Portrait Lighting Seminar by Patrick Murphy-Racey, Sony Photographer

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?