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Sue and Felix: Studio Backlight and Lens Flare

Lesson 32 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

Sue and Felix: Studio Backlight and Lens Flare

Lesson 32 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

32. Sue and Felix: Studio Backlight and Lens Flare

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

Sue and Felix: Studio Backlight and Lens Flare

what we're going to dio I wanted to this is kind of throwing this in the last minute because I wanted to show wet your appetite for some of those lights settles we're going to use two lights on dh also with suze backlit there's a little twist I put on it that I wanted to show you really we try to go there and I just wanted to get that flare show you how guys I'm going to do that right can I hand this to you john right and we have katie where's the lovely katie on dh we put her in this beautiful blue gown that is gonna work really well for the way I light and she comes on first thing we're going to do is john if you would wouldn't mind setting up the constant there ari and we're going to get the scream with the ah thinner diffuser on it we'll set the light up and then shooting the same way we need to use backlit so we'll get these out of the way katie come here so I I'm drawn to these kind of fabrics that are shimmery smooth they work very well with the way I do my lighting and you'll s...

ee that on my website I think you can get these kind of tones so you can hang out on the side of the set while we set up and then have you come in but I wanted to show how beautiful she looks all right then so we're going to bring that the scream so we've been using the scream with a one point two five stop diffuser that means cutting out quite a lot of the light I'm now going to use the one that zero point seven five stops don't ask me why they didn't just do it half stop in one stop that would be so much simpler but that's going to be on my last light frame oh I was going to show this sorry I'm just gonna walk over here this you know I kind of made a mess with the famous city this is the bag that my last like scream comes in and I want to show this because this is in my travelling kit it's small it fold up like this and it turns into this so you see you can actually see it john if you just stand behind them are you concede he john an apparition of john just threw it so it's actually quite see through I'm going to put that john if you put that about the height of your head right in the middle and plug it in and just point it straight at me all right if I could get my tether where is lovely I miss having someone say it was good to like all right and then just turn that on yeah let's see right and then just angle it up a little bit and this is how I work with my assistance I I just couldn't get away with not touching any of this stuff it makes me happy good all right say that again do a flood let's try that yes that's not actually know doing narrow again yeah perfect and I'm katie if I could just have you in here lovely and we're not gonna worry too much about posing yet but there we go and I can just see kind of a haloed light coming behind you need to adjust weight balance yes thank you john I will do that I'm shooting cannon because this works it's set up so just bear with me while I get my focus and that should come in on the tether white balance to tongue stone come on there it is and you start to get an idea obviously that's not right I'm going to take my aperture down too I can probably get away with two point eight see where we end up with that and I put the white balance on the wrong setting I think here have no we'll go to order y pounds I can always change it afterwards and because we shoot in constant life camera can figure it out right this is kind of this's like a kind of a jesus image god image that light coming in behind her I'm gonna have my s o because I'm still not at the exposure I want it's still not bright enough on I'm this is how I build my life so I will put in one light on just I haven't put the reflected in the front yet because I'm just going to make sure that the life behind is the way I want it to be and katie standing there so perfectly good and then john if we could just get those from core from cause yeah I had wanted to get a little bit of a longer shot of katie so rather than just doing a head shot okay I'm gonna bring you hold this for me thank you and I had set this up previously like this and then bring me the other one on the other side and I made a little white so I'm angling those kind of more like this bouncing that light back katie I'm here for that one open blocking off everyone else and just get that tunnel is closest we can that's great and I'll take the camera back thank you and you guys can see what I'm thinking off here I'm going to go up in my down on my shot to speed to one eighty if I wanted to be really bright and that's that's going to give you like a kind of a weird shape john could you just open up the the bond doors on that life yeah turn off the house right so I'm seeing immediately the last time I used this I actually used the higher powered h m I so john can we put up another one of them behind that yeah yeah I wanted to be a little bit maur the glow behind her but this is beautiful can you see that from here wow so actually I'm going toe katie if you just just pop into one hip I'm not gonna worry too much about posing because yeah