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Shoot: Beer Bottle Star Flare

Lesson 21 from: How to Be a Commercial Photographer

Rob Grimm, Gary Martin, Aaron Nace

Shoot: Beer Bottle Star Flare

Lesson 21 from: How to Be a Commercial Photographer

Rob Grimm, Gary Martin, Aaron Nace

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Lesson Info

21. Shoot: Beer Bottle Star Flare

Lesson Info

Shoot: Beer Bottle Star Flare

All right so what we're going to do now we've got a black background and I want to get some more interested in actually want to have some light kind of bursting through it hey gary I'm actually gonna need you to be on this side and I was just setting up okay stool but don't you need it to stand on do you want to come in from the back from this um I want you to cut it from the back but I think you're just gonna mark a couple I don't know if you can reach high enough that's cool so um go over to your left a little bit right there that could be number one and uh we want to make some more random ones around how big are you going? What just second don't go too big I mean start pretty small like we don't have it clamped up there it's gonna be what the edges of these razor blades are rounded and they're not pointed so it's kind of hard for me to make did it start now let me have some scissors it's like a rounded razor blade it's kind of weird what's with these safety blades man it's way need ...

sharp dangerous objects and photo studio who's giving us the safety blades so like right here let me look again uh further to your left a little bit okay right there there you go. Okay how many do you want? One right now yeah, you know what a few, uh without question you see what that looks like first we can't let me look at the angle on the perez pretty low this parents gonna have to go very high and come down so what I'm doing now is I'm cutting holes in the background I want to get light to just kind of come through that background and hopefully it's going to create some or interesting highlights so again we're going to get into angle of incidence equals angle of reflections but what is really important is I get that to start to shoot uh you're gonna have to go a little higher but you're gonna have to tip that thing down first thing that para eighty eight you're gonna have to tip it down a few degrees so I want to see if I can get that light to shine straight through they wrote too much I had to go back up right there. I'm gonna try it with the pair of eighty eight I know a bare bulb was going to get it for me, but that light is pretty beautiful so I'm going to see if it's gonna work for me I can't go any higher there probably are uh yeah there's one in the corner yeah, I can see that that's that might be nice art directors often help out too which is awesome I put him to work as much as possible one photo shop again I wonder if it's a waiting game oh that's not that's not doing it I hate to say I think we're gonna have to go bearable bowlby yeah that's just lighting it up that's not what we want at all so that light is softening it too much we're gonna go with bare bulbs we can just get stray light we actually want stray light to come screaming into this thing questions from bank biffle do storyboards at all yeah yeah very often we do with this one we don't have layouts for we just discussed it before before we did it but we very often have layouts that we would go off like we showed yesterday with diablo way had the layout completely ready todo and we executed according to that layout so I wish I wish I would have brought the what the original layout looked like compared to what it turned out like I mean it looks made because I mean I just pee stuff together again from things I found on google like out on turned out great help you know I got it hey, are you gonna kill that a good just leave it up I'm gonna kill it okay ron was that marco we saw like what was it called the kabo stuff yesterday was that from him or was it the way we didn't get to see it? Well that was the fight wasn't you showed on the final he said it had to come so you have the mark oh yeah, it was terrible. He showed him side by side it was terrible looking we had to convince we had to convince the client to go with the photo shoot at one point she thought that look great were like are you crazy? Theo end one was awesome. Yeah, the final product what? That look great. I mean, we use that shot for a lot of stuff like this maybe, you know, will be used for an ad but like for that kabo stuff we do like we do their social media I mean, digital we do everything from them so that shot was used everywhere everywhere it made the rounds, you've got a question bring on do you have the mock up for the shoot? Wait just kind of created this way didn't we didn't do any storyboarding for it? I do like what it's doing all kind of happy with it way to hold might be too big what? Uh it might be and it might be too far back what's what what's my ass thirteen wearily at three were it seven in this pack man can't even is my light on a second if you have the money so we're definitely not the right angle I don't I don't see it the train now I just move the parent might even though the para wasn't ana might even affect the hole's too small no, I think we're not get we're not getting enough of it to come through this just not enough straight right so hang on I want you to go ahead and fire for me yeah yeah yeah I said it's going one I'm gonna bring the bull dead straight in there try that oh shoot I looked right into its thing it ah it's even less okay that oh my god I'm so blind right now nothing okay, yeah I'm uh starting it's not flaring okay, we'll hang how about I try that room? Nothing. Okay I went out I have done this before with great success so I will do it again with great success alright go gary I wanted for too far back and if we have too much of enough I'm serious go just do something for me go to like five six blow the heck out of this thing wait do me a favor get on that and we're gonna slide this way and then in there anything uh not so much and now we're at the very top left corner of course because we want to make another hole yeah, sure you do that actually let me do it from the back side I want to see if we can because I'm telling the opposite direction so what kind of light are we looking for in the shot once this's this happens to be another roca star with a book and a little flare coming out of it like I said I have done this before with some pretty great success so I'm hoping I'm gonna be able to repeat this on your portfolio this morning so way believe it's not in there yet though way got to get it in the portfolio so I'm just trying to cut some little slices in here they're gonna give me what I want very good go a little bit more to your left rob all right yeah yeah all right ask questions guys there's something I have a request from tony roslyn who wants to know what's going on in your head mine yes you me specifically tony was actually in our audience yesterday that's the tony oh it's you is it what's up tony what's up tony how you doing? Uh I mean I mean I know what it's going to look like and I have confidence in rock so I mean he's not freaked out yeah yeah hell is this kind of thing? These things were all day I mean, all we're trying to do this really quickly we're trying todo like an all day event usually well, it's funny because it's you know, he told us at the beginning of this workshop that had so much to do with patients and that's not an easy thing to teach online on air or electric trains record our director like a lot of times I wouldn't be here for this much of it just because it's I mean, I'm not a photographer, so it can be very boring for me a lot of saira a lot of times I'll be either working on other stuff potentially too, so I'm not just standing here looking over the shoulder, coming with your laptop just be here even work, but you'd stay here all day uh, yeah, probably so it wasn't getting me out of my office so pretty common in every photo studio, especially ours, we have areas that are big work stations for clients because we have so many people