When Software Cinema sent IPA its press release to announce their future release of "The Best of Dean Collins On Lighting", we immediately contacted our press rep at Software and put in a reservation for a press review copy.

I was personally excited about reviewing the release, because I was one of the thousands of photographers in the 80's, that had the opportunity to see Dean at work. The Dean Collin's Seminars toured the country and were indeed electrifying and informative.

It was during that time, that I was in my early 40’s and was hard at work in the women’s apparel industry. I was a Vice President of sales and marketing for a major women’s clothing manufacturer and was also the principle photographer for all of our catalogues and print ads. I was able to live in both world’s, the creative photographic and the business end of the fashion world.

My love was photography, but that was only a second career because, sales and marketing was my primary career. I was always looking to learn more about photography, because I never had the benefit of a formal photographic education. I decided to attend some of the photographic seminars that seemed to be popular at that time. Because of my lack of any formal photographic training, I learned what I knew about photography in the Army and in the late 60’s shooting many of the early photos of Neil Diamond.

Now twenty years later, I thought it was time to understand how to create the proper lighting for any photographic situation. I had always thought one needed a studio with major lighting equipment to achieve the professional results I saw in leading publications. I soon found out, through the Dean Collins seminars and videos, that this was not the case.

Going to my first Dean Collins seminar was truly a mind blowing experience. I never really "got it" about lighting and the importance of the quality of the light, or how to control it. Listening to Dean’s lively seminars and watching the awesome Hassleblad 2 1/4 X 2 1/4 slide presentations made it seem so simple. Why, I wondered, was it such a mystery before? Was it too technical to understand the basics or was it just the simple, clear, Dean Collin’s methods that made it seem so simple?

Just imagine using one light, a simple fabric light panel and maybe an acrylic mirror and shooting outdoor fashion shots, comparable to the multi-light set ups of most of the pro’s. How about shooting a high key glamour shot with one light, a light panel and a white seamless paper backdrop. I learned more in a few hours of watching Dean and his videos, then I had learned in years of on-the-job-training and so can you, if you watch these DVD's.

I always loved to listen to Dean’s rapid fire speech pattern and enthusiastic seminars. You just couldn't get bored or fall asleep, as I had done at other seminars. Finally, this new digital generation has the opportunity of learing the Dean Collins techniques through these four informative DVD’s. The viewers of these lessons will have to listen carefully, take notes and review the DVD’s, so they can easily duplicate what they have learned, but learn they will. Learning the Dean Collins methods was truly a revelation for me and I am sure it will be for anyone viewing these videos.

Watching this master of photography and lighting in action again, reminded me that this man was a true genius. I didn’t even understand the term “specularity” before I discovered Dean, nor did I understand how easy it was to control the color of any back drop by simply adjusting the main subject light. Using color filters and adjusting light hitting the back drop could change the color of any back drop from a pastel to a deep dark tone. All one needed was one backdrop and a handful of Roscoe gels and you could produce a myriad of colorful backgrounds.

Now many years and thousands of photographs later, I have been given the opportunity to revisit some of those great lectures and re-learn some of the techniques I might have forgotten. I must admit that purchasing my first two Sunpak Mono-Lights and a set of Lightform Panels helped me shoot thousands of successful photos.

In the early days of video, I owned a company called Movie Tee's and shot many models wearing our licensed movie related apparel items. It was Dean Collin’s, who taught me how to use the light I had and make it seem as if I was using a multiple light set up, in a large photo studio.

Of course our studio was a portion of our office, set up with one or two lights, a couple of light panels and a roll of background paper. Our photos appeared in many leading video magazines and were used for promotional materials distributed by the leading video companies to help cross promote our tee shirts with their videos.

If you are looking for a series of photographic instructions that can teach you just about everything you will ever need to know about lighting for portraits, fashion, product shots, tabletop and objects large and small, then this series is exactly what you will need. Of course if you are like me and don’t have a studio, then learning how to shoot on location, malls, the beach, indoors or even airports, then once again, this is the “How To” series to own. This series covers it all, in the studio and on location.

You will also enjoy the commentary and overview by Skip Cohen of Rangefinder Magazine’s publisher and author, Tony Corbell, photographers and author and Julieanne Kost, Adobe’s official Photoshop evangelist. They give you a bit more insight into Mr. Collin’s life and career. You won’t need to spend thousands on equipment either and the cost of this series is less then the cost of one soft box, so our recommendation is to get this series first and then decide what equipment you might need later.

I must warn all you High Definition fanatics that this series was originally shot and produced with video equipment available in the mid 1980’s and as a result, the quality of the DVD’s are only as good as the original tapes. So don’t expect to see super sharp images in high def, you won’t. On our High Def LCD TV we were able to see more detail and the contrast and color was indeed better then on our PC.

We felt the content and the classic nature of this series was worth the trade off in the quality of the videos. This is a video series that makes you understand how to control light better then any digital software you will own. By understanding the basics of lighting you will be able to shoot better digital images “in the camera” which will save you hours of manipulation later in the computer. Our recommendation is to go out and purchase this exceptional series, deal with the, less then best, video quality and learn, learn, learn.

Dean Collins battled cancer for 3 years and passed away at his home in San Diego on February 2, 2005. He was 51 years old. Since the death of Dean Collins, Software Cinema has become proactive in the fight against cancer and $5 on each DVD sold will go to help fight Cancer through CureSearch, the largest pediatric cancer research organization.

For more information and availability visit the Software Cinema web site at: www.software-cinema.com

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