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Equipment Q&A

what kind of bronze air filter did you use it's a video film videographers filter and it's called neutral bronze that's what I was told by the guy who actually uh billy kid was assisting me and I think he called it a neutral bronze and if billy is out there billy if you're watching on you can remember the exact name so I'm not absolutely wrong tweeted out there and I want one of you guys will look for it from billy kid he uh he's the one that did it questions I have a question about your workflow just so that I can wrap your head around what I'm seeing here how often are you going out with an assistant and setting these up and how often are you just going out with the models for some of these shoots asked me what I prefer what do you prefer myself I prefer to shoot by myself um but the mohr lighting I have to take the more I have tohave an assistant I'm gonna have an assistant I want to have somebody who is totally focused on helping me so I'll use friends and there's a couple of great...

assistance and and uh phoenix and now that our great to work with so if it's a commercial job I should take take go back walking back was if it's commercial job every job has a system every job even if it's a small half day thing every job is an assistant uh couple of reasons I'm the photographer right I'm not carrying here because I'm a prima donna no some of photographer okay I'm the photographer I'm the guy in that's making aa lot of money I'm not the guy schlepping guy schlepping will come and schlep for me now he's they're all good friends way worked really great I pay my assistants well to do it but that's part of the stick I'm not going to go and do a photo shoot charge client a lot of money sometimes I charge clients more than ten or fifteen bucks an hour talking real money I'm not going to do that and carry gear when I did weddings that was before the brain surgery thank god I had that uh when I did wet is um I never did the parties I didn't want to be the party pics guy so I hired a second shooter who would come in I would shoot the bride and groom coming into the thing and the first dance and then I would introduce him jim jim will be here you know because before up until that point who was I I was a photographer I was in charge brian I'm gonna put you over here I'm gonna put you guys hear that hole there listening to me what happens after the first dance I'm an old guy walking around taking pictures of people that you know doing the macarena for the nineteenth time you put your right foot you know I'm not doing that because it's not I'm just not that special guy anymore then I heard a guy that was very good at it he loved it and he'd get down on the floor and shoot the mock arrange a from the floor and have great times that's how I did it because a lot of what we do is is who we are and a lot of what who we are is what people perceive of us I wanted them to perceive of me as the important guy who charged a hell of a lot of money for their wedding pictures but I'm not going to be the guy sitting over there with tired feet whitened for the bride fine you know what is it with weddings these days with fourteen hours now it's like come on eat dance get the hell out you know and right whilst wants to go so that's it's all part of perception when I go out by myself with a subject I'll probably take a c stand one light um and work that way I love that one on one very um intimate work that I do and uh it it shows in the work I think sometimes um since we're talking about lighting gear and you're talking about an approach to lighting I know that they're people that are watching that are just now making that approach into the light do you have a suggestion on the amount of lighting equipment that they should really get started with start with one because one is automatically to have also got this one up here half the day start with one do not start with four lights you will have a tendency to try to use them when you don't need them to start with one start with an umbrella and a soft box and one light now if it's a speed light or whatever it doesn't really matter to me how you want to do it but I if I was king I would have you started out with like ellen chrome beer x I or a pro photo three hundred or while I in stein or you know one good solid light that has an exposed flash tube not coming out of a little box when it comes out of a little box it's a different kind of light start there and then taste season to taste yes and that's a similar question that we had from princess at thirty one khun beginners who want to create well lit subjects with the right amount of mood and texture etcetera just used off camera flashing a reflector along with the natural light source if that's all the tools that are available absolutely um and I want it I want to emphasize that all through the weekend kind of remind me I want you to know that you could do all of this with a home depot light it it doesn't really matter what has changed in photography for the better is huge we don't worry about eso anymore unless somebody's shooting ten d or a twenty d or something but if you're shooting a modern camera you bought in the last two years we don't worry about I s o anymore do you know what s o was tow us fifteen years ago was everything it was everything we shoot with ect a chrome one hundred was my particular film that I liked then they had extra chrome one sixty and they had acted chrome two hundred the