Lessons

Lesson Info

Directing Your Model

We're going to try it one more light modifier thanks, joseph you can you can chill um is that one turned off? How we doing on that one? We're gonna add one more uh, light modifier here and if we can go ahead and if you can start setting up that soft box we're gonna go ahead and put this pro photo be here on a uh sameera octu bank which is a thirty six inch uh soft box and the reason we use a soft box like we said before the the quality of light or the softness of the light is is relevant to the distance of light source is from the subject so if we were standing directly right next to sandwich it feels like we are today it's really hot here you know, it would be very very soft light so we're going to increase the size of the light source so that we have a nice quality of light and have it be a little bit softer so well ryan is doing that I could have somebody come over and help me here so I just putting together this shamir soft walks uh and I prefer a locked agonal or around light sour...

ce to a square one on really that has to do with it's a preference thing but the sun is round uh like the catch lights in the eyes toe hopefully be a rounder shape so we've got this guy ah, the on ly additional thing is we're probably going to use the grid so we're going to throw this this egg crate grid in here and what that's going to do is allow us tio basically channel that light where you want and keep that from spilling go and you can see we're doing this really quickly this is really on the fly uh, this is this is reminiscent of aa lot of the professional athlete portrait idea I've had fortunes where literal show up and they they say you've got three minutes and uh with your athlete and I'm setting up a portrait in a bathroom. We're actually I'm in a bathroom in a hotel room, setting up a backdrop of white backdrop and I'm shooting from the bathroom because the hotel room is not big enough teo to do it. So, um, this is reminisces reminiscent of that we're gonna go and put this guy on leverage the grid, so we're going to use the grid just teo minimize our spill essentially had little focus, the light a lot more on the subs actually, so it's going to focus the light on the subject? I just get this down, we'll back there you go, all right? So we've got this great background I hate to tell you gotta move, you gotta move on if we get two, apple box is right over here. Um, next next sort of sees when I'm looking, I'm always looking for the background first and there's a cool sort of city view here let's go and stack these on top of each other. Uh, come out this way just a hair and what I'm what I'm trying to do is is I'm getting him so he's not cut off directly in half in this background go and bring him about two right here, perfect, right about there perfect and now I'm going to get this soft box here and I'm going to sort of use that is my my light, we're at six five are to go on and go up to about full power to sort of see we've got so we could get our athlete in here again. This is going to be channel b so now I'm on b and not see which was the other one good and turn that other one off for me if you can and what what do we do? Guys? What's the first thing we do with our background get are available, I exposure, so I'm I don't even need him in there, I'm just going to basically get this shot without him in the in the frame, if we could have you guys all moved back just a little bit. Uh, yeah, that'd be great. It's gonna get my available light shot. So we are at seven. One seven one and we don't even need that light on for now. Seven one at two. Fifty the second. So one hundred. So that is centering the needle. We all of sudden have our baseline shot for the background. All right, cool. Let's. Go ahead and have you stand on those apple boxes there and good going jump off if we can move them this way towards that yucca there. And what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to line him up on the background, and I'm gonna compress him just a little bit with about a seventy millimeter lens on pulling that background compressing that means you're actually pulling that background by using a longer focal length. Yeah. And and I actually have you perfect. You're in the perfect spot there. Now, I want you looking right and right into this light for me, joseph. Right? Right into that soft books. Um, this is just a quick test. Relax, he looking good and go turn it off. We're going to turn that guy back on. This is b you can see that lights flashing their all right, so he's really over exposed on the strobe here now, because I've got it at full power, but this is great because this is actually what I want to do is drop out that background. How do I bring that exposure down for the flash? I bring my f stop up making a smaller aperture less light, so I'm saying, in a way, guess he's about a stopover so now I'm gonna have him look right into their again for me looks great. And now all of a sudden he's lit properly, that city drops out really quickly and all you guys at home, if you stick around all day, you're going to get to see these pictures and let's show let's show the cameras will cause like I think alex could get a great shot. That's all this is highly creating a mood. Yeah, we're creating more and that's the thing where you know, light is what creates a mood light is the building block of photography and and we're just using its the best of our ability were either and there's a lot of different ways to go either enhance it by using what you've got or you overpower in this sense, we're looking for something a little more artsy. And we're over powering it I'm gonna go ahead and move back just a little more and look in the same way there for me again and if we move this back just a hair like about six inches give us a little bit of this bit about how you're communicating with our with our model with joe and so your best practices you know, I'm basically trying to make him feel comfortable would be the first thing the second thing is I'm trying to make sure that the settings on the camera are consistent on that we're getting what we need but you know, after I get those