Lessons
Class Introduction
05:21 2Color Theory
10:11 3Shoot: Introducing Gels
17:37 4Shoot: Adding Warmth with Gels
08:30 5Shoot: Dual Colored Shadow
06:43 6Shoot: Gelling Background Color
18:04 7Combining Light Sources Overview
06:48 8Shoot: Light Shaping Tools
22:36Shoot: Red Gel on Red Background
12:04 10Shoot: Grid Spot, Defining Color
07:54 11Gradient Color Overview
04:36 12Shoot: Creating Gradient Color
29:47 13Shoot: Split Gels, Warm and Cool Color
25:54 14Long Exposure Overview
03:37 15Test Shoot: Long Exposure with Gels
28:42 16Shoot: Long Exposure with Gels
12:47 17Critique
28:39Lesson Info
Shoot: Red Gel on Red Background
Who's a Cannon shooter here? Oh, there's many of them. Does anybody want to just, 'cause we have some time. Does anybody just wanna come up, commandeer the set and kind of bring it somewhere? I know this is right off the cuff, but does anybody wanna just try to, yeah, shoot a little bit? Let's do it. Yeah, you wanna shoot it? Okay. Right on. But do you wanna change anything in your set? Yeah, let's do it. Okay, right on. He's right up here. Alright. It's Dillon, right? Yeah. Okay, cool. I don't shoot Cannon, but I'm feeling it. Oh, you're feeling it, okay. Anything you want to change? Let's talk about it. Me and Chris are now here to help you. So, whatever you wanna improvise and deal with. [Assistant] Does he need a mic? Yeah, let's give him a mic. Yo. Yo, uh-huh. Yeah, and go like this a lot. Yo. Just walk around the room like this, like, "Yo, I got my mic now!" So, is there a reason we're using this instead of a flash? Do you wanna try to use a flash an...
d see how bad it goes? That would be awesome. We could do that, I'm down. We're making mistakes, right? Yeah, let's try it, I'm down. Let's get one, right quick. Get a flash over here, right? Uh-huh. And then, what if we switched the colors up? I'm really not feeling the green. You hate the green? It's just not my thing. Okay, uh-huh. We got a world, a cornucopia of colors over here. The other one is blue, so what if we did like, what would the red look like on the red background? Red on a red background, Clay. It's intoxicating. It really is, it's like red on steroids. It's amazing. That sounds exciting. Yeah. We're just improvising a little bit here. And Dillon, did you come to a decision with model's shirt on or off yet? (laughter) I mean the red is intoxicating, so, I mean, we can go shirtless. Uh-huh, yeah we can, right on. Dillon, we're all gonna take off our shirts and do a man dance now, okay? In here we've got the orange gel from before. Do you want this to be a gelled light? Let's do it. Yeah, it'll feel a little bit like it, let's just try to hit it through with the soft box and see what goes on there. You need a power cord, Chris? No I got one. You got one? Mm hm. Yeah. I got that for you, bro. Thanks. Can we bounce this one like we did earlier? Off the silver thing on the floor? Okay. Maybe even with the white one so it's less intense. Less intense? Right on. You've got that. I dig where you're coming from. Stay with the mic though, stay with the mic. The white one so it's less intense. Yep, the white one, so it's less intense. You got that. Just get the camera out. Take the camera out, yo? Thanks. Yo. Yo, uh-huh, right on. Alright, that happened. That's what's up. It's an easy fix. Let's start, let's do the Queasy McBreezy practice, bro, and start with one light at a time. Let's do it. We'll start, we'll look at that soft box, we'll see how it's gonna shine through that window, and if there's any possibility there. So let's start there. I got this, Chris. Thanks. You just get that soft box fired up. (gel crinkling) So which button do I use to test, oh the test button. Yeah, you might have to reframe, yo. But that's the test button. (beep) Let's do that one more time. (beep) So right here, you're at eight six. Yeah, let me reframe for you, I'll get that. Put it on eight six, Chris. Oh, I got it. Eight six, I'm going to a 200 this second cause we're not using Eight UX then, right? Yes, eight six. You still at 400 ISO? Uh-huh. Okay, cool. (beep) Alright, great. Right on. Alright, is everything firing there? Looks like everything was firing. Yeah. You want to turn off everything? You might want to just look through that and frame it a little bit, yo. Yo. Yo. Is this auto focus? I think it's on manual focus right now. I'm gonna try to position this a little bit for you. See, the lines kinda gone away, right? It just blows everything out. Yup, and the red is getting The red's actually not even being lit by anything right now. Is that blue light on? Nope, only the soft box is on. Only the soft box is on right now. So that's 100% soft box coming through those blinds. What do you want to change? Let's talk about it, look at it, think about it, right on. The blinds aren't really affecting the photo at all. The fact that we swapped it out to the flash, it's completely different. So, if we want to go for the look we were going for earlier, I think we should probably bring the other light back. Were you feeling the blinds, or? I mean, yeah. I like to experiment, and this is something I've never worked with before, so I mean, Right on, well maybe we can add the blinds and the soft box and see what weirdness happens, right? I like weird. So let's, I'm gonna bring this light down a bit, and bring in that hot light again. On a new stand? Yeah. Do we need a stand for that? Yeah, I can get one. This light wants to fall over a little bit. Here you go. Thank you. Yup. So we're going for like a world of warmth right now. Just gonna try to bring this in so it doesn't spill at all on the background, and it's just on him. You with me? Yeah. Turn out this window here