Lessons

Lesson Info

Beauty Light

The first thing that I wanted to touch on is we're coming over here into the studio area is many portrait photographers, kind of the go to light modifier that people use is going to be a soft box, right? Most of time, it is in general, in my opinion, the most forgiving. So if somebody doesn't have as good skin it's going to just be a little bit more gentle, but as faras fashion photography goes and faction's flare a lot of fire that I think everybody should be aware of is a beauty dish. Uh, all right, audience question. How many people have beauty dishes? Okay, so only when I grew up good and teaching them, uh, so in this instance, um, what I'm using here for my kids is what I actually used in my studio in new york city for fashion photography. They are wrong color sense. So kids wrong color is one of the if not the best kind of lighting company out there. And this is one of their entry level. So it's less expensive, it's, good quality. And so I have sent kids that I'm using today. And...

this is a beauty dish, uh, beauty dishes come in a variety of different sizes and shapes. So you can have a beauty dish that's eighteen inches whatever what I use is twenty two inch and they have different inside. It could be either silver or white uh what you would see for differences white would be a little softer and silver would give you more speculate highlights it would be a contract more contrast crisp image if you had silver uh, there are a variety of modifiers you can add to your modifier. How I would like to describe a beauty dish is that when you think of a soft box the light is soft great so it wraps around the face and you don't have that many defined shadows you still have shadows but let's say you have a shadow from the nose it'll be kind of soft I have a kind of fall off whereas a beauty dish is going to be much more crisp and to find but it's not as harsh as if you say see what's on the background there were those silver reflectors if you use one of those on the face it's really harsh really speculum and it really pulls out generally often a lot of unwanted detail, I would use it for a guy in which more than I would use it for a woman, so uh, beauty dish is kind of a nice in between because sometimes I don't want it to be so soft and wrapping because for me, this light is really good for pulling out for defining jaw lines and cheekbones. If you look at most fashion photography and I'm going to say that's a crazy generalization, let's say a lot of fashion, it's rose and a lot of cosmetic campaigns, if you look in the eye of the subject, what you will see is a lot of times in the top centre, you see a circle within a circle, and that means it's a beauty dish. So what I do is when I'm looking at a shot and I'm trying to figure out how it was taken, I will look at that exact image and I will analyze the first thing I'm looking I'm looking at the shot I'm saying okay, uh, what shape is that main highlight? So I can tell if I see a circle within a circle? I know it's a beauty dish if I see a rectangle, I know it's a soft box, then looking at the eye if the that highlight is centered in the eye, I know that the light was centered in the eye if its lower in the eye and know that the light was lower. I mean, so you kind of just deconstruct so most often I will see in beauty shots, I see a beauty dish, and then I'll talk about kind of a modification that I see on that a lot. So I'm going to take a couple shots of its cassia, right? Keyshia okay, audiences, kcia okay, okay, I got his cash because, you know, um and so we'll take a few shots of her with this, you can get an idea of the quality of life and how I would actually work with beauty dish. Uh, in this instance for me, a lot of times for beauty light uh, victor, stop boxes, you usually put the soft kind of off to the side, right? I'm kind of shaping the faith for traditional beauty light for maybe a campaign or, like, really light areas soft it's often centered, and when you send her something, you get stuck with a pool in your view when you the late centered so that's why we're using a boom arm here. Uh, and I just wanted to mention for any of you haven't used before, the key is paying attention to this because you have this, like, kind of hanging out in a boom arm, and then it collapses completely true story I have had it claps room and somebody's head before, um, so you don't want to do that, so just keep them waiting I wanted it to you, I uh lindsay when you said this you're talking about the same way taking at it yes with sandbags on the bottom sometimes you have a lot of weight you can actually add a sandbag on the handle over there so that's often I'm I'm usually doing both and you can pick the same backs kind of evened it out yeah so anything that's good it's great uh okay let's talk about concept a little bit for the shoot so she is a professional model that's what she does can you tell right uh well I will use beauty dishes if you look at most of my portrait work that is kind of more on the commercial end so if you're looking at a lot of it if you go to my website and look under the portrait section I was using a beauty dish I like that it defines the cheekbones and the jaw structure so I'm going to try a different variety here have you stand a little more centered good for her outfit I was able to borrow this dress off of somebody who makes it on etsy dot com and we'll have those links available her company name is glam tastic and she designs these dresses a very in price and she's working on a line for rental so that something that you're looking for like okay maybe you take you rent one want to take a shot and then you just offer to your client by the way, if you want to be able to rent one of these dresses it's this much added on, so I'm always looking for those things where it's not like I didn't have to maybe go out and buy all the dresses are all the props, but you have shots to show people what you have, the ability to shoot, and then you can offer it to them. So I think that is a crazy, cool dress like half of me kind of just wants it. Um, I kind of really just wanted to be good about that. I'm really into the spikes right now I thought they have all these spikes that you can buy have a dasher shots and I, like attached them to everything like shoes and glasses, so you'll see I'll bring out some props. Um okay, so let's talk about beauty dish as faras height? Um, right now, if you're looking at it it's lower than it generally, what should be she's she's really tall but usually want a slightly upward angle, and the reason is is when you're in a slightly upward angle, you're able to cast shadows down, which bring out the cheekbones and the jaw line, so I'm going to center, I'm going to take a couple shots and show you one where's lower and one, words hires you can kind of see how it defines the features. And then as you keep going higher. Okay, then maybe there's a point where it gets to hide. It depends on what you're comfortable with. So I'm supposed to have you do this, or should I do? Okay. Cool. Trying to get tangled on stuff. Um, I'm tethered and