Skip to main content

Shooting for Color Grading: Clean Timeless Beauty

Lesson 2 from: Transform Your Images with Color Grading

Lindsay Adler

Shooting for Color Grading: Clean Timeless Beauty

Lesson 2 from: Transform Your Images with Color Grading

Lindsay Adler

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

2. Shooting for Color Grading: Clean Timeless Beauty

Lesson Info

Shooting for Color Grading: Clean Timeless Beauty

Okay, so I'm gonna ask for my first subject, Enron, and doing out kind of the stool A stool for her as well, if we have one. Okay. So great. So, like I said, I'm going to start off. It's It's super simple, super timeless lighting. It will make it funky after the fact. So, by the way, I must have the sun silly. But this tube dress, it's like $18 in Amazon. But the reason I like it is is a lot of times. What ends up happening is I want to shoot head and shoulders and people just took their bra straps in and they're sticking out. And it's whatever. And the other thing is, is if people have a bright colored shirt when you light, whether you realize it or not, the light's bouncing off of that that shirt, and it's going to give you color caste underneath the neck. So I have this and, like, I like eight of these in my studio and different sizes. So I always have that nice, clean black, uh, neckline. Okay, great. So I'm gonna bring you over here. You'll take a seat for me, and I have her sitti...

ng cause I'm short. And if I get a beauty shop, which is going to be the idea of this, I won't be shooting up her nose. I want to be able to make that decision. She's sitting and I like I'm wearing heels were on. This is insane. Terrible. Okay, All right. So what we're gonna do is the concept. The concept of this shoe is just going to be clean, timeless, elegant beauty. So for me, if it's clean, timeless, elegant, I don't need anything. At most, I could do like a clean necklace or something like something really simple. But as soon as I add more stuff, it's not about clean, simple elegance. Uh, the background that I have, this particular one is a hand painted gravity backdrop. And so I use something like this all the time. And the reason that I've selected the gray texture is because it's really easy to make that gray any color that I want in toning. And so that's something I recommend as well as if you look at the pictures. A lot of them they look when they're really flat in camera like that. When I showed you before with her hand to her mouth. It's a great background, but I can make it warm. I could make it cool. It could make it any color. Most often I use for seamless like like paper. I either use something called a fashion gray or storm gray, just like it plain gray background. I can change. One of the reasons I like these hand painted backgrounds is because it's hard wired into our brain of being timeless and classy because people like Irving Penn had shot on these type of background Annie Liebowitz and our brain already starts to read it as expensive. So that's part. I'm playing into that as well. All right, so Ah, let me go. You take you through gear real quick. All right, so we're gonna be shooting with pro photo be ones there. Battery powered battery operated. So no cords around. Ah, 500 watt seconds, which is going to be more than enough for the space and the light source that I've chosen. This is the light source that I use most often for portraiture. So this one is an extra large, deep umbrella, and it's white on the inside with diffusion. It's not that different than a soft box. There are differences, but it's really, really subtle on the reason that I like this is I am the most awkward soft box set up forever, like big soft boxes like four by six Is I just like, Yeah, so you pop this up and you put the diffusion on it. It's nice and clean and simple. Um, now, another rule for lighting is the larger the light sources relative to your subject, the softer the light. I have, ah, classes here. Incredible. I have a studio lighting one, the one that talks about that. So if you're totally new to studio lighting, that's a good place to start. So what that means if you look, it's pretty close to it's gonna be really soft. The closer I bring it, the softer will be. So I'm actually gonna have you turn this way for me. And let's just get a really basic test and I'm gonna build this and you'll see what I don't like. We're gonna start off with about it. I'm gonna pump it up to start. Okay. All right. I'm shooting with Canon five D, mark four, and I'm going to start. We'll see how this goes. I'm gonna start with the 24 to 105 24 to 105 is what they used most, Austin. And the reason is, if you look at me, I don't shoot on a tripod. Very active shooter. Like I bounce around a moving in a moving out, and then I don't have to change my lines that often. It's if I get in a little bit tighter to maybe 7200. Like if I get a little tighter, I can switch it. But, man, most of time I don't need Teoh. Let me just test this. We'll see about me tripping on this. We'll test this. Okay, That's perfect. Okay. She has the most long awesome neck ever. So I'm really happy already. Oh, hey, How about triggering home? Tried again. Perfect. Okay. All right. So let's take a look at a couple things here. All right? So right off the bat. Super soft light. Really nice. The closer I bring it into her, the softer it will be. The problem