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Shoot: Building the Ambient (Isabel)

Lesson 39 from: Lighting Essentials Workshop

Don Giannatti

Shoot: Building the Ambient (Isabel)

Lesson 39 from: Lighting Essentials Workshop

Don Giannatti

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Lesson Info

39. Shoot: Building the Ambient (Isabel)

Lesson Info

Shoot: Building the Ambient (Isabel)

we're going to do something kind of fun for this segment and I'm going to do two photographs I'm not going to rush them I know it that in the past we've really been doing some things kind of fast we're gonna take our time and make something special I have just now saying isabelle and what she's gonna wear because I wanted to do this more like an improv didn't know what she was gonna wear hadn't seen it so I've seen it that's beautiful gives me something to think about what I'm going to dio before I do that can I say something a little bit about creative life um creative live is what I call a disrupter it's changed things creative live has become something beyond what it started to be and it's now a real place for education and I know that was the plan at the beginning and I know how things go slow at the beginning but right now if you purchased zacarias is two workshops and you per purchased bambi control imposing and sue bryce the this is the sunday of soup rice is workshop wasn't gol...

d it was platinum covered gold it's worth so much you're still less than one credit hour at some accredited university and you'll know maura about this business than you ever thought you know I mean that's a lot of learning that comes from creative live you guys do these things free on the internet it's fantastic that you do it so many people get so much information out of it but in zac's workshops and bambi's and suze and probably david nightingale a couple more on if your wedding shooters I'm sure that the jasmine star folks and those they give you something you can't get in the old days some backing today okay how we did it we got a job as an assistant and we would bust our butts twelve fourteen eighteen hours of days being assistance and we'd learnt it those days are for practical purposes gone it's very hard to get an assistant ship on my right is that that way I mean in phoenix we probably I would bottle imagine we had a thirty forty photographers with at least one full time assistant we don't have many at all now with full time assistance first of all our darkroom work is gone so we don't have a guy working in the darkroom or gal working that are coming all the time it's changed you can't find that ria world experience any more but you can't find it that create why you get to sit in and listen to zack and to jodi and to jasmine doing the kind of stuff that you can't get access to it if you think going to a university or ah private school somewhere I'm not going to mention any names I'm not even going to hint at any that charge you one hundred thousand dollars you come out you know what you still have to do he's still gonna buy zac's course still gotta buy jodi's course because he didn't learn that stuff there you just didn't you've spent a whole lot of money to learn what you don't know start here this is the new way of education creative life is going to change it up and I imagine they'll be imitators and all kinds of folks coming along that's what it happens when you're upfront but the best is the best I have really been a fan of creative life since the beginning I'm a graphic designer so I was jumping on graphic design ones as well I absolutely love it and I really really do recommend that you find three or four it's an investment if you tell me your photographer and you tell me you can't afford to invest and how one of these thes when you get him all what are they about at eighteen hours of for a three day workshop like yours ours for for one hundred fifty dollars or ninety nine if you buy or ninety nine if you buy a wall while it's going on but that's that's ten dollars an hour come on really folks way spend ten dollars an hour on lotte tickets which we didn't win from lady elsewhere one anyway thank you uh it's a it's an honor and a pleasure to be here but what's even more special is that you guys kind of tie in with my whole idea of education that's to change it up and make it really instead of pie in the sky kind of stuff okay so that's my that's my way of saying thank you guys too you okay all right we have isabel over here and one of the uh deciding factors or one of the prominent factors in I should say in commercial photography is too to be able to control your ambien and some of the great for tyrus that I'm talking about that do it so well would be someone like andrew heatherington uh on the shoutout to handler if he's watching dan winters of one of my favorite photographers and these these guys can control the ambience so well to create a world that looks either very open or very mysterious what have you but it all comes down to doing something with control so what we're gonna do is we're gonna build an ambient with soft box and then we're going to use a a grid spot just to give us a little bit more dimension and this becomes where we way become very deliberate like I always like to say we become very deliberate in our work so I'm gonna walk you through the process I'm going to be talking I'm gonna be thinking out loud so if I skip over words and kind of sound like a big dufus that's because I'm a big doofus all right so we're down with that okay over here uh I'm thinking about my set and what I'd like to do uh john can we bring that unit from the wall to about where you are and somehow standing up from the back so it's separated from the wall let's bring it out to hear what I'm thinking in my head is I want to see some dimension me that that thing's