Lighting Beyond the Basics: Creating Special Effects & Unusual Looks with James Patrick

This course will be free to watch while streaming on YouTube Live on 10/16/2026 from 6:00–9:00 PM EST and will be available for purchase after the event.

Great lighting doesn't always mean perfectly controlled lighting. In this class, James Patrick challenges photographers to break away from conventional lighting techniques and deliberately manipulate light to create unexpected, dramatic, cinematic, and visually distinctive images. Through hands-on demonstrations, photographers will explore hard light, shadows, gels, projections, reflections, practical lights, flare, motion, light painting, prisms, gobos, and other creative techniques that transform light from something that simply illuminates a subject into an active element of the photograph. The goal isn't to learn a collection of tricks, but to understand how to experiment with light, solve creative problems, and develop a visual language that makes your images feel different.

This class includes a dedicated 30 minutes of Q&A directly with James Patrick.

What You'll Learn

• Use hard light, shadows, and contrast deliberately to create dramatic, cinematic images.
• Incorporate gels, projections, reflections, and practical lights as creative tools rather than fixes.
• Experiment with flare, motion, light painting, prisms, and gobos to add visual texture and mood.
• Develop a personal visual language by treating light as an active element of the image, not just illumination.
• Approach lighting as creative problem-solving rather than following a fixed set of techniques.

Who It's For

• Photographers who feel confident with conventional lighting and want to push into more experimental territory.
• Portrait, editorial, and creative photographers looking to develop a more distinctive visual style.
• Anyone who wants to move beyond "correct" lighting and start using light as a storytelling tool.
• Photographers curious about specialty tools and techniques like gels, gobos, prisms, and practical lights.

How to Join

• This class will be free to watch while it is streaming live on YouTube.
• The YouTube Live link will be sent to registered participants prior to the event.
• After the live event, the class will be available for purchase.

About the Instructor

James Patrick is a commercial photographer and media strategist based in Phoenix, Arizona. Over the course of his career, he has photographed more than 800 magazine covers across the health, fitness, and wellness industries.

His work has appeared in major publications including Muscle & Fitness, Men's Fitness, Sports Illustrated, Golf Magazine, and Women's Running. James specializes in creating bold editorial imagery and helping photographers develop both their creative voice and their professional brand.