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One Light Set-Up for Male Portrait

Lesson 23 from: Powerful Portraits using Mirrorless Cameras

Miguel Quiles

One Light Set-Up for Male Portrait

Lesson 23 from: Powerful Portraits using Mirrorless Cameras

Miguel Quiles

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Lesson Info

23. One Light Set-Up for Male Portrait

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Class Introduction

11:07
2

What is a Mirrorless Camera?

06:30
3

Mirrorless Camera Advantages

07:30
4

Mirrorless Compatibility

13:12
5

Live Shoot: Mirrorless vs. DSLR

07:56
6

Live Shoot: A7R II, A6300 & A7ii

29:27
7

Compare Mirrorless & DSLR Images

21:37
8

Posing Techniques Overview

15:46

Lesson Info

One Light Set-Up for Male Portrait

And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna have my model David come out and let's give him a welcome. (crowd clapping) It's gonna be great, welcome! Hi. Thank you. Alright, and John, if we could get the flag here. And so I'm gonna talk through really briefly We're gonna do a couple of different things, actually three different things. We're gonna do a one light set up which is basically kind of the way that I shot the title image so I'm gonna show you guys how I basically do that with one light with a flag. We're gonna do a two light set up and then we're gonna do a third set up which is gonna use high speed sync. High speed sync is usually something that is used outdoors and it's something that people use to be able to shoot wide open when they're photographing people outdoors. It's not very common for people to use it in the studio but it's very common for me to use it and so I want to show you guys a way that might be a little bit mind bending to basically use high speed sync in a sc...

