Creating Your Reality with Composite Photography
Lesson 39/60 - Building Composite Model Lighting
Creating Your Reality with Composite Photography
Lesson Info
Building Composite Model Lighting
We have a bunch of lights set up. I haven't even turned them on yet (chuckles) I don't have any of the powers set up or anything. Actually, you know one thing we didn't grab was a trigger. We need a trigger for the camera. Anyways, so we are right now I've got Capture One loaded up and I'm gonna create a new session, so I'm gonna go File, New session. I'm gonna call this CL Studio and I'm just gonna hit OK and if all goes to plan, we should load up a new document. There we go. I like to shoot tethered a lot so that I could see what's going on, especially when I'm building a composite the more I can line it up, the easier. Once we get this trigger going, because somehow we all slipped the ball on that and it happens sometimes. We're gonna throw this on the back of the camera and I'm gonna take a shot. I'm pretty sure none of these lights are even turned on yet so we're gonna do that too. First thing I wanna do, yeah, thanks. So first thing I wanna do is I wanna make sure that none of th...
e studio lights are contaminated in the scenes, so I am just gonna take a picture Doo-do-do! Plugging this in. What's nice with the 5D Mark II is that the cable that charges my Wacom actually plugs in to the side of my camera, so I can trigger, so I've one less cable to carry. So generally I like shooting around F11. I've got it set at 1/60th of a second ISO 200. Those are just settings that I like to use, that's all. (chuckles) So I'm just gonna take a picture and then just focus somewhere in the room here. (shutter clicks) Take a picture of the black room and hopefully what's gonna show up, as what shows up on the screen is a black image, which that means that my image is exposed. That means that none of the studio lighting is gonna be impacting what this is gonna look like in post production. I've definitely had it sometimes where I've shot at a lower aperture, and then some of the lighting that's in the room is affecting my image and I'm like, "Why is there this gross, orange glow "on their forehead and the tops of their cheeks?" Like where is this coming from? While I turned off all the lights, and I take a picture there's some of the ambient light coming into the shot and sometimes they could totally screw with things. Let's get our model in here and let's start turning on some lights. I'm shooting this with a 16 to 35, but I might switch it over to the 50. Yeah. And so right now, what I have open still is I have my image open in Photoshop with my subject, so my friend that was hiking with me. So I still have this open, and there's something glowing. Flying by her right there. So I'm just gonna look at this and we're just going to take a shot because we're here and we're just gonna see what everything's sitting at. (shutter clicks) This is not intended to be an amazing image at this point. What I'm basically trying to see is I'm trying to see what the light is doing on her face and on her body. Can I pull... Actually, that's not too bad. Can I get you to come forward a little bit? So if we're looking at this. See this little highlight here on her cheek? Right, we can look at that, and we're like, "Hey, that's pretty similar to the highlight "that's on her cheek here." That's not too shabby actually. That worked out quite nicely. So this light here along her shoulder. It's not very strong of course they're massively underexposed right now, so we're gonna change the power of everything, but we have a little bit of light here on her shoulder but it's not too overpowering which is perfect. Right, I like that. We're just gonna have to turn the power up on all the things so that we can get a little bit more light on her. Words are hard today. (chuckles) So of course now we have this light here. I want this one, this arts box here to be my main light. I want that one to be my directional, so as if I was shooting this with lighting on location quote unquote. I'm gonna turn up some power here on some things. Turn some dials. Some people are so specific of exactly how they like things to do. I don't shoot Profoto enough to know exactly what's going on with these, so I'm just gonna turn dials until I get the exposure that I want. Definitely guessing. One, two and three. (shutter clicks) Fwap! Sweet, we're getting a little bit nicer! So I turned both of these up to the same power. What that means is that I'm not gonna have nice light shaping, and I kinda want nice light shaping. I'm probably gonna turn this V-flat here down. Now, can anybody tell me why I'm using V-flats for two of my lights? It's gonna create a large light source. It's gonna create soft shadows. It's gonna amplify. Sorry, it's gonna replicate as close as I can to what's going on in our environment here because we have large soft light everywhere. So we don't have V-flat in that corner. There's not enough room. Of course we're dealing with some limitations here and this space is a little bit more narrow than what I'd generally like to shoot in. I generally like to shoot in spaces where I have lots and lots