Lessons

Lesson Info

Lighting Setup

What about meteors for quick second? I always use a meter and people often ask me when I'm doing seminars why do I use the meter? You can just look at the back of the camera and look at the history rams? Yes, you can look at the back of the camera for the history rams that gilles gives you a feeling for the exposure, but this is much better by looking at the back of the camera looking at the history grams, what I learned is that I have a good decent exposure that's not enough for me, I want to know where the light is falling and that's why I use a meter so as a photographer we're always on the other side of the camera about of the light and looking at it, but I always come and sit here where my subject will be, so I want to know where the light's falling and when I take a meter reading I meet her all over. So how do I use the meter? The meter has a dome and the dome goes in and out in and out. So this meter this dome in the meter gives you indication if you're meeting with with dimensi...

on or flat if I'm shooting art is going to be in because it's flat no dimension for people way have dimension I'm using the dome out that simple now I have my lights set up had the model here it'll back up in a minute and go through the lighting step is well but I had my model here and if I'm just on the other side of the light and shooting her I have no idea where the light's falling so I sit here first so I can visually see where the light's falling when I am back here with my camera I feel like it's, right? But I can't tell until I come back and sit here they can tell if it's off or not and tweak it or I have my sister at this point make a small change seo move it up an inch move it to the left an inch for the small tweak I wanted exact so once I have exact then I'm ready to take a meter reading sit my s o and each camera has their their native so if you were in the film days well I should say in the film day so we still shoot film that now that as well but every digital camera has a native isso for one camera the native eso is two hundred for one it's one sixty I used the sony and the native ice o is two hundred I'll get the best fouls that s o two hundred with film the lower the iso the better not in digital some sitting my s o s oh two hundred then I'm ready to take a meter reading changed my motive flash mode that's a lot of power I can tell it's a lot of power gets by the sound if you shoot a model like this with all the power you will wear them out that flash is intense and hard on the model so think about how they feel if you're using a ring light is intensified even more so why should it ring light? I will in a ring light is a light that goes around the limbs ring light I will shoot less frames with the ring light because it's intense I also shoot slower rasheda ring light I'm sure for a lot of power I won't have this close the light this close to the model because it's too much that's a lot of power so all dalek down on the pack were in the a scythe after I change power after I change power on a pack the first pop dumps the power the next one is the real reading that's still a lot of power I don't have to look here I know it's a lot power by the sound and the intensity of feeling I can take it down quite a bit I'm gonna go from the a side to the b side what I've just done you can only do with pro fertile packs difference it's, not it's, which in this case is good. So now I have like that I want and now with this little power, this close is f sixteen, but I want not just one reading what I have a brand new assistant I'm telling take a meter reading they'll do this and tell me always ready f sixteen that's not enough! I want to know what lights of doing here was doing here what's doing here was doing here because they can tell the rangers where it falls off. If I do want me to read in here and nothing else, I know where he is right here could be falling off here and being very bright here, I want to read all around the face so I know exactly the light's falling and be within a tenth or two, so they gave me the reading they'll say sixteen point two, eleven, nine, eleven, eight I can tweak my life a little bit more to make it even more even, but this is not a band has to be it. So earlier I said meters don't think they only react. The meter is not thinking it's reacting to that light, so I'm sugar model who's, my complexion or darker, I'm not going to shoot the same way we'll shoot a girl who's blonde with blue eyes and beautiful hair I would make sure I have an image that looks beautiful on both people so it is reading sixteen to eleven nine I'm gonna shoot this a third open for the meter tells me I'm shooting a girl who was very fair I make sure exactly on the meter or down from what the meter says but not exactly what the meter says because this is giving me eighteen percent grade a normal quote unquote normal reading then I interpret that reading and make it look the way I want to be that simple now let's talk about angle of light can I have a volunteer for a second? Come on in have a seat until everyone out there your name maryland maybe that is gonna be my student for the moment and right now I'm just talking about the angle of light the angle of the light hitting her one of my favorite times a dais sunset it's always been and I love it because it's the angle of the sun coming down and the color of the son I've always loved it it's beautiful so when I'm in studio I'm trying get that same feeling doing what I call the golden hour those last that last hour oh heavens what oh my god okay going faster so all I have is that last hour that hour of sun that were sports sets it's so beautiful that changes from in iceland I have a lot longer in iceland in august and I love that about being different parts of the world where you're higher up knew that son hanging there longer it's beautiful I'm going back to iceland sweden for that reason so we're backto angle of light by doing my testing I find out and merrill look straightforward force again hey, but look at her face I want you to notice the shadows as a change on her