sinks cord, so I'm like I got I got this much. Okay, so if you want to raise it up a little bit for me, I gotta start right there. Uh, good. Come over this way. Just a little bit. Um, one of the questions I get a lot of times two is about the angle of the bt dish, like straight on or if you want it at an angle, there is definitely no right angle like answer for it. Ah, lot of times what I'll do is if it's closer to the subject, you can angle it down and that will additionally pull out cheek bones and jaw line. So let me take a shot here actually can't lower it just a tiny bit. When do one more where it can kind of see. For the sake of the tether, should I shoot horizontal? Doesn't matter. I don't know if it's on auto rotate. Okay, so I'm just going to shoot that so you guys can kind of see. Okay? Perfect. Just like that can take a look. They're great. Okay, so it should that pop up over there for me. Okay, maybe. Okay, so if you're looking at the light there, you see how underneath her chin it's a little more defined than you would have with the software? It would trail off a lot more softly. And so it starts to define the features, and I don't have a completely centered here. I mean, if you look at that, that is very commonly what you would see for beauty, like, um kind of a clean, cosmetic beauty, but many portrait photographers don't utilize it, have you raise it up a little bit for me? Good. Okay. And then I'm gonna have you take one half step closer, but they're good and sick. Look perfect. And do I have the ability to flip back and forth between these two? We're gonna ask them to put your chin down real quick. Good. Rethink that. Okay, okay, so if you look over here, if you look at at that shot you see how it starts to pull out her cheekbones a little bit more and it defines the jaw line a little bit more I'm gonna have you um let's see can we angle it down at her just a little bit and the taino perfect okay come a little bit closer good just like that good and I'm going to take one step back and have you lean forward and so what I'm able to do they're a little bit is depending on the angle is I might be able to elongate the neck and bring the eyes closer it kind of depends on the angle I'm shooting election shoulders a little bit good give his long and neck is possible so how the person lift their neck out but also pushed their shoulders down? One thing that I find is that people carry a lot of tension in their shoulders a lot so people pose naturally look stressed so have people pull their shoulders down I don't do the third eye rubbing like e I don't necessarily do that but um you know I will I will kind of see okay shrug your shoulders, shake it out I'll just have them kind of release that tension yeah I mean you're all about touch so you could do the back massage you know I mean having them hey if you have a big enough budget I mean I've had budgets where have misuses on on set um because well you know you want to relax them and that those air nice so that's a hint I know that you do this I know that it's it's happened okay so I have you do that for sec good and chin down a little but we put it back in that shed again perfect another thing here just talking about fashion photography real quick um as far as the fashion was hired for goes seen clavicles is really nice the whistling we're looking for a beauty photography that's another thing that happens you kind of well have them kind of just pop it out just a little bit that's that's more fashion than portrait because most people are like you know they look really awkward so that's what I'm thinking when I'm working with a model so good just like that perfect ok good so that's the light didn't fire shot and okay so see how as it comes up seeing and soc underneath their chins to find so carving out her features a little bit more the shadow under her nose gets more defined most people think of if you want more dramatic light you move the light to left or to the right that's you know if you want there to be more shadows you move the light over this way or moving off the centre axis but another way to get light more dramatic is to raise the light up and down. So if I see how that is much more dramatic than that first shot there isn't a right answer that's the key it's whatever you're going for this is a little more dramatic maybe if I you know skeet stick it on a black background and then have kind of a hair light from behind but if you back it up that original shot it was really, really clean um and that would maybe great for just beauty cause met if you like this shot here and you like that you do have the shadow under the nose and carving out the cheekbones a little bit and the jaw line uh what you think that looks a little too dark? Um robinson my lovely assistant um you can't and I think you need to stand on this side yes um you might have to crawl like literally over there. Ok, cool. So what you can do is you can add that phil card underneath so have you do that good a little closer um and in this instance I'm using white instead of silver because what happens is ah lot of times if you're this close to the beauty dish and you flip it to silver and you're catching the light, you'll actually start to get a really bright highlight right here then it falls darker in the middle and then it gets bright on top so it's like a highlight middle and then highlight again so I will often use white good just like that. Beautiful. So it's still this out of the shot when it comes up it's still defining her features but it's filled in so it's not as heavy under the neck. Um, it's really, really simple, but this is what people do. I mean, all the time this is what beauty shots are it's just these two, as you can see again, it still hazard features to find still has that kind of butterfly light under her nose still defining the shadow on the side of her face, but not so heavy do over the silver real quick so people can see the difference and perfect and so it's not going to be huge, huge difference in this one. Um, but you see how the neck got light? I don't like it as much personally because I feel like it's a highlight on neck, a little bit of shadow here, then highlight again up top, but I don't think I would look at that image that someone took and be like, oh my god, they're neck is over. Let, um, something like that. So first of all, you look really pretty thank you lovely, um okay, so a couple of things I'm gonna do talk about a few beauty poses and then we're gonna talk a little bit more about like what we're going to do is we're gonna have for each set up that I d'oh I'll have one attendee shoot, let them try let you guys try something a little different and I'll just critique may be what I would think maybe how I'd approach it differently ah lot of times and beauty, I do just keep it really simple. I don't try to add a lot of stuff because it's all about what that subject looks like the light on their face and so I usually just kind of keep posing often simple, so I'm going to turn you sideways that way a little bit good and I'm going to have you drop your arms, extend your neck way way out and into