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Rooftop Shoot Q&A

one more time please why use what the aesthetic look you're going for from going to the soft box from what you had before the panels to the soft box okay um although you can see from the images we have quite a different look here one thing is I wanted to go with the wide angle to able to get this kind of cityscape behind them and I really can't have a light tent that big to cover them up so I'm gonna have to kind of work with the sun and add my own filler from this side so in that situation putting the sun behind them at least means I don't have to deal with hard shadows on their faces from the sun that I can create my own main light with this so main reason I'm switching is I wanted a a crisper more directional light and that's what this minute medium soft box was where is the other one was a little more diffuse little softer and I also wanted to use the white angle which I couldn't really done with the tent so another question if you could explain again this is for m h since you're s...

hooting at two point oh so why is it again that the background is not blurred more uh looks on with the white dino super wide angle lenses a twenty four millimeter lens so the background is not gonna be blurred like if you're shooting with the telephoto but it is gonna be softer you'll notice the black the background is slightly soft which typically when you're shooting with twenty four millimeter five six or whatever that we all completely sharp at this distance so it's a subtle softening to the background when you're shooting if I shot this at one four and uh dropped it down I could barely do it I'm almost on the max on my neutral density filter but I could might be able to squeeze out one for if I turn the neutral density filter down even further which would then soften the background even more butt so for people who may be our new to understanding that how they have focal length effects yes what the aperture is affects the look it's not just that a two point oh on a fifty is going totally different than to boil on twenty four and two point oh on seventy two two hundred yes very good point is that the focal length makes a big difference on that aperture so the same two point oh well look really different on a wide angle versus auto telephoto lens and then also the distance you are from your subject difference you are to your subject is well yeah I'm right up close to her and focused and then I can blow out the background livermore but the further I get the more she becomes part of the background really and then the distance with focal amount of d focus between them becomes less yes good answer all right carla phobia if oranje would like to know under what outdoor conditions do you use a lens hood and maybe because you are trying to get more of a flare is that why you're not using one right now yeah right now I'm wanting to get if I get any speculators and flare from the sun is actually part of the look I'm going for and also with the this neutral density filter in particular it's hard you have to reach in through the hood to twist it and just it so unless I'm getting really bad flare when I'm using a neutral density if I am I'll have an assistant just flag over the lens for me or put a little plaque gonna stand instead of a lynch great thank you could you explain for l a photographer uh more neutral density questions um what exactly are you doing when you say dropping down the nd filter exactly with the camera dropping the defector uh good but sometimes I just say things that make no sense to anybody but me and I'm dropping the exposure with bnd filters so when I rotate my indy filter to the right and if you can see I don't think it's in the camera there but there's little markings and it says minimum and maximum minimum that's about two f stops of exposure drop less exposure and as I turn it it goes three four five six seven eight stops alway at the top so there's there's a range in here so when I say I'm dropping it means I'm just dropping the amount dropping the exposure cool all right thank you got it okay all right let's try cup mohr we're gonna keep our such such the same way we're gonna go for ah let's see what we're gonna go for your radio lock my exposure first and then rotate the neutral density filter right people wonder how do you work with this thing the best way to do it is to where'd they go fire I rotated to much for firing off alright that's looking pretty good alright cool okay thank recalled this set up so last thing I do is we'll switch lanes completely we're going tight and again shoot towards the back with the longer lens if you could grab me the seventy two hundred or the eighty five one four please clear I'm gonna shoot with a longer lens and we can kind of seymour how the compression softening of the background works in comparison to the wide lens take that hood off switch from eighty five k what does gus he is not uh I think right now won't you stand up on that thank you j with her okay and we're gonna let's see you can kind of put your back to her this way shoulder to shoulder but then you're gonna keep your chin that way so you could turn that way towards me so you're gonna put your weight on that back but make it put this leg back more so you're kind of like this you gotta get us a little closer I know it sounds kind of friendly here but we're doing a kind of a tight headshot between you two girlfriends all right sky there and I think I actually do claire could have you shade flag for me so I'm gonna shoot this again I'm gonna shoot about one point six no just that black right there no no no just that yeah shame me me me me it's all about me shake me shake me not allowed okay perfect nice okay here to the lady's mecca lean forward towards me more beautiful shake me