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Finding the Light and Exposure

As we all know, when we walk into a wedding, one of the biggest problems we have is the finished lighting conditions understanding light is the key and most important element and understanding the different types of light. One of the things that I've seen over time is that people don't really know what the difference the light is, they think because they shoot a raw file, did I say we are white? Or did I say it with a new york accent? Because my wife because you say raw okay, so I r e w one of the reasons they shoot it because they're always concerned with light, I'll come out say it, I'm a j pic shooter, right? I should j peg, because I get my exposure is right now, the biggest difference is obviously the multitude of color spectrum with it, you know, you have any bit channel verse up to twelve at that point, and it allows you a little bit more latitude in your exposure by I don't want to be just shooting everything on order white although the settings and auto have changed completely...

and have improved dramatically, the fact is, if you don't have white it's going to be an issue for you, so with all that being said, I want to focus really on getting good, clean exposure and keeping the mixed light to a minimum that's one of the biggest problems we have is mixing light especially endures because you look inside this room right now, it's it's pretty simple you have two types of light, you have your tungsten light going on and then you have your natural daylight. Now, obviously, there are settings on your camera phone for this, one of the things that I've seen over time when I look at people's photos, especially indoors is that they're looking at them and they're saying, oh my goodness, I'm inside a church, I need flash I want to make flash, not your safety crutch, because remember, in just about every case, unless we're in a studio environment, we want the light to be a film like that. We had it's always been a phil light and additive, which means that it shouldn't be dominant we need to identify are dominant, like now, what's clear in this environment right now, depending on where you are, it's daylight is your main light on what you need to know is the difference in shades like, obviously there were two different difference in shades you should be able to look and know that if I walked back to this corner, I'm gonna have part of my face, let with tungsten part of my face lit with daylight, is this a problem? It's going to be a problem because you have different colored temperatures, which means one side will be warm, one side will be cool and if I'm in order wipeouts, especially what my clothing is the camera going to be able to read things the way it needs to know it's going to give me an accurate result if you're home or if you're here, think about it, how many of you are color correcting your images? How many of you know that it's a big waste of time? Because the fact is you color correcting into your monitor your client's, viewing it at home on their monitor it's going to be different if they're viewing it on their sixteen by nine format a television it's going to be stretched it's going to probably be the contrast to saturation going through the roof that's a problem, so in those cases it doesn't work. But what about setting and basically setting a t lap going and making it match your lap? The fact is, you can't, because the lab's calibration is changing multiple times today because it's going to change every time the paper change is it's going to change every time the temperatures of the chemicals change is going to change every time the chemicals change themselves? If you breathe on the machine that changes so you never truly accurate so he is going to give you a piece of advice if you never, ever, ever want to call it correct again, you know how to do it, shoot it, right? And that's understanding light and understanding temperature. What we do know is that right in here right now, this temperature here is roughly about thirty, two hundred degrees. That is our tungsten light. We know that our window light is roughly in that fifty three hundred that your daylight setting. Now, the reason I mentioned he's because he's going to be your two most predominant lights. Do you want to shoot in fluorescent? No, occasionally you have to, but these were two most predominant lights. Now some people think, oh, if I'm sunset, what does that mean? I'm a daylight temperature army tungsten setting because it's really orange it's not tungsten setting it's actually much higher when you're in a sunlight in a sunset situation europe it like seven thousand degrees calvin it's quite a difference on the reason this is important. Is that would? Ok on the back of your camera allows you to dial it. And now you may say, why not just shooting auto and correct it, roy, I don't want to spend any more time. Time away from my family what time the course me money. So the main thing that you need to look for first is the type of light that you're working it and it will change if I am over here right now what's the main light on me it's going to be tungsten so I'd have to adjust my white balance to be in a tungsten setting if I step up in front here and I have the studio lights I now have a different issue if you look I'm in daylight here and I'm getting a little bit of daylight here it's not properly balanced the's air all important things that go in to consideration when shooting lighting is the key an essential set up for everything so first things first knowing the lighting setup right above me I have a tungsten light but if you look at me what's the main light on me at this point it's still daylight okay it's knowing and adjusting to that set up what they're using inside studio here is constant daylight setting. Okay, these are regular pro photo type lamps. That's what I used for my daylight setting. Ok, keeping it very, very simple I'm balancing a daylight and going from there and all of that is adjusting to the light and the position in the room if I was to put the subject right here my main right again, his daylight, but what's gonna happen is if I'm shooting back here if you look in the hallway, which you won't see depending on my exposure, there's a tunks than light at the main, so the slower the shot of speed, what happens to that tungsten light? It glows in now this is where it gets a little funky because what's happening inside your church photos or you reception photos and formal situations is you're probably slowing down. You shut a speed till that is much ambient light burning as possible. Now, when that happens, the more the ambient light burns in that light starts to dominate, and if your white balanced for the flash, which, again is around five thousand because it's blue light what's going to happen, your photo is going to start to again get oversaturated it's going to get over concentrated, and you're gonna have that mixed element, so if I could, if I'm in these situations, I probably try to turn off the indoor light here's the thing that you must learn to balance the light you're looking for less, not mme, or now as much as I love flash, it kind of becomes your enemy, especially during a reception or a ceremony situation if you can identify what the light is. Then you could work with the flash if it's if it's fitting now here's what you're thinking my flash my speed like came with the tungsten joe it came with a fluorescent joe and it came with a day like joe they're not really tungsten fluorescent in daylight there set up differently what they are is gels to get color