Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Rooftop Steampunk (Mecca & Melissa)

uh typical situation when it's sunny like where I live twenty three in your days a year you got a lot of direct sun to deal with here in seattle this is like one day at a three hundred sixty four that we actually got no I'm just kidding seattle is a beautiful place not fashion seattleites but we thought it was gonna rain today and actually turned out really sunny on the roof so here we are in bright sun and there's several ways to deal with bright sun and I'm going to show you a couple of them that we can fit into this timeframe here and one of them is to make a light tent and that's kind of what we've got going on really the purpose of this is to make our model feel special like she's got her own little special tent you know like she's a star something so can we have some cupcakes in kuala bears so that's what she asked for that they ask for weird things so the tent is not only to keep them all uncomfortable but it's also to off course defuse the sun and we have these nice big diffuse...

rs overhead what we're getting is a really beautiful soft wrapping light the sun is just being our main light boom coming through here coming through the top bouncing off the sides we get this really soft soft beautiful light now this is great for portrait's it's even nice for we've got some little jewelry items and details from our steam punky theme and it works great to kind of just soften the light and give you a rapping highlight on those items in fact the way she's looking right now you can see this cool little mask on her head has a really nice off light wrapping around it it was a speculator kind of a light it would look dark but if you have shiny objects like that you need something for to reflect off of it so it needs to have a white surface a silver or something large especially the bendy surface like that to reflect off of it and give it its texture and color so let's just do a quick this is all going to natural light for starters and then I'll show you another way to deal with the wreck song which is to fight son with sun and use your own life so we're just going to go and start here I'm gonna shoot this pretty close toe wide open I'm using an eighty five one four lens and I want to shoot it at one point eight and one of the reasons why I have all kinds of crazy stuff going on the background I don't want it to compete with my subject I'm cool with crazy stuff in the background as long as it makes interesting texture colors patterns that sort of stuff right so we'll just keep the crazy background and we're going to zoom in here on the headpiece and listen kind of turn your chin this we can look right back that way I'm focusing on the little thingamajig there so we can have you right there and we'll just see what this looks like right on the head piece itself nice one six aperture or one eight aperture on that one and we get a beautiful soft soft light nice highlighting across the top of the mask and our background really doesn't matter right now I'm just shooting into the roof and it looks like this kind of modeled beige color looks nice against her hair and the colors and the thing so it's a nice way to just highlight that peace on her head okay and her hair sassy hair is that so let's do one more and this time we're going to go into her eye so she's gonna look raise your eyes to me right here beautiful and we're sure what is your hand I'm getting this really tight head and shoulders so let's have a hand with something kind of close you know you don't know about this boat I see this little locket around your neck pull some hair back just a little bit ok ok not too far back that's good perfect just like that and can turn your chin this way just a wee little bit yeah okay it's too bright you can close your eyes and I'll count one two three for you one two three amore writes a beautiful start with natural light and it wraps her very very soft as acute look there and surrounding her with light which is very very nice in the middle of the bright sun if you're gonna start to shoot against the sky well you've got a difference an exposure here right between the tent and the sky so you're either gonna know that you're just gonna blow out the sky for shooting towards the sky so say for example want to go down low and shoot something this way we're going to slightly overexpose the sky in order to have her face properly exposed and in this situation here I may switch my meeting mode if I was all doing matter meeting and go to a spot meter for her face all right and then we'll just take one little exposure here it's kind of nice okay we got a great exposure on her face slightly blew up the sky I got a little shape it's in the background kind of looked down melissa into their area beautiful more in your head down kind of this way so I can see the mask on your face turn your face towards me right there and then look chin down there you go cool okay nice queue of that all right so now we're gonna switch it up a little bit and put another person in there and where is our mecha we're gonna rotate this a little bit so what I'm gonna do now because I need to have space for two and I want to rotate my main panel here and the overhead right towards the sun all right so when I have it at an angle because it's at an angle the sun is at its only blocking less and less the more of an angle a goes to the sun you block less and less in your slice of shade becomes very thin so if you put it block it directly towards the sun you've got the full width here and now you have little more space to play with so now we can get to two peoples in here so we have a guy kind of close together so let's see how about meca let's try this you come in the front and listen you can kind of see here and the kind of lean your back towards her maybe see how this works um turn your needs just a little bit this way melissa so now we're gonna get cropped off you there I'm going to be a pure spirit I don't think way what if we switch you to since you're a little bit taller but what you couldn't you've got stuff under your skirt on you like that it's gonna be uh yeah shoes up all right let's take a look at our exposure here hello that's way too hot how that happened so I switched to manual mode let's turn it off all right so I shot it manual sixty four