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Creating Drama

Lesson 11 from: Crazy Stupid Light

Scott Robert Lim

Creating Drama

Lesson 11 from: Crazy Stupid Light

Scott Robert Lim

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Lesson Info

11. Creating Drama

Lesson Info

Creating Drama

Here we are in a, uh, not too terrible situation, but it's very bright. As you can see, I'm squinting on dh. This is a perfect example off determining using the sunny sixteen rule. We've got some slight, overcast it's getting a little bit clearer as we go, but, um, the way I determined this is you can look at the shadows and you go look at my shadow, um, and it's sharp, but not super sharp. So and the sun is starting to come out, so I would guess I'm probably in between f eleven r r f sixteen somewhere in there is a one hundred center one hundred now, what you have to do with the sonny sixteen rule is that you have to match your s o with your shutter, ok, so if you've got and the reason why I start at one hundred because my flash sink speed, if it's two hundred, I've got some lead way up and down in there to control my ambient light to make a darker my background darker or brighter. So let's, go ahead. I've got this at f eleven uh, one hundred s a one hundred shutters, and I'm gonna fe...

ature the out the trash island I, uh, when I'm tryingto feature something that's. Far away what I like to do is put a zoom lens on and in this case uh just literally got this on ebay put it in my bag and I'm gonna use it this is a great lands it's a three five to four five it's probably made in the eighties or something like that I got it for like two hundred bucks is all these awesome that's fairly small in light and so I'm going to zoom out and I'm going to show you that guests on f eleven uh let's see what's going on here hold on a second one two three okay and that's going to show us that we're pretty much right on with our um meeting uh we don't have a lot of bright sun back there I wish there was more bright sun but we see some detail we see alcatraz and uh if I put my subject at the rail then I can see both and that's why I'm gonna um uh use my two hundred so what happens is if I moved back and I zoom in all the way to two hundred then what I'm doing is like I'm moving alcatraz closer to me the more I zoom so if I used seventy millimeter lands you know maybe it would move here but if I'm moving teo I'm zooming out at two hundred it's like it's coming closer to me and getting bigger and I want that object back there as big as possible so I'm going if I had a four hundred millimeter lands that would be even better but but I haven't just a two hundred with me so I'm going to zoom all way to two hundred um and I see we've got uh okay so I met f eleven which means let's can we bring that big boy bar out here with the four flashes ok normally thank you neil neil's going to be my assistant today okay yeah that's good good okay so normally according to my chart if I was six feet away class what will we put my flash out at f eleven do you guys know half power but we're gaining two stops so now what do I get to put it on right if we started half way get two stops we got half quarter eighth is that correct so I've got everything on eighth power here hopefully we got batteries in here uh we've been using these bad results week cell anyways I got extra batteries just in case and so this should probably get me pretty close er to what we need to go okay and so we're going to bring out ben our model okay this has been and if you're a big fan of jessa this is a breanna xhm use every single ascension you'll see ben okay well anyways so I got a little so ladies get a little eye candy for you special because usually I just shoot hot ticks but because been such a great finn we're going to use ben all right ben stand up kick it over there by that rail and I'm just going to do something really basic I'm just trying to get yeah perfect I'm just trying to get uh everything and now you could see some shadows on his face and we're going to try to eliminate that with flash uh by overpowering the sun so you want to go over there so I kind of locked in my background um and you're actually in the photo but you get on this side yeah yeah right there. All right, let me let me and azuma as much as possible so I'm gonna zoom it to two hundred it's like and cool alcatraz in there okay, so you could sort of get a hint of it okay ben can you look towards the light? Okay, ready? One two three all right, so that, uh let's put that a little bit closer down down more right there. Yeah. Okay. Let's let's really try toe overpower that one two ready good. And so there were trying were over powering the sun and getting instead of him having raccoon eyes uh he has some nice light on his face and he's uh got we've and we've got that commercial look I'm shooting at f eleven and it's uh getting really nice and juicy. So what we're going to do now is I'm gonna actually it's it's kind of in a natural light situation here, but I wanna see if I can just make it a little bit darker by raising my shutter. Speed up. What? Teo it's a little bit hot, so we'll just move it back a bit right there. Good and we'll take another one. Ready? One, teo. Good. Perfect. Uh, and now what I did was I raised my shutter speed to make that background a little bit darker. Now, if I had some bright sun out there, uh, then you would see highlights not only on ben, but you would see highlights in the background, but because it's slightly overcast um, you kind of don't know the effect is not as strong, so but when we change positions, we could get more blue sky and we'll demonstrate a little bit later. Now I'm at sea. This is the whole reason why I am not bent on two point eight lenses because I'm shooting that at f eleven and the background is still blurry at two hundred millimeters er and so that's. Not a big problem with me, so a lot of people like two point eight all the time but even if you zoom out at two hundred even at f eleven you're going to get some great light okay so let's change and try to get that light slightly above like okay look looks look uh look up right at me ben at me looks straight at me and let's get that light in front so we can kind of go down right above him uh well is it hitting your face sort of ok let's start right there see if we could get this to work would do three good okay uh let's move out a bit and get the light in mohr in front of him a little bit more this way yeah good blood teo put your nose a little bit towards this way yeah right there one teo three good and there some still a little bit of um uh light that's hitting his eyes that's because I have the light high so if I wanted to kind of eliminate that let's move the flash down lower so it gets into his eyes okay right and right there and let's actually let's just do this let's turn list try switching positions let's have you look this way right and let's move that light over can you stand over on this side now and I'm going to get this nice boat in the background now I'm going to change the scenery okay pull more over this way see, this is why I gotta have it alive voice activated lights stand because it's so much easier to manage okay, move over this cake good all right uh it's that it's a little bit in the frame okay, good. Uh it's a little bit in the frame but I could always photoshopped that part out so because it's guy so I'm gonna go and shoot it that's filling in a bit we're gonna, um why don't we just, uh bump it up one because I'm only at eighth power here and eighth hour is not that much power at all so I'm gonna go to quarter power and I can still shoot I just gave it a little bit more juice uh see what we got just to fill him in a bit more he's doing us a perfect we got one two ready good let's uh bring the light down a bit and back just a little bit it's a little bit hot. Okay, one two, three see, even at a quarter power it's like who? Plenty hot, which is nice. Okay, now we're going to do some sidelining so totally look this way bad and we're gonna light it from the side like probably did you yeah so move it over to this side ok look that way bed good perfect one, two, three good move that light back a little bit so what no not that this way this behind him a bit so I could get side shadow yeah good one, two, three good alright what's that okay that's like hey let's try it again I'm gonna zoom in a bit more see the more I zoom them or that larger the background gets I'll do an example