Location Challenges: How to shoot Backlit Situations
Lesson 26 from: Landscape Photography: Start to FinishMatt Kloskowski
Location Challenges: How to shoot Backlit Situations
Lesson 26 from: Landscape Photography: Start to FinishMatt Kloskowski
Lesson Info
26. Location Challenges: How to shoot Backlit Situations
Lessons
Course Introduction
08:52 25 Things Every Landscape Photographer Should Know
23:32 3Camera Gear
11:26 4Gear Q & A
33:04 5On Location: Weather & Safety
18:55 6On Location Pre-Visualzation Sutro Baths
07:29 7On Location: Camera Settings
21:59 8On Location: Composition
27:09Matt Klowskowski - My Story
06:28 10On Location: Bracketing
15:15 11On Location: Artistic Choices
16:12 12On Location: Pre-Visualzation Marshall's Beach
06:09 13On Location: Long Exposure
15:05 14On Location: iPhone
17:31 15On Location: Wrap Location
02:15 16Location Challenges: How to Shoot in Open Sun with No Clouds
01:52 17Location Challenges: How to shoot Cloudy, Stormy, & Blah Weather
01:50 18Location Challenges: How to shoot Beaches
01:27 19Location Challenges: How to shoot Waterfalls
01:40 20Location Challenges: How to shoot Panorama Vista Scenes
01:38 21Location Challenges: How to shoot Lakes
02:11 22Location Challenges: How to shoot Mountains
02:24 23Location Challenges: How to shoot Deserts
01:29 24Location Challenges: How to shoot City Skylines
01:44 25Location Challenges: How to shoot Snow
02:53 26Location Challenges: How to shoot Backlit Situations
06:56 27Outdoor Landscape Workflow & Organization
31:38 28Basic Editing in Lightroom: Part 1
44:17 29Basic Editing in Lightroom: Part 2
26:52 30Lightroom and Photoshop: Intermediate Techniques Pt. 1
30:35 31Lightroom and Photoshop: Intermediate Techniques Pt. 2
12:31 32HDR for Landscape Photography
07:54 33Panoramas for Landscape Photography
18:14 34How to shoot Landscape with Adobe Photoshop in Mind
21:14 35Sky Replacement in Photoshop
18:48 36Processing Project: Stormy Mountains
09:12 37Processing Project: Crashing Waves on the Rocks
10:01 38Processing Student Raw Images
41:03 39Final Q&A
14:17Lesson Info
Location Challenges: How to shoot Backlit Situations
Backlit, so backlit, meaning you're my subject. The sun is behind you, so you're lit from the back. So Backlit Situations. We saw that one earlier today. That's, you know... That, to me, is classic for backlit. Another one. Another one. So this is Yosemite. I forget the name of the fall, but this is one of the waterfall that has the rainbow at the certain time in the morning, certain time in the year. So we went there to shoot it and it never happens. And what's funny is I had my 24 to 70 lens on. Or no, maybe my 70 to 200, and there's a group of us. We're you with us that morning? We were together in Yosemite. But it was funny, because I brought this picture back later on. Everybody said, "Oh, man, "you're, like, hiding good shots from us." I didn't even think about it, but it ended up being one of my favorite photos from the trip, and it's just so simple, barely even shows the falls, the reason why we went there, and never even happened. But what's cool about it, it's the backlight, ...
