Lessons

Lesson Info

Lighting

I always use a meter, and people often ask me when I'm doing seminars. Why do I use a meter? You can just look at the back of the camera and look at the history Rams. Yes, you can look at the back of the camera for the hissed a grams that Gilles gives you a feeling for the exposure, but this is much better by looking at the back of the camera looking at the history grams. What I learned is that I have a good, decent exposure. That's not enough for me. I want to know where the light is falling, and that's why I use a meter. So as a photographer were always on the other side of the camera off the light and looking at it. But I always come and sit here, where my subject will be someone I know, where the lights falling and when I take a meter reading, I meet her all over. How do I use the meter? The meter has a dome, and the dome goes in and out, in and out. So this meter this dome in the meter gives you indication. If you're meeting with with dimension or flat. I'm shooting. Art is going ...

to be in because it's flat. No dimension for people. We have to mention. I'm using the dome out that simple. Now I have my lights set up, had the model here and back up in a minute and go through the lighting step as well. But I had my model here, and if I'm just on the other side of the light and shooting her, I have no idea where the lights falling. So I sit here first so I can visually see where the lights falling. When I am back here with my camera, I feel like it's right, but I can't tell until I come back and sit here. They can tell if it's off or not and tweak it or I have my assistant at this point. Make a small change, Seo. Move it up an inch, move it to the left an inch for the small tweak I wanted exact. So once I have exact, then I'm ready to take a meter reading. I set my eyes so and each camera has their their native is so If you were in the film days, well, I should say in the film day So we still shoot film that now that as well. But every digital camera has a native I s O for one camera. The native eso is 200 For one it's 1 60. I use the Sony and the native ice Oh is 200. I'll get the best fouls That s or 200 with film The lower the eyes so the better not in digital Some sitting my I s o s 0 200 Then I'm ready to take a meter reading Change my mode of flash mode And that's a lot of power I can tell it's a lot of power gets by the sound If you show your model like this with all the power you aware them out That flash is intense and hard on the model So think about how they feel If you're using a ring, light is intensified even mawr So what? I should it ring light? I will in a ring light is the light that goes around the Linz ring light I will shoot less frames with a ring light because it's intense. I also shoot slower rash you to ring light. I'm sure for a lot of power. I won't have this close. The light this close to the model because it's too much. That's a lot of power. So Dalit down on the pack were in the a side after I changed power after I changed power on a pack. The first pop dumps the power. The next one is the real reading. That's still a lot of power. I don't have to look here. I know it's a lot of power by the sound and the intensity of feeling. Take it down quite a bit. I'm gonna go from the A side to the B side. What I've just done. You could only do with pro fertile packs. See the difference? It's not. It's which, in this case, good. So now I have the light that I want and now with this little power, this close is F but I want not just one reading. When I have a brand new assistant, I tell em, Take a meter reading. They'll do this and tell me always really f 16. That's not enough. I want to know what lights of doing here was doing here. What's doing here was doing here because they can tell the range where it falls off. If I do want me to reading here and nothing else, I know where it is right here could be falling off here and being very bright here. I want to read all around the face so I know exactly what the lights falling and be within 1/10 or two. So when I give you the reading, they'll say 16. 11 11 8. I can tweak my life a little bit more to make it even more even, but this is not a bad place to be in so earlier, I said meters, don't think they only react. The meter is not thinking it's reacting to that light, so I'm sure your model who's my complexion or darker I'm not going to shoot the same way more. Shoot a girl who's blonde with blue eyes and beautiful hair. I will make sure I have an image that looks beautiful on both people. So it is reading 16 to 11 9. I'm going to shoot this. A third open from the meter tells me I'm shooting a girl who was very fair. I'm not sure exactly. On the meter or down from what the meter says, but not exactly what the meter says, because this is giving me 18% gray. A normal quote unquote normal reading. I interpret that reading and make it look the way I want to be that simple. Now let's talk about angle of light. Can I have a volunteer for a second? Come on and have a seat until everyone out there your name? Maryland. Maybe that is gonna be my student for the moment. And right now I'm just talking about the angle of light, the angle of the light hitting her. One of my favorite times a day is sunset. It's always been