Lessons

Lesson Info

Students Shoot: Vase of Flowers

I'm gonna get the camera set up and we will get going we're going to use the same camera because thie tripod that I have here can't accept a normal plate and so we'll use this one also this one is tethered nicely I have done one thing and that is I've added a cable release up until now we've been using just the button up here and that gives us a ten second self timer which is nice to be able to walk into the scene but it also makes you sit there and wait for it to go and all that so we'll end up using that and what I'm going to do is just test the exposure and see if we can get along with slightly different camera settings where we don't need quite a cz as uh extreme of settings so you're saying a few minutes teo test here my self timer still turned on so this particular time will wait ten seconds but in a moment I will turn that off so we can use the cable release and you guess over there think about who wants to like paint argue fight go home darn it that's me pull straws to somethin...

g so I know it's not very exciting to wait but all I'm doing is doing a thirty second exposure and I'm going to see how dark this looks with the studies have attempted now when I see this the backgrounds nice and black and if we can bring up the tether or do I have to change my have to change what? Excuse me for a moment, I don't know, we got it. Good. All right, so this is I I'm still on s o of fifty. I went to f eleven just to see what we got. And so this might be your first result if you end up in a place that has some light it's not pitch black. I mean, it's, nice having a little bit of light so you can move around in that not knock things over and not bump into your tripod. And so but this isn't great because there we can't have any dark areas, so I'm gonna change from eleven. I'm getting rid of my ten seconds self timer, so we don't have to always wait ten seconds, let's. See what we get on the next shot here. After I just the aperture setting, I'll let you know what aperture I end up with in a minute. The most common mistake that I find when it comes to people that are new delight painting is when you change your composition, like we just changed our subject matter, we moved our camera and all that is to not think about focus. And so you can go in here and you can end up creating your next series of images and on the little screen in the back your camera you can't tell what's focused so you end up you know take it all these shots sometimes the lighting's amazing and then you open them on your computer and they're all blurry because what happens is even if you manually focus the camera or you auto focused it and it was in focus if the lenses switched over to auto focus the moment you hit your shutter it's going to try to focus and if it can't it will search for focus and it khun rat be radically different than where it was the last time you focused and so right now I'm not worried about it I'm just trying to get this nice and dark here is an f sixteen and does it come up there yet or is that the old one that's anyone okay? So it's still pretty right so in general I think I'm gonna have to be in here at f twenty two we'll double check that so I'm still at elf at s o fifty which on my cannon is the letter l for low I'm at f twenty two and we're doing a thirty second exposure now if at this point it would be still too bright then I would have to start doing shorter exposures I don't get all thirty seconds khun do twenty seconds do whatever and tell what I do this test the end result starts looking close to black ideally fully black there we go now I can see on my camera screen I can tell that there's something there I can't tell what it is and I can't help the position on this screen I can see it a lot better but we're gonna have to deal with that because the amount of light we have in here um I mean if you want since it's a simple subject I can bring down my exposure a little bit so that instead of doing thirty seconds no pressure I'll give you twenty and that should be pretty good but twenty seconds and bad look at how simple our subject is it's not like you have four objects that are detailed you have one object that doesn't have that much in it the camera should be good now after I got the exposure so that it's going to be nice and dark then the next thing I'm thinking about is focus because if I screw that up it's not worth having in the picture so that the image framed up and I'm going to find a flashlight there's one right over here take me a second and what the flash like this manually focus and I'll make sure my lens is set too manual focus and it is all right s o who wants light paint yeah come on in I don't know how you got your email or twitter or whatever it is it's like that one should have been taken already like get it when you were three zits that's yeah three that's why I think that's great okay so I set up the camera for you so you don't have to think about that part for now yeah that we concentrate on this because your first time you know it's so I have a question what do you have like a specific focus point or is it more of a border a star is on the camera's well for me personally most of the subject matters I'm shooting are outdoors in there okay sized it's a car it's a human you know something like that in so with the lens that is relatively wide angle is your depth of field is relatively deep and so you have to think about it quite a cz much if it's a tabletop oh and it's small objects and I have the camera close then I really got to think about it about exactly where I'm focusing on what the depth is but for my normal set up it's usually a wider angle lens bigger subjects in then general focus point so I'm here I focused on the front of this on dh with the distance away we are right now it shouldn't be much of an issue but otherwise there's a button on your camera that is usually beside the lens minds right here doesn't feel preview and I could like the back edge of it and bump the double field previa button to see if the backs and focus and the front and see if my aperture is great enough to be able to do that here is your flashlight thiss my favorite wants to be careful with s o in the back there's little button just the middle part if you just briefly press it and then if you press it hard be careful though if it's on you press it halfway watch what happens he goes to a low power I'm not sure what feels like it's probably this on the front was no this is just a snow made with gaffer's tape if you want to try the aluminium here's some of it be careful with this those obscene if oil is somewhat sharp on the edge just touch it so you know what it's like and so just be a little bit careful when you use it if you just want your hand against it you could cut yourself a little bit but if you want to use this at all just take it and wrap it around and you could just tear some off of you I have except you reckon I should because you know well what I do is just try without first because most people when they're doing like painting they don't know what's in a foil is yet and so for your first time why don't you do it without okay and then after you try few and you've got it too look okay with just the flashlight then think about progressing sure yeah so we're right down here ok eso I'll be your trigger just so you don't have to think about it much and you're going to have twenty seconds toe like paint and so what you khun d'oh typically what I do is when I have somebody at the camera which I often do usually my fiance karen I just yell open when I want to open the shutter and right now you're doing twenty seconds if I was in bulb mode where I could hold this down to do longer I would just all open and the clothes on and they would just be hitting the button okay? So anyway that's what we can do so if you just want to say open when you want the open and I'll press the button you'll hit twenty seconds and then we can come back and review it s o just see what comes out here ok? I have an idea in my head let's see if we actually materialized yeah that's good let's just get in the backdrop secured here thank you in the main thing if your new delight pain didn't haven't mentioned yet is when you're lighting uses for section one of the main things to keep in mind is if you're lighting a particular area, you want to make sure your body doesn't block the camera's view of this part you could be in the scene, but you can't be like paint like this because it's not going to get it right? Well, I'm not kidding sometimes you get into it and you're going like this, you're gonna get that part so you could be in the scene you just can't block the camera's view of where the lights hit, right? If I'm letting over here be right in front of the camera yeah, that makes sense s so that's one thing that alright show all right. Okay. Uh, well, it's good for all right? And then if you happen to finishes, turn the flashlight off don't worry about it otherwise just keep going usually if you're in bold mode, you just yell closed clay's nobody it's, you got twenty seconds, so okay, here's, your first light that's not it hold on, don't come up with a great go, okay? And now the first time usually what you're doing is mainly a test. You mean your first three shots are going to be absolute throwaways because what you're trying to do is figure out how much time do after you think the light and how close so in this case here's what it looked like on the back of the camera you see, it looks a little different but it was different things yeah, but the main thing that I notice it least is the vase itself is a little bright it's bright and so you just learned that you know, you try to think about how much time did I put light onto that and you know, try to do it less and just get an overall feeling for you need to go more more time in certain areas or left so I can get another alright yeah okay, cool. Yeah, thank you. So I'm just gonna just tell me why I'm sorry what did you just make fun of me? I correct now if we're involved mode, you wouldn't close close but now you're gonna sit and wait but it's good that we have to wait instead of the opposite the officers when it cuts you off in the middle of what you're doing so let's take a look. Yeah, all right. Flowers looking pretty nice. Yeah, they're getting their eh? Yeah, yeah, the vas nous completely what I mean, you kind of overcompensating for thinking table looks kinda interesting with the little wave yeah, I wanted to do like squeak lease all over it sure so you just learned from that and do another one yeah we'll do it till you get one that you're satisfied with all right oh sure um open all right all right I think I got the house again too much things didn't get too much sun huh is that it yeah that's it that's looking better already a sleep yeah one thing I was concerned about but didn't end up being a problem is it is no the kinds of flashlight for a moment when you were lighting to feel these things at some point you came back here we're getting some things and just gotta be careful that this is out enough you were out but had you been framed bigger like where there's other objects the camera could have seen the edge of this so if you end up coming back like this just picture up far enough for you to be outside of the camera's view I'm glad you mentioned that doesn't even think of it yeah or next time try to try to mess it up I mean do it get in here and try this and you'll see what comes out give a try should give us a minute we'll do one more and then uh we'll do it your question a little bit from the background like something it's not make it stand out from the background well, if we had a background we could like back on this a little bit or in this particular case if you look at the what you call in the stems or the whatever you could either shoot a light in there where you could backlight or sidelight to stand so they might have a little highlight either on the edge of them or on both so that's one thing you could do that okay please school will see it first here and then I don't take a moment to remember there was long it was a tape stock look brighter over there see the stem she got a little bit more there would be a little more separation a little dark in the upper right but what do you think it's looking a lot better except that now I focus I wanted I want to get the some of the flowers to pop all of them okay but I notice that I really like the idea of pointing the light towards on the side of stems to make them like shine so I think it's too much on that so if you want some of the farce pop up more than others what you might do is turn the flashlight on and just paint over all the flashlights a supposed to pop in light and each one individually just paint over him all very quickly then come in and just pop light in the ones you want to stand out alright on you could do that uh yeah you want one more, then we'll have someone come in and try. Thanks. Sure. Thanks. So the butts in the back if you press it partially, it'll do it. But then push hard. You hear the click? Yeah, um, and, um, if you open, I'll hit the button in the first one is completely an experiment imagine it. You're not trying to make anything good whatsoever. What you're trying to figure out is how bright is that with these exposure settings? So you're just going to go in and try to light some little areas in the first one to throw away. So, uh just say open when you want me to start open, everyone has a completely different style when it comes to light painting, I see a completely different style, which is great and now we gotta wait for too close, you'll see it show up here first, and then it'll slowly making over there this wonder about the continuous light like if what that happens, then I don't know say hello there in a sec wait so it's a little hot keeping the yellow yes, there's little hot on that, possibly a little house on the side of the face, but not bad, especially the first time in the first time I'm literally not trying to make a good picture at all I'm just seeing how bright is that flashlight so I mean that's all that's telling me right there how bright is that flashlight in your light painting style meaning how far away you like to paint from and the notice that she's painting from further away what that means is her light will be softer it's not you're not gonna look as much like the reflection of water on things and that's great and you see her stem she's getting a little bit in there the other thing you khun dio is I think I noticed this with both is the tendency of staying at one side I know you can walk right through the scene okay? And so the only thing is if you walk to the other side either go around the camera this way or turn the flashlight off but so you could light over here and then just turn the flashlight off and then you can come over here and that's one thing it's really hard to get a sense for I can walk in into the frame what but if you're cameras is very mean if your flashlights on you'll see a little white streak of light we walked by okay so just uh say open when we weigh uh open way just when you like the vase I might light as much on one side just so it's not evenly lit ok ok and so I didn't stop it winning closed what happens? All that means is it's equipment to it turned off the flashlight for you by shouting closing the shutter so if you look at it you see how the right side is no longer at the top for the flowers are no longer really dark and so that's nice that you who run around to the other side's uh, looks a little bit like a product spotlight shot that's alright, all depends what you're looking for now the one thing I noticed is when you were painting, if kinds of flashlight is when you're over on this side, I think you were doing something similar to this. And if you watch the vase when I do this and then you walked over here, walked over here I walked over here that long shadow of a well known fact that the vase is getting light most of the time, what I might do is from somewhere over here like the face a little bit and then main room teo higher, you know, so that the vase could be darker if you want it today it's up to you. But you know, you're covering a broad area the whole time, and when you do, the vase is getting, like, the whole time, okay, so you might consider that, uh, and trying to think of what else other thing is, if you just want to have a different look on it, you can walk to where you can't see a good portion of the image, you know, lighted a bit, and then when you come to this side lighted a lot less, but still it on that way, you'll get a split where it's, they feel different because you were talking about looking like they're like they're all the same, but he won't try different stuff, okay, but I like that rich us from the beginning have completely different styles came in real close, he came in. Yeah, so maybe a dramatic I'm attempting a more dramatic, so go for it. Okay, ready open and that's actually could be pretty cool if you, uh, do you like your doing from two different sides and see how you didn't like the middle and that would be really dramatic, so let's, take a look at that. So the one thing I might do here is do what you did to the vase, because that makes the vase look really interesting looking, I think. And then when you're done, just popped the tiniest bit of light into that front see that so you just look at this and you say, what I'm saying is just what comes to my head? You're making the picture, though, so do what you want. You know, just say no let's, not be, but that's just what comes to my mind. But now I think the vase looks much more interesting. That makes us do you want somebody else to do one more? Okay, get one worried want to try the same general idea where you're lighting mainly from behind on the two sides and then just come over to the front and pop a little bit on ly in the flowers, see what happens. Okay, ready? Open up. I think that's really nice that length of time didn't seem to be bad as faras. A lot of time you had to work, right? Right. So that was twenty seconds. Yeah, so everybody put it a little lower. Yeah, but in light room you could bring down. You know, with the adjustment rush, you could just go in there and dark and some little things main thing is, it's looks like at one point of light in the background that might have been when you were hitting the flower. But since we had black velvet, they're usually wouldn't get much there. But we ended up moving our our table closer to it, and what happens is the closer you have the table to the background the less of a fall off they'll be with light and if that table was back where I had it when I did mine, you wouldn't have had the problem in the back, so don't worry about that we'll fix it anyway so what was your overall feeling other than you know that a lot of people are watching so it feels different whereas usually be at home by yourself doing things but overall, what was your sense for how it, uh it's it's fun to get to be the light stand? You know, I've worked with a lot of, uh, flashes and things like that spot speed, lights and things, but being able to be the person actually directed the light is really cool. Well, I think it's pretty cool that if you look at all the shots we just did how different they look in that it's the same the camera hasn't changed at all. The subject hasn't changed at all in your light source is this could be a light source from hardwar sort of seven dollars yeah, you happen to be working with an expensive one way looked at how much this cost we know I did actually is that the expensive one? This yeah, this is the I'm seven r that's a little bit less than ninety dollars on amazon yeah, this is an expensive flashlight but this allows us to like paint in this kind of light. And right now, this is pretty light. You could mean, what could you do in here? You could not know that you want to read a book, but you could do a lot of things in this much life.