Skip to main content

Equipment and Indoor Lighting

Lesson 15 from: Senior Photography

Kirk Voclain

Equipment and Indoor Lighting

Lesson 15 from: Senior Photography

Kirk Voclain

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

15. Equipment and Indoor Lighting

Next Lesson: Outdoor Lighting

Lesson Info

Equipment and Indoor Lighting

I really, really appreciate again you guys having me here on day two. We did all kinds of stuff yesterday and I figured other than saying again, thank you. Thank you for being let having me here. And I'm so humble to be here, humbled to be here that we would start today with a bit of a review of yesterday. And if you see on notice on the screen, those were some of the topics that we talked about yesterday, one of which was the red circle. And the red circle basically is to help you get it in your mind the concept that you what's in your mind, what you sell would your thinking about it has to match what's in the mind of the customer If it's if it does not match. If the two red circles don't match, you're not gonna have a sale. It also really helps you get a grasp of exactly what advertising is and how it all works. So that was the whole point of the red circle. Hopefully everybody got the point of that. When it comes to advertising, when it comes to that type of thing, The most powerful...

form of marketing that's out. There is word of mouth marketing and that type of marketing. What it does is it allows you to get touch. A lot of people, it motivates people. That was one of our points about advertising is that it's a system of persuading people to buy well, word of mouth is the most powerful of all those types of advertising. It also allows you to because of word of mouth. What it allows you to do is market on a limited budget. It allows you to actually have people pay you to market is what It actually balls down, too. So that is what word of mouth does. We talked about pricing yesterday. Russell kind of mentioned it a little bit about how there's ala carte pricing. There's package pricing. There's all those different types of things, but and why? I use the Allah court system. We talked all about that. We talked about amateur versus professional. What's the difference between those types of things? And we talked about doing some stuff for free versus doing stuff, for pay and all sorts of different ways of pricing and marketing ourselves. But the whole point of yesterday is the very last one. Marketing is the tool that you use to get to the photography stage and all day yesterday. The reason I do that first is to help you grasp that concept, and you have to understand that less. Imagine two photographers were gonna call him Photographer, A and photographer. Be, Let's just say Photographer A is Ah, I don't know. So so photographer. The type of work that they do is media. Okay, They're bad photographer. Let's just call it like it is there Photography is bad. Okay, Photographer be, on the other hand, in his award winning photographer. Their work is just impeccable. The stuff that they do is incredible. When you see it, it just takes your breath away. Photographer A is a fantastic marketer. They are always getting their stuff out there, always putting it in the front of the customer. People are seeing it there promoting word of mouth like crazy photographer be Oh, no, the hand says Well, I'm a great photographer. My stuff is incredible. I do beautiful work. People will just come to me now Which one do you think makes more money? Absolutely. A is absolutely making more money and the photography looks. But so that's the reason why I did all that I did yesterday. All the concept about marketing and pricing and all that stuff is because if you do not have that in place, what we do that is so fun, what happens today? It's useless. It's absolutely then still just a hobby. You're an amateur. You might be doing award winning work. But if you're not turning a profit, you're just on amateur. You're just mediocre to me. Because if you're gonna be a professional photographer, you got to turn a profit. So that was the reason for all of that. We're going to. We had a whole long list of things that we questioned everybody about yesterday under the camera tab. We're gonna actually go through all that list, and as we get to it, we're going to scratch it off. So what I thought we could do this morning is actually talk about some of the different things equipment wise that I use, why I use it. That type of stuff talk a little about posing, posing theory, how I do posing that type of thing and then just kind of you know. Let's just sort of show it instead of doing it. And then for segment two, we're gonna go do it sound like a plan. So when it comes to my equipment, I currently am using the Canon one DX. I used the one ds mark three also 40 millimeter, 85 millimeter. One point to 60 to 35 7200 eyes to this is the lens I used the absolute most. So I think one of the questions from yesterday was, You know, I'm on a limited budget and I can't buy all this fancy shmancy stuff. What should I buy? Well, lends wise get the 72 200 is the 7200 to image stability L glass better than the image. The seventy two hundred one? Uh huh, it ISS. It's that it's visibly better, in my opinion. So if you could pull off the money, if you can afford it, get that one. Okay, If that's the on Leland you can buy, then from there also used the 300 millimeter. I use the 600 e xrt flash outside. That's that on camera flash, and we'll talk about that in a minute. That's a question. I get a lot from people, Kirky. Wait, Wait. You all about being professional and looking professional? And are you telling me you actually put a flash on camera when you go outside? Yes, I do. And I'm going to explain that in detail. So that is my list of equipment besides the actual physical camera stuff in the studio, I used the pro photo, the one steer Siri's lighting. I used the pro photo Acute B 600 are on location when I do those types of images. If you've seen some of these images that I've done, where the sky is really, really, really blue looks like it's obviously done with a wide angle, maybe low. A little piece of the sun is in the picture of flair. All those types of things that's done with the off camera flash outside and that off camera flash is that pro photo of B 600. The reason I use back to the studio the D one Siri's, is this of I have used all sorts of lighting equipment over the years. I've taught all sorts of little classes in studio workshops and things like that So that's I've had access to all kinds of equipment. Of all the pieces of equipment that I've ever used. The pro photo Siri's is the ones that allow me to whenever I pull the trigger and take a meter reading If it says F 8.1. If I fired again, it's F 8.1. If I fired again, it's F 8.1. If I fired again, it's F 