is, is a couple things. I'm a little bit bored, like I know I said I'm going to make it more interesting and post. But it's not not quite sculpted enough, and I think it could go softer. And the other thing is, Right now this light is also hitting the background. So I want to show you real quick the concept of feathering, because I do this a lot. At this point, what the lightest doing is it's all just pointing at the background. You get a little bit of spill and texture. What's really interesting is if I feather this like this and people like wait, the lights, not even pointing at her. It is like the edge. This whole part is pointing right at her. I don't actually need the center of the light. It's actually a little bit more even. It's a little bit softer because the center of the light is always gonna be the brightest, and it always will be the hardest. So here's a little bit more even a feather it away. Let's take a look now with a feather. Okay, great. Okay, so watch the difference. Now, when I feathered off the background, I could make the background completely black. So even in a small space, even if I had to be a few feet back. I can separate. What is background from from the main light. So I like That s so couple things. Um, I'm thinking I'm a little like a little borders. Can you rotate this way? So what I want to see is I want to see if I like it better with her angle to the other sign to see little more shadow on the fifth. I think I like it a little bit better. A little bit more dramatic. E felt like, especially on her chest in the previous shot. It's flat like it is. Really. Find out if I needed to put more light on her face, I can always. And with this back over, I could always turn her head back towards me. But here it's just it's just washed out. Some turn away. Give her a little more sculpting. Great chin straight back towards me. Beautiful. Okay. All right. So I like the background being dark. I like that. I'm getting a little bit of that Rembrandt light on her butt. I don't want the background that dark like I want to dark. I don't want distracting, but not that dark. So I'm gonna add in a second light this set up right here. Every time I photograph a model every single time I do this set up every single time. And the reason why is let's say that you decide you want to do something funky and creative, and you're gonna paint them like Avatar and they're gonna be blue, and they're gonna have sparkles on him. Whatever. That's not a from some models. It's not useful for their portfolios, cause who's gonna ever dress him up like that again, but also for regular subjects. If you're trying something a little bit more creative and it's not a model, they might not be really comfortable in their skin, right, if it's something a little bit over the top, so I usually start like this so people could just start feeling good getting used to the camera, getting used to be directing them instead of just having everything on and having to be like on right away. So let's take a look. What I've got on the background is I've got I'm gonna steal it real quick. Thank you. I've got a grid. Um, I used grids all the time and I feel like it's one of the less appreciated modifiers, because what it does is can you see the background right now to take a quick shot of it with no grid on and chin right at me? Just a little bit? All right, so here's with no good right? Okay, lights the whole background. But when I add a grid, what it does is it narrows the beam of light so I can add a little glowing spotlight, which I think in my head. It's channeling me back to old paintings cause it's at that little glow sometimes have the halo behind the headpiece. So if you look at Rembrandt paintings, it's a little bit brighter in the bottom for a little bit of separation that it fades out. So now, with a 10 degree grid behind her, uh, no, you're good. So now that separation it takes and it focuses it in, and it just puts a glow behind her. So it's a lot more control, and it's painting with that just a little bit of like instead of blasting it everywhere. Um, grades come in different sizes, and so you can have it be really tight circle or and that would be like a lower number. Like a five degree is really tight and get bigger 10 degree, 20 degree more spread. I actually think that that's pretty good. Ah, the only thing that I want since I wanted color grade it later, right? I said, I want to change the contrast in all of that. The shadow on on that side of the face, I think, is a little dark because Aiken darken it later. But if I don't have the detail, I can't lighting it up. Is there a way we can steal a reflector? Because I know we have the giant ones. No problem. Sorry about that. I didn't tell him I needed that, but I didn't know I needed it. And now I know. Actually, in my studio, I don't often use a little reflectors. I will use those giant B flats with large foam core V flats because I don't need someone to hold them, and it gives me nice even fill all over. Problem is, if I do that, you guys concede nothing. So but that's actually what I would use. I actually don't use ah lot of really small ones. I just set up the V flats. Perfect. And you can bring it on this shadow side And Lola get it all set. Great. And the closer it is to her, the more fill they'll be. I just want a little bit, because then I can make up my mind later. Perfect. Okay. Good to