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Scott Robert Lim: Creating Drama

Lesson 16 from: SkillSet: Best of Lighting

Sue Bryce, Scott Robert Lim, Mike Fulton, Tony Corbell, Clay Blackmore, Mark Wallace, Zack Arias, Joey L, Felix Kunze, Joel Grimes

Scott Robert Lim: Creating Drama

Lesson 16 from: SkillSet: Best of Lighting

Sue Bryce, Scott Robert Lim, Mike Fulton, Tony Corbell, Clay Blackmore, Mark Wallace, Zack Arias, Joey L, Felix Kunze, Joel Grimes

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Lesson Info

16. Scott Robert Lim: Creating Drama

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Sue & Felix: Shoot: Natural Light Portraits - Maisie

21:30
2

Sue & Felix: Shoot: Natural Light Portraits - Katie

25:45
3

Sue & Felix: Shoot: Natural Light Portraits - LaQuan

15:36
4

Sue & Felix: Shoot: Studio Light Portraits - Maisie

39:40
5

Tony Corbell: The Power of Light Part 1

18:50
6

Tony Corbell: The Power of Light Part 2

37:39
7

Tony Corbell: The Power of Light Part 3

23:58
8

Scott Robert Lim: Live Shoot - Natural Light

1:21:40

Lesson Info

Scott Robert Lim: Creating Drama

here we are in a not too terrible situation but it's very bright as you can see I'm squinting on dh this is a perfect example off determining using the sunny sixteen rule we've got some slight overcast it's getting a little bit clearer as we go but the way I determined this is you can look at the shadows and you will look at my shadow um and it's sharp but not super sharp so and the sun is starting to come out so I would guess I'm probably in between f eleven r r f sixteen somewhere in there is a one hundred shutter one hundred now what you have to do with the sonny sixteen rule is that you have to match your eyes so with your shutter ok so if you've got and the reason why I start at one hundred because my flash sink speed if it's two hundred I've got some lead way up and down in there to control my ambient light to make a darker my background darker or brighter so let's go ahead I've got this at f eleven uh one hundred s a one hundred shutters and I'm gonna feature the alcatraz island...