splashes they're not balanced to that thirty two hundred number that's what you have read? You have blue you have all these different colors yellow so what? I came up with this and this is not a plug for life but it's the most important thing that I use is my little light here and I know most people know about it what color is the cap on the light it's orange so it's a tungsten family now if I would've photographed myself here and I know it's hard for you guys to see over here but the people at home we'll be able to see it right now I have the tungsten cap on if you look at me and I go here and I put that light on me if you look at me at home or those you could see me from here do you see the difference in balance it's off? So what do I white balance for? I could try and custom, but is that going to correct it? No, it won't because I still have two mixed biting conditions going on so my point is we don't want to mix like we want to try to match light so if I pull this cover or have a clear one because this is set for day like now it looks a lot more interesting doesn't it? Because I have a daylight match on both sides so if you look at my face like a daylight here daylight here the only thing I have to worry about them is the power of the light the intensity because I wanted to match so this light when it created has three different types of covers the first one is tungsten the next one is going to be a daylight and of course I have a fluorescent all right? The idea is I want to use it as a film I want to adjust to it and use it as a phil that's the same for this light it's the same for the stage right and more importantly it's the same for the flash almost always so let me explain when it's not ok when using a flash right now I can get away with a flash and not worry about jobs and the reason this khun bay is because I've been a mostly gay light situation but saying that the predominant light in this room was tunks them if I go toe fill them with flash by white balance for flash what's going to happen to the tunks than it's going to become oversaturated and over concentrated it by white ballots for the tungsten, and use the flash tooth still the subject correctly, which means it would be less lightens existing, right? Because we don't want to fill it to the same f stop orm or we want to fill it a little bit less just to create catch lights and fill in our shadows. Okay, if I set the flash for underneath and I white balanced for flash, what would happen then? I'm going to still turn arch if I said it for tungsten, but I feel with blue my subject is going to start to turn what color blue because that's the predominant light, so I'm gonna repeat it once again. I know this is complicated, so right now, if we eliminate all the daylight, we make the main light tungsten if I taken on camera flash and I fill the subject with the on camera flash ok? If the on camera flash is set for less than the existing ambient, so your exposure compensation per se is minus two got it now I'm white balancing for the flash, but the main light is still the tungsten I'm going to turn our ciara night, but if I white balance for tungsten and I have the flash filling even if it's under what's going to happen to the subject they're going to start to turn blue because you're adding the blue added of light now I know this is complicated but it's actually simple do you have a question here will question at home on this principle anybody because you have to get this first ok if you look at me here and I go here okay think I'll show you so I could explain it better if you look at may the predominant light on me right now is what bankston I'm orange correct so by being orange if I white balance for this orange but I have a ll this day light behind me what's going to happen it's going to get really blue if I take this off and make it daylight and the rest is day like I balance for daylight what do I got? Perfect white balance so identify the light and match the light do you understand works really well so when you are choosing your settings than you're choosing for the all the what you have the big light and then that'll match in and create the right white all right yeah, what you said makes perfect sense but I'm gonna explain it a little bit more technology sense identify what is first the main light in the area and shooting and then I choose to match it if I am in a daylight situation, I'm going to use either this my daylight balanced light or my speed lights with a pocket was it to remotely set them? Because I don't we want the flash on camera, but a day I if I am in a tungsten situation, whenever I can, I'm going to look to match it with my tungsten jell, this wag a perfect balance, and I'm going to show you that. Okay, so if so, then you would set if it's mostly tungsten, and you're filling with the tungsten light. Then on your camera, you're picking the tungsten white balance or dial in a thirty two hundred moral custom white bounce. Because again, if you go auto and I'm the subject it's not gonna work because there's no white for it to read if you're looking at are two models, neither of them are wearing white now. More intrigue got some neutral setting inside because of their skin tone, but now you're not always going toe havoc, location subject you will have a person of ethnicity, a person of color that will change that setting, so it's always best to dial and you're setting whenever you can. It's much quicker for you to do it one time because it's not like you're running around and I'm going to shoot here. I'm gonna shoot here. When should you're staying in the same general area? Same main light, which means you don't need to keep changing. But if you're in different areas and you're photographing different subjects would order white bounce, you're creating more work. You'll see my exposures of my color or right on the money. And I'm just using the presets. One last question. Oh, my god. She knew about her. So is do you have a reason why you choose state used white fear white balance instead of a great hard. Because I don't need to be technical. The more stuff I carry in the bag, the more things that look when photographing a wedding. I'm really lucky. I almost always have white. Well, he's, always a white. I have it right on a gown. What do I need to be white? Right at her. Okay, good to go. Everybody's. Got it there. All right. So now, let's, talk a little bit about this. So we want to understand, saying once we understand the type of light we need toe understand the direction of light so what? I'm gonna ask you guys to dio so you can get the best angle that our home audience is going to get? I want youto walk in between our two cameras right here on the other side behind them. Ok, so now you guys can go to this is very important because this is one of the key elements, and what I'm going to do is bring in my beautiful future bride, miss rachel. Okay, so when I look at rachel right now, you're going to stand right over here. Beautiful, and I want you to turn your body direct to the camera, please, if we look at rachel, if we're looking directly at her, do you notice you want to pick up different things? The main thing after you found out what the type of light iss is, you need to find out where it's coming from. One of the things I see all the time is beautiful light on one side and shadows on the other. If you look at rachel, she got beautiful catch lightner eyes, but what's important to notice is that right in here, one side is much brighter than the other, isn't it? So what's happening is with splitting heart, so we would take this image, I'm gonna grab my camera here my main