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Day For Night Engagement Shot

Lesson 45 from: Incredible Engagement Photography

Pye Jirsa

Day For Night Engagement Shot

Lesson 45 from: Incredible Engagement Photography

Pye Jirsa

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Lesson Info

45. Day For Night Engagement Shot

Summary (Generated from Transcript)

The topic of the lesson is how to create a day for night engagement shot using a lighting set-up and specific camera settings.

Q&A:

  1. How can you create a day for night shot?

    By using a lighting set-up and specific camera settings, such as a gel on the flash, setting the white balance to 4,000 kelvin, shooting at a low ISO, and adjusting the flash power.

  2. What is the key to a good silhouetted shot?

    Ensuring that the figures are visible and not closed up against each other, allowing space between the subjects and using an open pose.

  3. How can you adjust the flash to get the desired effect?

    By angling the flash and zooming in or out to control the size of the beam of light on the wall.

  4. What was the reaction of the models to the day for night shot?

    They were blown away and even expressed interest in having the photographer shoot their wedding.

  5. Did the photographer have any prior experience with this lighting set-up?

    Yes, the photographer had done this before and knew how to make adjustments to get the desired effect.

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Class Introduction

12:56
2

Posing Guidance for Him

08:14
3

Posing Guidance for Her

09:02
4

Foundational Posing

05:11
5

Posing Touch Points

05:55
6

Couples Body Language

09:52
7

Posing Three Point Check

05:22
8

Posing Tips with Demo

08:05

Lesson Info

Day For Night Engagement Shot

I wanna show you guys one of the really cool lighting set-up. We have some awesome natural light stuff, and some other stuff that we've done. And if we finish this, we'll jump back to it. But this is a really cool piece that I wanted everybody to see. So let's jump to this day for night segment. Or day for night piece. Again, in the, let's go there. In the full class, whoever's buying the class, you have access to all the other pieces of the shoot. You can watch everything in full with all of the images and everything created there. This is getting the time where I want to challenge you all to see things different. See things the way that your camera is seeing it. And here we have a really cool background. But, to be honest, this could be any background. What I want to do is create a very cool wide shot with a lot of negative space, something that will be fantastic to be blown up placed on a wall. So, just start imagining things like what if we were to really, really just crush the amb...

ient light and pull it all down so it's very dark. And what if we added a spotlight to one place of the frame. And what if we did certain things to make things look a certain way in camera. As you can start training your eye to see that way. And really, honestly, the only way to get there is through practice. But once you start doing that, as you look at a scene, you can start seeing what it's gonna look like as a visualization tool through your eyes, as to what the camera's gonna see. Versus just what we're seeing currently. 'Cause what we're seeing currently is cool, but it's something that probably everybody would shoot. And we want to do is create images that not everybody would think of. A lot of people think this is something that makes you, I don't know, seem like, oh my gosh, how did you see that? But the thing is, is that it's just practice. I know that I've done this before. Placing a light against the wall, so what we've done, actually, is we place that light behind them, and it's facing the wall this go around. So what I'm aiming for is to create a silhouetted shot of the couple. So we're gonna have them in a position where we can see their figures. You know, one of the biggest mistakes people make with silhouetted shots is that you can't see their figure. They're closed up against each other. You can't see their form. And in a silhouette, that doesn't look good. You can't tell where one person begins and where one person ends. So we're gonna place them in an open pose with the hands being held in the center. Again, seems like this is great. That we've gone through foundation posing and everything because we're gonna direct them from across the street. We're gonna have them look to each other to have a great profile. I've done certain things in camera, like for example, I put a gel on that flash. We set the white balance to 4,000 kelvin. We're basically shooting day for night right now. So we're making day time look as if it is nighttime. And all this takes is just a little bit of flash power to do Okay, so, running 4,000 kelvin with a CTO on that guy. We're at about a quarter stop. We're at about one quarter power on the flash. We might dial a little bit down and we'll make some adjustments as we go. One 200 second F4 and low ISO. So let's pop a shot. Ryan, step one step this way. Right there. Perfect. I want you to cover that stand as best as possible. There you go. Now, Ky you're gonna take a step that way. Perfect. Just like that. I want you guys to look in toward each other so I get a profile. This is gonna be a silhouetted shot, okay. That's fantastic. Hold hands right there in the center. I'm gonna get low guys and we're gonna crop right at the legs. Hold that right there. (audience laughing) Beautiful. Go for a kiss right across the center guys. Perfect. K, now I wanna make one tiny adjustment. Can you raise the flash a little bit? Like maybe six inches. Sorry. Do you guys see how this is not quite centered? The light isn't quite center behind them. That kinda stuff bugs the heck out of me. So I just make adjustments to it to get it just right on. So that's all we do. I have Neil making a tiny adjustment to where that flash is pointing on the wall. And then I actually can see it just barely with my test button. So I'm pressing the test button. I can see where it's going. One tiny adjustment, can you raise the flash a little bit? Like, maybe Let's pause, so he makes that adjustment. And then with that adjustment now, we get it centered. Point it a little bit more to this side. K. Once it's all set up. And by the way, the reason that I'm not moving my couple in the scene is because I'm using the couple to block out the flash, right. So, that's a case where, like, we just need to keep angling the flash until we can get the right tweak. Otherwise, if we move them, we're actually gonna see the flash. K, I think we. I don't know if we showed the foreground piece. Oh, you know we'll have to show it in post. Okay. So with that adjustment made. Love that. Perfect. Now we have this perfectly centered light right behind their heads. We do things, like again, we talked about, like, I even mentioned the video, one of the biggest mistakes we made with these silhouettes is the not having a clean profile. So an open shot looks fantastic. If you're gonna have 'em close, make sure that if they're close against each other, you still have, like drops in the toes, you have things to kind of leave space between them. You might want them to pull in from the hip, but then to open at the chest a little bit, and look at each other, so that way you have a bit of space. You can tell where one person begins and where one person ends. We don't want to go into a tight hug. And you just have a blob right there. Did you say what the flash zoomed? That one, I think it was zoomed around 50 millimeters. Something like that. I basically was just testing the pattern on the wall. Like I was looking at the pattern on the wall and it's like if you have too tight of a beam, it's at maybe 100 millimeter zoom. You just go to 70 and it will open up. And then you go to like, you know, 50 and it opens up. And you just choose how big you want the beam on the wall basically. Cool. Cool. Yeah, they were blown away when they saw that shot. And this is the cool thing, is that all the models for these shoots that we did. They actually came to us afterwards, and was like, would you actually like to shoot my wedding? And so they actually want us to go back and shoot. I was like, that's cool Wow. How awesome is that? And that guy was actually a film director. So it was kind of nice. Wow. I was like that's nifty. He's got his first film coming out.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Pre-Shoot Videos
Keynote 1
Keynote 2
Presets Installation Guide
Gear Guide
Favorite Software
Lightroom Presets

