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Location SWOT Analysis: Examples and Exercises

Lesson 15 from: Picture Perfect Lighting

Roberto Valenzuela

Location SWOT Analysis: Examples and Exercises

Lesson 15 from: Picture Perfect Lighting

Roberto Valenzuela

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Lesson Info

15. Location SWOT Analysis: Examples and Exercises

Next Lesson: Overview Q & A

Lessons

Class Trailer

DAY 1

1

Intro and Who This Class is For

07:01
2

3 Groups for All Lighting Scenarios

09:00
3

My Progress in Lighting

10:09
4

Analyzing Circumstantial Lighting

51:46
5

Circumstantial Lighting Q & A

04:16
6

Using a Reflector the Right Way

15:45
7

5 Behaviors of Light: Overview and Angle

15:22
8

5 Behaviors of Light: Inverse Square Law of Light

13:05
9

5 Behaviors of Light: Relative Size

21:43
10

5 Behaviors of Light: Relative Size Continued

38:13
11

5 Behaviors of Light: Color

12:26
12

5 Behaviors of Light: Reflective Surfaces

05:39
13

5 Behaviors of Light: Q & A

04:53
14

Location SWOT Analysis and 10 Things to Look For

23:47
15

Location SWOT Analysis: Examples and Exercises

45:13
16

Overview Q & A

11:30

DAY 2

17

Speedlites: The Basics and TTL

33:40
18

Speedlites: Manual Flash

36:00
19

Speedlites: Zoom Flash

08:35
20

Speedlites: Zoom and Rotating Flash Head and Reflectors

12:50
21

Speedlites: First Curtain vs. Second Curtain Sync

08:07
22

Speedlites: High Speed Sync

12:01
23

Speedlites: Optical vs. Radio Systems

06:38
24

Speedlites: Groups and Channels

11:35
25

Location Lighting Upgrade Examples

32:38
26

Indoor Lighting: Building on Ambient Light

14:44
27

Outdoor Lighting : Speedlights in Direct Sunlight

15:41
28

Outdoor Lighting: Using Speedlites in Shade

22:29
29

Outdoor Lighting: Romantic Look and Patterns with Speedlites

09:48
30

Indoor Lighting: Creating a Window with Strobes and a Curtain

15:47
31

Indoor Lighting: Moody Light with Speedlites and Gels

19:05
32

Indoor Lighting: Reflective Surfaces

17:47
33

Indoor Lighting: Shooting Against a Window

10:21
34

Indoor Lighting: Adding a Reference Point and Ambience

07:15
35

Indoor Lighting: Shooting into a Mirror and Creating Separation

04:59

DAY 3

36

Why You Need to Learn to Get it Right In Camera

07:32
37

Location Photo Review and Analysis

35:07
38

Intro to Reception Lighting SWOT Analysis

15:49
39

Reception Lighting Setup

32:01
40

Image Critique: Lighting Problems and Solutions

46:32
41

Don't Limit Yourself As A Photographer

04:02

Lesson Info

Location SWOT Analysis: Examples and Exercises

This television is a major threat to a photo a photo shoot or any mirror is I tell you a story of this I was asked to photograph the armenian pope for his porch or whatever and they had to go through security clearance and all this stuff to see him on dh they told me not to talk to you not to talk to him not to do anything I was like okay whatever huh that pope comes in he sits down on the chair I was doing I was doing his picture there was a mirror at the place where I was shooting him in front and it was a dark room they're during this time I didn't realize the mirror how is going to affect my cameras to tl system and because I was under so much pressure to get it done right away uh this is years ago I pointed my camera I had my flashes go the flashes hit the mirror and they gave me no power because they thought that they thought that it was very reflective he was very white because they looked to the flash it looked like the sun was coming right in so my camera when I took the pictu...