I uh when I'm tryingto feature something that far away what I like to do is put a zoom lens on and in this case I just literally got this on ebay put it in my bag and I'm going to use it this is a great lands it's a three five to four five it's probably made in the eighties or something like that I got for like two hundred bucks is all these awesome it's fairly small in light and so I'm going to zoom out and I'm going to show you that guests on f eleven uh let's see what's going on here hold on a second one two three okay and that's going to show us that we're pretty much right on with our um meeting wei don't have a lot of bright sun back there I wish there was more bright sun but we see some detail we see alcatraz and uh if I put my subject at the rail then I can see both and that's why I'm goingto uh use my two hundred so what happens is if I move back and I zoom in all the way to two hundred then what I'm doing is like I'm moving alcatraz closer to me the more I zoom so if I used seventy millimeter lands you know maybe it would move here but if I'm moving if I'm zooming out at two hundred it's like it's coming closer to me and getting bigger and I want that object back there as big as possible so I'm going if I had a four hundred millimeter lands that would be even better but but I haven't just a two hundred with me so I'm going to zoom all the way to two hundred um and uh let's see we've got uh okay so m et f eleven which means let's can we bring that big boy bar out here with the four flashes ok normally thank you neil neil's going to be my assistant today okay yeah that's good okay so normally according to my chart if I was six feet away class what will we put my flash out at f eleven do you guys know half power but we're gaining two stops so now what do I get to put it on way right if we started half wait get two stops we got half quarter eighth is that correct so I've got everything on eight power here hopefully we got batteries in here uh we've been using these bad results week cell anyways I got extra batteries just in case and so this is it probably get me pretty close to what we need to go okay and so we're going to bring out ben our model okay this has been and if you're a big fan of jessa this is a breanna xhm use every single ascension you'll see ben okay well anyways so I got a little so ladies ghetto candy for you special because usually I just shoot hot chicks but because ben so it's a great fan we're going to use ben all right ben stand up take it over there by that rail and I'm just going to do something really basic I'm just trying to get yeah perfect I'm just trying to get everything in there you could see some shadows on his face and we're going to try to eliminate that with flash uh by overpowering the sun so you want to go over there so I kind of locked in my background um and you're actually in the photo but you get on this side yeah yeah right there all right let me let me and azuma as much as possible so I'm gonna zoom it to two hundred it's like and pull alcatraz in there okay so you could sort of get a hint of it okay ben can you look towards the light okay ready one two three all right so that uh let's put that a little bit closer down down more right there yeah okay let's let's really try toe overpower that one two ready good and so there were trying were over powering the sun and getting instead of him having raccoon eyes hey has some nice light on his face and he's uh got and we've got that commercial look I'm shooting at f eleven and it's uh getting really nice and juicy so what we're going to do now is I'm going actually it's it's kind of in a natural light situation here but I wanna see if I can just make it a little bit darker by raising my shutter speed up one teo it's a little bit hot so we'll just move it back a bit right there good and we'll take another one ready one teo good perfect on dh now what I did was I raised my shutter speed to make that background a little bit darker now if I had some bright sun out there then you would see highlights not only on ben but you would see highlights in the background but because it's slightly overcast um you kind of don't know the effect is not a strong so but when we change positions we could get more blue sky and we'll demonstrate a little bit later now I'm at sea this is the whole reason why I am not bent on two point eight lenses because I'm shooting that at f eleven and the background is still blurry at two hundred millimeters on so that's not a big problem with me so a lot of people like to point out all the time but even if you zoom out at two hundred even at f eleven you're going to get some great light okay so let's change and try to get that light slightly above like okay look looks look look up right at meet men at me looks straight at me and let's get that light in front so we can kind of go down right above him uh is it hitting your face sort of ok let's start right there see if we could get this to work would do three good okay uh let's move out a bit and get the light and mawr in front of him a little bit more this way yep good blood teo put your nose a little bit towards this way yeah right there one teo three good and there some still a little bit of uh light that's hitting his eyes that's because I have the light high so if I wanted to kind of eliminate that let's move the flash down lower so it gets into his eyes okay right and right there and let's actually let's just do this let's turn this try switching positions let's have you look this way right and let's move that light over can you stand over on this side now and I'm going to get this nice boat in the background now I'm going to change the scenery okay pull more over this way see this is why I gotta have it alive voice activated lights stand because it's so much easier to manage okay move over this cake good all right uh it's that it's a little bit in the frame okay good uh it's a little bit in the frame but I could always photoshopped that part out so because it's guy so I'm gonna go and shoot it but that's filling in a bit we're gonna um why don't we just bump it up one because I'm only at eight power here and eighth hour is not that much power at all so I'm gonna go to quarter power and I can still shoot I just gave it a little bit more juice see what we got just fill him in a bit more he's doing is perfect we got one two ready good let's uh bring the light down a bit and back just a little bit it's a little bit hot okay one two three see even at a quarter power it's like who plenty hot which is nice okay now we're going to do some sidelining so totally look this way bad and we're going to light it from the side like probably did you yeah so move it over to this side ok look that way bed perfect one two three good you moved out like back a little bit so what no not that way this way this behind him a bit so I could get side shadow yeah good one two three good alright what's that okay that's like a let's try it again I'm going to zoom in a bit more see the more I zoom them or that larger the background gets I'll do an example actually so you could see the difference all right stay there now I can move up close and I could zoom this at seventy and you're going to see that boat oh even though ben is the same size that boat is a lot smaller which is not bad actually that's a little bit hot so move back a bit there one two three good now watch I'm going to zoom at two hundred and now you're going to see that boat a lot bigger but ben's going to remain the same size one two three and that's the difference moved back just a bit too good all right so you can see the difference in the background uh by zooming or moving up at seventy just depends on your personal taste and what you're trying to shoot and so you can see uh actually go back one more can we go back one more photo where I said it at seventy millimeters yeah see that one that seventy and then you can go to the one of two hundred but the image is the same size but the backgrounds different and that's what you're using assuming okay so let's try taking a few photos like this uh yeah uh let's say you get tied down okay uh let's good okay let's try one where you're kind of leaning against the rail looking at me good okay so now we're going to do us let's try something a little bit different the problem with doing light uh the light always has to follow the nose but it sometimes in order for the the model to get in rhythm sometimes they look over here sometimes they look over there and then that the your system has to move back and forth and ping pong back and forth and it big khun b quite limiting to have the model always looked the same way so how do we solve that problem so one way we're going to do it is we're going to use to sidelights so no matter which way he's looking that light will be at themselves we're gonna use this and right now I'm getting another lighting set up with multiple flashes on it and we had that at one quarter power this is going to be slightly underpowered a bit because he's only using three flashes but that's ok if I move in a little bit closer uh we should be fine uh okay so this's actually something new that I'm working on I'm developing it should be out in about a month what I like about this particular product is its amount my mouth will have up to four on him but it's the mount using literally one trigger and you can plug it in and it'll just fire all of these but what I have is that might trigger will be built inside the mountain so