shake me well we're a little hot there ok well hi did uh you go a lot closer he did right ok so we moved a little bit closer so that went a little hot that's all right we need about stopping a third down on each so I'm dropping my exposure down to stop to stop alicia one stop and I'm gonna drop my ambien exposure down about stop too for the sky was starting to lose its appeal back there okay and have you turn your chin up that way good and both you guys kind of look towards this light here lean in a bit uh some here we go waiting for mr windy man to blow that feather in the hair good mecca turn your chin to the right just more looking up okay one two three okay hold on there's a hair in your forehead way okay so now we've got uh nice shaping light on their face we want to drop and blow up the background you could see other difference shooting it off too on the eighty five millimeter what it does to the background compared to what the twenty four millimeter did I'd have to with the background so that's the difference dancer that other question between telephoto and the white angle the same aperture very very different looks to the out of focus areas yeah so let's do this do this play with some really simple things well put that away and pull out our five and one we'll just finish up with some simple just in case the wind catches it slower it now maybe a panel reflector yeah let's just go the couple reflectors and you know it might do is just play with play with our own hair light way have time for a question coming up going out there okay great this is aaron h has asked is there a way to combat heavy shadows over the eyes or the mouth in full sun by using a reflector or a simple speed like so maybe we can show that now yeah let's do that now okay great thank you um you can cut the question is yes both you could use a reflector uh to open up the shadows at some fill life or speed light probably just a speed light without any modifiers it tends to kind of look snapshot e okay you know having fun on my show was getting so uh you're gonna have fun I'm just hitting all right trainee island girl uh says looking at these shots and all I'm thinking of is wow those were the great and modern antique I'm so addicted to my computer tools so somebody actually earlier ask kevin if you think about the post that you're going to do if you think about the actions or the presets that you're going to use when you're shooting yeah a lot of times we are or I am thinking about that you know is I see a scene just like she said I might see it and go wow with this look and this everything going on here modern antique or vintage delicious or something is gonna look really good so often time which is a really good question I made purposely under exposed a little bit for some of the actions that I know will pump six contrast so some of the tools actually do add contrast or reduce contrast and so I may make a very variety of exposure is based on knowing that I might do that too it later ok I have one final question for you kevin and this is from mh from greenville north carolina when using reflectors how do you know when to use the white gold or silver good question the I generally like to use the soft ish ones the white gold or silver these multi discs have obviously a lot of options the gold I really I hardly ever use only because it just is to kind of california girls sunshine for me you know for but if you were doing like bikini stuff on the beach and you wanted that nice california warm sun it's perfect for that uh what I find a lot of the time they're just using the diffusion crates all the uh the light a reflection because a lot softer so for example if we're gonna try and light these ladies up so what you just sit on the front facing me we'll just show a little bit of the light going on maybe you can see from that camera here just what it adds okay so right there from nothing if you want to just open up their eyes and add a little bit do a little head shot you could lay that down there and it's soft enough that it doesn't take over and I could do that is just a little twinkle light in their eyes and get a really gorgeous and shot just using the existing light now if we laid a silver gold on their not only is gonna blind them so watch your eyes ladies you know it's just absolutely ridiculous you know it's like vampire lighting when you're the new nanny okay and the hard white side could be used but again it's a little too bright a little bit too much up light so it kind of depends on what you're going for but I find that this actual diffusion which is made for blocking the sun uh is a nice reflector because it's soft enough that it looks natural so let's do that right now we'll do a little head shot just lay that in their lap just get my good take the bnd filter off and just go back to regular old shooting here I'm going to shoot maybe a little head shot at two point eight just so we can see a variety of ways to light the face in full sun when you don't have much else to go with so girls one arm around the other squeeze in tight I'm gonna shoot this at two point eight and reduce my exposure via my shutter speaks I don't have any flash right now down right about there okay one two and three must go beautiful hey we got a nice twinkle in their eyes uh beautiful light on their face it's soft very very flattering to you young faces like there's okay close okay I'm going to go into aperture priority minus a third s o will be two hundred my shutter speed ends up being point to okay one two and three more so they're already having a hard time with his light so bright so if I was with the white or silver be ridiculous here we go one two and three okay thank you sassy pants alright beautiful in their eyes and just about the right amount of flexion no you notice putting that underneath if you look at the the twinkle in her eyes half to see more of the eyes makes a beautiful catch light makes their eyes really twinkle so having that reflector underneath sometimes if it was too hard it looks fake so the soft one works with good for that will answer your question or doing something else kind of both right I remember where I got this I got to ask you about the gold versus silver verses way but then you were moving into your next shot okay thank you for answering that question all right so the other day the other is dad this five multi disk let's turn around and I'm gonna you uh meca let's just have you sit in the front and lets you just sit in the back you're gonna kind of be texture and we're gonna switch back and forth between the two so we're gonna diffuse off and main light mecca with this ah some beautiful uh well that's the kind of look this way and lean back a little bit okay cool huh so now we're completely blocking out the sun and creating us a nice little soft light just on meccas face and great when you're in full sun you can see the difference now between the two between melissa and full sun and mecca in full sun and if you wanted them both there's a shot of the two of them then we would often put something over melissa's well but for just one person this disc is awesome because a beautiful soft soft light and let's go one that's really right into her eyes I think that would be nice to you know what let's take the other one and shield melissa so we got to get her get number yeah listen lean back a little bit okay right here mecca beautiful one more way good chin up just a touch less you gotta lean back just a little sorry goes good right there wait right there last one okay perfect way go if I drop the exposure just the way a little bit bring my shadows up a little bit we make this almost hdr should now we have a nice exposure on her face everything slightly in there nice little jury cover okay where is our speed light we need one last thing I want to show up here is using a speed light through a disk like this and this is a really easy quick way to set up a light anywhere you turn that on and we'll use melissa for this one so you guys could stay right where you are and I'm going to reduce the wonder let's go and see to some awesome sauce hair going on there but the indian filter back on and what I want to do is to you use this as my main light so it's very similar to what we do with the octa dome but if you don't have a knock the dome you can't afford the octo dome or you just got this this is like the ultimate and lightweight lighting location lighting is just the disc on assisting with an arm that she has one arm that's so fine she could hold the disc in her teeth and just use one arm to hold the flash and hold it out in front like this at arm's length now of course if it's windy this is uh this is a tricky thing to accomplish so let's have two lovely assistants hold this or other balancing assistant is good to our zoom on our flash should be about fifty that's pretty good way may need full power and then we'll see how it normally at weddings uh claire is very used to doing this by herself so she'll hold it with one hand and flash at arm's length behind it with her other hand and we've got enough light so let's have that right there that has to be that far and make sure it's pointing right at the centre test far it's not going to test it yeah channel a manual yeah but the other wizard on there or something I don't know one change is going to switch out our receiver will do this shot there goes the use fire no oh you know what hold on operator air I forgot to turn on my channels I channel a turnoff I don't know why and even to me the best and the worst all right so now I'm using the sun as my main light and I'm gonna try to shoot this at two two or so and we'll just see where we get way alright so we're pretty darn close there so I start this it f to to soften my background the sun is my backlight and just one speed light through this disc becomes the main light so we're pretty right on let's shoot a few more like that okay listen turn your chin this way from the other side because we've got to get her hair thing that miss are you know you're good but we're gonna move our light to the other side way can't see the thing you gotta kind of picky down just a little bit that way way uh mecca can you lean forward just more scoot forward so that you're just this way here we go one two three melissa nice write up towards this light this pull back just a little bit ladies right but towards that thing there one two three beautiful one last one one two three all right beautiful light on her face now uh son on the top of her hair wow your hair looks awesome sauce like it and uh the light on her face directional and shapely just from the speed light shooting through this little disk right here so we've created a light box type look with just this that's it I really like that I actually never myself not to do that that's awesome yeah so this is a great tool I use this in weddings a lot if you're inside of reception and you somebody at a table and just wanted to a quick nice head shot you're assisting you just walk up whom you snap it you got it and it's a much better portrait light than flash on camera on once again if you don't have an assistant you ask the person who's sitting next to that person that they would be o one more quick shots so you could get it okay all right so this is gonna hold it this is our typical set up here for a wedding they let your hair looks awesome right there you know you could just look off because you're kind of soft in the background are melissa turning towards this way just live it close your eyes go ahead and close on I'll count one two three for this we're gonna actually fire right ok er two and three okay