right at this point is what daylight ok, so I'm not looking to create a picasso, so I'm looking right here. I'm going to focus in on her face and I'm not looking for anything and justin program just there and what I'm going to dio is spot meter right on her face there would hold it right there. Beautiful let's, take a look and see if we got even consistent lighting. Ok, so from here, that doesn't look so good. We did not flat a heart at all, so if you're looking at the image of you guys could see it on the right side of her face. What you have going on is you have a phil light, but notice how her face almost in turn, is starting to look a little lopsided. She's clearly a beautiful young lady she's not lopsided. Okay, but what we need to do first is set up to find a direction of light. This is kate. So for you at home and for you behind the cameras. The light is coming in from the camera. Is it coming from my right? Where is it coming from? My left. It's coming from my right camera right there side here, so now turn your body this way now turn your head back to them now looking at them if you look at her because this is one way this is important because the angle of the face has a lot to do with the angle of the body, so now I have the light going into her face. I haven't going directly into her body, right? So when I look and see if this really flatters her in the end so let's, take a look right here good trying not to flatter you don't make yourself look beautiful, take a look at her what's happening is I want you to look at her body, but most importantly, look at her bust and the detail of her shirt it's all disappeared. The reason that that is happening is because the light is blasting into here. I'm exposing for the face on lighting here in the other thing is huff face doesn't again look flattering because of the lighting, what I've done on the right, so I turn ahead backed off, I started to give her a little bit of a jiao and I'm starting to make so I'll make a face look wider because what's happening is where's the mean like coming from it's coming from right here? So where is it hitting it's, hitting the left side of her face what's closest to the camera, the left side of her face? And I know so with that being said, that is what we call the broad side of the face on by having a broad side of the face closer to the camera her face looks what fuller I haven't flattered her so the couple things happen I had the broadside closer facebook's fuller I created the jowls she don't like that that on top of it I blew out all the detail in her beautiful beautiful blouse so here's the general rule you wantto light into the face through the body of a female once you find the direction of light whether it's outdoor existing light whether it's indoor window fight whether it's you creating it would flesh will light you want to find the direction of the light so in order to make this happen I found it I want to turn her body away from the light now her body's at an angle I'm gonna open her body up just a little bit on a forty five degree angle bringing her front leg in. Now turn your head to the light now I'm gonna let her know I'm a toucher so I'm going to touch you, okay? It'll only be a gentle caresses. Okay, so I'm gonna pull your hair out just a little bit and I want you to turn your head to the right a little bit so now if you look we have the light coming into her face this is important. There are three parts to a face. Part one is a cheek, but two and part three is the other cheek. How much of the face do you think I realistically want a light? I want to like two parts because especially if it's a fullest subject. So if I light here and here, I'm going to start to get a little bit of a shadow back here. But is that helpful? It's going too thin or face out? Right on the correct posing for a female is turning her head to a high shoulder, tilting her head slightly to the high shoulder, which is a feminine pose because if I'm a guy, um, I ever gonna pose like this? No, but I will pose like this, but if I would oppose like this against the light, my face is going to look fat and I'm going to be split. But if I was with her, I'd come in and be right here. Thanks, maddie. Come in here now I'm tilted to the low shoulder. Our faces are in the same direction. We both got good light. Do I worry about writing into my chest? No, because I won't have really too much design on there, okay, let's, look at the difference, turn your head slightly beautiful. Can you sweep the hair off your left shoulder? Just a tad you were doing terrific your chin down and lean forward at the waist stretch that you now turn your head looking at me here you are doing wonderful or as good as you're capable of smiling eyes up. Excellent. Now take a look. We now have the broad lit side turned away from the camera and we have two short lit side, which is now this side she looks about that it doesn't shake you look flattering. Good. All right, so do you see here is one of the things I've learned over time. Bad light happens to good people, ok? And that's what I did to her in the beginning, bad light happens to good people, so we have gay like, balanced here and we're bringing it into her face and we have beautiful soft light. Now this is going to be another port. This may not be the angle that I go with her for different reasons, whether b one I smaller than the other, but what I want you to notice if you look on the side of her face on the left side of thinned it out and I've started to create a shadow on the back side now what I have learned in this instance which you're not noticing, is this light this daylight is too hot it's too hot right now how do I know it's too hot because if you look underneath the right side of her chin seeing the shadow so what's happening is I'm getting a shadow right back here there's nothing flattering about it and what I don't want to d'oh I'll be right back is go and start adding reflectors because on a wedding you don't have time to cop work in this complicated nature and believe it or not I don't work with an assistant I work by myself as young as I started I never had anybody to work with me so I got very use toe working by myself to the point of preference so now I keep it a simple is possible so I probably wouldn't use the big daylight here what I would use is my torture let's look at the results is it possible for us to kill that stage right for a second if we can and change it to this and the reason I would change it it's because I want to dial it down so if you look I'm setting it up here the same way now you look at her all I'm looking for when you look for light if you want to keep it simple and find a beautiful light in her eyes just one dot at least one dot do we know what that's called it's called a catch fight simple catch light and now what I'm looking for is this placement of like people love to move the light further away the further away excuse me, the light, the more room it has to spread I want the light in tighter so I'm working probably about three to four feet away, but I want you to notice look at all that doesn't work as well. So what you need to do is start visualizing the shadow, so I'm going to turn it down now if you look turn your head slightly all I'm looking for this point chin down just a little bit and I'm looking for just a little bit of life now he has to think you can barely noticing barely notice it I barely have it on but there's enough to create that catch flight so turn your head back to me just a little bit not so much tilt your head a little bit you're a good chin downturn yeti right leaning forward at the waist good