hundred was my shutter speed the first time I shot that and I just switched aperture priority hasn't forced to have it well I think what I'm doing now go back down again all right looking good you know it is so melissa no smiling because mac is not smiling okay so you got a beast be sassy there we go melissa kind of turn your face towards that scrim so you're looking up in that way instead of at me don't look at me and that's good there okay eyes up melissa cool right now all right looking lovely latest nice okay we're getting the same thing said mecca but have you kind of looking up that a way to melissa like you looking that way towards the light and cameraman's out of the back I'm gonna lean towards her a little bit mecca way someone to three good mecca kind of lean on her just a little bit just yeah onto three eyes good well that's a turn your face to the left just the way a little bit and look up to the sky s k one to look up back of three here we go into another one and close your eyes and rest if they're getting tired all right one two three nice rest your eyes I think I can see out here I can all right looking good ladies we're gonna come in a little closer so what I want to do now is I'm gonna bring this scrim towards me just just so they're still in the shade but we bring it towards the front so bring it just until it starts to peak onto their backs they're switching over to soothe all right so now I won't have you guys a little bit closer so mecha kind of rest your elbow there on her it's awesome most I think if you have your hands get in the front hold you crossing over your props here all right you guys get both turn your chins up this way just a little uh very nice beautiful girls one two very good okay cool now want to do some little details of the jury some let you you can step up for a second and mecca I'm going to stand up so we could get those little guilty thing thank you are almost tall you're that turn your hips that way and pointed toe towards me that way so you gotta put your weight on your back yeah turn that hip towards me and I need something to do with the hand so maybe the right hand's gonna hook a thumb into something over there I like you a cowgirl yeah there you go hanging onto your belt and this one we want teo you know that's cool what you're doing is good take the ring too much hips this way so if we were just doing jewelry shots just focusing on the jewelry trying to get some nice images of tenure left so that way just a wee little bit mecca and bring your knee closer in kind of ended in you know it means they're gonna be there to hear it just gonna bend your knee and that way we're really focusing on the waist belt here and do a shot of that yeah it might be nice to do you want any kind of behind it yeah you step one step back let's see how far we get without hitting the sun before since the scythe I'm going to switch over to a lens baby edge eighty shoot this at two point eight which is about o to stop more than what I was shooting at stop and a half so that comes out to be I can't even see my screen all right that's a pretty cool okay turned towards me just a little bit this way mecca tips there okay so again we're focusing on the jewelry right now like how do we highlight this jewelry here with great there bring this need toe towards me left and bring your anthony and ariel said any points now this way way out all right way to folks in the jury use this light here okay so we're gonna try one more ill head shot kind of deal right here and we're gonna switch up and do another sun setting our son's scenario we're gonna have a seat on this one you uh like that their touch your head down lean forward just like you were doing to what I'm going to the loo goggles staying here so this time just kind of focusing on the on those goggles on your head so you kind of just kind of tilt your head down lean forward I mean you can put your hands on your knees just lean forward I'm not even seeing any of this really okay you can uh no tilt your face down there looking down on evenly in fort even more feels weird but it's really all about the goggles on top all right so what I'm doing now is playing with the lender the edge eighty and focusing just on the goggles on top of her head but changing my focus point so that I get a little slice off to the side on and turn your chin to the right just a little bit there mayko they're perfect school your left and keep your ring on your left hand and bring it up on your arm yeah I kind of just up on your shoulder just kind of hugging on your shoulder okay down again here we go just like that perfect all right here we gol were shot highlighting the jewellery of there goggles on her head all right relax question from matthew koontz who would like to know what types of things do you do to make sure the models don't get too tired or so that they stay fresh they heard you say that to tell they heard you ask them to rest their eyes huh so what other one of the things you do to keep them keep them fresh yes yeah you know sometimes I just don't feel fresh and uh sometimes the models don't feel fresh so what you gonna do water is nice water's good water is good to have but having them rest your eyes a lot of times when you work we're not even staring into the sun obvious like I am right now but even inside of a light ten it's still pretty bright so a lot of times I just say close your eyes and I'll count to three one two three and they could look up shoot and then rushed him again and if you practice your timing that's using perfect and you'll get a brief moment when they actually are fully open and then they have to kind of squint again and if you catch it just right you practice that that's a great thing to do but also just making sure that they they're they're comfortable if there's anything you can do you know the obvious that the water is great but uh in between shooting make sure and let them know they can relax while you're changing your lighting or whatever so they don't sit there thinking they have to hold something and staring the sound the whole time okay great thank you uh quick question from honolulu oh what this working windier conditions what would you even attempt using this set up if it was really windy out it was really windy out and not not if I had really big assistance to hold onto the frames then that might