Lessons

Lesson Info

Reviewing Today's Images

well let's take a quick look here at what we did today um and I want to go through these shots and show you a quick edit what I think of when I look at the picture of what I'm looking for what I like what I don't like okay what worked and what didn't work and I'm going to be kind of brutal so if the models we watch this thing they might you know want to kill me it's okay so if if I don't show up in the morning look for my body in the river okay um okay so we start out with with bree here in the window that's the one that obviously didn't work we've got this terrible thing up here we came into this shot I like this shop I don't like what she's doing with her hands now again I did not could not see her all I saw was a black lump over there didn't like what she was doing their hands then we did this shot here where I actually placed her right at the top of that pole the reason I put her there so that the top of her hair would be visible rather than putting her in that window light I wante...

d teo to bring that shaft down to me that's ok there are certain rules and photography that sometimes I like to break you know the old can't have a tree growing out of somebody's head sometimes it's kind of cool sometimes is part of the punch of the show the shot I don't necessarily find that always wrong you know it's wrong when it feels wrong but if it just doesn't for some reason let it go you know but I kind of wanted that that line to come down right through her all right a br photo had has one brain how about nd filters for wider aperture would you use any yes yeah we talked that we talked about that earlier today yes way neutral densities are great if we had neutral density here in the studio we could have probably you know taking it down to two point eight for these shots there's two things that happened with a neutral density filter number one it's global so it changes everything which is fine in a studio situation outside it changes globally as well so some people think well if my stroke his stroke is here I can actually leave my move maestro back if I use the neutral density fault filter no you strobes still has to be here the whole thing goes down together right the second thing is they are dark so you put a six foot six dot neutral density filter on your camera it's dark toe look through it it's not they doesn't like appear like an aperture does you just now really put a very dark lens on your camera so uh in a situation like this um become a little bit hard for me to see through it sure absolutely there were great ok another question photo cartel is wondering would you use cpl on shiny skin what I use what z p o polarizing filter on shiny skin well and polarize the polarizing filter really only works in certain angles um so depend on where that angle of your light wass on it but no I would I don't know polarizing filter on skin does more than just polarized off this too sharp the highlights it's goingto start changing up skin tones and thanks no I don't I don't use polarizer people close ups far away sure and if I in fair went skin I want to show the white skin unless you know we're shooting in louisiana you know known in august and everybody's wet so what does it matter that's why they scream powder powder this question was from kate uh earlier when you were using them the beauty dish my round light reflect our blinds my models doesn't mean that it's a bad quality or that I'm just not using it right her round reflector blinds the models yes well models um I think that's when we're using the bt dish or is she talking about a reflex silver reflector outside I'll bet she she's talking about a bounce reflector like the golan outside if it's blinding your models it's because it's too darn close it's too close how far away do I use that you'll see where john is over there that's about as far away right there as I use a gold reflector from me if I'm the model over there when you start bringing in and up over here you start hurting them you can feel it one of the things I tell photographers is before you put the gold reflector four feet from your model and shine the sun back in your eyes do it to yourself see if you can keep your eyes open you can't not only that but you can feel you can feel it through uh your jeans when that thing happened so yeah I use it from that far away all I needed gold reflected to do is to put about a half stop phil of gold on my subject I don't want to light him up I've used clothes to light up you know jeans or no legs or backlight or something but on the front no that's you agree john that's pointing it yeah you bring it up is closest mo you we're gonna have a problem and I think that was maybe twenty feet away so yeah I would say twenty feet twenty twenty five feet would be would be about the distance yeah okay I when I saw this I wasn't crazy about her hand in the next one then we'll go um this is much better we cut her hands off it doesn't matter for this kind of shot I'm probably going to cut it up into here anyway when I crop it but I like this her chins up she's kind of looking down at a nice flare that would probably something I'd want to keep will go next and that one what do you think better than the last one huh why go more action in her body a little bit more dynamics of her twisting and and the hair falling in front of part of the eye next well that's a non keeper it's next yep totally different feel to the body brought her head out into the light to try to separate that uh keep that nice the heroine everything through there we're gonna have to like I said we have to go into curves that one doesn't work next going to curves that one works better next I'm not this this was my fault um keep going ok going yeah the hands south she's gripping that looks real that's good I don't mind that it looks real it's not funky her fingers aren't flailing all over the place whatever she's gripping hard and she's leaning this is probably this is probably my favorite right here I like the way her legs are coming apart so there's some dynamics we haven't cut her hands off it all she's in a perfect position here light all around her here going to curves clean up the contrast just a little bit and be good next on this was we were showing the wall next yep keep going there we go who that's that's our test shot bri and we go and we were showing I think uh oh yeah keep going all right nice going there okay I like that one I like this one even better see how this now she's done something and she's broken that line so get this line coming down in here I think I cut that vertical pretty good there didn't I yeah I did that's the clean