Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Headshot with Hot Lights (Brie)

we are going to use some very high end high tech very very esoteric items the shower curtain from tar jay small french boutique store on some great lights from home depot now the's air the yellow home depot lights these air the amateur lights the professional home depot lights are black of course all pro stuff is black you can have him spray painted no one will know the difference but yeah these are a couple of workforce what he's run about fifty bucks think I don't know they're probably not very much money but they're great and they have either five hundred or seven hundred fifty watt lightbulbs and I can't read it from here but it doesn't really matter now you see the little grills on their those girls they're there for one reason and one reason only those guys get really really hot so this is not to be confused with the led lights that are not hot these air old fashioned inexpensive home depot lights they're also tungsten so they give off an orange light now we're going to start wit...

h uh oh I was gonna have you sitting down but I love that outfit that's gonna be have to be a standing up shot to okay because I love that you look great in that um let's bring you on over here and what is elissa putting on we know did you see what she was okay I got it I know what you're up to it that this okay so I'm going to sit you right here right at the back of this thank you you just kind of sitting there can you sit in that put on the really tight dress and say ah let's sit in that one that's what we'll do all right that looks very very nice now you notice where I've put her here at the back of this this uh scrim we're gonna call it a scream it's a shower curtain liner but for our purposes it's a scrim we're taking a small light source which of these two home depots and want to make him large and bree has had the the honor of actually being shot with home depot lights before haven't you yes we've done this before so let's uh farm up and there we get some light on the front of her we have a lot of ambient light in here we're going to try to get rid of most of that with our shutter speed so that's the first thing I'm gonna do is to test my shutter speed to make sure that my ambient light isn't being a problem with it these are orange lights and camera guys are we picking up orange our eyes thie camera we are picking up orange great good so you can see that it's an orange light that's twist you a little bit more into it I love the polka dots that's great you need to get that dress that's really pretty ok so we're going testis that we're going to grab the camera here and uh thank you sir do you want be over you know I don't think so I think I'll probably be able to beat this with the with shutter speed but we're not going to change any settings on the camera so you can see what happens when we don't because this this is not gonna work she's going to be sort of very orange we'll have to take care of that I'm still shooting in j peg by the way so that they come up kind of quick and I'm not going to use my meter I'm gonna show you through the camera so I'm gonna put my meter on her face right here and then uh the meter says the meter says two point eight at a thirteenth of a second how many of you think I can hand hold one hundred millimeter lens at thirteenth of a second show of hands oh god no that's not happening so I'm gonna move up my highest oh here just give me the pocket wasn't takes thank you sir I'm gonna go upto eso eight hundred and put the light on the the center part of her nose is what I'm eating and it says two point eight at three twenty two point eight three twenty would I shoot it at that and my gun shoot this a two point eight three twenty because if I do it's gonna be dark right because I just looked at zone five zero doubt my meter so it says rats right zone five for the bridge of her nose we don't want it to be zone five won't be zone six um attorney into the light just a bit more just like that re good good they were just doing we are just doing a uh an exposure test here right to dissect to see it and look some saying a little bit dark right also very orange quite orange so I'm gonna actually open that up from three twenty two two fifty take it again we're still leaving at the tungsten setting come twist right back around here good and remember I'm not shooting her face I'm just doing my exposure test for her face just my exposure tests we've opened it up a third of a stop place the face a little bit brighter that's what I like okay face is nice and open and open and airy I don't see any contamination from the other life swell I am a little bit because I am seeing a I am made it through two days without tripping over this thing I'm bound and determined to make the whole three days see this hair light right here what is that video right up here right if I and that we'll leave it for now we're good we're not gonna have it we're not gonna have the video guys move their lights were good yeah you want to set that flag up thank you so much just for a second because we are going to bring that card and thank you I want to do one more here and then I'm going to change the tungsten balance good bree that's nice thank you okay yes now we've eliminated pretty much of that my background white wall is coming out nice and white do you notice that folks he knows the contamination from the orange light is not on the white wall whitewalls normally lit I'm shooting normal color balance on here so I'm gonna change it to tungsten what will that do to the back wall who knows make it blue and I think that's going to be okay for this but we might be able to actually warm it up all right so my menu thanks to light my okay and we'll do one more test shot right here with the tungsten setting on the camera good and now we have skin tone that looks really nice can we have a blue wall which in this particular case actually looks pretty I'm okay with that could we warm that wall up be fancy home depot lights the really good ones have swivels on him we could swivel out orange light over that way just a little oh I wish we had stock at home depot right now that's good right there good thank you and a