SIGNATURE SERIES
Dramatic Portrait Masterclass
$197
Come behind the scenes with me and learn how to plan, setup, shoot, and retouch your images to produce incredible dramatic portraits.
Buy Now This course is for you if…
You aren’t getting the results you want from your portraiture.
You don’t know how to use lighting to get dramatic effects.
You struggle to produce the look you want when editing.
Imagine you could…
- Create unique and professional dramatic portraits.
- Master the use of lighting in different situations.
- Use a proven workflow when retouching your images and get amazing results.
"In this masterclass, I’ll teach you how to capture the three key ingredients to creating a dramatic portrait - depth, emotion, and character. These are the techniques I use every day and I’m so excited to share them with you."
Joel Grimes
What You'll Learn
Learn all my techniques, tricks, and tips that I've been using for over 30 years. This skill set will help you create incredibly unique dramatic portraits that you, your friends, family, and clients will love.
I'll take you through the basics - choosing the right gear, setting up your lighting, and posing your subject. Learn how to overcome all the distinctive problems that come up either in the studio or out in the field.
Finally, I'll take you through my entire post-production workflow. You'll learn how to composite together multiple images to create the perfect portrait, guide the viewer's eye through an image, produce high-contrast black & whites, and much more.
GET STARTED
Create incredible dramatic portraits
SIGNATURE SERIES
Dramatic Portrait Masterclass
$197
Come behind the scenes with me and learn how to plan, setup, shoot, and retouch your images to produce incredible dramatic portraits.
Buy Now
Lessons
30
Length
9h 43m
Level
Intermediate
Software
Photoshop
Get Started
Introduction
Welcome to the Dramatic Portraits Masterclass. Find out what we are going to cover on this course.
Dramatic Portrait I
As the first step in this masterclass, I’m going to take you through a live presentation that will serve as a fundamental base to everything I’m going to be teaching.
Dramatic Portrait II
I’ll teach you my approach and technique to some of my most popular images.
Dramatic Portrait III
How to capture the three key ingredients to creating a dramatic portrait - depth, emotion, and character.
The Camera
Mirrorless systems have become incredibly popular in recent times. In this lesson, I want to do a quick overview of how this can affect your photography and what to think about when it comes to pur...
Lighting
In this lesson, I’ll go through lighting options to think about for your portraiture. You’ll learn how I set myself up to achieve the exact results I want.
Modifiers
Learn all about modifiers, what to think about when buying, and how to use your modifier for the best effect.
Balancing Strobes
I often talk about overpowering the sun. In this lesson, I’ll breakdown my exact process for balancing ambient and strobe lighting to produce truly dramatic portraits.
Gary's Photo Shoot
Gary - Behind the Scenes
Let’s get into our first live shoot. Here you’ll learn my techniques for using a three-light setup in the studio.
Gary - The Retouch
Taking a photo from the live shoot, I’ll take you through my retouching process and adding a dramatic background.
Gary - Three Light Portrait
Back in the studio with Gary, I’ll teach you more about lighting for unique and dramatic portraits. Using the three-light setup you can create amazing effects by playing with the strength of ...
Gary - Composite
In this lesson, I’ll take you through the entire retouching process from the studio image and you’ll learn my compositing techniques for adding a background.
Nick's Photo Shoot
Nick - Behind the Scenes
Join me on a live shoot with Nick. On this shoot, I’m using one light on a white background. You’ll learn how to achieve amazing results with this simple setup.
Nick - The Retouch
In the retouch of this photo, I want to teach you my workflow for ultra high contrast black & white images while maintaining all the details.
Nick - Adding Texture
Now let’s transform the black & white portrait completely. Learn how to use textures in your edits to achieve a unique look.
Nick - Dramatic Shadows
Back in the studio with Nick, learn how to use one light to produce dramatic shadows in your portraiture.
Cowboys in the Saloon
Cowboys In The Saloon - Part One
Learn how you can use platography to pull your favorite elements from different images to create dramatic portraits. You’ll learn lots of my editing tricks in this lesson!
Cowboys In The Saloon - Part Two
In this lesson, let’s finish up the retouch of the cowboys in the saloon image. I’ll focus on adding light streaks, some fog, color grading, and some dodge & burn where needed.
Cowboys In The Saloon - Part Three
Focussing now on a single portrait, you’ll see how I set up the shot and I’ll take you through the whole retouching process. I’ll share my philosophy on making your shots as clean...
Kevin's Photo Shoot
Kevin - Behind the Scenes
Shooting out in the elements has its own problems. Learn how to set up and light a shoot outdoors.
Kevin - The Retouch
Let’s jump into the retouch. I’ll show you how I fix the lighting, improve the sky, and control the viewer’s eye.
Otis's Photo Shoot
Otis - Behind the Scenes
Learn how I set up this outdoor shoot and how to work when the lighting is constantly changing as the sun starts setting.
Otis - The Retouch
The sky wasn’t great when I was shooting Otis so I’ll show you how to quickly add a more interesting sky. This is an easy way to add drama to your shots. I’ll also take you throug...
Otis - Stitching
Learn how to stitch images together to produce an incredible and hi-res finished product. This is one of my favorite retouching hacks when producing dramatic portraits.
Pro Techniques
Working in Bright Sun
Working in bright sun in the middle of the day, I’ll teach you how I use lighting and ND filters to get the look I want. This technique of overpowering the sun means you can shoot wherever wh...
Balance Lighting
With the sun still high in the sky, I move Roger into the shade. I’ll show you how to balance the lighting in the foreground and background to produce a dramatic portrait. You’ll also s...
Simulating Sunlight
In this lesson, I’ll show you how to simulate sunlight so you can control the shadows and intensity of light to create dramatic portraits.
Setting up a Shoot
When I have an idea of what the finished image will look like I know how to shoot. Learn how I set up a shoot for super high-contrast black & white portraiture.
Ultra High Contrast
In this lesson, learn my workflow for creating ultra high contrast black & white portraits. I’ve been refining this process for years and I have a tried and tested system for producing in...
Adding Texture
Learn one of my favorite techniques for adding interesting texture to an image. This means you can shoot on a flat or boring background and transform the image after the fact. You’ll see how ...
Hear what Photographers have to say…
“Aside from the incredibly inspirational images Joel produces on this course, the training is simply incredible! I’m so inspired and feel equipped to 10X my photography!!”
-E.K.
“If you are looking for a course to help you with portraits. Look no further. My images before and after this course are hardly recognizable. I’m blown away by what I can achieve with this knowledge. Thank you!!!”
-T.A.
“I’ve often wondered how Joel creates his images - and now I know! Seeing under the hood and learning his shooting and editing tricks is awesome. I’m so happy I studied this course.”
-J.S.
SIGNATURE SERIES
Dramatic Portrait Masterclass
$197
Come behind the scenes with me and learn how to plan, setup, shoot, and retouch your images to produce incredible dramatic portraits.
Buy Now