actually so you could see the difference all right, stay there now I can move up close and I could zoom this at seventy you're going to see that boat even though ben is the same size that boat is a lot smaller which is not bad actually that's a little bit hot so you back a bit yeah one two, three good now watch I'm gonna zoom at two hundred and now you're going to see that boat a lot bigger but ben's gonna remain the same size one two three and that's the difference moved back just a bit yep. What do three good all right? So you can see the difference in the background uh by zooming who are moving up at seventy just depends on your personal taste and what you're trying to shoot and so you can see uh actually go back one more can we go back one more photo where I did it at seventy millimeters? Yeah, see that one that seventy and then you can go to the one of two hundred but the image is the same size but the backgrounds different and that's what you're using assuming okay so let's try taking a few photos like this uh yeah uh let's say you get tied down okay uh let's good okay let's try one where you're kind of leaning against the rail looking at me good okay so now we're going to do us let's try something a little bit different the problem with doing light uh the light always has to follow the nose but it sometimes in order for the model to get in rhythm sometimes they look over here sometimes they look over there and then that the your system has to move back and forth and ping pong back and forth and it beat can be quite limiting to have the model always looked the same way so how do we solve that problem? So one way we're going to do it is we're going to use to sidelights so no matter which way he's looking that light will be at themselves we're gonna use this and right now I'm getting another lighting set up with multiple flashes on it and we had that at one quarter power this is going to be slightly underpowered a bit because he's only using three flashes but that's ok if I move in a little bit closer uh you should be fine uh okay, so this's actually something new that I'm working on? I'm developing it should be out in about a month uh what I like about this particular product is its amount my mountain will have up to four on him but it's amount using literally one trigger and you can plug it in and it'll just fire all of these but what I have is that might trigger will be built inside the mountain so you just have to mount the flashes on it and if you have my system and that's all you need to do but I'll still have this plug here so if you have pocket wizards or if you have um whatever triggering system you khun incorporate your own too ok, so we're going to do this kind of do sidelights so don't look extremely that way but just kind of like you can just pose back and forth from here to here and let's move that light out right about here so we do too sidelights and we'll put this light up a little bit more right about here and so no matter which way he's kind of looking um we've got light on either side um see, this might need to be a little bit closer because I've only got three lights on it instead of four but we'll see it's tested okay scott that went off all right, okay, so I'm gonna pull back a little bit from that seventies ok, so that looks pretty so, uh just pull this back here just to create a little bit of shadow if you could go back a bit that way and so now look over there, okay? It's pretty even so no matter which way he's looking now we've got full coverage we've got that commercial look, we're at f sixteen, which means what? You're going to need to get at least seven flashes now. Well, whatever, right. Okay, but, uh go ahead, so go ahead and just kind of poles and you can do whatever you want. How about look at me? You might have ah, yeah. So that's pretty good. You want to try some of those sunglasses on? Do we have sunglasses? And so, you know, it's kind of just a even ah illumination type of thing. Um, it doesn't have that super dramatic look because the background there's there's highlights on him and he's well, it but the background isn't well lit. So that's why you got a good clean look, but it's not that classic. Uh, you know, scott robert hdr field because there's no highlights in the background, but we can't really tell mother nature. Please give us highlights, but I do want to demonstrate this kind of, uh hi hi commercial uh, hi f stop field tio okay, great someone's going crazy over here yeah you know, ben I don't even have to tell him what to do he just you know, trying some different things okay? So let's try something a little bit different since we're not getting that question scott we've got a suggestion from the internet which is to use that variable nd filter out here that's something that people would love to see if you think that you can have a good set up here we'll okay look at that photo I just took right now, right uh that blackout is pretty boring by itself but we could make it even at two point eight um see, I am going to change lenses because the indie filter that I have goes with my other lands ok? So we can try it out and let's just go through the workflow right even though it might look similar uh, way at least is good to go through the workflow now what we're doing here is I'm changing my lens to lands that with andy fields will fit on because I got a seventy seven millimeter okay? And this is pretty dirty. So what you said was that it wasn't really the ideal scenario for the variable andy just because the background um well exciting well, the thing is is that right? I'm zooming in at two hundred and so it's already blurred out right now the whole reason why you want to see that little f stop is that you want to blur the background all right so that's the reason why I don't use the andy filter ah lot is because I can blur it out by just putting a two hundred millimeter lens and you know that's the case so another scenario like we might be later where we're turned around anyone the buildings in the back to be softer yeah yes, that would be a better scenario too but we can try this but I want to go through the workflow okay of how this works I think that okay so even though uh wait for this to warm up a bit um uh at least we can describe the work flow so I'm shooting at f eleven okay so if I moved by uh I have stopped down to two point eight so I'm gonna shoot at two point eight okay um I got sent my shutter speed to one hundred okay, I'm going to turn this uh andy filter to give me this is like my shutter now this is controlling light into my camera for said yeah this's controlling light into my camera so I don't really need to mess with my shutter or that could just leave it there the entire day that's it because this is the dark and brightness right here okay and I have these little indicators on here uh and I get it says minimum so this is uh two stops brightness okay now what's great about I should take a couple pictures taken see great okay, so I'll put it at two stops and you guys could see uh that is very bright and overexposed. Okay, so this is that two stops at two point eight self set it on minimum and it'll you know this I know this is a terrible photo because it's two stops overexposed oh, the flashes going off to yes, right. Okay, now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna turn it and I can dark and I'm not turning I'm not messing with my shutter speed it all all I'm doing is turning this say to make it darker okay and here's another stand still here you'll see this I've got flash going here and I'm making my background darker by turning my variable nd filter seattle's blurred out at two point eight see that like that there you go it's on sale too you know? Okay and I can make it even darker oh, shoot I accidentally moved my f stop so keep it up two point eight so I could even make it super dark one two, three good and you can see it's a little bit I made it darker and we might need a bump a little bit more light into it right? But I made my dark background so let's keep it there let's say I like that darkness I know I don't I know it doesn't look good but let's pretend I like it dark like that now how would I just my light I just bring like flash a little bit closer zack correct so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna bring the flashy in a little bit closer to adjust my life okay readies keep looking the same way ready? One two three good, perfect and that's it one shot one adjustment see how easy that issues got