horizontal vertical that I wanted so and and then you do that keep going that's good you do that and you break the line then with your model brief I was doing some military things I like that good and we'll keep going through these keep going he's going all right and this is what we're showing the cat catty walked this thing hold on to this shot go back one go forward one there we go I really liked that shot now it was just to show the windows but when I saw her down the corner of that that really looks cool it's not the shot went okay I like it um so that would be a keeper for may and that's what's that's really great what you do when you're working with models of the caliber of these girls they're always on so even if you're doing testing and whatever they're always on you really have a chance to get something so yeah keep going there uh that one works pretty well we get weird running down there look at the great light on the fur and she's side lit she has a very exotic face it works for that kind of lighting and better but I cut her hands right in the middle not bad love the face and look right nice curve this curvature and they're absolutely I don't like that much like her looking up like that that's nice right in there keep going all right and yeah all right we got the shot from that we already chosen all right keep going yeah this is the one that's a little bit more dramatic and look how look how dramatic that is love that for light is falling off we'll go again change the angle put the windows back behind and go again and that's me going faster than the strobe developed and yeah we're just kind of flashed through these have to take spend some time figure out yeah keep going a lot of misfires here looks like don was going faster than the old stroll badri recycle all right two dark on that one that's one where we got a little complexity in the face because why we didn't have our card up underneath it right we brought the card up we'll go to the next one brought the card up underneath and we started getting ready rid of the complexity and this waas a shot with just window light was it not yeah this is the cards this was just too white cards on both sides of her fighting her up letting the light become normal so what I look for is are the eyes and lips the shape of the face how it works then we keep going there better than the last one more dynamic than the last one this one not bad this is that this is a shot that I've seen redo a lot so I recognize this picture and I like it I love them the light through here looks good the eyes look good keep going that one better than the one previous right better okay uh we're into our home depot lights orange will keep going and keep going okay and that's where we had a little bit of blue in the back we kind of added twisted that head on the back of the home depot and we've brought our normalcy back to the back a little bit by adding a little bit of light but we didn't take much away from her and we'll just keep going through these that's nice right there stop that's what I like everything works in the picture face works the eyes work the lips work the arms were shoulders work everything works and you know I took very few pictures today of each of the girls because obviously this is not a shoot this is a workshop but if I was shooting bree and this this location I probably would shoot no less than three four hundred shots I'm just looking for one the more I shoot better that one will stand out you notice sometimes if if you're shooting if you only shoot twenty you'll still get a good one if you shoot forty still get a good one sometimes he shoot one hundred end up with several good ones who want the best of the best and that's what that's what I like to do and I used to do that even with film my account used to just go are you kidding and we'll keep going here right go back one right there she's starting to squint here a little bit because and then I said to her okay next one said close your eyes I've thought this one sorry keep going yeah it was this one go back was this remember I said close your eyes and look at me I believe it was this one right here she squint went away and she opened her eyes and came came back okay keep going good this is where she's turned away didn't really work this is the kind of the movie shot that we did what she's turned away all the way away from me and came back in for a few shots very nice I got up on the step stool could go in there on the steps till all this is what this is where I did the close your eyes next one next one next one okay good um this is elissa in the what what would you call this I call it bounced main for my my brains bounced made our main lights the soft box to the side are soft boards the side our main lights the home depot lights behind her and that lets we lets me create whole can you go back one shot thank you you see how this is a very um one dimensional light kind of thing world two dimensional is coming in here and it's falling off here which is pretty right I love that we'll go next won and now we have something has a little bit mohr going on we have a light coming this way and we have this great highlight coming back from behind so the picture has a different feel to it a day all totally different field when we start doing this this is like that's finessed this is like that's your life that you can play with and create how bright do you want that back want to be surprised you wanted to pay until it you know and I've seen shots where it blows out even doesn't matter your your shot eyes look good keep going and keep going right through there right there's holding get right back right there I like this I like what she's doing there hands he knows how she keeps her hands or fingers nice too straight and apart a little bit she's not doing this with him and she's not doing this with them you know that perfectly aligned out there that's when you work with folks who know what they're doing it makes life easier if you're working with people who don't know what you're doing remind them keep the hands and what to do with their hands and what to do with their their knees and things I like that picture a lot keep going keep going okay now we moved the black and lets the school one more keep going right there we move the black into the back that didn't change anything on the face face stays the same because the black card way back there is not part of this picture just part of the background and we kept looking all this beautiful light coming across the hair back this little room over here look we're getting a rim light from this side but our lives from this side and why is that angle of incidence angle