me. Great. Just a little further back. I like the filters and maybe a little less. Okay? And I can move it back. Just this way. Just a little perfect. And I'm gonna try a couple more poses with her, I say. All right. Good. All right. So what? I'm gonna dio I pull it like people. Which the teeny bit further back. Let's try like a foot and then one a little bit that way. So the further it is, the darker the shadow be I'm gonna just shoots imposes. Now, this is what I need. This was my core. I don't need anything else. Um, and she's got the most awesome neck ever. I'm really happy about it. The longer I want her neck to be the lower I get. So if I get real low, it's like the endlessly long, pretty draft neck. Good. Good. Chin right towards me. Beautiful, tired again. Great. I'm gonna raise your shoulder up and bring your chin down to it. Good. And then Isa pin the countess. Very good. Beautiful was beautiful connection. And so I do that sometimes where they bring their their chin down and then flicker they rise up because sometimes it's a little bit more of engaged. Look, instead of the staring when you're gonna take the picture, I say, OK, chin down, eyes up. And then I catch it right when they make the eye contact. All right? Good. So chin straight on again. Beautiful. And turn your chin this way. Great. Beautiful and really soft. Really loose lips. And now can you take your left hand? Perfect. Just like that. Beautiful. Seems nice working with models that would have taken a lot more coaching with a non model. Um, by the way, when I when I direct, people usually say, Put your hand on your chest and I do this I'm talking about like, why would you ever do that? They don't know, um and so usually actually have them do motions. So if I want the hand on the chest here, so if they put their hand here, it looks terrible. So instead, what I usually do is ask them to drag their hand across the chest. I can get something a little bit more natural than displacing it. So it's the same thing When I ask someone to put their hand near their face. I don't just place it. I asked them to trace it. All right. So few more. Your great hand. Real soft, beautiful. And then chin this way. Little more right there until you had a tiny bit and soft breath and look your eyes down and then bring him back up to me. Perfect. And then hand on your neck for last one on the other side. Great. And had to put the hand on the other side because on this side, it was all thumb pinky's. They're much prettier to photograph and long fingers. Great. Beautiful and wiggle. Wiggle, wiggle real soft and bend them just a little beautiful. Great. Okay, so good. I got my base. I'll be able to get something wonderful out of that. So I'm gonna have you go switch into something much more dramatic. Okay. Thank you. So that is actually what I would use to dio start with that shot. Because then everybody's happy. I can either tone it as a dramatic black and white. I could make it cool. It could make it warm, whatever I need. So now I'm going to switch it up just a little bit. Not too much. We do a little bit wider shot. Kira, can I fire you? See how we doing? Still sitting. I think I'm probably going to stand her for a little bit more detail. Thank you. Perfect. All right. Great. Just right here is perfect. So let's talk about this outfit Nice and shiny and dramatic. Um, this is a And by the way, I don't know when this change happened. This is a prom dress. When did people start wearing promised? My from Just did not look like this is I don't know when this change happened, but what I have done many times in the past to get these these beautiful outfits is actually collaborated with prom dress stores or local boutiques. And so I'll photograph the pieces in exchange for photos that they can use for promotion. I actually met a woman recently that what she did is in one of her packages. You She would send her subjects to the boutique, and they would offer the client to looks to outfits at 50% off of the retail price. But the idea was it was sending people to this boutique. So should they would go to the batik and pick out the outfits couple weeks prior, and then that would, based on the outfits they like best on themselves, the photographer would then develop their concept. What is this outfit say? What is the tones? What is the mood? And then I can figure out how do I want a light it? How should the hair makeup look instead of them showing up with a few outfits and things like, Oh, well, that's the hair makeup you have. And then I guess this outfit and then this was the light I wanted, right? It doesn't dinner all fit, so it gives you a little time to develop. So anyway, um, prom dress outfits, eso for the concept for this again, what we're going to do is we're going to be color grading it later, and I already know in my head What I I want is I know I want to cool this down a little bit. I Right now, if I shoot with her skin tone, she's gonna be the warmest thing in the picture. And then everything else will be really cool, which is it's fine. But I think I want it to be more harmonious. And I wanted her to be kind of silvery. So watch what happens if I just shoot a picture on auto white balance. And this is why you never want to shoot auto. So I'm gonna actually could be brought, come up a little bit more and then turn back that way and then your body this way. Good. All right, let me just