re it was pitch black and I was just like the pope right there like it's great on I got to go back and do it again I trusted the exposure of compensation of the flash pitch black nothing long story short I totally missed the shot like I didn't recover because that guy got up after that and he left he was done and I was about five stops under I give him the photos they get they got the photos but he was terrible they pretty will never hire me again he was like the worst disaster in korea because of the mirror you know it's like now I hate meters just like ptsd you know it's like uh so yeah, this television is nothing but another basically another meter so if he was to point your camera in this direction, you're going to get the same situation. So yes, I am aware of the threats reflective surfaces like if you want to take a picture and there's a painting, the painting can be oil paint on the oil print reflects light like crazy so you have a beautiful portrait of someone with this crazy hospital and you can't get rid of it and I'm just like, oh my god, you know what I did I know think about so now I do the opportunities are what can you do in in in the circumstance, what can you do to improve this circumstantial light using your reflectors, diffusers, constant light sources, flashes and strobes individually using one of those individually or using a combination of those things um and I put this in parentheses. It is truly the art off subtle tweaking river. When I was photographing joshua, how I was tweaking the light just a little bit to make it exactly what I wanted that's between the art of tweaking is tweaking everything so it's it's the way you the way you want it if you are sitting there, you're watching online, you're really thinking well, guess what, roberto, I don't have all day you don't, but if you if you start practicing like this process that will take you five minutes takes twenty five seconds on. When you walk into a room, you will be able to forecast what you need. You will be able to see the photos in your head based on the direction of light, and it will take you seconds to do something threat our potential issues that could cost undesirable outcomes like hot spots on people's heads or hot spots on the backgrounds and so forth. On this is when I wrote this, I was thinking like I was having a shears from I was having, like spine issues because I put ptl metering issues that was the meter experience with the pope, that was the meat that was the experience that on guys, I say this to everyone in my posting workshops that I teach. Always accept a reasonable amount of error you guys went to my workshop in l a what did I say about posing trying to be perfect at a post you don't go ahead I think if the emotion is there right then it's ok tio that's right opposed to being perfect it's right I always tell people even though have this posting book and I right and the people think of me supposing expert on all this stuff I literally make a mistake on every post I take because if the expression is a beautiful expression at the moment is really beautiful who cares if the fingers off who cares if the knees weird like take the picture you know anyway people come to me like a murder is taking that photo but the elbows are who cares about the help oh just take it you know I decided to become an expert opposing decided I wanted to avoid issues as much as I could not because I wanted to be perfect that was never the intention so okay um let's let's go through this go through this one with a different set of eyes this time uh I want to do this a little quicker I'm goingto have audience really talking this so if I don't know if we need to raise microphones or what we need to do but you know the first thing you should notice out of these ten things I wrote them down where is the brightest non direct light intensity here do I care that the sean is hitting the grass directly? No so here's what I would do there's enough there's a sidewalk here right and there's a tree here the trees getting hit by sun right there but the trees in total shadow right there that shadow is a darker color than the bright side of the tree right? So if there's a sidewalk here I would put my subject in the shot in the side work this will avoid the green color cast coming in if I do that and I shoot towards the towards the shadow side of the tree it's going to look good but if I shoot her from if I shoot the person from the other side it's going to cause more problems I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have to fight this hot spot on the tree doesn't make sense so that's kind of quickly what I do is really fast if this sidewalk wasn't here on it was old real grass I would just simply grab the reflector, throw it on the ground and shoot with with with a reflector right on the floor and that's it you move on it's very simple I want you to look at these photos and think quicker go faster guys like don't don't think for twenty minutes sting in seconds okay think quickly quickly tyler hit government give me give me some quick power wiles what you see in this location everything challenges opportunity's gone I like all that color just from all the people in the room so you'd use that okay? And I did talk about color families and so forth here so if you have a million colors it becomes kind of like a family off colors, right could be cool. What else do you see all the people moving around that school? It could be movement. It could be like you could blur them on in the flash can freeze your subject so the flash can freeze the person you're photographing while the rest of the people are moving in there blurred in the background super cool this is this is an opportunity that the location is giving you and you can be the photographer that doesn't see it or you could be the photographer the cc and takes advantage of it, right? What else? Tyler, what else? Um you got you got some cover or the cover and the shadows and they're so looks like there's plenty of light where's the main light coming from its vertical or horizontal burdick which would be a challenge because it looks like a dark gray ground this will be a great situation with the light's really coming in this way this will be a great time for the bursting of photographing too maybe raise their chin and get received all that light and the cool parties this is not direct light this is diffuse light because somebody stuffed cannot blocks the direct light so if she goes like this and she's wearing a cool red dress or something you free sir with a flash on the rest of the people are moving in the background and she's got her chin up to the sky and all my good is that the photo you could take here is sick but you would have to be able to recognize all these things okay, look up my wife and I walking in australia um we went to visit our friends jerry melissa you guys know jerry melissa willinto that was our ten year anniversary so we just went to australia to visit remember I talked about the reference point in the last point I made this is a good example of the reference point. You see how this is an analogy in melbourne right? The light is coming from above but the light is actually also coming from the sea from the end of the alleyway so the lights actually travelling this way too it is possible for the end of the hallway toby here on the light is coming from there this way into us, right? So here's what I would do because I have a tunnel like this I'm so glad I'm a photographer and not like a real artist tino grow well I guess we're talking about a real artists to I don't know just okay here's the here's the hallway right here's the outside light on all these light is coming in here this is the way I think on this wraps it all together the end this is like crazy stuff crazy stuff we're here we're here and it is this could be the end and the end could have light because it's a tunnel light has to travel through their true right this gives you a lot of options if I was shooting let's say a couple their lesson she's wearing a dress it's a it's a wedding picture for this for this particular case these lights are my reference points so this is my reference this here is my reference I would put a flash right there point the flash this way create beauty for separation between them and the background and you will never know that I used to flash because why the light is in the back so it although it makes total sense like if the light in the back and you put flash you think it's the light coming from the back not from a flash okay, so you do that then you put a big light source here and you could illuminate them forward and you can just create you could just make your flat light really doesn't really matter um the walls are too colorful so I probably wouldn't bounce the light into any direction because it may cause color casts okay this is the reference point this is why it's so important okay do you guys see the shadow line there so shadow line here so I would put the subject's right there bounds all this light blur all days you too static six point three why don't you just have to point a because then you will lose all the shapes so maybe like a a four a five point six something like that this is so far that if I point six will look like two point eight cool point this at them this will be all colorful and cool this is sucking the light not reflecting light was making my subject more prominent so it's the same thing as the great wall with rachel standing in front of it it's a darker background to your brights object okay do you see the big threat in this place what I mean what is the biggest threat? Uh let's see uh santa you try it. What is the biggest threat in this place? The color cast that could come off the that's a good one but there's even a stronger threat here go ahead honey windows no that still have a good one but there's still one that's even bigger there's a hot spot on that big ball thing back. Remember, I talked about one of the things that before is how reflective surfaces are. Well, that ball it's really cool, but that ball, that the reason why I was attracted to that is because it's the ball's sitting in between two buildings I was like, how awesome, but the stupid ball it's also reflective as heck. So if I was trying to put a flash, I'll do anything. You would have this major hot spot. It wouldn't work. Okay, however, do you know what is this? You notice how this piece of the wall is getting hit by the sun. And guess what? It's white? Oh, my goodness. And guess what else? It's smooth that's all you need to create an amazing picture. You put a couple here, you put your subjects fashion shoot. Whoever you're shooting, you may not want to shoot in that direction on you're gonna have a really cool photo with beautiful light. Okay, okay. Remember, I talked about the pockets of light here's me doing an engagement shoot with what I would call the most complicated clients I have ever had in my life. Really nice people, but the most complicated people I've ever had, that demanding wives, but he was good people. Look at all this sun and shadow and all the stuff I found a clean pocket of light and I photographed him on I just love her chin up wiser chin up because of the sun on look because the chin is up nothing nothing at all is being it looks like it doesn't look like awful spotty lighting in her face is that cool? You know it is the groom's face room and I said here the art of tweaking when the groom kissed her kissed her in the wrong place he developed shadows on his face but when I told him kiss her in the upper cheekbone and turn your face towards the light too then that cleaned up his face cleaned up her face and you have perfect exposure on them and it's kind of like a cool it's like they went to the corner in the party and they went to this little place and they took a picture you know? Okay look at that look at all the amazing ope you know it's like the coolest spot ever like I could do a vogue for the shoot right there first of all opening from the outside into a dark room so this can give you the light going this way right if you put the subject close to the shadow line it's going to be more vibrant if you put them further away they're going to be a little bit darker oh, look another shadow line on a white wall you could put them on the shadow side turn your face towards the tourist of sun and it will be like this blastoff gorgeous soft light in their face we thought a reflector without anything um black war black surface grey surface this is like not such a good reflector so you would just throw the reflector on the floor and be done with it. Okay, black, another door from the outside this makes the light go from opened down toe left and right. You put a subject here on the life all going to be showered in and look at the nice picture you get. This is the sexy calling pearson colin, come over here, my friends and I keep expecting the picture. Thanks, buddy. Wherever this photo shoots? Yes. Um, I'm sure I'm pretty sure you know, he came and he's like, can you do me? Can you take my head shots? And I was like, can you afford it? I'm just getting anything he just was like, sure let's go to this dark room outside. He was like, what, like it's weird thing to say, right? But that's where we took yeah, I don't know what you want oh, it was actually right here yeah, I looked dark dark background with all the sun illuminating your subjects those are the two things that create that rubber I said I knew for natural separations between the subject in the background that is the natural separation he gets all the light on the background gets none of it so it's gorgeous lighting and it looks like this I think it looks pretty nice, you know thank you. Thank you thank you. No charge no charge this time all right, my cousin's wedding in mexico city I walked into this room and now it was like like looking at this place going awesome of course I wasn't a photographer but I was just but I can't help it right? Do you guys notice that this is the roof and it's letting the light go from here into that section right there? I was thinking man perfect if I was shooting this wedding, people would be all I would be all over that because the sun it goes from up and down to left and right on the roof covers the life from their face so you don't have any harsh light on look the sun is hitting the stairs you can throw a reflector on the stairs and he will bounce all that light back into their face you will look amazing um I didn't think any pictures there because it's not my wedding to shoot actually, the photographer, uh, really nice. She recognized me at the wedding. It was really straight. I bumped into her and she's like oh, that's okay, excuse me. She's. Like what? It was really fun. Okay, moving on. This is what that looks like. This this situation happens at the ritz carlton in orange county and this is the same thing. There was an arch. It was outdoor going in. Change the direction of light and you get this. This is pretty. Yeah, this is out of my camera. No, no changes to the photo at all. Okay, what do you guys think of that lighting on those those those look amazing. I never remember like people say, well, let's, go to the fountain to take a picture. No, we're not going to the fountain. We're going with the best light iss and the best light is the lighter comes this way on if the sun is coming up and down, if you put a reflect our diffuser here now you make the lights go this way you're not making the light go this way you change the direction of the light, okay, you should probably know by now this is the sexy guy here is me, if you you know it's hard to handle it, I know you see the floor is getting hit by the sun now you know why she's doing this can anybody tell me why she's kind of leaning towards the floor a little bit to get closer to life make you go ahead to get closer to the light that's right I make that lighting more powerful that little change from here to here makes a big difference and when you use a lens that compresses it you cannot even tell she's doing that here's me taking photos with the iphone the reason why is because you know how you guys know my face one I should with face one I love my face one camera a lot of the challenges have had in teaching gigs now is that people say well you're amazing pictures is because you shoot face one and I'm just getting tired of it right I'm like you know you know how hard I work in my photography like on my skills and then you think my face one is what makes it so I did the fourth issue with her with the iphone I think you know why I'm shooting her in that spot now you understand that the texture the surface the color on the size of that wall is going to create an amazing picture look at the model I put the model on the floor here this is terrible you don't have to do that you're totally good I put her here I put the diffuser so she can see you can not hurt her niece but uh marc, can you tell me why I would choose the spot? Remember what I said at the beginning I look for the brightest non direct light in the environment so why would I choose this? Because the light is, uh coming from behind her and uh if you shoot from the other side you'll get a that wall is a reflector I don't know what's causing this light but you're right this is the bride the brightest spot so if if it's there on the floor or near the floor I just tell the girl to or the subject to go down to that level and I shoot her from the same level and I'm shooting her face and it looks crazy good. All you have to do is say, where is the brightest non direct flight and it's right there? Actually, you can actually see how beautifully she's illuminated enable those isjust an iphone picture, right? Oh yeah this is this is very important. Um one of the things I look for is shadows on the walls and shadows on the floor remember that and they say in the in situations like this it was overcast there was no sun to create the shadows but I did notice that I had one thing in my arsenal oh my goodness it's called a flash this is the sun so I didn't have the son what I had my son so I pointed the light I wanted there are some of the leafs back there I get the lease this is in a different location but it was the same thing on the leafs shadows work forecaster on the war and I and I made this picture it really is just a different spot this is not this but but it was the same concept this one so there was trees around her andi I fly I put my flash there and I got a hit off the leaves with my flash and I casted that on the wall on my top ten things I look for I said I looked for clean walls clean walls are great to cast shadows on the walls so if you don't want to cast any shadows you can just have a clean background but if you have something cool to cast a shadow on casted on a clean war but he looks kind of like that it's really interesting this is where most don't ever say I would have never thought that leaf and that war would create this but you're in the same location as everyone else and I was just clash okay roberta yes just ask a clarifying question as people are working through all this isn't from happy to three two again I'm confused he says shoot in the yeah exactly shoot in the brightest non direct light or shoot an open shade okay that's a good that's a good source open shade next though the shadow line is the on ly open shade I would ever shoot him so if you have a garage door like we were talking about that's open shade your inside the garage open shade but if the sun is hitting the floor right in front of you that son is casting all that putting all that light it to your face that's good clean sun spots on the walls a different kind of thing if the sun comes this way and it hits a bunch of trees and leaves and palm trees and whatever and it hits a war you find a small pocket off light and it looks like that engagement picture that I took wherever that with a complicated clients. So that's yeah, I think he's not he's not confused he's just thinking two different things are one but they're not okay remember the last one I said I looked for a reference point what would be your reference point here? Joshua what do you think all these, um lights all hanging in the ceiling and on the walls and you got the bright panels you have any natural reflectors here? Um yeah, those glass panels but they're also illuminating they're only a light source forever if a war if the sun illuminates this board on your you put your subject here this becomes the lights off horse, right? This could be a war or this could be what do you what do you call those things? Like panel like a bust up? How he has, like the the glass. And then you put the light underneath it and he kind of shines it's the same thing. This becomes the light source. So what I would do, I would put this is in japan, in tokyo. I would put my subject right next to this thing. So maybe here I would shoot from a low angle up. I would have my model lean forward towards towards two chicken. Might the angle of my camera, I would put a back flash behind her so it makes it look like peace lights are illuminating the back of her head. Cool on then I would take my picture with this and only one flash. The flash would make a look like these lights are creating that effect. And this is my second light source. Okay, here's, a nice painting, the angle of incidence. They not match the angle of reflection for my camera position. So you got this thing, but as soon as because I knew how light behaves I just had awful reflection guess what? The angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection so if my camera happens to be in the same angle a single of incidents, you're going to get a reflection so why do I have to do to get rid of that reflection? It's really complicated ready like that? That was really hard and then you get this, you totally flattened, you killed a reflection, and then I used the same technique to do this picture in in l a by the way, this is totally flashed and you wouldn't even know it without the flash that was taken at seven o'clock at night. Uh, the light was pretty poor it this was done totally with I mean, a lot of how do we flash? Okay, you know, when people say I'm a natural life photographer, I don't shoot flash, okay, never mind, but don't limit yourself you can be nice natural light but don't don't I don't think it's good for you to limit your creativity it flashes when makes the picture better than use it, you know, same thing with that painting in the back I just used the knife reflective surface there I changed the angle so there was a big light coming here making a big hot spot here I just changed my angle on it took this photograph this is my reference point, so the lighting on them sort of matches the lighting on the painting. Imagine if I would have had a blue jail under face that would violate the reference point thing. It would be like, what does this come from? Okay, let me know if you have any questions that roberto I did have a question just come in. Okay, um and it was the image from tokyo. Now this is from debbie martin it's, who says in the image from tokyo with a light paint on the side and the flash in the back how do you manage the white balance? Okay, that's a good one and the answer is in that situation, I'm not shooting that I wouldn't be if I was at a wedding, I would just totally do out of white balance out of white balance is good in that kind of lighting arrow where violence is not good in bad light or in green grass or those situations, so I would do otherwise balance if he wants to hear more cooler answer, I would go to calvin temperature and just adjust the kelvin temperature that way, but to be honest, I'm not that they know where I'm like no, I have to get the perfect like out of my balance I know will behave well in that jumping in that japan landscape I have another one about a specific image before we go too far this is on the chinese painting photo if you could not change the camera angle to get rid of the glare, would you try a polarizing filter instead ever? Um that's awesome, but it will still leave the reflection will still be there polarizer only really works on a glass on glass or something like this, so if you have a reflection bouncing off of glass, the polarizing filter would kind of help reduce that. But if it's not the past is like a painting or a poster that that reflections still going to be presents so I don't know I wouldn't use that plus who carries those things? Do you carry a circular polarizer? I don't know I have one I've never used that actually have one in my bag I think I bought it ten years ago is still sitting in its original packaging, you know um moving on and we're almost done but I want to show you some of the most beautiful images have taken I've taken them with all this in my mind okay, this one this one has a lot of potential because it's a grey wall, a great floor which I can bounce light off if there's not enough light to bounce, I simply do this if there's not enough light because it's raining or whatever I point the flash at the floor and acts like the sun so you you point at at the wall I mean at the sidewalk that's ira will go yes I will go and we'll just throw a light all over the place you know before I move on flash it's not its own entity flash is just another part of the family off light so if you want light like in this case but you don't have it you don't say I don't use flash you say world part of the same team we can point to flash at the floor and create like that way it doesn't make a difference okay like it's like we're all playing for the same team here you know this is really cool this is a situation where the sun hits the roof and you have all these arches so believe it or not what I would do in this is not what you would expect and I wouldn't ask you what you I won't ask you because it will be impossible for you to guess but if I was in a situation like this I would I would probably use three flashes full power I would go below the flashes sing speed so it would be a two hundred off a second for cannon two fifty for nikon I would blast as much light as possible from the outside of the arches inn to talk towards me because all that green grass and all those trees and the ocean in the back and all the stuff are nothing to me but distractions. So if I put the flash is in the back, pointed, pointed, like towards the camera lens at full power, I'm going to basically why whiten the entire scene on what's gonna be left over just the figure of the arches? And then I would put a couple in there somewhere, and they will look freaking amazing, and people would say, like, what the hell you know, the big pro photo I had if you don't have three flashes, you choose one of those pro photos and blasted a full power, and it will give you the same effect if you don't have a pro for just use your flash it's good enough. Yeah, okay, take a look at this picture because this is a very important picture. This picture I took ended up winning second or third place at the fbi for wedding photography. The pictures that I took in this trees, I put this I didn't want to show this yet because I wanted to put that the end, but I wanted to show you how important what I'm saying is, when you walk by the streets, you think nothing of it, like they're just trees, but when I walked by that I took a picture with my gopro camera and I thought, oh, my gosh, I'm going to freaking rape it up in this tree is right here. I remember people are like, why I like how it was like you'll see, you know, but check out that I'm gonna give you five seconds to take a look at that image, and then I'm going to move on because I want to show you what the photo looks like afterwards, okay? Well, I'm gonna move on. We'll do it later. Take a look at this photo here if a person was standing here and you were taking a four off them here, you're going to take a nice shot off this green. This green leaves are goingto basically bring your attention to your subjects kind of cool, right? But then you have this crazy sound spot here that is the undesirable effects that, like hot spot. I don't want that. I need to know if those were there. So if I put my subjects hear this crazy white line is going to cross their bodies, making it that making the photo useless to me so that's, why this having a keen eye for those things? Makes a big difference so when I was there by the way these photos were taken in sarasota florida I was doing my homework for a wedding the next day the poor bride flew me from l a to sarasota florida on the day of the wedding it was like hurricane katrina again going right through florida it was actually a really hurricane you were there I was how less the rain that day was very real it hurt it was like dangerous walking out and I was just like all my gods like that's really violent reign um this was the photos that I was taking kind of before the wedding I assumed as I saw the hospital and I said I gotta move on I got to find another set of trees so then I found this one you say there's no hot spot anymore so now you can put your subjects here you have this in the background perfect then I just alighting with whatever you want to do here's a nice one reflections point the flash at them on the front of reflection will show up in the water right uh this is actually really cool I shot this groom you notices about a foot and a half from the window I remember telling this groom I need you to move two inches more like two more inches he goes ok why was like doesn't matter just two inches to the right the reason is inverse square law of light says that if you are very close to the light source that I will fall off very fast I didn't want his other side of his face toby in complete darkness I wanted it to be darker but I didn't want it to be in complete darkness so I just said do it just five inches this way and he just moved five inches when the light hit him he made me put a little more life on this side of his face and that's all and this is the picture that came out of that you see how nice the side of his face looks the shadow side what would have happened if I would've put him right next to the window it just would have been pitch dark on that side okay it's not going to kill the photo no but it's so wonderful to me to know lighting and to understand the behavior of light that I can tell the guy just move five inches to the right and I know what's gonna happen and I can I can choose mike exposures I don't have to look at the screen and be surprised I know what's gonna happen remember I talked about currents and cheers and all that in this thing well if I closed the windows look at the groom she helped he's the brightest on the other people are not as bright another example off the inverse square law flight mean that stupid rule just it's on you all day long, right? So I closed the windows I told the groom take one step forward away from your groomsmen and that's gonna be inverse square law of light heaven because that person is going to get illuminated by the light and it is going to fall off the subject the other grooms and would go darker so that's what you get super cool right friendly picture really stupid air conditioning distracting thing but what did I say? Who cares? We want moving on okay here's a good one awesome light source point of face towards the light but this is a woman I don't want to split light her face and look how intense that like this so this white sheets reflected light on when I saw the reflection I said it's good but he's not good enough it could be better so that's when I told him the bridesmaid who's there make amazing assistance with a way to put the ice light on her on her face and look at the results of that picture there you see the other side of her face looks really nice had I not done had I not on the ice light here this would have looked fine but this looks beautiful there's a difference in fine on beautiful this is what I want for my clients look at the beautiful kites let's in her eye and look at the detail in her in the dark side of her arm it's totally there here's a good one the windows hitting the bride same technique is the groomsmen remember same technique but I don't want the bridesmaids all dark so I told the other wedding coordinator lady toe reflect all that light into these other price mates because the inverse square law of life is going to illuminate her perfectly and that is going to make everyone super dark so I said okay I know that's gonna happen so put a reflector on the on the other girls don't point it at the bride pointed at the farthest people and this is what you get and you can see me on the left tops you see me right there what do you guys think of this like, do you see how beautiful the light looks on her toe that's tweaking the photo based on your knowledge of light this is once really cool look at the groom totally hit by the light do you guys see that? Clean back running the back clean wall look for clean walls. Okay, this is like the brightest non direct light it's a clean wall. The light source is huge so how how is that like gonna look soft I'm beautiful put the very light this way why did I do the video light? Why would have been necessary here? Fill in the shadows to go from good to pretty amazing that's the difference you know people pay me money people pay me more money than most wedding photographers to do their photos by forest cannot possibly look like other people I strongly say selling being able to be being able to sail well really matters but when you're photos scream quality ah lot of yourselves job is being done for you you still have to know how to sail, but a lot of the sales job is being done for you when people have photos like like this one when you go for those like this bright want that imagine if this if the bridesmaids would have been pitch dark, would that be like please pay me twenty thousand dollars like no, it wouldn't work on this one the groom is their eyesight is there and look at the way the photo looks that's crazy now imagine the whole album looking like that that's why different people charge different amounts of money because some people could take the extra effort to make these kinds of photos happen to close the segment I want to show you and I do want your interaction with this one you've listened to me talk about thirty slights off how I put all this together take a look at this one and see if we can come up with cool possibilities um maybe you want to try it this time um inside the little archway it looks like it has the light coming in so you notice that the light it's going this way here right good are the bigger art I mean it could be either any of those really right do you want just me nor does the orange light important orange like would be a reference points if you have an orange light you could do on orange jail on you can change the mood of this completely you want to see the photo or should we not let's keep it let's keep it everybody thank you for coming just get even okay look at that turns him through that right and this is why I love photography because it's fun who thought that we turned him through that by only knowing how your equipment works the behavior of light on circumstantial light now this is all from the same wedding in florida when it was raining cats and dogs this's what I was producing for them when he was at the worst situation possible so let's look at this this is one photo this another this is another it's pretty good like you start to see how the album gets put together you're like I can see what people pay you more you know you start to see the quality difference in those things all right finally remember this I'll end the segment with this it was raining when I took this picture it was raining hard on the there was a tent here ah white tent where all the wedding was happening because they have to move the wedding to attend because it was raining that tent wass tent material which is like robbery which is very reflective on dh thank you for this it was white so I thought oh my goodness white tent robbery material in front of that what do you think my head is thinking I mean you could put a light on the tent the light would hit the tent bounce back into the subject's right then at night you see this little lights and stuff like this this is the lights all over the floor there was light illuminating and all over the floor and all that stuff it was good but the lights were green so it was just like oh no green lights so my reference point goes out the window so I said okay cool cool so I told the guy the driver uh if he can pull the rolls royce out of the parking lot and put the rolls royce next to the trees on dh he said why I said because I gotta change my reference point I was like, what just getting so we put the car here on, um, I put the bride and groom here, my friend was illuminating them from the back at a really strong power, bringing the light from here into the tent. The tent was a reflector bouncing the light right back into them, and I pointed another flash one flashes pointed at them from the back, about ten feet behind them. The other flashes pointed at the headlights off the rolls royce, why did I do that? Because if you point a flash at the headlights of the rolls royce it's going to look like the headlights are on, so now that became a reference point, and this is the photo that came out of all that craziness that was during the day, not tonight, but I wouldn't. I would have never thought about those trees that I don't take in those photos before, but this is the you know, when creative life, as you know, when george bernanke's and darlene and they asked me to teach a lighting class, I was passionate about this class because of this, I really thought I really want to teach this class because I'm actually excited about it because I want photographers toe I want to talk us to realize that this is not that hard, as long as you know how your equipment works, the behavior of light on dh circumstantial light. How the environment is there. If I would've just thought ambient light, I would have never thought the tents could be a reflector. But if you think in terms of circumstances, I thought, hey, I have a tent is white and this reflective. I have trees, that's, totally cool, looks going too dramatic. I have a light in the back of them, and I have another light pointing at the headlights of the car. It makes it look like the car headlights on it's illuminating them, but it was totally created by me on dh. I just think, it's, super fun, you know.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

10 Elements to Look For at a Location
Syllabus

Ratings and Reviews

MizUniverse
 

Im sitting in my office listening to Roberto with my earplugs on and I know I have already left 2 reviews but he's so funny…. my family comes into the office asking me "whats so funny" Roberto makes me laugh out loud with his jokes but at the same time, he is SO great at teaching. Im watching for second time to make sure all his good info is ingrained. HIGHLY recommend you take his workshop on Picture Perfect Lighting if you truly want to take your photography to the next level! WOW thats 3 reviews now…can you tell I am impressed

Maureen T.
 

I'm taking a portrait photography course at NYIP online. one of the mentors there recommended the posing book by Roberto. I ended up ordering at the library the posing and the perfect practice book. I fell in love with both books...ended up buying them and signing up here for the year membership just so I can take all of his photos courses. I spent most of my weekend doing perfect lighting course here I am in love with the way that he teaches! He makes something so difficult and challenging for me make sense. I also like that he challenges us photographers to be true professionals. I am thrilled to have discovered Roberto and already noticed my photography is better in the short time that I've been studying him.

dLhickey
 

Roberto has the personaliyy and gift to relate to others.He is honest and shared some of rhe disaters that occurred, even with high paying and important clients when he failed to follow his proven and tested approaches. He has shared from his extensive knowledge developed by hard work and effort to master his craft. His dedication in attacking his weaknesses and making them a strength is inspiring. I have purchased many CL classes and all have worth the investment so I hesitated to purchase this course because I didn't think there was much new information. However the clear teaching and extensive knowledge shared by Roberto in his unique style caused me to purchase it gladly and believe it is an exceptional value. Roberto has shared his extensive tools, but you will never be the master of the craft without putting in the hard work and testing that roberto testified to. Thanks again CL for bringing the best to us and Thank you Roberto for taking the time and preparation to achive excellance in in this class.

Student Work

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