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Moody Light

Lesson 4 from: Lighting for Your Target Audience

Jeremy Cowart

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Lesson Info

4. Moody Light

Next Lesson: MIxed Light

Lesson Info

Moody Light

So I love teo. Do moodier, ed your stuff. And this is really. Using rim lights for mood this was uh this is a raw shot you can tell this hasn't been retouched but this is for a watch ad and they wanted that darker moodier grittier thing and a lot of one of the questions I get asked a lot is do you direct to you decide the ideas of the lighting or it is a client and it is all over the spectrum sometimes I'm literally there to push a button in fact last week got shot a big ad campaign where it was already designed they did all the cd I they had already photographed the person that I was going to be photographing they've been lit it and shot it like it was like literally spelled out for me all I did he was a walk in relight what they really live and she does the same thing even I was going why am I here well I guess you've already get you know but I'm their toe push a button and it was not creative I mean it's a great gig it's an ad campaign so money is good in those kind situations but n...

othing created but it was just I was just gotta push a button but then there's other times where and this is probably the mohr but people don't have a clue really what they want to have a general like this is what the music sounds like we just want you to do your thing. And that's, what I have, honestly, the most fun is when I just get to play. No. But this is using I love you know this is natural light in my studio there are two big windows and I said they would if a sandwich from a put him between those windows instead of setting up big lights and flat firing grids and all that what if I used there's two windows is much too rim light so you know there's no there's no phil there's no b flat so just nothing just big window big window and letting letting it do its thing and love love the look and again he's an independent singer songwriter so no, this isn't an ad campaign and I can get a little more grittier and a little more moody with him come this was ah uh editorial thing I did years ago for vibe magazine she and n b a player and at that time I was really into the rim lights and the grids but I think at one point my career is like how many strokes can I set upon the chute just thought I had to have tons of light but this is like probably I mean obviously there's a grid bike here good back there and I think there was like a uh summing up I kind of creating this spot on the wall you see the shadow coming from his feet you can learn a lot just by looking at photography and just watching where the shadows go looking at the eyes for the mama spacing on that word and what's a catchall yes thank you total brain fart you make a lot of times I'll be in the mall walking past the big ads I'm saying really really closely at an image and I probably look like a total perv or something like they have my wife she understands it like I walk by a victorious seeker and and I try to look at the places where it's not body parts but they feel if there's a big shot of a leg it's interesting to see how they treat skin because I knew in hollywood there's all these different tricks there's ice there's a guy that used to tell me if you add uh if you and level twelve twelve percent noise to skin that gives it this nice grainy texture and then he blurs there was like this very specific blur it twice add the grain and me applying grains so much of the years I've really learned like okay what works was what doesn't and so when I walk by these ads in the mall I'll go up and study like okay what did they do it you know what kind of green are they and when you do it cause it with retouching you really do stare images is that closely again like someone would walk in my office and I'm like zoomed in tow like this part of somebody's face and you know, um oh it's their legs or it's you know, you get a re touch, people's bodies and that's, just part of it. And so b a that's, just a random story and so steady, steady light is what I'm saying. Steady, color, steady. You know, this wasn't some amazing shop, but that's kind of how I treated that one. No, bring light. We talked about that idea's ring, ring lights a lot. Ah, you see how soft the light is in this photo of always love this image. By the way, that backdrop was three dollars, bought that at a little arts and crafts store. And I think I even used one like it. Creative, live a few years, things the exact same one, actually, about, like a small strip of this weird silver paper. But when you shoot it one teo f one two and you blurt, it just becomes this amazing background. And so that was just bring light with a three dollar backdrop and a little fan to create some motion in the hair. But ring lights, they're so flattering, and carrie said, who doesn't love ring line? You see it there in the reflection is glasses this one? The good thing about this ring light is like one hundred dollars alone get it being h years ago, but yeah, it's just a simple ring light you know it's not a three thousand dollar strobe it's just one hundred dollars hundred dollar fluorescent tube so