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Shoot: Create a Pure Black Background

Lesson 11 from: Introduction to Flash for Children and Family Images

Mike Hagen

Shoot: Create a Pure Black Background

Lesson 11 from: Introduction to Flash for Children and Family Images

Mike Hagen

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Lesson Info

11. Shoot: Create a Pure Black Background

Lesson Info

Shoot: Create a Pure Black Background

Well I wanna keep the learning going, and so what I wanna do is, is I wanna show you all here in the audience and those at home, I wanna show you how to create a pure black background, okay. And so to do that, we are going to move you farther away from the backdrop. You can stay there or you can walk, what would you like to do? I want to walk. You wanna walk, okay. So you're gonna walk up to, somewhere in this area. And then for this, do you wanna stand-- Julie? Yeah. We'll have you stand for this image. Okay, and actually, I'm gonna have you stand right here. Can you stand right there? Cool. Do your jeans have pockets? No. No pockets, okay. What I was thinkin' was maybe you could do like a country girl, with your hand in your pocket. 'Cause you got those boots, and those boots are pretty cool. So for this, I'm going to go to the softbox again. Oops (laughs). Everything's falling down. That's hilarious. And so here I'll go with the softbox, and since she's standing, I'm gon...

na go vertical on the softbox, and we're going with black on the background, and so to me what that means is a little bit more dramatic look overall. Yeah, you look good. Let me see that hair. Alright, I like it. I like the hair. We're gonna take a picture with you kind of doing that with your hair. Is that cool? Alright, so have you play with your hair. Move this way, actually put your foot right next to my hand, right there, right like that yeah. Cool, I like it. And I gotta do a quick little meter reading here. Alright, make sure that our brightness is still kind of close. Do you wanna push the button for me? Yeah. Okay, so we're gonna hold this right by your chin, and you're gonna push that button, right there. Can you push it? Oh good, I think what happened is actually, you hit a different function there. Well sometimes all good intentions, it's all good intentions until a button gets pushed that doesn't need to be pushed. Okay, at five-sixths and four-tenths, and given what I've learned so far today, with this setting, I'm gonna add another stop, so we'll go about maybe F8-ish, F9-ish. Okay we're still at a 250th of a second. I'm still at ISO 200, and we're gonna take a test shot, and we're gonna see what that looks likes on the computer. Look right here at the camera. (camera click) Do you know how to do serious look? (beeping) Like one where you're not smiling. Have you ever done that before? 'Cause I know you like to smile a lot. Yeah. Maybe we do a serious look and see what that looks like. Okay, so that's pretty strong cross-lighting, right? And for this photo is a little bit too much. I think it's too much for a cross-light for this young beautiful thing, so I'm gonna move you back a little bit there, and I'll pull this forward a little bit more on axis. Okay here we go again. Nice, look right here at the camera. (camera click) How about your eyes looking right at me? Oh, fabulous. Nice. Let's see what that looks like on the computer up there. Hmm hmm, the main point I wanna make here is all about making that background black. That's kind of the big teaching moment and that background now has really become nice and black, and that we did that by moving here farther away, and then kind of feathering this light, so that it doesn't shine all onto the background. So it's kind of on her, not straight on, but off at a little bit of an angle. Super! Did you see your photo? You wanna look at it real quick. Nice!

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Children & Family Images Lighting Diagrams
Gear List for $100 Budget
Gear List for $250 Budget
Gear List for $1000 Budget

Ratings and Reviews

user-182390
 

Great course really love the way Mike teaches so informative with very useful tips and tricks to use in photography

Dortohy Lyner
 

Loved this class. Great basic essential information. Mike filled in many gaps concerning my knowledge of studio photography.

Martin
 

Love the natural way Mike has to explain and to work on the studio. Plenty of tips and clear knowledge transfer for me that I manage quite well natural light but that I still mess with the on-camera flash.

Student Work

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