you just have to mount the flashes on it and if you have my system and that's all you need to do but I'll still have this plug here so if you have pocket wizards or if you have um whatever triggering system you khun incorporate your own too ok so we're going to do this kind of do sidelights so don't look extremely that way but just kind of like you can just pose back and forth from here to here let's move that light out right about here so we do too sidelights and we'll put this light up a little bit more right about here and so no matter which way he's kind of looking um we've got light on either side see this might need to be a little bit closer because I've only got three lights on it instead of four but we'll see okay scott that went off all right okay so I'm gonna pull back a little bit from that seventies ok for good so uh just pull this back here it's gonna create a little bit of shadow if you could go back a bit that way and so now look over there okay it's pretty even so no matter which way he's looking now we've got full coverage we've got that commercial look we're at f sixteen which means what you're going to need to get at least seven flashes now well whatever right okay but uh go ahead so go ahead and just kind of poles and you can do whatever you want how about look at me you might have ah yeah so that's pretty good you want to try some of those sunglasses on do we have sunglasses and so you know it's kind of just a even ah illumination type of thing um it doesn't have that super dramatic look because the background there's there's highlights on him and he's well it but the background isn't well lit so that's why you got a good clean look but it's not that classic uh you know scott robert hdr field because there's no highlights in the background but we can't really tell mother nature please give us highlights but I do want to demonstrate this kind of hi hi commercial uh hi f stop field tio okay great someone's going crazy over here yeah you know ben I don't even have to tell him what to do he just you know trying some different things okay so let's try something a little bit different since we're not getting that question scott we've got a suggestion from the internet which is to use that variable nd filter out here that's something that people would love to see if you think that you can have a good set up here we'll okay look at that photo I just took right now right uh that blackout is pretty boring by itself but we could make it even at two point eight I am going to change lenses because the indie filter that I have goes with my other lands ok so we can try it out and let's just go through the work well right even though it might look similar way at least is good to go through the workflow now what we're doing here is I'm changing my lens to lands that with andy field will fit on because I got a seventy seven millimeter okay and this is pretty dirty so what you said was that it wasn't really the ideal scenario for the variable andy just because the background um well exciting well the thing is is that right I'm zooming in at two hundred and so it's already blurred out right now the whole reason why you want to see that little f stop is that you want to blur the background right so that's the reason why I don't use the andy filter ah lot is because I could blurt out by just putting a two hundred millimeter lens and you know that's the case so another scenario like we might be later we're turned around and you want the buildings in the back to be softer yeah yes that would be a better scenario too but we can try this but I want to go through the workflow okay of how this works I think okay so even though uh wait for this to warm up a bit um uh at least we can describe the work flow so I'm shooting it at eleven okay so if I moved by uh have stopped down to two point eight so I'm gonna shoot at two point eight okay um I set my shuttle speed to one hundred okay I'm going to turn this uh andy filter to give me this is like my shutter now this is controlling light into my camera yeah this's controlling light into my camera so I don't really need to mess with my shutter or that could just leave it there the entire day that's it because this is the dark and brightness right here okay and I have these little indicators on here uh and I get it says minimum so this is uh two stops brightness okay now what's great about I should take a couple pictures taken see great so I'll put it at two stops and you guys could see uh that is very bright and overexposed okay so this is that two stops at two point eight self set it on minimum and it'll you know this I know this is a terrible photo because it's two stops overexposed oh flashes going off to yes right okay now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna turn it and I can dark and I'm not turning I'm not messing with my shutter speed it all all I'm doing is turning this stay to make it darker okay and here's another stand still here you'll see this I've got flash going here and I'm making my background darker by turning my variable nd filter seattle's blurred out at two point eight see that like that there you go it's on sale too you know okay and I can make it even darker oh shoot I accidentally moved my stop so keep it up two point eight so I could even make it super dark one two three good and you can see it's a little bit I made it darker and we might need a bump a little bit more light into it right but I made my dark background so let's keep it there let's say I like that darkness I know I don't I know it doesn't look good but let's pretend I like it dark like that now how would I just my light I just bring like flash a little bit closer sack correct so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna bring the flashy in a little bit closer to adjust my life okay readies keep looking the same way ready one two through good perfect and that's it one shot one adjustment see how easy that issues got a nice blurred background maybe that's great if you don't have your seventy two two hundred lands and you want to blur it out you put the andy filter on the background might look a little bit different you're not going to bring the background back uh closer to you but at least you khun blurt out really nice shooting in eleven type atmosphere okay that would not be possible to do that if I didn't have the nd filter because I would be a two point eight to get that equipment you want me to try it let's let's generalize what some people have to screw up see it to understand it okay they probably like oh man this andy filters killing me okay I want an equivalent exposure so in order for me to get that equivalent of darkness I had to shoot at for thousands of a second and my flash doesn't work even though it went off ugh it doesn't sink I'm out for thousands of a second with that same darkness and my flash doesn't work because my flash sink is off now through the magic of andy filter I can put this on hopes I guess that's the hardest far twisting the sucker on okay okay now I'm going to go back to one hundredth of a second I'm going to try to simulate that darkness through my filter ok one two three good now I could see that two point eight and my flash will work isn't that just amazing and you don't have to buy high speed sync flashes there it isthe right big difference beautiful on people can see is there a color cast yes does warm it up is it a big deal to me I know I can fix it in light room to some people that might be a huge deal to them that might be a deal breaker so they might want to spend you know maur four hundred dollars or something but to me it's not really a deal breaker for me and I can live with that it's up to you though nobody's twisting your arm forcing you into anything you can try it out you could probably go rent four hundred dollar andy filter and compare and see what you like it's up to you but that's okay I'm sure there's probably more questions about the end hilter there a couple of questions yeah um one from scott crump was do you have to meet her the background again when you put on that nd filter yes you do that's a good question but the reason why I accurately get it every single time because my sony camera has live you and I see in real time as I turn this I see what my sensor sees if you didn't you would have to guess shoot it champ it oh it's too dark do it again shoot it chip it and then go back and forth that way to find the right background darkness that you want but I immediately see it in my camera because I have library there's a there's other cameras I think they have live you also so so he's not the only camera I think it has life you may be it is though I'm not sure fantastic a quick really easy one douglas gottlieb says can your flash high speed think your triggers mike triggered no they're not meant to high speeds think at all it's strictly a manual system great another one from bluebeard would you use a polarizer filter in the same way with the results be the same ok ah polarizer filter gets rid of glare and it's only about two stops and that's it you can't go fight in here to get that you need to go beyond five stops probably so that's five that's probably five stops or six stops and more eso yeah regular polarizer just doesn't doesn't do it so good questions a couple of questions about the use of a nd filter can you use from frog can you use a smaller aperture and make it look like it's nighttime in the background by increasing the power from the flashes you could you