bounce light I've covered this a little bit, but I love this is ah, old space. There were walls right behind me but I was doing the same thing as these 00:05:56.903 --> 00:06:01. these v flats love to just get in bases for again 00:06:01.86 --> 00:06:04. create light bouncing all around me 00:06:05.76 --> 00:06:08. that's far from killing and this is a good example, 00:06:08.86 --> 00:06:10. but what I was saying not to do earlier and this is 00:06:10.91 --> 00:06:13. early in my career and you can tell that I'm on a 00:06:13.72 --> 00:06:17. wide lens that I'm zoomed out like sometimes when 00:06:17.2 --> 00:06:19. you're in a small space, you just kind of have to 00:06:19.54 --> 00:06:22. him and it kind of works in this image. If you're 00:06:22.75 --> 00:06:26. shooting vertically, it does a long gate your subject, 00:06:27.46 --> 00:06:29. which is flattering, but you just don't have to be 00:06:29.65 --> 00:06:32. careful because then it could distort the lines and 00:06:32.73 --> 00:06:36. that's. My main frustration with linda says, I always 00:06:36.67 --> 00:06:39. want line straight, but when you she why there's get 00:06:39.63 --> 00:06:43. this we're barreling of your horizons and it triesman 00:06:43.02 --> 00:06:43. that's 00:06:47.02 --> 00:06:49. that was just a personal shit mean a bunch of friends 00:06:49.35 --> 00:06:54. kind of traveling the country I move when I moved 00:06:54.05 --> 00:06:56. from l a international we'd all just went and shot 00:06:56.41 --> 00:06:58. as we travelled throughout the country and would stop 00:06:58.96 --> 00:07:03. a rain in places and so there was no real target a 00:07:03.07 --> 00:07:07. target audience they're per se that was just fun so 00:07:07.42 --> 00:07:09. any other questions on social media right now for 00:07:09.78 --> 00:07:13. good sweet what about from you guys 00:07:15.16 --> 00:07:15. yeah 00:07:16.86 --> 00:07:19. so I appreciate the anecdotal stories they're great 00:07:19.78 --> 00:07:23. what so when you said you have some clients where 00:07:23.47 --> 00:07:25. they just wanted to come in and push a button and 00:07:25.23 --> 00:07:28. then somewhere you have more creative license do you 00:07:28.33 --> 00:07:30. aim for a certain number of different poses they're 00:07:30.46 --> 00:07:32. different scenes do you have like a rule of thumb 00:07:32.57 --> 00:07:34. for when you're going in and you have that creative 00:07:34.2 --> 00:07:34. freedom 00:07:36.16 --> 00:07:40. yeah I mean I think a recent shoot a recent examples 00:07:41.86 --> 00:07:44. when it's a personal shoot like all these images in 00:07:44.7 --> 00:07:47. this whole little siri's air here those are all just 00:07:47.98 --> 00:07:48. personal 00:07:50.3 --> 00:07:52. and there's not I just shoot till I feel like you 00:07:52.69 --> 00:07:53. got it 00:07:54.3 --> 00:07:57. the beautiful thing about cheating tethered with clients 00:07:57.53 --> 00:08:00. is that you there's a lot more pressure because you 00:08:00.2 --> 00:08:03. have fifteen people huddle around screen looking analyzing every shot you take but the bee is is the client is when they've got us in the back jeremy can move on now that looks amazing we're happy then I'm happy because I know the person who is paying the bill they're happy like we get it but if you're not tethering it's all on you on you know you might think you have it then you send the client the shoot later that man that set up sucked I wish we'd kind of had I only seen that I would have known to fix that shirt that was wrinkled you know like there's so many things like that so that's why I shoot tether now all the time is because I want the clients and no right there in the moment they're seeing all the images upon the screen and is there there are a lot of things that I'm not looking at the client is looking at I did a recent block post on y photography is hard and ah I saw an illustration of tiger woods last year or a few years ago on espn and he was talking about sweet golf club and it was talking about how it had like a hundred arrows drawn around was like what he's thinking about his follow through I don't know needs been enter this elbow with the single head down as you swing through and there were all these things when you swing a golf club and it hit me in that moment that photography is the exact same way um because when I'm holding a camera it's not just f stops and shutters feeds it's especially big shoots like that I'm thinking I'm looking through here and I'm thinking at stop shutter speeds thinking composition I'm thinking is the talent engaged or do they think I'm a tool or did it like me? What can I say to make them smile how can I get a better reaction out of them but then I'm also thinking is the music too low is the producer theyjust walked on set is she happy with how things going how did the catering work out how did the height of the girls is that wrinkle to much of shall we should we strain that shirt you know like there's so many things I'm like sometimes I have the wrong crew or my assistance just aren't vibing there's things going on there like there's so many things you have to consistently be considering hey y'all should take up that block goes because there's a lot more that I wrote down but I mean I feel I feel so eighty d on