take a quick test and turn back towards me just a bit more great. Okay, so this was auto white balance, and the camera didn't know what to do, because if you look at her skin tones are the actual skin tones I'm looking at. Here's why when you're photographing people with darker, warmer skin tones, what it says is it looks at this picture and it's thinking everything should be neutral, right? Neutral background, neutral dress. But it sees warm reddish skin tones and it goes, Oh, this is the wrong white balance. And so what it does is it sucks out that warmth, the ads, coolness. And then a lot of times, a lot of subjects that look great go because it will be way, way off because you've added so much blue. What I try to do, they get it right in camera. And then I decide where the blue show up instead of the camera making the choice. Eh? So what we're gonna dio is John, will you hold this color checker for me? So I'm going to do is we're gonna hold ah, color checker. Because then what I can do is imposed or in light room, I can select one of these watches that are neutral. And I'm telling the computer this is neutral. There is no color caste. Get rid of any weird color casts. So I make the decisions not on accident what? The camera decided. So thank you. And keep in mind, I'm gonna be messing this up later, like on purpose. But I need something good to start with. All right. So needs to be in the same life like roughly. That's letting her great. Perfect. Great. So all this have that as a reference. I already know for my particular strobes, the ones I'm using that, uh, obviously auto white balance sucks. We're not gonna do that. I usually use for these air Pro photo be ones. I use the flashlight balance the preset because it's closest to what I know from my strips are different people strobes. You're gonna be condo all over the place. The the little son Daylight, white balance. It's real close. Look, a couple 100 kelvin difference. It's not that different, but I know that that flash white balance is pretty much where I want to be. Um, I'm gonna turn you back to the late for me. Great. And then let's talk about a couple other things. Okay, So I've got a couple things that I'm working with here that I need to change cause right now I don't like it. So the promise for me, it's just Israel flash, and it's really hard. It's not elegant. Ah, myth and a lot of things. So, first of all, what I want to dio as I might want a little bit more light on the background, so I can't actually feather it back. Ah, the next part is I think it's a little low. I think I want a little bit of a higher angle, so we just just a bit okay. All right, so that's the next part of this. All right, so let's let's test this. And then what? 11 more thing. Okay, so this is this is like, I'm sure a lot of you struggle with in a smaller space right now. If I shoot full length here, I'm getting, like, the whole floor, like the entire floor. Um, super distracting. Not what I'm trying to get. So there's a couple things that I can dio. One of the things I can do to try to get more of that frame is I can back up and zoom in when you back up and zoom in What it does is it compresses distance. It basically brings everything in. Whereas if I'm using wider angle, I'm seeing the floor. I'm seeing the ceiling. So back happened. Zooming in will help me. Ah, The next thing I can do is I can compress the scene physically, so the closer I move her to that background, the less of the rest of the stuff I'll see. So I was happy. Take one or two steps back and we're just We're gonna compress it a little bit, which is actually great. If you're in a small space, this is totally workable. You can do a shot like this. So let's take a quick test. And all we have on now is the justice umbrella. So I I'm gonna be back up, zoom in and she's closer. So now I can get much, much more of, ah, wider shot here, and I can fit her on. So that's that's what you want to be thinking. If you're trying to do this in a space that's a little bit smaller or their heads running off the background backup, zoom in. Try to compress the scene. The further out there are, the more it's gonna be cutting into their head or the bottom of their body. So I like it. I like that. The texture kind of matches the texture of the sparkle of her dress. If I don't want as much light on the background, we just feather it a little bit. I will see where this good this in between is Yeah, I think this is better. So I just I just angled it a little bit with a little darker. You pick the in between, so I like it better. Um, let's talk about tethering. All right, so right now I'm tethered into light room. So if you have light room C c, you have the ability to tether. Um, when I am tethered there a couple things that I use, I use a tether tools, tether cable. Okay, so that is basically heading on the camera you have. It's a different adapter. This one's USB three, and then it pops over into the computer and then I've got this thing on the bottom, which holds it still, because otherwise, constantly knocking it out. And it's a pain. But the reason I like to shoot tether it is. What I do often is I tone in light room, not like exactly what I'm going for, but a little like I know I want this cooler. I know I want this bluer or whatever. It may be not because it will be what I actually go with, because I start seeing differently. Like I like like