right flat against the wall and as I look at isabelle's address let's bring you out here isabelle this is my niece isabel and I haven't gotten a chance to photograph her in so long so I'm gonna take this opportunity make a really cool photograph of isabelle yes so let's bring far enough out that we put a light behind it yeah yes okay that should do it and isabelle I'm gonna have you go ahead and sit over here for now because what we will do you standing up ok we'll shoot you standing up it's just have you sit there for a second while we we talk through this or we may have you sitting that looks very cool to um we're gonna build some ambien into it now the first thing that I want to do just like if I'm on location somewhere on a on a natural light set I need to find my ambien it's really important for me to know what that's going to be this big soft box is going to be my ambient light it's gonna provide a base let me explain and then as I go through it will explain it again I don't want my shadows to go less than where I'm setting my ambien okay right now if we did a shot of isabelle with the grid spot only the entire ambience scene would go very very dark fact john let's go ahead and show them how what that would look let's just walk through it point by point if you want to set your work off from the competition this is one way of doing it most photographers don't set an ambient point they just start to shoot and they're there if you ever put your work up and you think that's so close to what I wanted but it's just not there it's too harsh that's what we're going to try to eliminate here okay and john let's just bring it forward a little bit mohr and out right about here from her because this is just going to be our r and b a to world here yeah together across her there yep and I'm going to set this ambient point to uh let's set it to like uh five point six maybe I do not have my meters over yonder but before we do that I want to show the shot that we're going to do it want to show you what happens when we don't bring in the ambien okay it's going to swing this grid spot around on isabel and well hadn't turned that went off john that uh that was going to swing it out yeah we're swing it passed me over here way have grid spot here on his bill and by the way you missed it those of you who are were weren't watching during lunch I actually brought my camera down off the shelf because it wrapped her on my leg I knew I would do it yes mission accomplished booky all right we were so happy to get rid of sing chords yes and now the tightest back down again yep we are tethered again all right ready five six and a half five six and a half okay so fight said my camera here on him we go six point three and come in for the shot isabel on there we go shot is kind of harsh not the kind of shot that I would liketo have you can see it right over here it's very harsh is very dramatic because it's a grid spot everything's falling off what we want to do is to create something a little bit mohr or attractive I want mohr drama in the photograph okay so I'm gonna set my ambien first swing swing this out of the way let's set the ambient up to back again in here swinging right about there okay and john let's get a reading off that ready five six and a half five six and a half okay I'm not going to shoot this at five six and a half I'm going to shoot this at eight and a half or nine maybe ten I'll shoot it a temp and wei don't have half stops here and what's gonna happen of course is the meter said five six and half but I'm going to shoot her too ten thiss picture is going to be a little bit underexposed now we haven't underexposed photograph but what I've done with this underexposed photograph is I set my shadow detail now that's two stops under I might go one mohr to to bring it down another might go all the way to eleven I'm setting my shadow point so that's on ly khun b on ly bia's deep as I want it to be all right I'm gonna actually go to eleven that's right there yeah so a nice deep shadows are set this grid spot that we're going to bring in we're going to bring it in and just like her face and we're probably gonna have to flag it off because earlier we saw that the grid spot really wiped across the background and we don't want that now the grid spot john is what right on her face it was five six and a half but I just bumped it up a stop so eleven and a half eleven and a half can we take it back a stop and move it even tighter to isabel all right actually yeah let's try that reading there ok so that's eight point eight ok I'm shooting at eleven right we'll bring it in just a little bit tighter to her right there's probably too much now back it up just a little bit all right right there so come in and now I have a shot that has my grid spot look to it but look at my other areas on the photograph they didn't go too deep I managed where they are by using my ambient light so now what we do have a grid spot look but we have a nice instead of it falling off so fast here it falls off to where I want it to fall off too I'm controlling that we got a little bit of bleed off that grid spot well I'm not sure we're gonna be oh it's pointing more at her forehead right on your forehead and let's bring it down just a tad yeah a little bit yeah yeah good good swing this up forward of her just a little bit more it's nice all right izzy way go come right up underneath this beautiful that's nice okay now you can kind of see the whole shot how is it starting to come together now I got the light on her face the way I want it I've got light coming down across her face and nice smooth shout notice that that does not go black can't go black because I'm using ambient light to keep it up to where I want it to be my background starting to look a little bit boring so let's take the loom a pro put it on a stand