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Lesson Info
16. $500 Challenge - Lake Five
Lessons
Taking the Jump with Forrest Mankins
06:28 2Workshop Intro with Alex
02:15 3Tea with Mankins
05:47 4Failure
01:52 5Burnout
02:13 6Creating Concepts
02:55 7Planning
02:15 8Finding People to Shoot With
04:49Working with Talent
05:08 10Building A Team
01:17 11Shooting With A Team
08:48 12Film vs. Digital
05:26 13Editing - Referencing Film
23:03 14Editing - Finishing A Concept
03:12 15Presets
02:37 16$500 Challenge - Lake Five
04:41 17Learning Taste
04:08 18$500 Challenge - Land Cruiser
05:14 19Q&A with Alex
30:54Lesson Info
$500 Challenge - Lake Five
For all intents and purposes, we are basically calling this the $500 challenge. So this is a Canon 5D Mark II, and it's an awesome camera. It's been out for about 11 years. You can pick one up for about 400 bucks, and this guy is a Canon 50 1.8. I mean, it is tiny, it's plastic. It's about $100 used. So, why we're using this, is to show you that you can pretty much have any gear that's out. It doesn't have to be new, it doesn't have to be expensive. And the things that are really creating a great photo ar our concept, our light, and kind of executing that. So we're gonna put this into pretty challenging conditions. It's kind of end of the day, lower light. We still have some kind of difference in dynamic range. And just kind of show how these older cameras that kind of fall out of favor, or no one talks about them, but they're still totally great. A new camera coming out doesn't make your camera suck. So I'm gonna shoot everything with this challenge with just this 5D Mark II, 50 1.8. ...
And we're gonna talk a little bit more about what we're doing, and how we're using this camera to kind of maximize our photos. Let's just see. That's perfect. Okay, so, do you think you can step out? Just go step off buddy? Bro, step off me (laughs). (water sloshing) The idea of this shot, just really quickly, is kind of her standing up in this canoe that's just floating along, but how I'm gonna use this lens to kind of articulate that, is basically how I'd use any lens. And so, it has a maximum aperture of F/1.8, which gives us like a shallow depth of field. And you hear a lot of people that kind of talk bad about this lens online. They say, oh you know, you shoot it at 1.8, and it's not super sharp, blah, blah, blah. But I mean, you can have any lens, and that's just a characteristic of lenses. So if we still want that shallow depth of field, I can shoot near there, F/2.0, you know, I can be in that kind of, let's see 2.0, 2.2, 2.5, and still get a really shallow depth of field, But my image quality is gonna improve a lot. So I'm gonna shoot this at F/2.0, and ISO 100. And that's another thing with this camera, is just, you know, it does have some limitations. So we're gonna try to shoot it at a lower ISO any time that we can, if our shutter speed can remain fast enough. So in this situation, and Amy that's totally perfect, looking away. Yeah? I think it's gonna work great. We're at, you know, 640th, F/2.0, ISO 100. And the idea is just to keep the canoe straight, get Isaac out of the frame, let the water calm down and then we'll just take our photo. Yeah, Isaac, I think you can step out of the frame now. And again, it's just like this $500 set up. We've got pretty good light, (water splashing) which is something that we need to prioritize anyway. So, whether or not we're shooting the newest camera. I'm gonna go ahead and take a couple frames, and I'm focusing right on her head. (camera shutter clicks) And I'm also kind of being aware of where that far bank is intersecting her body. I don't want it to be like right on the neck or anything. That's perfect Amy, just kind of hold that. (camera shutter clicks) And I'm gonna move a little bit as this canoe kind of drifts, and just kind of maximize shots in between our resets. Can you look off the other way please, Amy? Perfect. Yeah. Hold that for a minute. (shutter clicking continues) All right, and we're done. We've got the frame. Lighting is good. We'll touch it up a little bit in post, but I mean it's that simple. (water sloshing) It's basically light, and what's in front of the camera. That's awesome. Yeah. Your feet are totally perfect there. Yup. I saw how tippy that is when they get in. I know (laughs) But that's great. Oh, that's beautiful, I love it. The colors are so good. Nice work! Yay! Perfect! Go team! Go team. Go team. So what's important is gesture, and where the camera's sitting, not what camera it is. So for me, you saw me down on my knees kind of on the ground, and I will use live view a lot. I mean, as humans we're used to seeing things in 3D, right? So on the back of this camera, we're seeing things in 2D, and that really spatially kind of helps us see where things are intersecting, where they're not. And for me, what's important in this frame is to make sure that I don't have a line running straight through her head. You can see I got lower, to kind of lift her head up a little bit. And so things like that, where the camera is, versus what camera it is. The light, and what your subject's doing, are the most important elements in the photo, (pats camera) not the camera itself.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Mathieu Cladidier
A lot of philosophical insights but not much of practical tips to use! I love Forrest Mankins photos and youtube channel. I signed up for his workshop to get a bit more of an insider perception, which he delivered in his own style and which is great. However, at the end of the workshop, I have a hard time to really feel like it worth it. Maybe I was expecting too much of technical, really hands on tips. The whole thing is good overall, don't get me wrong but not as much useful as expected.
Matt Steindl
Creating a Moment Overall, this workshop had a ton of great insight into Forrest's process before and after creating an image. I learned a lot and really enjoyed the points he touched on with working with models and teams. I never had a workshop go into these sort of important details that forgotten at times. I wish the workshop had more "in the field" video content as it tended to get a bit cumbersome watching Forrest talk at the camera over and over again but regardless I definitely learned a lot and would purchase this workshop again in heartbeat.