if I want saying being black and white, I'm shooting in the back of my camera with a preset of black and white. I'm shooting raw, so it doesn't matter. I've got the information, but like I see it differently, I see the light differently. I see the posing if I'm a visual person, so I'd rather just see it. So to give you an example, if I come over here into light room, we'll take a look at this a little bit more. I know that I want her skin tone to be just a little bit paler. It's a little bit more decent traded. So here I am in the develop module and what I want to dio is I want two de saturate Erskine a bit just a little bit. And so I'm going to go to the hue saturation luminous panel. So H s l, um what that means is for each piece of color in the frame, I can just like you so I could make the hue slightly different. I can make it lighter or darker, which is the luminous or saturation each color individually So, for example, and go to saturation and I can grab this little this little target right? The little circle in the top left and so I can click on that. And then when I click on her skin and dragged down it de saturate your skin tone so I can just, like, drag down just a bit. So it's No, it's not like a huge difference, but starting to get a little more silvery, then what? I can dio I'm gonna I'm gonna pop up clarity a little bit. Give it a little bit more sparkle. This is not like a set thing. I'm just playing around with it. And then I think I want the whole picture to be cooler a little bit. Maybe see what we see, how the blue like pulling out a little bit of the warmth looks, Let's see. Let's just say that this is what I decide on. Okay, I just kind of made this up on the go. What I can dio in light room is, Aiken said it so as I'm shooting in the top right here for the little tether, the little tether panel for the developed settings I can hit Samos previous, so basically, whatever I just developed if I got it close to where I want it and I put it as same as previous. Every time I shoot it will apply those changes. So as it pops up, it's getting the feel that I was going for. But it's a raw file. None of this has been applied permanently. It's basically a formula to say light room. When you see this, interpret it this way. But you can remove the formula. Go back to the basics of how you captured it whenever you want. So let's just say this is my mood. I don't like here. Hold on its want change. One more thing. You know? I need to see it. I mean, a little blue. We'll talk about this later. Little blue to the shadows. All right. I think this is what I want. Okay, we'll touch on this. So we've gone with blue and cool and mysterious. Looks beautiful. So I'm gonna shoot a few frames like this and then bring in a reflector to take a look at that. So can you me a favor? And can you pop up your left knee this way? Yeah. Good. And then can I have read a clip. I had a clip for her, but I don't know if they came out or any clip. Um, is not a huge deal to a little loose. And I want that it wants to be a little bit more form fitting. I use clips all the time. All right. Now, can you turn your shoulders back towards me? Great. Can you put your backhands soft here? Yeah. Beautiful. Can you arch your lower back? Perfect. And push your chest forward. So I just created a lot of curve. Let's see and look your head to the light a little bit. Keep winching a little more beautiful. You put your hand on your side and then just pull your arm back slowly and I'm looking for negative space. So I'm looking for that. A lot of people when you say, put your hand on the five to do the outside, but then you've got the hand flat to camera. If I put the hand on top of the thigh and move it back, I've got pinky towards camera, which is a lot more elegant. So I don't do this hand on thigh. I do hand on top of thigh and pull it back. Yeah, I'm just gonna just just a little bit. Do you mind if I come in there and just just I wanted to be a little tighter at the waist because I want nice to find ways since just a teeny bit loose. And I'm just clamping it with, like, photo clamps is not special clamps. Okay, good. Perfect. Okay, so but look, like you can already see the toning like it's already got that mood. Whereas if I go back Teoh, let me just show you what it looks like in camera. Okay, so let's see. So, basically, picture on the right is what I'm actually capturing with the raw. The picture on the left is the toning that have applied in light room. I've got that information, so I like this one a lot better. It looks more expensive, So we're going for expensive. I'll show you about that toning later. But every picture that will come in, we'll have this effect applied to let me shoot a few more of those perfect turner testers. Me? Just a little good that works. So I'm gonna shoot a few more frames of that but a couple other things to talk about for photographing, uh, darker skin tones. Yeah, weird. There we go. Hand okay. Couple things for darker skin tones In general, we're going real general here, but in general, I use softer light sources. Here's why. Let's talk about hard light sources like a silver zoom reflector, for example. What happens is when you've got hard like silver. Small highlights get brighter and shadows get darker. Got more contrast, right? Well, when you are in visibly pale like me, a bright highlight on generally a bright highlight