a nice blurred background maybe that's great if you don't have your seventy two two hundred lands and you want to blurt out you put the andy filter on um the background might look a little bit different you're not gonna bring the background back uh closer to you but at least you could blurt out really nice shooting in f eleven type atmosphere okay, that would not be possible to do that if I didn't have the nd filter because I would be a two point eight to get that you want me to try it let's let's just because some people have to screw up idiot tow understand it okay they probably like oh man this andy filters killing me okay, I want an equivalent exposure so in order for me to get that equivalent of darkness I had to shoot at for thousands of a second and my flash doesn't work even though it went off. Ugh, it doesn't sink. I'm out for thousands of a second with that same darkness. And my flash doesn't work because my flash sink is off now through the magic of andy filter. I can put this on hopes, I guess. That's the hardest part. Twisting the sucker on. Okay. Okay, now I'm going to go back to one hundredth of a second. I'm going to try to simulate that darkness through my filter. Ok. One, two, three. Good. Now I could see the two point eight and my flash will work. Isn't that just amazing? And you don't have to buy high speed sync flashes there. It isthe, right. Big difference. Beautiful people could see is their color cast. Yes, it does. Warm it up. Is it a big deal to me? I know I could fix it in light room. To some people. That might be a huge deal to them. That might be a deal breaker, so they might want to spend, you know, maur four hundred dollars or something. But to me, it's. Not really a deal breaker for me. And I can live with that. It's up to you though nobody's twisting your arm forcing you into anything you can try it out you could probably go rent four hundred dollar andy filter and compare and see what you like it's up to you but that's okay I'm sure there's probably more questions about the and filter there a couple of questions yeah um one from scott crump was do you have to meet her the background again when you put on that nd filter yes you do that's a good question but the reason why I accurately get it every single time because my sony camera has live you and I see in real time as I turn this I see what my sensor sees if you didn't you would have to guess shoot it champ it oh it's too dark to do it again shoot it, chip it and then go back and forth that way to find the right background darkness that you want but I immediately see it in my camera because I have live you there's a there's a uh other cameras I think they have live you also so so he's not the only camera I think that has life maybe it is though I'm not sure fantastic um quick really easy one douglas gottlieb says can your flash high speed sync your triggers mike triggered no, they're not meant to high speeds think at all it's strictly a manual system great another one from bluebeard would you use a polarizer filter in the same way with the results be the same ok ah polarizer filter gets rid of glare and it's only about two stops and that's it you can't go fight here to get that you need to go beyond five stops probably so that's five that's probably five stops or six stops and more eso yeah, a regular polarizer just doesn't doesn't do it so good questions a couple of questions about the use of a nd filter can you use from frog? Can you use a smaller aperture and make it look like it's nighttime in the background uh by increasing the power from the flashes you could uh you could make it darker uh and we could make it real dark. You won't try it sure what the heck way we're gonna have to up the power on the flash too but let's try that so what we'll do is I will make it darker but what what's not great about a, uh any not just mine but any variable neutral density filter when you were stopping it down ten and and maxing it that means you're gonna get you might get cem vignette ing some areas of brightness and darkness uh on the image uh this particular case I wouldn't do it because there's no uh, brightness and darkness in the background so it's just looking like a black background it's not very interesting but we we'll just try it and see what it looks like okay so let's do this again and I'll shoot it and it'll probably be underexposed but I'm making it really dark ok I'm making it super dark uh didn't go off it's test it hold on give me a feel see good ok did it didn't go off the other time right one two three it's barely you could barely see him on this next one okay, so we're gonna power some flash right more in there okay, so if you could look this way let's move that flash real close like half the distance like like almost kiss yeah and we may even have to be bump it up some more okay blunt to write good and it's got that look and if we go to the other side and I hit a highlight on it it'll look uh a little bit more believable I mean a little bit more interesting so I'm gonna bring this in closer so I could get some edge lighting around his hair and so I've got hit that sandwich light technique right on we'll try that and we'll try it again and I've got is that there? I hope that's dark enough for him and so it gets when it's real dark it's getting hard to focus you ready what teo good. I've got a barely. Okay. Let me pump this out. This's. Requiring a lot of juice now to do this, which is a good exercise. Okay, close your eyes. I'm gonna test it. Okay. Did you feel it? Okay, let's, try it again. One, two, three. Yeah. So, anyways, that's the kind of feel it is darker, but because there's no lights back there, there's no highlight back there. It doesn't look that terribly interesting. It does sort of look like night time, but there's nothing to tip off that his nighttime if they had lights or something bright back there and you made it, like, look twinkling like city lights, then yes, esso, I would recommend that technique when you're in a strong areas of contrast, that works really well, but we're we're not in a high contrast situation because the sun is way got a little bit of war cast, but I hope that helps. At least you could see the concept and the idea behind it. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for demonstrating. Is there any other nd filter questions? Well, there's one here from leo, leo j and just to clarify to go through your everyone's thinking so if the neutral density cuts off everything including the flash but again when you but again you increase the aperture so that means that you let in more light for the flash yes oh you won't eating increase the flash power or make it closer that depends on what f stop you're turning your lights to teo teo ten stops right right in this case literally I could be shooting at f thirty or forty something because I'm looking at it and it was maxed out at ten stops so I went ten stops below two point eight which is I don't know I can't even think like that what is that? Yeah uh whatever it's a lot somebody on the internet will figure it out for you so that's why this was only set up for f eleven worth a light right? But if I'm going ten stops it might need f thirty three worth like I don't know that's why we had to push everything close to light him up like that okay? So it's not like I think they're getting confused because they're thinking about high speed sync on using two point eight and opening up the aperture but what happens like I said again in high speed sync your fash is firing like ten times within a millisecond so you lose one third to one fifth the power anyways so you wouldn't be able to shoot at at super high f stops anyways so anyways I hope that helps yeah good I think you're going yeah right now I want to ask uh the the students would any of you like to try the nd filter and just see what it's like to suit lower or you even care about that or do you have any kind of requests or questions pretend that you were shooting here would you have any questions in your mind given now not over here or there but we had to kind of stick in this area here yes okay um would you want to use the nd or you just want okay so I'm gonna set it on minimum and so what you do is when you look in here uh you turned this and you can see light or dark okay okay and and you set the darkness okay and then we'll re adjust the flash uh no, I'll let you readjust okay so most likely when you shoot it it's gonna be over exposed because well just not can you not get down