right here and do we have any paper towels in the house and and are they bounty got a napkin right here by the way they took me to a great place for for dinner last night down on the waterfront where I had a salmon sandwich salmon burger and you'll never guess what they put on the salmon burger all right yeah that's the way we're going to put that right back behind her so it's probably where yeah with crossbar on we're going to actually add a little bit of a spray light to the back of her using a couple of a shower of shower curtains couple of paper towels here of unknown origin and the reason I would put a paper towel wanna can I have that real quick while you guys were setting up the flash is that the flash head itself is square and so haiti video guys going um it's square so it creates a square light I don't want to square light so I'm going to defuse it by putting a piece of paper towel taped and out just a little bit of place where it actually diffuses the light because all I want to do is right behind isabelle right here to feature her right here I want to put a little bit of a glow in the reeds the way I'm gonna do that has put this very very close to the wall sir I choke off the light it's not going to hit the wall and spread we're gonna control the spread of the light with that that paper towel alright good john with gaffer's tape and make it kind of loop out john when you do yeah one or two layers uh one try one now we'll try one layer first and that you know depending on whether it's wells really absorb in paper towels where you can clean the cars with it we'll see it's a shoot through paper towel that's right and before anyone asks no I do not know the color balance of the paper towel I'm I'm sure there is one but I'm not sure what it would be let's take it uh firing looked like it might work let's see what we've got what power is it on john eighth yet probably a little too bright that's nice is bill beautiful yeah just a little bit too bright but not too much check it out before we before we move it check it out see that's just a little bit to brush take it down to a sixteenth and we may have it wow that was fast that was easy shots started take take take hold here isn't it look that way by the way I really love doing this I really love doing this this is the kind of stuff that is fun for may making photographs all right good took it down stop on the back there we go not enough to look like it's flash lit just enoughto look like isabelle is coming off the background see that yeah we could do that in photo shop why wait just put it here I love that okay now this is one of his challenge for you guys okay I need to get that thing standing straight up it's kind of tilting away from her and I want to put a pro photo light behind it okay up against the wall because what I want to do is I want to shoot this picture for their way from here and I want that panel to have a glow behind it it's out of my shot just a little bit hey look I took a picture nothing yeah I want that to show and I got another challenge for you guys way have to do something with those lights stand light stands there yes so I'm what the background panel to to float so I'm going to create another dimension to the shot he said was saying we have isabelle up front then we have that little spray of light then we have the panel and then we're going to spray some light from behind that panel as well so another dimension in the photograph is about we probably will leave you sitting I love off that there's something is that a tag on the bottom of your oh it's the white chair woo let's ditch the chair is there I think there's opposing stool in that room there can we get into that room yes it's open I think there's opposing stool in that room that might work when you could oh or that will work how about same size so she's not we need we need two of those were going to put the light on one two oh when she has the white posing stool yeah yeah yeah okay well we could cover it way could actually cover it I may not even be in the shot we can you know we can actually cover it with the dress yes that'll work even better even better thank you yes a problem that the ambience is coming from the side instead of on access no not at all no actually I wanted to come from this side because you notice what we're doing I want her to be looked like to look like she has a nice soft ambient light from the side way are at at the next junction going to bring in a large white card to this side to see if I can open that shadow up but I want it from the side I don't want the sami to come from access because then I have to basically on access lights I'm kind of opposing them now if you see one from one side one from the other that's what gives a shot to drop another question from judy bee photography when you were learning your craft did you do this on the job with your clients um play well most of my clients are probably passed on to the other side by now yes yes in any photographer who tells you different it's really not thinking it through yes we play all the time remember it's just like jazz though right you're not you're you're you're playing to try to create things every job I've ever been on half of it is set and the other half is hey what if we hey let's try yes absolutely absolutely as long as you don't go too far down the river where you know getting back is gonna be a problem and you test as you go so so far everything's working so I know it's going to be it's going to be fun okay good good good let's pull this cord that's in front back right behind her way up front so I don't see it the backcourt probably can't be helped right thank you and what's that last bet back light on there feting wise good it's nice isabelle thank you is that full power back there which the back one no it's it's split from the beauty