doesn't look so bright right, But a bright highlight on darker skin is that much brighter, comparatively so in general. I'm very careful about using really, really contrast delight because it will make those highlights super bright, which usually in a portrait translates to a really bright highlight on the forehead or really bright highlight on the nose. And you still get that in Caucasian or pale skin tones. But it's exaggerated with someone who has darker skin tones, so I tend to go for softer or I know that I will retouch it, or I will use something called HD powder, just like tone down that highlight if it's a little shining, the next thing is for darker skin tones. When you're shooting in a room in this ones, this room is pretty big, so it's not so bad. But when I'm shooting with a big, big, soft light source like this, if there's a wall even like 67 feet this direction, it's basically pointing into that wall, which is basically like a white B flat, and it will kick some fill back in. In this instance, there's no wall there, and also she's got darker skin. So what happens? Even if you lay any lights bouncing? It's not going to fill in the shadows as much. So my point is, if you don't want the shadows to be totally dark, especially with darker skin tones, you do need to bring in a little bit of film just to catch a little bit of that light. Bounce it back. So I am going Teoh way. We do that. You win doing that now? Yep, And by the way, I'm not using a grid on the background. This is one like, and I'm just using the feather in the distance in order to light the background. So notice none of these setups have been complicated. One light to light, paying more attention to feather. All right, let's test this. That's try it. Let's try there first. His test is real quick. Yeah, that's perfect. Eso what John was asking me is he asked if we wanted a little bit more behind or a little bit more to the front. Here's why. Where he has it to the behind behind her. Works for me. Take a look. Oh, please. Light room. Oh, later. Not my friend. OK, take a look at that. Highlight. Can you guys see that? The highlight on her arm if you moves. If we move the reflector to the front, what it does, it just fills in the shadow side of her face, which so just lightens up the dark shadows. It's OK, but the fact that it's a little bit behind it actually creates a little bit of a rim light, which gives me a little bit of separation. So, um, in Chris's class for Photoshopped week here, he was talking about rim lights and whether you want them subtle or dramatic, I often in my work is really dramatic room lights like I have someone where you carve out the side of that curve with a rim light or you pop a bright light on the jawline but sometimes went so bright your eye goes to the brightest thing in the picture, which might be that highlight. So if we're going for timeless and subtle and elegant, I don't think it's appropriate. Actually think something like this. Just a little bit of a white fill with the back room is better. If she had Caucasian skin tone, you wouldn't see that rumbling. In a little you'd see it, but you see it a lot more with a darker skin tone. So just like a little tweaks, people will say, Oh, how do you shoot darker skin tones? I'm like, mostly the same, just like just tiny tweaks in position of light and modifier choice. All right, let's try a couple more here, all right, you're perfect. So maybe do it one more time. Great. And arch your back real hard. Perfect. Pop that me up as hard as you can. Oh, yeah, That made the curve amazing and shoulders back towards me just a bit. And then they handle little softer. Perfect. Right there. Beautiful leader. Chest forward and chin down. Yeah, and I'll kick your eyes up to me. Good. And bring the hand down a little bit lower than negative space. A little bit too much. It makes a right angle and then put back right there. Beautiful. And turn your shoulders. Turns me a little more great. Hands off to the side of your face. Perfect. And turn your palm in towards your faith. Good. And chin right back at me. Great. Do a couple more and then we're doing great. So I'm gonna have you face me straight on and pop that knee over. Great. So what would the popping in the over? It's gonna give me a narrowing point at the bottom. Your body basically will get nice and narrow s. That's perfect. And I would have you trying something with, like, one hand on the waste in one hand on the hip. The reason I do this is a lot of people do both hands on the hip, but this is really square, and it doesn't encourage curve where something more like this or like this gives your eyes someplace to follow. This you're bouncing back and forth. This and this is a lot for the Eid explore. Perfect. All right, let's test this. Great. Perfect. Good. Let's see. Now, I'm actually going to have you for her arms on the side. I want I want a little bit better shape. So right now, she's got her hand on her waist, and this arm was kind of kind of awkward out. So if you look at the cover of a lot of like Cosmo magazine, what they actually do is they do something called contouring with the arm. So what they'll dio is instead of doing this, where this is, they roll the shoulder back and tuck the elbow in. And what that does is it actually bends the elbow in at the waist so it emphasizes the waist. So it's like you're trying to do a shot where