difference between ect a chrome one hundred and ect a chrome two hundred was visible really visible the colors weren't the same you could shoot if I shot you on one hundred and two hundred your skin tones would be different on the two hundred there was more grain there was mme or more of a pastel color feel to it today can you tell the difference between one hundred two hundred four hundred eight hundred on most are modern cameras no so there's no reason anymore for us to think that we've got to shoot it one hundred all the time I'm gonna make a lot of camera manufacturers upset here you want was well rant number one you wanna mark this down is the time when don really got him upset the first time oh there was a time when I s o mattered that you needed tohave a two point eight lens and the reason was the difference between two point eight enough for wass huge you're doing a wedding or your shooting editorial and you know I had a two hundred millimeter f foreign icon and I'd put that up to my lens my eye um and you had that little split screen john I know you know what I'm talking and that half of it would be black and you just move it around there it is there's a sweet spot you could line it up and take the shot right two point eight perfectly clear right perfectly clear so there was a good reason because that one stop of light was in the sweet spot what's the sweet spot thirtieth sixtieth one twenty two fifty shutter speed as your sweet spot guarantee anything that's blurry and a thirtieth it's going to blow you to fifteenth and the eighth and quarter it's never going to be all of a sudden sharp but one second that's not gonna happen if it's frozen it to fifty chances are pretty darn good it's going to be frozen a tooth at five hundred word a thousand right I'd take that bet heartbeat but in the middle you got the difference between sixty eighth of a second and one hundred twenty fifth of a second and that is on planet earth where we live in real ville here that's huge some things you can freeze at a sixtieth that you can't freeze at a thirtieth and some things it takes one hundred twenty fifth like a bicycle a kid on a bike at a sixteenth of a second that blurry wheels one hundred twenty fifth he nailed the wheels look at this sweet spot well that sweet spot is where photographers live right pretty much specialty areas on either side in that area you bought a two point eight lens so that you didn't have to buy I s o two hundred film for the bride walking down the aisle because you went from a thirtieth of a second to a sixteenth of a second that was huge the other thing was focus we'll go back to that half black thing in the old two hundred millimeter the three hundred millimeter that were just like oh drive you crazy how many of you guys use manual focus all the time I'm talking religiously no but we all do it now and then right but not religiously right it doesn't matter now you can buy what uh think nikon makes like a fifty two three hundred or something is a seventy three hundred something like a fight it's like five point six three hundred it is dark that matter focuses it even focuses against the light I'm a cannon shooter that's a big deal to me kanan shooters air getting it um backlit on cannon yeah thea the difference is today we have the ability to use s o six hundred eight hundred we have the ability to use it why don't we use it to make our lives easier if you want to buy a two point eight lens that's great I love it I love shooting headshots of two point eight on my two hundred okay the difference between two point eight headshot difference two point eight not four is how much about yea if that's worth grand to you do it if it's not rethink the whole thing was that that uh cannon linds f one point isn't one point two eighty five right one point to have a one point was the other one one point eight right two thirds of a stop oh I bought it for the boca course I don't know what alchemy what the heck is that word I call it depth of field shallow depth of field I bought it for that you know really really two thirds of a stop get the old slide rule out folks just not that much and once you step back to twenty twenty feet away it's not there it only had only happens up close I use a fifty one point four because I love it I can't imagine spending the amount of money I'd have to spend for one point two to get one third stop mohr and have someone so you get a lot less depth of field really no not really dead so that's my rant before you buy the fast lenses be deliberate ask yourself what am I buying and why am I buying it do I need this for the kind of work I do if you're a studio shooter really first workshop I ever did I had five guys all with cannon lenses we were shooting a young lady on a fence she's sitting on a fence long running white picket fence and I stopped and I said what do you shoot that they're all shooting way out a two hundred two really compress the fence you know that shot you know the shots of cliche shot two hundred this guy was shooting at five six this guy's shooting at eight five six five six and eight why did you buy a two point eight lens to take it out and shoot it in five six or eight just by the four because they have four limbs has a five six seven eight two knock yourselves out I wish can and made that one point two lens right and forget all the other f stops just give me you know because the phone will buy it that's all only shooting that I paid a grand for one point two I'm shooting it that that