setting set, I want to make sure that I'm not looking at every single picture because it's like when you go to a dinner with somebody and they're on their there filling the whole time it's not very attractive so that's the same thing with your with your camera if every time I take a picture, I turn around and look away from from joseph he's going wow, this guy's not very good, you know? So I'm trying to, like get my settings dialed and then I'm gonna take a couple shots, so let me just take a couple here look right there for me, joseph looking good looking really good and I got him in the left third chair, not just a hair there you go and pull your shoulders back just a little bit there you go there you go looking good and now sort of looking off towards me just a little bit like right here there you go and you can move your shoulders there you go, you go looking good, perfect last one like that. Cool, awesome. So I've got some shots and now typically what I would do here and I know you've got a question I will be right back, but I would go over and be like, hey, check this out, look at what we're getting can you describe what you're seeing there on the screen? S so what we've done is we have knocked the background down by about a stop, and we've used our our light, which is our main light now this pro photo be one to be the light that is illuminating, joseph and you know, we've we've gone from a sort of it's a beautiful rooftop don't get me wrong, but you know, we've we've gone into a situation, we've made three images in three different locations and is the same thing maximizing those faces great, thank you question. Yeah, so you've shown us all these different artsy looks on dh then you also described a scenario where you had, like, three minutes, you know, with a client so I was just wondering if you could talk to us about how you make those decisions when you arrive on a shoot like, you know, which look to use and if you know, if you're working with a client, you know, how do you judge that? Like, for example? Like, when would you use an artsy look versus, you know, the type of look that you just created here? You know, it really depends on who your audience is and, uh, or who you are as a photographer, what what's your voice, you know, there are people that air, uh, skateboard photographers that every look is intense, it's, gritty, it's, amazing and that's their look, I'm more of a chameleon, you know? I show up, and I'm looking to bring the best out of every situation I can shoot something that looks like it's, you know, straight out of you know, it looks like real life, even though it is lit or we could go the other way, making artsy and very dramatic, it really depends on the audience and the story you're trying to tell, if you know if you go the route where your overpowering the light with the strove for the b one, all of a sudden it's apparent you're trying to be bold you're trying to be you know this is more creative this is a vision where if you go the safer route and you just fill the light make it beautiful light on him and it looks like it matches and everything that's more commercial, more approachable itt's true to life in a sense so there's no really right or wrong answer it's just really depending on you know what your client wants or what your vision is for the for the image. Cool question for you could you show us how you adjust the pro photo the balance if you if you wanted to change the strobe on horse thank you so everything works from this basis this transceiver here so this is talking to the light. Ah, now I've got three banks I've got an a, b and a c so I can set up three lights or multiple lights on a b and c ous well, as I've got multiple channels, so if somebody else has a pro photo a channel two, they're not gonna fire my life, so I'm on channel one a, b and c and I have this guy right here set up on channel b there's no reason it's channel b it's just that one that I pulled out of the kit today, this channel b and what I do is I'll set my baseline manual exposure as you saw without any lights whatsoever and then I'll take a guess I'll be like, well, if it's a small aperture like seven one or higher, I'm going to want to be the pro photo goes upto the intent stop increments I think nine point zero is the highest ago, so I'm going to say started five six five point six that's not f five point six but five point six power, which is about half power and sort of see what I get if it's not if it's not enough power, I just go on the energy button here and I just continue to go up and I'll talk to ron and be like, hey, right, ryan, tell me when we get teo say eight point zero because in my mind I'm guessing when I saw the test if I'm a stop off, you know, and I'm just so it's a give and take, you know, hopefully within three shots I'll have that figured out and it just takes a little practice, but the great thing is literally you can pull these these units out of a kit you saw, we had a grid in a soft box and we've been here fifteen, twenty minutes or whatever setting the lenses up, putting cards in the camera and everything and he could go about his business we've made three really sort of interesting shots on if this was if I had more time, I would love to be out here for the next, you know, our minus getting sunburned and cooked on the rooftop, but, you know, just, you know, working and having fun and really, you know, really creating that dialogue with the athlete, which is, you know, it's a little hard to do here, back and forth, but if I was on a shoot here, I would make sure that I was focused on him, I'm showing him pictures, especially the ones that look good because all of a sudden once you get that athlete or that model and they're on your side and they're like, oh, that's really cool all of a sudden, they're willing, teo sort of open up in all of a sudden you'll see their their shoulders ago now they're comfortable and they're starting to enjoy it because they walk up where there's like, oh, great, I hope this guy doesn't make me look bad hope they don't make you look bad, and then if you can break that break down that wall, you can then move on to that next step.