Lessons
Day 1
1Class Introduction
10:08 2Why Light Matters
35:34 3What Makes Good Light?
18:32 4Equipment Q&A
13:04 5Subject Centric Lighting: Bowling Balls
10:51 6Wizwow's Rope Meter
17:44 7Softbox vs. Shower Curtain (Claudine)
26:05Technical Q&A
33:07 9Light Modifiers
13:37 10Light Modifiers Shoot: Alyssa & Claudine
47:40 11Light Modifiers Q&A
23:25 12Subject Centric Lighting
25:14 13Subject Centric Lighting Q&A
03:35 14Shoot: What We've Covered
22:45Day 2
15Lesson 16 - 29 Introduction
08:41 16Reviewing Previous Images
20:21 17Placing Exposure
31:22 18Placing Exposure Q&A
11:43 19Emotional Lighting
17:58 20Shoot: Window Light (Brie and Alyssa)
42:11 21Working with Models
09:41 22Shoot: Window Light with Reflectors
06:20 23Shoot: Headshot with Hot Lights (Brie)
22:51 24Shoot: Headshot with Hot Lights (Alyssa)
13:09 25Shoot Q&A
11:15 26Shoot: Beach Lighting
27:47 27Shoot: Clam Shell Lighting
26:15 28Shoot: Beauty Dish
20:23 29Reviewing Today's Images
31:23Day 3
30Owning Your Own Light
13:57 31Telling Stories
09:43 32Shoot: Dramatic Single Light (John)
20:08 33Shoot: Beauty Setup (Natalie)
28:50 34Student Shoot: Tracy
13:18 35Student Shoot: Kimberly
15:18 36Student Shoot: Ian
16:53 37Student Shoot: Lori
16:13 38Student Shoot: Moe
05:54 39Shoot: Building the Ambient (Isabel)
53:48 40Shoot: Two Subjects (Briana and Natalie)
16:23 41Student Image Review
13:46 42Life as a Photographer
51:09Lesson Info
Telling Stories
we choose our light to prove our vision yes we do our vision comes first then we choose the light to match it we've already proven that you don't have to have a four by six soft box they're nice tohave but if you have two thousand dollars you could spend a thousand on the soft box or you can spend ten dollars on the target shower curtain and save nine hundred ninety dollars all money that you save should be set to me curtis oh I probably shouldn't do that here um you say that money up and you do something fun with it something that will lead to photographs not lead to gear that's our path photography not gear I will say this and it's not on their print make prince those of you out there in internet land if you're not making prints make some prince photography is prince I know that makes me sound old I'm sorry I'm not photography is prince when I think of a photograph I do not think of a digital representation on my ipad that's cool that's fun I think about a print something I could hol...
d something you can show to someone else in analog time when everyone else is zigging think about zagging you know when everyone's going this way think about the guy over here I knew if I knew a fellow in new york of still life shooter for by sorry eight by ten still life shooter he shot eight by ten natural light how's he doing still pretty well it's probably the only guy shooting eight by ten natural light still life that I know off so he doesn't get every job that comes along but he gets every job that comes along for him and he's busy so you create what you want from your from your vision and from your choices okay and um just a couple of quick shots that I have in the book it's these some of these from the old book is on some from the new book I tried to tell stories of my pictures I try to visually vision I visualize them and create a vision when I walked up to this doc which is on the back porch of a of a house there in florida I thought I'm in trouble but what caught my eye was that little lamp thing and then when rio had that dress I thought that's gonna look kind of cool together so I lit it to make it look like she's standing on the dock in the setting sun sun's already set where we are somewhere in the shade there's a uh big trees she's standing in the dark so I had to find the son and created so I like pictures of uh girls looking off camera at stuff you as familiar with my portfolio I have a portfolio of my website called glaucus g loc s girls looking off camera at stuff uh this is uh bree running and I when she showed me this little thing I said you know I want something that's kind of silly and whimsical and whatever so we jumped in the car we just go driving around and down grand avenue I saw these big silos and I thought that looks kind of ominous so try to create something whimsical and fun with it um no lighting this is what it looked like so this wonderful room light on this truck right here because there's an ice cream truck parked right here great bagel white ice cream truck giving me this great balance back on her and I just had to take a picture of this truck um it has for me this it says more than just truck something else going on there do you see a pattern to my lighting well one thing you'll notice I like clouds you know that's that's why I live in phoenix because when they come over it's such a delight it's like you want to take the day off work I like to uh create textures and drama uh great little bar down in mexico deserted in the morning packed in the evening rio on the beach we've talked about this shot um back in the back on monday I believe or was it not monday or thursday um captivate yourself by doing pictures for yourself it's just a nice idea that I had to shoot these shells my daughter collects these seashells wherever we go on a beach and one day I decided to go out and spend an hour taking pictures of seashells um and I end up liking him a lot they're very quiet very intimate photographs and I like I like what I did we talked about these hard lines textures its subject centric lighting to the max beautiful place up near cascade falls is a cascade falls uh granite falls thank you granite falls um and uh I was with uh my friend yang and yang was like oh yeah this is every where I'm going dude I live in phoenix understanding like this this's really nate I'm taking pictures of the moss and he's going wow k talk about bree creating your own sunlight not I don't try to do the overkill where we blast out the