beautiful maybe you can kind of give me a shoulder yeah well like that that's a bit too cheesy isn't it amy a soft hands up here let's just try something and I'm now gonna work with this flare john don't worry for now I'm going to just shoot a couple of these I'm gonna work for that flare that's coming and hopefully this works that would be good isn't it if it's the first thing that doesn't quite work alright good done I want you to move that light as far back as you can towards that back wall sure so we're gonna slide that all the way back just to make it give a bit more of a spread there we go and then I might you know in this situation are probably rather than setting up another light I'm going to go in closer and just make it a headshot of katie perfect and just dip your chin forward for me yeah long neck I could shoot this and you see what happens here I'm getting like that little bit of a flair on the side there it is I wanted to get that bright spot that's going to be a flare if we then add in another light which have you got there tungsten or yeah that second I'm just going to fill it in and we're gonna put it right next to that one maybe a foot lower john because I want to just see if we can get a fill in the other side over here what I've done here is I can then close this little tunnel and go closer again and I'm getting more of that light on katie and it's I wanna have a little bit dark on the face and really we're really work through that silhouette around the edge so I'm just going to have john put up the other light maybe I'm going to open up my mind not to speed a little bit okay that's beautiful classic pose and you see I actually wouldn't necessarily shoot it like this I'm going to think of taking one of these and just moving it over a little bit so that I have a bit more of a spread across her face and I can actually see that here on the left I have more light being reflected back on the right it's going a little bit darker way have those two are perfect pretty close to channel that's great thank you john so I should have more light at the back and it should be even brighter now just see that's going to be a really big flare and I can actually you will be able to see this but as I move I can get that flare to come up behind her head on dh katie just move this way a little bit for me thank you and we can make it really cheesy by doing this and you kind of get that over blood I can shoot this it looks really horrible on camera but I know that I can business like a simple set up so it's really working through this for an hour I would make the light perfect but I know I can take this into alien skin I have a flair there on her body that I really like that will come out really nice I can just highlight that and photo shop get rid of the you know make it white it all out and I've got that dreamy like coming across her face so I wanted to show you that any questions about the set up from the audience room theo the thinnest diffuser behind it and it's the highlight kind of coming through but while you like funneling the light what do you want the light to come directly to you the reason why you have the the class that's do you know why if I could just hand this to you I actually I'll make you guys let's see if I can do a shot that's a bit longer if I can step in between you guys here sorry this's always what I reason I do it like this and this is such a silly reason it is it's an aesthetic choice for me I'm always like I shoot if I like it how it looks on set you see that tube when I stand here and I see all that light kind of reflecting off this I feel like I'm in a spaceship and I think that's why I set this up the first time I tried this I set it up like this suze way works just as well but I like having this corridor to go in on it it probably is the subconscious I can hide in here you know thank god so that was really the only answer so felix vera is one thing about your focusing and so I'm wondering when you're shooting in this sort of set up do you do anything differently do you still use just standard auto focus you still meter as usual well the big joker's I'm shooting on suz cannon and I'm in nick on shooter so as long as I can get it to focus that's good enough for me so that's really a simple that is I'm flying by the you know I have my teeth thing seeing your hand works for making yeah you know what I mean on dh but you know what the images that come off the end I can use that I know if it's not in focus I kind of managed to adjust the focal that little focus but and I just actually someone took the pick the little clip of me saying what do you shoot you know when someone asks me the question what do you shoot with and I say camera and they put on instagram yesterday I love that you going like you just gotta shoot anything else people love it cool anything in the audience all right but you see what I'm trying to achieve here getting that wrap around and I don't even need to do much because I'm really depending on my friend let's get a really beautiful silhouette here from katie if you pop into one hit for me can you let's be a dancer can you do yeah maybe yes so we're going to make it a static dance maybe even get your thoughtful hands up here yeah kind of maybe even how would you do it I mean when I'm shooting portraiture I'm working through with the client and what sue said yesterday's when they're resting they'll usually go to oppose and I depend on that a lot you know