and I love it because it's the angle of the sun coming down and the color of the sun. I've always loved it. It's beautiful. So when I'm in studio, I'm trying to that same feeling during what I call the Golden Hour. Those last that last hour. Oh, heavens. What? Oh my God. OK, I go no faster. So I have is, um that last hour that our of sun that were sports sets it's so beautiful that changes from in Iceland. I have a lot longer in Iceland in August, and I love that about being different parts of the world where you're higher up. Knew that son hanging there longer. It's beautiful. I'm going back to Isis in Sweden for that reason. So we're back toe angle of light by doing my texting, I find out and may look straightforward force again, and I look at her face. I want you to notice the shadows as a change on her face. Notice the shadows as they change on her face. Put you in the hot seat a little higher about stay there for right now. So even going from here to their makes a big difference but takes, um, if you could see it. That small difference, and going up two inches three inches is a big difference in the picture. And take your time to learn how to see that with your eye with your naked eye takes a minute. So to learn how to see that light, she took a picture at this height with the light, then go up again where it was before, and should another picture and study those two images and look at the difference that it makes and two inches in two inches from here. Higher two inches. Stay at first, just those two inches. So the way I had my life set up now I'm using a C stand with an arm, a C stand with an arm, and I had the light directly over where the camera will be. I don't want the light back there, military officials said this way again, straight on, looking right at me because you see how the light falls off now. That's also give me texture, and it's very hard to see it. But if you had, is there anything with texture around here? I can see. Hold on. Maybe. Do you know who has a lot texture in it? Ah, that's kind of cool. So we have always texture here. Still still kind of flat. I want to see a little more. Uh, that's cool up Strap is good. Yeah, take it off for second guess. Perfect. So imagine this. The strap is skin. This is the texture of your skin. When the light is flat, it's very flattering. As you turn, you get more texture. So, knowing that the skin is texture, I just my light accordingly so for beauty work, I want the light to hit it flat so I don't get texture in the skin. I'm looking for a girl who has great skin, and I want to get revenge of that great skin by having my light in the right way to show it flat nights off, even by one inch, two inches off, you start getting that little amount of texture, and since all Shane Digital, you can go in on those images and see it. So do a test at home, take a shot with lights totally flat like I had it before. And then like this by two inches and look at in light room will capture one and go in 100%. And look at the skin. You'll see more texture this way, versus the first way where it's flat. So she my beauty. I like to have my life directly over so I can shoot and get clean skin with very little texture. You see what falls off two and choose. That's all it takes. That's it. So do your testing and these little small things you're doing today that we're doing now. You go over this more and more and more and at other things. You can go up 10 inches on this life and go down to the point where you're too low. Find that spot when you find your sweet spot and make that your home for shooting your beauty. Find the angle and the light that you like. I don't always use the beauty dish Sometimes I used to be dish like this. Sometimes I'll use a magnet reflector. You see that later on a sui go throughout shoots Sometimes I'll soften this light Now use a grid over this light Where's the grid? Do the great takes my life from being this direction to being constant here. So a lot of shots you see me do and show today were shot like this The light directly over I'm sure my model this close The shot of Aretha Franklin The cover Right now we shot just like this Three things here and I'm right back here with this close and she's singing and I'm hearing it and I'm feeling it and I'm singing along She tell me to stop I can't sing but we're this close a lot. My images are shot just like this in this world with one light and no background light. And tomorrow our beauty will be The situation will tweet the light to get perfect and we'll show examples of sharing it with the grid. And we'll see what that does to the subject. And with this in the background, we also play around with having eight sock. This is called a sock that goes over our dish to soften it. They will shoot it with the grid and the sock ready light tests. We shoot our tests first with just the bare head there with the grid. If the grid and the sock name was just a sock, we spend all day testing lights. But once you do this, you learn how to do it forever. And it helps you immensely. New photography because you learn a lot of things. By this you learn how to see light. And that's probably the hardest thing to do it first, learning how to see light in those small nuances that happen, as you think turn things around