I keep signing up for ‘advanced’ workshops and end up sitting through ISO/shutter/aperture 101 — last Saturday’s 3-hour Advanced Off-Camera Flash on Zoom burned 45 minutes on the exposure triangle before we even touched a trigger. Where are the courses with real assignments, critique, and lighting plans that assume you’ve shot at least 50 sessions instead of rereading the manual?
Same here — “45 minutes on the triangle”; I now demand assignment lists upfront — 5‑minute refresh is fine.
After a 3‑hour “Advanced Off‑Camera Flash” Zoom that didn’t touch a trigger for nearly an hour, I started asking for a one‑page “lighting plan + assignments” PDF before paying — what setups we’ll build, timestamps, and when critique happens; if they can’t send it, I pass. Small caveat: a 5‑minute triangle refresher can save time when the room’s mixing HSS and different brands.
I vet “advanced” classes by asking for the last two lighting diagrams, the specific deliverables we’ll shoot, and whether RAWs get critiqued — if they won’t show that, I skip… A quick sync-speed refresher is fine when mixing packs, but if the deck opens with the exposure triangle it’s Groundhog Day. For the vibe I expect, Strobist’s Lighting 102 assignments are a better benchmark: http://strobist.blogspot.com/2007/07/lighting-102-intro.html.