enario where you traditionally wouldn't use it. But we'll kinda show you some different images to give you an idea of exactly what it's doing cause I want to make sure that it all kinda makes sense. So, at any rate, what I'm gonna be doing here is I have my Indra500 from Phottix. It's just my single light. I have a Phottix Luna Collapsible Softbox. So again, these Softboxes, the Luna line is really awesome because on the inside of this thing there's little brackets basically that you pop open and this thing basically assembles itself in like a minute. So for somebody who is traveling, or if you set up your studio on your customer's locations this thing is really great to be able to pop up really fast and have it set up. We're actually gonna be using this foam core board which, when I first started in photography, I actually didn't have that tri-reflector that I love using that I used in the earlier segments. I actually had a white board that was just like this that you can buy from like a craft store and so I bought a white and a black when I first started and I wanna say in the U.S., they're about three dollars and this is what I used as my reflector for the longest time and even today there's times where if I'm traveling if I forget my reflector or whatever the case might be, I go into a craft store. I can go into a drug store and basically buy these very inexpensively. So, the way we're gonna be using this is, usually, when I shoot these types of portraits, I wanna be able to kind of shape and control the light. And, there's a lot of different ways to be able to do that. I could add layers of diffusion to this. I can add different grids and things to that nature. But I found away to be able to this where I don't have to buy an extra modifier for a specific look. I can just use this one softbox and modify that to get a bunch of different looks. So what we're gonna do with this is we're actually going to flag off a piece of the light, which basically means that we're gonna block a portion of the softbox so that it doesn't throw all of its light on our subject. And maybe at some point, one of the things that you can also do with this is if you want some of the light to bleed back onto the background but not hit your subject you can kinda flag off the light in this manner so that way this light lights your subject and then that back side basically will kick the light back on to the background. So, it's kind of a different way to be able to do things. In that title image, that's how I shot it is exactly the way that I'm gonna show you here with one variation, so what I'm gonna do is that shot was actually taken using a very shallow depth of field. We're actually gonna shoot this shot at hopefully an f8 to f11. I'm not sure where we're gonna land but we're gonna test out those settings and we'll kinda see where we end up. So, first things first, because again, I'm setting this thing up fresh this morning so I'm going to f8 one 1/60th of a second which ISO is 100 so remember, ISO and shutter speed, I'm gonna say it until I'm blue in the face but ISO and shutter do not change if you're shooting with your regular standard settings of f7.1 or higher. Later on, you'll kinda see when those settings might change, so that'll be the little asterisks but for the most part, f8 one 1/60th of a second ISO 100, if you remember yesterday I told you very important a couple things you want to do before you start shooting. Always make sure you check to make sure your lens cap is off because you don't want to be that person that starts to shoot and then you realize oh man, I left my lens cap. Nube city. Then you also wanna make sure that you pop off your studio flash before you actually get in front of your subject so that way you know that it's communicating and working. Batteries, everything is good. And actually, I didn't mention this yesterday so I figure it might be appropriate to say today. If you're shooting tethered and your laptop is plugged in, it's actually powering your camera via the USB. So it's kind of awesome because if you're doing a studio shoot all day long and you're worried about your batteries dying, if you're shooting tethered, you'll look on the back of your screen and you see the little power plug so it's actually running off of the power. So you can go all day, forever, until the camera one day in the future dies on you. So here's what we're gonna do and I'm gonna give you my quick posing tutorial. We're doing this to reinforce what we talked about in an earlier segment. So here's what I want you to do. And actually, you can stand right there. Alright, so I want you to pretend like you are looking in the mirror right now and you are seeing your totally smooth, awesome, good-looking reflection in the mirror right now. So looking in the mirror, if I told you I wanted you to mirror me and I go like this, very good. Like that, nice. Go like this. I like it. Okay good. So we're nice and limber, nice. So if I tell you mirror me and I go like that or I go like this, you'll mirror me. The second thing that I do is if I put my hand up like this, I want you to pretend like I'm palming your face like a basketball. Alright, so I go like this or like this, nice. So it just basically has your head on a swivel so we'll go boom. So that's how I'm gonna basically get your head to tilt one way or the other. The third thing that I do is what I call the old Bill Clinton. So if I go like this, I'm grabbing you just by your chin and your head is on a swivel. So we go this way, this way, down, up. The hard one that I do is if I pull this way. So I don't want this. I want this. Turtle. Turtle. Exactly. See, you know that. Turtle, come out like that. So I'll pull like this and then I'll put chin down, perfect. So that'll be the Bill Clinton. The last one that I do is if I put both hands up I have my hands on your shoulders. Alright, so I'm rotating you from the torso. So I push this way or I'll push this way or I do the tap where I'll go like this, perfect. Or I'll go like that, awesome. So without having to touch him, I'll be able to go and just do these Jedi called my Jedi posing and you'll be able to pose and look awesome.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Miguel's Exposure X2 Alien Skin Presets

Bonus Materials with RSVP

Gear List

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

I want to commend you for hosting Miguel Quiles. He is beyond competent and knowledgeable. Light is Light, but It is encouraging to see incredible minority photographers on your platform and to see diversity in the presenters. It is inspirational for minorities to see themselves on the center stage. I sincerely thank you for that. I am buying this course although I am not a mirrorless shooter because of my support of Miguel and the quality of his instruction of which benefits all photographers. He is a great addition to the Creative Live Family of Presenters that I have supported as well. Kudos Creative Live!

Danae Khan Jones
 

Wow! As a Newb and someone looking to get into portrait/studio photography, this course was perfect and comprehensive. SO MUCH GOOD CONTENT. Miguel is so approachable about questions, positive, and thorough in his explanations. This course broke down the gear and technical side very well. I recommend going to a class live. It was a great experience with food and beautiful facilities. The facility has a positive vibe and really encouraged me to be creative. Thank you for the experience and knowledge!

Sharon
 

WOW!!! I LOVED THIS CLASS!!! I learned so much. He made lighting soooo simple, I finally understood. I liked the way he explained the why of his camera settings and how to overcome ambient light. he explained and made everything simple!!! I liked the way he talked about connecting with your clients. I am so happy I purchased this class. I finally understood lighting What a great teacher!! Thank you!!

Student Work

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