could make it darker uh and we could make it real dark you won't try it sure what the heck way we're gonna have to up the power on the flash too but let's try that so what we'll do is I will make it darker but what what's not great about a uh any not just mine but any variable neutral density filter when you were stopping it down ten and and maxing it that means you're gonna get you might get cem vignette ing some areas of brightness and darkness uh on the image uh this particular case I wouldn't do it because there's no brightness and darkness in the background so it's just looking like a black background it's not very interesting but we could will just try and see what it looks like okay so let's do this again and I'll shoot it and it'll probably be underexposed but I'm making it really dark ok I'm making it super dark uh did that go off it's test it hold on give you fell asleep good okay dude it didn't go off the other time right one two three it's barely you could barely see him on this next one okay so we're gonna power some flash right more in there okay so if you could look this way and let's move that flash really close like half the distance like like almost kiss yeah and we may even have the bump it up some more okay blunt teo three good and it's got that look and if we go to the other side and I hit a highlight on it it'll look a little bit more believable I mean a little bit more interesting so I'm gonna bring this in closer so I could get some edge lighting around his hair and so I've got hit that sandwich light technique right on we'll try that and we'll try it again and I've got is that there I hope that's dark enough for him and so it gets when it's real dark it's getting hard to focus you ready want teo good I've got a barely okay let me pump this out this is requiring a lot of juice now to do this which is a good exercise okay close your eyes I'm going to test it did you feel it okay this side again one two three yeah so anyways that's the kind of feel it is darker but because there's no lights back there there's no highlight back there it doesn't look that terribly interesting it does sort of look like night time but there's nothing to tip off that it's nighttime if they had lights or something bright back there and you made it like look twinkling like city lights then yes esso I would recommend that technique when you're in a strong areas of contrast that works really well but we're we're not in a high contrast situation because the sun is way got a little bit of war cast but I hope that helps at least you could see the concept and the idea behind it absolutely thank you thank you for demonstrating is there any other nd filter questions well there's one here from leo leo j and just to clarify to go through your everyone's thinking so if the neutral density cut off every nothing including the flash but again when you but again you increase the aperture so that means that you let in more light for the flash yes oh you won't eating increase the flash power or make it closer but depends on what f stop you're turning your tu tio tio ten stops right right in this case literally I could be shooting at f thirty or forty something because I'm looking at it and it was maxed out at ten stops so I went ten stops below two point eight which is I don't know I can't even think like that what is no yeah whatever it's a lot somebody on the internet will figure it out for you so that's why this was only set up for ethel leavenworth alight right but if I'm going ten stops it might need f thirty three worth like I don't know that's why we had to push everything close to light him up like that okay so it's not like I think they're getting confused because they're thinking about high speed sync and using two point eight and opening up the aperture but what happens like I said again in high speed sync your fash is firing like ten times within a millisecond so you lose one third to one fifth the power anyways so you wouldn't be able to shoot at at super high f stops anyways so anyways I hope that helps yeah good I think you're going yeah right now I want to ask uh the the my students would any of you like to try the nd filter and just see what it's like to suit lower or you even care about that or do you have any kind of requests or questions pretend that you are shooting here would you have any questions in your mind given now not over here or anything but we have I'm going to stick in this area here yes okay um would you want to use the nd or you just want okay so I'm going to set it on minimum and so what you do is when you look in here uh you turned this and you can see light or dark okay okay and and you set the darkness okay and then we'll re adjust the flash uh no I'll let you readjust okay so most likely when you shoot it it's going to be over exposed because well just not can you not get down one because we went really dark okay okay so look through there just as a review with the nd I'm looking thrill and then you're turning that to get the desired darkness and that cool by turning the right way oh there it is yeah yeah is that cool you can see the desire darkness that you want okay so I want teo something really under exposed for the background and make have the flash really bring him out right is that dewey meter for the background first and so sure that I want we're guessing okay so I'll leave for for light purposes because I have no idea that's variable so you could be five steps under you could be six tapes under you could be three steps under I don't know that's why I can't set the light correctly because I have no idea what you're looking at but the easy thing is just fire it if it's too bright we move it back it is not bright up just do it okay what does it look like to write it actually looks like it's a little bit too right on his face but the background is the year that I want right so we'll move that flashback I actually think the backlight was okay yeah needs to go back a little bit and on his face it's just a tad right okay actually bring the back light a little bit more behind him and make it more of a rim I would actually like it like this but I didn't have anybody helping may I think it's gonna be once you move back a little bit more or what did you turn it down what you did down what do you have now quarter okay one teo three so I'd actually like to bring them back up a little bit more may back back late which is me thiss one sorry no it's neil neil neil on his yeah you got to drive it I think you're a little bit cheaper right I'd like to bring them back up a little bit make it a little more so I was at quarterback or I'm running it down eight power so they know because people want to know what power we're doing stuff that yeah so I'm going to rip this back well actually coming actually from you it's hard to see on that screen can you give him a little rims of pop your flash a little bit more behind his shoulder so it kind of wrapped around his front oh I see the goal for the halo yes I got it when you three better much better is that better yeah yeah for the more even light on the right side and the filter is pretty cool I like that why'd you zoom in closer and shoot it my focus point is off yeah esso I don't know if you know how to change mine did just focus and recompose yeah is that okay yeah yeah yeah that's how I do it when you hear three years went off is that look all right all right great okay so I'll just take another just for the heck of it just make it a little bit less right okay background yeah way might be a tad strong but just just just for variety they're gonna really dark in the back booth all right that's kind of cool split letting a little bit there with edge on the side um that works pretty good that's cool um that's cool you know it's pretty awesome yes so we can choose how you want that background whether you want it bright yeah gives it a little more of that like night timing dramatic kind of feel right it would look really late there was a fare was bright sun and it was creating highlights on those mountains back there and then we have highlights on him it would really look rich and matching it was nighttime to bring out yeah being out the drama on it but because we only have highlights on him and we have no highlights in the background looks okay but it's not like it's stupendous right right so coming from a natural photographer how that came out okay great good questions right well internet is wondering if we could move over to this wall okay yeah place him there right let's do that oh okay there's going to be okay let's try that let me see uh what do you need well because all there's this equipment right there right so I'm gonna have to find a shot with getting yeah can you pull that lens and stuff do you want to use it or pull it over now use this this is fine okay so I'm gonna line up a shot here I kind of limited because there's up well anyways just pretend it's not there okay so what I like to do is this I'm just gonna stick with this andy freaking filter here and um I got my settings at uh one twenty five at two point eight okay and I'm going to use my andy filter ok I'm going to show you uh different things I'm stopping it down and then I'm writing it up and I think I want it right around here this darkness here yeah I didn't touch my shutter speed but I can control the light with my andy filter and uh so I kind of like that feel right there so we're gonna put then come on band over here and we're going to pose you