Granary DigitalAcademy
In the barn · one day

Light the cove

Light an infinity cove for clean white, moody low key and coloured backgrounds, and go home with images that prove it.

Join the waiting list See the outline

Days at the barnDates to comeWaiting list open

Light the cove, from Granary Digital Academy
About the course

Light the cove

A practical day on the White Space infinity cove at Granary, lit with the studio's own rig. You'll shoot four set-ups, from clean high key to colour, and finish by looking at everyone's results together.

It's for photographers who are confident with manual exposure and want to work in a studio. There are six places, so everyone gets time on the cove.

Format
One day at the barn, 10am to 4pm
Group size
Six people
Where
The White Space, Granary Digital, Adsdean, near Chichester
Dates
Announced to the waiting list first
You'll need
A camera that shoots in manual and raw, a standard or short telephoto lens, charged batteries and cards
Outcomes

By the end, you'll be able to

  • Explain how a cove's sweep hides the join between wall and floor
  • Light the cove to an even, clean white and check it with the histogram
  • Set the background brighter than the subject by a measured amount, without flare
  • Light a subject with key, fill and back light, and set a lighting ratio on purpose
  • Shape and cut light with flags, scrims and diffusion
  • Take the same cove from white to grey to near black by controlling spill
  • Add coloured light to the cove and keep skin tones true
  • Set exposure and white balance for continuous tungsten light
  • Draw a lighting diagram for each set-up so you can repeat it
  • Shoot a small product on the cove with controlled shadows and reflections
Outline

The day

10am to 4pm

  1. Welcome and safety briefing
  2. How a cove works: distance, falloff and why white turns grey
  3. Lighting the background and reading exposure across the cove
  4. Set-up 1: high key, full length on clean white
  5. Lunch
  6. Lighting the subject: key, fill, back and ratios
  7. Set-up 2: low key on a white cove
  8. Set-up 3: coloured light on the cove
  9. Set-up 4: a product on the cove
  10. Review: three images each, and how to hire the cove
The rig

What you'll light with

  • A two-wall infinity cove, 5.3 m by 7.1 m, with a 70 cm sweep and 4.5 m to the lighting grid
  • Sixteen 500 W floods for the sweep, and 1.2 kW fresnels for key, fill and back light
  • LED fresnels for colour, cued from the lighting desk
  • 42 channels of dimming, and a blackout curtain all the way round
Safety and care

How the day is run

  • Adults only (18 and over)
  • The lamps run hot. Everyone has a safety briefing at the start, and gloves are provided for handling them
  • Granary's technician runs the lighting desk and anything at height
Who it's for

This is for you if

  • Portrait, fashion, product and headshot photographers moving into studio work
  • Photographers who've hired a cove and want to get more from it
Who it isn't for

Probably not, if

  • Complete beginners who haven't used manual mode yet
  • Anyone wanting flash or strobe teaching. The house rig is continuous light
Waiting list

Be first to hear

Light the cove runs in small groups at the barn. Dates, the price and the tutor go to the waiting list before anyone else.

Joining commits you to nothing.

Join the waiting list

One email when dates are announced. No obligation.

We'll email you when dates are announced and about nothing else. Unsubscribe from that email at any time. Privacy notice.

Questions

Before you ask

Who teaches it?

The tutor is named with the first dates. Granary's technician runs the lighting desk all day.

Will I be photographed?

Learners take turns as each other's subject. Granary uses nobody's picture without separate written permission.

Can I hire the cove afterwards?

Yes. The White Space is available to hire, and we'll show you how to book it at the end of the day.

Hire the White Space cove for your own shoots.