Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Couple Portrait

so we're going to start off with the another lighting scenario here and we did some more formal portrait sauron earlier session of the bride and the groom and candlelit table and dancing and I want to do something just kind of light and playful and so we have a nice little couch you've got some kind of back lit windows here gonna use behind the scenes now as just ambience the backlight so we're going to create all the light we need on their faces so we have a little couch over here for them to sit on and play and I'm going to just let them kind of mess around do what they want on the couch they can you make out if they want it can play with their hair and try different poses but anything that's not formal we just want playful stuff or silly stuff on the couch so we need to have some kind of a lighting that's going to allow them to move and scoot around the couch and change position whatever theywant to do without us having to them and follow them with a light box like we did with the o...

ther one because that was more controlled so to give ourselves room to play we need a light source is bigger it's more like a big window light and that's when we we'll double up our frames are scrims so we had pulled out earlier the single panel scrims that we've used for a couple of shots already and this is a double sized panel and you could do the same with just two of those panels maybe two of the do it yourself panels if you've made him or decide you want to make some get two of them and just put them side by side now you get a double size which increases your window apparent window size giving mohr broader light uh also giving them more room to move without having the exposure and the lighting change too much so we're going to try and set up this area here for that we've got the scream out here and now we're going to go in there and kind of find tune but the lighting dialed in and balance it with the backlight coming in through the windows which is going to just kind of at some ambiance from the back all right so let's go to it so the main thing I'm going to start with is you guys I'm going to have a seat on the couch and I'll be right with you don't get started without me oh the group shot you guys give me the next shot yeah I like your energy though thank you for the a is ready to go uh the main light behind the panel this is our impact from the lakota light trick and this is from impact and this is a battery powered strobe it's ah little bigger than a speed light it's got a little more power and a nice broad output so this is gonna be my main light that lights the whole back of this panel right here okay so I can pull this back set it to a spot I know what this grid here I'm gonna have a nice wide beam covering this some of it's going to spill that way but that's okay because that's not even in the shot uh some of the light may spill that way around the edge of the frame so the main thing I want to do it I could see the couch for edge if I pull my light so that it's just a little bit this side then none of the direct light will hit the couch and if light spills to the back over there then that's something I may want to flag off and what we can use to flag is just another one of your little panels or you could even have your assistant or somebody stand there but we have panels already that we have black fabric four and again there's something you could make yourself or by and so we may put a panel just right here to flag off and actually show you got one ready to go if we need it so here's a panel here with the black turn this around here at least you don't hurt yourself young lady anyone counting because I'm not like a here we go here's our panel of the black on the front and we'll just put this right over here to flag it off and what we can do is actually turn it around so the whitesides here and it'll just help cast any extra light right back into the scene right so that keeps it from spilling onto the background we'll have to see if that crack shows if not we'll just readjust something around here and any extra light because this is white on the other side it's going to just reflect back into there and help me out had more like you in that direction okay so the light track I'm going to start it off at uh about an eighth power no wait what should I said it at mike uh half half power ok so it started a half power and that'll be our starting point I love it he has a great uh already rocking and rolling here huh and so here's my shot and you can see I've got these bright windows which creates a nice little edge light on the back of the couch the back of their hair I want a balance with that I want to overexpose the windows slightly so we have a nice kind of open lighting field um I have another speed like ready to go here a rare and a quick stand and this is basically to add room fill so I have a roof and I don't know if you can see the roof on these cameras here but the roof is pretty crusty it's like a you know wouldn't brownish roof but for bouncing light it doesn't have to be perfect if they're roof was purple or something like that that might be kind of crazy to cast a color caste but if the roof is white or slightly warm and tone would tone I can bounce light it's just gonna add a little warm phil to the whole scene so right above me right here there's kind of a gray paint ugly thing and there's a wood beam thing like that I can bounce into that and that's gonna allow some fill so we'll save this and if we if we take a test shot and decided we need to fill light overall because of the shadows this creates what is crank this on popular is the roof that creates a general phil and opens things up so we'll start off with just this light after we check our background that we start with the ambience exposure for the background first so