dish that's the same powers of beauty dish okay you need more um hack on it let's let's um I don't know if I need mohr I think I need less what if we had just a bare boat now I could put it into it yeah let's stick it into a reflector and paying the reflector right at the wall right now as you can see it's kind of spread out behind her I don't have a sense of dimension what I want that light to do is to come out like round okay around her that behind her okay she's that centered let's talk about influences I'll show you how I'm influenced if you go to dan winters site there's a photograph on dan winters site of an actress I don't I can't remember her name but she's standing in front of a painted background and you can see the studio behind the painted background when I set that up there that picture flashed in my mind and my copying it no by no means of my copying it did it influence my ideas yes I thought that's kind of a cool shot I've got this kind of cool background let me see what I can do okay and we don't have a famous actress yet not yet but um we have our subject and are kind of cool background here and that looks pretty vertical guys could we be in the shot yeah right there hold on like this it's creepy beyond words way alright shadows with that yeah yeah and you got that right at the wall is about a foot from the world okay all right let me um we do a popular quick here let me get out of the way all right that's going to see what that side looks like back it off the wall about six inches try that okay the light is working for me it's too high it's got to come down to her shoulder with their see if that works okay that's kind of what I want that's kind of what I want yes that cord that's coming out the right side there let's bring it right up into the shadow line brat if it goes right in the shadow line we might not be able to see it uh we'll bring it right around then it won't catch the top of that and you know what john yeah you may be right can we can we grab another pack yeah let's just bump that up it's just a little bit too weak back there while they're doing that questions any questions from you guys so question from shasta is do you build the light the light set up one by one until you realize what you want no I know what I want but I still build it up when my one yes I know what I want I visualized this shot when I sat down just before we did the opening because isabel came out in that plaid and I thought that I knew I was going to use this background I didn't know how I was going to use it so she came in the plant for some reason that other shot I was just telling you about kind of kicks into my brain and I think okay I got my idea now so we're getting there but I always build one light at a time one now I probably in my studio probably would have started with the back light what we're working on now first what way didn't so I have no excuse for that other than we didn't a couple people are wondering how much time does it usually take you to set up a shot how many shots do you get out of the chute with the model uh two questions okay how long does it take me to set up a shot anywhere from last night when I shot a couple of shots of we were out walking around probably maybe thirty seconds all the way to several hours the more complex the shot and it's fun to do the long shots you know to do the bigger shots this is fun for me this is kind of like disneyland in a way it's a fun thing to do and I'll take my time doing it ok way alright let's try another one here and then we've got a little bit of adjusting to do up here and I think we'll be ready to go here that's nice they didn't fire uh just press the test but I'm all right un receive it's on seventeen let's try slave tried again now looking at it bump it up one more we gotta wait that's what I want now we have the dimension that I want yes um john can you put this on a tripod and level it for me while I'm kind of walking folks through this thank you I'm gonna put this on a tripod because I want you to see how critical a small mistake by the photographer is I'm looking through it I'm thinking oh that looks good as I pushed the camera move a little bit and it's kind of crooked is this acceptable it's not acceptable photograph she's kind of floating off sideways it's only acceptable if it's perfect that's not perfect by any I've got my life the way I want it I've got my my subject the way I want her she looks beautiful I think sitting with that dress is perfect don't you I mean that really is the best way to go with it I think she looks great with it and isabel you're doing beautiful those very nice calm poses because that's the kind of shot this calls for so and she's a very nice calm person and any of the guys out there who were thinking of dating her I just want you to know I know people I know guys who will take care of you and no time flat just trying to help you can we ask he's more questions you can get that tripod set up so some folks are wondering about the difference between when you're talking about ambient light and fill light yes maybe just because where do you think people can call it phil if you want but what I do is I say it's easier to have the fewer amount of terms that you're dealing with on dh for mei I'm building an ambient I'm building an overall light source um not not filling this but in some people I guess we could say it's a feel like certainly but I'm creating an ambient world that I can then work around in so just like if I was if we had all the lights open all the windows open and we had an f four ambient world in here I would be doing the same thing but since we don't what I'm trying to say is since we don't have that you could do the same thing in your home studio first you set the base ambien how dark is your dark going toby and then you go from there for the detail going yeah straightened up there um yeah you know what we got a little bit that's right the soft folks looking to get a little bit of keystone so we gotta come up a little bit I think probably camera's got to be right dead center of her here and move this light out a little bit here hopefully not enough to matter that looks good on dh brett that um white behind her the little um the little the little slave light let's bring it up because I'm coming from an angle now that is placing no that was good back there that's place oh I see that's what it's too low I wanted up here is where I want it let's get a second one of those yes like another apple boxes and boxes one behind get al grab yeah I don't think so it's right behind her shoulders here should be perfect right don yeah well you're setting all of this up could you explain a little bit more about what dimension it is that you're actually looking for here for the shot um what dimension yeah what dimension are you exactly looking floor if you can explain further like the defendant I just I want the picture to be um I don't want any key stoning in the picture I want that to be perfectly vertical behind her let's we're waiting for it to come up and some folks might might not understand what he stoning keystone ing is okay we're there were really really their key stoning is when the panel if you could put him up both side by side you could see the panel was kind of going back to a a point of origin sort of speak it's kind of the narrow right the top it's perspective you can see the one on the left there its keystone ng up and the one on the right is very vertical it's important it's imperative for may to have this vertical shot be vertical so three camera back has to be the same vertical so if the cameras tilt it up the top of the backgrounds gonna be smaller because that's further away from the cameras so they're both straight thin the lines will be straight think of it this way there's a building and you've got your camera and you've got to tilt your camera up at the building right to see there's a angle difference right so then when you look at the photograph for print the photograph the photograph then becomes flat and leans back that's the angle you took it out so I want to do it straight on it gives the picture more formality unless uh uh happenstance bringing that light from behind that panel gives me more mystery to it and gives the shot I think a little bit more I guess to say say it that way I'm gonna try just because I would normally do this I would try to steal two thirds of a stop down right there with good see what that looks like bring the whole thing down a little bit good spot everything this is new nope that doesn't work then go back up one third of a stop take one more isabel on john if we could pull that grid up just a little bit there that's what I want right there yeah and um guys is that little is that little uh speed like going off I don't know can you fire just from sure it was sure yes but let's see what the power is that it is it is fine but it's it's not pointing at the wall okay let's take it up one stop we're gonna go back up I know we had we took it down before but let's go back up there we go right here right now okay mrs booth where the yoga lessons come in they get up one more it looks like it's just like faded from a power back there I'm not sure why oh yeah it has they've been laying on the button okay I saw at that time yeah that should be better oh yeah yeah looking at him like it was looking at one settle lights and thinking wait a minute I'm not getting that's what we want now we have that shot okay last little finesse that I'm going to put into the shot it's pointing to for that way little bit that's a little bit of finesse is to bring one of those four by four by four white cards right on this side yes so what was it that you just discovered just just notice that my light behind isabel that's the one back here the speed light with the the paper towel on it had been because we changed angles is way too low they changed out stand but they've left it too low so we had to bring it up higher and just now john notice that it's just a little just a little bit curved toe one side so if you look at the shot upon your screen you're going to see that's just a little bit brighter to isabel's isabelle's left side our camera right then it is on the other side and I want it to be perfect perfect is what we're going for okay all right we bring that white card in all right we're gonna bring it up this way kind of right there right yeah back back back into this good let's see what this does and then we'll make a couple of shots and how we doing on time we still have about forty five minutes till break okay good good internet internet enjoying this this is kind of talking out live or building shot that's the shot I lie right there and we've got enough little phil over there that her hand looks good that the light behind your looks good this kind of a formal shot that I like I'm gonna do a couple of different photographs we're gonna start here then I'm gonna move in a little bit closer I'm gonna move in a little bit closer yet okay and so you can see the three different uh tracks that I would do with a portrait like this all right isabel let's make a couple of photographs here yeah let's come up here good chin up just a little bit right there put both hands up on your lap like you had early that's it just like that on right there right there and khun sure my back lights are going off guys alright good right there is a bill great I'm gonna turn you towards the light kind of twist on there just a little more keep going keep going keep going right there right there so you coming right at me I love that you get a little bulge in your hair right back here yes pull it out yeah okay right here and fight on the side as well yes good nice very nice and formal I like that up there good beautiful all right yes what else maybe want to do a formal shot this very formal photograph when you say straight lines reforma lighting she's right dead center she's lit formally we've got some interesting things one of the other things is she's got a classic face to make she always has even when she was here the way she's always had this classic beauty face and this to me is a classic beauty shot okay so sometimes you have to play off the things that you instantly feel that you instantly see and make it yours you don't have to do anything other than what you want to do there's no rules so I'm gonna come in a little bit is this gonna take it off yeah I got it come in just a little bit tighter here and we're on right now because you're not gonna get the sides were not getting with sides anymore coming in yes so yeah I'm not even worried about the verticals now so uh brett you could just let you can lean back a little bit if you want good swing you over this way a lot is bill right there all right there and I'm shooting this on a fifty millimeter lands cropped where is isabelle is now I wantto twist that backlight back this way just a little bit we're getting in a little bit less off her left shoulder towards her I'm sorry turns her right shoulder my camera left shoulder yeah yeah coming right about there good get a little bump in your hair again right there yeah he's checked the white it just fell over uh light rolled over on its side the light fell over on its side like that yeah it's a little bit take it tighter into the wall looks like it's just spraying too much there okay good good and I want to come in for a classic head shot on right there you chin up just a little bit right there beautiful okay isabel might turn you away from the light oh yeah away from the light keep going can you can I want you to put your hands like that and twist your shoulders back to me chin up into this way right there right there perfect they're just bring your chin element right there big smile that's nice now huh stretch it out I want no smile at all they're around chin down just a bit more right there pop the little lips apart chin up right into here beautiful okay all right that's my shot of isabel questions good let's take some questions all right good one from fashion tv we could have they know that the flash behind the model creates separation but have you introduced the light hitting the wall behind the panel you have a light behind that panel back there if that adds any color wait could go back to one of the first shots when it began shooting where we can see the panel it adds up now that wall is a white wall but it's obviously been painted over and the color behind it I bet she was brown or something because when our light is hitting that wall we're getting kind of a warm tone off of it instead of white so and that's what will happen when you can when you paint like paint over walls one coat of paint to the eye but when you hit it with six hundred watt seconds of pro photo it illuminates what's behind it but yes what we did was we wanted to create enough light behind this panel for those first shots that there was a spray around it and you'll see that there's light spilling forward from both sides of the panels so when I do the full shot isabel is lit then this is lit in the back is lit so we have three layers of dimension to the photograph we have isabel obviously in front of the background because there's light on the background our eyes tell us that way sort of intrinsically no because isabella's there then we have a background with light on it it's got to be distance and then we have the panel and there's light on the wall behind that so we know that there's distance there okay probably a tte this point I don't even mind the carpet on this shot because the carpets too dark up front for me to care about and where it's being backlit it actually looks kind of cool and that little crack that runs along there that little sort of unfinished area gives the whole shot a kind of a patina of old of old classic which is kind of what the shot reminds me of a question from a crystal memories how are you sinking the flash gun it has a built in slave yes yes I love keep uh flashes that have built in opticals absolutely level because it's just one more thing I don't have to think about I once worked with a photographer in a studio about the size of this classroom area right here that we have right here and he had ten um uh paul buff with alien beings babies killing babies and he had a pocket was there hanging from every one of them anybody who has alien bees will tell you the slaves on those alien bees are so good you could stick it in the corn you couldn't make that thing not go off to save your life so there was a waste of nine alien bees in a studio this size one trigger in my studio one trigger I trigger pretty much one flash all my other flashes are slaved optical yeah okay all right just give me my fifty million you said come on junior a sixty day so it's a film fifty millimeter on a crop sensor so it's essentially is seventy to seventy five inch lens so it's a this millimeter millimeter lens so it's kind of reaching out there okay it's a little tighter than a normal fifty would bay right I was here for full length if I was on a thirty five I'd be here for fooling ok and they came out really nice so you think you like that technique build your ambien first had a little bit of punch to it later okay all right thank you isabel I know you have things to do things you need to take off you take off okay that will talk terry I'll talk to you soon all right or hang out if you want all right uh we are going to do a cz we take take a uh takes more questions especially from the audience here we're going to go do a shot of uh briana and um you want a smaller box my brain sorry nathalie together so we have both in orange and we're gonna do something kind of different we're gonna light them instead of one light on both girls were going to light each into girl each girl individually so it kind of create a different kind of cross lighting for it on again I haven't planned this shot we just I said find something that match they found something that match they're both wearing peachy orange things and briana has dark hair that he has blonde hair so we're going to set that up over here and do it while they're getting ready get are there any other questions or have a comment from fashion tv who says tell tell don he takes a typical background to the next level I hardly think like think like him we often settle for one level dimension so thank you for walking us through that you're you're very welcome and I'll tell you uh some of some of the little comments that I'll say it the workshops are when you first start out you think only of the subject you just like the subject and that's why you'll see so many pictures of people against a black background and they're lit and their black hair just fades off into the background when you first start out really concentrating on the subject the more you do it you start thinking of the background more you do it after that background first subject later because it's harder to do the background I don't know if you notice that I'm sure you did he was much tougher to get the background the way I wanted when then it was too light isabelle but I guess that's a that's a basic progression right you've been working on lighting people long enough you can light them then you tackle the backgrounds but you'll spend more time finessing the background that little spy call it a spray light that little spray light to spend more time finessing that then you will your subject usually speaking of backgrounds a lot of the audience is wondering what the text here is of the actual background that you use just now you know I don't know I think it's ah plastering yes it's a plastering thing that was probably created for a set here at one time you created for soup rice I think there's even some race is close I'm wrong but I think there's even some like rags under their textures of like it looks like gauze or something that's been laid into it paper towels well hola sue I hope I did your background justice and thankyou kaleo our set designer thank you very much yes all right we have some more questions right uh from simone new york city and I know where I know we're setting other stuff up so maybe you could just talk to some of these questions you're instead of showing but simone new york city how do I make nice silhouettes in the studio with hot lights you make nice silhouette silhouette keep the light off the subject if that's what what I'm thinking their ass asking is how do we make that type of so the subject is black and they keep the light off the subject put the light back on the white background and get your subject as far away from it as you possibly can then you may take uh can I uh can I grab a subject real quick uh yeah john we'll just take you real quick if john is the subject that you're photographing in the white wall would be for instance that wall and will put john right about here then just out of frame of that white wall you want to put a couple of boards like this to try to keep that white wall it's falling to credit that white wall from bending around him he said I'm saying because it will have a tendency to do that see when isolate him against that white background okay and marcello is wondering what about color filters on lights brought color filters on lights something I rarely do uh I probably only do when I'm asked to buy a client I'm not I don't much care for blue gels and red gels and thanks no not my style there are tyrants who do it very well questions in the audience okay we'll bring the two girls out going out actually uh due to my inexperience with actual studio lights I usually do speed lights um you mentioned that you're talking about the alien bees and the lights here have slavemaster it's the same technique where you fire your one and you do have triggered and the other one's automatically pop right after that the same kind of thing you do with the crayons what the hell s yes it's kind of what the c l s is actually triggering those strobes and the opticals is it's it's built in which which stroh blind do you have I have ah the s p s kind that I have no stroke of s p eight hundreds have have to uh I have a nine era in a set of six hundred's okay I believe ask the internet internet pipin I believe the s p nine hundred has an optical in it is that correct I'm show since the light from one might is firing the other ideas like the light is so fast the first lightens pops off the other one's right it's not a radio are it's not infrared radio what is flesh yeah and what is c l s is that because that was a radio or don't you know it's a line of sight pretty sure it's an optical but it's infrared it's infrared don't know way here's a little tip by yes okay so you're nine hundred has an optical in it and I believe the eight hundred did is well it's the six hundred I did not have not flash innit eight hundred as well yes so you if you had one you could run the opticals if the ability to use the line of sight part of the c l s was a challenge you could actually see if the optical would work maybe it would maybe wouldn't but that would be the thing to check out and it's also the optical makes it so that you can use that flash with other systems so if you can find a good deal on sb eight hundred and you're shooting cannon that's fine just ucsb hate on offense called s u for just use it on that and you've got an optical flash

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Lighting Essentials Ebook v1.pdf

bonus material with enrollment

Don Slides - Why Light Matters.pdf
Don Slides - What Is Good Light.pdf
Don Slides - Light Does the Same Thing.pdf
Don Slides - Subject Centric Light.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

Cheryl
 

I just finished watching this course, and with teary eyes can say, without reserve, this class has been fantastic! Don's last session would be great to watch in the beginning and the end because it helps to understand his thoughts on being a photographer. The rest of the class is full of great information on lighting and Don is able to explain his thoughts and his processes with ease. I hope I will always think ahead and plan how I want my final results and how I want my subject to reflect light. Learning this was one of my "aha" moments during this class. I own over 30 Creative Live photography courses and this class is one of the top classes I own. I already plan on rewatching the whole class. Well worth the investment! I feel it is not a beginner course, but a intermediate to advanced one. Don has set a high standard in lighting...a goal to reach for...a goal that is possible for each person willing to take the time to learn and practice. Thanks Don and thanks CreativeLive!

Ryan Redmond
 

I am so glad I took this course. I'll be honest, it took a few lessons for me to warm up to this series but I'm glad I stuck with it. I have had a couple cheap speedlights, softboxes/umbrellas, and reflectors for many months now and was too intimidated to start using them. After going through this I am not only downright excited to use them, and confident that I can have spectacular outcomes, I'm also confident about shooting in natural light indoors and outdoors. It's also given me the tools and confidence to start shooting in manual vs aperture priority and to nail the general calculations in my head. I appreciate that Don used mostly budget or unorthodox equipment like speedlights, foam core, work lights, curtains, etc. because that's what I can afford and have been using to try to replicate expensive gear. Other classes use thousands of dollars in lighting and Don proves you don't need that for excellent shots. I also appreciate his advice for directing your "models" and insights into his overall process. This class was invaluable to me as a novice. Thank you!

Joanna
 

I thank very much CL that I could see the wonderful material on the light in photography, in fact everything became clearer, Don you are the great teacher, great stuff, very interesting and fantastic lecture, very helpful ! Thank you one more time !!!

Student Work

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