your head towards me a little and come back two steps so what I'm doing right here is okay if you can get your subject to extend their neck um, long necks are considered in beauty and fashion photography, very flattering the longer the necks of more slender, the individual looks and often more feminine so what? I had to do it if you stood kind of just where that she was centered in the beautician turned sideways when she extended her neck, she extended her face out of the light so I had her back up, so when she extended her neck, she was still in the light there. Um and so I have this picture is about a long neck and I know that doesn't sound like a concept, but that actually can be a concept. I mean, it's telling a story within your shot so good, just like that? Perfect, perfect, good, good and without front shoulder, pull it back just a little bit good. So what I did is if you watching this next shot let's think her neck literally longer looks a little hunched uh, so I would have had to do was pull her shoulder back good just like that. Uh, bring your filter for just a tiny bit good head towards me a little bit more perfect just like that. Good. And so this is just one other shot that you'll see again how a beauty dish works. So you look at the quality of light and how if you've taken a lot of shots with the soft box, you see the difference in the quality of light. There it is more it's, not harsh, but it is more to finance, we'll have you do one more, we're the phil card just underneath a chin you could catch a little closer right there, perfect, just perfect, just like that, great perfect okay so those are really basic how beauty dish works any questions on that before it kind of move on from beauty dish yes go ahead in the audience. Any ideas? Questions I e o I have a question that's robin be on the other side of her shoulder where it's going dark what would you do about that sea on the and her son her left hand side of the picture right lori hanson okay, so the question was um on the right hand side of the picture the shoulder goes dark uh my question is alright so if you don't want it there um what you could do is if you let's say that you have what let's let's talk about assistance real quick touch on the concept of assistance um when I issue I always have atleast one extra hand on set these are not professional assistance these are not people that are even necessarily paid I will have a mom or a sister or a boyfriend people don't mind holding reflector and helping I mean, people never mind I've never had anyone complain so I always ask and I need at least one extra hand on set um so always do that other thing is if you guys are professionals or aspiring professionals people love photography so if you reach out there on social media I guarantee you can find someone that wants to follow along and learn I mean, I always can it's not just me, I mean, forever there's always people that are like, you know, I've always wanted to see what goes into photography and you kind of trade off at the end of the shoot, you know, you can ask me questions about what I was doing and what lenses, a hat or something like that. Um, so your choices are you can have her either turn a little bit more towards camera, but something that I'll bring out later r v flats or big white reflectors so you could put a big white reflector so that its angle to catch light and kind of bounce it back onto that shoulder, you can do that. So that's, when you don't have, like, for assistance, you know, to do that, you can also have the stands with the grips, and I'm just kind of filling in the shadows where I don't want it doesn't bother me how my lights air angled right now, so it's a little darker at the top of her head because what I'm shooting at is those later kind of pointed midway at the back ground. If I want it white, I have to point my lights up a little, so you have to actually pay attention just because you like your background. Doesn't mean that it will be wait, wait, you have to actually pay attention to the angle of the lights. Yes um on this one you use the sure yes. So on nashat right on that shot right there with the feathers I used the lights that are on the background they're much more controlled much more harsh, but I actually used one that's longer and smaller. So this equivalent of kind of what's new is so that it's really focused but it wasn't actually knew it was one of those it was just smaller um, so it gives you more contrast the light and it gives you much more crisp shadows to see how that is more crisp than this. This is more chris than a soft locks you photoshopped the effect on the I o r ngo's came out like that thief ect on the ias fires the fact it's in shadow like the light of the modifier I could have I don't think I did. The question was about the catch light in the eye because it's really shadowed I easily could have but I think it actually was there I frequently we'll do that though sometimes I raise the light really, really, really high um and people have uneven eyes, so it'll be a catch it that's bigger and one iron than the other I will photo shop in that so they match because it kind of freaks me out because then it draws attention to the fact that the isar and even first is you might not have noticed before so yeah, sometimes they photoshopped ashley's yes? What? Um are the lights that go on the background and do you always use the same type of lights for your background lighter? Do you switch it up? All right, so, uh quick answer to what are my lights? I do use like whatever happened have at this time and you make it work in that instance those air just called silver reflectors silver reflector dish is they come in a variety of sizes that is roughly what I use I'll use to actually use the ones that actually come with heads they're smaller um and actually school they turn around the scar on his caps but it's just you might have to back up if you want there to be more coverage when it's smaller um yeah that's basically used silver reflectors other people will use bigger ones they're bigger coverage the wider that you have it's not focusing the light straightforward if you have kind of a wider silver reflector it'll hit more top and bottom but I usually like more control so you should go for sight this mine? Yes, lindsay there's a lot of people asking about using a beauty dish out side I have a question from addie in malaysia who'd like to know how does a twenty two inch beauty dish perform outside? Is it too small, too light up full body length and what do you recommend? Size for beauty dish outside? Sure. So beauty dishes that's kind of the common term there are also things called lola's, which are larger, which can give you a sweet spot and they'll have more throw I do use beauty dishes outside wait, let me kind of backtracking a little bit as a fashion photographer is important to have a style my style is I generally don't shoot flash and location has nothing to do with an ability to do it, but you're supposed to kind of pick what your look is s o my studio look is really clean and high contrast typically, um, whereas my location is often softer, kind of with lance file, so I just pick what might look is, but when I do shoot on location with studio, which I'll do, for example, when I have when I'm shooting an album cover and somebody wants that look, I have a rapper that comes to me that's the look they want they want it to be really produced um what you do to hit to cover the entire body is you have to back the light up so right now, the way the light is is kind of hitting thio here ish and so if I move it, take four steps back the further back that I go, it'll actually kind of hit her feet and her head um, see won't have as much a sweet spot on the face. How I like to describe it is if you have a bucket of water, okay, you have a book of water, but it's the same was like, so if you throw the bucket of water at her from here, it's going to hit kind of this much of her face, but if I back up and throw that same bottle a bucket of water from back here, it spreads and hits the entire body, so white acts the exact same way as that of that bucket of water, so that's, how I kind of think of it if I need to his spread more, I'll back the light up from the subject. Um the matter of whether it's strong enough on location doesn't have to do with the fact that's a beaut dish that has to do with the pack or the amount of wattage or power that you have um so for example, if you were trying to overpower this son you use, you don't want to go with something that's called a mon alight ah, mon a light means that the power and the entire head and all of the control is right in the head and there's not actually a pack packs are what they basically it holds more energy, it recycles and it fills the energy so it can pump more out there and more quickly. So if you're trying to overpower the sun, you're typically going to want some kind of power pack for that reason for this they have the mobile or the moby the brown color has a portable pack that will overpower the sun um and it gets I think about two hundred frames per battery and you can buy another battery as well, so I don't shoot on location of flash too often, but if I do, yes, I I usually wouldn't use the beauty dish actually on location cool. So a question from alexa poletti is how can you avoid shadowy eyes when lighting from above? Okay for shadowy eyes, if you have the beauty dish closer, you're going to have more shadowed eyes because the brow will get in the way and it's coming up from a higher angle so you might back the beauty dish up a little bit from the subject and then you just kind of lower it the other thing you can do is well, is I will shoot, so maybe the subject you know, if she's there and she's shadowy eyes I might stand up a little bit on a ladder and so what that person has to do then is they have to lift their chin up to look at me which catches the light from the beauty dish um so I'll do something like that if I want to catch in the eyes or you have a reflector um you khun bound to back in each one has a different effect by moving the like further closer it's going to increase contrast when the light's closer if you add a reflector than of course is going to affect the quality of the shadows and the rest of the face so all of these air just kind of different solutions on guy I go into a chute knowing what my goals are but I usually will just kind of feel it out and I okay put the light on all right need to add a reflector no too much look it overto white um you know, I can easily like I just kind of show up and make it work. Okay, we have another question from a cassis who'd like to know if you could talk about the differences in terms of lighting men and women um okay, so for women um generally I'm willing to go more centered on and frontal with a beauty dish it's it's more flat light these things are super super general because in for me and fashion photography it breaking the rules is the fun part um so for me for a guy I'm gonna have the beauty dish more off access and hire that cast more shadows and it carves out features more so it's going to be a little harsher ah lot of times for guys as well if I want to go more harsh to have them someplace here but there's something called a grid and a grid goes in the beauty dish here and it looks like the grid it's a honey comb on it has different dividers, different sectors and what that does increases the contrast of the light but also decreases the spill so that person who was asking before can you like the whole body let's say in this instance come a little bit closer a great there let's say that I definitely on ly want this late to kind of hit here and then I wanted to drastically fall off down the rest of the body you add a grid to the beauty dish and it's basically like if you added on that bucket of water kind of a little bit more of a funnel so if you have a funnel on that bucket of water it makes it so it can't spread out is more so it's funneling the light more directly so I use grids much more often on men I don't think I ever use grids on women unless it's something like I'm trying to just get the top of the shirt and I want everything else to go blow sure, thank you uh this is what a grid looks like and they have all different sizes so these grids I can put in any of the modifiers really soft boxes have grades as well they don't look like this often they're just kind of more cloth more like this this is for the kino flo is which will be using like I broke them apart so there's look anything like they usually work, but this is what a great is and so it focused your light and they actually come in different degrees of the holes our differences, the smaller the holes more focused that light will be so that's why shoot men differently? But I use beauty just thank you very much use beauty dishes on men all the time if I if it lights not contrast enough, I raise it up, move it over or I switched to a smaller like modifier a couple people asking about the grin, so yeah, I'm not really using any that might use one later if I feel like it, but I sell them I don't use grids of that much I also will tell you I photograph women a lot more often for fashion photograph men a lot more often for portrait's and kind of up and coming singers, performers, rappers and whatnot cool turtles that's relevant but so silent seven askin, can I ask you for advice on lighting women with pronounced jar lines and jaw muscles to help hide some of that? Okay, so if you want to decrease it um then what you're going to do is when you have that reflector, you're going to bring the reflector that much closer, so if you have a full length shot, you're not going to want to light from above because that's, what cast the shadow down you won't want to pull that light back a little bit further on a little lower and that decreases so basically think more central and less raised above kind of just kind of centered on the subject if you need to add a reflector underneath, maybe not a white, maybe you would want a silver in that case on but also a lot of it's posing as well, you know, you maybe don't want to pose with kind of chin up if you want to post this kind of chin down um try whatever is for this from the camera