8.1. I mean it is nailed every time. Where is other lighting? I notice will fluctuate with not We're talking minor fluctuation here, but you might go poof F 8.3 poof F 8.0, poof F 8.1. But it's still a fluctuation, and so that's a big deal with me. The other thing is, it's gonna be very, very difficult for me to show you this. It's one of those things that you have to see face to face, but I can sort of explain it when we're shooting, and I don't really A lot of photographers use their meter on a meter and they said in Boom and they take the picture and then they move light around and they meet or and they move stuff around or they have a string. I know you've seen the string photographers have they pull out a string and they know that that's FAA. And so, boom, they take the picture or they have little tape or marks on the floor and they will do in the room and they'll take the picture. Well, one of the things that I've noticed that I absolutely love about the D one Siri's light is that the intensity of the modeling light perfectly matches the intensity of the flash so that I actually get toe where I What I see is what I get. So if I look at the subject and the subject appears to be overexposed, all I have to do is dialled exposure down and then hope they look great to me. Now clear the light so it isn't storing any power. And then boom, take the picture and boom! I get perfect exposure if I back the light up way over here. And the subject mood of subject looks dark now. Well, I raise the power on the light and now they look good. Boom! And so it's exactly what you see is what you get a type of lighting, and that is something that I absolutely love about that light. So that's another one of the reasons why I use it, and you kind of see that today. But again, that's very, very difficult to see on camera. I've tried to record it myself, and it is difficult. So no, there is a reason to come see me live. So you guys got that? I also use an absent printer for emergency type things. It happens all the time in the senior world where they say, Oh my God, I'm graduating this week and I need 100 wallets, Okay? And so for that type of thing, I can quickly have something that gives me the ability that print fast. It happened to me this week, a very good customer mind. The son died several years ago, and they, having a foundation benefit for him, started this thing in his name, and they suddenly forgot that they needed a print to put up, you know, as part of the foundation type thing. And they called me and said I have to have a 16 by 20 but tomorrow, what can you do and so us. I can have it for you this afternoon. How's that wonderful again? Like yesterday? I'm the good guy. I want to be the good guy and whatever it costs, it just doesn't matter what you think. You all know me pretty good by now. What do you think I charged him? Do you get for free? I'm thinking free, I think. Free. Absolutely. Zero. No way am I charging for that? However, I said, is this benefit all about making money? I mean, I'm assuming that's what this is that this is a benefit that the people who are coming you're gonna try toe solicit donations for this foundation. They said, Yeah, I said, Well, if this was a normal situation, if this wasn't for this purpose, you know, with rush fees and everything you're looking at about $ for that 16 20. But it's not gonna charge cost you anything, but I would like to be the first to be credited as a $1500 donation. Oh, you got it. I mean, his PR man. It's just it's good word. It's like all it's already happened. It was all over the ladies Facebook page. Do you know Kurt Folk? Cling did so you see. I mean, that's that's just good business. I'm the good guy, see? So that's again sort of going back into yesterday. And anyway, I get that from pro digital gear is where I get my ups and stuff from. They are just they seem to always have the best prices, So that's just for what it's worth. I used the Danny Manufacturing four by six and the 10 by 36 strip. You'll see me use it today. I absolutely love that for six off box. One of the reasons why I notice a lot of people do not have a four by six off boxes because most four by six off boxes are quite expensive. You will find that this Danny four by six is totally within your budget, and not to mention the fact that if you do any type of location, stuff you're gonna love the way collapses the way it's portable, the way it moves very easy. So that's another thing that I do and absolutely love. You'll see me. I'll demonstrated today and why I use it and see how great the light is and exactly how I use it. Because, you know, there's little little Twinkie things like, for example, just as a side note, I do not use the baffle inside of it and I'll show you Why later? So anyway, that's that. And then also used the Lord's try grip reflector, silver white reflector. Actually, I have it down there and I used the get so carbon fiber tripod. Now my tripod is almost like my Linus blanket. You know, for you guys who ever watched Charlie Brown. By the way, the high energy guy you saw yesterday gets tarred on Day two. So it was kind of treat. Keep the energy up. But it's a different mindset when you're shooting, I don't know. I just becomes And then the energy guy comes back crazy on Photoshopped Day because that's always fun. But anyway, one of things that I absolutely love about this tripod is this. You know, if you can't do this with your tripod, your tripods too heavy and so that's because it's carbon fiber isn't cheap. Is God awful? Expensive? But I beat up tri PiS. I eat him for lunch, everything. I live on a tripod I shoot an entire wedding on a tripod, Every senior tripod. I go on vacation. I bring my tripod. Okay, don't tell my wife, but I sleep with it at night, all right? It's just I love, love, love my tripod. And so for that reason, I eat these things for lunch, all right. And before I started using the get so carbon fiber one, what happened? Waas. I would go through a tripod a year. Every year I would go through a tripod and I buy another one. So in that sense, this tripe, it actually becomes cheat now because I haven't bought another tripod and 68 years, I think so. It just last much longer. So if you look at it from that standpoint, the tripods cheap. But if you look at it from the fact that it's $ it's expensive. So but a lot of people complain, and I can hear the Internet world right now saying, Wait a minute, there's no way you can. You can shoot with a tripod. Everything and but yes, I can. And here's why. Here's what your complaint is and Kate Internet world. You're saying that if you have to go from high to low. You have to unscrew the leg. You have to push it in and you have to unscrew the leg and push it in and and you take the picture and then suddenly they want something high. So now you're gonna go back universe, and you unscrewed the leg in Ghana and its take so long. It's so aggravating. There's no way. Here's what. Here's why I love it. Watch to go low. You pull this little thing and I'm low. Okay? I didn't need to go high. No problem. I'm high. If I need to go higher, I'm higher. Okay. If I need to suddenly now be extra low. I can be extra little and then I could go right back up. So don't tell me I can't be fast with this thing because I do it all the time. I love the pistol grip for the camera because I do. You'll notice I do a lot of leaning and tilting and all that stuff and so I can just put it where I want. The camera is the primary. Like I told you, the 72 200 You'll see me do it today and I could go vertical horizontal cause it amounted to the lens, not to the camera so I can slip it vertical, horizontal, and then I can lean in just a little bit. Boom depicted. I'm very, very cool. You'll see it happen today. So that's why my lioness blanket goes with me everywhere. In fact, you know what is weird? I've been asked to do. Ah, buddy of mine. We went on vacation with him to Hawaii and why we were there. He's a photographer, and Bobo's probably watching right now, huh? Anyway, And he said cart Oh, I want a family portrait while you here do it. I got my camera so I don't have all that. Here's what I got mine. You can use mine. So you brought your tripod? No, I'm like Oh, okay. So I have to take your picture without a tripod. Yeah, it's okay. I do it all the time. I'm like, but I don't. And do you know how weird it was? So it was like I was you know, I didn't know which ended a look through. It was so awkward. I did it. He was happy. We all lived happily ever after. But that's how that's how the tripod has become. For me, it is just that much of a piece of equipment, if you wondering where to get him. I get all my stuff from Robert at Dorries. Do you are y eso? That's That's ah, how I do that. So let's talk studio lighting. It seems to me that studio lighting, for some unknown reason, just gives a lot of people heartburn, and they just don't seem to get it. So hopefully when I'm going to try to get you to do today is understand some things about lighting and lighting theory and how the whole light works. As you may or may not know, the closer you are to something the bigger it becomes, the farther you are from something, the smaller it becomes. So thus the reason for this slide that's up on the screen. Notice the red measurement. That's the fill light across the back wall. It's firing across the back wall. I have four lights on like a little poll, and that's what it looks like when the light comes on. And if you notice that red bar that's feet, okay, now the green line. The other red line is the light just for the sake of conversation. This is not the light that I use. This is on Lee, a two foot light. But where that light is positioned and again, this is not how I light. This is strictly to demonstrate size. That light where it's at is two feet across, but it's close to the camera. So do you see how the light? The main light, which is only two foot square, is exactly the same size as the back wall, which is feet across? You'll see that. All right. So notice now that if you was to draw a line up straight up from that green arrow from the soft box, noticed that relatively, as we was just saying that the main light and the fill light or basically the same size. Now this is just again my theory. I did a little bit of testing with this, but it just seems to produce better results when the fill light and the main light, or literally the same size, all right, And so what happens is this often times will go to a trade show. We see something on the Internet, and they've got a two light pack and it comes with two soft boxes. You know where to umbrellas, whatever. And so we buy that. Who were going to be a studio photographer, right? And so we'll put the fill light in the back. All right, that clock that you see in the Red Square, that clock is one foot square, all right, it's one foot square. I measured it. So based on the fact that the clock is one foot square, I drew a 24 inch red square, but it's up against the back wall, so that's where we're gonna put our 24 inch of soft box or umbrella to be our feel like. Then we put our main light right here. That's the Blue Square, and it's 24 inches. Do you see the problem that's happening? So here's what's happening. Here is the thought process I want you to think about. What is the purpose of a fill light? I just gave it away to Phil. They don't call it the fill light for nothing. It fills in the shadows, like you said, right? So does it make sense to you that that light should be a soft light or a hard light. What do you think it would make sense to need? Should be sauced, right? Because all we're trying to do is fill in shadows. Okay, so think about it this way. You're gonna be a a painter artist. And what you're gonna do is you're gonna first sort of lay down the sketch of the portrait you're gonna draw. This is where the face is going to be in this where the hair is gonna be right and in the neck right here and then maybe some shoulders and about what are you doing? You're laying down a base. That's what the feel like does it just sort of establishes where the subject is. The key light may like whatever is the purpose of that is to provide where the main light or the main amount of light are the properly exposed areas. So if the main light is here, all of this, let's say, is gonna be in shadow. You want a nice transition from highlight to shadow. So the US, yes, the fill light should be soft. Okay, well, if the closer you are to something the bigger it becomes and the further you are from something, the smaller it becomes. If you take a 24 inch soft box or, um, Belo something and put it against the back and then you put one in the front where the key light is Is that soft box way in the back Is our Arambula brother in the back? Is it soft light? Is it is it or is it more of a harsh light? What do you think is harder? Yes. Let me again illustrated this way so that you can visualize it. Picture the sun picture of the earth in relationship to how big the sun is. How big is the earth? Tiny The earth is maybe like a pencil dot compared to the size of the earth. So the sun is a big monster light source, right? Is it hard light or is it soft light? It's hard like Why is it so hard? 93 million miles away. 93 million. That's why. So when you put ah big giant light source 93 million miles from the subject, it becomes hard like it gives hard shadows. But now, if there was some way we could bring the sun closer to us and not burn up would in fact become softer. Sure, we become this big months. The light source. By the way, don't you always love this totally off subject on how much creativelive loves is. But you Have you