it's not just all hands on hips. You want sing a little bit more elegant, but still shows curve. It's this instead of this. So I'm going to do something like that. We'll see how photographs something around there. All right, try again. Okay. Let's make sure. All right? Perfect. Okay. So would you do that for me, would you? Put the hand back, rule the shoulder back, Bend the elbow tight up against your body? Just like that? Perfect. Bringing in just a little more right there. Perfect. Told me to show you what that looks like. A great top that new. Over. Even more beautiful. Chin down for me and lean your chest. Form it forward. Keep going and then changes a little towards the light and then hope flurry, Turn your body back for me. Just a bit right there. Okay? System I'm talking about with the contouring. If it's awkward to stick the elbow out. Yeah, I quit question, Lindsay. I'm happy that you moved the model back a little bit. Moved in a bit closer. I want to shoot in a small living room, and I have a very small space, and I'm sort of curious what you think is the minimal amount of space in which one could do this sort of thing. Totally. I think you can absolutely do something like this. You want easily or hard, like it's achievable in like an eight by 10. Looking like eight foot wide, 10 foot deep. You could probably get away with a little bit narrower, but that's what I think would be not miserable in the constant, like squishing up against a wall. The other part that's a little bit difficult with this modifier is ceilings, because with the big umbrellas or things like that is, if you've got an eight foot ceiling, it really, really quickly hits the top. So this one in particular is a pro photo deep umbrella X L. That's the really big one. If you just go a little bit smaller to the large. I think this one's I might be making this up, but like 72 inches, its huge, which makes it really soft. But if you're in a small space, go for the next size down and then it's good you're in a small space because you can bring it even closer, which, in this game of things, I conceive very little difference between the Excel in the large. When they're close, they're both super soft and big, so totally doable in a small space. Okay, I'll look it popped up. That's the contrary there. Perhaps this question for the second segment, but I'm wondering if when you do the color grading. How we see it is to actually separate Onley the dress part in the sense that maybe you're working with or doing a collaboration with a designer. You want the color grading in that field. But do you really want to be able to make the garment garment look very close to what he actually produced in Hershey producing? Absolutely. So I'm gonna give you two tips real quick. The first tip is, if you do actually shoot fashion. And so I showed you guys four portraiture. Why I photograph This is the extra passport color checker and you probably seen this kind of stuff before and usually for portrait. All we care about are those neutral gray because basically, let's just tell light room. Tell Photoshopped this should be neutral. Stuck out any color caste for fashion. What you actually do is there's a plug in for light room when you take this picture. What the plug in does is it looks at all of these colors, and it knows exactly what pink that is. Exactly what blue that is exactly whatever. And so when you run this plug in, it puts them to the correct RGB C and y que values. So what I do an example like this is I will create two copies of the image. Um, if I were doing this in light room, I'd create to virtual copies one where I've added my color grading and one where I know it's the correct color, and I can combine them or it's easier to actually do it with layers in photo shop if you want. I'm doing, I'm doing a plug. If you watched Chris Knights class on, um, on advanced masking, he talks about a couple ways that you could separate it, and one of the things that would be good would either be. You can just paint it off with adjustment layers and layer masks like remove it off of the dress. Or you can use a luminosity mask because that dress is gonna be a totally different luminous value than her skin. So you can select the dress quite easily. I wonder if that was good. Thanks, guys. All right, I don't know. Multiple trying. Here we go. Okay. It may take a couple more of those and then we'll move on. Perfect. Just like that. Wiggle that finger. Real soft and turn your hand down just a little bit. Great. Beautiful. Back up in. Zoom in right. Good. And real. Soften your face. Chin down a little, arch your lower back Make it hurt. Yeah, And then bring your chest and chin down She down good. And then turn your body towards me. Just a little. Want to see the arm? A little bit more Good, beautiful. Great. And I'll try one more with one hand out, one hand down. Whatever crossing of the needs more comfortable for you. Good. Great. Perfect. Just like that. And bring it all back. Just a little. Yeah, Beautiful. And chin down. Good. Okay, So great. So when I'm looking at this image, what I see is I see I've got a ton to work with with color grading, because I've got a nice, neutral background. I've got enough detail in the shadow on her skin, her skin, and I've got a little bit of separation, so that is gonna be really easy for me to tone any direction. I want to tone it warm, cool, Anything

