Lesson Info
22. Controlling natural light
Lessons
Meet your Master
01:26 2Learn from the journey
15:24 3Using inspirations
08:43 4Photography is stopping time
09:27 5Albert's library of ideas
08:30 6Tips on preparing for a portrait shoot
12:10 7Setting up the studio
04:56 8Understanding studio collaboration
07:35The importance of casting and hair & make-up
08:59 10Foreground studio set up
08:46 11Studio session with a model - set up 1
11:23 12Studio session with a model - set up 2
05:55 13Studio session with a model - set up 3
08:01 14Picking the best shot
03:36 15Working with photoshop
13:14 16Creating a portrait of Alfred Hitchcock
04:18 17The gigantic question... Colour or black and white?
07:55 18One day with Kate Moss
05:06 19Learn to have your ideas ready
06:14 20Using Polariods
06:29 21Creating beautiful photographs of hands
04:45 22Controlling natural light
05:38 23Shooting a monkey with a gun
06:27 24Choosing your format
07:13 25Composition and lens
04:47 26Shooting landscapes. The Isle of Skye
15:18 27Planning and ideas for a landscape shoot
06:32 28Creating still life images
13:48 29Photographing the Lost Diary
10:53 30Shooting album covers
03:09 31The Strip Search Project
10:28 32Shooting Las Vegas landscapes
08:24 33Photographing Breaunna
07:21 34Balancing daylight, God bless America
03:45 35Creating the Maroc Project
10:21 36Creating the Maroc shoot
08:11 37Photographing sand dunes
04:09 38Photographing Moroccan children
10:42 39Advice on making portraits
10:12 40How to be alert to finding photographs
07:35 41Making a portrait of Mike Tyson
02:39 42Creating intense colour in a photograph
03:04 43Portraits of rap stars and a Golden Boy
08:40 44Photographing Jack Nicholson
04:20 45Creating a portrait of David Cronenberg
02:14 46How to light only using two $10 bulbs
07:29 47Studio fashion set up 4
10:47 48Studio session with a model. The geography of a face
13:05 49Look inside the picture
02:56 50Creating memorability in an image
02:54 51Combining nudes and landscapes
04:52 52A perfect print
07:50 53The business side of things
06:50 54Conclusion and farewell
03:55Lesson Info
Controlling natural light
(calm music) I have a great love of strobes and tungsten light and HMI lights. I have a great love of them. But just every so often I just have a mad kind of love affair with natural light. And I really began to reconsider that, because I did a lot of my early work with natural light. But I'd really began to reconsider that really in the end of the eighties. And I really began to try and see how I could work it it. Sometimes it's possible, there's a well-known nude of Kate Moss that's completely, 100% natural light. And how could I work with it, how could I possibly shape it slightly sometimes, how could I cancel some of the effects of natural lights, how could I increase natural light, how could I manage to work with it? Or in fact, sometimes not work with it at all, just go ahead and shoot what was right in front of me. But as for the Kate Moss shot, for example, of course it's a matter of knowing that you're gonna do that shot, but absolutely thinking about the time of day you're ...
gonna do it. And to pretty much know that you want the light not to be sitting right on the horizon line if you're using sun, but, so as it gets too chalky, the light, but you sometimes can shoot the light as it, if the sun is setting at six, you might want to start your shot at five, 5:15, 5:20, 5:30, and so you work with the light as it changes and alters. But once again, it's an awareness of what's going on and thinking about what's going on and thinking about what the light is doing and really looking. (calm music) There's a strange thing with photographers sometimes. They become obsessed by the camera and what they're photographing and not really thinking about what's really going on sometimes with the light. I think it's because their concentration means they start speaking to the subject, they get distracted by the photograph without really looking what's going on light wise. So in the end, of course when you work with natural light, natural light changes, it moves, a lot of times you have clouds coming over, you have sun, you sometimes get very lucky, it's a cloudy day, it's flat light. But you can increase that with reflectors. So natural light definitely has it's own beauty and I'm lucky because I never really settled down and said okay, I'm a tungsten guy or I'm an HMI or a strobe or I'm a natural light guy or I'm mixed lights, I mix strobe with natural, whatever. I tried to say well I know how to do all of that stuff and therefore it means that I have a slightly bigger bag of tricks to pull from. But natural light is certainly a major, a major player in all of that because there is a great beauty sometimes to just using the sun. (calm music) I'm always traveling wherever possible, wherever possible, with a minimum of four eight-by-four boards, black on one side, white on the other. And I find those just invaluable because that way you can create shadows with them, you can block light with them, you can, if you have four possibilities, if you think about an eight foot by four foot board, that's 32 square feet and if you have four of them you can do the math on that and that's 128 square feet of light that you can put in front of the subject to bounce light up into the subject. Or if there's a white cement ground that you don't want all of that light bouncing up, then you can flip the boards and do black. So four, eight-by-four boards if you've got the vehicle to carry them or you can strap them on top of their car, is really fantastic. I can do whole shoots with just these boards. Now of course, you don't need eight feet by four feet. You can maybe get away with four feet by four feet, but I do love these big boards because they're handy. (calm music)
Ratings and Reviews
Richard A. Heckler
"Unless you're Mozart"...this course is an invaluable asset. I'm a pro, humanitarian/documentary photographer, & wilderness...and I've learned much from the 40+ sessions here. This is truly a Master Class...next best thing to being with Albert. And although I could watch studio sessions forever, this course offered a very balanced curriculum of technical information, artistic encouragement and guidance, and a open, generous window into the thinking of a gifted artist and photographer, sifted from decades of first class experience. Kudos to all involved. Excellent!
a Creativelive Student
I purchased my first CreativeLive class in 2011 and have continued to purchase many classes over the years. I have learned so much from the many great instructors. This one is not a technical class that will tell you to set your camera at f4, 1/60, ISO 400 and you can get this shot. If you are looking for that, there are many other options. If you have a solid working knowledge of photography, this class is so much more. The way it was filmed is like you are there with him in conversation or in the room with him watching him shoot. To see and understand the how and why he does what he does. Not to take anything away from other classes that have helped to give me a strong understanding of photography, this is my favorite CreativeLive class so far.