will be smallest, so you want to kind of pull the chin away without adding, you know, wrinkles under the neck somebody like that all right, so we take one more before we sure we want great okay? Fashion tv from singapore would like to ask people often get fascinated by glowy skin in fashion images do you choose the modifier to get that effect or do you do that post um okay, glory skin is a combination of both so late and glory scan is generally a centered beauty dish and then it's a bunch of reflectors um so I'm going to I condemn oh, a couple of, uh, modifications of that and then it's retouching as well so I'm going to borrow you can I have one more assistant for a seconds or you can say whatever okay um so one way to get glory skin is I'm actually gonna create a v with the silver reflectors around her so what we're gonna do is we're going to surround her and I'm gonna bring it right well, I'm going to go in, okay see that's all time right there, okay, perfect. So what I'm doing is I'm trapping this light so hits your face and then bounces around and kind of kicks back up and so it's glowy because the light is from all angles it's all from all directions so it's not realistic to what light would actually look like in reality, eh? So I'm going to shoot a shot of that um, I am not meeting at the moment right now and so kind of what in my head, I know that because I had this light from above when I add reflectors, I'm adding additional light, so I'm going to have more light, so we need to close down a little bit. So if I was half thirteen, maybe need to be f sixteen, something like that. Typically, when I'm shooting in the studio, I shoot a half eleven doesn't general it's a sharp image. Okay, so let's look right there. Perfect. Open up. Just a little bit more. Just like that. Uh, give me clavicle is just a little bit good. Okay? All right, perfect. So this next shot is a good example. God, you look beautiful. This shot, we check this out. This next one, it looks really cool. So that's glowing skin. Um, and what I do is you when you're exposing like it looks, it looks a little hot up on that screen. But when I'm exposing, I'm going right to the edge off when I start to lose my speculate highlights to being overexposed. So I'm eliminating most of my shadows so the lights coming from everywhere, and then I push it's not quite correctly was like her skin, isn't that light? But it looks like it's going so just before it goes over exposed on dh then of course I'm retouching it but like I mean, look at the shot just how much protection that you need, right? Um, so yes, thank you. Thanks for being beautiful. Um, any other questions related to that? Anybody of questions about the glowy light? Yes, not necessary about the glowy life, but I see that you have the three spectrum that highlights so is that something that's really important in x? I know that since I started shooting models that I'm really looking at for that and other pictures. So how important is that having the multiple catch lights or removing them just having no, just having, like, different catch lights? Like when I look at a photo, I say, oh, I wonder what life they use because I'm looking at the catch lights or, you know, I see someone that has the reflectors and I'm like how they is that okay? So I'll talk a little bit about catching a couple things first in portrait photography, people for some reason care about how many catch lets you have in fashion? We don't ah lot of times when you're looking at like cosmetic campaigns, what you'll see is to see the circle within the circle, and then you'll see a line beneath okay, that is because they either took a something that's called a strip light, which I'll show you later, and so they use a strip light to fill in the light from below. Um, sometimes you'll see a light below with two dots beneath, and they took to other lights and had it fill in this right here. If you zoom in c I I don't know if they have the ability to zoom in. I'm not sure, um, but you'll actually see the beauty dish, and then these two silver reflectors you can actually see. There you go. So important photography. I remember when I was first learning they're like, oh, no, you don't want most well, I doesn't matter to me no it's totally fine there's a photographer that recommend for really interesting portrait. So you check out called jo greenberg her web sites of the manipulator. She has, like, ten catch lights in the eyes. It's crazy because she has so many lights gets this kind of surreal, almost cartoonish looked to and it's also a bit of post processes. Well, um, so for me kind of just depends there's something called the eye lighter, which is probably what you've seen with those highlights, the islander is a large scoop of a reflector. That people do this beauty light they'll have a beauty dish or soft box above and then this large and literally will kind of hugged the face, which is similar to what we did here and it just fills in all of the shadows there's nothing wrong with that I just usually happen to have some silver reflectors around uh and so I use that in general excellent, yeah, I'm also regarding the dewy skin, so if you want it to look kind of misty, would you use this as well? Like have been put on like some liquid? So yeah, so as far as that question and if you guys could hear but talking about like if you want the kind of misty look to it it is it is cream sometimes it's it's like having a make up artist who knows what they're doing? The other thing that I'll do is I'll select the cheeks and kind of increase the contrast or pull pump up the highlights and the cheeks so what it does, it makes you look even more glowy, so it looks like maybe there was like something they're catching the light a little bit more um that's what you should do, but I usually use my makeup artists who had good has really great shoes just like this kind of thing from nars that will just given a machine they know they're some photographers that will put vassal leaning on the skin and then do a lot of retouching I don't I don't do that I'm not really sure how it works but I know there are beauty photographers that will do all the make up and then put gasoline on top I don't think that would you use this lining senate that we just did with that misty yeah we're definitely um and there's there's no right answer but like I just I look at the shot and I'm like oh that's kind of my light flow we look that I'm going for um and it works okay I'm gonna use this is a generalization cases it's being blunt about it it works generally better with more slender people because you are literally illuminating all of their body so you're going to be illuminating their neck and underneath the chin and their face so if somebody has a wider face it makes him look wider um so but if somebody has any more narrow face this works great because it opens up any shadows and it makes the face look wider so somebody has kind of a longer point your face I do like this because it makes it really light and airy um and then somebody was a perfect face looks great too so yes are you going to touch and more types of