and lots of room so that I have lots of room to throw light where I need it. We are gonna move this around a little bit. I'm gonna turn down my V-flat. Doo-do-do! Guestimating. That's gonna hit you. If we're looking at this light, this light is actually just a little bit low for what I would like. I'd like it to be a little bit taller cause right now it's gonna, and we can see a little bit here on this image, we have a little bit of shadow under her chin but I like a little bit more, so probably what I'll do is I'll bring the light up a little bit higher and angle it down just to accentuate that because I think it's pretty, and if anybody wants to mathematically define that as to what that really means, go ahead. But I think it's nice. So this little shine of light in the corner here we have just a Profoto hanging out, and it's gonna throw a bunch of light at her and it's giving just enough of a kick that it's gonna highlight her a little bit, but I'm gonna turn it up so I get a tiny bit more power out of it. I'm gonna angle this guy a little bit here, this one here is turned down a lot. Because I don't really want a highlight going onto here on this side of her body because technically if you're dealing with a little bit of directional light, cause even though the sun with all the clouds is a giant soft box, it still has a little bit of direction. I'm just gonna keep this side a little bit lower. And then we'll see how this looks. So if I was shooting this on location, or if the studio was cold, cause sometimes studios can be quite cold, I'd have a sweater on her, but I think you're okay. It's quite warm in here, so one, two, three. (shutter clicks) Still super dark, but I'm starting to get kind of that shaping in the light that I want now. So I'm starting to get a little bit more highlight on this side of her face. Starting to get that shadow underneath her chin. That's very pretty. That's definitely still a little bit too dark. I can make adjustments with this. I can do this in camera even. So I could turn up my ISO a little bit. I could drop my aperture to F10, and see what happens there cause I have my ratio how I want it. My ratio is looking kind of how exactly I want it to look. One, two, three (shutter clicks) Of 10, we're looking better. Let's see. Still a little bit dark. I don't know if that thing's accurately calibrated (laughs) I'm gonna turn it up a little bit more just to make sure. Of course I could edit this in post production. One thing to know, is our monitor is calibrated for our cameras Perfect. So really focus on your monitor is the best, your computer. Alright, sounds good. So I just turned up my main light just a tiny little bit. Let's see what we get here. One, two, three (shutter clicks) Fwap. Nice! Yeah! I like that, that's looking very nice. Alrighty, so that's kind of where I'm sitting at with lighting. I may or may not tweak it a little bit once we get into posing because once the fabric starts going everywhere and stuff like that, it's gonna change a little bit, but I think we're gonna look not too bad. I'm not using gridded lights because I kind of want lights to go everywhere, so if you've seen grids, those little squares that can be on the ends of softboxes, that's for light control. So it's if we don't want lights filling on the background and we want it in very specific areas. Grids are extremely powerful and they're great for light control, but in this case we're recreating and simulating an overcast day. So if I really wanted to, if I was really picky, and I wanted to get that little bit of light on top of her head, we have a white ceiling. You can just take a bare-bulb, stand it up and point it at the ceiling. It'll bounce light down onto the top of their head if that's what you have. That works pretty well. Here we have too much shapes. We'd get shapes all over the floor, so that's not gonna work but we could totally do that if we wanted to. If that's what's in your thing. Right now our highlight is on the opposite side of her cheek right here, so that means in post production, I could flip her, or I could flip my background. Somebody's gonna come along and be like, "That beach line actually isn't that way." You're like, "It's a composite, shut up, stop." (laughs) I'm gonna put birds that weren't there too, so go away.
Class Description
With the right Photoshop know-how and studio shoot experience, you can merge fact and fiction into a reality that lives up to your imagination. Renee Robyn has made a career of turning everyday photos from her travels into eye-catching images. Robyn will teach you how to add people and other elements to your existing landscape photos using ethereal custom effects.
Join us for “Creating Your Reality with Composite Photography” and you’ll learn:
- How to choose or set up a shoot for your background image
- How to direct posing during a shoot, and work with directional light in studio to make your subject fit into the background image
- How to composite your subject into your image using Photoshop
Photo compositing allows you to breathe interesting ideas into your photos. Open your hard drive, walk into your memory, and turn past experiences into fantastic new realities.