face notice the shadows they change on her face I'm putting you in the hot seat a little higher about stay there right now so even going from here to there makes a big difference but takes a myth you to be a see it that small difference and going up two inches three inches is is a big difference in the picture and takes your time to learn how to see that with your eye with your naked eye takes a minute so to learn how to see that light should take a picture at this height with the light, then go up again where it was before and should another picture and study those two images and look at the difference that it makes and two inches and two inches from here hire two inches stay at first just those two inches so the way I have my life sit up now I'm using a c stand with an arm a c stand with an army and I had the light directly over where the camera will be I don't want the light back there military officials had this way again straight away looking right at me because you see how the light falls off now that's also give me texture and it's very hard to see it but if you had is there's anything with texture around here I can see hold on maybe not good enough or has a lot texture in it uh that's kind of cool so we have always texture here still still kind of flat I want these a little more seeing uh that's cool strap is good yeah take it off or second guess perfect so imagine this the strap is skin this is the texture of your skin when the light is flat it's very flattering as you turn you get more texture so knowing that the skin is texture I just my light accordingly so for beauty work I want the light to hit it flat so I don't get texture in the skin I'm looking for a girl who has great skin and I want to get revenge of that great skin I have my light in the right way to show it flat nights off even by one inch two inches off you start getting that little amount of texture and since we're all sharing digital you can go in on those innocents see it so do a test at home take a shot with lights totally flat like I had it before and then like this by two inches and look att in light room or capture one and go in one hundred percent and look at the skin you see more texture this way versus the first way where it's flat so she my beauty I like to have my light directly over so I guess shoot and get clean skin with very little texture you see what falls off two in choose that's all it takes that's it so do your testing and these little small things you're doing today that we're doing now you go over this more and more and more and at other things could go up ten inches on this light and go down to the point where you're too low find that spot where you find your sweet spot and make that your home for shooting your beauty find the angle and the light that you like I don't always use the beauty dish sometimes I used to be a dish like this sometimes I use a magnet reflector you see that later on a zoe go throughout the chutes sometimes I'll soften this light now use a grid over this light was the greed do the grid takes my life from being this direction to being constant here so a lot of shots of you see me do and show today were shot like this the light directly over I'm sure my model this close the shot of aretha franklin the cover right now we shot just like this wreath is here and I'm right back here with this close and she's singing and I'm hearing it and I'm feeling it and I'm singing along she'd tell me to stop I can't sing but we're this close a lot my images are shot just like this in this world with one light and no background light and tomorrow our beauty will be the situation we'll tweet the light that we get perfect and we'll show examples of shooting it with the grid and we'll see what that does to the subject and with just the background will also play around with having eight sock this is called a sock that goes over our dish to soften it they will shoot it with the grid and the sock ready lie tous we shoot our tests first with just the bare head there with the grid if the grid and the sock there was just a sock we spent all day testing lights but once you do this you learn how to do it forever and it helps you immensely in your photography because you learn a lot of things by this you learn how to see light and that's probably the hardest thing to do it first learning how to see light in those small nuances that happen as you think turn things around now I saw a hand forced you to go for a question. What degree grid that is, um, this one's a twenty degree. Is that like one that you prefer using there's there's? Only one made for the traditions that only when they make. Okay. Okay, phoebe dish for the smaller reflectors there, other degrees of grids. But for the beauty dish is lying. One they make profiler makes the dish comes in white and silver. I used the white for beauty. I use a super for hair sometimes, but knowing what they both do it it's a big difference. Some always testing lights to find out what they do. Thanks very much for being in the hot seat. So let's, take questions about light right now for more lies a question from a snaps. How would have you meet her? A couple where one was dark skin and won fair that's a great question that's a great question. So how I meet a couple of meter a couple where one is dark skin and one is fair skin knowing how the light is ok, if I'm shooting a couple and one's dark skin and one's fair skin let's, use me, for example so I'm dark skin something a portrait of somebody who's my complexion I would have me right here and can I borrow you for a second? Have you come right behind me? Put your hand right here I'm getting more like here she's getting less like somewhere a meter where who I met her on your face someone immediate myself I'm probably like sixteen four fifteen five should be f sixteen I'm gonna shoot this at like sixteen to a third so I'm over exposed a little bit and she's under exposed a little bit that's the plus of having a meter so I'm being exposed by a third here she's being under exposed a tiny bit and I get a perfect exposure that's how that works that was a great question online thank you. You know that was a great question bring those questions on and even hit I'm going for that so I did a shoot of ah samuel l jackson and his family all dark skin and I'm sure a story for ah winter magazine was a winter issue so the story was one winter white so they're all in white so the very dark skin in in white it could be a great cover so how did I expose that? I used a net so we have your flags and nets we don't have a net here but a net is basically a black flag with didn't degrees of ah filtration over so I had a net which is blocking the light I put the net to cover just the white clothing and knock it down a little bit exposed for the face so that way I'm not blowing out the white that they have on still being detailed the white exposing to face the right way by using nits now take questions right uh question from uh r jones jones jones how do you meet her? The background for an all white back great question I just did a seminar in atlanta last week we went over that same thing so if I have an all white background they're a lot of ways to do a white background so the first thing I'm going to do is set up four lights at least I'll have two lights now this'll plugged in okay for example I'll have four lights around the sit one would be hi ones low something over here one high one low all going to the background and I wouldn't have these lights going directly this way I'd bounce them either into from a vey flat this is in the way I could bring this down and turn this off also with this is in the way so everybody can see so I have four lights on the set I have too high and too low as I meet her a meeting here here all the way around trying to make it consistent once I get it within a third so I'm getting f sixteen here fifteen to here fixing to hear sixteen one here that's where I want to be now in my front reading to get a white pure white background I wanna make sure that that background is a half to three quarters of stop over this reading so I'm getting f sixteen on the background this exposure here should be eleven point three some over that by three cores of a stop that's when I get a white background that simple so media here first meter your background makes you is consistent all over what you have that reading then set your main that should be a a half to three quarters mohr then this one I don't want to be a stop two stops over back here because then this becomes a light source and bounces like back here it looks milky team it crisp and clean no more than three chords must stop at the max a stop stopping a third to stops over here you get this like kicking back and becomes a light source which I don't want unless that's the look you want to be very clear about what you want don't need to be a mistake make sure you had the intent of that light becoming another source where becomes like a bag lit shot but for clean white shot I want that to be a half to three quarters mawr in this light thanks for that question online way your backside let's say the cherries further out yeah so then that will be sixteen but then your for they're out so then I want this wrapping around different because your father s o I'm not reading I'm not reading this like that way I'm I mean the front light my main light I want this main light to be three course will stop less than that light anyone affected this? We're not at all if I come out here I come way out here I still step my main light to be three course of a stop less than that light so I set my main light after doing the background so my sins is setting up the first thing they do so setting up we're doing a white background they sit this up first and neither that first then we do the main light we may have to set up a ready we'll turn it off tree that I don't want to influence by this first I'll turn off the main light read just the background lights and get it even all the way around then turn on the main light the question on ly yeah question from catch me a light how do you deal with hot spots on foreheads with the beauty dish fishing facing street this is why testing is so important how you have hot spots this is why testing is so important find that right angle the right height fighting by using either the grid or the sock or both you find the perfect light that soft enough or hard if you want it so it's all in testing so when you use that sock and the grid you take it away or defuse it and then having the proper hair and makeup to work one set when I'm shooting my makeup ours is right there on set the hair stylist is right there on sit so as I'm shooting if the mom becomes shoddy like I probably am right now things power them down that's happening throughout the shoot all the time it's not just doing hair makeup first in the morning and that's it no, they are one set the entire time so things change I'm thinking about the image the hairstyles has focused on the hair the makeup artist folks on the makeup and they're always going in throughout the shoot and making small tweaks or some comes away with a guy last comes off the team off said to a small change come back to set again that's the process good question what for you guys here in the audience are the questions about about light tomorrow we'll be doing this now just talking about we'll be doing it in the butterfly images. You're just in one line. I'm using this exact light and there's, no light behinds, no light in the background. This is the on ly light for the butterfly siri's for the butterfly siri's. This was the on ly light. This is it, and I shot it without the grid or the sock. This was the only light used, the addition to that wass small little secret of my I use this light, and this is a little small defector. So this reflector is in all my camera bags, my secret toy and this that's it a white background, no lights in the background, the beauty dish in my small reflector and it's only a nine hundred with one hundred macro lens. That was it. All right, it's. Time for pre production. I'm out of time here, way back to this tomorrow with a live model shooting and making magic and that's the fun. I can't wait for tomorrow.