Ratings and Reviews

Sean
 

Fantastic course. Lindsay Adler is a such a photography Rock Star. She can do it all, shooting in and out of study, lighting, posing, teaching and very amazing, Photoshop guru. Thanks for getting Lindsay, in the beginning I never knew that she was so skilled in all these aspects. As you progress in your photography, you learn lighting, skin tones and white balance, then skin retouching, then you learn color grading and analogous colors, complimentary colors, color triads, etc. Color Grading is so key to that final polished and "expensive" look. Lindsay did a terrific job teaching this course. I watched it 3 to 4 times to really pick up how to use these tools. Lindsay is a phenomenal teacher and photographer. Thanks for getting her Creativelive.

Elizabeth Haen
 

This is a great class to learn many options for color grading images. Lindsay gives comprehensive options for use in both LIghtroom and Photoshop. She has a style of teaching that is easy to follow and does an excellent job of summarizing each technique after introducing it to help the process sink in fully before she moves on. I love how she goes over everything she does thoroughly in a way that clearly explains each step without assuming everyone knows what she is doing. There is never a time when I thought "wait, what did she just do there?!:". Just really great information that is well taught.

David Babcock
 

Awesome class - Lindsay is a wonderful teacher. It might be nice to have a list of the equipment used, I had to go back a couple of times to find all of what Lindsay was using. Excellent and well done!!

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES