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Lesson Info

Lighting Setup

We've got a typical three lights set up and I'm gonna walk over here and show you what it's all about. We've got a main light. Ah, fill light and then a kicker light to create some separation. My goal or vision, if you will, is in studio. I want to shoot it about two, eight or four o I want that depth of field. I want that background to go blurry. That's, my ultimate goal. So let's, walk over here and kind of take a look at some stuff. Okay? So in here, we have our main soft box here providing the main light right here. I've got a strip bank providing the phil okay in her. Marc, if you will is going to be right here. So I've already metered in for this. We want to give you that light meter. It should be right here. I think we put it right here about that. All right, so I'm using a psychotic light meter. Okay? We're triggering and right here I've got two eight hitting my light meter and that's what I'm looking for two. Eight I s so one hundred charter speed to hundreds of a second so th...

at's going to be your sink speed on your camera? I've got you know nikon can and they're all different so here's what I'm looking to accomplish and I've already metered these in ok, so you got to get your light meter now I've got a kicker here we've defused it a little okay to get some separation from the background and that's one stop less than the main light so I just want to provide a little bit of kick I don't wantto create some huge highlights that are blown out this is the look I'm going for we're going to try a couple other looks today as well, but this is your typical three lights set up main fill a little bit of kicker now if you look behind me we've got a background this is from westcott so yesterday we were talking about creating backgrounds oh that provide unique, more modern look and feel we don't want a background that is, you know, these old muslims and you can't feel this so you know, explain to you this is more of just nylon style material so we can just fold this stuff up, throw it in the back and move on and that's very, very important a ce faras you start expanding your you know your backdrop so these air about one hundred forty bucks I think we said yesterday you know, plenty of size we don't need to go twenty feet wide, I'm not using this for family sessions. I'm using this specifically for senior sessions on this is what they want, you know, we've got a chair here, I'm not going to take advantage of that, but I love going to thrift shops and picking up chairs that are you can pick up a chair for a hundred bucks hundred bucks or last, and now you've got some unique chairs for your studio. I love introducing those objects into the studio set up so that everything they're doing, they're not just kind of standing there mugging for the camera so you can pick up these chairs very inexpensively and they don't have to be perfect, right? Go to stores like weekends only go to stores, local thrift stores in your area, they could be beat up chairs to me, they add more character to your overall session, so I love doing that stuff, so I'm gonna take this out of here for now. I gotta thank you. You are perfect. All right, so we're all kind of dialed in here, okay? Now I'm shooting tethered s o the image is going to be popping up as we go there unedited. I'm shooting raw, okay, my cameras can in one day yes, my main lens is a seventy, two hundred okay two eight that's where I'm trying to shoot right now I'm gonna take a test shot or to make sure I like the way everything's looking but again I'm shooting raw so that I can adjust color you know, white balance in postproduction so I'm sure that's going to create a whole bunch of questions I would not recommend you shoot jpeg jpeg gases easier but what's happening is the camera is making decisions for you on your color spectrum so we don't want to clip those highlights we don't want to clip ah those shadows we want to make some of those decisions in postproduction s o that's again very, very important so kendra where you at now? Norris so here's what I want you guys to focus on for a second before kendra even gets here is I want you to pay attention to the conversation I'm gonna have with kendra so that becomes very, very important that you listen to this conversation I need to get her comfortable very, very quickly in order to get that look in emotion I'm looking for out of her so what I want you guys to do is pay attention to the conversation I would have this conversation with every single senior that steps into the studio all right? How you doing all right, talking to that little nervous a little bit all right facing just talk to me you're fine so kendra you're a little nervous that's fine that's normal s so here's what we're gonna do we're gonna have fun today today's all about you all right so I want you to have fun I want you to be silly uh don't be afraid to have a good time with it so if you laugh I don't want that cheesy smile ok yeah you've got a beautiful smile let it happen naturally but I'm gonna want to looks out of you okay one is going to your smile the other one is going to be out sasi look okay so you watch america's next top model yes all right, so what can you say all the time smiles, smiles right smile with your eyes so that's what I'm gonna be looking for out of do you have let me see your sassy look you got it you got it good birdie eso and we'll work on that so if I think it's looking bad I'll let you know but ultimately I want to have a good time with it on we'll work on that look okay and and here's our deal with each other if you're doing something that looks stupid I'm gonna tell you all right and if I'm doing something makes you feel stupid you yell at me I feel ok let's have fun all right let's take this from her perfect. You're gonna come over here and you're just getting started, sister. All right, so this is gonna be your mark right here. Okay, stay there for me and what I'm doing here, guys, I'm just gonna set up the backdrop. Make sure some of these details look the way I want, um, because I want to do is little in post production is I have to, uh, in order for this toe look right now, some other things to keep in mind. She has no idea how to pose at this point. She has no idea what I'm looking for and no idea what to expect. So I'm gonna give you a little bit of coaching on posing on, and you'll find that in the beginning of any photo shoot, I'm extremely heavy handed with the way I'm working, working the senior because she doesn't know what's going on, she doesn't know what to expect. This is my job to get her comfortable. So couple of things, I never want you right to push your hip in the camera. If you push your hip in the camera, you're going to get ten pounds on camera. So what I want you to do is get that feeling turn side, he's warming, get that feeling of letting that hip slide to the rear exactly slide forward. That's really bad side rear perfect okay, so I'm coaching her on what she wants okay? So that's tip number one tip number two is we all liked to pivot our heads here okay? And as we pivot our heads here we get heavy in the neck I don't care for your size zero if you pose like this you're going to your chin is going to get super heavy and guess what? They're not going to like that picture so what all good models know how to do I call it turtle ng okay, so what that is is you're going to push from here and that's immediately going to thin out your neck and I know it feels ridiculous right? Of course yeah, but it looks good and that's the most important part. So when I when I tell you to turtle I just want you pushing that out a little bit perfect and that's going to thin their neck out for them so just by giving her these two tips were starting to build confidence in the way she's the way she's going to look and I'm ensuring that I'm getting great pictures well guess what by the second outfit the third outfit she's not even thinking about it right she's just going boom let's do this let's talk about now your hair how do you wear your hair? Do you wear it one side to the other half in half you don't care okay let me see you to this side let me see looking me cute I like that let me see you to the other side okay that's good I think this is your better side so I like this okay, now let me see what I call a clean split and what I want you do what I ask for a clean split he's pulled all that hair forward I don't want any crazies on your shoulder exactly. Okay, so hopefully you guys have seen what I've just done here we've cleaned up her shoulders in order to ensure because if we got this mom's not gonna like that picture mom's gonna go well I like her expression but I don't like the way your hair's lane that's our job to pay attention to that detail detail detail detail that's what we're doing this is my domain now, right? So now I'm in control of my photo shoot I'm in control of everything going on here even if I have to come up here and adjust that now as men we have to be careful you don't want to come up here and start touching all parts of their body I always ask my seniors they say are you okay? Crazy right? Sometimes I'll get this alfalfa hair something on top I'll say to them are you okay if I if I touch that ninety nine out of one hundred times are all like. Yeah, no problem. And then and then you would just adjust that form if mom's there, if your assistance there, have them do that for you. Okay. You want to be conscious of that personal barrier between you and the senior. So that's very, very, very important questions about this so far. What? I hope you guys, our understanding is that I have now in maybe a five ten minute window taken all the time to get her ready to give me the best look possible. So, kendrick, we got questions online about the way we're directing her guys out here. You're good? Just your normal work flow with the kid. How you doing, she's? Doing good. Okay, so, yeah, let's. Get some questions. I have a question from sam cox, our friend in loveland, colorado. Do you fall? The never touched the client rule. I do not follow the never touched the client rule. I'm a very hands on person. I follow the don't go into areas you should not be going to anyway. So, you know, I'm not goingto start touching their blouse and touching their buttons. The only thing I'll get involved in touching is maybe their hair like, because sometimes you can instruct them. And they still can't find it they don't have a mirror in front of them, so sometimes we have to be there mirror or my assistant is their mirrors somebody has to come over here and do this for them sometimes did you question? Yeah, technical question actually going back to because I don't even do it for four years and we have certain lights here that maybe go lower than maybe what other people's lives will go too when you started out where you always shoot into two point eight if your life didn't go low enough, how would you overcome that to get the two point eight yeah, I've always shot at two eight for oh so in order to do that, you're going to get your strobes you start pulling him back, right? And if you're shooting in a confined space, maybe you don't get teo to eight maybe you're only getting a for all maybe five six, but I like and I think you'll see is we start photographing I like the way it looks at two eight for old that's more my style, my brand that works for me, right? So if you look at my images online, I'm shooting wide open all the time and that's part of the look that the kids want there's some studios you'll go to and they shoot still to this day eleven f sixteen in the studio that's not my look that's not my brand so that's not what I'm going for so you know when you're getting some of this stuff if you're in a small confined space right you could only go back so far maybe you're getting you got dial your eyes so down a slow as you can on some of the cannons it'll goto ii so low which is fifty and so if I can get down to fifty, that gives me a little bit more wiggle wiggle room to work with but good question, any technical questions about the light setup? Oh, well, I was going to ask you nontechnical question you can do whatever you want. Yeah question from fashion tv from who's in singapore do you ask what their best angle is? The best side before the session I saw you're just, you know, figured that out with her right then, right? Because that's your job is a dude. Do you decide for them? Yeah, I decide for him. I think people, I think what you'll find is that your clients can be a little crazy sometimes where they think that, you know, I had one of one of my clients, tommy well, my left side's my best side because you know, my jaws dinner, okay? I don't think your jobs thinner or they'll want me to shoot into their part. So here's a perfect example. If we can look here, turn your face this way just a little bit. I always shoot into the part, okay? Because if you turn the other way, this hair he's gonna block her face and that's not what parents are gonna want they're going so you'll find that I'm either shoot shooting, square on or I'm shooting. If I turn them a little sideways, I'm always going to shoot into the part on their hair because that that typically the reason their parting there is that the better side of their face. So I'm listening to the way she she's working her own hair. But you saw me work through that with her where I'm making the decision on what side do you wear your hair on? Do you wear to one side or the other? Do you put it up to you? You know, half in half I'm giving her all the instruction cues so that once we actually start shooting on that spending time, re coaching her, the coaching has happened up front.