Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Gels and Spray Bottles

So we're going for something a little steamier and a little sexier so we're going to get creative with some gels and we're going to make our own barn doors and we're going to make some steamy wet mist in the room ok? I've done this shoot before I shot for a bondage inspired lingerie company so this is the lighting setup I did for them so those photos were extra steamy we've made it creative live pg for you all but you know how it could be okay, so let's take a look since here's how my brain works is she originally with that client? They said okay, we want something that's sexy a little bit dark and we want some kind of motion in the shots to make them more interesting and their task to me is that basically you don't use you see lingerie shots with motion so we want something different we want to stand out I said awesome so dark to me means loki dark background and I'm thinking sexy I'm thinking steamy that could be fog or the direction I went was like if the model looks sweaty or cover...

ed in water or baby oil, so I think we did baby there are glittering okay, so we did babe you else we've got it all baby hold up and we're going to go with wet makeup and wet hair but I don't want to let it like a portrait, okay? Really boring? I need to do something extra so I want to set the mood for this shot, so we're going to add some gels to these shots, so join another does first or second doing to barnard's first, which which way does it work? Better he's already? Okay, so we're going to things there's going to be a three point light set up so we have three lights, one light in the front to set the mood to set the scene and then the two back lights to pop her out of the background of the back lights are going to have extra imp orton's here, the back lights are going to do two things. First of all, they're going cut her out of the background to give her that shape, which we're doing are swimsuit look but also it's going to set the mood because we're going to gel those lights. We're going to use that for creative effect, so if I were going for steamy sexy, the two directions I would go would either be oranges and rents or it would go like blues and purples and pinks, so I think that's the direction that will go, I shoot a lot of red, so let's go and wear purple today, so we'll go with that feel yes, and we're going to take those back lights and I really I really want her carved out of the background I really want to see the outlines of her body now if I use strip soft boxes I khun do it but you really, really hard to gel you don't get it you don't get that same poppy look and you don't get quite as crisp of an outline so it's harder for me to jail strips off boxes but if I just drown if I just gel what I have here the bare light it's hard to control it it kind of goes everywhere so what? We're going to dio connection good um what we're going to do is we're going to make barn doors and I use barn doors in the studio all the time but they're ah lot less common for portrait photographers portrait photographers usually used strips off boxes the long, narrow soft boxes and they have their benefits and one of the benefits is that when you light a subject it gives you a more even highlight head to toe if you use barn doors there's like leaves, you used to get a hot spot and then it trails off so portrait photographers usually prefer strip soft boxes they're a little more even the little softer a little easier to control but then I just said like they're more difficult to gel and then I can't get white as crisp of a highlight so what we're going to do is going to make our own and in this case we're using something I'll send a foil I'll bring this over with okay so this is sent a foiled a couple different brands that make it but it's basically thick black tinfoil it's very valuable and the best part is it doesn't catch on fire like our other homemade solutions like I've done things with cardboard right up against the light and it was in an expensive late that got really hot and then oh look my light smoking you know so this is made for that this is usually used in cinema and theatre as well in a theatre production used to control and block light so I'm gonna show him what we made took the piece cut it folded and have to give it some structure and we're using these multi clips so the multi clips gonna hold run for the senate foil and clip it to the reflected and I forgot this here's your sin a foil but that's for the whole role and you can use it over and over again and I mean this foil you can use over and over again and I like it too if I'm going on location barn door's air just one more thing to carry so it's actually easier it is to carry a couple of these pieces wadded up and then unwind them he's smart with the clip things I usually just use gaffer's tape but then it's not as you can't really bend it as much so he's he's much more in the skill in the grip area he like he can do anything oh you're gonna do it my crappy way over here okay alright instead of john's nice fancy way kick one hidden great in the meantime I shone jell o k the gel kit that I'm going to use I'm going to use a creative gel kit this particular one is the roscoe colors effects that's what I have in my studio some version of this so you go and the reason you want color effects is they have one that is color correction that won't do you any good because it's the green to contract fluorescent and it's the middle of wealth to counter act but to give you fluorescent and then there's the magenta that's just account balance out flores and and then there's a little bit of color temperature orange and there's a little bit of daylight blue but this I've got like fuchsia and I can have green and whatever colors I want so the creative one is more saturated colors and more range of colors so this is the one that you want and it's thirty for ninety five for this one I should be like thirty four ninety five okay so we're going to add some of these to the back lights as well. So john's over here adding my my less sturdy barn doors and something you have to have your studio is gaffer's tape just in case anyone's not a studio photographer if you're trying to do this, gaffer's tape is really strong tape that when it's hot on your life, it won't melt into them because if you just use regular tape or duck tape, duct tape will cool says not only will melt into the light, but it can actually like flare up a smoke up when it melts, so don't do duck tape gaffer safe is expensive, but super worth it. Okay, so let's see what we want to gel let's go uh pink and purple and I'm just going to put it in front of the light we have something called zoom reflectors on the benefit of that is you don't want to jail directly against the flash head if you just use a bare light and attach it, it'll melt the job and then you have to buy more, so we'll attach these. We've got a magenta one over here and then we're gonna have on the other side kind of a purple one I might change my mind, but we'll try not to change my mind, okay, so let's attach those are you freezing okay, yeah, I like you had to get old baby holed up in the dispute er stand in the corner of a cold air conditioned room with me and ok, thank you. All right. So the last part of well there's two more parts this so I've got my two back barn doors usually at about a back forty five degree angle approximately got the barn doors on if I want a more chris beam of light I closed them down so it doesn't really crisp directional light I want to spread out a little bit more open them up a little bit more we can attach the gels to the outsides of the lightest well, use the roscoe color affects kit and on my main light I wanted something a little bit more dramatic so I've got the bt dish in this time with the grid the beauty dish we used before but the grid it makes the light fall off to the background more dramatically, which means the background will be dark have a nice black background but also it focuses the light in so it's just gonna be more contrast in more focused it'll fade off down the bottom of her body so it'll be super cool and let's get that set up for our last part of this shot so the last part is a dollar seventy two each arm I spray bottles of water so let's see maybe have to like okay, you trust you on their abilities so what we're going to do if it works is spray them behind the model and it will look like a little bit of rain or a little bit of missed some picturing like steamy sauna room or whatever. Okay, so hopefully okay, so we're going to spray that behind her? Not well, I mean, you could spread on her, but I really don't want to torture you if you if you ever sprayed out of this book, even if it's warm it's instantly freezing because the way that it it's reasons like we're going straight behind her so as not to make enemies. Okay, so let me wrap this up then, okay? I'm going to bring you out here. I'm so glad that you are cold and angry. Okay, what have you been front and center? Perfect. Let me grab this. I'm probably gonna grab my probably gonna grab us twenty four to seventy. Just I have a little more flexibility and I'm gonna bring you way out front and let's work on my light ratios. So I'm gonna work on my light rations and I'm probably going to under expose from what my meter would actually say because I wanted to be darker, more dramatic, I'll pop the highlights and have the skin darker it could rather have it look oily then ah brightly lit port portrait with room lights makes no sense so even closer great. All right, I lied live it further back so what I'm doing right now is in my studio I turn off my main light so I could see what those background lights are doing right now can you just raise him a little so that's what I'm looking at right now it misses a little bit of her face over here it's good over there it's mostly hitting her shoulder and I want to make sure I get a little bit of hair and her face so I contest this out and I'm gonna put it on see, try this. Oh, is that one just a channel to as well? Ok, cool. Thanks. So I have this main light off casino dis lights turned off I just wanted to see okay, so I've got those lights look pretty good mail this open up a little bit more, you know, I think it's okay? I don't mind it being blown out either. Okay says something like that. Okay? And I included all right, so those air kind of bright and steamy also, even if your lights are set to the same exposure, different gels eat light a different way and in fact, on the kids that actually tells how many stops of light it eats I just say could you pump it up please? It needs a little bit more like is creativity doesn't need to be numbers let me turn on my main light can you turn that from is it was the right numbers in it right now keep it like seven five like a little brighter all right, we're gonna bring this in great let me test this on you and take one chinese steps that way there okay, so you got a dramatic light on the last thing I'm going to dio and I'm going to change my white balance to be incorrect I'm picking the wrong white balance on purpose because by default her skin will look a normal warm tone but I want cool and steamy so instead of flash or daylight which is what studio strobes they're going to be I'm going to switch it's tungsten and tungsten is going to make the whole thing blew but then it's that nightclub blue sexy so incorrect is correct this time so I get that shot so this is what tungsten guy says it's gonna look much bluer much cooler okay it's looking a little bit cooler I'm probably gonna be and that you guys can see but that screen it's like a very cool sexy blue okay, so ready for my super water sprayers and across this way because the barn doors are gonna light it and pick it up and make it look cool I'm going to test it first then we'll do some cool it won't turn you still your left good I'm going to be pop up your right knee good arch your back good have you put your hands on your head pop that elbow out good and shin let's see down a little bit hand a little lower I'm just looking for a nice shape okay, that elbow down again in yeah earlier had perfect and that arm put you put on your knee ish good let's test it chin down a little bit okay, give me super spray. Oh yeah serious let's take a look at it. Oh, yeah looks good. I'll take a fusion. Okay, so I got my dollars seventy two it's cheaper than a it's cheaper than a fog machine and fog machines you know what happens you shoot for awhile and then you can't see through them anymore and then you gotta wait for everything to air out. So this is my last shot and lola wrapped it up so I'm going to just have a couple of shots here this time go on your neck. Okay, perfect for your head to the light good soft fingers great arch your back like whoa perfect yet this perfect good and softened it perfect right there tension down good good and last one, when I want you to do is put your hair down and whip it back. I'm going to try to catch it. Here we go, we're going, try one say, we'll say, I still like it, though. That's, cool, let's, go, you guys get the jest, right? You get the idea, so I'll summarize it in one sentence, but it's gonna be a lot run on one, ready, okay to back barn doors with gels to set the mood, a beauty dish with a grid to make it dramatic, setting my white balance to tungsten to make it blue with the water behind sprayed to give me that misty, steamy look and styling her to match. So that was the sentence. Okay, great. Thank you. Gonna thank you so much, lindsay. That was definitely a lindsay adler sentence, but how much fun was that? Everyone.