smile and just like that excellent that's fake goods it's my teeth eyes up turned head a little bit chin down good let's take a look all I'm looking at his vital not going crazy here, but I want you to notice the difference and what small light allowed well, I'm looking for is less light I don't want all that extra additive light I want to keep it as simple as possible and lighting into the face looking for the catch right now let's take a look if we start the play with it and see what happens because right now we're balanced a day like right so let's look if we do it wrong let's look at what starts to happen with our color turn your head a little bit beautiful good smiling excellent and then we got our image but let's start to look at our color temperature she's going to start to warm up and you see we're not exactly getting the correct lighting that we need so understand when you have it right I have it right it works gonna bring you in for a second man you're going to stay right there beautiful again small light close that you're going to come on this side of her right here I want you to turn towards each other you're gonna give your man a hug squeezing your cheeks together here here covering the arm I'll explain all the posing techniques better. I want you to look at what she's doing no she's closing her body up by closing a body what she doesn't realize that she's increasing her weight but more importantly she's turning her head and turn your head this way no to me beautiful and you're gonna lead in khost matt lean forward while you shoulder out do you notice that key adjustment now matt can easily screw this up and how could matt screw this up? Not can screw it up by turning his head turned this way man what he's doing now is what with the light he's splitting it he asked to be into the light so we lean forward to may turn your head beautiful and take that hair out of your eye and all I do is look and say you're going to turn your head to me beautiful little more little bit more lean forward by yourself matt cannot roll out your right shoulder no don't turn your head not lean forward look at the difference in their faces when they lean florida we've come all the way forward and your chin up we got perfect posing but we'll get into that later ok, turning her head all the way to the right a little bit manning a touch of camera tell looking at me beautiful stop looking like you're pissed off smiling happy teeth eyes appear wonderful don't move now if you look we have beautiful soft, clean light on both of them don't wait and that's all because we identified the main light now let's take a look at the difference if I don't have lights saying you can't afford lights that's when it becomes more of a challenge so we're going to move our beautiful bride over by the window and by moving to the window what becomes our main light anybody on what type of light is that it daylight so what I need to look at over here is I need to find the direction of light so I see the light is coming this way okay so I look at it and that may not go with the angle of the face I want a photograph of her so that's something you have to debate I'm going to explain a little bit later so I'm gonna bring her over here turn your body this way a little bit now turn your head to the right looking here and what I'm looking for she's perfect light but I need to know how I want to set up and this is what makes like green she's not gonna move you're going to stay very still I'm going to take you from a couple of different angles I'm going to come along here from the skirts of the window ok so watch where I go I'm right here looking towards me beautiful tilt your head a little bit to the right turn your head slightly no towards the window and tilt your head here now turn your head a little bit more can I pull you away just a tad this way now turn your head to your window good can I have you come right behind to make can you got any tether here good we're gonna bring camera closest to make perfect and we're looking there and watch how she turns her head just a little bit to the right ice to me so what I want you to see is the light right and here it's ending is a two thirds of you that's going to be important because it's not going to be from just this angle it's going to be from the other angle here we're going to create two different images so I'm going to come over here and I'm gonna duck right underneath my cameraman turn your head a little bit beautiful no other way tilt this way ice to me now can you look out the window just a little bit ice right up here gorgeous not smiling nice and happy turn your head a little bit more good till back this way tad perfect smiling nice and happy that's fake excellent so let's look at all light and see if we got enough out of it I didn't I blew her out so what happened what happened was this is where exposure comes in I've exposed for the wrong spot right now I'm in program and I'm on spot meeting so what I did was exposed for the shadow so therefore what happened to the highlight anybody it blew out so I need to keep it simple and expose for the exact spot I want which in this case I'm going to beam or in the highlight range so let me go in here make my adjustments turn your head just a little bit beautiful excellent stay there and I'm gonna make my adjustments just like that tilt your head a little bit to the right chin down turn your head to your right a little bit more perfect not turned to the window more eyes towards me smiling nice and happy cut that's big come on bigger big excellent now let's take a look and see how we did with exposure and see because I think we may have gone a lot better but was still a tad hot on that side so the key is making sure that you get her face into the light but more importantly making sure that you can because what you're not realizing is besides the light being situated that way she's so close to the window I have to turn her face beyond camera angle so move over a little bit away this is what I'm talking about finding turn your body towards me sideways good kick you like forward no other one left one and now turn your head and now tilt a little bit back and meaning forward now if you look I could have her lights there how the eyes are coming out of the corner of her face but here I can change that looking towards me again turn your head to your left a little more a little bit more and now taking look at may you are doing spectacular you're smiling again nice and happy now look at the difference how much cleaner it is in terms of the light and I got a true two thirds of you now watch this she's going to stay right where she is on what I'm going to do when you get the light right it allows you to move into a different camera position I straight out beautiful good to know you're still looking at that way I'm going to pull that hair out just a tad until the top of her head to make if you look from this camera angle here we now have beautiful profile lighting which means it's hitting the cheek here in the center of the face and by doing that it's ending perfectly so we're going to get a nice and tight you're doing terrific eyes up just a little bit and you're smiling beautiful looking straight out happy a chin up just a tad goods close their eyes but that's okay we're just looking at like good take a look and you'll say look at how beautiful the light wraps around her face do you see how it's coming on the front side there that's perfect profile lighting so it's understanding how to position her to the light to move her where we want now take a look the main white balance right now his day like correct so when we