work but uh probably not it was super windy I mean you know russ is like a thirty mile per hour wind day kind of guy but if I'm just depending on alicia you know where clare we're talking fifteen twenty miles per hour that's all they're good for the way I've lost several assistance that way just especially when you're on the roof that rooftop it's bad it's bad news you're on a boat then it's fine kevin to get a lot of questions about where you get those amazing shirts and wants to know where you get these shirts that you're always rocking uh all over the place it and I have another question in my special shop that's awesome okay cheese insurance made it a little factory in italy really just for me all right but you could find that on the internet people vh photo from panama would like to know if you have any tips for focusing the lens baby I never seem to get tad sharp photos tap sharp photos tech tack sharp photos weathers two answers to that one is practice and that honestly is one of the strange things about lens babies you have to practice to get good at it uh we're so used to putting on the lens and just press auto focus and it works that we forget sometimes you have to have to work at getting a funky tool to work and the lens baby does take a lot of practice but it also depends on which lens baby you're using the edge eighty that I'm using actually is razor sharp in that slice of focus area some of the other lens babies are really not tack sharp anywhere but that's part of the allure of it is it has a very dreamy almost toy camera feel to it though the original lenses so depends on which one you get but there are you can get him tax sharpen the sweet spot if you practice thank you awesome and one more thing we're getting a ton of people who are loving today I just want to pass one along christian says thank you for sharing your skills toys and personality I've learned a lot and hope to learn so much more you're inspiring thank you all so thank you all right so next rock on okay uh what do we do it oh yeah we're gonna neuter density filter ok so you can stay sitting ducks do you need any water need a fan okay say she's comfortable cara model so good now when we're gonna nutra density filter the background if I want to bring my sky down all right I want to kind of pull up some of that the blue in the sky here uh I may not have enough light here because he saw before when I exposed for what's in happening in the tent because we're blocking some of the sun and we want to darken the sky I actually want to go maybe a stop darker in the sky I'm gonna need to kick this up I don't even know where I'm looking at to talk to there you are he's got a strange here but it's like talking to nobody doggy device up hello okay there you are so er you have two adds more light to balance out the fact that you've got a tent cutting down at least a stop or so of what would be the sun and probably at least another stop because of I want to darken to stop in the background so we're gonna add some light and if it's not enough we'll add more that we can have one two three speed lights we'll start with a light trek because it has a nice power output on full power and we're gonna shine it just where the sun's coming through almost on the exact same direction is the sun as if it's so it's adding to the sun coming through my tent so that I can lower my exposure for the background way all right I need a synchro my camera sorry I'm gonna shoot one shot first too just to show you the setting for the background but the exposure's going to be about a stop or so undersea almost two stops under that way all right so you can see we're about two stops under with no flash coming through when I drop my background so that I can actually see the sky and the clouds sort of can't see here then that gives me about two stops thank you two stops more I'm gonna need here so we're gonna we're gonna add this up and see what this may be enough may not okay full power bring it straight in here yeah should should just a wee little bit down yeah right there I just put it up there and my guess is we're gonna need more than that one so we're gonna get another speed like ready but member that purpose here is to build it up slowly if you're not sure then just try it and then you do it again all right so we're adjusting now the same base exposure uh using the indie filter allowed me to turn up to the right your chin intothe were pretty close alicia on that anymore someone have you turned your body this way towards that light wei don't need another speed like kind of leaned forward and looked right up towards that thing there you can close your eyes and do that thing you ok one two three relax all right beautiful okay so what I did was I brought my shutter speed down to two fiftieth of a second so that I could sink with that flash in order to shoot it to eight with a video the second my neutral density filter is about minus seven stops minus seven stops that's quite a bit but that's how I was able to get actually some color and texture in the sky behind her and adding this to the sun we actually have ah really nice exposure on her face a darker dramatic sky and looking pretty good someone's shooting a few more just like this work on our pose a little bit on our other things okay mecha looking up and then little bits here to your left with your face okay go and lean forward more on your knees ok wei go onto three lovely okay I like that you cannot be planned step that way right here towards me beautiful chin up it's like that nice and look right up towards the sky way beautiful way yellow's cool thanks man I like that one all right I like that you're kind of leaning forward looking up turn your face towards me just a wee little bit and look eyes up to this guy they're beautiful amore got it that's okay I got you I think waiting for one more to come in with more my focus is off on that one let's try that again way okay here we go one two and three more one two and three yeah so there we have a nice kind of a puffy clouds sky behind her that's really pretty on her face um way go got my focus figured out how the autofocus turned off so this is what I was going forward the sky if you guys can see back home we found some nice little puffy clouds by turning my uh neutral density filter minus seven stops which is about two stops under normal it's almost two stops under normal two stops under normal there's nobody else up on the roof with me by the way so it looks like where's every two stops under normal gives me that nice blue puffy clouds behind mecca and then we had this at full power the impact of full power gives me enough boost to bring back the sun to where I wanted it to be bring back the exposure through the tent and we balance it out and I got a really cool little head shot of her going on in there so why we why we got this set up let's bring back melissa on this get to you together for a couple more last shots right here then we change it up again so let's do this let's have another apple crate and I'm gonna have so you sit lower listen have you sit behind her and kind of lean forward because I need to get your face is kind of close together they're so even if you kind of you know it's just gonna be head and shoulders you put your arm around them just even rested on the crate behind her there we go and I go down a little guitar puffy cloud again sorry about that okay both you guys could kind of turn eyes up to that yeah yeah I can see the jury better that's cool melissa uh well this is their pull your hair so I can see your locket little bit hanging out there what will you have yeah on the other side that's beautiful okay which I could see that mask on that side of your face but I guess that's not gonna happen right now okay let's go with that one two and three chin up just a little bit melissa let's do one more one two three but I gotta do slow sorry one two and three relax all right I think is their eyes close eyes open eyes closed one okay cool huh okay we're gonna shoot a few more like that and we're gonna change a situation up here hey I like that you guys are doing awesome awesome sauce if I don't say so myself and you know what our son's moving a little bit something's gonna shift this whole thing bring your and over you can stay where you are rush was gonna rotate way now I know I have a little more background work with hey ladies all right let's go looking that way okay one two and three good we'll do another one here one two and three okay good who got a hair blowing that was awesome hey good one more time who was building the hair is that god yeah yeah goodjob guys thank you one teo hand three okay cool it's beautiful ladies let's change it up a little bit and let's do a shot we're actually gonna shoot into the sun with the sun as a rim light and we're gonna go over here and you someone's machinery and doom or of ah environmental funchal uncle uncle stuff whatever that means yeah well take on the screams were just going to use the octo with double speed lights and we're gonna roll everybody on over right over there for one last shot all right here we go okay we're gonna be over here ladies so I've been authorized to let you guys walk on the edge of this roof line over here so oh no we can just getting that was like all right so one of one of you gonna hang in here one of you could even maybe standing on this I will be there waken play it up a little bit change it may be off the edge here mecca you kind of sound like that full power both to um not well we're gonna need we're gonna need a little more out of this so I'm zooming money heads I may need to take the actual battle well see that might give us about a half a stop take the bath alone okay try that full stop talking it out is you yeah inter baffle oh that ok ok so we're ready to try shot here and again I'm gonna use the neutral density filter and this on the sun's gonna be my hair light back light and I'm gonna shoot up here and the sun is actually gonna be coming into the lens a little bit so we gotta watch for flair and I want to reduce my exposure so that my skyline everything behind me is actually uh appears and then we're gonna use ah double speed light and octo boxes the main light and try to get as close as possible and hope that has enough power for doesn't we get in we get out pop another speed light in there so let's see just hang onto that that's gonna go close so let's much kind of close as you can to her because you guys are too far away the light's gonna be really different on you ok that's awesome uh let me see once I get over there and I'm gonna shoot this with a wide angle you have have you come over here melissa right there a wide angle so that it's dramatic but also if I put my people is somewhere near the middle of the wide angle uh I don't have to worry about distortions much let's do a test shot here and see if this works before that was a that was a test shot for the background that's it we're exposing for way too dark in the background so I can change this up open my f stop up quite a bit and we go back down large block over here from way too dark sky's looking pretty cool though way change our angle a little bit and look at this guy didn't like that so much weight go all right so we're just gonna need uh cameraman to move and the shi I look great all right so it's a little too hot on melissa's we have to even this out so come a little more vertical no on right about there works for me okay all right ladies listen gonna put the left foot point it that way yeah there we go perfect and that feeling good here very nice gail super sassy more I'm playing with my nd filter here to get various amounts of darkening will see we're at every girl that's looking cool all right I'm shooting this at two point oh and what I'm looking for is the cool cast shadows from the sun behind them and I got shit like that shadow even more so I'm gonna go for a little more shadow action and step back right about here way should be good one two and three at least a step back just a six inches there we go one two turn up mecca ok no smiles melissa we're going to sassy with this one beautiful waiting for that recycled time to catch up we go one two and beautiful amore three two alright looking pretty sassy wei have a questions I know so I just briefly review what I did here play with my neutral density filter so that I could drop down my exposure anywhere between uh stopping two thirds two stops below normal for the background and then we're just filling in with my two speed lights on full power in the octo box to give me enough to balance and light up their faces so all that light on their faces come from the octo box on to speed lights full power