of reflection that white board back there is catching a lot of light catching the edge of this and putting those little fibers lighting him up and sending them right back to the camera okay and we'll keep going good is bree in blue bring the camera guy we'll keep going right there now we'll limit go back one if you can we had spill from the umbrella and we didn't want that so we brought it back this is what like remember beach beach like this is our beach like keep going yep we've got that spill gone now and now we have look how pretty this light is all the way through here nice face not not too complex keep going and this is where we had a little bit of um uh flair because I didn't have my my board and top shooting in the light yes the question that I was going to ask you was from rob william worth when you were view a shot is it a quick snap judgment and move on or is there absolutely because you're going absolutely it's a quick snap judgment and I move on if I have to think the shot it's not a good shot if it can't sell it to me in an instant then I'm gonna have to sell it to you harder so I do my first edit yes I like it I like no I don't guess I like no I don't doesn't mean I don't miss a good one have you ever gone back to pictures you took a year ago and go why did not you know I love that shot yeah we all do but don't I do it absolutely this not not not this fast robert actually faster it has to sell me so fast that I love it right now and if it doesn't I just move on by sometimes you get all the way through maybe three hundred shots you've only picked two ok I'm good I'm fine sometimes you get through three hundred shots you've picked fifteen fine I'll just do it again you know until I get it right down maybe I'll go ahead and process were talking at the top of this shop we've got some flare in here uh and we have no cards in front so we have a little bit of complexity to the face that's let's keep going again and we added the car notice one more time and we added the card to the top so it's keeping all this complexity a little bit even and we keep going on their we've added the card to the bottom of the sea in the eye and now the complexities gone so where it was just a little bit before now it's gone we have a very nicely flat faced presenting this way still dropping off enough on the side that we have dimension to it so it doesn't really look terrible so we just keep going here and just keep going oh I love that shot then we'll just keep going kind of fly through okay a couple more right there all right this is the shot we don't have highlights or we'll catch lights I don't care I love that I love that look don't have catch lights a lot of times when you're working outside either or if you do have catch lights when you look up close it's like I did a shot I love this shot when I blew it way up it was a wendy's sign actually you see the wendy's hamburger signing her I thought well that's that's a little weird I have to edit that out but I don't care about that look how pretty her eyes look you can see the color of her eyes and I have a photo shop document that's uh got twelve pairs of highlights on him in layers so if you all wanna highlight I could just slide those bad boys over I got soft box I got umbrella I got beauty dish I could I could get you one no problem all right we'll keep going with quick on very nice very nice that's oh that was the one let's go back that's the one member with a thug I asked why I had her chin down see her eye gets cut off here and see her lip right see the shape of the lip in the I will go on one more boom look how we opened up the eye and look how much more lip we see as dramatic change and that's what I was looking for a white guy so what I do is deliberate what you do is deliberate there's a reason for everything okay and keep blasting and ours are glasses shot I think oh well flare on that glass is shot there's a glass a shot yet and we'll keep going on there's bree in the clam shell and you can see how it presents a beautiful bright light here but we still have definition on the chin it's not gone it's not blowing out is still there sure question from joe macdonald could you explain exactly what you mean by complexity yeah uh how do that um let's see can we um can we go back about ten thank you this is a very non complex face joke this is a very non complex face we don't have any shadows or cheap what according to cause smile lines are with theirs last lines whatever these things right here that come down we don't have that we don't have highlights and and darks everywhere we have a very non complex face when we get to a complex face I'll show you what we're talking about sojo hold that thought we'll see if we get to it let's go ahead jump back up to where we were in the beauty dish on the uh the clamshell yep I really see not go back one I like that you see the symmetry here I like that that's the shot I would say okay I'm gonna keep that shot I'm gonna go back to that love the highlight on the lips her eyes are nice and open a nice presentation all the way through here the hair looks good yep next one not bad right here we go and keep going okay now this is a complex face because people have are afraid when they see is the very if this is a fearful face this is the guy who shows up and says you know you haven't paid lately and the boss wants your protection money now um maybe not everybody has to have a way were showing that this is a little bit feminine for it let's keep going on that was the chipmunk cheeks one and we'll go one more and then there we go there we presented correctly okay and this is also not a complex face we don't have lines and things running everywhere that's complexity is created by side lighting were lighting that highlights ridges and valleys okay uh again this is bree in what we do this one in break this is this should be the ring oh three the wall of light this is the wall of light to three shots which definitely eliminates complexity from the face there's no lines and any of those things and we'll just keep going through here we put her back against the wall go back one she's away from the wall so the wall goes gray we moved her back to the wall next one and the wall goes white because now we're exposing for the light at the wall right and you can see a very slight little shadow around her here and there that's that's sort of fake ring light look to it and we'll just kind of blow through these real quick these two girls are great aren't they great both of you just fab fabulous fabulous oh I love this don't go back when I love I love the hair on the face people who don't put here in the face I live here in the face