Complex Lighting Examples
Rick Friedman
Lessons
Introduction to Rick's Work
14:53 2Rick's Gear Bag
27:02 3On Camera Flash Tips & Tricks
25:07 4On Camera Flash Q&A
09:13 5Off Camera Flash
42:50 6Off Camera Flash Examples
17:54 7Multiple Lights Tips & Techniques Part 1
25:43 8Multiple Lights Tips & Techniques Part 2
38:01Lesson Info
Complex Lighting Examples
you know that That multi setting on your strobe, I don't know if ever used it, But when you get through your modes and one of them is the multi setting, well, this is the effect of the multi sitting. So this is a single frame and those air to coffee filters that this gentleman is dropping on. Our idea was, so it's only it's one frame, and as the strobe pulsate, it records them. So it was instant. We get this Simon and they say, Well, he measures the rates, things falling. He uses company filters. So we immediately go out by £2 of coffee and this one we thought we had a rehearse. So we go by two bonds of coffee and probably dropping all over the studio floor. We get that we find that only drops filters. He doesn't drop coffee. So we threw £2 of coffee on the studio floor for absolutely no reason that you're set. By the way, Notice who's barefoot holding the last stroke. So the reason you have this rack of strobes coming down is that as it pulsates and it's recording when it got down to ...
about here. If you only had one strobe. It would start to get darker. So the fact that you have this rack of speed lights and again they're all on TV. Oh, we just took the setting on again. Keiko's sort of holding last one. And, as usual, the gear strong all over the place. And this one obviously has to be on a tripod is a rule. I don't necessarily use dry pods. There are a few pictures I use among but not many. Did you have a question, please? Yeah. Is it because you have it on T T l That you could use that pulse mode? Well, no, no. We're just going to go to the strobe strobe mode, though. Yeah, so depending on your strobe, you're going to go to your mode setting and you're just gonna function through your mode settings. And on the Nikon, it's called repeating. Um, I forget what it's called on the cannon. Ah, and that's it. And then we're gonna determine how many Stroh Hominy pops you want per second and how many seconds we want the exposure to last. And that's roughly how you calculate your exposure. So it's Let's just see where we are at it in my hand. But yes, please. Going so earlier, you mentioned the comfort of your subject matter. Would you subject matter? I mean, I'm sorry. That's like supposed to anti matter. I guess we're talking about scientists, right? This bracket example. Would you take that in account? Um, with how complicated you you're gonna get with the shoot. You're working with a professional here. You're working with world class scientists. There were shooting Answer. Who just won the lottery? Who doesn't have any experience? I better be really good is a matter of fact. I need to be really good with all of the subjects because the scientists can be the most brilliant people on the planet. I I've had the honor photograph anything about 50 Nobel Laureates, and they may be brilliant and function on a plane that's a little little different than where some of us function. But you put a camera in front of him on They're like deer in headlights, which is what happens with a lot of people. So it's our job to break through in our very limited amount of time, So I don't think it really matters if it's answer who just won the lottery. And if she did, could you please share or, you know, a gentleman who's won a Nobel prize? You know, one sure not dealing with people who are used to being in the public eye. So if you're dealing with, you know, Anthony Hopkins, you really didn't have to tell him what to do. You know, he was happy to take direction, but he kind of knew what to do. Um, you know, and some politicians are great and really easy because there are like, actors, you know, we just put a gun. Joe Kennedy the other day. You know, Joe has been in training for this job his entire life, and he's a great guy and is easy to work with. And you're so to suggest that he just doesn't you know. Whereas I worked with other very famous people, um, sort of in the same family, and some are better than others with the camera and some you have to direct some you have to read, you know, there are certain people that I've worked with, you know, you're only going to get X number of good minutes with, and you really have to be aware of that. I did not sure we're going to see it on. I did a bunch of work with John Ratzenberger, um, professional actor. But I worked with John, and I know that he was not going to do a second take. I had to nail it and I had to read. This was during a TV series that he was on, and I had to read his moved and then suggest cause while I was out there, I was expected to do X number of portrait today and you had to read. So here's a guy who really you know, this is his craft and you still have to do it. So I find with everybody that you do it, you know, with scientists. I've had a bunch of Why do you like hanging out here in were the most boring people ever. It's like Well, to me, you're not. And if I conveyed them that they're not, and it doesn't matter what they do if I'm photographing the mechanic, but I want to know what kind of car is they're working on so I can talk to them. And the other thing is you know that I describe this. I've really gotten my college education one hour at a time, from the greatest minds in the world that I get to be with people who become presidents, senators when Nobel Prizes write books. Unfortunate. Some of them are homeless, you know? But I get to be with all these aspects of humanity, and I get to enjoy it and I get to learn from everybody. And in one sense, I think it's almost foolish if I go spend time with these people and I don't know, you know? I mean, I've done numerous stories, like on E O Wilson. If you could spend an hour with Neil Wilson, why would you not want to learn from the man? I mean, how cool is that or to go spend time with Keith Richards? I mean, it's it's everybody has something to offer, and I just feel like it's a great education and I get to do it through my camera, and if wasn't for my camera, I would not have the ability to do this. So it really affords me a great window into the world. So let me show you wanted to more And then I think we're almost done with this. Sexual makes more pictures. Oh, this one's kind of fun. This was actually we had done a shoot here, but a couple years before and they somebody called up and said, Well, can you duplicate that shoot? Well, when we did the initial shoot, it was in March. Okay, this is in July. Okay, on what they wanted was the portrait with that background. This is Keiko is the standing, obviously. But so that light outside the window. And this is a Dina Light. We're doing this next section, but here's our grid. And here's our tungsten Jell O K. And I'm tryingto simulate the light that I was getting in March. Except I'm getting it in July, and that's how we did it. So we just blew the light through it and just recreated what we had already done. And I think that's it for that section. So let me, uh, do a little more shooting. Unless you have some questions that you would like to run through. We definitely We take a couple questions, do anything you want. You're in charge, wear not in charge. You're the boss. We're all in trouble. All right, we're gonna figure this out together, folks questions. And then we can that we could do a little bit. Sure, whatever you would like. That's a great eso, MD says, when doing the halo light with males or models with short hair that years tend to glow. Right? Have you ever seen that? And how do you avoid that? Yeah, I've seen it's not real pretty. Nobody wants to look through somebody's ears. Yeah, the answer is now your grid out. So if that you know that hairline light is coming all the way around, you need to narrow it on and let's be realistic. There is a point, you know, with some people. This light works great and you know there is no light that works for everybody. So you need to look at your subject, decide what is like, you know what is appropriate. All right, Rick Jermaine from ST Lucia asked, How do you count? I go to ST Lucia and answer personally. Jermaine from ST Lucia asked. How do you calculate the rebound? Distance from bouncing flash often object like a wall. Wow, that's a great question. Hideaway Calica that I actually don't. Uh, everything we've seen so far has been on T T L. So I I'm not really calculating. And, um and it's, you know, Caroline further me nine big fan of making it simple. There are lots of ways to get to a certain point within photography. I tend to want to take the simple is one. So, unfortunately, really don't have an answer to that question that's perfectly legitimate. Could we take a couple questions made from earlier in the day? Of course. Beautiful. How about Jen? 9400 says when exposing for the sky as the element you can't control? Are you using any filters? Do you ever use nd polarizing filters or controlling the exposure just with the flash I As a rule of not using any filters, you certainly could use it with an indie filter, a neutral density filter, because I want to knock the F stop down. But I'm basically controlling it with now. There are times that we haven't gotten into this at all, that we will go to high speed sink. High speed sink is a setting on your camera or on your strobe that is going to enable you to go above the actual setting that the cameras designed to do. And with the T. T l Systems, it works great. When you start getting into studio strobes, it's a little more difficulty. It is doable if I could follow this up a little more. So if we go to the T T ones and the TT fives in the pocket Wizard thes actually have the ability to do what's called hyper sink, which somehow they figure out the ark of the Strobe going off and you can take a dina light. I think we can get it to up to about 12 50 as a sink speed so we can go beyond what it is done. So those air, ah, couple of different ways that you would do it. But generally I'm controlling it with this drove and you're going to find there are times and unfortunately, don't have a bright, sunny day here. Otherwise would be out playing on the streets did. You're going to get beyond what speed lights can really do on that's coming up in the next section. Great. How about one final question? Sure, right. Nicole, in Houston asked. What is the benefit of changing the power of the flash instead of changing the exposure in your camera. Okay, so let's say I want to stay at F four because I don't want a what a depth of field. There's your answer right there. So I could change the exposure. Okay, but on Lian manual member and T TL, it's going to try to compensate for itself automatically. So if I'm you know, I could use the flash setting on the camera where Aiken dialled all my strobes up and down. So in a case like this set where we had to strobes if I went to the flash compensation which is built into every camera, I could change the exposure, but I could It would be changing it for the whole set. Not just for one. Okay. Ah, let's go on. Let's throw some more shadows up, Keiko, And let's see if we can feel them it. What do you guys doing with the gears, anyway? I'm not asking. We're switching gears. Very good. I like that. Yeah. You want to do that? Okay. Planned. Baked quick, because we've already done some of this. So, um, for we're actually gonna quickly jump over to these stairs because we want to show you a quick example off cross filtering, and this is sort of we don't really have a clear window, but, um, let's say we have the staircase and we want to make a cool picture. What are we going to do? And all your We only have 5 to 10 minutes, and then we get deadline. All right, let's quickly do this. So we're gonna get this out of the way. Sorry. I'm gonna open that up. We're gonna move this gear out of the way here. Just stood up low. Let's see what the heck we're gonna be able todo. So we're going to see if you can play with the gears. And now I am going to rig very quickly a light up there. So I need Teoh. Where is that clamp? You got the clamp? There is the clamp. Bring that down, please. Oops. A daisy. Thank you. Okay, I'll take that. And we need piece of this. So we're going to try to Do you see that railing over there? We're gonna put a strobe on that rail. This guy up here, Out of the way. Let's use thes small flash Bender on said this thing's kind of a cool clamp. So now I'm gonna put it right here. And I could put this on a door. I could set it on a table, but right now, I'm going to set it right here. This little shoe up here on and let's get very technical notice. We're in a very technical a lot of that. Ah, and you have a thank you very much. Do you want to use that one? Okay, let's use that one. I'm gonna bring this guy up a little bit, so let's say we've done the other shooting. We have five more minutes on. I got to try to get I want to give him one more. So they have a table of contents, picture or whatever. The other thing, you know, in working as a photojournalist, most of the work we shoot, we have the right to re sell. We own it. So if I can find a create a picture that might have more of a life, well, then I might make more money, which isn't bad. So we're gonna quickly sit this guy in here. Don't see here There we go. Now I have, all of a sudden have to compensate deal with his back, like, Okay, So there's a lot more life here, and it should be said that should be set. Do you want to step into this one, Keiko? Because you did yesterday, Okay. She's like, No. All right, So the first thing I have to start with is the element I can't control. Which is the light out that windows. That's what my exposure begins. I'm gonna drop my I s o down. I'm gonna get a quick reading out the window. Andi, what I'm going to do. Okay. Now, I want you to lean out a little bit, K. Go on. Let's see here. So we get to see where he's firing to. Cool. Okay, let's take a look at my light out the window. That was really only a light test. So what's a daisy? And probably I just pulled this out again. All right, So what I'm gonna do, bring this up, Bring this up and the first thing I want to do actually is to turn that off the turn. Give me a profile, please, cause what I want you to see Lean back. Just a tiny bit more. I'm gonna see if I can make this work. We should be getting a silhouette. We've got a silhouette, which is really good if we want a silhouette at one guy. But we've started with the element we cannot control. All right, so now we're gonna turn this guy back on, and hopefully which are going to sync up. Let's see if this is gonna fill it in properly. Okay, Go Bring your hand back. Just a tiny bit. Paga Don't fall. Uh huh. Let's go. Okay. We need a little bit more light in there. On what matter? Yeah. Uh, yeah. Let's just try one more. Looking a little low to me. Still. Okay, so let's bring that light up just a little bit higher or bring you okay? I think we have to warn way. Have toe watch the where it's going to reflect in the window. Let's see what's gonna happen here. See here. This is real World Situation Gang. Now, the reason that the reason that didn't work this is on T t l and you see the hot spot. Okay, That hot spot fooled the auto exposure. So it's bring that back down a little lower, please. No, we go. Let's try that. I think maybe it worked that time better. I'm gonna throw this unto manual on to see what happens. Let's try that. This may be the case. We're better off manual because we're getting a little flashback. There we go. Okay, that's pretty good. Let's bring our light a little bit lower. Uh, okay. Well, what's a tiny bit more exposure? Don't fall asleep now. Here we go. Way go. Okay. Well, your parents gonna be proud of your girl, but look, I mean, that's that's pretty good line. So this is the case. I just went from auto to manual. Took over complete control of it. Now, obviously, we would find tune this a little bit more. Okay, but it's kind of a fun picture. Now, let's see what happens. The effect if we cross filter this. Okay, so we've got some pretty good blue out there. If it was great, this might be a better demonstration, so I'm gonna take my camera. I'm gonna throw it onto tungsten, and then we're going to throw a tungsten filter on to that and we should be coming out. I'll get that. Don't get up. I'll take care of it. No, you got that. One's a little little, little bigger filter. That's the wrong filter on this one, but still went off of this one. There's not a lot of uniformity in our filters. By the way. You'll notice this one is brand new. It's like taped together with scotch tape. Think about how many filters this size you could make. I have one sheet of filter this size pretty much a lifetime supply off. Okay, Let's see what happens here. I think their equipment a net. Hold on. Okay, Ready? Now, look like you're having fun. Let's see if this experiment's gonna work, bro. No, we didn't hit it. Keiko, With enough light, we got the blue. We just that lights not aimed at you. Is that aimed at you know? Oh, I see what's happening. Hold on. Hold on, hold on. I see the challenge. So what happens is we only have a very small surface here, and this is actually mounted too far down. So therefore, most of our light was actually just going into the top. So let's try to get it up here. Just get it right below the height off the strobe head and it should work. We have to hurry this up because Keiko has to go get a Nobel Prize. That far? Better? Better, better. Okay, we get in there. Let's try this. Ready? Go. Come on. Yeah, we're close. We're gonna play with it a little bit more so Lubin dark. But what if you look at the light out the window? OK, way were picked up. A lot more blue. That's what we're going for. We're outside on a gray day. This would solve. All right. What are you doing? Okay, uh, let's say there are Call is getting a little better. Okay, so we're gonna play around with this a little bit more, and we should have it now. In reality, I actually wouldn't cross field to this because you don't need to, but I just want you to see how we go ahead and do it
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
Rick is great fun and I liked this course (he had the 2'x3' too low as it was uplighting the model quite a bit). I love his personality and the way he explains what you can do with minimal gear. it is a shame, however, that he seems to have such an aversion to umbrellas. I don't think he's ever used a deep umbrella as they produce much more focused light than the regular, shallow ones. All in all, though, I liked it. Great presenter. I liked Keiko, too!
Patrick
Of all the Creative Live classes I've watched this was the most fun and the most motivating. Rick's easy, unflappable style and humour makes it easy to take in what he is saying and doing. Highly recommended.
Sean
Rick Friedman does an excellent job in this course. He is a true professional who really knows his craft. He is an entertaining and excellent presenter.