lighting for you know people that are not as slender than sure and so typically what what I would do and I'll talk a little bit later about short lighting um what I would do is have a little bit more shaped faces faras adding a little bit more shadow and having that shadow side towards the face um I will in general um something like that maybe flip over to a smaller soft box um it kind of depends on the subject and depends on my final goal, so if I still want kind of chris but I wanted to be a greedy shot and I'm not trying to make them look more slender than I just go with it, but I will be doing a little bit short light later um and so I just say this is beauty light um and it's technically a version of something called clamshell lighting because what you do is you have this light source above. And then I added two lights are to light sources below to bounce light back in and so it's kind of choose the pearl in the clam shell is where that name comes from which you quite are okay awesome. So I don't need to dio a quick late change do you know if the other model is available or if I should just do something different real quick I think I might if she's not available is fine okay, no problem all right, so the next thing that I wanted to do just real quick um I'm gonna have you hold something I might need those again in a second um I don't want to mess up your hair um but we got this you confined these that like vintage shops and you see that I'm sorry we can find these kind of vintage shops and whatnot it's a shawl it looks really cool but what I'll do is I'll find things like this or lace and fur beauty shots as faras fashion flare goes I don't know why I find everybody loves a piece of lace in front of her face women like everybody loves that I have a shot at myself and I like it um and so I will either take place or something like this so robin away everything on this side because you're tall and so all right ready to turn into mess up your hair majorly um I will do something okay god mr for here okay something like that and I will watch kind of where the eyes are I was going to shoot it like that this is a shirt. I mean, this is a sure I actually I had one of these a while ago this when we got from a vintage shop can you pull back without a script here just a little bit so I can see what the eye just a little bit I'll try that charlie great with their good perfect okay and I'm gonna drop this and so I was telling you I'm kind of just framing this one I I don't mind if that one gets hidden good and so it just it makes for cool abstract shots I'm going to switch what have you reflect underneath again I was gonna switch my camera setting to black and white for this example good perfect squint your eyes a little engine down good and your foot great perfect into your head that way just a little bit good perfect and good and I might raises up just a little cut it's obscuring your eye a little bit okay e really don't present the hair because she has to have this hair for later okay here we go good and I want this I covered let's try that way get perfect ok what'd you do that no message there oh well okay that's fine it was look straight at me good perfect. Okay, great. So she was a black one of mine so I play with props like that all the time okay, so the next thing that I need to switch to um is going to be too soft boxes for a different type of clam shell waiting so we're going to switch to that so I need the two frontal even so I'm gonna give you yeah one on each side like that so you can relax rest for a second to have any more questions we'll see which is that definitely okay, I'm ready. Well, john john is working on the lights there. Okay, so, um wait take enough ahead question question from your name is do you ever use a sock with beauty? Sure. Okay, so on the one end if you want the light to be more contrast in more dramatic you have something called a grid on the other end of that if you want the light to be softer, you would use a sock so it's literally white diffusion material that goes over the edge of the beauty dish and my answer is no, um if I'm traveling and also have the beauty dish and I need softer light that closer to a soft box I'll add a sock but most of time when I'm working I would just personally to see the soft box that's just me um I see people you socks all the time especially it's let's say you buy one light lot of fire you have a beauty dish. If you have the sock you could make it more like a soft box. If you have something like a grid, you could make a more contrast ng okay, uh, lindsay harmony piper studio from temecula, california would like you to talk a little bit about lighting darker skin tones use the same exact type me okay, so for darker skin tones for example most of might have been the wn ba clients are african american um and the biggest thing that I'm looking for is when the face falls to contrast the into shadow I find that an african american skin tones the shadows end up looking a little red um and they kind of block up quicker I'm looking over at you because you're like she looks just like you um so a lot of times it gets really dark and and actually be a little bit red, so I'm just more careful like if I'm photographing a caucasian and the shadow's kind of fall really dark, it doesn't matter as much um versus to me I want to make sure they don't fall too solid black with african reckon skin tone so I will add a little bit of reflector so there is some detail there or, um a couple other things is I use a beauty dish a lot I probably will use slightly broader light um just for how I shoot all these a little bit more of a broad light for a little bit more wrapping again so I don't lose those shadows but it's not something drastic drastic loves to ask about here, so could you talk about the good using sure um I'm shooting the cannon five team are too if kanan wants to give me a mark three just uh so used a five day march to and the lens that I'm using right now for beauty is a seventy two two hundred two point eight lens um that is in general what I use most for beauty shots um when I'm in the studio if somebody has a lets me get really close so I could focus close if I'm doing a macro beauty shot like really really close I wouldn't use just an eye or just the lips I would use this lens which is the one fifty macro lens so I can fill the frame filled the frame with the eye and have nothing else there so the one fifty's great whenever I'm shooting beauty campaigns or any lips eyes half of the face something really close my seventy eight two hundred is kind of portrait beauty if I need um if I if somebody has more pronounced a nose or forehead I'll use a longer lens because it compresses the features so somebody is complaining about their know there's somebody complain about their forehead or something like that I use it longer lands to kind of flattened out the features a bit um if I'm shooting constantly in the studio right now I'm using stroke clearly um which I'm going to be shooting constant light with the key knows later I will use my eighty five millimeter one point four lens because I can shoot at one point