Lessons
1Class Introduction 2Why You Should Sketch Your Composite 3What to Look for in Your Background 4Posing Your Model 5Communicate with Your Team 6Elements of Compositing 7Learning from Failure & Criticism 8On-Location Safety Tips 9How to Nail the Right Perspective for Your Composite Photo 10Gauging Light & Exposure On-Location 11On-Location Posing 12Cliff Shoot Location Final Thoughts 13Tips for Culling Images 14Culling Images Q&A 15Preparing Your Image for Composite 16Composite Image Cleanup 17Adding Background Image to Composite 18The Difference Between Flow & Opacity 19Composite Sky Elements 20Using Curves to Color Match 21Adding Atmospheric Depth to Image 22Using Color Efex Pro to Manipulate Color 23Using the Liquify Tool 24Color Theory & Monitor Calibration 25Adding Smoke Layer to Image 26Selective Sharpening 27Crop Your Image 28Goal Setting for Digital Artists 29Review of Location Composite 30Understand Angle & Height for Your Base Plate Image 31Base Plate Focus Point 32Base Plate Lighting Tips 33How to Use a Stand-In for Base Plate Image 34Capture On-Location Base Plate Image 35Student Positioning Demo 36Base Plate Sketching 37On-Location Sky Capture 38What to Look for in a Base Plate Model 39Building Composite Model Lighting 40Composite Model Test Shots for Angle Matching 41Composite Model Shoot: The Art of Fabric Throwing 42Composite Model Shoot: Working with Hair 43Composite Model Shoot: Posing Techniques 44Composite Test with Final Shot 45Lighting Setup Overview 46Culling Model Shoot Images 47Adjusting Skintone Colors 48Merging Background with Model 49How to Mask Hair 50Creating a Layer Mask with the Brush Tool 51Creating Shadow Layers 52Removing Visual Distractions with Stamp Tool 53Replacing Sky with Layer Mask 54Drawing Hair Strands and Atmospheric Depth 55Creating Contrast in Your Composite 56Adding Atmospheric Elements 57Using Particle Shop 58Selective Color Adjustments 59Cropping, Sharpening, & Final Touches 60Closing ThoughtsReviews
Dino Maez
i have to say, the class was AMAZING! in every way from the tricks and technique's of mastering this art form to the personalized attention given by Renee. through the class you are able to learn information that would normally take the average person years of trial and error. Renee gives you the gift of benefitting from her her experiences and what she has learned THE HARD WAY! Renee is an outstanding instructor full of passion for what she does, and with a strong desire to not only improve the art, but more importantly, pay it forward, by sharing her knowledge with others. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the event in person, truly a once in a lifetime experience for me, the staff at creative live were THE BEST! they are helpful in every way and really made this event something special, i can't say enough about the experience i had and would highly recommend that anyone who has the opportunity to go down for a class, it will be an experience that you will never forget. but the best part of creative live is that wether you are there in person or wether you are watching from the comfort of your own home, you are involved in the class in REAL TIME, you have the ear and attention of the skilled artist giving the instruction, being there myself i can tell you that Renee was regularly given questions and comments from the viewers via the creative live staff and she would respond to them as they came, in that way you are very much apart of the class you are never left without getting that personalized attention of an amazing artist or that specific question you have answered, and even better you have the option to purchase the class and have it as a constant resource in your tool kit that you can refer back to at any point that you need a refresher or want to recall that special technique that was demonstrated. thank you thank you to renee and all the staff at creative live you have a life long member in me. and i would recomend that everyone take advantage of this valuable resource dino maez
Sheldon Carvalho
Awesome class. I've been following Renee for a very long time. I love her work and to finally see her work and get an image done from start to finish was quite something.. I love the way she sees things and the way she treats her work and all fellow creative. I would recommend this to everyone interested in getting into composting. Looking forward to creating and making my own art work. But it now :) Have fun creating. :)
Tristan Wilhelm
Very good class. I enjoyed the very friendly, approachable and quirky style Renee teaches with. I did feel, as others have said that she could get off on bunny trails and tell stories and I was glad for Creative Live's option to speed up the video. But great tips and it was extremely helpful watching it how she would do it. Thank you much Renee, and also, I'm a PC user that unites with you.