Ratings and Reviews

CPR Photography
 

I think Pye Jirsa is one of the best, if not the best, instructor for photography on Creative Live. He is very personable, smart and approachable. He has a perfect blend of personality (comments, laughs, tangents..) to the amount of instruction. He asks the questions for you, because he knows you are thinking those questions right then. He's very good about identifying settings, gear, etc.. and not leaving us in the dark about how he "got the shot". He goes into great detail. His instructions flow, but are linear, which is helpful. He's very organized, and you can tell that he really put a lot of work into his presentations (slides, video, test shoots, live teaching, graphics, etc..) I have been listening to him for like 10 hours straight, and still haven't gotten tired of him. He keeps things moving, He's very funny too. Nice job, I've learned so much. :)

a Creativelive Student
 

This course was AMAZING. I'd say int he past year or two I've fallen into a slump. Uninspired by my surroundings and uninspired by my clients. As a result, it showed through my work. My posing suffered as well and more than a handful of times some of my shoots became more than awkward. Then I bought this course and watched most of it in the course of a day. I walked away inspired, blown away, and renewed. The next day I walked into an engagement session confident. I gave my couples a quick overview on posing and then we just had fun in front of the camera. Immediately afterwards they texted me about how amazing their shoot was and how relaxed I made them feel about posing. The photos turned out fantastic to say the least. I've since shot several more engagement sessions and each one of them has been amazing. If anything, this course should inspire photographers to think outside the box and provide you with the necessary skills to take incredible engagement photos. Thank you Pye and Creative Live! I cannot speak more highly of this course. I should also state I purchased Pye's Natural Light course on SLR Lounge: this course is a wonderful addition to that. If you already own the natural light course and are hesitant about purchasing this one, don't. Buy it and reap the benefits!

Laura K.
 

Hands down one of the very best, most informative classes I have watched on CreativeLive to date (and I've watched a lot of fantastic classes here!!! so many great ones to learn from!!). Pye's instruction on the six basic poses alone was worth the price of admission - but there is so much more than that included with this course. A lot of what I learned can be applied to wedding photography as well. Purchased the course and have found it to be worth every penny. Will be rewatching it again next week to help me internalize all the information. Pye's a great photographer, teacher, and mentor. Thanks for the awesome course!!!

Student Work

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