little bit but not not much not not enough to write home about a little bit you know take a look take a look john actually did a nice job all right but we didn't really kill too much on bree here so we're fine now we have a somewhat non complex face we just have a little bit of complexity on one side of her and we're going to fix that but now I'm going to try to get in and compose the shot okay and we're doing and basically we got a fifty dollars home depot in a ten dollars shower curtain and and again four hundred dollars for the sea clams but still see stand with any stands and work any stands the work I love that polka dot dress that's really pretty thank you chin up just wait and bring it into the light just right there good now was not pretty the point that makes this work is all we're doing is taking these inefficient kind of ugly lights when you use them kind of bear pretty cheap silver backing and then there's the kind of tough on the face and we're changing it from those lights into this is now our light source the curtains of light source the shower curtain is light source so it's really really a pretty shot we're going to open it up by bringing this card on in john and bring it right up real close to bree right there and it's probably in a little bit tight the back yeah a little bit foot more forward so we get much fill in the front as possible good good good all right breathe right into the light there again one more of those nice chin up a little bit right there good wade have this is essentially built a very simple light here this can be a window if you have a south facing window for instance and the sun comes in in the wintertime comes in hang a shower curtain over it and you have soft box if you have a north light you probably don't need the shower curtain but you might want to think about something sheer like a fabric ica like a silk that would take the complexity of what the light that's coming through and turn it into a large white source so way have some uh I have a couple of issues what do you guys see the floor I love this light coming in here the cow how smooth her face is all the way through right way have detail in texture in the hair but I have that dark line right here that defines her chin I don't know if I like that that's the floor tried to snatch my shoe away I don't know if I like that dark line I think I might want to fill that in and john is going to step right in there and kneel down present her with a ring no that's bringing down just a little bit more john right about there good and now take that and twist it towards the light right that's where it's the brightest and I can actually see it on her chin from here that's nice right there good into the light just little bit more right there good fantastic part of this um this demonstration this afternoon right here after after lunch is to also show you howto work models in the light this lighting setup is not set up for a one hundred eighty degree pose this is not set up for her to turn the other way turn the other way brief this is light is not set up for this back to me a little bit right there right there to write their good it's not put together for this kind of shot this light is set up for her toe work to my camera left because if she starts moving to camera right she's going to go away from my main light it's gonna be a two shot away not what I not what I want in the portraiture in the portrait I want her face into the light now can we make it mysterious this way can we make him an emotional photograph with her turned away from the light shirt one should bring with you this way don't you bring your hair down in front of you like this just come up just a little bit good bring it over their chin way down on way down and bring it in this way just like that just like that good come back to me with the eyes good now what we've done is we've put her face into shadow but does that mean metaphorically when we put faces in the shadow you know something means something you know everybody tells the whole story but it does mean something so we've created something a little bit more some mysterious but I don't care much for this kind of shot it doesn't ring with may okay it could if I was doing a shot for say come up with a headline um drug addiction in our universities right and someone's she's putting her face into the shadow turn around to the other side you're not no you didn't go to the university could turn on this way where there good good and shin way up I'm gonna come down like this thank you john for coming in and this is where I would take the shot from tilted a little bit more towards the light right there right there john I can see it now good come back to me breathe kind of twist back the other way other way keep your face towards the light there you go good fact turned this way on this on the chair bring the face over the chip over this the shoulder there we go good good chin up a little bit right there all right this way you work your talent into the light that you have this case we have sidelight we're gonna work it that way I keep her centered and to the left of the light yeah there we go gian I don't um I turned my rotation off on the camera would it be if I turn it back on well they come in this way or yeah is he manually rotating we must be yes you could turn that back on it should come in here my glasses on and thank you why don't I turn my rotation off him but you know what's his biggest I possibly can I'm blind but I want to see it I don't want it to be this little tiny thing in there um course it then I get it in the light room and I could just our bridge and just put him around yes d'oh you keep saying you don't like complexity and your faces and you want her facing into the light is that the commercial background speaking as opposed to a portrait thing because a lot of the stuff I've read on portrait photography says to you know not put the light on somebody's chest but to have it hitting the back of their head and do short lighting on the face and that sort of thing and that's not what you're doing it all I don't know who those those tigers are I mean I would have to look at the photograph I uh I think if you say that the first name that comes to my mind is karsh