we want to see where is everything gonna look in the background the shutter speed controlled light so I'll start with that you know what I also need the show I think my fifty millimeter lens and shoot with that one next so starting off no flash I'm going to set my it's shutter speeds of one twenty five I'm gonna use a bigger f stop this time f four point five or a four ish because I want to give them room to play without having to worry about being out of focus so this is a time when you I would not shoot as narrow adept at field is typically would eso four hundred and again I'm just checking for my windows in the back so you guys just do whatever you're no one assists creating flashes air off okay so they can see on screen here it's pretty dark that's our ambient light for the windows and I want to open that up someone ago another stop on this uh one sixtieth and take one more I want those windows just to blow out just a little bit more flare just a wee little bit one double checked it out my eyes so auto off I do okay one more stop up and we should be good on the ambient way see on screen up there go the opposite direction and look the wrong way see everybody makes mistakes huh here we go last one for the ambient light going up one stop there we go so now our windows air starting to flare just a little bit which is what I was looking for so that they don't look too normal to flare like sunlight coming through adds a nice little room light around them you can see the edge over their shoulders now we gotta kick this one on and see what this is going to do so we can fire that up a leash I'm gonna put it on uh normal transmit with the pocket wizards we had mike suggested to half power for our starter so what the heck would start at half power see if that triggers it dues this was turned off we don't want this yet all right and this is a little quick test here it's awesome who do you think how many stops you think does that look like to you guys studio all of them take all the f stops off I would say that's at least two stops over maybe even a little maur what do you think okay so what were we at least a half power so let's go to half again would be what quarter power half again of the eighth power half again and the sixteenth power let's try let's try the sixty I mean uh what did I just say sixteen try that okay here we go again michael we doing power wise so do you want more less so go go full stop pull it back just a couple of kids that morning to write their angle it and away from me way from alright ok so now we took it down a half and we're going to take one more tester here do you want to explain what you did with moving it back since we can't did you go down or up down now its down okay and make sure that that see that spill over the scream there yeah pull it to the light to the right so that's buying the scream all right so we went the wrong direction on adjusting that power we're going to try one more on fire it up ugo so we we went down a stop and uh mike suggested that's looking pretty good yeah we went down to stop but we wanted to go like stop and a half so this light goes into full stop increments so I just moved the whole light back just a wee little bit to drop that power I also want to make sure that this light is always not pointing towards cameras much because this will flare my lens that ever catches so I'm gonna move this light kind of to this side and feather just a wee bit that way so that we're hitting the most right into the back of the scrim all right now do we want overall fill in that light is pretty nice and it's got some nice shadows do we think we need some fill light what students think looking at that their fill light on the sides of her face uh vanessa baby just look right towards him and let's just see what that's going to cast the shadows in there all right you guys thanks shadows uh there are some shadows they're not crazy bad if you look like the side of danes face facing her away from the main light is that enough detail there or do you want to open that up if we open it up we lose a little bit of the mood the drama but we also have more detail when they're not facing the main light so how you guys feeling about that let you guys help me on this one mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm mmm don't be shy there's no wrong answers it feels like the dress is a little bit hot one oh it'sa lot meeting on the and the girl in it but maybe maybe bringing down the flash a little and then counter bouncing it with some with a little bit of phil a little bit of fill in there we could do that what power setting yeah or something from the back it just looks pretty flat and it looks a little loan out it looks a little wait a little bit closer one dimensional really so keep in mind they're gonna be moving around on the couch and we're gonna shoot a series of them sitting up on the couch for laying on the couch laying on his lap scooting around so we've got to keep our light general enough that they can move and still look okay so if we're going to set this up is this was the portrait we would modify that like quite differently but living ourselves room to play in this and not knowing what they're going to do and where they're gonna go it's kind of important to keep the lightest kind of general and even is possible we've got plenty of detail in her dress and what that that monitor is a little hotter than what isn't reality but uh like we've got plenty of detail in her dress in fact if I go right now into light room here and we'll take our controls and just even bring down the highlights even a wee little bit way got plenty there so let's add a little bit of phil on just say it looks like all right so well at this speed light and I'm just gonna bounce this thing right into the roof and I want to bring it from pretty close to camera positions so that it acts as