Lessons
Day 1
1Experimenting with Weird Light
1:21:31 2Experimenting with Seamless
1:05:53 3Experimenting with Foreground Elements
38:34 4Experimenting with In-Camera Color
50:43 5Lighting Diagram for Previous Exercise
25:42 6Image Critique
55:15Day 2
Lesson Info
Experimenting with Even More Props
a lot of times when I'm on a shoot and I just got a shot, something else will happen. That my Ooh, that's cool, too. So let's let's do this shot as well. So after we finished the break, uh, after we finished its last shot, I saw Emily over here. And let's get a shot of Emily real quick. She looks amazing in this outfit. How cool would that look in what we just did with the civil paper? So I'm gonna get Emily because of her. Reflective. I just want to get that shot from me and for you to see one more shot on our crash disco ball and conceptual. I'm also gonna change it up a little bit, and that will be really quick. And then we'll move on to some composition stuff. I just thought this would be quick Tip. Never put your water next to the computer because it will spill on your computer and you'll be very mad at yourself. Um, yeah. And labeled. So, Emily, won't you come on over? So we're gonna hold the, uh, the the disco ball up one more time. And so here's what we're gonna dio a little mo...
re interesting when I said earlier that it looks like a crash disco ball. I want to go with that concept. So you were actually going to kind of turn profile, turn your body that way? Yeah. And then you're gonna fake it where you look, We want the shot to look like I am appear shooting straight down and you're laying on this disco ball. Does that make sense? And so basically, you have to kind of fake it like you're just kind of laying there. Maybe with your arm up, like, over your head like this. Or maybe like that arm right here. And it looks like you just, like, landed on this thing. Your eyes were closed and and use your right your left hand cause I love this green ring so you cannot leave that up. Maybe on your neck. But we want to you to look beautifully, crashed. So let's let's try the your gun, Raise it up. And the more wrinkly that's time, the better, the more chaotic It looks better, and it doesn't have to come over her. It just Sesto. Yeah, together death, John have suggested to use our little clamps to pinch the paper to give it mawr. More of a crashed kind of feeling. Um, pinches and clamps and crashing. That's today's lesson. Um, that's cool. In fact, you might want to just take the whole thing, squish it all together real quick, get all those things nice and wrinkled up, and then pull it back apart. Um, yeah. There we go. It's better. That definitely looks like a trash disco ball, doesn't it? Like this corners this middle part up here. Yeah. Um, so let's see if we can make you look like you just landed on this thing. Are you ready? It's a turn. Your whole body towards that wall. There you go on. Bring that up right against her head. And then bring your cheat your side and more and you skip over this way. Yeah, already. And go ahead, put your right arm up like I talked about Emily. Yep. And extend your hand back behind your head so I can see your fingers. Um, actually, that's pretty cool right there. And then lane into it just a little bit. Yeah, on a raid. It's a little bit. Um, yeah, I'm digging that very cool All right, Let's give it a shot. I was closed. And keep your arm. It's more parallel to the back wall like that. There you go. Many of us. One hair sticking up here, trying to hide. It. Meant to get my Let me get worse. Give John here makeup credits. Now, I think that's better. I don't see it now as much. Jeremy, do you just Yes. Do you just have all this equipment normally, or do you rent what you need depending on your set up? Um, I mean, I have my own ring light. I only own a couple lights on. I use those two a lot back later today, you'll see me shoot a lot with very little equipment again. I mean, right now we're in you only using one light. But I have some equipment, and I still written a lot, too. Every shoot is different. There's different amounts of gear required. Um, all right, so that's nice. Let's just try that. This is beautiful. A All right. Yeah, I dig it. Um, See, it sounds weird to say, dig my own work, but you don't know what I'm saying. Like, uh, we're achieving what we're going for, which is always an exciting thing. To be able to pull off your vision, turn your body even more profile. Like I think you're kind of leaned out towards me a little bit. Keep everything. Yeah, exactly. And then give me the same post with your arms Black. And you're black. Hair looks amazing. Beautiful shot. Um, And this time, extend your elbow up more more for And that's your hand on the side ahead. More. Actually, that's gonna cool. Let's try that. Yeah, very, very cool on. Here we go. I love the way the hair looks. Jet black hair with the show. Yeah, really nice. Although it kind of looks like you're smelling your arm thing. Uh, What's that? Yeah, um I said drop your drop your elbow a little more than some soon knows isn't right on it. And then cheat your face a little bit towards camera Last one. This week, I like your your left hand