right john would you think karsh on the very complex backlight that rim light thing coming back from heavily rationed hey would use a very strong powerful single light from the back and there would be a lot of complexity not my not my style of target there are retirees who do that and and do it well but I remember I come from you know my goal was to shoot the cover of vogue that's all I wanted was one vote cover you know american vote to not like similar you know south fiji island vogue or something on american vogue cover I still do probably not gonna happen but I still do I still want it you know and that's where I take my cue like I said I take my cue from the fashion industry the patrick marshall is arthur elgort uh those folks and their faces were not complex um and it just becomes kind of a stylistic thing do that again where you were looking into the light that was really really fun where's that step stool thank you really I love watching people be themselves and then trying to catch that that she was just sort of sitting there thinking about something and I liked what she was doing bring the face back up to may eyes right there lean out now I can't come up too good good close your eyes okay open thank you all right good so uh try to create the shot that you see in your head first of all I did not I mean I saw that polka dot dress that it was gonna look that good on her because we had to clip it up the back right what did they clip it to your skin good hurt yes don could we ask you absolutely all right uh would more would like to know why are you using the hundred millimeter macro uh well because if I used my fifty we get too much and if I use the two hundred the video guys would kill me because they'd be way back over there against the wall and we sort of said we'd stay within this area for them and that means I'm going to be with one hundred that's really the only reason its distance from me from the subject I would I would say that if someone came to me and say don you got to spend the rest of your life doing head shots we absolutely forbid you from doing anything but headshots I'd be really happy with that I love faces I can shoot faces all day um doesn't matter pretty face is not pretty faces young faces old faces I love it I like a shot like that because that's something that captures something to me that has uh interest to make that goes beyond pretty girl so yeah so that's what that's why does it blossom it's killing it's giving me some minimal depth of field I'm shooting to wait uh why l w dog is wondering if you can use the shower curtain as a scrim for outdoors to block the sun oh yes absolutely it works great outdoors and it will block the sun um I don't know if we can ask l w question but I would say l w yesterday we used a scrim the center part of a five in one with a similar assimilated son and you would do the same thing with a shower curtain in other words it would be as close to your subject is you could get it the farther away you go the more it becomes a shadow better than the hard light but still not as good as bringing in his close as you can get it uh question is from jeff be why did you have three close her eyes and open them for the snap you know the moment I did that I said I thought you know someone's gonna ask me why I did that I just ran through my head I guess I was right why um because she was looking up at me and she was looking at me and what I wanted to do is to create a situation when she opened her eyes she would look for may you know I'm saying andi just is a real fleeting and notice how fast like I took this photograph after she did it it's a technique I use a lot and I just get a little bit different catch to the face she knows the technique so she knows why I'm doing it if uh if you work with me more than a couple times you'll find that I have a few things that I like to do that's one of them I want her to come up and look for me because there's a moment in the picture you did you ever have somebody like stand on their toes for you in the photograph you know do you have them perched there you can't have them perched there they can go up on their toes but the moment they're up on their toes they're all all the energy was going up right what happens to the energy once they're there now it's oh god I got to stay no they go up on tonight just say no no you didn't say hey I could make me one of them jasmine star videos okay it's where those wells were they go up on their toes the moment they go up that's the moment that's your job is to catch him if you don't catch him bad on you they do it again okay up down up down everybody together up that's it you catch it when they're at the top when bree jumps she she could only hold herself in the air for about what four seconds down that way about four and a half seconds and that's that you have about for a second to get it no she's up and she's down she can't hold herself up there no one can no one can fly some people though are getting close we just have to catch it all about the moment the spontaneous moment there's a time when you're shooting and you'll be shooting I'm just going to shoot just a few and we're just going to fake this stay with that stay with that save that so put the head back up the way you had it like this comeback right there right there right there that's it just chills wait right there well that's good there's a sometime when you're working with someone and you'll say okay let's uh let's take a break okay and the model will stop being a model and they'll just do something and I love those moments I love those moments I don't take my camera away from my eye until a few seconds after I said ok let's try something else and they take their guard down I was once on the streets in l a and new york city and I saw arthur elgort shooting fashion and I had to stop and sort of become like you know a groupie you know like kind of stand there and go oh man is like watching what am I god's work but he kept saying to the model stop being a model stopping him on b a woman be a woman be a woman and finally they would get that and the shots you could see the whole energy the pictures change when they stopped modeling and became women that's what I try to strive for as well