a that acts as a a frontal even fill from the front okay so it could hit the roof kind open things up and we'll start with this speed light at half power and see where that goes start with that let's be like fire it was yeah okay so that opened it up a lot maybe too much there's air before adding the speed light there's after adding the speed light before and after so let's take that down one stop let's fill I think we're ready to shoot so we'll do a test run more tests and then we'll let you guys go for it was that a pouty face yeah okay so there's our pre phil and after phil a little more moody there without the feel light they're more just overall even soft window we with the film which ones you like better for the film okay that's the beauty of it whatever you like is right right so we're gonna go with regina what she likes take the fill out and start shooting all right hold on I got texas wait she's moving were doing well before the we we increase power on this or decrease power this when we so that's good now you guys can rock and roll oh yeah okay we may have our that recycled light on this thing going on they're recycled paper on on that thing with you there you go you pull up closing detective slaughter their beautiful of that nice did they want to get now is cool just throw your hands up in the air and go for some and pull it and throw your head back and you going for the right side of her neck you gotta go in there yeah that's it yeah yeah I love that one beautiful yeah but do you like throw your veil up behind her you grab her veil and kind of play that that thing there screw shit all up maybe pulling and pull it up around behind you guys or something that's awesome like that and just take it okay I love that one beautiful we're keeping up there yeah cool that was cute like that one in there we're going to go down on floor here get a little lower some like that that was nice andi yeah they're sneaking and close when you stick your toes up in the air just a little bit there very nice cute cute cute okay look there's someone few turn uh kick your feet over the back of that side and lay on his lap like a head back into his lap e I need some help moving around fifty hee hee hee hee bring your flowers up right on your chester didn't just gonna lay him down there have a little bit lower a little lower almost looks like you're in a coffin if you do it too you know just put the flowers like up on the couch like we quit your arm down to left and come up there just let him kind of hangover there somewhere nice okay so you're looking this way turn your to your cheek to the right and kind of look not at me but just recommend you can kind of go in close to her so turns right and just going yeah you're going in for that kissy kissy under cheeky they're beautiful perfect nice like that awesome who hard work being loved on you bring those flowers up just a little bit towards your waist right there you're in the shot again like when you lift your chin he's kind of going in for a little kissy on their beautiful that was perfect we got some camera gear in the back but I think that adds to the ambience I think cool okay like secure it just like that and if you pull one knee up just a little bit I'm not gonna pull it up like that little marks that's you can kick that toe up in the air all that and then you can let him much on your neck and if uh yeah there you go don't make any hickeys we gotta still user from pictures more like that okay awesome sauce let's try one more no decimal you sit up on the back edge of the couch facing me with your feet on the on the thing I need a little hand here don't have pointy heels on right just flat shoes so you're gonna sit up on the bat makes the count doesn't tilt when she goes off and the day and you could just plop down right next to her arms up on the side to be great I love it like a sassy poses for him to that's cute uh yeah can put flowers in there that's cute love that that was a great closer that one more time awesome nice okay guys a good so I'm gonna do is just take a quick moved to my computer here and we'll take one of those last images will go through a few of them later on and process but don't just take maybe one of them here and kind of throw a little pre set on there and kind of figure out what we would do with this thing here so I'm going to have got it already up and develop modes nice thing about tethering obviously it goes right in and you're good to go so let's start play mus and presets and there's ah options we want to make kind of more snappy here's one called snapdragon which just adds here's the original at some contrasts and funky punch to it okay or I'm thinking even something we could try well the ones we use yesterday uh there's a nice black of white wanted to a black and white version of that hollywood black and white bring down the highlights just a wee little bit otherwise it's just about there there's the original looks nice and black and white to uh or I'll go back to the original and try one of our vintage ones here that we had uh about sixty five fastback mustang let's go sixty five mustang looks great bring down her highlights just a wee little bit bring down our whites just a wee little bit we've got detail everywhere you got a minute that's a little vignette ing around the edges uh brings the skin tones kind of creamy we've got detail and her dress all the way through nice little room light on the hair if you look a tte redden danes hair and around the edge of her veil without that window like streaming through and the vignette ing helps to kind of minimize the even the flatten that flattish light that doesn't have a lot of dimension we could now selectively even it out or darken it out by taking down the bottom of the couch with the vignette ing but still keep that nice soft even lights on their face so that's a nice thing about doing your venue letting been getting in post is that you can decide especially this type of broad light maybe kind of flat originally but once you've been yet and darkened on the areas he wants theirs are original and after running sixty five mustang with a little vignette on the edge we've now made it muchmore dramatic and taken down the edges so that we don't want to see and kept the parts that we do want to see more important the windows in the back okay so any any questions on this before we move on yes question people question from the people okay people speak spring we represent the internet here okay let's uh this is a question from leslie d who says do use the scrim instead of a giant soft box with your strobe just due to the simplicity ease of the use of the scrim or is there another reason yes good answer no uh all of the above it's ah it's a lot well number one it's a lot cheaper soft box of this size would be five hundred plus dollars by where is this setup here if you made it yourself would be about forty dollars forty eight dollars uh pvc pipe and material and a big soft boxes actually more trouble to set up especially when you have to put the rods and the rings that have you ever dealt with a giant soft box you know it takes considerable effort to set it up and uh it's not quite a versatile this confused for a lot of different things as well so um giant soft box they're nice if you're in a studio and you have to contain the light on and you have the budget and this timeto work with it but for lightweight location lighting a giant soft box has no place so question from fashion tv in singapore what situations would you rather shoot your flash toward a reflector for reflected light then shooting your flash through a modifier directly that's a good question and a lot of times you'll get a very similar type of light by just firing it into a reflector so if we came on the other side here fire delight into that had a bounce back onto them it uh it may not be as efficient when you're bouncing it and um but it could be in the power line but the main thing you worried about then is then you have to make sure that that's not gonna flare into your lens because in order for my light to bounce from this side it would have to be kind over here where it may get a little bit of flair into the lens it's also going to scatter a little bit more but I have done that a lot actually to have a reflector like plato on yesterday with the reflector of my head and I was kidding around but I was totally serious is I put the speed light on my camera turned around backwards and bounce it into reflector that I'm holding behind my head well I walk around and do table shot so in that case I'm found see it because that's just the easiest way for me to singlehandedly do that so uh the other reason would be if I don't have room if this is a really tight tiny room and I didn't have room to get that flash behind the scream and fire it through that my only choice might be to them put a flash here about sit into the scrim and have it hit them and reflect on them but long as I'm careful about the spill so that that flash doesn't go and hit them directly it's on ly bouncing than that can work ok ok thank you think we're good ok good all right cool so listless I see you want to do it reversed dean is up on that horn huh genesis sits down when he is he's kind of clean it in here uh so would that change we could put him on that side if he's here it's going to change the light so let's try that day what if you sat on this side here and kind of turn this way a little bit and jess is sitting down with your thinking so you gonna sit on the edge yeah wrap around her that's nice and then we can and then we could get a nice little full of her fluffy dress here someone pulled this out from under you okay okay okay all right the only thing with your we gotta get your legs uh let's see one of them has your foot turned towards me your right foot turned towards me just a little bit okay gonna crop that out a bit here here we go and you guys can both look here at this one put this on the dane sit up just a little bit straight or not too much straighter though there we go yeah you turn your face is just little bit weird I feel like we took that out right now let's put the films back on for this one I have a question somebody making us do what make about was there on the right side so we can be on the other side and then sing something dancing yeah okay so this feel like okay all right someone I'm having hard time shooting or killing my table I'm gonna shoot under the table here uh and so data I want you to lean for just a little bit so you're kind of close to her face good and vanessa are going to just kind of lean back towards him just a bit to see your faces or the similar plane but not crouching too much is what it's gonna hard to explain there we go let's try that all right hold that thought that's uh feel like go off I don't even say thanks okay here we go so that could work for a little more of a full length fish fortune of her dress and if we take that right into light room here I'm gonna bring down my highlights just a wee little bit bring down my wife just a little bit put a little edge on that thing on this time we'll try criminal a creme and when I blew it just a little bit so it's not quite as yellow and open my shadows just a touch mary girls there's the finished portrait so there's before and after you can see on your screen whether it's the highlights need to come down we live a bit so on my screen I likes a great detail in her dress uh looks just about right so hopefully it looks that way at home too so what I did was a before and after two little creme de la creme uh to make the skin tones gotta crainey to add a little color punch to it at some vignette take down the background bring the focus more on them for the portrait