shoots because I'm trying teo I'm not only the harbour but I'm the guy running the show to keep everybody happy is a song the right song like so many times a song in the bag on him shoot can kill your chute you know and you have to please twenty people in a room toe like make sure the vibe of the shoot is right and so I'm always on spotify like creating custom playlist for to keep on photo shoots to make sure nail and again, that goes back to target audience. If I'm shooting a fashion thing, I'll play one type of music of up shooting, you know, and a lot of time. But I'll leave it up to the subject. Hey, what you want to hear today and because I know that opportunities, if they if they feel good and they have the right music playing. So it's left in this segment. Cool, that's. Awesome. I was looking through your healthcare shots online on your web site and I was noticing there what I would call like a documentary style or photojournalism style and I was wondering about how do you treat like I try and do a lot of that stuff as well like but it's photography as things were happening so are you are you just capture is how do you run a shoot like that are you setting up lights are you just letting it happen and being the person shooting yeah no it's a great question so for whatever this this year I've become the medical campaign gun which I love it's been it's been awesome but I've done literally weeks of shooting in hospitals and wearing scrubs eggs and I've got the photograph brain surgeries and I've got a photograph at one point I was talking to this girl my age were just chit chatting and and no idea that I was about to photograph the inside of her brains like I don't know she was the patient but we're chatting like ten minutes later she's on the table and they're slicing up and is just nuts anyway and so I've been in all these insane environments on these medical campaigns things clicked the wrong button come and so to answer your question yeah I brought one assistant had these b one lights and I don't think we ever he is more than one light actually there might have been a moment worry is two lights but a lot of this was rhea life patients for life people is the beautiful campaign it's for my friends that I'm st thomas health in nashville takes to the hospital is born in so not only was a special to shoot for the hospital where I was born but it was in my hometown and their message was nothing shall be impossible which is also an amazing message and so the goal is to shoot the miracles of life and oddly enough I landed this huge campaign because of another shoot they had seen where I was on a celebrity shoot I don't know if you've heard the story of scene is I'ma blawg but I was photographing this celebrity john schneider from dukes of hazzard and huge set huge lots of people and only had him for five minutes so he walks on set and I'm taking this pictures he's goofing off he's doing these presidential impressions he's just awesome really fun guy and s o he walks upset my great job I'm ready for the next person come on but he whispers and marries like hey can you just take a few more of man so he walks back on set and I'm like sure yeah no problem and hold this well you can go mobile log I don't have a permission to do that, but I'm he walks back on set and he starts crying and I think wow, this is like amazing acting this guy was incredibly talented but then it gets really intense crying like this is this is something this is something really and so I put down my camera and I walked over to him and I just hugged him I was like I don't know what else to do because obviously something's going on hug him any whispered into my ear in that moment that his dad had just passed away an hour before I lost that dan was able to come back on set finished the job finish shooting so professional right to come on and give off and knowing what just happened so as soon as that was done he left and I flew home to be with his family and so fast forward a few months this hospital michel they said agent when we saw your you're she would john schneider and we love that you can connect with your subjects because that's so much more important than lighting so much more important anything composition like we just want you to connect to these people so we're going to hire you for this you know, two or three week campaign shooting everyday people which I love because you know I'm not a photographer I'm a dad I'm I'm a husband, I'm a family man, I have community, you know, just like anybody else and so I love the idea of going in and working with strangers and I told him I said my job is to to love these people first, like to just go and sit down with, um, how's, your baby doing how was the surgery? You know, I'm like a doctor, you know, just comforting them. And then once everybody feels comfortable with me, then I can be in a room, and with this gun, has a newborn baby and connect. Same thing. The doctors, I get to hang out the structure for a while before them. Obviously, this is natural light. Mostly, most of these images was like eighty five millimeter, one point two, just trying to get that way blurred background. Love that facial expression. Natural line now used a long lens stew. Cannon has a new one to four hundred limbs. It's. Amazing love that I can