Lessons
Class Introduction
01:36 2Fundamentals of Night Portraiture
04:49 3Gear and Preparation
16:50 4Basic Settings
08:15 5Locations
06:15 6Subjects
04:22 7Safety
02:25 8Beating Adversity
01:28Lesson Info
Buddy System
What better way to level up when you're doing night photography or night portraiture than shooting with a friend? Let me start with a story. My buddy, Gabe, took me to a place, I don't know, about nine-ish years ago on the west side of Manhattan that I had never shot of or even heard of before. It's this beautiful location where something out of history had happened, but it still existed there and the juxtaposition of that to all of this bright and clear and busy New York that was right next to it, was pretty amazing. The fact that he chose to share that with me and that we spent the night doing this night photography together, sort of unlocked deeper things in our friendship. And that's one of the points I'm trying to make here. When you go out shooting, it's great to shoot with a friend. Use the buddy system. On top of that, it adds a level of safety that you wouldn't have when you're shooting alone. There's two people with situational awareness, and there's two people with periphera...
l vision, looking around. You know what? I think I'm forgetting some things, so hey, Gabe, you got your ears on? (walkie talkie beeps) Oh yeah, Matt, I'm here, over. Oh, fantastic. You mind coming over and helping me with this? I think I forgot some stuff, over. Yeah, sure no problem. Hey, Matt. Hey, what's going on, man? Hey. Oh, sorry. So Gabe, I know we've done, I don't know, probably hundreds of night shoots together now. What do you think that you've learned the most by hanging out with me? Well, I think there's always the challenge of exploring the location together with people. And oftentimes we'll go, we'll not set up side by side. We'll kind of, we'll note, we'll kind of wanna level up, as you like to say, and look for a different interpretation. And I like, I'm always looking at you and I might think, whoa, I'm using a wide lens, why is he using a telephoto lens? And it's great to also have a fuller picture, a fuller interpretation of the scene when you bring friends with. Right, I agree. And I think that I've picked up some crazy other technical stuff. You keep me asking, what if? And like those child-like eyes. So it's often time we can also just get bogged in on our own head and our own ideas and the rules of night photography, but sometimes when you're bouncing off friends, then it opens up more creative doors. True, thanks Gabe. So let's keep on clicking together. Deal. Shoot with a friend, your life will be better.
Ratings and Reviews
Jan
I learned some techniques in Matt's class, which were helpful, but believe this was for the advanced photographer and i was a little confused at times. i would've liked to know the "how to" with the lights, showing how to program them with more detail. I am just learning how to set my camera for different lighting situations. But a very interesting course and glad i went through it.
Kirk Edwards
Great class! Liked it so much that I booked a trip to Colorado to work with Matt and Lance on one of their National Parks at Night classes. Highly recommend.
Margaret Lovell
While I believe this course is more beneficial for a photographer with better night photography and lighting skills, I learned quite a bit. This class made me think of some interesting ideas, especially using regular light sources such as flashlights or a pixelstick.