do this with a body set for daylight you can come out one second beautiful matt can I have you here for a second? You're going to slide out gorgeous okay right here if we look at matt saying mats body's got to go in this direction it's all a matter of turning his head this way so we're pushing everything back but we don't want to do this it's not going to work for him if we do this which we can we're going to get a good two thirds view now what you realize is this is a little bit tougher if we shoot this way we have all the windows out of disposal you follow so hands in your pocket thumbs and good turn your body sideways kick you left forward to may turn your head tilt the top your head to make ice here eyes up now lean forward was stretching out look at the light I can tell right here I got great light I don't even have to go to that spot I know I have great light already I'm a great light in a profile and I'm a great fight chin down a little bit matt looking towards me with their eyes again I'm not looking at backwards right now be serious man look, it may take a look if you look we got good light we have two thirds like we have clean light he looks strong and he looks powerful please disregard the background but that's simple light isn't it now watch how clean the light becomes we're going to change it up we're going to bring you can relax you guys are going to come right over here to the center area you guys going to come back by the windows? Can I have you right over here, man good. So let's take a look all of this comes into play let's take a look right here. Come forward a little bit. This is about as trouble some of background as I can get right now, isn't it? But if I work with the light correctly and if I work with camera angle it's gonna work so what I need you to do is I'm going to switch to right here on main camera ok. When we get said here I want you to take a look at home. If you guys sweep over a little bit you should be able to tell that the main light is coming from where it's coming from matt left or so I camera right or camel left relax a little bit, not be so stuff if you look here all the lights coming here so his face he's almost got a nice profile high to him, tio, which means it would wrap around here the other promises bodies to square burnett left foot forward. Okay, and remember, we talked about touch. I'm not doing anything to invade his space. You are miss. Thank you. Are you get good because we got out of the way for the next three days but the key is turning his face to the light. Okay, so the light is over here turn your head a little bit. Leaning forward. Relax. Now we see the light broadside. So from this camera ge perfect light. Now I look I have every bad thing in the background that I can imagine everything it's it's his bad as it can get. So this is going to become a key and this is part of what we're going to be doing, but watch how when you start to angle, things can change right now. My tripod going to come down here. I'm going to get rid of the tripod so I could get lower and camera angle becomes everything. Matt, turn your head a little to the left, not tilt your head to your right perfect and I want your eyes right up here I'm looking for beautiful catch lighten his eyes, notice how low I'm going with timer angle because I'm trying to avoid things they're so looking straight out matt relax a little bit lean forward just a tad hold it I'm going to change my exposure right now so right now I'm in a hundredth of a second and I'm at f for tilt your head to your right a little bit good turning out to left leaning forward nice and relaxed ice up good and let's take a look I should have good light and I should have been able to eliminate everything in the background that works pretty well doesn't it? So you see how much easier and simpler is it starts with what good light so wait now we have him here what's the lighting setting where daylight aren't we we're a daylight because where is all the light coming from right from the window can I bother you for a second? Beautiful now he's here okay we have him here which means with some issues going on we're gonna put her on this side over here you're going to come in nice and close turned towards him bringing forward here here covering the almost explain why later turn your head and you come forward and bring your heads together turn your head a little bit and when we get in deposing we'll talk about this lean forward by leaning on forward what do you think it's doing standing him out makes him look younger and thinner and we like that so if you look their bodies have a lot of lean it's basically like this but most importantly they're into the light okay relaxing so now I have a good two thirds light of them but the problem is I really do have the light blowing directly into a chest but it doesn't matter what this post why not because he's covering it up so I know that I'm gonna lose detail right there so again everything is about angle and it's a about cropping and I want you to take a look from main camera right here you see all this stuff in the background right? I already showed you one way to do it but I'm a show you another and we're going to go for a profile image because if I have the light right chin up beautiful looking straight out gorgeous chin up a little bit rachel you were going to come with your eyes right here matt here too great stay right there and now watch how you start to create something different looking straight out you're doing terrific and you're smiling nice and happy hold it there matt can you fake it a little bit more matt, turn your head to the left a little bit good looking straight out matt I really love the pissed off look it works well for you excellent and now notice we have a perfect profile image perfect profile a profile light on we're all set simple but watch your not done we're going to turn matt's face towards her a little bit more and now we lead them here look down beautiful and now look at how you could start to create stretch a chin up a little bit eyes down on what I want you to look at since this is our main camera let's come back here her eyes air in a very in between stage she's trying to look down but she's not looking down enough so they're like half way I don't want to see any of it I want your eyes to come right down here to his hand and then lean forward I'm gonna pull her hair back just still a little bit going to slide this back here and you understand why I touch because this would take much much longer if I did it and all right there he's right on her and look from here from main camera going to stretch his chin out eyes down he's into the light she's into light if I take it from this angle I have all this broad light here which is going to make his face look what fuller but if I do a profile I'm going to get a better image you're gonna pull her hair back just a tad and I want to stretch her face out just a little bit ice the harm at looking down eyes down beautiful stretching out and now look again remember I told you it's about seeing things little things make all the world of difference I have cantor in the background haif season in the background I have a door in the background if I do it right I can really start to set things up so we're going to do it has come down stretch a chin out a little bit beautiful excellent matt vice tour I bet you never thought you'd see a big fat guy on the ground eyes down no smile beautiful roll out your right shoulder drop it down just a little bit turn your head to him a tad take a look with what you can do with your angles it's finding something in nothing and look at how