I've been wanting to have a go at studio lighting and portraits now for ages. I've watched countless Youtube videos on the subject but they always seem to miss out that you need to properly learn whats going on. Like they say the magician never reveals their secrets, that and they are often trying to sell you one thing or another!

Jake Hicks is the master of using coloured gels in studio photography. His work is fantastic and really stands out. So armed with my 85mm f1.4 and my 24-70 f2.8 off I went to Jakes Creatively Simple Lighting workshop over at Amersham Studios. I was jumping in at the deep end but Jake is a great teacher and like he says if you can master gelled light then standard white light is easy.

The day was fantastic from start to finish, we had a great group of like minded people eager to learn. Jake gave us fundamental knowledge to allow us to go away and realise our creative ambitions. He demonstrated 6 excellent lighting setups and we all got to shoot 4 of them.

I came away with the tools I need to attempt similar setups myself and unlock a whole new area to my photography.

Our model for the day was the beautiful Gabriella Grigo. She was very professional and she made each set up easier to shoot and come away with a great image.

Here are a few of my shots: