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Camera and Lenses

Lesson 3 from: Shooting in Small Spaces

Jeff Rojas

Camera and Lenses

Lesson 3 from: Shooting in Small Spaces

Jeff Rojas

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Lesson Info

3. Camera and Lenses

Next Lesson: Lighting

Lesson Info

Camera and Lenses

First things camera how many of your shooting full friend crops that how many you know, the math behind that two out of every one of three out of the room so we'll discuss this so those of you that are watching online and those of you that are here that don't understand there's a lot of misinformation regards to what crop since it is versus what full frame is your sensor is literally what records all the information for the photograph frank so your crop since her camera if you start looking at the chart here micro four thirds it's literally just like it sounds it's a cropped version of that actual photograph right because you don't have the same sensor size it's not being able to photograph the whole picture when when a camera takes a photograph it's actually not square it's it's a circular photograph but the camera itself actually crops in on what we see it makes it the square format so square for that I say square I mean I guess a rectangle is a square so we get smaller sensor sizes ...

we get more croft photographs right? So for me and we'll talk about lynch choice for a little later but for all intents and purposes we're going to discuss why this is relevant to what we're trying to photograph first and foremost today I have a cannon five d mark three which is my primary body and I have a seven day now, if I'm walking into a seton where it is shooting a small spaces and I'm looking at this crop since her camera, I know that the crop sensor for a crops started the crop sensor camera creates one point five times focal length for whatever I'm saying, meaning it's cropped into the photograph itself. So if we talk about focal distance and we change our focal distance, we have the same focal distance let's say fifty millimeters on a full from camera and it took fifty millimeters and put on a crop since the camera have to multiply that by one point five times, right? So I'm really getting about a seventy millimeter lens and at seven a m changing everything in the scene, so if you if you're walking into scene, that is a small space like this little area and you're shooting crops, answer and you grab your fifty millimeter lens, you really shooting a seventy? You have to think about those things before you walk into that seat, because I know that if I'm shooting full frame, I have the capability shooting wider and I can see more, more of the detail it's on the outside, I can't do that when I have a crop sensor if I don't think about those things. And a lot of people have a crop sensor camera, they walk into that environment, they're like, I don't know why this isn't working, and you have to remember those factors that air going in there. So I'm gonna do rough math. I want to go by one point five times, said at one point six just cause for our purposes of here, I don't have a calculator, I'm getting math on the fly so about lenses and angle view. Now your angle of you going to discuss certain distances and, uh, degrees of your lenses, you guys going to visually see those things? Your maximum views a camp it's it's what the cameras able to see through the lens when you put on a fifty millimeters is a thirty five millimeters discussing what can you see and then the day so in a normal environment and my normal studio generally should about anywhere from sixteen to twenty feet, like from the back of the background to where I'm standing to relatively long space. So if I'm shooting full frame these thiss statistics or rather figures are based off, a full friend writes, if I'm using a two hundred meter millimeter lens, I get this narrow beam that I'm able to actually photograph in that specific section. That's all I can photograph if I walk closer that being gets smaller and I can only photograph certain parts of the personal portion of the person's face as I step back I can start getting more information on the sides my fifty millimeter lands the same thing if I'm changing the distance relative to the subject I can see more information on the side that I could to two hundred millimeters so if you understand that it's extremely simple that's going to play an important part of shooting in small spaces because every single variable that we're looking at ultimately impacts the way that we have to walk into that scene angle of your angle view is important for us to figure out well lens we need to decide on now it's a nine foot seamless sixteen foot paper and this is what you get I do a lot of photography based off of that same premise he's one light generally a v flat on the side like one of these with a white phil card on the opposite sides to reflect the light that we have there so there's a distance of the subject can I do that same thing in a in a small space probably not definitely no there's there's no distance there I'm literally on top of my subject and that goes back to being realistic with your expectations but these are the kind of results that we get with that specific set up cannon five d mark two sigma, fifty millimeter, one point four they're beautiful photographs, they're very soft and we're gonna talk about lighting in a bit how shooting a small space you know, there are times where you're not gonna have the softest of photographs when you're selecting photos because you have to control your life just guessed that moment telling I get to choose, I get to shoot a lot with my westcott zeppelin. It is massive it's, a forty seven inch westcott zeppelin. They also have a fifty nine inch that I've used it is the biggest thing at the studio it is like to giant orbs when I have that one in the pro photo, the professor deepened bread at pro photo umbrella deep xl. I can never say that correctly because it sounds inappropriate, good let's go forward. So this is more or less to set up that we went to having that little shadowy figure is myself in the background, but for the purposes of thiss specific section again, I'm getting a chance to shoot sixteen feet from the background. That specific lighting set up is how I produced this. Okay, so if you look at the stats and I'm using for the specific photograph amusing amemiya amusing is a medium format camera at one hundred ten millimeters and talked about the angle of you how far back was I to photograph wide that wide told he was very narrow beams? I needed to be essentially across the studio to photograph that same subject versus if I was photographing this one here. It's not as difficult in a shorter amount of space, but the reality is, if you have that small, the space, you have to be realistic with your expectations, you're not gonna be able to use one hundred ten millimeters from twenty, twenty five feet away. Same premise cannon five d mark three signal twenty four, seventy f two eight one twenty fifth f nine one hundred it's no different than using my meeting format at this specific length and probably shooting at about a thirty five I'm within a couple feet of my subject, but she selected twenty four, seventy versus selecting the one ten I'm able to get something similar in regards to the the way that everything is composed in the image, so again, selecting a different lens in a different camera, able to have similar results so let's discuss this. If I was in an eight foot by eight foot square space and I'm going to select a variety of different lenses, no one should most people would probably shoot most newbies would probably shoot the widest possible something like a fish eye or something that's a thirty five or wider which is the worst thing that you can do for a compression everything looks often distorted the whole room you can see in focus and it's not gonna be as beneficial as you want. So you guys ever played the sins I'm honored were discussed this when I look at the sims if you guys have ever played this this computer game we're looking at a top u section of your little family and when you go put furniture for example they show you little great uh, great squares that you can actually select where furniture goes, nothing can overlap one another and I look at photography when I walk into seeing that because that's how big of a nerd I am I think about sentence and walk into that scene in realizing that if I put too much stuff in that one space it's not going to work so I look at this whole scene the same way if I have, for example of its heather stand a tether table it's taking up let's say if each of those boxes a two foot by two foot space according to math, if it takes up two feet, I know that that whole area I can't you tell lies and that's the way that, um, logically thinking in my head and as silly as that sounds when you're putting a background it's going to take up for blocks between the backgrounds then you put in lights it could take up those two and you're starting to close yourself into this small little space so then I'm thinking, ok, so if I take off those two little blocks and on my left hand side I can't really use the thirty five cause I'm gonna wind up seeing that specific light in this action, right? Because it's in my angle of view and that's those things that I'm considering as I'm sitting there I'm a nerd that's the way that I think about things, but when you pick up a lens, you should be thinking what's around you like, what can I eliminate if I can pull out certain furniture, certain details from within this action or let's say you're setting up a studio at home and you'll have a really big space and you're well think it a little bigger? Do you have a ten foot by ten foot square space, which in new york is basically your master bedroom small little master bedroom? But I want to eliminate as much furniture is possible I won't eliminate as much things as possible that I'm not photographing because it's taking room for my my working space now go ahead if you do the math, so when I went to high school I was always told that I would use the pythagorean theorem right I never thought I was going to I was like, there's, no way that that's gonna happen. They lied, so math is an important part of being a photographer, and I told you I wasn't going to side to scientific, but we're talking about an eight foot by eight foot square space, right? I knew mathematically that from one point, the bottom left hand corner of the top point is eleven point three, square feet, so we're square feet eleven point three feet, so if I photograph from one point diagonal into the opposite corner, have a lot more room than I do eight feet that way, so I know that I can have extra distance from my lens, but I'm gonna be shooting into a corner, okay, so I need to consider those variables as well. If there's, we'll talk about color cast, but if there's colors in the walls, all that effects, the final image yourself and if you don't want a specific line in the background, I can go ahead and show you guys how I avoid doing that in both editing and in camera, which is a nice option to have.

Ratings and Reviews

Bill Bistak
 

I'm not sure why so many rip on this class. This is exactly what I needed to know (after I pulled my head out of my rear about wanting highly technical explanations). I do have an unusually small studio and really listening to him taught me loads of goodness, which I immediately applied and earned several awards by doing so. Thank you! Although a very calm video (which I also appreciated), it paved the way for deeper understanding of small locations and how to use them for great portraits.

a Creativelive Student
 

He had some good ideas like using corners, light modifiers that emit focused/directional light, and dealing with color casts. Showed some excellent fashion portraits shot in really small spaces. Wish he had gone more into shooting in a room with average ceiling height.

Amber Tolbert
 

I was at a shoot the other day, lugging in so much equipment, and found myself crawling on tables to get the shot I needed. Jeff's course shows exactly what you really need for effective and impressive portraits in small areas, a huge help and my next shoot will be much more efficient and powerful.

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