one because we went really dark. Okay. Okay. So look through there just as a review with the nd I'm looking through and then you're turning that to get the desired darkness and that cool by turning the right way over there yeah yeah is that cool? You can see the desire darkness that you want okay so wanted teo something really under exposed for the background and make have the flash really bring him out, right? Is that do we meet her for the background first and exposure that I want? We're guessing. Okay, so I'll leave for for light purposes because I have no idea. That's variable. So you could be five steps under. You could be six tapes under. You could be three steps under. I don't know. So that's. Why? I can't set the light correctly because I have no idea what you're looking at. But the easy thing is, just fire it. If it's too bright, we move it back. If it's not bright up, just do it. Okay. Okay. What does it look like? Too bright. It actually looks like it's a little bit too, right on his face. But the background is the clothes that I want, right? So we'll move that flashback. I actually think the backlight was okay. Yeah. Needs to go back a little bit. And on his face, it's. Just a tad right. Um, ok. Actually bring the back like a little bit more behind him and make it more of a rim. I would actually like it. Yes, but I didn't have anybody helping me okay, I think it's gonna be once you move back a little bit more or what did you turn it down? What did her down what do you have now? Quarter okay one teo three so I'd actually like to bring them back up a little bit more may back back late which is me thiss one sorry no it's neil neil neil on his yeah got to bribe it I think you're a little bit too bright. I'd like to bring them back up a little bit, make it a little more so I was at quarterback or I'm running it down to eight power so they know because people want to know what power we're doing stuff at so I'm gonna rip this back it'll actually coming no, actually can you it's hard to see on that screen uh can you give him a little rims toe pop your flash a little bit more behind his shoulder so it kind of wrapped around his front oh, I see a halo he's going for the halo? Yes. All right, I got it when you three better much better is that better? Yeah, yeah, for the more even light on the right side that nd filters pretty cool. I like that why'd you zoom in closer and shoot it that focus point is off yeah uh so I don't know if you know how to change and it just focus and recompose yeah is that okay yeah yeah yeah that's how I do it one teo three did mind off yeah years went off is that look all right all right great okay so I'll just take another just for the heck of it just make it a little bit less pride okay background yeah way might be a tad strong but just just just for variety they're gonna really dark in the back yes please okay one two three all right that's kind of cool split letting a little bit there with the edge on the side um that works pretty good that's cool um that's cool you know it's pretty awesome yeah so we can choose how you want that background whether you want it right yeah gives it a little bit more of a like night timing dramatic kind of feel right it would look like there was a fare was bright sun and it was creating highlights on those mountains back there and then we have highlights on him it would really look rich and matching it was nighttime to bring out yeah being out the drama on it but because we only have highlights on him and we have no highlights in the background looks okay but it's not like it's stupendous right? Right so but coming from a natural photographer with subjects how that came out so okay great good questions right well internet is wondering if we could move over to this wall yeah slays him there right let's do that oh okay there's gonna be okay let's try that let me see uh what do you need well because all their zach equipment right there right so I'm gonna have to find a shot with getting yeah can you pull that lens and stuff do you want to use it or pull it over now use this this is fine okay so I'm gonna line up a shot here I kind of limited because there's uh well anyways just pretend it's not there okay so what I like to do is this I'm just gonna stick with this andy figure filter here and um I I got my settings at uh one twenty five at two point eight okay and I'm going to use my andy filter ok, I'm going to show you uh different things I'm stopping it down and then I'm writing it up and I think I want it right around here this darkness here yeah I didn't touch my shutter speed uh but I can control the light with my andy filter and uh so I kind of like that feel right they're so we're gonna put then come on band over here and we're gonna pose you right in the middle how about closer towards me kind of come out come out yeah right there okay I like that. So, uh, why don't you want to look off this way? Yeah, right there. So, like, can I get two assistants? And so can you bring that other flash? No. Both of them. Yeah. So we're gonna have a look off this way. Now, the light is changing on me. Uh, that's cool. Looks better than more like better now, huh? And a man's actually in the picture. But don't worry about that because weaken photoshopped him out. Okay, so main light four lights over here. Okay, what do you have power that you had that set up that he's on a power? Okay, let me see this. Let me go with my guide here. Um, okay. I'm gonna kind of get it right about here. This looks like that. I'm, uh okay. Okay. Uh, let's. See, now, this is, uh, let's move back because you're in the shot. Uh, or I can afford it. And I'm gonna kind of give him this fear. Oppose here like this. And I get down. I don't want to sit on mike it's a problem. You come a little closer to me, because right now I got his head right on that line. Okay, right there. Look that way we'll go back a bit. Go back a bit right there. Good. Right there. Perfect. Okay, one. Let me get my andy filter darker. One, two, three. Okay, uh, further up here? No. Yeah. Just bump it up. I need some more juice. What is it at? Give me two stops at quarter to you at, uh, just now. Uh, according to my andi filter. Looks like it's way past half. So I literally could be at, you know, past f sixteen. I could be a twenty two or something. I don't know. It's pretty dark. Okay. Uh, okay. That's. Perfect. I know I have the flashing that showing, but that's easy photoshopped fix for me because it's just against the sky. And if he could move that behind to get rid right on the edge. See there? One, two, three. Good. That looks pretty cool. Um, and so that's. A pretty cool look there. Uh if I had more highlights back in the sun it would look totally awesome um but I'm gonna open it up a little bit let's go this way get this they're gonna zoom try a different angle here my first one two one two three good looking me pull that flash a little bit forward this way yeah towards his nose right there I like these strong architectural lines here uh on let's try this I am gonna light him and I'm gonna like the background so you turn yours flash towards the background behind him and put it close like right in the middle behind him yeah, not this too far just right there okay shine it right more a little bit more that way right there try that let's do this look this way way and hopefully they'll like that background up uh okay I'm getting a little bit of glare so the other way way more more strike that because it is glass so I am getting some glare on there but if I stuck the flashes behind it to light up the glass broke that way I'm just opening up that background a bit I'm trying teo match some highlights because we don't have a lot lot of contrast in the lighting right now because it's a little bit overcast I'm trying to create contrast uh with a different flash okay so just sign it right behind him again right. Right on the back of his head. Right. Oh, you got your camera. Okay, it's uh uh, move back. I'm gonna go long here. Okay, good. Uh, zoom in one, two, three. Good. That looks cool like that. So I got a little edge light on his hair. He's lit perfectly uh, good. And so let's try something a little bit different. We're gonna go to side lights so off to the side right there and then off to the side right there. Can you take a little bit wider stance for me? Yeah. Good. I'm just showing the lighting effects. Uh, I know that the flash is in the picture, but, um what kind of deal with that later? It from different angles. Alright, great. Um that's kind of like using the glass block. Um, I separated the, uh, if we had a lot of contrast with the sun was getting a bit more overcast. Uh, then it would look even more interesting, but you got to actually go into photoshopped increase, get some contrast in the background because structurally it looks pretty cool. Um and that's how you'd make it a little bit more believable, but I really love the light, uh, that's on the subject, okay, um anybody wanna give this a try? She'd been okay come on out christine yeah, I'm actually shooting everything at a low f stop um let's try do you want to shoot it with the indie feel to you want to take it off I haven't tried it with okay, so this is a two point eight and I think what makes andy filter look good because if you zoom in a lot okay and you just focus on him and so then the background will be blurred out so yeah, if you go wide uh then things tend to be more and focus uh so the andy filter doesn't have that great of effect okay, so that's that you know that you want the blur effect if we're going to use it I actually shouldn't just pulled it off when I was doing those shots but okay, so see ok, now it is dark so you could turn this turn this edge on I want you to see the darkness of brightness oh uh and you can adjust how dark or bright you want it okay, you could flow he could flow seems out you're blowing out if you want to if that is your desire go ahead and blow it out it'll hiding teo what? Just unleash your creativity there's don't wrong right then we have to adjust your life after you shoot it because we don't know what f stop you are actually in fact, you probably got a lot of light there. Yeah so, uh but do you like that lightness do you like the background? We can adjust the that you like that you like how I feel? Yeah, we're okay perfect that one look okay let's do that they're they're okay, but let's make the light a little bit what we're looking we're looking this way let's put that light back a bit so you get edge life and let's put a little bit of shadow on him and let's move this back this way just a bit and this is gonna be a little bit more contrast but let's see what it looks like got it don't change anything and do that same thing. Okay, how's that look what kind of cool, um super zoom in you said all right, you want a zoom doing at ways on automatic uh focus it's on automatic otis okay, why's that now focusing? No, I was trying to manually I e okay that I had a really cool like, there you go and I'm not sure how much blur that is, but you're shooting at two point eight so, um let's move this right let's do this just a bit if he's gonna go this way have this out what power see if we've only got quarter we've only got about eight year or what what power do we have it good we've got on both quarter power so um yes you try and use gel up side on ly back lighting is that the only way you can really get the color to come out or um yeah you confront what big area wanna light a big area uh you subbed we'll be jailed but I'm not sure if it's going to reach the building or whatever just lit then that's the color uh it would just like that that area where you're firing your flash that makes sense it's got yes question uh and why and there have been a number of other people who are wondering if you could get we could get a demonstration of your classic walking away pose um or you know the walk away I wouldn't do it with the guy but if I had ten way bringing a girl to wear something that we've yeah let's do it got a lot of requests for uh let's do it okay who wants to do the walk away? Anybody okay? You could take a break has that you want him to photograph you know, I know you want teo look, you stand right there, okay? So in this particular case it doesn't matter where the light is because we got it on both sides so in general uh if the light is here okay or we'll reposition it basically how it works is you take a step and you're walking somewhat away from the light is not a true away it's more like uh the light would probably be about right here I guess so move the light right about here and so you're walking away and your bam popping that hip out this way okay you're relaxing the shoulders here and then you're looking um outwards towards the light right which could be right over here light right here okay and so another thing what you want to do is you want to train your assistance teo follow the nose okay I shouldn't even have to be telling them where to put the light because they should know that is always going to go where the nose is right are close to him and so you take a step bam you pop that hit and then you uh been this knee I believe it so it's harder but it's kind of like you're holding in orange uh in your knees there okay uh so let's see if you can do that so I like to demonstrate first yeah like that okay now one thing that looks a little bit stiff is what's the matter okay now look at the space between her niece right so you could pull this out here it's whatever is easier to get your knees closer together what is it okay, so her foot is coming this way. That's. Not the walk away. So you want it? Yeah. Okay. They're okay. Yeah, like that, right. Okay. And then now you're like this. I want you like that. See that? See that exaggerated? Gotta pop. That def. Okay. See, dok. Go. Bam! All right, then you're looking this way. Now what you try to do, er is not keep your shoulders parallel to the ground. You need to break it so you could come down or you could do the cute c or you could do whatever. But the whole rule is is that you don't want this parallel to the ground. You always want to break the angles. Break the angles. Ok, so you can put this down like this. You could put this slightly here. You could look over here or you could maybe put your soul there's kind of a con cave in like that. That's? A little bit more. I love that. See how you kind of come in like this would go like that's. Very fashionable. Look. Okay, so let's, try that. So let's, do that kind of put your shoulders together like you had it. And then look off this way right there okay and then take that arm back a bit yeah so I could see I need to see space here see that and if we had a pin we could like get that tighter so well don't pull that down I just want this outsider here okay and go ahead okay good exaggerate to hit more yeah, there we go look to say get good right there with your eyes look at me okay put the light right there. Okay one two, three go okay, ready one two, three good. Um let's put the light behind it and let's get that light right here yeah, she has glasses on can you take your glasses off or put sunglasses on but that's kind of like the walkaway feel okay now I need to see some space in between that other are you okay? Go ahead, do it. Okay. So now you start your see she has a habit of not walking away. You keep putting your foot this way, right? So you got to go that way see there you did it again where's. Your foot pointing towards it has to go. Yeah, see that so you got to go at a forty five degree angle of the light so it's not a true walk away so if the light is here right we're going to try to make a ninety degree angle like this okay, so you gotta walk away right here like this but you're doing this I know, right? I need you to do this. Yeah, okay, yeah, there you go. Okay, it takes a bit, okay, you're not really putting up pop that hit more. Yeah, well, I didn't feel that you have to really feel that see that it feels awkward doesn't but you're gonna learn to love it right? Look at your knees put them in a little bit lock that lock that it's got a lock see that you've got a feel that it's a balance it's a coordination now if your client can't do it, you can never do that and resting you had the guy stand like this on then, you know, put your hand like you're resting and then do you see that? And then you compose it this way you have your man here in the groom and then she's leaning there and then you can look away that way, right? And I can look away this way bam shot there this. Okay, um and so if it if they're having a problem with it, get up to lean on something to start off that's actually, the hardest way to do it is the free stand walk away I've done it literally a million times so it's easy for me to do it but when you're first learning it it's kind of a coordination type thing that's why I like actually having an engagement session with every wedding because I can work with them from you know three hours