you got the beautiful light start to happen pretty simple huh so do you have any questions I figured we might by now of course the ceo doug relax for a second guys great job so doug you're talking a lot about angles and short but mighty wanted you to expand on that a little bit why you shoot not you know at an angle versus portrait and landscape all the time well one of the reasons that I tilt the camera there's a couple of them I want to make people appear thinner so what's happening a lot of times I'm tilting the camera to the guy to help minimize the size of her body like when you look at that finished image there what I'm doing is pushing her way to the back side I know that that's coming at a camera that way I'm not going to make it finish that way I'm going to go into like a panel type print that cuts to the edge of the chandelier, which cuts almost all of matt's body and elbow out and you'll see that in the finished image I'm doing it for that reason and I'm doing it to eliminate things I don't want to see because on a wedding you don't always have the time to go and start moving furniture, brides and grooms and subjects in general want things done quick they want them done of efficiently so by tilting the camera if you look around there's so many obstacles in my way here have you seen any other? None of them so trying to eliminate most of them carry awesome thank you. All right, so the question that everyone wants to know can you talk a little bit about your year so what's the camera using okay? Well and also the light that you were showing us earlier the light that I'm using ipod and all that all right, so I'll go into everything I'm using right now my two predominant cameras I'm using are a nikon d for on a nikon d eight hundred the lens of choice that I use predominantly is a seventy two two hundred I'm currently shooting the d for what a seventy two two hundred two point eight okay I'll bury my aperture I try to stay a two eight to four generally I'm looking at spot metering ok on top I have my pocket wizard which is my control which is my tt one which we haven't got to yet on my a c three zone adapter that controls the amount of light I'm going to get out of each fight my tripod I'm generally using I left my tripods right the bar one this is a man photo I generally use an adirama flashpoint tripod and they have a special pistol grip head the main reason I used that is because it's a lot less expensive I can't see spending five six seven hundred dollars for a name brand carbon fiber I could get the adirama one for like half of it so I used that many of the pistol grip the bracket is something I created it's my own bracket and the reason I created it was I wanted something smooth and durable but you notice the camera has grooves in so I can change every setting of it so I have my forty five degree tilt set the light that I'm using is my own another one of creation made it's got a torchlight? The torch right is probably a little bit over fifty watts at his three types of adapters it's got the fluorescent today light in the tanks, and the thing that separates it from regular lights is the fact that I'm able to go on dh. The filters are basically polarizing, whether it ever max power or I have it on the least power the temperature doesn't change that's the most important thing plus its light weight weighs about a pound. The battery lasts about five hours and recharges in thirty minutes on bits basically, what I'm using at this point, I'm going to be moving to flash quite shortly. Okay, what other questions did you talk about your life? I didn't that's my twitch like all right, you talked about that great good, good to go questions over here, you why should I not be surprised? I'm teasing, I love it, I love it so I'm going back, tio lighting and choosing your settings I noticed that you were at sixteen hundred for your eyes, so eso when things were kind of blowing her out, how come instead of blowing that instead of changing your place is that good question I could very easily lower the tsa, I could very easily do it but I try to play what my settings to manually set him some cameras I think almost all cameras at this point in a pro assume er and up can go to sixteen hundred my point of being there is I'm not thinking about it as heavily as you would think if it's sixteen hundred if it's thirty two hundred if it's five thousand if I have good right, I'm going to be in good shape it's all about the quality of light people so I can't go to thirty two hundred dollars so it doesn't work if something can't go to thirty two hundred it's the fact that you're not getting good light and knowing the likely will give you an example stay on this camera here right now he's almost got perfect light on may you have to learn to not only see it you have to learn to feel it if I turn my head he now has a perfect profile and without even looking I know that I have right here and I have light go to right here now this part of me is going into shadow if he's got me in good area I'm gonna have a perfect profile image of myself and that's ok taking things and knowing how to work with the situation remember first we identify the type of light. Secondly, we identify where it comes from you match it you feel it this is pretty easy for the most part isn't it? The exposure is a clean they're soft light everything about its good and I've already started eliminating stuff in the room now that we have this set I want to show you and understand the difference so I want to bring you guys back over here for a second and I want to bring you guys over here so right now what can happen depending on where I place her? The main light here may change if she's here what's the main light daylight if she comes back here depending on the angle of her face what becomes the main light? It could be tungsten so these are things you need to be conscious of can I ask you to grab me just one of the chance from over there? You know mind for one second, so what I'm going to do here is I want to bring her down to get more of this fight on it because I may want to warm her up at this point or I may want to create my own spotlight like if I go in the corner behind canada and susan aiken such created thank you find sir so let's bring her in here for a second so I don't have any of this light available or I don't want it someone starts to shaded out mind you please don't concentrate on the backgrounds because I'd be more selective if we weren't working all night so what I want to do is start to use this light and figure it out so I'm basically set in the tunks than setting so let's move her over here I want to bring your arm that nice and close all right on what I want you to do you're going to come in here I want you to kneel down for me because I want to get your face on her cheek come in here and I turn your head to your light and when pull your hair back and you're going to turn and putting your nose on a cheek now stretch bring that arm in a little bit, turn your head and look down turned to her just a tad stretched the general perfect their faces now controlled predominantly into this light so I'm going to try to eliminate as much as this fight as I can and I'm looking at it turn you had beautiful eyes down, okay chin down a little bit more lean forward and turn your head to her I'm just going to want to pull that hair out so it doesn't look like you're eating it so I don't little bit more forward for me you're doing great and turn their down stretcher churn out a little bit so now since I'm no longer using daylight what's going to be the correct white balance here I got to go to tanks ten or I