that light coming in from behind the rocks that's over there and backlighting that tree, really, I think makes it stand out. So... use the sun. Here's a tip for you if you're in a backlit situation. And this is probably one of my favorite ones. What really works about that is that there's a dark background. So when you're in a backlit situation, maneuver yourself to, if you can, whatever you have, whatever is being lit from behind is gonna look like it's glowing. If you can maneuver yourself to where there's something dark behind it, it'll really stand out, really look like it's glowing. And that's an important one. It's funny, these are like little recipes I wish I knew when I started photography. But you know how I learned that? I learned that from Cliff Mautner He's a wedding photographer. And he does, a popular photo that he does is he has... There's light coming in, so let's say that's a window. He'll have a bride stand there in a darker room and it'll just have this nice rim light right along the edge of the bride. The problem is that there's the window here and the bride's in front of it. You're never gonna see that, 'cause it's white behind him. So he says, "Just move yourself to where you're still "kinda getting that light," but maybe there's a wall there now. And now you see the light. And so as I got into this, I'm like, "Okay." "I can take that, and I can put it into play in nature." A flower is lit from behind. If it's got white, whatever, behind it, I'm not gonna see that glow. But if I move something dark behind it, you can see it. All right, so I got my organizing thing that we'll do. Remember, anybody that tuned in now, mattk.com/creativelive, I got some free PDFs for you. I'm gonna add that other one. I promise I'll do it when I go back tonight. But there's the little location scouting tips. There's the long exposure tips. And then we're gonna do my camera setting reset tips that I'll throw in there as well. So before I go into the organizing part, because we're gonna basically say, "All right, I got back from my San Francisco shoot. "Let's just get our files on the computer, "do some back up, figure that part all out "before we get into the processing tomorrow." Any questions on this stuff? Do you use any phone apps to help you determine where the sun's going to come up or where it's going to set? Yes, I do use phone apps. So... I use... one of my favorite ones, and I know there's a ton of them out there. One of my favorite ones is Sun Seeker. Sun Seeker is pretty cool. So I don't know if you can... Can you bring that up? So I know it's tough for you guys to see. But Sun Seeker's pretty cool, because, oh, you can see it. There we go. See that? Now here's what's really neat about it. Don't mind the cracks on my phone screen. So here's what's really cool is... You see those arcs? So it's actually telling me... Hold on. It's actually telling me where the sun is and where it'll be. Oop, I guess that's it. But not so much in here, but when I'm standing outside, I can go to a location. Let's say I get there early. Let's say I get there in the morning, and I'm gonna go back for sunset, I can actually stand there, and I can move around. And you turn the 3D view on, so it uses your camera, and I can stand around. I can see exactly where the sun is gonna go down. So I can start planning my shoot. I go, "Okay, it's gonna go down there. "I wanna be pointing that way. "I wanna shoot this, whatever." And you see exactly... It's great in the mountains too. You guys are close to Yosemite. Sunset is not... The sunset time in Yosemite... The sunset is when the sun goes down below the horizon, but you got all these hills and everything like that, so this'll tell you sunset might be at seven o'clock. But you do that, and you say, "Wow, "it's gonna go behind that peak at 5:30." So you better be there before 5: if you wanna try to get that. So I like Sun Seeker. And then the other one I use... And if the long exposure tip sheet that I have for your phone for this, it's actually got it on there, is Slower Shutter. Slow-er Shutter, and that's a good one for long exposures. It helps calculate the time that your shutter speed should stay open for, based on certain things. The tip sheet that I gave you tells you how to use it. And the class goes into it as well. So those are two ones that I like. The Photographer's Ephemeris is another one. I don't know how you spell Ephemeris, (students laugh) but it's a pretty popular... It's E-P-H... Figure it out (laughs.) So that's another pretty popular one, too, where you can put your location in and it'll kinda tell you all the details about what everything's gonna happen.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Christian Ruvolo
Mat Kloskowski class is really amazing, full of very useful tipps and inspiration. Wonderful pictures by him help to understand the explanations an I am learning A LOT from him!!! Thank you for the class!!! TOP!!!!
Louie
I love Matt's teaching style, humor, honesty, friendliness. I love On1 and all the other demos and critiques he does. He makes me enjoy the craft/art of photography much more and is a great inspiration.
a Creativelive Student
This class was for beginners and I believe Matt did a great job of giving students an great introduction to landscape photography. More on the practical than technical side, but that seems appropriate for an intro class. He comes across as a "real" guy who loves what he does and is eager to share his knowledge. Those new to photography will get a lot of helpful information and tips in this course.