kind upon your almost your neck with your fingers rule Delicate. Yeah. Yeah, that worked. Sweet. Yeah, that's right. Like all the reflections that start happening on the skin itself. Um, so you guys get the point. Get the idea. That's a really, really nice image. Um, thank you. Good job. Half of all that. Good stuff. Um, wanna crop in on this a little bit. I don't like all that extra space of here. It's my a little bit. It's almost is like that image and heat photo. That was the creativelive promo shot in a similar bizarre kind of way. Um, any questions from my classroom or the Internet? Not so much. There are questions for sure way. We're just monitoring the Twitter. Okay, Fire. Fire away. Question from earlier from Judea. J was, uh how do you go about finding good assistance, Especially when travelling? I mean, a lot of times, you know, for me assistance or more about like, oh, Twitter actually really comes in handy. Sometimes when photographers don't know why they would ever use Twitter. I tell them that a lot of times I'll say, here I have a shoot. And, um, you know, Kansas does anybody in Kansas? He is pro photo equipment. And, like immediately, I'll have people pop up. And I don't know that I've ever had an experience where assistance weren't capable of doing what? I need it done. I mean, as long as people know gear, they knew how to use the lights. I'm pretty laid back when it comes to that. Um, I did have an assistant lose an entire day of images on those images were very, very a list high end celebrities. So that was probably the second time I've been angry. I was telling, telling Alan yesterday, nothing really bothers me. I don't get mad. I don't. This is me on a big photo shoot. I'm pretty even kill. But, um, if an assistant loses an entire entire day of images of celebrities, then I get angry. Or when I win my shoot in. Ah, Santa Fe fell through, and I could have been in Hawaii sheeting loss. That was mad that day. But but in general, I'm pretty pretty chill, by the way. Just change the white balance on the Simmons, and I absolutely love the shot. Um, this is Ah, yes, sir. We talked about how I have kind of a bar in my head that unless image is hit that bar, they'll never be in my portfolio. And this is the type of shot that is that I think is close to that bar. If I want a real photo shoot, I might even flesh that I little bit more. But I'm very, very pleased. This is probably my personal favorite from the workshop thus far. Um so Well done, Emily. Jeremy, Judy J. Would let you know if you're gonna post these photos on your block. Yeah, I'll try to get all these up. Um, on the blogged was gonna be that last night, but I was a little bit tired last night, so yeah, we'll work on that. Okay. Well, thanks. I have a question, um, from Puneet in the chat room that I've been wondering myself. And that's, um have you talked about how you created the image that's on the creativelive page that's been used for promoting this course? Um, it's a good question. I'm glad they asked, but it it it is by far the most experimental thing I've ever done. And there is just not enough time today to get into that. Uh, In fact, I've thought about doing a DVD just on that process, because it's so It's so, um, interesting and bizarre. Very bizarre. Um, So they follow me on Twitter. I'll definitely I think early 2011. I'm going to explore the idea of how the teach that process So cool a teaser. Awesome. Cool. Um, but that is I think that honestly is my favorite image of I've created. And, uh, as I was saying yesterday, that may be the most time I've put into creating something. And Momo's one of my favorite process. I've kind of created so more on that later. Can I just ask you what? That back to back drop was called? The background is called, Um what is that paper called Muller? Is that right? Everyone wants to know they can go and do that Back came in a couple of couples, okay? And can't hear John. So John saying they might be able to hear on. It would be awkward if if we wait Good. Um, so mile are we just went into the store yesterday and start looking reflective paper. That was one of the options they had. So, you know, I've never worked with before, but obviously I'm a big fan of it.
Ratings and Reviews
Lisa Carney
This guy is FANTASTIC. Creative and thinks outside the box. Totally had me rethink my shooting style. LOVE LOVE
a Creativelive Student
I almost didn't watch this one. It was a little slow at first, but once JC get's going it's a fun ride. He transitions from using $2k strobes, to using just a few dollars for lighting. This course opens a lot of doors and shows that it's ok to go against the grain and to think outside the box. Lots of good ideas to see in this one!
Mike Taylor
Experimental portraiture is just that. Experimental. However, I don't feel that JC was properly prepared. Shooting a single person with a 2400ws pack is simply overkill, considering that he wanted to be shooting wide open. A fairly simple solution would have been to use a few sheets of Lee ND filter over the light head. I do suppose this was typical of any shoot. Especially a shoot that I'm doing.
Student Work
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