four or shoot it point a or two point oh and aiken make use of the fact that it's constantly have really narrowed up the field so those are kind of the lenses that I use for beauty photography um as far as what I have here for studio lights before I had the beauty dish um now I have to equal size soft boxes for this clam shell this is all brown color with the senso kits for this lighting set up do you mind if I please do teo? I just wanted to also let people know that the gear list of what you're using here is on the course page so people can go there to reference set and the second model is ready to okay great cool and I'll have you come over here if you don't mind jesse jesse oh no it's cool you're gonna stand over here for a minute and I'll call you when I need you um ok cool. So for this with us okay, so for this, um I have my two soft boxes for this lighting setup. Typically you think of beauty light if you're thinking of a clam shell as a light above and below but a kind of a twist on a more creative beauty lighting setup is having to equal size soft boxes on the side so instead of having clam shell this way it's clamshell this way on and it makes for really really cool catch lights in the eyes and it's really great for another kind of glowy beauty light if you're looking back at the beauty dish shots that I did there's still more to find shadows that this is going to flatten out the face much more but it looks nice for beauty light and people generally like this because the catch lights are just really cool and it makes eyes a big and soft and just opens them up the key for this beauty lighting setup is you want tohave to equal sized off boxes because you're going for a kind of symmetrical catch lights if they're uneven you'll have one really big catch light and one small and it kind of makes the face look uneven and you want to flatten out the light so have them even centered uh and I bring her closer good excellent um and right now they're about I don't know like two feet and a half apart what I usually do to make the effects stand out even more is I close that down to like nothing that's what I'll do and what kind of moving in so it's very small right there good excellent come a little closer turn sideways okay so just have returning sideways because right now because I have the opening so small I can't get her shoulders if she's turned straight towards me because I have a really small opening so return sideways one of you leaned towards me and put your face towards me good perfect um and let me just for demonstration sake can I switch my lens without screwing up the tether? Okay, okay. I'm switching to one fifty macro for demonstration purposes corto yes, you can take a look at how the macro differs it's a nice lens too because you can back up and shoot one fifty or you can get really close and shoot it like a mackerel in so six good looks ready? Okay. All right. Good. Yeah, me neither. It's cool it's cool. So it is going to test this right? I'm gonna have you get really close and put your chin up just a little bit more and had that we're just a tiny bit so I'm just kind of changing the angle of her job. We're totally guessing this okay good switch off black and waits so you see the catch lights in our eyes in a second um I know I shouldn't have you faced me straight on real quick and lean way way way for good perfectly shoot one more like that so again, really, really cool catch late in the eyes good and are both his equal power get one with a little darker see it's a little dark around the sun this side looks darker not sure it's. Let me switch this up. So you see what I'm saying? That side looks well. Darker. I don't know if it was any of my sink speed. So we try one more time. Good. Much better. Well, the state was missing. Speed was propped up a little bit. Um, so if you look at her face here, it just makes that same kind of glowy. But notice how those before you have, like, a little bit more to find cheekbones and a little more defined jawline and a little bit darker in the eyes and underneath the chin, all of that's. Because it was the beauty dish where you filled in the shadows versus this. It kind of flattens out the light completely in the front. What? Just to give you an idea of one. Fifty macro. Okay, we're way forward carried there. Good. Not a shot. As I would compose it. I just want to show you you get really, really, really close and fill the frame. I get much closer than that. But that's, what I would use for a beauty of photography picture of an I s o that is kind of frontal clamshell lighting, but to give you one other technique that I like to do, how many people have seen well, okay not to make you move but the shot that you're standing in front of sorry okay that shot okay that shot was shot with a beauty dish in the front two lights in the back and reflectors all around so I'm actually going to recreate that shot but without a beauty dish when I want to do is this is that same concept so I have a red wig um I bought online red lips and I'm basically just trying to illuminate the face a lot when I look at her here I bought this this week it's a it's a real hair wig that in harlem and it's it's really big photographs better than synthetic it's look shiny er so it looks more realistic when I'm looking her no I don't think you guys can see with the hair in the front maybe turn that way so they can see how it all kind of messy um I want when I look at this show I kind of wanted to be more clean so if you don't mind I'm gonna touch and I'm just going even these outside fix the hair so it's kind of symmetrical on either side perfect great great okay I'll step back and face them can see the difference so now it's like really really clean it's going to be graphic about framing her face um would you like to assist me for a second? Samantha yes okay um so I'm going to do a similar shot I'm gonna have you hold this on this side right underneath her chin so I'm again kind of just making really really glowing light perfect just like that great okay, so amusing I'm still on that one fifty again and what I do to get that effect is they pull out the reds and yellows in the skin and you have to mask it off the hair so I'll be demonstrating that on sunday okay? Perfect just like that but really close, huh? Perfect guessing exposure okay, um this is over exposed I will tell you I don't usually mind and fashion images because if I'm going for that really, really glowing look uh but if you'd like to maintain the detail and then just kind of retouch it out later instead or have that more control than you'd shut down so right there I was at eleven mice camera settings are one hundred in the studio you shoot one hundred if it's nikon it's two hundred listen, extend the esso um you should at one one twenty fifth of a second because that's thanks pete andi try to be around eleven in this case because it's so bright I had to bright lights in the front and fill in from the bottom then I'm going to need to shut down so we're going to try of sixteen head screwed on straight one more time and the same chin out a little and down um because well here I feel