Bruce Dorn: Portraits with Speedlites

Explorer of Light and Westcott Top Pro Elite Bruce Dorn has been teaching techniques for speedlites around the country for years through Canon Live Learning and his own workshops. With the Canon Digital Learning Center’s exclusive tutorials series on environmental portraits with speedlites, now an even larger amount of photographers can watch and learn. The series was designed to appeal to a range of users, from photo enthusiasts to full-time professionals. Featuring a wide range of equipment, techniques, accessories, subject, and locations, there is useful insights and tips for every skill level.

In this tutorial, Bruce uses large Westcott umbrellas, softboxes, and other modifiers with the use of speedlites to create a series of dramatic and graphically-interesting wedding portraits. He also discusses the features of radio transmitters and the challenge of working with mixed indoor/outdoor lighting. Bruce shares several easy, run-and-gun speedlite tricks that every event photographer should know.

Bruce Dorn has been a full-time professional image-maker since 1973 when he was “discovered” by the editorial staff at Conde Nast – the publishers of Architectural Digest, Glamour, Vogue, and Vanity Fair magazines. He was recognized as one of the top creative students in the nation throughout college. Bruce started out shooting editorial fashion spreads in New York, Paris, and countless other beautiful locations around the globe. Over time, he moved from fashion photography into advertising photography, and eventually from still Photography to video commercials. He was inducted into the Directors Guild of America in 1984.

Common to all of my many and varied visual pursuits has been my clients’ consistent demand for imagery that is both compelling and visually attractive. With hindsight being 20/20, I’ve come to realize that it’s been my innate ability to recognize and celebrate subtle beauty that has been at the core of all of my successes as an image-maker.

Westcott Lighting Gear in Action