four hours and then when comes wedding time and I tell them to do the walkway damn they're there I don't have to spend five minutes explaining how to get them into doing it they've already done it and your job's a lot easier that way okay but let's try this I know this is a lighting class so I don't want to get into wedding photography okay good put your knees together a little bit more right good pop that hip out more looked out this yes see that you get good all right look off that way way smile a little bit okay now pull that arm your right arm back a bit nice I like lighting right there pull that just turn your body more this way yeah there you go just look back this way a bit put your chin down and looking me put your face right there good one two, three good now just kind of fold your arms like this yep turn your face this way wait there good good want to turn your face this way? Yeah, just look out like that um so anyway I shot it tight now consume it wide. Okay, so go ahead. Do that same. Walk away again. You didn't work out on it's. Good practice, it's. A lot harder than you think it is, right? I make it look easy, but actually there is take some country. Yes, your client will feel that way too if they're not used to that. But that's what it is it's ah! Ok, so right. Ok. And then look off that way. Good. And I'm gonna do something wide. One, two, three good fact. Like back. A little bit again. One, two good turning keep your nose there. Yeah, good cable coming out here. Okay, ready? Do it again. One, two, three good. So now I go wide now it could go close, same things. Just stay there in that position. You don't even have to move. Okay, turn your body that way a bit. Okay, good turn your face this way or move this light out yet right there with your eyes. Look at me now. I could take it tight, right? And so what I'm demonstrating is is when the foundation is right, you could just easily go in close and it still looks good that's, how you know you have a good polls is anywhere you zoom in on that subject it looks good because you got the foundation right and then everything falls from that and if you look at sculpture you khun that's the way it's bill it's built from the bottom up the foundation of how they're standing and it brings everything else into may makes everything look aesthetically pleasing when you've got a bass right ok, good. So um I was thinking that maybe we could switch to this other background okay? And um there's somebody out there in the chat room named texas tim who uh said that he would buy this course if ken a shot okay, I make texas temple as well, okay? And I think we should have kenna shoot against this background I get so how about we get uh lets this line this up here? Uh what's interesting. I kind of like this street can is this going to crazy here if I get this street in here I like this angle of this convergence of this rail line and the street line converged together and so it'll bring way put a subject there I think it'll like tie everything together so we got us you've been I think that's cool I definitely want to shoot ben okay come on then here's what I was were you ok? You've got your own vision I'm sorry I got you what do you want to do hey where you're going here but I want yeah definitely I want your help because I'm not sure how to achieve it with you know what so we're not gonna confuse you with andy field right? Yeah let's take the india let's take then yeah okay so what I'm looking for ben is thing that is kind of ok stop don't tell him anything until you got the lighting figured out ok good point because you're gonna make him work we're gonna tire him out okay and then he's not getting you know okay so let's just what I do it's ok just hang there relax now it's my time we get to think hey, this is candace bring okay okay so um I want something I love black and white okay and so I want something that I know in post processing I'm gonna turn into black and white and I want something that has a lot of contrast and is angular and has him looking pretty like stoic and see serious maybe it's that like wider stance okay shot with the looks so actually let's move him down to you're a bit more okay why? Because I see this line going the red head right? Yeah so that's why I originally I thought that this patterns would be cool okay yeah okay good let's go with your vision good then you get over here she wants you over here, you get there you just do what she says ok ok l I like what you're thinking now okay? I see it was long and since I see you I see your vision and the the uh yeah you like that? Okay, we're at f eleven you were yeah you khun turn this f stuff keep this at one hundred you could turn this f stop to whatever darkness you want this front dial ok and I have live you you're going to see exactly what you get but let's start it f eleven so much I'm starting on metering on just to him yeah in the back on the background which is f eleven now is how is that? Is that dark enough right enough you want a darker or you wanted move that here I'm at f eleven so and here it looks good that what you like but I'm gonna see I don't want just good I want what you like I'm wondering if I need to yeah reposition if you want to move him logo you can move him if you want to he'll do anything that you say I know anything, anything all right I'm doing full on but then I'm gonna zoom in maybe actually okay that yeah okay let's talk f eleven right? I'm at f eleven one hundred ok, come on light oh yeah we're gonna be at what he ate our quarter power base. Okay, so if I'm going dramatic, should I be making the background darker, then it's up to you know, why don't you turn that up? The beauty of the mind is you can turn the f stop dial. Yeah, which is this one, right? Yeah. And you can see it right away. Realty, I'm what it's gonna look like, okay? And then you decide where you just stop out off at eleven or thirteen or wherever you tell us where you're gonna be. Okay? So here's my thought process right now, I'm not really loving this like the letters here that would get rid of that out of the photo shop. That's easy. Okay, don't worry about that. All right? I'm not gonna wear, so I'm going angular and let's talk about how we're going to just quickly talk about light that's what? We're here. Yeah, and then we'll go into a triangular afterwards. So tell me, what did you arrive at a left half eleven. What do you ask if what I am at f sixteen so the background was a little bit dark and that's causing these to give me some brightness rail getting the highlight is giving more contrast, great love, okay, so we're gonna be shooting it f sixteen so why don't we just bump it up one? Okay. And now let's do a test shot to see if the lighting we bumped up the flashes just because we were shooting it f eleven. Now you said f sixteen and we want to make it the same equalizing. I'm just guessing so okay, so now we're gonna throw the light in. All right. So what we did decide to dio wass should not just because it's cold, but we wanted teo get ben in a coat just for something little bit different. I I wanted to get him in a coat. Uh, a little bit. Something different, but also just to add to that dramatic look, I was going for more contrast. More formal, black and white. Yeah. That way his face will contrast with what? He's wearing? Better cool, right? Darker. So we're at sixteen. Yes. We determined that she likes f sixteen, so we're gonna shoot a sixty and that's just because I wanted to make more contrast. It's a little bit darker. Right? Um, it's down, like a three quarter stop. And we're gonna put some light on it. And way uh, yeah, we can see what happens. Right? So try it. Ok, so you're gonna look out band kind of that way maybe your arm out a little bit more. Yeah. That's good leading forward? Uh, no, no, no, no, no, no back thing, but yeah. Okay, here we go. How does that light look? Light looks good, but the composition doesn't ok now. Let's, let's, let's see how we did with the light where's the feed going? You got any feed here waiting for the feet? It doesn't say loading when we try another composition while we're at it. Yeah, go for it. Okay, now, if you're gonna change his head position, then we're gonna have to move the light just okay. Why? So I'm just when I say changing the composition I'm just opening it up a bit so that I don't have him like right in the center. Alright on, we're looking for feed and we're the world is waiting for your photos they are just anxiously on the