I think everyone here covered most of the points. Just hope you got your money's worth from the lessons. I'm a hobbyist photographer and I've also paid to attend 2 workshops so far, a basic photography workshop and a couple's outdoor portrait photography workshop. For the second workshop, the instructor had more experience in wedding and family shoots so his method was totally opposite of what your instructor taught. He only used one external flash sometimes and had a couple of assistants with him but they were not critical, we spent most of the workshop using shooting in natural light and only used the flash after sunset. In any case, I find that after learning about the fundamentals of exposure triangle and how they affect your photos. Everything else has to be learnt through trial and error and practice. There are plenty of free and good resources online and YouTube. Paying to attend a Professional-run course is only useful if you want to gain some first-hand insights in that industry, to understand the workflows and expectations required. Which would be the roleplaying and use of lighting in your case. However, the instructor's opinions on rules regarding dslrs and apertures are just his opinions and are not absolute.
I think everyone here covered most of the points. Just hope you got your money's worth from the lessons. I'm a hobbyist photographer and I've also paid to attend 2 workshops so far, a basic photography workshop and a couple's outdoor portrait photography workshop. For the second workshop, the instructor had more experience in wedding and family shoots so his method was totally opposite of what your instructor taught. He only used one external flash sometimes and had a couple of assistants with him but they were not critical, we spent most of the workshop using shooting in natural light and only used the flash after sunset. In any case, I find that after learning about the fundamentals of exposure triangle and how they affect your photos. Everything else has to be learnt through trial and error and practice. There are plenty of free and good resources online and YouTube. Paying to attend a Professional-run course is only useful if you want to gain some first-hand insights in that industry, to understand the workflows and expectations required. Which would be the roleplaying and use of lighting in your case. However, the instructor's opinions on rules regarding dslrs and apertures are just his opinions and are not absolute.