right in the middle how about closer towards me kind of come out come out yeah right there okay I like that so uh why don't you want to look off this way yeah right there so like can I get two assistants and so can you bring that other flash no the both of them yeah so we're gonna have a look off this way now the light is changing on me uh that's cool looks better than more like better now uh the cameraman's actually in the figure but don't worry about that because weaken photoshopped amount okay so main light four lights over here okay what do you have a power that he had that set up that he's on a power okay let me see this let me go with my guide here um okay I'm gonna kind of get it right about here this looks like that I'm uh okay okay uh let's see now this is uh let's move back because you're in the shot uh I can afford it and I'm gonna kind of give him this hero pose here like this and I get down I don't want to sit on the mic problem can you come a little closer to me because right now I got his head right on that line okay right there look that way we'll go back a bit go back of it right there good right there perfect okay one let me get my andy filter darker one two three okay uh further up here now yeah just bump it up I need some more juice what is it at give me two stops at quarter to you at uh just now I according to my andi filter looks like it's way past half so I literally could be at you know past f sixteen I could be at twenty two or something I don't know it's pretty dark okay uh okay that's perfect I know I have the flashing that showing but that's easy photoshopped pics for me because it's just against the sky and if you could move that behind to get rim light on the edge let's see one two three good that looks pretty cool um and so that's a pretty cool look there uh if I had more highlights back in the sun it would look totally awesome um but I'm gonna open it up a little bit let's go this way this way they're gonna zoom a different angle here my one two one two three good looking me pull that flash a little bit forward this way yeah towards his nose right there I like these strong architectural lines here uh let's try this I am gonna light him and I'm going to like the background so you turn yours flash towards the background behind him and put it close like right in the middle behind him yeah no that's too far just right there okay sign it right more a little bit more that way right there try that let's do this look this way way and hopefully they will like that background up uh okay I'm getting a little bit of glare so the other way way more more strike that because it is glass so I am getting some glare on there but if I stuck the flashes but thank it to light up the glass rock that way I'm just opening up that background a bit I'm trying teo match some highlights because we don't have a lot of contract asking the lighting right now because it's a little bit overcast on trying to create contrast with different flash okay so just sign it right behind him again right right on the back of his head right oh you got to camera okay it's uh uh move back I'm gonna go long here okay good zoom in one two three good that looks cool like that so I got a little edge light on his hair he's lit perfectly uh good and so let's try something a little bit different we're gonna go to side lights so off to the side right there and then off to the side right there back can you take a little bit wider stance for me yeah I'm just showing the lighting effects uh I know that the flash is in the picture but um I'm kind of deal with that later different angles alright great um that's kind of like using the glass block um I separated the uh we had a lot of contrast with the sun was getting a bit more overcast then it would look even more interesting but you got to actually go into photo shop and creates a contract in the background structurally it looks pretty cool um that's how you'd make it a little bit more believable but I really loved the light that's on the subject okay um anybody wanna give this a try she'd been ok come on up christine now I'm actually shooting everything at a low f stop um let's try do you want to shoot it with the indie feel to you want to take it off I haven't tried it with okay so this is a two point eight and I think what makes andy filter look good because if you zoom in a lot okay and you just focus on him and so then the background will be blurred out like I had yeah if you feel wide uh then things tend to be more and focus so the andy filter doesn't have that great of effect okay so that's a you know you want that you want the blur effect if we're going to use it I actually just pulled it off when I was doing those shots but okay so see okay oh it is so you could train you turn this turn this edge on and I want you to see the darkness of brightness oh uh and you can adjust how dark or bright you want it okay you could blow you could blow things out of you blow it out if you want to if that is your desire go ahead and blow it out if you want just unleash your creativity there's no wrong or right then we have to adjust your life after you shoot it because we don't know what f stop you are actually in fact you probably got a lot of light there yeah so uh but do you like that lightness do you like the background we can adjust the that you like that you like the way I feel yeah okay perfect that one like okay let's do that keep it there okay but let's make the light a little bit what we're looking for looking this way let's put that light back a bit so you get edge life and let's put a little bit of shadow on him and let's move this back this way just a bit and this is gonna be a little bit more contrast but let's see what it looks like got it don't change anything and do that same thing okay how's that look what kind of cool um super zoom in he said all right you want a zoom weighs on auto mag uh focus is it it's on automatic otis okay now focusing no I was trying to manually I don't know e okay that I had a really cool like there you go and I'm not sure how much blur that is but you're shooting at two point eight so um booth let's do this just a bit if he's gonna go this way have this out what power we've only got quarter we've only got about eight year or what what power do we have it good we've got on both quarter power so um yes priscilla you try and use gel up bud on ly back lighting is that the only way you can really get the color to come out or um yeah you confront what big area you want to light a big area uh the subject will be jailed but I'm not sure if it's going to reach building or whatever just lit then that's the color it was just like that that area where you're firing your flash that makes sense it's got yes question uh and why and there have been a number of other people who are wondering if you could get we get a demonstration of your classic walking away pose or you know the walk away I wouldn't do it with the guy but if you got a tenant way bringing a girl to do something that we've yeah do it got a lot of requests for uh let's do it okay who wants to do the walk away anybody okay you could take a break has that photograph you want him to photograph you know I know you want teo like you stand right there okay so in this particular case it doesn't matter where the light is because we got it on both sides so in general uh if the light is here ok or will we position it basically how it works is you take a step and you're walking somewhat away from the light is not a true away it's more like uh the light would probably be about right here I guess so move the light right about here and so you're walking away and your vamp popping that hip out this way okay you're relaxing these shoulders here and then you're looking towards the light right which could be right over here like right here okay and so another thing what you want to do is you want to train your assistance teo follow the nose okay I shouldn't even have to be telling them where to put the light because they should know that is always going to go where the nose is right are close to him and so you take a step bam you pop that hit and then you been this knee I'm bowlegged so it's harder but it's kind of like you're holding in orange on your knees there okay uh let's see if you can do that so I like to demonstrate first yeah like that okay now one thing that looks a little bit stiff is what's the matter okay now look at the space between her niece right so you could pull this out here it's whatever is easier to get two knees closer together what is it okay so her foot is coming this way that's not the walk away so you want it yeah okay they're okay yeah like that right okay and then now you're like this I want you like that see that see that exaggerated gotta pop that it okay see dok go bam all right then you're looking this way now what you try to do is not keep your shoulders parallel to the ground you need to break it so you could come down or you could do the cute c or you could do whatever but the whole rule is is that you don't want this parallel to the ground you always want to break the angles break the angles ok so you can put this down like this you could put this slightly here you could look over here or you could maybe put your shoulders kind of con cave in like that that's a little bit more I love that see how you kind of come in like this would go like that's very fashionable look okay so let's try that so let's do that kind of put your shoulders together like you