that come in, um that they have to continue doing other work so they will be sitting in the corner doing work, having conference calls and then we bring them over when we've gotten teo that's me just this good skill it's very common to just come and work and not really be as engaged the whole time, but you don't mean multiple people coming in for one shot you mean for each shoot there's always the client or somebody lady that comes in there's multiple people from like a fusion that will come in like I might show up on my account personally show up then she and four five clients on a sad easy without question easy gary I'm gonna hand hold it a little bit and see if we can find a happy place and start to get there ok ok so try that there you got it all right you got it in the very bottom tio you're left ok that's probably we're gonna have to move it a few times in order to get them um but good we're starting out I told you I was gonna do it people who is doubting me anybody uh yes good carrie raises harry you will have no proof that I ever did that carey martin oh yeah wait what are you talking about? It's all getting sting grill on sarcasm sting ray let's go creative while I was thinking they don't buddy you can't just create a life I just did oh look how pretty that one woz that was all you so now I gotta get back to boston damn it all right powerful enough that if you get too close to paper you could start a fire no, but I do have lights that do that they're called ask course and they're amazing this is a really little I'm gonna give you a little bit of photo history here I bought these ask or lights a few years ago off of another photographer who is retiring and it's a serious of old lights that you can piggyback the power packs want on to the next and they have these flash tubes that you couldn't blow out they were designed by an m I t they were designed by an m I t professor it during world war two and we would actually put them in our bomber planes and fly over enemy territory with the flash tube and a bunch of these ask or packs and eleven by fourteen camera and flash the ground at night so we could see you take a picture and see where enemies where which is pretty amazing they are so powerful they have an incredible flash duration which is why I still use them everyone so well you know I don't need them because of brown color everyone so I'll play with him they can light a newspaper on fire if you go on to um the interwebs and if you google um ask oars lighting newspaper we'll see a guy holding like with giant tongs I said you know some newspaper up in front of light and it flashes and the paper just goes from its crazy um but uh most of time no it won't ignite the paper in that case it will so carry now I gotta find my spot again so let's go ahead and try it no. Again, again. So blinding it's hot. Like your anything? Nope. Oh, dude, you you got to tell me if you get a flat. Let me tell you what, I'm gonna go. There you go. There you go. All right, I got it. That's got the middle one of the ones in the middle. Okay, so now I want a little bit of gaff tape because I'm gonna tape that right in the center of that c stand. So I know right where that wass because I'm gonna wind up moving this around that's kind of cool. So what's gonna happen each and every one of those guys we're not going to get them all the light up at once because we're getting that stray light coming directly through that guy right into the lens. So I'm gonna have to go through and I'm gonna have to manipulate that light in the back and just move it a little bit in order to get those others to light up. So it's gonna be a game of moving, getting it right and multiplying this after we get several of those captures in postproduction. But in order for me to be efficient and proficient in doing this, I'm gonna just take a little bit of tape making acts and I'm gonna put it right at the bottom of that c stand so I know where I started and again I wanna have measurements I want tohave memory I want to know where I started so it's not just a total guessing game the whole time that's going to be cool alright anybody feeling groovy about this now good we're gonna add one light that way we got another light handy thank you, sir. So I want to get a little bit more light to kick in on the bottles and I'm going to do that back on this side I really don't think I need this you see you got another one, grandma you know what if they're pax we don't have tubes in them yet let's go ahead. We'll just throw the bar light out there right now. Um and see if that gives us anything in anything interesting anyway probably not the lighter one we'll give it a whirl and see what happens. Okay, you wantto grab that hack bringing over actually let's put it over there. What do you thinking right now? What I'm thinking right now is I'm gonna add another light on the backside of the diffusion in order to get some more like coming into the front of the bud light bud light bottles s o I'm gonna add the strip light I actually would prefer to have another one of our peace seventy has but I know they're still packed up a little bit so we're gonna try this and see if it gives me something that someone decent if it doesn't, we'll switch heads at our break because you guys don't want to really watch us unpack one of those things all right too hot let's take a stop out of that take twelve hands out so stop one's not bad all right, we're starting to get some life on that pat thoughts that's too hot still you lost your you really lost your highland you're really bright highlight that beard that you're a christian god because of beer so because we change the position of yeah that's right sorry man, I can get it back I could probably get in a different way pop it again for me so what I'm thinking is right now that the bottle on the right is reflecting a lot more than the bottle on the left so uh I want to try to even them up just a little bit so I'm gonna do that by moving my light again please carry so I opened the barn door is a little bit and that looks better with platinum label on the left bottomless partially in shadow um no, I'm not too terribly concerned about that I want to get a little bit more even in some ways it helped out has a weird line in some ways that it does help give shape, but I definitely want that platinum to come out more gary go back two frames for me if you could three frames another one another one bo was to break all right so I just wanted to point out rob caribou head said wouldn't it be easier to create the flares and post and we just talked yesterday about how you like to do everything again you can't freedom in post that's not nearly as fun look how cool that is and here's here's another thing that you really got to think about um yesterday I said I tried to do everything in camera yet with her beaky we still wind up with six images that we're going to blend together the more you ask the client to extrapolate and trust you in the post process, the less confidence they have in you if I keep telling pat we'll fix it in post will fix it in post will fix it in post he's gonna wonder what the hell I do for a living why have I hired rob if everything is done in post not only pat but the ultimate client, the brand managers and the people who aren't really in the creative business it's much harder for those people to extrapolate down the road that's the last thing I want to do I don't want to take somebody who really knows their brand and is, you know, my client, but doesn't really understand the creative process and how these things are made. I don't want to, you know, say to them, okay, we're going to give you fourteen different pieces, and we're going to do it all on post. And even though you can't see this, it all, we're going to do it in post its asking way too much, and their confidence level goes. Write down the tank. So I think it's really important to start, to do as much of the stuff as you can, and look how cool that looks. I mean, I think that's awesome. Bottom line.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Example_Production_Book-RGG_Photo.pdf
Photo_Assistant_Guide-RGG_PHOTO.pdf

Free Bonus Materials

Digital Swag Bag.pdf
Day 1 Presentation Slides.pdf
Day 2 Presentation Slides.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

Totoo
 

I have gratefully been watching this tutorial for free online, and as always CreativeLIVE has done an awesome job in bringing one of the best instructors of the trade and his creative team to help us improve and enjoy a higher level of understanding and performance in the skills we would like to achieve. I am humbled as always and ever so grateful. I would love to purchase the course myself, but since I live abroad, it is practically impossible, I hope those who can, would. I would just like to add one of the most interesting things I have learnt from this course is the careful attention these guys are paying to minute details and the amount of patience it takes to achieve their goals in each project. Stay inspiring, Totoo in China

Ivan
 

Outstanding course! I'm a former creative director, now photographer full time and have had the unique experience working with studio photographers for commercial products in the past. This course is right on and very close to my experiences, and now that I'm behind the camera, it's nice to see some of those trade secrets revealed. Commercial work is fussy and you often have to sweat the details, but the results can be astonishing and rewarding. Rob and Gary do an excellent job explaining the ins and outs, without any pretention or hold-back on secrets. Something that's always annoyed me in the past, photographers never liked revealing their process. It's great fun watching Rob and Gary work a shoot, and Aaron Nace is beyond amazing in his retouching skills. I don't expect to break into this field, but I wanted to learn how things are done, for my own personal projects. I particularly enjoyed learning how they get the look of ice, ice crystals, and frost on the sides of glass bottles. I purchased several items from Trengrove, as they suggested. Their acrylic products are not cheap, but the quality is amazing and I'm very pleased and looking forward to experimenting. Thanks to all at Creative Live, RGG studios and Aaron Nace for this presentation.

Doors of Imagination Photography
 

This course is outstanding. I would consider it an advanced level. Having a good understanding of the technical aspects of photography and lighting is recommended. Rob Grimm takes you into two real product shoots. These were not canned demonstrations, but the real thing including working to get the lighting setup just right. The postproduction section with Aaron Nace was enlightening. This does require a good preliminary understanding of Photoshop. It was amazing to watch them build the final images for the client in real time. This is by far my favorite course to date.

Student Work

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