREE — SPOOKY PORTRAIT
The final bay brings in something distinctly Eighth Square Studio: a fully styled spooky-season portrait. Oversized pumpkin heads, cameras, webs, textured props, and layered foreground and background elements will transform the space into a playful Halloween portrait scene. Creative lighting will help shape the mood while giving photographers an opportunity to think beyond the backdrop and consider the entire frame. Photographers who have been working together can also jump into the scene as a pair and create a collaborative spooky portrait together.
Participants can experiment with:
• Foreground, subject, and background layering
• Creative prop placement
• Shooting through objects and textures
• Camera angles and perspective
• Creating depth and visual interest beyond a paper backdrop
90 minutes
Three Creative Portrait Bays. One Collaborative Studio Experience.
Participants will get the opportunity to create imagery in three different portrait bays, each offering a different approach to lighting, mood, and visual storytelling. Instead of relying on traditional models, photographers will be encouraged to pair up with someone new, learn their name, exchange contact information, and take turns photographing one another.
Each set up introduces a different creative approach: creative portraiture focused on connection, RGB continuous lighting focused on color theory and mood, and a final spooky portrait featuring pumpkin heads, props, and layered scene design.
What Participants Can Expect
This is designed to be hands-on and collaborative. Photographers can move between the three bays, observe how each setup is built, photograph within the scene, experiment with direction, and then step in front of the camera themselves. Because portrait photography is personal. The more we understand what it feels like to stand in front of someone else’s camera, the better we become at creating space, trust, and authenticity for the people we photograph.
Throughout the experience, we’ll encourage photographers to:
• Meet and collaborate with other photographers
• Take turns as photographer and subject
• Practice directing someone they have just met
• Explore how mood changes through light, color, and environment
• Walk away with new portraits of themselves and new friends
• Build relationships with people in the Seattle photography community
BAY ONE — CREATIVE PORTRAIT
A modern take on the classic studio portrait where connection creates the portrait.
This bay will use white and bi-color continuous lighting in a layered three-to-five-light setup designed to create shape, depth, highlight, and shadow. Participants will be able to see how multiple lights work together to create dimension. The focus here is about how connection with your subject enhances the lighting, posing, and creative set.
Participants can experiment with:
• Building depth through highlight and shadow
• Posing and body positioning
• Expression and communication
• Creating an authentic polished portrait of another photographer
BAY TWO — COLOR PORTRAIT
Color is not just decoration. Color communicates.
With creative RGB continuous light, photographers will explore how color relationships can completely change the mood and emotional tone of an image. Using either monochromatic, analogous, complementary palettes, the setup will demonstrate how color can become part of the storytelling rather than simply an effect.
Photographers can experiment with:
• Color placement across the face and background
• Saturation and intensity
• Matching expression and pose to the mood of the lighting
BAY THREE — SPOOKY PORTRAIT
The final bay brings in something distinctly Eighth Square Studio: a fully styled spooky-season portrait. Oversized pumpkin heads, cameras, webs, textured props, and layered foreground and background elements will transform the space into a playful Halloween portrait scene. Creative lighting will help shape the mood while giving photographers an opportunity to think beyond the backdrop and consider the entire frame. Photographers who have been working together can also jump into the scene as a pair and create a collaborative spooky portrait together.
Participants can experiment with:
• Foreground, subject, and background layering
• Creative prop placement
• Shooting through objects and textures
• Camera angles and perspective
• Creating depth and visual interest beyond a paper backdrop
90 minutes
3:00–4:30 PM // SESSION 4 — SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHY PANEL
Stories from the Sidelines
What does it take to anticipate the game-winning moment?
Join a panel of professional sports photographers working across completely different worlds—from professional soccer and hockey to rodeo and equine competition. While their subjects may differ, they face many of the same challenges: anticipating peak action, working under pressure, navigating access and credentials, and creating images that tell the story beyond the final score.
Hear how these photographers approach their craft, the gear and techniques they rely on, how they built careers in sports photography, and what photographers in any genre can learn from thinking like a sports shooter.
The conversation will wrap with an audience Q&A.
90 minutes
Stories from the Sidelines
What does it take to anticipate the game-winning moment?
Join a panel of professional sports photographers working across completely different worlds—from professional soccer and hockey to rodeo and equine competition. While their subjects may differ, they face many of the same challenges: anticipating peak action, working under pressure, navigating access and credentials, and creating images that tell the story beyond the final score.
Hear how these photographers approach their craft, the gear and techniques they rely on, how they built careers in sports photography, and what photographers in any genre can learn from thinking like a sports shooter.
The conversation will wrap with an audience Q&A.
90 minutes