could custom white balance so let's try it with tungsten looking down beautiful turn your head a little bit gorgeous and your chin down a little bit matte so you know this is an inner eye and stretch it out so let's see what we get there I'm angling again cropping and tight so now let's look I'm its sixteenth of a second of four point five and we're in good shape I'm going to change my white balance real quick but did they get to see my wife pounce at home it doesn't show up does it all right so I got to keep reminding turn you had a little bit to the right beautiful you actually go to the left I want to see a little bit more little bit more just like that excellent don't move so let's take a look I wanted to talk in it up just a little bit look at that light that's pretty nice don't move otherwise I'm gonna come over there beat you look at how soft that light is that's in a tungsten setting now I want to bring it down a little bit so I'm going to bring her eyes up to may and I'm gonna bring my shutter speed eighty k I'm gonna pick up my shutter speech is still a little bit ice to me beautiful chin up just a tad perfect just like that smiling nice and happy come on bring your eyes up here that's fake show me you want me good excellent let's take a look so I sped up to shut a speed just a little bit and take a look that's pretty nice valued isn't it and remember my finished crop on an image is going to cut through the back of his shoulder and going toe work simple from there so I changed my white balance just because of what the main light is do you understand what the difference is? Watch this at this point if I start to play with it and really mess around look down beautiful lean forward shonda let's take a look you tell me which white balance that says what's it set for daylight and they turned orange do you understand what a difference it is that adds an extra couple of minutes to my work flow that I don't need or want we are about building simplicity now what we're going to do is go into this corner over here because right now are a whole setting changes if we come back over here and we're getting ready to add flash you guys can hop up you are doing an amazing job you just like being a ghost story don't you good you're going to come right over here so we're going to go towards this angle here and what I'm going to dio is I'm going to eliminate my window light as much as I possibly can can I have somebody come hold this close so we can eliminate you mind I'm sorry considering you're the only guy you're stuck all right so let's take a look what's the main light in this area now right so the main light is coming from here what does that tell me her face has to go where towards the light so let's take a look right here you were going to come I'm going to bring you right over here on the door I want you to bring your arms behind you I want you to turn your body sideways this way no can she go this way? Why not because the lights going to be lighting directly into her so she could turn her body away kick that leg forward good turn that bring your hands behind from that now look at her face look at that beautiful light but the problem is it's a downward light, isn't it? So you so I pulled her hair back. Is that necessarily the best way to go here? No because I know I'm gonna have shadows underneath so I'm gonna pull it back in here because I want to hide my shadows I just want to keep them off the eye so I'm keeping her backside on the wall to keep that leg there and now meaning off the top by keeping her back side on the wall and leaning or off what am I doing I'm minimizing it and making her body have more of a curve no woman wants to be like this a woman wants to be like this could could you like that don't you for a big bump back there I'm wearing brave guy good turn your head eyes up up a little bit she looks stunning now let me add just a little bit to it I'm gonna grab my reflect their I don't remember where I put it right there good so now this is important to know in daylight and for us and we should be using a silver side of the reflector if you're in tungsten what side do you think you should use ah gold or a speckled gold take a look at the difference that's pretty awesome right there can you mind holding it make yourself useful perfect so now my white balance is going to be a tungsten so I'm going to set it for tungsten so now the key to this image is going to be again this isn't my ideal background but what I'm gonna dio tryto elevate myself because if I elevate I can bring her face up to the light so I'm or fear I'm at sixteen hundred I s o on what should be my white balance tunc stand so we go and tungsten here just like that turning your head just a little bit tilt your head slightly to the right turn slightly chin up a little bit looking up beautiful stay right there you're smiling nice and happy come on you got it good excellent again I'm not worried about polish here I'm worried about good clean light and I think I should have it because I'm in a tungsten setting how does it look? Looks beautiful that's great light, isn't it that's his clean agreed allow it if you could get a look at the clarity there works out great. So now let's watch where it could become dangerous I'm going to add a flash to it so one of the biggest problems that photographers have is when they're using flash they love to put it direct on camera and not just creates nightmare after nightmare. So again, the great thing about today speed light is they have where you can use them in different spots with what's called line of sight. I'm not a big fan of it because it doesn't always function. I that's why I use my pocket visits because it allows me to hide them behind pole also whatever it may be but I want you to see what happens because everybody thinks just because I defused them oh that's going to work out great so right now I've set this one for channel a and here and I'm gonna work my magic right from here, so I'm going to shoot there you could pull the reflector out on if we look, I want you to look at what happens to this image. I'm gonna turn this flash on so I technically should be right in the same setting I wass so I'm gonna move over here you already see shadows forming, okay, let me go here and let me pop that flash off. It would help if I turned everything arm, which I did not like the flash it makes such a difference when you turn things on, they work so much better way go looking at me here, let's take a look. I'm bordering on the decisions they're going to just look bad, it's going to look terrible, ok? You take a look. Is there anything remotely flattering about that on what's happening as I'm starting to mix my color? Because I have the flash shut for two stops underneath it's about learning to balance since I'm in a tungsten situation right now, I gotta balance and correctly so let me show you how to do that. You guys are going to come right back over here, and what that means is knowing how to fill it. Like I said, when I use flash, I want to use flash in a way that I could balance it. So that means in just about most situations, I want to use it as a fill light. Do we understand what that means? A phil light. So if I go here and I set up in a mike, okay, right now I'm an idiot of a second it f four five if I'm in a fil situation, I want to set my flash wherever it is two, two stops underneath the ambient light. I wanted to be a phil just like my torch, right? Or just like that, how do I do it? That's the great thing about the pocket wasn't on the a c three unit. I can dial down the power direct from camera, so I know I wanted set for two stops