really scoot back from the environment, but still zoom. Many get some create images. Some of these were more set up. This one was set up. You know trying to make use of the cool things the hospital already has showing off the technology so they had all these like two million dollars you know laser brain scanner things and had so so fun to stay in a room like I know can you they had this massive machines says of a room in the whole thing like spends to go around the brain and so it's fun to be alone as a photographer to direct these multimillion dollar machines this israel this girl had just come in from a surgery and you know just shooting natural light now try toe purposely position things in front of the camera to get those nice okay effects and even in the moment you're thinking creatively how to rock how do I show the action of this hospital but these these amazing amazing moments really rewarding work then I got to go in and you know state with patients as a real patient and just talk to him and try to make him laugh you know get the the joys this is a real moment this was let so that's a good example of going back out tio where we go have using to light it was raining that day as a lot like today cloudy and so we set up two lights to make it look like the sun was coming back from behind him and their big thing is combining science and health and so had the statue back there in the beggar and purposely, science and faith is what I've been saying. I love the shot in a trauma capture, just genuine, genuine moments. But yeah, makes this is where all these past experiences 00:18:03.066 --> 00:18:06. of my life really come into play, okay, I was a wedding 00:18:06.23 --> 00:18:08. photographer for year. We're not years one year, 00:18:10.24 --> 00:18:12. but I've shot at a twirl a bit in all these small 00:18:12.7 --> 00:18:14. environments have learned how to connect with people. 00:18:15.29 --> 00:18:17. I think for a lot of photographers is fun and it's, 00:18:17.6 --> 00:18:20. great to hold a camera and to take pretty pictures. 00:18:20.39 --> 00:18:22. But so many of his ivers on the starting starting 00:18:22.52 --> 00:18:25. out or so awkward and we don't know howto engage with 00:18:25.07 --> 00:18:26. people. We don't know how to direct. We don't know 00:18:27.36 --> 00:18:30. what to tell him to dio. And so this has been something 00:18:30.66 --> 00:18:33. that I've had. Can you really learn over the years? 00:18:33.45 --> 00:18:38. Is hell tio connect with people, so hopefully all 00:18:38.63 --> 00:18:41. that answer your questions very long answer. No 00:18:42.2 --> 00:18:43. go. Um, 00:18:45.14 --> 00:18:48. yes, the one assistant couple lights and, you know, 00:18:48.31 --> 00:18:49. trying tio 00:18:50.24 --> 00:18:53. use the sun. There is another yes, his ministry and 00:18:53.84 --> 00:18:57. motion some tryingto make that look more inspiring 00:18:57.6 --> 00:19:01. and more thinking about the logo, but showing the 00:19:01.32 --> 00:19:03. full line so no. 00:19:05.64 --> 00:19:09. We have in the second half, after the break, we're 00:19:09.01 --> 00:19:11. going to really get into ah, teo, 00:19:13.05 --> 00:19:17. some mom or experimental stuff. Um, like all the stuff 00:19:17.39 --> 00:19:21. we've talked about, uh, so far has been the more pr, 00:19:21.42 --> 00:19:22. more simple. 00:19:24.54 --> 00:19:27. But my favorite thing to do is like to go to town 00:19:27.59 --> 00:19:30. to go off to play and to experiment and so here in 00:19:30.85 --> 00:19:32. a little while we're gonna we're gonna get through 00:19:32.39 --> 00:19:34. all that stuff anymore questions because I kind of 00:19:34.58 --> 00:19:35. am good right now 00:19:37.34 --> 00:19:40. what would as a beginner with lighting what would 00:19:40.4 --> 00:19:43. you recommend to start with that would be the most 00:19:43.44 --> 00:19:47. versatile things yeah I don't know a really great 00:19:47.34 --> 00:19:50. question because they get asked that all the time 00:19:50.79 --> 00:19:52. see if our beginner 00:19:53.24 --> 00:19:55. cash that's hard because that you know when she died 00:19:55.56 --> 00:19:57. linda your products in your life you understand when 00:19:57.72 --> 00:20:00. how much they cost and I know that a pro photo be 00:20:00.7 --> 00:20:04. one is not a beginner light moments really expenses 00:20:04.95 --> 00:20:07. two grand in a beginner budget for light um but if you have your camera and a lens or two I mean I would start out with leg simple things like finding a v fly even if it's not a vey flay even if you go to home depot and buy some big white board that you can bounce light because you can one of my favorite things to do is if I have a big window right here I'll let that like put my subject with their back to the windows they're facing me put a big board are here so again I'm creating that same bounce that we just created. Some lights come in here but a big board behind me so it's bored me subject facing me window so I've created this big sandwich and that's a pretty a cheap way to create a really nice look that kind of blown out like I was talking about before you know speed lights obviously cannons mckenna gah uh but joe mcnally ironically he's a nikon god but joe is a really great teacher with speed lights I've always been a struggle when I first started out somebody just said you get yet about by pro photo lights he got about stroh's get going strobes and socially ok you know ever since then I've been a strokes guy but I know photographers like one guy made a bt that shot of a salad bowl could you have ability it's on standby you just hand me the actual dish itself so I love that sometimes life is a beauty dish in my celebrities of but who I want to be this they just love the word does beauty dishes sounds so fancy no, but I've got a I know a guy that bought the big salad bowl you know, cut a hole on a figure out a way to give tape it and you know all it is is this little this thing that just has the light goes on here and hits this piece that usually pops out and it just bounces the light back into here and you just have this nice little light reflective light and creates a great catch light and people's eyes it's nice and round sometimes if you use a soft day soft box its rectangle just doesn't look riel and people's eyes you gotta have a good eye you gotta have a good catch light and so yeah, this the beef is so a lot of people hand make their their life's a big fan of that the things were about to get into the second half of this experimental stuff I mean, I like with laser pens I light with toys from the mall alight with on my first creative life class every day we lit with rope lights I mean, we live with again you can't use as it comes back to the topic target audience if you're shooting weddings, you can't go by laser bins it's not gonna work, but if you're you know maura on extreme experimental portrait artist like myself, I thought I actually find strobes can be quite boring. I love to get into this weird have been inventing lights in fact, there's a lighting company that I'm have a whole line of lights coming out soon that I've invented I've come up with and so that's a and announce we're coming soon but I so love thinking about the stuff that I'm now creating my own my own lights and so the speed lights figure out ways to create your lights buying even if you had to make one of these. But I think one hundred dollars, is pretty affordable on shaw tv flat. The nice thing about these is there there blackout also bodies and silver? No, and I use those shot kelly clarkson's album cover recently, and I had a big silver v flat like that as our backdrop, you know, and it was so cheap. But these things are awesome because you can beat him up and throw him in the back of truck taken, get rained on outside, like I migh ve flats, or so beat up, but still use them all the time. Any other recommendations that I'm not thinking of for cheap, cheap lighting options? Yes. Not my recombination. My mentor for weddings, brandon elliot. He took regular flashes and modified theodore actor how do to the ones they use with strokes fitted in. So you get more power. Can you get with one we like you get with the stove, and it works just the same was more portable and affordable. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, I know that joe mcnally does that kind of thing. Teo compactflash. Yeah, yeah, talking. Thank you. I'm gonna. I'm gonna cheat and go to my experimental stuff. Super quick. Oh, later, we're going to get into projection. I light with projectors a lot, and I love the different things that could do with projections. Here's, my my laser pen shot, oh, here's, another one for you. So I love teo play with iphone letting on I'm cheating ahead again but yeah I'll say that for letting it get in tow a lot of times I like with my phone I've actually lit commercial portrait ce with an iphone so yeah, I just love a latino that stuff I remember being on a pier you know, if you're if you're personally goes out about nate in not nature but like downtown or busy cities like this especially knight just look for the weird light like look for the light that doesn't make sense remember be under appear once at night and the lights were so oddly blue can I just use that blue light mixed it with the sunset and I get this really interesting result and in the beginning my career honestly that's what got me hired my clients will tell me every time I get hard we just love the way you see the different weird we're lighting you look for different colors that's why we're hiring you and I was a designer before and a graphic designer and so just that approach a designer I would you know, photographs, textures and throw that texture on an image and you know just always tryingto just mess things up I like to think of that way with lighting as well. My favorite quote on creativity is from picasso he says ah learn the rules like a pros he could break him like an artist and that that sums of, like so much of what I believe, because I do think it's important to learn about being a dish. Let's, learn about self boxes, all this stuff, but then just toss it all out on like once you know it, though, in the back you mom, but they don't follow any rules there is. Like we said, there is no way to light a portrait and there's a million ways to light a fortune. It all depends on which you're selling. No, go back and see still run down a semite. Recent work on what I was selling. It might be fun little. All right, so. Here, some porch, some always say. Nice and beautiful. And ice and soft country music. Right. Ban. Target audiences. Teenagers. Um, this is an out take on a shoot. The target audiences is rock back listeners, rock band lighting with laser pins. One strobe laser pens, target alliance, rock, rock, rock rock. That's, a haiti project? A lot. I mean, a lot of my target. I audiences will be somewhere that's, obviously, in the singer songwriter. It's, the civil war's see ongoing, darker and grittier because of the music. There's. One on a favor. Favorite porch it's I've ever done like obviously I love freckles just is just natural light under an overhang and you know cem bey the bt photoshopping light room is you can really use the raw processing too dramatized you're lighting for example all I did was that's um natural vignette ing although around this portrait to make it look darker to make it appear that I had like this really focused light right on her face I don't know if we can get into that the catch light I was just outdoors there were no strove is there was no nothing you know so many lights firing because we're just outside but I used light room the kind of enhance with the light was doing um this is going with hard light that I was talking about before one stroh back behind them and this would be ah would say target audience would be a much, much grittier darker fashion magazine nylon or something where they don't really care about you no it's not it's not about the models of the clothes it's about the attitudes about the vibe about the mood of the the magazine maybe this's one of my favorite porter's left shot because back to what I said earlier about there's so many things you think about when you're shooting but it is in this portrait where realized that she was modeling she's posing doing her thing and it wasn't working and follows like can you just mimic the trees behind you, and so I love those palm trees and so she's like, yeah, so she's just, you know, stood there like that, and then a very purposely, you know, being a former designer very purposely think about things like, I don't want that shadow touching the water. I'll light, and I'm always thinking about the spaces that, like this little shadow, like the space in between their love, the dirty water, like essentially, this portrait ends up kind of symbolizing broken dreams in hollywood, right? Just looks like it's kind of dark and depressing, but I'm gonna do a quick scroll through my light room 00:30:08.022 --> 00:30:11. catalogue so you can kind of see the insane amounts 00:30:11.82 --> 00:30:14. of I mean, just even on a thumb. Now scroll the insane 00:30:14.74 --> 00:30:20. amounts of lighting variations that I do. Super, super 00:30:20.3 --> 00:30:22. dark and moody. Super 00:30:23.59 --> 00:30:25. I need to make these thumbnails bigger. Ceo could 00:30:25.68 --> 00:30:26. see a little better. You know, there's, an ad campaign. That's bright, right above it. A super dark, scattered light, which I'm about to get into. He minutes here in work, humanitarian lighting, dark, brighter, using projectors. This is nice and flattering, because it's ah, the comedian, it's, nice and bright on my back, too moody. Right after that, I shot a friend's wedding. No, I shot a gospel album, cover all of these air, different target audiences and that's. The reason I'm able to do so work with so many different types of clients. I do. Editorial. To do commercials, do advertising. 00:31:18.76 --> 00:31:21. A love. But my favorite is, uh, music. I love to do 00:31:21.95 --> 00:31:23. music, packaging. 00:31:24.47 --> 00:31:28. And so artists come to me, I hope. And I think, because 00:31:28.82 --> 00:31:32. I'm an artist myself used to paint, used to draw that's 00:31:32.68 --> 00:31:35. fine background that I became a graphic designer. 00:31:35.52 --> 00:31:38. And so I'm always trying to think of different ways 00:31:38.42 --> 00:31:39. to do things. Using different lenses that's the lens, baby, then back to normal ends and pia, like this is kind of my, you know, there were back into aa gritty in vegas, but just before that, I saw corporate head shots from southern from southern living magazine. Teo las vegas, you know, like it's 00:32:10.032 --> 00:32:12. hilarious what's the difference, different things 00:32:12.52 --> 00:32:14. I have been doing. 00:32:15.14 --> 00:32:17. Scroll back to the bottom here, here's a chute idea 00:32:17.67 --> 00:32:21. that and in iceland with imogen heap, I was talking 00:32:21.41 --> 00:32:24. about the shoot earlier just shut with the bee ones 00:32:25.44 --> 00:32:30. be one lights and just working very minimally sound, 00:32:31.59 --> 00:32:34. but positioning the lights in all kinds of different 00:32:34.66 --> 00:32:40. this was natural light, but using the the light behind 00:32:40.22 --> 00:32:45. her, um, and eliminating the smoke one that, by the 00:32:45.69 --> 00:32:47. way, that was an actual lava field we were standing. 00:32:47.97 --> 00:32:51. And there was there was like, that we weren't supposed 00:32:51.13 --> 00:32:53. to standing on the ground because it was so hot. Probably 00:32:53.51 --> 00:32:57. not smart, you know our for our sakes. 00:32:59.14 --> 00:32:59. Um, 00:33:00.68 --> 00:33:03. yeah, when you when you go through my work eo again 00:33:03.35 --> 00:33:07. to corporate head shots, I'm back to dark and moody 00:33:07.74 --> 00:33:11. and artie. So I'm always thinking about whom I letting 00:33:11.15 --> 00:33:14. for what are they selling? What cnn goal what's in, 00:33:16.84 --> 00:33:19. you know, but covers musicians 00:33:22.54 --> 00:33:24. we talked a lot about the ring light little while 00:33:24.35 --> 00:33:27. ago this was ah ring light shot I get a ring lights 00:33:27.16 --> 00:33:29. because they're nice and flattering for women they're 00:33:29.64 --> 00:33:32. just it's just always a very soft soft light 00:33:34.34 --> 00:33:38. I'm suffering rachel so uh but this time we get to 00:33:38.32 --> 00:33:41. dive into the first half was hard for me too together 00:33:41.96 --> 00:33:47. because lighting basics for our great to know I quoted 00:33:47.66 --> 00:33:50. pablo picasso uh the more 00:33:51.21 --> 00:33:53. learn the rules like a proceed and break him like 00:33:53.1 --> 00:33:55. an artist it's my favorite thing to say because it 00:33:55.44 --> 00:33:57. is important to knew this stuff is that it is important 00:33:57.81 --> 00:34:01. to learn but as soon as you learn it all like twisted 00:34:01.51 --> 00:34:05. mangle it you know mix it with other things you see 00:34:05.58 --> 00:34:08. and make it your own that's how it's what really finding 00:34:08.06 --> 00:34:10. your voice is about is learning as much as you can and then just really mingling talked also about other teachers that I heard throughout my career coming up where they would say this is how you light a portrait or this is where you put your lights it has to be here and then if you want to do this type of lighting you put your two lights here I never have applied any of that to my letting so I personally don't believe there is three ways to light a portrait or you know I'm always experimenting if you knew the lighting I tell people take a light and shoot a hundred portrait's. And each time, put the light on in different position and see how interacts with your subject. But now we're on to the moor. You know, interesting things when I'm mountain about. I like to look this. This isn't an a groundbreaking image, but the point it drives the point home that even with scattered lay scattered light, is when the sun is coming through trees. Ah, and you just have this this crazy, letting it can be hard because to teo meter for that, you know you have very hot sun spots and you have very, very dark shade and, ah, some people can get away with, and you have to watch two for sun spots like he don't want. I don't want one of these ah, sun spots on the news like seo hot. This says here that she was sitting on that stair, that sunlight would be in a really hot on her face, and so I have to watching direct that stuff. But I still like the idea of always playing with that. No, because you can get into really interesting portrait's when you're shooting scattered light. This is a good example. Is the sun kind of coming through a diffused or under trees? And that was my photo assistant things, andres. But but I just love that look, just kind of watching for scattered light. You can mimic it in the studio. If I had a little plant or a tree could bring him out alone and direct fire. The speed light, like we talked about earlier, were hard light through some leaves and trees. Tio to create that same effect. This is again watching that the split of the horn shadow there, just really coming right across her face. This is finally an actual retest image I consume, um, but, yeah, it's. Ah, you know, watching that that shadow, the placement of that as a very intentional, to give that shadow going right across the bridge of the nose begin here, like I'm just drawn to any that's, a red brick wall. This is a shoot. I did force university there, times, where you just got nothing to work with, like they're tom's. We're doing a portrait with it's, a bride or some man location. You just get nothing. So I just try to watch where light is doing something interesting, something to give me, somewhere to go with. And that was an example of just trying to find, um, some scattered light.

Ratings and Reviews

Abel Riojas
 

Watch for a lot of gems in this one. A few take aways was working with the band and how to take the shot (even if they've aged) and loved the "Mosey" technique...i think thats going to be cool to shoot with some friends. What i really took away was stop stressing about the settings and enjoy the shoot. it comes out in the work and and the end you'll be happy and the client will be elated. Give it a spin, he starts off mentioning that he's not sue bryce (in so many words) and work with people in their natural environment.

Randy Boback
 

I've taken a similar class in a photography school, more focused on editorial portraits however. They both rank at the top of my list for seeing the world differently. The lighting and composition in portrait work, lets the photographer have a broad say in what the results look like, we rarely notice how the lighting affects not only the feel of the photo but your impression of the subject as well. This is a chance to see how much control the photographer can actualy have.

a Creativelive Student
 

excellent! thank you for featuring Jeremy

Student Work

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