soo is really so in tune with all the little posing tips and if I if I have someone and I'm going to pacific place then I'll just say like maybe you could be more vulnerable katie if you do that and I do a lot of mirroring and just really accentuate one hip and turn your torso so return your shoulders yeah and I want to get those and this is always where assistants get behind the scenes pictures of me posing like women on dh just get pop one hip out and I want to get a lot of shape so if you accentuate your back there yeah good and you know I find that people different people have different ways of posing and just look off camera from katie and turn your turn your head towards this way yeah and I'm really going to go and work through the silhouette and I would spend more time with this but getting that kind of bright light to come behind her all right I'm going to make let's make a triangle katie actually could I get a stool there we go then week where's that pastor we had john gena say that again daniel has it she's bringing it in and he has a perfect let's try it on a stool and we can get that get katie on a stool on I'm gonna say stool one more time good and the apple box perfect beautiful now I wish I had shoes posing guide with me so katie do you want to go into one of this there is perfect yeah perfect good she's right there no sign of time I'm going to do this there it is perfect good you know before when I this is what happens when I shoot I get such tunnel vision that I forget it actually said in pre pro oh I'm going to use the stool for this year so I just get so into it that I forget so now katie just we want to be a bit taller in that shot yeah perfect and thoughtful fit yet perfect good good and make it a big graceful maybe you're looking down yeah okay perfect she knows what she's doing good that'll be that's fine for me I wantto just maybe if you put that hand here there you go perfect I want to get those triangles that sue is talks about good and then give me a really intense look into the camera perfect thank you katie good that'll do that'll do me and I think we have something to work with and I'm gonna that's just a good base somehow that's really nice actually I mean like that if I had someone with long hair than we could use that to also create shape be really nice good let's go teo the next setup and any questions on this one anything from the so what how would you describe this on what is kind of the field that you like to use this with or what sort of what sort of work do you like to use this with I like the flare that came in in that one shot you know I don't want to I want to say I want to keep this faster the segment is kind of short but I just want to show that you can play with the position ofthe those lights behind where you put them on rather and move the light that was moving katie I should do one more demonstration just take a step this way you could be wait yeah good and just a tiny step back yeah perfect and this is going to be hard to focus I'm actually focusing on the edge off her face because that's the only thing that really shows up on camera and I want to show and I wanted to get some images that have that flair you see how beautiful that khun b and you're just getting that straight into the camera the flare result is a result of light bouncing around inside of the lens and that's actually really nice so katie let's to have some graceful arms right there yeah I'm just maybe if you do like that just get uh yeah yeah yeah and we have to make it look like you're not pregnant yeah just turn your body towards me a little bit yeah I'm just gonna this is a really I see the silhouette only I can't see her facial expression I can't really see much detail in her fabric but I like the silhouette of what's going on there so let's see that and I'm still getting that flare so this could be I think for an older lady something you know really graceful you don't you won't need to retouch the skin very much and it's really like a poppy way of doing it I'm gonna hand one of I have ten trustee assistants back here was this great alright john any other questions before move go ahead no sir I'll show you if the lightest coming straight in the lens hood wouldn't deal with that if you're shooting like this in that direction the lens hood would stop some of that light hitting the length directly so if you had it like this it would still hit the lens if you like that but if you're shooting straight at the light source there's nothing you could do we want that flare yeah so it doesn't I don't take it off because I know it's gonna hit the length yeah alright kurt perfect so let's teo I wantto let's take this away I can introduce yet thank you that shot her felix was just like no felix don't go into the light I don't know there's a light at the end of the tunnel I actually really like that katie was on you see but you can just see this is what's beautiful about constant lights you can see exactly what's going on if I had the time you know I work with my guys and it's the same like after half an hour forty five minutes you'll really get somewhere I would really work in the shapes and I'm always take I don't shoot models so I'm we're working with regular people in trying to find an aspect of who they are

Class Materials

Free Downloads

Studio Set Up - Learn to Light

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.

Student Work

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