like I'm looking a little bit under good just like that chin down a little more perfect so this time when I tried to dio um is fill the frame with the shot and there's a little bit of white space in the top left that I photoshopped out so it's kind of just really all about the color it's all about the red I'm going have you lower this just a little and I was going to print these up just a little bit more and I can also do a looser shot like this were actually include some of that hair below um and so notice that doesn't quite it looks a little less contrast you then on my screen here I would pump the contrast but you get something like that and so I can pull the color out of the skin so it goes kind of more in that direction and so I've done this with clients. Some people look terrible in red wigs I really, really I almost die my hair red for creative life um like like that red and I put on wigs and like that is a terrible idea I was going for like a rianna red coats around looks so gorgeous and red hair um, I'm really pill didn't work, but anyway, sometimes people just look great in those red wigs. And so you put that and now it's kind of pop art slash pin up something like that. It might not work for anybody but it's a simple as a red wig and red lips, and then it's pop art pull out the color in the skin. So, again, it's it's, one of the things you can't tell if it works, maybe just try it, but the throwing a wig on and putting lipstick on so it's simple it's a simple photoshopped technique. Um, I am totally interested in taking questions, if that's how we want to fill the last time absolutely right, we have about five minutes. So any questions? Ramona? Yes, motor. It was kind of funny, I couldn't see because I was creating the be sure just set your give me what more clavicle and with her being a model, I couldn't see what she did like, could you demand that I would totally just look in the mirror, but usually this kind of pushed it down and forward and just pops it out and they know it to do like I said, usually me personally with my fashion flare, clients who aren't models I mean, what I'll just tell them to do is they pull your shoulders for just a little bit but then you have to make sure they don't do that so just okay just pulled feel little tension pulling your shoulders for it so I'll tell them to put down and ford um and I could get something that but I make sure that it's going to be a tight shot because otherwise it's kind of hands outside and that's not really flattering but usually what I'll do is honestly I'll stand I think there's something why do I consent in front the mirror and try to figure out what gets out look and then I could direct somebody what that feeling is, um I know that I've worked with some beginner models before that have hired me to shoot portfolio shots and what they would have me do is it have the tether um and we almost treated even less of a portfolio almost as a training session we'd have the tether behind me so I would tell them reducing its okay now watch okay, pull your shoulders down and ford and they would do that same scenes, the shot and, you know, take a look what it did to the clavicles oh, I see the difference another thing about having makeup artist way it's great if you do my makeup ours always puts a sheen that put a highlight on the top of the clavicle in a shadow underneath so it pops out it makes people look more slender makes you look skinnier joe's photography would like to know if you could talk a little bit about uh lighting a heavier set body structure okay, so both of these lighting techniques don't they can work it kind of depends but in general both of these kind of frontal even lighting techniques I don't think work as well for I have your subject so for me, if I were lighting a heavier subjects I would take it so it's not frontal and kind of just even in the front I'm gonna have to pull the lights off to the side a little bit so I'll show you maybe I'll do one quick shot of how I might light um have your model real quick which of course is not you yes like over here let's look, turn your head this way just like that and I'm gonna have you reflect from over here kind of just right there. So what I'm doing is I'm putting it so that her face and her body isn't straight forward towards me because straight forward towards the camera is the widest your faces the widest your body is and so if I could turn that subject away and then not have the entire face lit when you illuminate the entire face it draws attention to how wide your shoulders are how wide your neck is how wide your faces so I took the light around from behind and so what it's doing it's a highlight on the far side and the shadow closest to me by doing the shadow's shadow closest to it reduces the width of the face uh I also added a reflector just a little bit here because I like the skin color again I'm gonna pop that so I'm probably she was right here perfect just like I want to take one step back and have you step back just to the light wraps around a little bit more chris was coming up towards the edge of the light good chin down a little no yeah no idea let's do something around that troy that good so little hot stew this no you're fine truly final do this right there good perfect and reflect even closer let's get you in perfect try this mentioned and a little and pull your back shoulder she did what she did when she has turned you kind of turned towards me and she's making herself wider again so I keep on a puller way the key though to is if you're having a subject cab pretend that this is the camera if I am having a subject turn straight towards me okay look widest if I have them turned streets the side though it also emphasizes unwanted curves so it's a slight angle it's not straight on and it's not straight to the side um so it's something hiding between good just like that perfect relax that from shoulder right now she's kind of pulling it back a little they pull the shoulder for just a little bit keep going just a little bit more good just like that for offence but just a little good so you have that way tiny but good well, it is for exposure okay, so it changes the quality of the light completely so now it's going to be much more dramatic um but again see how skinny her face looks it's not that your face looks wide before but your skates face looks I mean literally it looks half assed wide it looks twice a slender by turning her there and I might change the hair because right now I feel like, you know, maybe that hair in the back it's kind of emphasizing the with so I might pull that hair in the bath left baby over to the other side again or pull it off the shoulder something like that. So I'm just picturing I'm saying ok, what would make her look more slender, the hairs making it look a little wide the angle of the faith angle of the shoulders I'm just I kind of figure out what I can keep reducing is it lowering the shoulder to give longer neck. Is it turning the head to make it look more slender? Is it moving the hair? So I'm just deconstructing as that and saying, what's, making this the entire picture look wider.