it's more exciting when there's hair in her face and just keep rolling through good yep and right there right there I love that how it presents right under the chin nicely done keep going on dh and we'll just kind of go through these he's a great I can't wait to get these in the photo shop do little manipulation here in their clean up here and there that's great too bright came down back it up okay and this is that three point lighting so we've got light coming off look at the arms both arms see how they even they are because we were very careful with our placement brought through keep going go esko back one go back one right there okay joe we're talking about complexity this face has got a little bit more complexity than the other ones if you remember the other shots we said we're not complex let's look at this she she brought her chin down that created a shadow under her lip it created a shadow right here and it created shadow right under her cheeks right here so the face has more lights and shadows on it then it did previously is go the next shot she brings her chin up and we have less complex it even though it's a little bit overexposed uh say less complexity we've got this shadow but the other ones are gone okay keep going and then we darkened up the back right there and notice how go back one notice how your subjects bring her chin down it's going to change this light dramatically when you have a beauty edition that close trade so what did I say to her to bring in china next one bring a chin up right there she brings her chin up into that light that lights very close that beauty dishes a twenty two john twenty two and we're about thirty inches away that's not a lot of leeway little you know one inch of movement can make a difference I think for tiger sometimes think that the models get in front of a camera and do this and this and all these things now sometimes they're this way and it's just little moments like this because all of the light is created for that angle the shot that I did earlier today I showed you earlier of a now d with the grid spot on him and he was in the peach the pea jacket that was that shot was so set up that an audi had baby inch to move he could do this that's it because if he brought his chin over here threw a shadow across the nose wasn't gonna work so he sometimes you create that tight of lighting all right we're good on that thank you and we have a we have another keynote will do that tomorrow I guess where you are close to uh wrapping up we are close to wrapping up how long is that longer than we have okay all right let's do that tomorrow then let's take it well I just wanted to read a great quote that from goto that says um don today you have stimulated me tio imitate you simulate you and be innovative like you oh what was that from next door uh yeah like that any final questions in the audience you know it's interesting wrapping my head around the vocabulary you're very comfortable with using the terms when you're talking about complexity on the face when you're talking about the drama of a shot and I'm seeing that when there's more drama kind of translate that into well I'm seeing more shadow I'm seeing so again back to kind of the graphic design background I'm also recognizing that the values of the tones that were seeing seemed to be playing a role in the way that you're interpreting thes ur deft looking at an image and quickly being able to see the drama and on dh to set it up where I'm needing to work more with it um I'm kind of I'm kind of curious is it possible to have a drop for example a dramatic simply let shot I'm sorry out less complex portrait and at the same time it's dramatic I think I think yes because I think the shots that we did of elissa with just the beauty dish her face wasn't complex at all but because it fell off so fast I thought it was a fairly dramatic absolutely you're speaking of with when I think of the means she was stark it's very pale skin against that very dark background that to me was more dramatic um and then then the ones where wei had her up against the wall against the earlier in the day when we had the lighter background the one of bree it when she did the wall of light it's maur dramatic when she's close to us right she was lit and against the dark background she was really there and we move her back to the white wall and it became more of a playful shot because of all the white now that's my interpretation the last thing I want you think that I'm doing is making judgment calls for other people you may see the white wall with brigands that is being dramatic that's fine I don't think there is a rule to that and I don't think I mean I've sat through enough lame art critiques before to know that also much of that is just b s you know but that's how I think I have to think of it in my brain is something that's how I think of it and you'll have to think of it in your brain has something as well does that answer your question kind of it does but I'm again I'm trying teo understand you have a foundation you are rattling off names of artists and inside I made them up well it's clear that you have a clear understanding you keep you know mentioning a name and you'll talk to john and you both are on the same page with the study of the light you're saying oh this looks like such and such and sound zone when you were talking about you like when women become more natural I thought of man ray when he ended up making a portrait of marilyn monroe when she was if I'm remembering correctly when she was no longer maryland monroe there was a transition for one portrait where she's actually just norma jean and that kind of rang true to me I haven't ah ha moment right there but I'm wondering how much emphasis I should really be giving two looking at all of these other artists all the time I discover an artist a week seriously do an artist a week I think there's a couple of different places out there that actually list great photographers do an artist a week you have fantastic shows that come here to seattle go and see him if it's somebody from too far back may not be very interesting I remember someone telling me I should look at james fox talbot one time and I thought james fox talbot like he was shooting pictures like eighteen seventy or something so I kind of blew it off and then about a year later I saw some james mark talbot went comes to rocks man it was awesome so yeah find I just look att all of it find a photographer a week and discover them just with google and with what we have available to us now god it's just a wide different world yeah look up irving penn and in abadan and see see what they did and what they they contributed