edge of their seat that's okay, talk about well, since we can't see uh let's talk about if that light was good or why don't you take it and let me know if it was good okay, yeah, I'll take it, let me see like this. I want to ready, yeah, that looks pretty darn good. Um, just just go ahead. Um, okay, his light it is, jack, it is a tad dark, so what we could do is we can watch the light because he's wearing black and exposing for his face, right? So his jack is a bit dark, so what we'll do is maybe just add some light you can. Come on, david. I mean, robert c now getting all mixed up, okay? And do we turn this off okay, I should do this so I let uh that's all right don't waken throw some light on the bottom now we get a full spread this way through that so just hold this right here and it's acting like a huge soft box now so um you're spreading the light and you get full coverage look this way look good it looks too hot on his face okay, so uh bring it down one and then we could move it closer I rather conserve energy you see what what we did that now I could have moved it back but if it's too bright and mads will just get down and we might need to move it a little bit closer but go ahead, take a shot. Okay, that looks better. Ok, good. So we've kind of locked it in um and what about his body with the other light? Does that look good? It's really hard to tell now that's pretty good that's pretty good it is lighting the ground a little bit there but you can photo shot that down but the important thing is he's got even light on his body it's just opening up that darkness that because he is wearing off dark there okay see, the interesting thing is, um scott is that because I don't use flash? Yes what I'm the things that I'm thinking about are our composition and things like that and what you the lines I'm looking at so I'm still like not adding that extra element, right? Because what it isthe is you have to master the technical right before you could get to the artistic as natural light shooters you khun go to straight artistic and you don't have to worry about the light, right? Okay, so this is an exponentially harder process, but the payoff could be really huge, right? Right? Because I see a different thinking workload for you workflow, because you immediately go into the artistic, but we'll hold on way got to get the light right first before you can go into the artistic because I have to also I have to learn to see what the effect of that isthe so even before I even set it up and take the shot. So I'm part of the thing like I can't see what the result is. I'm not sure if it's a good shot, even though I could see it briefly and here, right? But I can't envision what those lights look like yet. Yes, that's what I have to master debts, right and that's why we're doing this so and we're good to go. So you guys didn't keep shooting may I think, uh that likes unless you like that loki um it looks like it's a tad dark what would you agree so let's move that light in a bit right there. Ok? And so do I need to adjust. I'm not adjusting anything background it's the same way I like it and then just putting more light on him by adjusting the flash. Okay, go ahead. Not sure if this is focusing way feed. Um, yeah, there we go. See, now that I added a little bit of light right there um and so I think that looks pretty good. Um, now you can start working on the artistic yeah, what you want we kind of locked in the lighting a little bit, so I think we're good with that way could actually just let's just experiment. I can't really see it, but it looks dark here, but I could be totally wrong let's just move it in just a little bit right there. Pull the flash down the closer they get the flash to the subject lowers you just put the flash right there. Okay, good. Okay, so we live the flash from up overhead to down so the closer you move it, yeah, because then the flask of fire over his head yeah so the closer you are moved the flash down so so now I should expect to me more straight on and I'm actually going to scoot in a little bit okay good could I actually uh bank it you're just too and the lights just to move over so that you're in front of that pole there yeah that line see that just got me a bank okay although now I'm going to get this sign in the back but we couldn't get a shot that out okay alright fired ok hard to see from over here okay yeah so we'll get a report from the internet now well it's hard to see maybe they can tell me on the internet but um well ok do you like the darkness of that looking at the sea do you like you want to open up that background a little bit exposure does look a little bit okay so let's bring down the you know what it's gone tio f twenty no wonder you yeah so if I take it back to six way back down we got a full back of that because she was sitting at f twenty okay good job but that way got that looks a lot better all right good thank you internet yeah okay so I opened up that background a bit graham now if you want more light on his face we can adjust that light so now that you locked the background in it's just moving the flash back and forth to get the light that you want right and that's and that's basically it okay so awesome you do that a little bit closer a light right there move it back so it's got shadow on his two can you move the light that that way I think his eyes are closed you didn't count oh three to one where you go all right, yeah, I see that love that light looks pretty cool. Okay, so let's try now, let's try something this way. Okay, so let's move can we move over here? Ben and let's try to get these angles here and see what we can do. Is this going to be a wider shot or just focusing on? Uh, not like okay, so turn around this way and so I'm gonna try to figure out the composition and so let's go here let's see how much room a half and I'm short, but what I could do here is I can see this way and I'm gonna have you look here, okay? And I'm gonna fire the flash right in here and we're gonna see this shot right here to go see this is when I can pretend I'm six feet tall love this display here so scott, what I'm seeing here is that with that kind of yes we're uh trying to use those lines and I need to get high so I put his head below top so that's why I raised it really high but I kind of like those leading lines into him right that way but what I'm noticing from a natural light shooter perspective is that there's his face is kind of speckle toe there's shadow but there's there's light so I wanna even that out with flash what's class so when you see it with flash then it's even doubt awesome yeah so I see how that yeah yeah that works go anywhere right it gives a certain freedom like one of those one of the scenarios that I constantly find is when I'm photographing families that I'm outdoors and I'm under a tree and there's a beautiful light but it's back yes that spec ally under the tree to me every time right so if you feel in this bill speckles with flash right then it's it reduces the shadow and and so even though flash um makes it technically harder but once you master and get more freedom you see that's the pay off the pay office freedom yeah it makes it so people if you want to take that road to freedom learn the technical learn flash and then it opens a new world and you could just move your subject in anywhere you want because you're creating the light right thank so that's cool so uh anybody wantto take a crack at at doing something of this? I kind of like that kind of feel their yes help me out with one idea sure robert's gotten idea robert scott and I dance over here real quick all right, so thank you got it. Thank you. Teo white shot right here and ben's gonna have to be on the left side which means the the flash is gonna be a right side yeah, we'll just take it out there, okay? Yeah, cool. All right, so you want to go so his head is essentially in between those two buildings right here and using this poll is like kind of a guide as well so you get okay, but you're not seeing any street uh, putting it between two buildings should be well, you could probably shoot this around fifty or thirty five and uh well here you line it up okay? You line it up and let me know where to go where his nose is and I'll do the rest ok, ok, just you know, let me know that when you're ready sorry. Yeah, I don't mean a trigger ready because I'm holding out there yeah, one two, three uh cool all right, well, there you go, that's all you gotta do is that's what you gotta have ah mono pod

Class Materials

bonus material

Crazy Stupid Light Slides
Master Flash Guide

bonus material

FlashCalculator.jpg

Ratings and Reviews

Naomi
 

I just finished this course today, and I'm so happy that I bought it! It's been on my wishlist for months, after watching it as a rebroadcast here on Creative Live. I absolutely LOVE Scott's approach to lighting. The way he explains how to light manually is so clear, and easy to understand; he also has a great sense of humor which takes the edge off of trying to get everything perfect the first time. I like how he encourages the class to just try new techniques, and if mistakes are made, that's okay, just adjust and keep moving. This has allowed me, as a perfectionist, to try his lighting formulas, with a lot of success. I'm so appreciative that as an instructor, he took the time to create a class that helps us as photographers to be more creative. Because of this course, I feel so much more confident as I experiment with light on my own, and then apply it to my work. I feel that I have all the tools that I need to create amazing images that really stand out. Thanks Creative Live for making this class available, it has changed how I shoot! =)

Jack C
 

This course is simply amazing, super good, and completely exceeds my original expectations! Scott is such a brilliant photographer and teacher. His way of teaching is of great fun, and he delivers the ideas so well. I learn really a lot from this. Thank you so much Scott! Creative Live is doing such a wonderful job!!

Nadine
 

This is by far my most favourite course on Creativelive. It's inspiring, funny and most educational. I learned so much about flash and lighting and can't wait to practise all that I've learned. Scott is an enthusiastic teacher and his way of teaching just clicks with me. Highly entertaining! And it was fun to also get some posing, composition and other tips out of the workshop for variety. I 1000% recommend this course if you want to learn more about lighting in an inspiring way.

Student Work

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