under, so I'm going to set it for two stops under now what's going to be the key here is knowing how to reflect light. Can I have you to right over here for a second again? Simple light lighting into the face through the body so she's going to be here he's going to be here whichever side it doesn't matter because when I go into a pose in there giving a hug here cheeks together, lean forward the key you guys can come around again is opening up the shoulder so right now looking at this I want to fill the light if you look I got a little bit of that light going on there that's no good come to may see the difference lean back can we make sure good fueling back their tanks tent if they lean forward the day like turn your head beautiful turn your head here here turn your head to him heart sorry and you turn your head here chin up roll the shoulder now where do I put the light? Well, I put the flash right here no do I want to put it underneath? I don't want to like their what I'm gonna do is I want to fill it so I want to learn to bounce things that's what makes things look great so what I'm doing is bringing it up and through here so I'm gonna angle it up just a little bit because I wanted to hit that wall and come back it's supposed to be a phil it's just supposed to create a little bit of catch, right? Right. So basically, um bouncing it off this war it's coming from this angle into the face turn your head beautiful a little bit more now one of the things that have to realize since I am bouncing it it may not be enough to stops under so that's why it makes it quick and easy to dial from camera I'm looking for a simple background in between turn your head to your eye beautiful drop your right shoulder matt turn your head to higher a little bit good not so much money good looking right here lean forward I see let me make sure looking right here leaning forward just like that and let's hope perfect smiling happy teeth lean forward lean forward lean forward turn your heads a little bit this way good excellent take a look at how beautiful and open that is that this is balanced the light issue could get I've made the whole room gay like I got clean soft beautiful light and we've only taken about twenty images but I want you to think about it how the my exposure spent they've been right on the money because what did I dio number one if you learned anything from this segment we must first identify what the light iss number to find the light on number three match the light and when we do that we get is beautiful as we can get no problems understand yes let me come course okay this's not weird so question yes all right you need me call okay so for that other segment over in the corner microphone that's not working I was having a great time it wasn't weird at all or the situation over there? Would it be okay to use the torch light and stead of the reflector horse imported? What? I'm trying to show you his alternate lights. Because as much as I love the pocket wizards and I love my speed lights you can buy probably forty reflectors on dh two watch lights for what you pay for each of them. Maybe three twitch lights, it's a lot less so not everybody has the financial resources. Remember I said it's? Not about resource is it's about being resourceful? If I can't afford to buy a thirty dollars reflected from mataram er I can take and put. When I first started, I needed to reflect their to do what I was doing. So I took caught board, wrapped it in a white sheet and then I also did tin foil that's how I made my reflectors in the beginning until I realized that the whole role of tin foil from my mother's house was more than an actual reflector. She got a little angry. What may got it? Yeah, good babies. I just want to say you just answered joshua's the question who said how does a photographer adapt to the lighting challenges you describe on a tight budget so I like that you're one step ahead of him it's got to be about simplification if you don't have the money, remember, be macgyver beam a guy ever find a way? I'm going to use the piano as a reflector leader in its black because I'm looking for reflection based on where I put light and doing it, I have a reflection, all right there, inside the glass frame. I have reflections in the windows, I have light everywhere just amount are finding it is a reflection. Just look at the path on the floor once you see, like you're going to be great and in order for you to see, like, guess what, you're going to have to watch this video over and over and over and over and over, you're gonna watch it until you sick of me. And just when you get sick of may, you're gonna watch it some more. Okay, that's the only way you get it, ladies. All right, let's, take a couple more questions for for this particular segment and I have some questions about posing. Ok, ok, couple people are asking photography by sofia wants to know if you discuss posing with clients before the wedding and photography by sophie is from puerto rico and then shanda lynn shanda lynn asked, what do you say to your clients when they complain about how you're opposing them like it doesn't feel natural? I mean, what do you think people? Very simple I discuss it beforehand just like anything else I say no, I'm gonna pose you are you going to put you in the most uncomfortable positions that you've ever been in in your entire life? But I'm going to make you look better than you've ever looked in in your entire life, so I'm working out, you work out and you go through pain to look good posing is about doing it. I've never had anybody questioned me, and if they do, I remind them be like if you don't want a pose and do it this way, I just need you to sign this piece of paper that says your photos are going to be absolutely terrible and you you release meat of any obligation for when they're not what they're supposed to pay. How many people you think I've ever made me sign have ever signed it, nobody you're in charge, I'm there to do a job they're never going to remember that they were cranky, they're never going to remember they didn't listen they're only going to remember that they did not get what they want of course I tell them I have an open door policy what my client to tell them everything that's why we do the engagement session you see right now they're not comfortable at all matt is puffing out his chest she's turning her head here they're self conscious just like any client would pay my job is to make them comfortable that's why we do the engagement session most photographers there oh I'm going to charge for an engagement session you should be including it just so you get the respect of the client just so you get them to trust you and listen and learn what you have to do it will make your life easier on the wedding day I know people aren't comfortable posing everybody said when I first started lecturing dell'ergo he's a monti took a cone he's never going to last fifteen years later I'm still here my business is prospering more than ever because people it's not that they don't want oppose they just think it takes forever and photographers don't have embrace it here's the difference if you want one real answer anybody can pick up a camera and go on take two thousand candids of a wedding not everybody could do what I do people come to me because they want a guarantee if you want to do something different than any other photographer in the world I'm gonna give you the advice right now you want to do something nobody else is doing learned to pose that'll separate you can't make it much clearer than I were suppose nobody else is doing it that's why I still have a line coming to get us