Flash Masters Judge's Feedback Round 24 with Jos & Tree Woodsmith

We tried to cut this one down to fifteen minutes. We really did. We got to forty two and gave up, because every time we went to trim something, Tree or Jos said another thing we could not bear to lose. There were simply too many golden nuggets in it. So this is the long version, and we are not sorry.

Tree and Jos have been photographing weddings between them for close to forty years. They have judged, been judged, been praised, been bored, and been trampled on the dance floor. They started judging Collection 24 on a plane home from New Orleans and carried on when they got back, and that level of care shows in every image they talk about here. They go image by image through the ones that came close and the ones that made it, and they are completely open about where they disagree with each other. Watching one of them gently tell the other "too much critiquing, I think" is worth the runtime on its own.

What comes through most is that this is not really a talk about flash settings. It is a talk about what mastery actually buys you. Their argument is that a photographer who truly owns their light stops thinking about it, the same way a musician who owns the chords stops counting them, and that freedom is what lets the real moment happen in front of you. They want you to move away from images that are perfectly lit and boring, and towards images that are interestingly lit, profound and real.

Along the way you will get the single best explanation of why you should slow down that we have heard, a running joke about putting your lighting assistant on stilts, a poem, eleven hands in one photograph, a piece of kit they refuse to call by its technical name, and a very persuasive case for paying your lighting assistant properly. There is also a proper telling off for over-lighting, which several of us needed.

This is the feedback our members keep telling us is the most useful thing we make. It is the closest you will get to sitting inside a judge's head while they decide.

Top 5 Things You Will Learn

1. Why slowing down actually gets you to the photo faster. Tree and Jos make the case that rushing is what costs you the shot, and that your couple deserves what they call a marinating moment. You will learn how to buy yourself the seconds you need to fix your settings, work the scene and let something real happen, without your couple ever feeling held up.
2. How to rescue a scene where the background is stealing the attention. Several Collection 24 images were close but lost the couple to a bright doorway, a window or a wall of ambient light. The judges walk through how they would have rebalanced each one so the eye lands on the emotion instead of the brightest corner of the frame.
3. What a second light does that a first light cannot. They talk repeatedly about rim light, about what happens when backlight bounces off a white dress, and about why a dark suit disappears while a dress does not. You will hear exactly which images needed one more light and what that light was doing there.
4. Where to physically put your lighting assistant, and why they are worth paying properly for. This is one of the most practical sections. It covers height, angle, staying out of frame, and the difference a good assistant makes to what you can even attempt on a dance floor. Stilts are discussed at length. Not entirely seriously.
5. How to manage a couple's expectations so they give you the moment. The business half of the talk. Tree and Joss explain how they set expectations at the enquiry, the booking, the planning session, on the day and even afterwards, and why their couples come away saying they feel like they took a lighting workshop. They also make a strong case for journaling honestly after every wedding, which is free, uncomfortable and probably the fastest way to improve.

Judged by Tree and Joss

Tree and Jos are wedding photographers, workshop teachers and Flash Masters ambassadors based in Portland, Oregon. Between them they have more than thirty five years behind the camera. They are also one of the warmest double acts you will meet, and they finish each other's sentences constantly, which makes this one of the most enjoyable pieces of education on the platform.