had it and then look off this way right there okay and then take that arm back a bit yeah so I could see I need to see space here through that and if we had a pin we could like get that tighter so well don't pull it down I just want this outside of here okay and go ahead okay good exaggerate the hit more yeah there you go like this I get good right there with your eyes look at me okay put the light right there okay one two three go okay ready one two three good um let's put the light behind it and let's get that light right here yeah she has glasses on can you take your glasses off or put sunglasses on but that's kind of like the walkaway feel okay now I need to see some space in between that other are you okay go ahead do it okay so now it's not your so she has a habit of not walking away you keep putting your foot this way right so you got to go that way see there you did it again where's your foot pointing towards it has to go yeah see that so you got to go at a forty five degree angle of the light so it's not a true walk away so that the light is here right we're going to try to make a ninety degree angle like this okay so you gotta walk away right here like this but you are doing this I know right I need you to do this yeah okay yeah there you go okay it takes a bit okay you're not really putting them papa hit more yeah well I feel that you have to really feel that see that it feels awkward doesn't but you're gonna learn to love it right look at your knees put them a little bit locked that lock that it's got a lock see that you've got to feel that it's a balance it's a coordination now if your client can't do it you could never do that and resting you have the guy stand like this on then you know put your hand like you're resting and then you see that and then you compose it this way you have your man here in the groom and then she's leaning there and then you can look away that way right and I can look away this way bam shot there this okay on dso if it if they're having a problem with it get up to lean on something to start off that's actually the hardest way to do it is the free stand walk away I've done it literally a million times so it's easy for me to do it but when you're first learning it it's kind of a coordination type thing that's why I like actually having an engagement session with every wedding because I can work with them from you know three hours four hours and then when comes wedding time and I tell them to do the walkway damn they're there I don't have to spend five minutes explaining how to get them into doing it they've already done it and your job's a lot easier that way okay but let's try this I know this is a lighting class so I don't want to get into wedding photography okay good put your knees together a little bit more right good pop that hip out more look out this yes see that you ok good alright look off that way a little bit okay now pull that arm your right arm back a bit nice I like lighting right and pull that just turn your body more this way yeah there you go just look back this way a bit put your chin down and looking me put your face right there okay good one two three good now just kind of fold your arms like this yep turn your face this way they're good good want to turn your face this way give it yeah just look out like that um so anyway I shot it tight now I can shoot it wide ok so go ahead do that same walk away again you didn't work out on it's good practice it's a lot harder than you think it is I make it look easy but actually there is take some country yes your client will feel that way too if they're not used to that but that's what it is it's ah ok so right ok and then look off that way good and I'm gonna do something wide one two three good fact like back a little bit again one two good turning your nose there yeah good cable coming out here okay ready do it again one two three good so now I go wide now it could go close same thanks just stay there in that position you don't even have to move okay turn your body that way a bit okay good turn your face this way or move this light out yet right there with your eyes look at me now I could take it tight right and so what I'm demonstrating is is when the foundation is right you could just easily go in close and it still looks good that's how you know you have a good polls is anywhere you zoom in on that subject it looks good because you got the foundation right and then everything falls from that and if you look at sculpture you khun that's the way it's built it's built from the bottom up the foundation of how they're standing and it brings everything else into it makes everything look aesthetically pleasing when you've got a bass right ok good so I was thinking that maybe we could switch to this other background okay and um there's somebody out there in the chat room named texas tim who said that he would buy this course if ken a shot okay make texas temple as well okay and I think we should have kenna shoot against this background I get so how about we get uh lets this line this up here uh what's interesting I kind of like this street is this going to crazy here if I get this street in here I like this angle of this convergence of this rail line and the street line converge together and so it'll bring way put a subject there I think it'll like tie everything together so we got us you've been I think that's called I definitely want to shoot ben okay come on men here's what I was were you ok you've got your own vision I'm sorry I got you what do you want to do okay well let's where you're going here but I want yeah definitely I want your help because I'm not sure how to achieve it with we're at you know what so we're not going to confuse you with andy field right yeah let's take the india let's take okay so what I'm looking for ben thing that is kind of ok stop don't tell him anything until you got the lighting figured out ok good point because you're going to make him work we're gonna tire him out okay and then he's not getting you know okay so let's just what I do it's ok just hang there relax now it's my time we get to think hey this is canon bring ok ok so I want something I love black and white okay and so I want something that I know in post processing I'm gonna turn into black and white and I want something that has a lot of contrast and is angular and has him looking pretty like stoic and serious maybe it's that like wider stance okay shot with it's moved him down to you're a bit more okay why because I see this line coming right in the head right yeah so what I originally I thought that this patterns would be cool okay right yeah ok good let's go with your vision good then you get over here she wants you over here you get there you just do what she says ok ok l I like what you're thinking now okay I see it as long as I see you I see your vision and the the yeah you like that okay we're at f eleven you were yeah you khun turn this f stuff keep this at one hundred you could turn this f stop to whatever darkness you want this front dial ok and I have live you you're going to see exactly what you get but let's start at eleven so much I'm starting on media ring on I'm just to him yeah in the back on the background which is f eleven now is how is that is that dark enough right enough you want a darker or you want move that here I'm at f eleven so and here it looks good that what you like but I'm gonna see I don't want just good I want what you like I'm wondering if I need to yeah reposition if you want to move them logo you can move him if you want to he'll do anything that you say I know anything anything alright doing a full on but then I'm gonna zoom in maybe actually okay that yeah okay let's talk f eleven right I'm at f eleven one hundred ok come on light oh yeah we're gonna be at what he ate fowler a quarter power base okay so if I'm going dramatic should I be making the background darker then it's up to you know you mean why don't you turn that c up the beauty of the lines you can turn the f stop dial yeah which is this one right yeah and you can see it right away realty I'm what it's gonna look like okay and then you decide where you just stop out off at eleven or thirteen or wherever you tell us where you're gonna be okay so here's my thought process right now I'm not really loving this like the letters here that would get rid of that that motor shop that's easy okay don't worry about that all right yeah so I'm going angular and let's talk about how we're going to just quickly talk about light that's what we're here for yeah and then we'll go into other angular afterwards so tell me what did you arrive at a left half eleven what do you have if what I am at f sixteen so the background has a little bit dark and that's causing these to give me some brightness rail getting highlight is more contrast great love okay so we're gonna be shooting it at sixty so why don't we just bump it up one okay and now let's do a test shot to see if the lighting we bumped up the flashes just because we were shooting it f eleven now you said f sixteen and we want to make it the same equalized I'm just guessing so okay so now we're gonna throw the light in all right so what we did decide to dio wass should not just because it's cold but we wanted teo get ben in a coat just for something little bit different I I wanted to get him in a coat a little bit something different but also just to add to that dramatic look I was going for more contrast more formal black and white yeah that way his face possible contrast with what he's wearing better cool right darker so we're at sixteen yes we determined that she likes f sixteen so we're going to shoot a sixty and that's just because I wanted to make more contrast it's a little bit darker right it's down like a three quarter stop and we're gonna put some light on it and way yeah we can see what happens right so try it ok so you're gonna look out band kind of that way maybe your arm out a little bit more you know that's good leading forward uh no no no no no no jack thing but yeah okay here we go now how does that light look the light looks good but the composition doesn't ok now let's let's let's see how we did with the light where's the feed going here you got any feed here waiting for the feet it doesn't say loading way try another composition while we're at it yeah go for it okay now you're going to change his head position then we're gonna have to move the light just okay why so I'm just when I say changing the composition I'm just opening it up a bit so that I don't have him like right in the center alright on we're looking for feed and we're the world is waiting for your photos they are just anxiously on the edge of their seat that's okay well since we can't wait let's talk about if that light was good or why don't you take it and let me know if it was okay yeah I'll take it let me see this one two ready yeah that looks pretty darn good um his checks go ahead um okay his light it is jack it is a tad dark so what we could do is we concoct some light because he's wearing black and exposing for his face right so his jack is a bit dark so what we'll do is maybe just add some light you can come on you did I mean robert c now getting all mixed up okay and do we turn this off okay I should do this so I learned way can throw some light on the bottom now we get a full spread this way through that so just hold this right here and it's acting like a huge soft box now so um you're spreading the light and you get full coverage I look this way look good it looks too hot on his faith okay so uh bring it down one and then we can move it closer I rather conserve energy you see what what we did that now I could have moved it back but if it's too bright and mads will just bring it down and we might need to move it a little bit closer but go ahead take a shot okay alex feather ok good so we've kind of locked it in um and what about his body with the other light does that look good it's really hard to tell now that's pretty good pretty good it is lighting the ground a little bit there but you can photoshopped that down but the important thing is he's got even light on his body it's just opening up that darkness that because he's wearing all dark there okay see the interesting thing is um scott is that because I don't use flash yes what I'm the things that I'm thinking about are our composition and things like that and looking at the lines I'm looking at so I'm still like not adding that extra element right because what it isthe yeah is you have to master the technical right before you can get to the artistic as natural light shooters you khun go to straight artistic and you don't have to worry about the light right okay this is an exponentially harder process but the payoff could be really huge right right because I see a different thinking workload for you work slow because you immediately go into the artistic but we'll hold on way got to get the light right first before you can go into the artistic because I have to also I have to learn to see what the effect of that isthe so even before I even set it up and take the shot so I'm part of the thing like I can't see what the result is I'm not sure if it's a good shot even though I could see it briefly and here right but I can't envision what those lights look like yet yes that's what I have to master that's right and that's why we're doing this so and we're going tio so you go and keep shooting to me I think uh that likes unless you like that loki um it looks like it's a tad dark what would you agree so let's move that light in a bit right there ok and so do I need to just I'm not adjusting anything background it's the same way I like it and I was just putting more light on him by adjusting the flash okay go ahead not sure focusing wait go seeing out there added a little bit of light right there um and so I think that looks pretty good um now you can start working on the artistic yeah what you want we kind of locked in the lighting a little bit so I think we're good with that way can actually just let's just experiment I can't really see it but it looks dark here but I could be totally wrong this is moving in just a little bit right there pull the flash down the closer they get the flash to the subject lowers you just put the flash right there okay good okay so we live the flash from up overhead to down so the closer you move it yeah because then the flash's good fire over his head yeah so the closer you are move the flash down so now I should expect to me more straight on and I'm actually going to scoot in a little bit okay good could I actually uh bank it you're just too and the lights just to move over so that you're in front of that pole there yeah that line see that just let me go ok although now I'm going to get this sign in the back but we couldn't get a shot that out okay alright fired today ok hard to see from over here okay yeah so we'll get a report from the internet now um well it's hard to see maybe they can tell me on the internet but um well ok do you like the darkness of that looking at them see do you like you want to open up that background a little bit exposure does look a little bit okay okay bring down the you know what it's gone tio f twenty huh no wonder you okay yeah it's something I take it back to six way back now we've got a full back of it because she was sitting in it twenty no okay good job but that way got that looks a lot better all right good thank you internet yeah okay so I opened up that background a bit now if you want more light on his face we can adjust that light so now that you locked the background in it's just moving the flash back and forth to get the light that you want right and that's and that's basically it okay so you do that a little bit closer a light right there move it back so it's got shadow on his two can you move the light that that way I think his eyes are closed you didn't count oh three two one go alright yeah see that love that light looks pretty cool okay so let's try now let's try something this way okay so let's wait can we move over here then and let's try to get these angles here and see what we can do is that's going to be a wider shot or just focusing on I mean not like okay so turn around this way and so I'm gonna try to figure out the composition and so let's go here let's see how much room a half and I'm sure but what I could do here is I can see this way and I'm gonna have you look here okay and I'm gonna fire the flash right in here and we're gonna see this shot right here too this is when I can pretend I'm six feet tall love this display here so scott what I'm seeing here is that with that kind of yes we're I'm trying to use those lines and I need to get high so I put his head bologna on top so that's why I raised it really high but I kind of like those leading lines into him right that way but what I'm noticing from a natural light shooter perspective is that there's his face is kind of speckled so there's shadow but there's there's a light so I wanna even that out with flash what class so when you see it with flash then it's even doubt awesome yeah so I see how that yes yeah that worked yeah go anywhere right it gives a certain freedom like one of those one of those scenarios that I constantly find is when I'm photographing families that I'm outdoors and I'm under a tree and there's a beautiful light but it's back yes that spec ally under the tree to me every time right so if you feel in this bill speckles with flash right then it's it reduces the shadow and and so even though flash um makes it technically harder but once you master and get more freedom you see that's the pay off the pay office freedom yeah it makes it so people if you want to take that road to freedom learn the technical learn flash and then it opens a new world and you could just move your subject in anywhere you want because you're creating the light right so that's cool so uh anybody wanna take a crack at doing something of this I kind of like that kind of feel there yes help me out with one idea sure probably gotten idea roberts got an identity over here real quick all right so I think you got it thank you teo white shot right here and ben's gonna have to be on the left side which means the the flash is going to be a right side yeah we'll just take it out there okay yeah cool all right so you want to go so his head is essentially in between those two buildings right here and using this poll is like kind of a guide as well so you get those blinds okay but you're not seeing any street uh putting it between two buildings should be well you could probably shoot this around fifty year thirty five and uh well here you line it up okay you line it up and let me know where to go where his nose is and I'll do the rest ok ok just you know let me know that when you're ready sorry yeah I don't mean a trigger ready because I'm holding out there yeah one two three uh cool all right well there you go you got to do that's what you gotta have ah mono pod