a little bit. You might have to, and let's just take a look at where we're at. It's Dillon, right? Right. [Female Audience Member] Taking suggestions from the audience? Suggestions from the audience, sure. So, overall, the whole thing's a little bit dark right now. So let's first just slow down your shutter. To like 100? No, I'd go to about 30th. Alright. Yeah, let's try at 30th. I'm just guessing, right? That looks pretty good. We can go even a little bit more, right? Yeah. So, 15th? Cool. Looking pretty cool right now, right? Not bad. Yup, now, let's see if we could just take this soft box. Oh, it's been firing the whole time? Yeah. If I dial this down a little bit, try another one, bro. Alright. Brought that soft box in, wow! It's heading somewhere cool. Yeah, I like where this is going. Do you want more red in it now? Yeah, I think it would be cool to bounce it. Bounce the red off the red. So we're going for the world of pain and red, okay. We're checking that out. So this is a low power right now, but let's give that a shot. And you're doing awesome, live, on Creative Live. Uh-huh, isn't this the weirdest thing in the world right now? This is what we came to do, get back rubs on TV. Alright, so, So what is this light, the red light? Where does it powered at? All the way down? That's all the way down. It's amazing how just something, like a simple prompt like that, suddenly it's a hotel room, and we're in Las Vegas, and he's got a revolver in his hand and he's gonna contemplate going out and robbing a bank. I don't know, like, it just becomes a whole story to me in a weird way, right? Yeah, I was thinking of putting some blue in those shadows on the right side, right? Yeah? It's hard to really see it. You can see it's filling it out right around here. Yeah, right. But since it's red on red, it's kinda hard to distinguish. Let's come over here, let me make a suggestion. I'm a really good assistant. If you get a big job, you know, you get a little over your head, don't be afraid to call me. Alright, let's try some of this over here, Chris. Just give a shot, give a shot there, D. (beep) (beep) Oh, that's hitting the side of him in the back, there? Yeah, just a bit. Yeah. Let me come up on it. Yeah. How are we feeling about that? Is it looking cool? Needs more? So what if we, like, could we use the foil to shape it so we keep it off the back and just on him? Which one? This one? Yeah, the one you were just messing with. Yeah, we could use foil to do that, or I could just bring it a little bit closer. I feel like we're close. Don't you, D? Feel like we're getting close? It's all trial and error. It is. Alright, we're gonna dial this thing down. This got no grid on it or anything, so it's just blasting everywhere right now, but we'll see what it's doing. (beep) Can you look towards me? (beep) Yeah, I could bring it up a little bit more, ay? Is that what our audience says, bring it up? [Woman In Audience] Yup. Power. Alright, that's up two stops. Check it. (beep) Oh, yeah. Wow. Yeah. And I'm wondering, Oh, it's getting flare? Is that what that is? I think maybe a little bit. Looks like flare. Is that flare for you, Chris? Nope. No, it's not flare. It's just over lighting that side of the paper. We should bring it back down a little bit. Correct. Somewhere in the middle there. (beep) Oops, I'm sorry, I was dumping. Dumping is when I just zero out the pack. Totally, we saw what happens when you don't. Oh, that was out of focus. Right on, still a little bright on this light? A little bit. Yeah. I came down a full stop. So maybe I'll just bring it up. 'Cause we're at like 13 right now. Okay. Clay, I think it's happening because the other flash is still going off. The one he's bouncing. The bouncing off the floor? Should we try killing that one? I think so. Okay, that's a good call, good call. Kill this one, kill the red bounce off the floor, see what's happening there. Should we get rid of that entirely? No, let's fire that. Ooh, good call. Right on. Wow! You're bringing it somewhere else now. Let's bring this blue up. That was a good call. That red light bouncing off the floor was creating a diabolical problem. Let's hit it again. I came up a stop on our blue. (beep) Yes. There we are, that's looking great. High fives, good work, right on. Let's just, yeah cool. I'm gonna just turn this one off for a second, and see what happens. This is our sort of feel that's over here, coming from this side. Let me just hit this light. Fire another one. Right on, it wasn't doing much. Yup. Alright, let me come up one stop on this. Yeah, I think just crop that. That's fire, bro. Good job! Bravo. Hey man. You make a great assistant. (laughs)
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Vitamin Dee
Great class if you're wanting to learn how to work with gels! This class will take you through the process step by step as you build your shooting playbook. I enjoyed Clay's honest and simple approach. Clay and his assistant, Chris, make a great team as they show how gels work and show you what not to do. They make learning fun!
Magda Mazur
I really enjoyed the course and have learned a few new techniques. Every photographer is a different artist, and I do not try to judge them by the way they proceed, but by the knowledge they have, use, and are able to teach. Clay and Chris have great teamwork and a lot of fun with this.
Doug Richardson
I found Clay's classes and teaching style worked very well for me. For example, Clay's method of first testing one light in a multiple light set-up and the adding the other lights one-by-one was great. I recommend this class for anyone working to add different lighting styles to their work.
Student Work
Related Classes
Lighting