bpp-Masters Workshop - Entwickle deine eigene Handschrift
bpp-Masters with Ivan Weiss
Develop your own handwriting
Dates: October 11, 2026
Time: 08:30 AM - 06:00 PM
Location: Fotostudio Rehrich, Wilhelmstrasse 23, 49477 Ibbenbüren
Investment:
only 449,- EUR plus VAT for bpp members
only 699,- EUR plus VAT for external participants
This masterclass will be held in English.
There are many technically good portraits. However, images with a clear, personal handwriting are significantly fewer.
That is exactly what this masterclass is about.
Ivan Weiss will not show you how to copy his distinctive style. Instead, it's about understanding better how your own visual language is developed – and how to use light, color, perspective, styling, background, expression, and post-production so that not only individual good images are created, but a photographic work with its own personality.
The masterclass is aimed at photographers who are technically skilled but want to develop their own image style more clearly, consciously, and consistently.
From good images to a personal visual language
A personal style does not arise from a specific lighting setup, a special background, or a fixed color palette.
It arises from decisions.
What perspective do you choose? What light supports your image idea? What colors fit the desired mood? What clothing works with the background? How do you lead the person in front of your camera? And what role does post-production play in this?
Ivan shows you how these decisions are interconnected and how a consistent visual statement emerges from them.
You will learn to view a portrait not just as a sum of individual technical decisions, but as a whole picture in which every element supports the desired effect.
What you will develop in this masterclass
A clearer own photographic direction
You will engage intensively with the question of what images you actually want to create.
What visual worlds interest you?
What lighting moods, colors, and expressions feel right to you?
Which influences do you want to adopt – and which ones do you not?
The goal is not to definitively establish your style in one day. The goal is to better understand what underlies your own photographic handwriting and how to develop it purposefully.
More confidence in creative decisions
Many photographers know numerous techniques, light modifiers, and possibilities.
The actual challenge often begins afterwards:
Which of these is the right one for exactly this image?
Ivan shows you how to make creative decisions more strongly based on the desired effect of a portrait.
Not:
“What lighting setup could I use today?”
But:
“What should this image convey – and what light, what color, and what perspective support this idea?”
This will help you develop more clarity in the creative process and more trust in your own decisions.
Color as part of your visual language
Ivan Weiss is particularly known for his consistent and independent use of color.
Therefore, the masterclass focuses intensively on how color influences the effect of a portrait.
You will learn, among other things:
To select colors based on their emotional impact,
To coordinate clothing, background, and skin tone,
To develop harmonious and contrasting color relationships,
To use color purposefully for directing attention,
To make color decisions consistently from an image idea.
It is explicitly not about recreating Ivan’s color world.
You should understand how color can become a part of your own visual language.
Light that can do more than just illuminate
Light not only determines whether a portrait works technically.
It changes its entire character.
Ivan shows how different qualities of light can create a completely different emotional effect.
This includes, among other things:
hard and soft light,
directed and diffuse light,
contrast and tonality,
light position and distance,
shadows and light shaping,
the interplay of light, skin, and color.
The crucial shift in perspective:
Do not first ask how an image was lit.
Instead, ask why exactly this light works for this portrait.
Leading people in front of the camera more confidently
A strong visual language is not only created by light, color, and design.
The way you work with people also shapes your images.
Ivan provides insights into his work with the individuals in front of his camera and shows how communication and direction can change expression and body language.
You will learn:
To create a concentrated and trusting atmosphere on set,
To give clear instructions,
To respond to different personalities,
To manage body language and posture more consciously,
To recognize authentic moments of expression,
To connect your image idea with the person in front of your camera.
Experience live how an image is created
A significant part of the masterclass consists of practical demonstrations and live shootings.
Ivan not only shows the final result.
He makes his decision-making process visible.
You will experience:
How an image idea develops,
Which decisions are made first,
How light, color, styling, and background are brought together,
How Ivan reacts to the person in front of the camera,
When an idea is changed or discarded,
How a portrait evolves during the shooting.
This insight into the “why” behind the decisions is a central element of the masterclass.
Because when you understand why something works, you can then transfer the principle to your own photography.
What you will take away after the masterclass
After this day, you should not simply know some new techniques or lighting setups.
You should understand more clearly:
What kind of images you want to develop,
Which design decisions fit your own visual language,
How to translate an idea consistently into a portrait,
How to adjust light and color more purposefully to achieve the desired effect,
How to make creative decisions more consciously and confidently,
How to develop your photographic work more consistently,
How to lay the groundwork for an independent and recognizable photographic handwriting.
The values of this masterclass
Your own handwriting instead of someone else's look
You will not receive instructions to reproduce portraits in the style of Ivan Weiss.
You will learn principles that help you further develop your own visual language.
Intention instead of chance
Strong images do not result from a random combination of many correct decisions.
You will learn to align light, color, perspective, styling, and expression purposefully with a common image idea.
Expression instead of technique for the sake of technique
Technique remains important.
But it is not an end in itself.
The crucial question is always: What should the image achieve?
Only then does it become clear which technique makes sense.
Clarity instead of creative arbitrariness
The more possibilities we have, the harder it can become to make decisions.
The masterclass helps you categorize your design decisions more clearly and make them more consistently.
Individuality instead of interchangeability
The goal is not just a “beautiful” portrait.
The goal is a photographic work that possesses personality and, over the long term, stands out more from interchangeable visual worlds.
Trust in your own perception
A personal handwriting also arises from trusting your own interests and instincts more.
Ivan shows how intuition and design knowledge can be combined.
Development instead of short-term inspiration
This masterclass should not just inspire you for a day.
The principles taught should give you a framework that allows you to continue developing your own photography weeks, months, and years later.
Who is this masterclass for?
This masterclass is aimed at professional photographers who are already technically skilled and want to take the next step in their creative development.
It is particularly suitable for you if you:
Feel that your images are still too interchangeable,
Want to develop your own image style more clearly,
Want to use light and color more consciously,
Want to position yourself more strongly design-wise,
Are looking for more confidence in creative decisions,
Want to create your visual worlds more consistently,
Want to orient yourself less on trends and other looks,
Want to give more personality and recognition to your work.
The result
You will leave this masterclass not with the goal of photographing more like Ivan Weiss.
You will leave with a better understanding of how you can work more from your own photographic handwriting.
From technically good to consciously designed images.
From individual strong shots to a more consistent visual language.
From relying on others to having more trust in your own work.
From interchangeability to a recognizable photographic handwriting.
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
