Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Steampunk with Three Lights

Okay, so we got that one overhead we got the other box behind us and let's get rid of this of this for now we'll just take this off because we'll probably use it and then so let's take this will flip over as my overhead this way so it takes a little bit to set up these and we're gonna take down the um campus background there so we're getting john to work today he's been slacking the whole time so today he gets to work I found out that john is one month older than me I can't believe it he is my elder okay, we plugged in on that one all right? We ran this triggers on let's go here right there raise that up so you know what I do go back to to a similar look that always you know, like but um but we're going to get a completely different feel what we just did so we're gonna pull this down all right? I just pulled over he was trying to get rid of me. Okay? So let's do regular instead of doing a sweep let's just do our regular set up on then we'll do unless you do you think john we can rule t...

hat out right now, okay? So let's do it okay? We're roller out beautiful like this okay picked us up and we'll put this down on it that'll hold it okay so we still want a kind of a gray light gray sweep we'll slide this out a little bit up sorry okay, so we're gonna have let's go with um oh let's try quarter power see what happens so one sixty watts to start with we got triggers is that one plugged in over there? Okay, okay they're all going off but I just could get on there yep yep okay so come toward me walked toward me a little bit more right there and then let's raise this up and I'm not sure if we get away with it but this actually becomes sort of a bounce doesn't it not like it would be if it was run on either but it does become sort of a bounce so let me get this thing to spend here right there so you shoot square underneath that so let's see what happens since I have my seventy two hundred on let's just keep it on raise it up a little bit so now we're gonna go for an edgy look right a little more gritty feel to it. So so where is my box at are not box but modifier about three feet from her maybe it's about four okay so I haven't adjusted anything on the overhead so I don't know if I'm gonna come out good so that's not bad look at my edge lights my age likes a little weak so let's go half power on edge lights so we go up to three. Twenty beautiful, not gonna bring my edge. Lights in one, two, three uh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Now, it's starting to happen. So let's, do this let's, spend this like this back this up. Sorry. I'm gonna just get right into my camera guy over here, let's, see if we could get a little bit more of her ready? One, two, three. I still got a little bit of my box on the top there, but this is starting to be really good for a knockout. We're talking about a cut out here, right? We wanna put this is for her show your eyes a little blinking there, but we're going to get this for a composite. So the background we just want a nice great a great that's a good look. Okay, so hold on. I can raise this up just a fraction more, just a fraction more because I'm right cutting underneath it here. That's good. So when we talked about the pot of that so you can't go down to low but the possibility. So now you see where you're at here bring just scoot forward so you're dead center now, now, don't do that look now. I like that now remember we talked about the possibility of town powering one light if she's looking into like say the sun sources one way and it's a little bit less on the other so maybe and hear you can't really tell you mean it looks almost like that's happening but um I can't zoom back a little bit holen we focus in your face one two three we got a little bit of boots in there that's not a bad look there either now I feel like I'm a little high on her because I want that superhero look right so let me just lower it down and you see the difference what just the camera angle will make I feel like I'm too high now we talked about this a lot of times when I shoot my backgrounds I literally shoot the tripod in the slowest setting so about here and then I shoot if this killer background I'll shoot another setting about here right so I have two angles and this is we're still not lois should be but it could be but my point is is that I have two options on my background so if I want to do a full length I almost always want to use the one I shot the lowest I still want that up look so let's take a look here so this is gonna be a little bit there's my seventy millimeter right now um it's a little bit too I gotta have a little bit hard time there jessica's too wide so maybe so let's do a couple like this remember I said I like that your chest is going that way and you maybe just holding this and you're looking over your shoulder the other way so also good this waste your dead center down the middle of that modifier so right there so that's nothing has got to really watch is where is she and uh okay right there this is perfect ready to focus this is what I like right here this'll be a great a great look right here so you're kind of looking over even go over your shoulder more yeah, even more like your looking even like you're looking over toward the like that yeah yeah now let's make sure we see the front of that camera zoom in a little bit here focus so I've got kind of a waste up right there so one of these I want to be able to knock out okay let's go a little bit wider here, all right? Let's get the other lens john because I now cannot unless I go way back I can't get her in ah full length okay, grab this and in this case I will probably bring my tripod all the way to the ground or I mean as far as I can get this to go teo this is where I do a lot of my full length right here on this level okay, so we're going to see a little bit of the light stand in here I'll show you, but because it's gonna be a knockout I'm not worried about it show here see that life stan doesn't bother me it kind of bothers me that I look at it. I see it but I know that it's not gonna bother me because I'm going to make sense. Hey, these are great. The boots look amazing. So we're going to get one here that's going to be perfect to do cut out right there. I love that look right there. Yes. Now look at the light is tapering down on her so that her face is lit pretty well then it kind of tapers down, right? So so so what? Why? Why is that important? At least for me, light usually travels from top to bottom and here's the problem with a lot of knockouts. People send me these cut outs and what happens is that shoot on a white sweep like this and within the value of the face is the same as the value of the boots and they put it in a scene and it doesn't look real looks that cut out I want the light to taper down from from brighter the top less to the bottom that makes sense so let's get that cloak around little bit so we get and maybe do we have a we don't have a fan here doing um let's let's bring the cloak around a bit and well maybe we'll have like right there right there perfect perfect right there I love it I love it I love it not like that are black and what we haven't done is we haven't put the hoody on it all maybe I'll do a portrait here with the hood in a minute so maybe we'll get that clothe flap a little bit and um let's just see what happens so in considering your main light source than you probably wanna limit the size of that you're how big your site so you can keep that fall out like I mean this is a good one this is a good size and also you know what? I didn't do it I didn't lower it I should've lowered a little bit cause my angles a little bit lower it still looks good but they'll shadow starts to stretch on our nose to the turn lip so let's, I'm just going to lower that a little bit so this way put you jessica you're gonna be this way so the cloak is flapping that way behind you and let's see if john he's a month older me let's see if you can figure this out yeah, well, that makes all the difference in the world. Now, the only thing I say john, can we raise this up about a foot back here? Because right now, her hair, her hair is right at the top of that little and when I start knocking things out that's going to be just a little bit, so we just run it just just real quickly. Just run up a little bit. Not much, right about there that should take care of that. That role in the top c how that there. I just don't want to have a challenge when I start cutting her hair out. Ok, these are great. Look, when was the last one? We did? Well, well, that was the last one, but make sure that kind of blow it at the bottom. So, it's, just the tales really flapping. Ready? Here we go. Yes, beautiful. These look really good in a whole lot of saying let's take a look because I don't think we're coming up here with the latest. These look really good. See how the little movement helps. So now when I put her outdoors it's gonna look like something's happening it's a little bit. All right, let's, keep going, let's, keep doing this is perfect, jessica and john, you're almost perfect. Oh, beautiful, perfect love it a little bit now, if you go down when you when you say go down because I went out the little or that down, if you do that, what if you what if you if you're on it, if you're on a cliff, cliff for rock in the middle of the desert or whatever, would you maybe be a little more? I don't know. Try something like you think about your standing out in the middle of nowhere and see what happens like that that me? Yeah, exactly, now, but the wind on it. There you go, that's. Perfect. I love it. I gotta watch because gold jessica, about three inches forward because it's no, no, sorry, I meant that way, but yeah, because that cloak is going back behind you, right, ready. Here we go. Yes, ok, now do one where you got that last one. You got that you got the scope that roy and just turn look over your shoulder way out that direction ready here we go drop it down because I could see your block your face a little bit yeah, now look over your shoulder way over your shoulder there you go. Look at this. Do that again yes, perfect and maybe raise that up a little bit like you were looking at it all. So you look behind you yes, now maybe try one where you it's just down here then look over your shoulder again like that right there. Yes, beautiful, but I think we got some good stuff here to cut out I want to do before we change up anything else I want to make sure I kind of go back to maybe a portrait with this lighting right? So and I want to maybe try toe hood so what we can do here is the sea if we get this hood to come over the top along we got plenty of hood so I don't know how over the top I can get this, but I kind of wanted coming in and out like, you know, it's kind of like look at me who do you think maur forward when you think a little bit more ford where's our anyone that's got a female touch, so we'll do a couple maybe to pull some here there you go a little bit of it so let's try a portrait before portrait joel I know you're going to do that. I have a question I want to ask from ben f how do you compensate for the light on the legs of the model as it's different than light on her I want a darker okay that's the whole point yeah that's the whole point I want a darker because when I drop it in the background trust me you'll see the difference if it's if it's overly lit it's gonna look like a cut out so I'm a illusionist my job is a cell of fake so I'm gonna use every trick in the book to do that and one is to have light fall from top to bottom val, you watch now my life's coming on the sides right? But in terms of overall value is it's generally dropping down from top to bottom? So look att even been sent over there down here it's darker and I do that on purpose. I actually darken underneath armpits and things like that and sometimes even around here just to make sure it feels like it's really like it's really been dropped in, so stay right where you're at right there and I always try a little red riding hood look here um so let's focus right here see what that looks like yeah now might be a little over lit or over lit on the front so let's just do a couple clicks down I'm gonna need a battle box here for that so let's just build a little bit of, uh drama one two, three, four five just get a little bit uh so those edge lights or popping a little bit more and you know they're also little bit angle differently here too so um not that they're the perfect but and then I would say step back about two inches right there okay, hold on. I gotta straighten the camera up one too. I like this way telling knock this out and drop this in tow into something so now let's let's just let's fire a couple days off so I make sure I have this covered yeah, try a couple of very issue was that oh, you know what, phil? Well, you know what? It is gonna be tough come down right about there. Okay, ready? So try a couple like maybe get down, work your head up, keep going all the way up, keep going. Okay? All right that's pretty cool and then let's try um I'll be doing horses because I still like it so now bring this up a little bit so I haven't had it right there yes, that looks like kind of cool and you also I could I could think about if this was like a movie poster what would I be doing? Probably not straight on maybe but um so let's think about something that we could do yeah do that cook of the whole I alone go back to here now being a tripod is slower it is a pain right cause if I hand hold it it's going to be easier but I'm gonna tell you again I'm gonna repeat it again it's always gonna be sharp on the tripod so I'm gonna I'm gonna put up with the pain of being on a tripod to get that extra sharpness when I used to submit the stock photo agencies almost every time they get a new uh editor photo editor they'd call me up and say could you please tell us what lindsay's you're using because your stuff sharper than any other photographers there so many work I'm saying I'm using the same lenses I just happen to be on a tripod and I happened sometimes I sandbagged it down that's how important it is okay, so do that thing where you bring your chest that way and then move you a little bit love okay um that's kind of a cool look and then do we do full length of the hood right? We haven't done fooling with the hood I'm sitting back up a little bit though so I must still be a little bit wide right? And when we shot that seventy two hundred actually it's not a bad look right there. Um the the lens that we used with the compacting actually kind of like kind of cool so let's real quick let's just go back to that and do a couple really tight shots and who's gonna hand this put this right here grab this let's just do a couple real compacted ones and then now another look that I was thinking about doing I've done it once or twice is where I actually shoot at two point eight in the studio right? So it is of extremely shallow depth of field then I actually shoot or take a background blur it I dropped my cutout person into a blurred background so looks like it was shot wide open two point eight out in the field so that's just a look that I've tried a couple times and it has a kind of a cool feel to it but I'm not at two point eight here so this is this is compacting it a little bit more a little bit different field I want horizontal butt okay? I just want to watch the hands so let's let me see if I can get no do that same thing we're going to get the spyglass in there so john drop that down a little bit okay and we got a little bit of the box showing up all right now just cause let's try going straight on again with this right here says I'm compacted here focus right there now if I want to go edgier when I say ed you're meeting a little more dramatic watch this one come up so that's pretty good so I want to haul her cheek or do a little edgier what's my option well, I downed power this life so let's down power disliked to give me a little bit less in zone three in the middle zone let's just see what happens because I'm blowing it out little bit. Okay, so here we go again so it's the same thing only I was going right? So this should be a little bit edgier meaning that this is create a little more contrast on her face see a little bit edgier and again whether you love or hate it just that's an option that we always have so it's not like she's blown out everyone. So now if you take and look off just take a look maybe watch what happens to the rim of her face on the side it starts to pick up really cool ram here on the hill beyond see that room in that cool so that's another thing I like to do is get that ramdas pop that's a great pose right there whole lot I'm going to go john dropped that out because we're gonna go right? Well that I'm actually going back up now focus bam! Right there, perfect that's a good look right here so I don't know if the hood works or not. I kind of liked it without she it was pretty good without so let's just pop it off quick and of course I'm going to my question there's a lot of conversation in the chat rooms about where you're focusing if your focus focusing and re composing and I'm I feel like you're you're way below the eye line when I see the your lens, you're not sure what terms an angle I'm below hurt I'm going up, I'm angling up a little bit camera angle and you're focusing on her you're focusing on her face. I always like this on eyeball I try the further you go backto less, you may be from what people are saying at home there, you look like I'm not looks like you're not focusing on the face to people, maybe just it's just they angle of the lens maybe okay, so yeah, that hair looks great kind of watch just wild, so here we go let's take a look so this is a ledger because I've down that overhead light so yes definitely looks a little bit in outdoors in the middle of nowhere that could be could be so here's what I want to do let's get a really cool pose we'll get more straight on but maybe looking off to one side right? Okay, so look over where john's at right there right there. No, no, no no what? I would do not bring that back up just going to see that now what I want to do is I'm gonna down power one light on the other side so let's let's focus and look off right there so I want to get exactly the same look each time so that's one so now all I wanna do is down pulling power this one a full stop let's go full stop! See what happened so now I don't have my lights equal, right? So now she's looking into the light source so it's a little last night but I don't really see a lot of black on but now it's just going to be a little bit less see that her hair's a little less light. So now you know your source is coming from her right? Our left left a camera so if people say I don't like perfectly equal edge lights well here's an option I can now take and feather that light down to give me and especially let's say I could see the back of her neck, which I can't right now because she's got here there but on the back and neck tells me you know that zoo it's a little less power and so she's looking into the sun or source she looking to the source of light so that's that's an option that's one stop just do a couple like that can you move around a little bit quick so if we really can't do the fan for unless we're doing full length right doesn't make any sense try the fancy a little bit of flap here and I can back up I still think the full length is a pretty cool look but let's see what happens you know you had a fashion shoot when you bring the fan out there you go beautiful way see a little bit of the boots this is great. Okay, these look really good. So what? I'm going todo just for kicks I'm at seventy millimeter I'm gonna take let's just do a couple more full length before we say we're done with this just so that I have it and get the get the fan will get the fan going again yeah, I'm gonna go as low as I can wait and so this is we got the one life source a little bit darker on the backside of her so that's a good good so it's different little bit differently than before okay ready focus I love that that's perfect you can hold it here comes a fan beautiful let me focus again just to make sure ok beautiful I love it I love it very good I love these jessica these air perfect are a little more air john give me a little more air they really go she's in a blizzard a dust storm there goes they're perfect I love it get that dread getting going through even more try to get as much as you can. All right? Good stuff. I mean, I could beat this thing in the ground but that is perfect for a knockout for later for doing my photo shop stuff. So, um questions anything that, um I had I had something I wanted to say it here oh, here's what I want to tell you real quick unless you have any specific questions when you take your camera and you have a horizontal so do we have here? This is a good example right here. So let's say this is my sensor and I have, um her head up here right and then her shoulders so right here I have her head and so in terms of sharpness optically I'm in a pretty good spot because every lands cast a circle right and so the weak spot of the lands on is on the outside so the center's always the sharpest cameras have manufacturers try to solve this but it's almost impossible to get a perfect sharpness from the centre to the edge so when you take and flip it this way and you put your head up here what happens you're increasing your uh your bring your head closer to the weakest part of the circle so I discovered this is shooting athletes I would go horizontal tack sharp I flip it and all of a sudden is a little soft top I know it I know my focus perfectly so they're not donna because I used to shoot for five large format eight by ten and I knew all about the circle coverage right but I was kind of forgetting about it and so you think oh no you should be sharp here is here writes not now can nicki met with his new lands here which is the twenty four to seventy and it is really sharp from corner to corner but I think what they did was I don't know this for a fact but I think they increased the size of the circle because what happened is I was using the tilt chef lenses until shift lenses have a huge circle right and the centre to the corner is almost exactly the same insurance of sharp because the circle unless you move the circle right? And so I went out and bought until twenty four tilt shift to shoot my athletes just to get the sharpest of the top. That sounds crazy. But now with this new lens, I found that it's it's pretty darn good. I mean, I don't have to go to my tilt shift lens. I'm doing athletes, but right now and I shot her full length and share heads up in the top part up here. I have a lot of confidence that's going to be pretty sharp. So that's, just a little side note to know about lenses and a lot of people what they say to me to go get a bum, linds, no, you just got to realize that there's a circle and all how it works. And if you shoot wide open, that circle at the edges gets even softer because the aberration takes place. So there's, just a little bit about knowledge of lenses. I know. I don't want to get too complicated in terms of optics. I'm not optics, you know, genius. But I do know the basics about how lenses work. So and then, of course, if I hand hold it, that circle gets the corners getting softer. So I have assistance why you always trying pot wash ships were going to shoot and I'm gonna do my chute on a tribe but pulling off hand hold it, take a breath and shoot let's go take it in back of the studio and blow it up look at his side by side especially the corners they're going to be a little softer on the hand held one so just to give you a little bit of you know you can't always put on a tripod you got a hangover but if you can put on trap I put on a tripod is gonna be sharper so any other questions on from that but when you mentioned you shoot vertical teo get more pixels, insights and versus horizontal good question we're going that way may not apply to what you just said, but all right, so you notice what I was saying? I want I'm losing pixels, right? So I have a subject in here so I have got jessica and cropping here, but I got a lot of white space on both sides or gray whatever you want to call it if I flip my camera and I fill her up in the frame and later when I dropped her in the background I don't meet the sides, I don't need that right it's going it's going, I'm gonna have a wide angle expanded horizontal frame so now I've just retained more pixels per square inch of her when I flip it vertical versus horizontal. And if I want a great background let's, I do this all the time. You look my portfolio, I'll have a picture. Save jessica it's, perfect and it's on a gray or white. I've added, the grayer white extended until horizontal, but I didn't lose any pixels doing it. It's almost like shooting meeting format on a full frame sensor digital, right. So I'm thinking about those things when I'm shooting, because I've been doing this for thirty something years, so well, when you do that, are you zooming in or moving in closer? So you fill the frame, or I think, that's what you might be missing.