Lighting Overview
Lesson 23 from: Powerful Portraits using Body Language and LightingStacy Pearsall
Lighting Overview
Lesson 23 from: Powerful Portraits using Body Language and LightingStacy Pearsall
Lessons
Class Introduction
09:29 2Dissecting Non-Verbal Communication
09:58 3Body Posture & Angles
08:14 4Demo: Body Posture & Angles
18:29 5Dissecting Gestures in Body Language
07:41 6Legs Speak The Loudest
23:07 7Arms Admit or Refuse Access
17:27 8Pay Attention to Hands
27:22Pay Attention to Body Position
13:41 10The Head Position
07:14 11Eye Direction
09:55 12Facial Expression
12:17 13Micro Gesture
12:39 14First Impressions - The Fundamentals of Subject Interaction
08:07 15Personal Space
18:23 16High & Low Energy
05:10 17Ability to Emphasize
10:55 18Shoot: Learn to Read and Decipher Your Subjects
25:16 19Take Control: Learn to Orchestrate, Not Dominate, the Studio
15:24 20Organic Posing: Embracing the Subject’s Presence
08:27 21Shoot: Demo Start to Finish
23:45 22Images From Shoot Review
12:44 23Lighting Overview
06:53 24Demo: Emotion of Light
10:41 25The Tone of Light
09:34 26The Foundations of Light
16:34 27Shoot: Determine Lighting
25:22 28Shoot: Identify Your Own Preconceptions
12:07 29Accents & Filler Light
22:32 30Demo: Accents & Filler Light
22:44 31Tailer Your Light
24:26 32Matching Light for the Subject
30:21 33Shoot: Matching Light for the Subject
27:30 34Body Language Refresher
15:58 35Shoot: Body Language & Light
26:08 36Shoot: Break Down Barriers With Your Subject
30:03 37Shoot: Give Your Subject Space
28:27 38Shoot: Use Movement to Create Comfortability
30:52 39Instructor Summary
03:26Lesson Info
Lighting Overview
We're going to discuss about how light sets a mood, how the light that we put on our subjects can change how others perceive them in the final product. It's gonna be really, really interesting. If you think yesterday was mind-blowing, wait for today. Okay, so, oop! Back it up on, Stacy. Come on, one more time. Alright. I don't know why I gotta always be like click, click, click. So we are going to start out with talking about how light has an effect on these sort of moods and emotions that we feel when we look at an image, particularly when it applies to people. I'm going to discuss the different tones and tenors of light and talk about the complexity of that when it's coupled with human beings. Then we're going to go over certain foundations of lighting for portraiture. The one thing I want to say and reiterate today is that I'm going to be using continuous running lights, these are LED light panels, and that will give you the ability to see how the light is moving and shaping and cha...
nging in front of your eyes. I typically shoot with strobes, studio lights. With those it's hard to see in the moment, so that's why I'm using LED panels today. The other thing I want to make sure that you know is that I'm not gonna dive too deep about exposures and lens selections and all that jazz. What we want to concentrate on is mood and language. In the previous segments, we went over about body language and how that can change a dynamic in a portrait. So today we're going to talk all about the language of light and how that coupled with that body language can change. After I go over the sort of foundational styles of lighting we're going to move into accent lights and I'm gonna talk about how you can sort of layer lights in to help amplify a person's persona. From there, I'm gonna show you the multitude, infinite, plethora, all the other words that go along with saying there are a whole lot of options out there even with just two lights, three lights, and four lights. So I'm gonna discuss about different amplifiers and how we can accentuate people's assets. From there, we're going to learn how to assess somebody's body language and how do we take that character and find the right light that will best personify that personality. So we're going to learn how to make the right match. After that, we are going to put it into practice with three staff members here at CreativeLive. I've never met them before, well that's not true, I've met one, she's super great. But I've never photographed her before. The others, to me, are two perfect strangers and so we're going to apply what we learned in the previous segments for body language, the idea of meeting a perfect stranger, building a bond and a relationship, making that connection, and then assessing the type of light that we want to best personify their personality as we perceive it. Now circling back, I will be using continuous lights today for the purpose of the Language of Light class. Now there are a number of wonderful courses on CreativeLive that will teach you proper f-stops and lighting and for that, and I believe it's Lindsay Adler who has a really great class. Hannah, can you tell us more about that? Absolutely, we do have a ton of lighting classes here on CreativeLive, but one in particular is Lindsay Adler's Seeing and Shaping Light, and I can drop that link to that class in our chatroom and speaking of chatrooms, you may notice that we have a brand new one, the way that you can interact with us here while we are live is to open up Join Chat, click on the Join Chat icon that is right on the video that you are watching. If we are live, you will see that open up and you can ask your questions for Stacy, click that little blue question mark, and that'll alert me that it is a question, but feel free to interact with each other, open dialogue, the reason that we've created a new version of the chatroom is for you to have more one-on-one interaction with folks. You can create a thread, and so we're excited to see you use that, but again, we will be taking questions throughout the course and again, Lindsay Adler's class that I mentioned is Seeing and Shaping Light. So thank you. I think it's really wonderful because when we get into really dense topics like the ones I've been covering in these segments, adding on that additional exposure and f-stops might be just a little bit too much. And again, we want to concentrate on what we're saying without our words and how we can best amplify that through the use of light and that's what this course is all about. So let's dive right in. This is one of my favorite quotes. It was really more about humanitarianism, but when you light a candle, you also cast a shadow. For me, it's equal parts in portraiture. Yes, you require light to make an exposure, but it is equally important where the shadows are falling to create dimension and sometimes you're going to be amplifying certain features of an individual's face or body and those shadows are, in my opinion, equally as important as the light in which falls. So not only can the light create emotion and mood, but shadow does too. So we're gonna talk about those in equal parts. In this class, we're going to discuss how light can transform an individual's face. I'm gonna show you examples of the same individual with different lighting and just how much it changes how we perceive them personally. Even from this gorgeous light that's set up here on the studio and how great do I look right now. If all that changed with just one direct light, and I'm gonna show you that, I could look like an ax-murderer waiting to be interrogated at the police station. So all of these things have an impact on how we view and read images.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with RSVP
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
This class is amazing! Stacy is an awesome person and listening to her teach and review the class concepts was so easy and fun and entertaining! It is jam packed with information on how to connect with talent and clients. Plus you get to see Stacy in action with subjects in the Demo and Shoot videos. I highly recommend this class! I learned so much and feel so much more comfortable and confident working with a variety of people now.
Julie V
I had the chance to sit in the audience and absolutely loved this class! First of all, Stacy is very funny and is really good at explaining and showing examples of the body language. I loved learning about how to read people faces and body to know more about them. And recommended the class to my husband who is a therapist for this reason. The other part of the class was so awakening, I never really thought about how having the wrong lighting for someone's personality would bring something off on the picture. Once again, Stacy was amazing at explaining why this lighting would work with one person and not another by showing us examples. If you want to bring your subject personality into life on photos, I highly recommend this class!
Jovi Jhash
wow, what an amazing class to learn from. you covered all from body language to storytelling and to reveal almost the true souls of the subjects through portraits. Amazing work and thank you so much, Stacy and creative live team. Stay blessed
Student Work
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