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Ratings and Reviews

Vincent Duke
 

I am pretty new to Creative Live and this is my first purchase so for me I am loving this! So many good gems of information and having some of the repeated content from different speakers with different perspectives really helps drill in these concepts. I say for anyone who's looking for an great all around drill it into your head lighting bootcamp this is a winner. But if you're like the others here and have purchased videos from these authors before then you will probably want to look elsewhere as this is a bundle of highlights from previous sessions on lighting.

Camerosity
 

If you’re just starting out with photographic lighting (especially studio lighting), this set is a steal. I already had the set by Sue Bryce and Felix Kunze, and I’ve bought all of Joel Grimes’ tutorials. Since I’ve watched them recently, I didn’t watch their videos again. If you’re into commercial photography OR darker moods and low-key lighting, anything by Joel Grimes is well worth buying and watching. If you’re into glamour portraiture, everything by Sue Bryce is worth buying and watching (although I haven’t been able to acquire all of her tutorials yet). However, the videos by Sue and Felix are not where I would begin. The two videos by Joel Grimes in this set cover aspects of lighting that aren’t often discussed. However, most of his knowledge of lighting (from his other sets) isn’t covered in this set. If you’re thinking about going into commercial photography, Zack Arias’ discussion of how to gear up to open a commercial studio is a must-see (as are Joel Grimes’ two sets on commercial photography, neither of which is represented in this bundle). I agree with virtually everything Zack said. Although there are a couple of areas where I might have gone a bit deeper than he did in this video, it’s a much-needed reality check – with great advice before you start spending money on equipment to start a photography business – and he gives a LOT of great advice. While his lighting style and mine are very different, his thoughts on equipment for a startup photography studio (or just beginning to learn studio lighting) are right on target. (Zack’s and Joel’s videos on the business of commercial photography cover different areas, and there is very little overlap between them.) One of the reasons why I bought this set was the lighting wisdom of Tony Corbell. Tony is the closest thing to the late Dean Collins at this time (I have all of Dean’s videos on VHS tapes AND DVDs), and Tony holds nothing back. Great stuff! Joey L covers material that I’ve seen covered in many other tutorials (on CreativeLive and elsewhere), BUT he gives a MUCH clearer explanation of why he does certain things than I’ve seen elsewhere. For example, he gives more information about feathering light than I’ve ever seen in a video, and few people besides Joey and Joel Grimes (but not in Joel’s videos in this set) give as good an explanation of WHY they’re changing the position of a light by two inches. Clay Blackmore was a protégé of the late Monte Zucker, and he’s as close as we can get to learning from Monte (aka the master) these days. I have Monte’s VHS tapes, but they’re worn out, and there’s nothing to play them on. While they apparently were also issued as DVDs, the sites I’ve found that are supposed to have them all lead to 404 (page not found) errors. Clay covers both posing and lighting – and how to fit the lighting to the pose – in great detail. I haven’t watched any of the videos on speedlights. I still have about a dozen Vivitar 283’s, 285 HV’s and 4600’s that I used in combination during my photojournalism years (back in the film days), but you’re much more likely to see me lugging 1,000-watt second strobes outdoors to overpower the sun than using speedlights in studio (or on location) these days. I’ve seen some of Roberto Valenzuela’s work and tutorials, and I’d say he is the Joe McNally or David Hobby of wedding photography at this point in time. He knows his stuff. One or two of the videos are slightly dated in terms of the equipment being used, but that doesn’t make the information about lighting less valuable. Equipment may change, but the principles of lighting, the things that determine the quality of light, and the elements of “good lighting” have changed very little if at all since the days of the Dutch Old Masters painters. There’s a lot of great lighting information in this bundle for the price.

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