ever seen a photographer with his light meter come up to a subject and go and then go take the picture like 93 million miles and two feet is gonna make a big difference. Now, what you get here is the same number you're going to get right there. Okay, That's totally off. Subject just always kills me anyway. So back to the studio. If you want a soft light, a soft fill light that fill light needs to be the same size as the main light start makes sense. The blue square and the Red Square should be the same size hold. I thought so. That's the reason why if you notice on the you see those four lights firing fills up this entire area. So back to our two green lights, my feel life is the same size as my main line. Does that answer your question? Go Aziz. You mentioned about people that buy did it too. Okay, Yes, but most of the photographers. What? They're doing it this way. They put 45 degrees, and it's okay. I'm gonna put this year in F like a 4.5 of this year there. Eight or something like that? Yes. Wrong. And they're not putting back there because one of the other things I was getting to that in about two seconds. You don't want to split your lights if you split your lights like this and shoot between me getting these two gross catch lights in the eyes, What you want is a nice transition from Maine. Highlight to shadow to get a nice transition from highlight to shadow the to the main light and the fill light need to touch. So there's no way for them to touch because you can't shoot through the thing. So the only way to get the fill light is to put it behind the photographer because of the main lights gonna be here. The field light is gonna have to be here. You gotta shoot on the side. Does that make sense? So that is a huge mistake I seal and Okay, you know what? Can you do it? Can you do it with a mainline to feel like here? Yes. Will it work? Yes. Will you get results? Yes. Will it be awesome? No, that's what I'm getting at. We're trying to make. We're trying to take photography your whatever you do to another level which are trying to make it the best it can be. So that's that's what I'm Hopefully you're getting from this the main like and feel like with the same size producing images with better wrap around lighting. The whole purpose of studio lighting is to create an image that looks like it was just lit with one light. 123466 lights in here lighting 71 spl, six lights lighting me. But the purpose is to make it look just this nice, even wonderful. One nice, wonderful light. That's what you're trying to do in the studio to. That's when you're trying to do studio lighting like the girl on the wall right there. That's the whole purpose for that. It looks like she's just hit with this one. Nice light, but she isn't, she said. What a bunch of lights. And so we're going to show you that as we go. Cool deal. All right, So here's what I'm talking about, what you see on the screen right now as faras Nice transition of light. The girl on the left. By the way, that's my daughter. Big shout out to my daughter Scarlett, who's probably watching right now as she paints on walls of her new home anyway. But the darkness, like on scarlet on the left, you see the red arrows appointing to the shadow areas. The green arrows are all pointing to the highlight areas. The green arrows are clearly marking an area that's brighter than the red shadowed areas. Right. Do you see it? Okay, but do you notice that there's this nice transition from brightness to darkness? And that is what having the light set up the way I'm talking about having the main light and you feel light the same size. That's what it helps produce that nice transition. The girl on the right is a senior I photographed. I believe it was last year, year before, and same thing you noticed the red arrows pointing to shadows, and then you can see that the highlight areas, which is not necessarily pointing to the blue arrows or to make another point here in a second. But you see, like on her shoulders, see that highlight area as it transitions into the darker areas. It's a nice transition. It isn't a distinct line. It's a slow transition of highlight to shadow. You know, I'm assuming you see that. Okay, Now, the next thing that I want you to think about is this is come see, Let me borrow my model for a second, and I'm a pointed to her while you also look at the picture on the screen. This is Lexi. Big hand for Lexie for them. So whenever I'm photographing a model, all I'm ever this is it. This is Kirk lighting in about 30 seconds. All I ever try to do is touch this part of the face, the forehead down the nose in the studio, the cheeks and the chin. That's it. That's all I try to do. So if I have a big giant, have a light on the on the on the right hand side, over here. Okay. And I have opposed like this I am going tit. Twist her face so that her nose go slightly to the light so that the light comes into her face. Okay, this is the This is if you've read anything about lighting you, this is broad light versus short light and all this other good stuff. I like to explain it this way. Wherever the nose goes, that's where you want the main light done. So if if I have opposed like this okay, then I cannot. She's a very slim model. Okay, Easy to photograph. Absolutely. However I could I do it. Could I get away with putting the light over here? Yes, I could get away with it. I don't know. A senior on the planet. We're gonna talk about that in about two seconds to create the way you weigh £2 of £200. They all want to look skinny, skinnier. So if if I pose her like this and the light is over here, I'm literally making her look bigger. So I'm moving. Move my light here with the light coming into her face where the nose is slightly pointing to the right. My right, your left. I would put the light on this side If I can't, for whatever reason, you know, I've been the photography studios to where they cannot move the light from that side to this. I can't be done. Why? Because there's only plugs on that side. I'm telling you, have been the studios like that. Well, if that is the case, fine. And she has to pose like this. Turn the face this way or flipper around and posed her that way. Follow what I'm saying, so whatever the nose goes would come back to you in a minute. Thank you. Big hands. Alexey. Um, whatever the nose goes, put the light into the face. That's the point of the girl with the blue lines. Blue arrows on the screen. Notice. Light is I noticed the highlights on the forehead, the arrow pointing to the forehead. There's a highlight, meaning it's brighter there than it is anywhere else. Look down the nose. Look at the two cheeks underneath the eyes. Look at the chin and that's it. That's all I do in the studio. That is all the light pattern that I'm looking for. Whenever I photographed someone, those five points of the face

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

PS Actions.zip
Senior Portrait Retouching Walkthrough.mov

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Enjoyed the course from start to finish especially all the marketing, advertising opportunities and pricing ideas. My wife and I spent Labor Day re-watching the marketing and pricing section and came away again with so many great ideas. Workflow and shooting the pics is more my responsibility of my business and his posing, lighting and workflow is awesome...In the beginning of the course I was disappointed in the actions as freebies but the more I got into the course and especially the last day with workflow, I broke down and used the Pro4um coupon from the swag bag and joined. That's what really made the actions more valuable because when you join the Pro4um, you get the entire setup for Kirk's workflow. The bridge setup, the scripts etc...I greatly appreciate what Kirk taught in this course and his passion for this line of business because it's helping WHP in every area from start to finish with our buisness!...Thanks Kirk and Thanks creativeLIVE for having Kirk do this Senior Photography course!

Leroy Tademydandp
 

If you want to take you photography to the next level you need to buy this course. Great content with an experienced passionate instructor who is also quite entertaining. Kirk's knowledge of marketing, cameras, and workflow are second to none. I urge you to do yourself and your photography a huge favor go to the top click the green button that says BUY! If you don't your missing out.

a Creativelive Student
 

His work is amazing and he has been a big font of inspiration for me... I wish I could be there to be part of it, live... :-)

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES