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Six Classic Lighting Styles

Lesson 3 from: Lighting for Boudoir and Glamour

Lou Freeman

Six Classic Lighting Styles

Lesson 3 from: Lighting for Boudoir and Glamour

Lou Freeman

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Lesson Info

3. Six Classic Lighting Styles

Lou explains six classic lighting styles used in glamour and boudoir photography.

Lesson Info

Six Classic Lighting Styles

So we're now we're going to talk about artificial light, and I call artificial light that for a reason that means anything you manufacture from a manufacturer, strobes, speed lines, I slights creating an ambience with that is what we're going to work toward now. My lighting setups, I do six lighting setups on a regular basis and these air like textbook descriptions, but I always vary from that. I followed the baseline rules about really hard shadows crossing the nose, but as a photographer, you should always have perfectly finished photos in your book. No bad shadows crossing over the face. Everything you show has to be a ten before we go further. If you ever go show anyone your book, this is the rule of thumb I would rather stay ten to fifteen flawless omg pictures, then forty that are all over the place. I don't want you to open up your ipad and be ruffling through hundreds of pictures and try to find this one picture to show me think about what you're going to show and on lee show s...

mall, tight, concise, directed at that specific kind of business reason being is if you only show me those ten pictures that's going to be what I think you do and nothing else if you're disorganized in the way you show it, that's what I'm going to go with you guys have a few nice things but kind of craziness you want to show pretty organized well thought out books all right so I urge you to try all of these lighting setups for yourself with all of your modifiers in your studio and you go back get one subject have their hair makeup time don't take random pictures every single set up if you go to the trouble to do needs to be something you could think you could use in your book because then because what it starts to make a flow for yourself don't be afraid to embark on something it's going to change your life if you do so paramount lighting to me is one light front and center not usually on the camera I'm going to show you an example of it on the camera and the speed light and how to make that work and how to use it in the right circumstance so it doesn't look paparazzi like but unless that's the assignment you want to move away from that getting getting the light high and center to create high drama the clamshell lighting is something that I show relatively often in my beauty class but I even do that to some degree even on my full links I find some way to put an up light of some kind into the eyes from the bottom unless I want a dark moody drama and we're going to do some of that and I'll show you when it's acceptable, but light has to get into the eyes or you feel like you can't talk to were touched the person and boudoir and glamour photography's about being connected to that person. You're creating images that that person you're shooting is going to give to the person they love or for themselves to connect with. And if there's no light and I no mood, no feeling, no emotion coming from that, you're gonna have a we're going to find, you know, write a fine line of fashion, which is a little intimidating. We want to see pictures we want to connect with so light in the eyes shows years a path of connectivity to someone. So try your best at all times, even when you're making your art to find a way to put a little kick light right back into the rembrandt lighting for me is very pretty um, shadow and the portrait world defines a face and gives an artful feel I find it kind of an edgy look but still soft and pretty if you's a big self modifier to do it like the orb or a big octus softbank something like that let's like fall softly across the face, the shadows khun b sculpting on the sides of the face, you get the beautiful triangle on the side of the cheekbone you can actually kind of see it in some of these images I'm showing split light is actually what I use steer these images were shot with all speed lights, and you might not know that if unless I told you by looking at the images, which really fun to be able to try to do that wraparound lightning is something I do on a regular basis when I'm shooting beauty, jewelry or body shots, I use it sometimes with my scram gems like I'm going to show you first set up today to get around shooting at a space that's not so great! Sometimes I pop those together and make beautiful light, even in a place that's just kind of like, what do you do in white and black can't go wrong with using all white no black, we're going to do one set of each over the next nine shots were going to create and of course, my playboy lighting, I'm going to show you three, four, five, six version of that throughout over the next two days, and how you can create that with the road modifiers, as well as with the studios set up from bowen's so natural light with speed lights and phil, I'm using one light, we're going to start with all the paramount lines give you three for examples of that the first thing I do is create the look and that shit with the set and then I create the light to go with that set what after I create all the drama the outfit what do I want it what does it want to look like? How do I make that impact work in this case it was something pretty simple this was all lit with a rogue modifier the extra large strip bank pulled the top off layer that on and just build a long slender strip one had one speed like understand with the long slender speed like I'm going to show you a video tomorrow how this was actually this whole photo shoot and how it was done that's really fun in the background my playboy days we always had everyone's background separating background was lead or the back of their bodies were lit I should say with grids to help push them forward off the page that's what sets and brings the model out like she's coming out to get remember you're selling the subject to who's going to be looking at her if these pictures are for her her boyfriend or her husband you need that impact to pull her forward in the shot if she's gonna wear something really strong and sexy the lighting has to be the the exclamation point on your shoot even when you're shooting in daylight so two lights were used here one to light her and it was sitting, I'm was sitting on the floor and she was sitting in the light was about here with a strip back impact from the back, and I'm showing you this example, just to show you that you, khun d'oh any light you want but it's the light and the color of the light that you might want. So as I'm using natural light yesterday, the head shots I said the three points of using natural light is light falling on the subjects back or evenly on the face or to the side. And if you catch yourself working to the side, you have to fill it in with the scream jim or something like that, and in this particular case, the sun was setting behind her and the shot that you're looking at, I believe on the left is all done with one single speed like and the shot on the right is done with scream jam and the sun was hitting it, bouncing right back. The exposures were about the same, but the color of the light is a little different and you'll have to ask yourself don't want warm girl in sunlight or do I want a high impact flash? Look, I don't want it clean white, others, you know, from the get go, I can always change it later. But that's the kind of questions I ask myself when I'm setting up the shot for the light, we'll put the out graphic outfit together and I thought maybe a graphic light might be a better choice and then I proceed with that, um when I'm out on the set and I'm creating like a beautiful scene ix and things like that, I look for the prop look for the outfit, look for the clothes, the hair, the makeup, then light and every light set up I used one single light usually tow light that subject, then I feel then I like the background, so it a minimum flights on almost every setup is three unless I'm using complete and total natural, um, the shots that you're about to see here with the tiki hut in the background, I used a eighty four inch silver and black umbrella from west cut one speed light on the front, and I had my scream jim position directly overhead like a canopy for her. It was twelve noon when I took the picture, but you can't tell that all the life it's reaching her body and her face has done from the high center point slightly to the side, there were speed lights in the background, three inside that tiki hat putting out the light, you see, and all the lights were jailed on all synchronized to go off at the same time as we were shooting the light was filtering and hitting the background I didn't worry about screaming house just screaming her so you kind of see from this image what my set might look like so when I get every time I go to a photo shoot if I'm outside or inside I wanna work station table this clean protected from the elements then I set up my life and I always make sure that I sandbag appropriately procure safety elements on the actual scream gym when it's above the model's head and then I set my lighting into place test it and then when she walks out I'm ready to take the picture as I said the heat is an element for me and a lot of my chutes if I wait ten, fifteen minutes she will have perspiration on her face and her hair will fall so you have to be ready if they say they'll have them lean out and tell me they're ready from the make up room like stay in there in out of the humanity till I say it's absolutely go on try to bees already possibly ready the moment that they finished I could kind of tell now so when I'm you know creating my my light the shot here with the young lady with a crush a top in the actual tree was done in the exact same ways I shot. The lighting in the jungle saying with the tiki hut in the backs background so once you nail down a couple of scream and phil are you know speed like solutions when you're out on a location like that you can get to the point where you can set it up pretty quick the only difference in this particular shot in the one I just showed you instead of setting up the big scream jam I used scream umbrella witches theeighty four and shoot through umbrella just ground and the make up artist with my reflectors so things could pop together very easily son on the left all falling on her through scram shot on the right all of the sun's coming from the back so using that like that and being like where is it? How can I use it? What quality is it is a gold is it brown? Is it faded? Is it blue? You know those questions how can I work with that? To make that part of my stylistic look before ever put a light on it that's usually how I pieced the whole thing together and it's usually quit pretty quick one, two, three, five minutes I can have something set up lit and these images were this was a fun shoot that I did cannon in the spring I was out in san diego during the middle of the tour and I did this process with a three speed lights on my s t e three trigger, and we had three soft boxes from rogue and I just created a little clam shell set up the shot on the left is just one single speed light with one soft box. The shot on the right is building a clam shell with two on a stand. The centre shot has a third light in there, putting a little grid spot on the background for a little drama. Once you start connecting all of these lines and see how easy you can't connect them, then you start using the gels and you, khun, start lighting the whole setup to me that's like magic, and to be able to do it in just a few minutes and pull amount of a roller bag has really been saving grace to me, so natural light eyes kee knowing when to use it, I picked natural light when I'm going to use an all white set like a girl in a white t shirt. Our white set goes with somebody that says, you know, I don't wear a lot of makeup, I don't wanna be all done up like that, I don't know, I can't see myself in one of these fantasy shots you're dealing it's, not me, you know I never wear any makeup when you see that person, you're going to want to resonate with that and they say I'm happy and go with what they're looking, so when that interview process I was talking about, I'm going to revisit this subject tomorrow how to do it a little more efficiently than just talking about it lightly is you're going to want to really try to find out who's person is in that fifteen to twenty minutes and make your decisions about what you may might be able to dio if you see that you're going to end up with that wife beater and a tank top or you know the fresh face with just, you know, some kiss do we kind of make up? You're going to want to do things and either natural light aren't all white set up or something clean and simple, recognizable, not an intimidating look, so you're gonna wanna plan around that I planned my shoots, the lightest makeup, the most clean down to earth shot first I start with a beauty shot, then I back off to a three quarter than a full length standing, sitting lying down when I shot for playboy. We did the these rules of towns standing up like a let's say your audience is the photographer standing straight up or lying down horizontally across shooting across this way or lying down with the model here shooting from above never laying down and shooting up or down an angle of a body. You follow me on that. And could you do you have any idea why? When you pull your camera on an odd angle, you can make the parts of the body look bigger, especially you're going to shoot in a small space and you have twenty four to seventy or twenty four two one o five it's so easy to shoot an awkward angle on someone because you can fit them in the frame. There's wantto make sure that hands and legs and things were like that are not in large. So try to stick with the standing. Three quarter had shot sitting, lying down or shooting lying down. Just avoid shooting up her down the body. There is one time I'm going to show you a couple of examples when you can get by with it. And the reason why you would want teo and it's usually after somebody's had a baby and these air lying down options. I could give you to help camouflaged bodies and people will feel really great about themselves and never see their flaws. So I created this whole story. Kind of is how to show you all the different directions you can take it and it looks super sexy, but she's not naked. The straps falling off and that's about as much suggestion is we have other than the poses and what makes it so sexy is the strength and the poses we've got beautiful light, beautiful clothes, beautiful hair and make up can't go wrong with an all white sat and just have a rolling around in the bed that easy the more you move the subject and the more you put your camera angle as if you were in there with her your eyes when you're shooting glamour boudoir need to be the receiver so you have to take great sexy pictures and you have to ask for those poses or they will never come across looking like they have any intention of doing what they want to be perceived as you follow me on that so blank stares not gonna work the eyes have to have mood and you know energies from that emotion has to come out of their face whatever your emotion is whether she's flirting behind a sheet or she's you got a whip and she's like around you've got to bring that emotional with delight the intensity of the hair, the makeup, the styling and then finally the posing or the communication aspects. So I'm showing you these two shots because these are on the same set two seconds apart silver gold reflector standing in the bright sun redirecting moving light down on her on the shot on the left flipped it around white card under the face I'm down on the floor shooting back up her so I'm going to show you these exactly where I am so when I'm shooting around abed I loved this bad there was nothing on it no post no nothing distracting I hate ugly lamps ugly in tables I move this telephone's off the table all the crap that looks like somebody lives there this had nothing there but a wood block sitting beside it was perfect for me because guess what then you're looking at her and that's it so keep it chic and minimal or take it over the top there's not a whole lot of room for the granary in between okay simplicity is always chic but so is well style things so simplicity keep yourself on the level as if you're involved with that subject this is one of my favorite images that I shot these air p s all the same girl all in the same day took me four hours to shoot these we went here first we left there we drove forty five minutes went to this location I picked this location in underwear because of the set matching so I spend a lot of time coordinating outfit on the set and her according to make up so it's all kind of has the same color in the field and look just like a will defined room, our outfit or perfectly executed paintings you wanted to sing that's the easy part to may fun part. And then that makes all your retouching amazing. So these particular images I pulled all of the shots down, teo minimal got into the bedroom. There were white pillows on the bed. I was into the grave and the silver and the animal print. It was like kind of move the white pillows. So as I'm minimizing, I was king upon that lamp that you see in the background, we gotta include that exposure. So these air a mixture of window light with my cake pan reflectors and I slight lets it so simplicity and really lets her stand out. I asked the makeup artist on a side note to give me a bronzy shimmery luminescence from here all the way down to her feet and there's a lotion that you can get that has little gold flecks in it from juergens. You have to kind of look for it. It's not one of the sun town lotions. It's just a lotion with gold flick. It works nicely. You had to put it on and let it get completely dry before they touch anything like somebody else's sheets. So you want to make sure you don't mess up and somebody else's house? And I'm pulling this and just to kind of show you where we were when you see the scale of the window and then the scale of where she is and the little curtain that she has there the beaded curtain was on see stan with boom arm across the top and I just had her work that whole little angle five to ten shots moving away roll it up piece paper in the car goes so paramount lining one light front and center if you use a mirror underneath yesterday you saw how that really brings light into the eyes um if you don't have that and you don't have a reflector your only choice is to put the head up to the light but soon as you bring the head up if it comes fashioning direct connection to the eye means models heads directly into the camera and she means business night she's got an intent so did you put a lot into there she's like oh I don't think so so the body language tells the story so you have to make sure that you resonate that and you want to remember to stay focused on that that's why it's so important that from the beginning you stay on top of the control what's going on in your photo shoot whatever your mood is and whatever your directive is is how the whole thing's going to go down so here we have two shots coming up this was all done with my octus off box when we were on the tour in italy valerie was with that's you knows where were you when you took that picture it was such a wonderful place you could not stop looking at all of the angles that it was like a photographer's visionary place to goto you know, shoot even if there were no models I mean it was just beautiful in there all of trees everywhere you're going to see a couple images coming up from that but I stylized all this stuff myself and there's a company that I used called costumes etcetera and I'm sure you guys have something like this out here in seattle it's a big huge warehouse like on costco full of costumes and you have to really go in there and look and you have to be careful that it doesn't get the least bit cheesy because too much costume is not good you have to be able to visit the visionary enough to say ok, this piece works this piece works and then I constantly am influx with pieces of far pieces of fabric things I could make into skirts things I can buy on the cell record marshals that are a little camouflage is for the hips the light that I bring when I'm on those locations and all of the things kind of come together it's one at this point she had on her own personal underwear I made the little skirt we wrapped a little fur around reid is on the hat and I rented to coat the rain coat the coat was over the price ranch I was willing to pay so I rented it I used it for a week so you can rent costumes there you could go online pick what you want if you've got a killer sheep coming up and you want to do something that looked like it you know came out of a movie from twenties you could probably find it out if it there so you're gonna want to find some cool things in a way to make some impact on your chute so that there's something else going on instead of just the simplest thing possible. So lighting um here is your speed light on top of the camera the decision I made to use this on the cannon videos with the simple fact that we had hard son hitting the pool and I wanted her floating in the water off the only place that could put the sun is at her back well the phil in the face would've been great with a similar kind of light matching the quality like quality like warming gel on the front of the flash that we had some impact with color so the whole catalyst of this was the water the flowers, the floating and then the sun once we have the ambient light feared out, we, you know, improvise with how we're going to fill in the front of face hard light hitting the face straight on will cancel out a lot of lines on the face and make things smooth and beautiful on same thing here, outside in the full sun, the sun was setting over the coast in san diego, barreling straight at her back across shadows everywhere because I could take my quantum battery on my hip outside with me with a flash head on top, I could put the flash off camera speed like and get it any cool angle I want, so my assistant says, I'll take it and he's walking over to the side, putting the light to help me cancel out all the shadows that we're falling is his son was crossing her. This makeup artist was flipping the dress up in the air for me, we would count to three tommy taking twenty pictures to get the magic picture, and I'm thinking, I'm not getting it when I get home, and I can't believe how many beautiful shots we added the dress just moving amazingly like that, yeah, could I ask you to repeat where you rent from? Someone was asking what it is called costumes, et cetera, costumes, et cetera and there's costumes, you know? Stores and almost every major city now it's gotten to be a really big part of events and things like that when you go to learn too new topics or goto speaking engagements, you sometimes see people wearing great costumes and I found several people that have wonderful dresses from the forties there's a place called vintage by judas that I work with a lot. When I was doing the fabulous dvd series, I ran into a lot of costumes from her and we did the whole flapper era completely and totally pull together from her and she had several sizes and the dresses and they were authentic dresses so you really feel like you're doing something special when you have these amazing clothes too to pull from so that those air some ideas and then you know some of the other clothes I buy, I get it, you know, much smaller department stores and things like that. I want to sell racks, I go the vintage store and I make ah lot of the rest of the stuff and here is again back on the speed lights. This is a simple setup I did on the tour and I just think it has a great effect. It's, a