backgrounds and beat the sun and stuff this was a set of photographs I did for a construction company and I was the designer and photographer on it and the part of the idea for the construction company was that they were very hands on they were real small group of people about thirty people in the company so when you dealt with the company really dealt with them I wanted to have the idea of old world craftsmanship so I went out and found these old tools none of which they would really use but it's advertising right we can play with life on dh shot those those air shot with a seven hundred fifty watt moola through uh uh I'm sorry mol richardson through a couple of glass blocks to create drama out of something that's really just a couple of couple of tools there shot on four by five so there's very limited depth of field and shot on polaroid this my favorite film in the whole world and it's not made anymore it's gone that's um believe me that was a very very choke up moment for me when they announced that was over I bought six boxes and there's gone so showing us something that we haven't seen before getting in close with things I love to do that I love to create drama and color and finding things um this is uh got a girl looking off camera it's stuff um I was uh I like to tell stories I don't know what the story is here but there's a story there you each have your own story if you don't put stories too two pictures you're missing out because I always do what I like to picture you know something runs through my mind it's not a complete novel it's just a little you know what's she look at what's going on and I like to create that and it's sometimes when you're working with a model who could do that can actually become somebody else it's a lot of fun on by the way that that also that's ah in florida and we looked at the shot of brie and I just love the casualness of it I really like her hair how full her hair looks in this picture uh like the lighting I like the the very simple background that leads us all the way back and when we get to the back get this real interesting stuff going on back there with kind of what's what's going what's that about we're birds on a wire those they're birds on a wire after my friend jerry threw a rock at him e I said jerry throw rocket those birds ana that's my little dip take here um kind of looks like music doesn't it yeah um play with things that have texture and colors and dramatic shakes really play and have fun uh couple more shells I like older um techniques I'm using ten types now having shown anybody my ten types yet saving it up for a you know when I have enough that I will really want to show but I'm having a blast with it if you have old four by five or eight by ten cameras send me an email and I'll let you know where you can buy ten type stuff is pretty neat it's ninety bucks for um for hundred sheets make one hundred ten types no dark room needed no darker meted it's really nice um just playing around this is bree I wanted to do this was actually done for the creative life workshop that way talked about it I believe yesterday how we made this shot found the set um built the light to work within the set and then I stuck the camera down on the ground right under these little weeds and shot up and I had to trust bree was gonna do the right thing because I couldn't look through the camera I was ivan aversion to sticking my head and weeds so probably only a version I have well there's another one that concerns mud but
Class Materials
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Ratings and Reviews
Cheryl
I just finished watching this course, and with teary eyes can say, without reserve, this class has been fantastic! Don's last session would be great to watch in the beginning and the end because it helps to understand his thoughts on being a photographer. The rest of the class is full of great information on lighting and Don is able to explain his thoughts and his processes with ease. I hope I will always think ahead and plan how I want my final results and how I want my subject to reflect light. Learning this was one of my "aha" moments during this class. I own over 30 Creative Live photography courses and this class is one of the top classes I own. I already plan on rewatching the whole class. Well worth the investment! I feel it is not a beginner course, but a intermediate to advanced one. Don has set a high standard in lighting...a goal to reach for...a goal that is possible for each person willing to take the time to learn and practice. Thanks Don and thanks CreativeLive!
Ryan Redmond
I am so glad I took this course. I'll be honest, it took a few lessons for me to warm up to this series but I'm glad I stuck with it. I have had a couple cheap speedlights, softboxes/umbrellas, and reflectors for many months now and was too intimidated to start using them. After going through this I am not only downright excited to use them, and confident that I can have spectacular outcomes, I'm also confident about shooting in natural light indoors and outdoors. It's also given me the tools and confidence to start shooting in manual vs aperture priority and to nail the general calculations in my head. I appreciate that Don used mostly budget or unorthodox equipment like speedlights, foam core, work lights, curtains, etc. because that's what I can afford and have been using to try to replicate expensive gear. Other classes use thousands of dollars in lighting and Don proves you don't need that for excellent shots. I also appreciate his advice for directing your "models" and insights into his overall process. This class was invaluable to me as a novice. Thank you!
Joanna
I thank very much CL that I could see the wonderful material on the light in photography, in fact everything became clearer, Don you are the great teacher, great stuff, very interesting and fantastic lecture, very helpful ! Thank you one more time !!!