black pegboard from home depot spray painted black. There was one speed light in front of her. I have a rogue modifier on the front converted into a strip bank and there's three speed lights position behind her with different jails on them and I just mulch applied all of the little spotlight says they came through with a little star filter effect on top I shot those separately and while I was shooting her and then when I was doing my post work I cleaned up everything and just brought it into the look I wanted it tap the strip bank allows the blackboard to go to silhouette so you're not over lighting the subject so split lighting is something that I used on a regular basis I did split lighting on this particular image here you want to turn your subject's face into that light use the shadow to help create scale and dimension I use split lining to help me give maura additional body shape and form I try not to let that split light hit the face if I'm shooting somebody and they just really want there you know they got a gorgeous face and their bodies killer I might side like their body and come back in with the good spot on the face to help me bring their face back into a beautiful place that they could look straight at me and not off camera so traditionally glamour and boudoir is either flirtation or looking directly at the camera cell that subject who they're going to show the images too so you want to create all of the things they came there for with their body the split lighting to even all the way down to the legs can give the muscle definition on the legs not just on the mid section we forget that women are really proud of their legs to when they work out s o you want to light it correctly and sidelight is always a good call on that if you're shooting somebody that's very curvy you can use split light with one light on one side and a card on the other and allow for more shadow fall off highlighted things when you're let me just take a second here and just talk about how to make things look three dimensional if I gave you a pencil and sent you over to a chalkboard or not a piece of chalk and draw a circle and then I said how do you make that circle look round or like it was three dimensional like a balloon what would be the first thing you would do shadow on the edges right and then how would you show it really coming forward at the highest point put a highlight so highlight coming forward shadows receding so curvy people require a lot of shadow you can also combine that with darker color clothes and then keep up killer makeup and hair really go over the top when you have the super curvy person support garments shadowy light great hair and makeup and then only show the great leg show cleavage, show our hand to the waistline, never put him out there and completely exposed them if you don't have to be kind and be generous and they really thoughtful about how you want to shoot that person, so I'm going to show you really quickly. The speed lights that I work with this is kind of a long list here expo imaging is actually made a small kit for me. If you're interested in that, it might be a good way to focus rather than buying all of the random kids, because you'll have some things in there you may not use this much as others. Westcott has beautiful these five four things that you see listed here, the apollo orb, the strip banks, I have to strip banks and the grids that go on top of those strip banks will help you control that spread of light that comes out of a soft box because the soft box immediately kind of makes it glow. Outwardly, you put the grill on it's going to close that down, so you have stuff like that only directed in a certain point, so that it's kind of important, especially when you're working with something that used those on this and the expo imaging, as I said, I used the dynamic color jail kit every time I pull speed like that that in itself is important and they're already made two set cannon also since cto and half cto with a little jill holder and soon as you snap it on the front the camera it automatically adjust for that so that's really an awesome thing to know to be able to gel the lights like that so easily so this is done with a split light but if phil in the face and at the time I started doing this project I knew that I wanted to greet her face but I didn't have that option so as you can see in this lighting set up here on the right I've got an umbrella on my first speed light haven't have closed down because I'm only going to put a little halo of light out so I've cut that up you know plus two thirds of a stop so enough lights coming out of it to just put a pounce of light right here on her face sidelining on her body is going to give her body she much more shape and form and this particular thing I did split lighting as well but in a totally different way the split lighting here is done with the eighty four inch umbrella off to one side on orb in the front and then I put a little kicker light on the bottom of her face can you guys see that little tiny needy just sitting down there on the bottom there's a little inter fit beauty dish that I bought that I used to put a little kick of applied on the face and sitting right there on the floor right in front of my knee and over here you can see my makita leaf blower that I uses to blow the hair below the outfit around when I'm shooting because I can turn it on and just sitting beside me and point it wherever I want on phil in the face, you can kind of see how the set is. I've got this grim jim sitting there blocking off the window like that was bearing down and putting this hard shadow across the body, so this particular space is probably about the same size is that we're working in the studio today, so you don't need a lot of space to pull off these things. If you go to someone's bedroom, we're going to set up a bedroom in your studio. However you go about it, you just want to be ableto pull it off and have plenty of room to walk around in light. So a wraparound lightning for me you can do this with speed lights, but I usually like to work in the studio when I did this and use my studio strikes because I want to get enough power through the scrim in the background so let that light wraparound gives a little bit of a split light field light coming from the back create shadow around the front edge you could make somebody's tummy look a little more developed a little more texture. Do you have a better cut body? You can fill in the front of the face behind the scram there's usually strokes pointing directly through this grams and the subject is there facing the camera so the light if you set it up on your own, has to be behind them. If you set it up in there, over on the side, they're going to end up losing the formation of the cheeks so behind gives you cut into the face so you can actually thinned down someone's face is well by using this, the images I'm going to show you now have no phil on the fax. This is more of a fashion artsy field to may I don't have any connection to her. She just looks now about guard and interesting and sexy, but there's no light falling into her face here I've pulled the scrim, jim up as a wall to stand it right in front of her, the light's coming through this cream jim bouncing off the silver reflector and right back into her face. It's kind of hard to believe that all of the light is behind her bits one of my favorite things to do is to set that up and work through that it's a great way to shoot evening dresses too with sequins all the way down to the ground for those of you like to shoot fashion or two seniors and you want to shoot somebody in the prom dress all of the jewels will come alive from the top to the bottom on the dress if you like like this it's like putting somebody in an envelope of light from all around there's plenty of ways to modify it and this particular thing this is probably not going to play but I build a ice light fill in the front and when I build that ice light fill in the front I just build a little square box with the ice lights like this so all studio light from the back I slight fill in the front and you concede from her neck and shoulder you can see the ice light square from the catch lights in her eyes and the light from the back is wrapping around her body and you can start to see how some muscle tone could be shown from that back lining so even if you're shooting an artistic nude there or you're shooting someone in an evening dress or lingerie you can still get beautiful tonalities in the body there here's, my playboy set up, this is like a minimum playboy set up. I'm going to give you my thought process on the lighting and the way that you're going to will about this's really up to you. As an artist, I'm showing you ideas. You know the rules convey a manipulated with whatever lighting sources you have, but I like to try to work with the the split like first to help me with the body or defined the body. I put grids on to control when I want to really dark, moody set so that the lights not spilling all over to the background in the foreground and just making minimal impact with my life. I usually use a light on the front that is minimized to just the face. My beauty dish with a grid or my beauty dish with the grid and a sock compared to combine together from a high angle, I chisel out the cheeks, thin down the face, create shadows and drama underneath the chan and eyes from here down, false to darkness. So all of the split lining really starts to take over with the shape of this part of the body, so you could make some dramatic effects even on a guy. And do the same thing so don't be afraid to spill this lighting outside of just shooting women but into shooting man if you have enough strobes thatyou can dio rim lighting on the back of the body it's always a good idea I pushed the subject forward if you have one find a way to get it directly behind the subject pointing directly at the back if you have to I am one of the top of the back of the head and one down to the lower part of the body impact with shadows created from the backlight is also another thing to think about that can bring a nice look if you're shooting in a studio or even out mostly we're out in the alley behind the building doing something at night you could do the same lighting setup any which way you go the grid's I used the grizz to help him me suggest impact you can have five ten to twenty degree grids put on a stroll with a reflector and using on the front of the body in this particular set up this was an advertising job I did but the spotlights were just allowed to touch the face on this one I use it just to like the jewelry in the background and then I resonated the background again with yet another grid so create on grid so no other light but the light that I'm implying just by those grids when you work with studio likes, you have the option of having modeling lights, which really does help you visualize what you're doing. I like to work in a damn studio if I'm just going to use grids like that, so I can really see where the spotlight falls when you put a grid on a beauty dish on the face, I always suggest you go over and put your head right where the model is and make sure you have aimed correctly. The grid should be pointed at the chest, but at the center of the face and allow the fall off to go to here so five to six troves can pull this off body six speed lights can also pull it off really quickly. I want to talk about lighting, placement and how important it iss you're going to build a set and have the person moving this set, if you're going to go from standing toe lying down, you're gonna have to tweak the lighting for the lying down position. You can easily do it. I'm going to show you how to do it to the tea so that it looks just immaculate every time, so what you're basically doing is making the subject glow, the background is there for impact, but you're not so much worried about the light on that background. You really want to worry about the light on your subject, how to make them look the best she possibly can before we go any further. I can't tell you how important it issues great hair and makeup, not just hair and makeup, but great herring makeup. She has lashes on the top in the bottom, the makeup's tweaked to match the clothes in the background. All of that was discussed in planned when we started, when I get to the point of taking the photo, shoot everything so well thought out, put together, I usually go in, relax and wait for her to come out, and all I have to do is shoot the picture. I'm showing you this because this young lady never thought she could look like this, and I could see the beauty in the bone structure of her face into an amazing figure, just a sweet supergirl on dh she's a photographer. So she told me when she finished the shoot, but I think I learned more from being in this position that I've learned from anything up down in school, so my whole goal of what I'm doing here is to shorten that whole process. It took me a really long time to get to the point where I know all these things and to tell you. Really go ahead and go to the trouble for the makeup really go ahead and buy the light's on you're not buying a lot of random stuff you don't need your not taking pictures that air a seven when they could be a ten you know you really want to get to that level where you only bring fabulous every time you set to shoot up planned everything she's wearing planned makeup chose not to warm the lighting because everything was in cool tones. If I'd put warming jails on this, it would really been too much same lighting set up but with my speed lights in my robe modifiers can't tell the difference right? Here's the set up on that I basically did the playboy set up a shoji, but I'm using war lights actually than in different positions it's kind of hard to see but way over there in the far corners you see my tripod that's where I the vantage point of the photo was taken at one small grid on a speed light about this big right above my camera, one grid layered in the top pointed directly at the face and upper part of the body I've got that set about a third of it stop over the rest of the exposure so her face comes forward and her your connection is to her face because it's lit beautifully the body drops down little shadow fall in split lights lights in the background like her and the subject off in the distance. Further back this way, there was a beautiful lamps and glassware, and I put used my ice lights stage on used bogan auto clamps to hold everything in place to illuminate the background, the song that you're looking at here, the speed likes actually putting light on the wall. You go back and show you the shot again outside the window, red screen gems head up didn't want to see the people driving down the street in the school bus stop or anybody to see in the window, so, you know, every time I go out the door, I take my six throws, my sixty lights, my scream, jim, kids and all that, and this is how it all happens levitate er pole fun think this is something we're going to dio tomorrow levitate or pole allows me to put my camera up in the air, and I no longer have to climb up on top of the scaffolding when I'm using that, I'm going to work my cam ranger, which is a mock wifi hooked up to my camera and attached to it up on the levitate, a pro my assistant's going to hold the camera up, and I'm going to direct her while looking at my camera, and you're standing on the ground beside the model and you shoot the whole thing orchestrated from the cam ranger on the ground beside her, so that was a whole new path of awesomeness for may, then I could go anywhere and get up in the air. From a vantage point, I could be in a barn, I didn't have to worry about hauling my scaffolding, which is how I used what I used for the longest time to create these bed scenes and things that I was doing so the camera and you're alone, it does a million other things, and you can direct everything that you would normally see from there. You can also download it to your laptop if you don't have on ipad and you can work all your settings, your eyes owes everything right from there and shoot video live, you make aged ers everything you would normally do. I have it set to leave the images in the camera, but c j pegs on the back of the camera. I found out about this because I met someone that was having a real hard time seeing to take wedding photos, and he was just walking around with it so he could see on another. One of my clients uses a strapped with her small ipad mini to look at things when she's outside in the bright sun, I used my loop when I'm shooting outside, but when this came across to me. It certainly was that savor. The cost of it is very inexpensive. I won't say exactly what, what it costs them short varies from place to place, but you don't wanna check into it.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Canon 600EX RT Flash Set Up.pdf
Lighting for Boudoir and Glamour Slides.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Lou is one of the most inspiring photographers Ive seen on Creative live. When I watch her, its like watching a great guitar player... in that, she hears the music before she ever plays it. Lighting and posing flows out of her with incredible ease. She inspires me so much! No fluff here, just pure maximum quality info and inspiration. Id love to meet her some day just to thank her for what she has given.

Francie Fillatti
 

Lou is one of my favorites. Although I shoot primarily woman, I don't do Boudoir. I love her calm, methodical style, and attention to detail. I respect that she always makes her women look elegant and empowered instead of objectifying them. Her images are sensitive and beautiful and I can't wait to watch her again today! I learned so much from her..

Bridget Murphy
 

I am amazed at how much information Lou gives away here. Her knowledge of the craft is extremely apparent and the end product is always stunning. I could watch this over and over for its ideas and inspiration.

Student Work

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