Lessons

Lesson Info

Lighting Gear Box

Let's talk a little bit about what I used lighting wise okay and one thing that I love doing is my new strobe and I what's my thing uh is if it's easy you're not going to use it so I made it even easier and so what I did wass for me makes it easy because I built in the er receiver inside the flash but the transmitter and I don't mess with channels there's basically only two channels that that this deals with right and so you can turn on everything let's see if we could get it going here all right but that's that's not a good sign when ok wait let me get my other black oh that's not good if last now yeah the war about that okay, that was jodi's e all right so what I like about this flash is it nice and easy rest I can kind of get it going on and there's no other extra thing here with extra batteries to go bad or just one less thing to care about and so I love this because it's got a built in wireless and basically it's the exact same price is my other flash and you were able to get it f...

or like twenty five percent off during this workshop but is great so this is all I use a lot of times this is some straight small portable manual flash that has um you know uh settings on it from one twenty eight power to full and that's how you do it up and down just with a button like this I can show somebody how to use this in literally thirty seconds and so if I have assistance who may be used nikon or can it? It doesn't matter I just show here this is what I use damn out of being about a boom efficient make it easy the easier it is the last three years to go wrong so I like to keep it real simple. Okay? S o that's what another thing? I realized that if I were to use the jail a lot of the time I use the cto jail to create a sunset effect or for color balancing. So guess what? I never used that darn diffuser that comes with the flash so I made the diffuser right there the flash I turned the diffuser into jail because that's what? I used most of the time just another thing make it easier, right? So just sometimes have be nice if he tried to make that that, like, give it a little ah sunset feel do I really want to go in my bag and get a cto jell o but now, right? No make it easy just make it easy for you, right? So anyway, I love using this okay? Uh oh, another feature in here which is kind of cool that I like is sometimes you're in low light a lot of people ask me well, how do you focus in low light or a lot of people like to use video now and do a combination video with their flash and so what I did was at a video light in there here you go ok see that video light so this just adds a little bit of focusing or just just a little hint of light if you need it right? And we're going to demonstrate how toe use this in a getaway to create some cool effects and it's just a little something there to help you because sometimes I find that I just need a little bit of light and this is perfect for that okay s so that's that and I usually carry at least three of those with me because I like to gang them together so uh let's say I'm doing a wedding I'll probably bring three or four or if I have an assistant coming I'll make sure that they're bringing a couple too so we'll have it like five there just in case okay um what else? Ok, I love using an umbrella okay? And umbrella is my main way to diffuse light and it's the fastest like I say, you know, setting up a soft boxes like very difficult for me and so I this is the fastest way to get things going right itself who that's it ready to rock and roll so I like to use this what I call triple mount so this solves a lot of things for me I developed this triple mounts um and what it isthe here is that you're able to group three flashes on it now if you don't have life flashes what's kind of great about this is I made it so you could put we've got to bring the court but I made it so you could attach your own receiver whatever receiver that you have onto here okay, so you can make a cold shoot for it first of all the whole bit because a lot of times you have these these things and then you try to put your darn trigger on there and it's dangling off and you gotta velcroed aware because you know what? Let me just put a cold too on there so hold the receiver your pocket lizard or whatever and then to save you money I have a jack in here so it has a cord plugs into their little fire all three at the same time so you can just use one of your triggers to fire all three and so as you'll find later on today it's almost a necessity when you're shooting in bright light that you have to have like more than one flash and we'll get into that a little bit later so in the studio you might not be able tio indoors you might not need that outdoors especially in bright light you're definitely going to need a bright flash and if you want certain looks ah then and especially if you want to add an umbrella which takes away which reduces your life four times you're going to need more than one flash to do it and so I like this because this also has an umbrella mt that I can actually hold the umbrella too and then if I had to aa lot of times because it's kind of a multi mount um and you khun mount a lot of things on it sometimes and I do this with the big boy bar to uh but I could probably just pull this one off and I could just put my video life here so I could have a video light here ah and then I could have two flashes and then if I need to put in and brill on it I get it so I can do everything right here so it's good to have some sort of system that has more than one mount on it and allows you to have an umbrella just to soften off that light I find that the umbrella really is the best way it might not necessarily be them he most efficient or flattering way in certain situations but because when you shoot on location with an umbrella delight spreads out all over the place okay when you're in this studio you're maybe within what twenty thirty area and you have to confine that light into a certain area and you don't need it jumping all around right and so that's why you might get a soft box because you just want that light directed in one area and you don't want any light over here right but in the real world a lot of times let's say your background is one hundred feet away or there is no wall on this side to reflect that light right and so you don't need to confined of control that light as much as you would indoors because the lights going to bounce all around indoors but outdoors you don't have to worry about you got no walls you got nothing behind you and so therefore in umbrella works perfect klay for I would say I don't know ninety nine percent percent of the time I never find that I need the need for soft box never at all ok so and it just works forming is twenty bucks like right it's great um any questions on this multi mt okay so I use that and another thing is like I said before I used a video light uh I use it quite a lot especially if it's in little light um and you know you got to make sure it's pretty strong um and uh the thing about a video light too is a lot of times they come with diffusers take those suckers right off right because any time you get to defuse it now you're cutting the light by two stops a lot of times you're making it four times less powerful so for me I need the brightest light I can sometimes because if I'm using video light and I'm using a little bit of power out doors just to kind of get some cash light in the face I need this as bright as possible because it's extremely bright light outdoors yes, I need a little bit of this phil and I need this is strongest possible if I'm going to defuse it I ain't messing around I'm going to defuse it with this bad boy accused so if I'm defusing it and I want to make this big I'm going to make this light huge with this source size here so I don't really use the diffuser I just take those right off I mean it does come with like some like cto jails too um so I don't sometimes you might use that if you're balancing the color but in general I don't ok so that's the video light and I think um I think everybody should have one of those oh ok let's see what else gels right um you know because in the flash in the beginning I didn't have uh that cto gel that could pull out so what I did make and which is handy is this kind of quickie what I call it um and so what I did wass I created um something that will hold everything and have it right there for you so you can put your jails inside here right and you can have the answer is always with you and all the time and so I'm trying to make things easy for you because if it's easy you're going to do it if it's difficult if you have to think about so I go in my bag and get that out you know I can't do it so I like to have it there so I developed this we have the jail there pull it out put it on damn you ready to go? Okay so hollering lights that is really what is a we have to take advantage of because flash allows you think about that you can color light let your imagination go crazy with that wow I could make light red I could make it blue I could put two colors in the back whoa expand your mind with that idea well being able to color light and that's what this small little flash allows you to do because you only have been jail this little area here and this is so powerful that it can light up in entire wall in color it with light so you can use that to your advantage so using jails is great. Okay, um and you should everybody should have some color gels in there package ok, right. And so that's why I sell these? I have it on a ring, right? And so what I do and there's a lot of gels there. So what I do here is take my favorites and a lot of times if I were not using this, I don't have that. Then I could just put my favorites on this small little ring and take that with me everywhere I go or was somehow just halfs and jails with you whatever you got to do to do it. Okay, um and so this is the big black bar do this a lot if I don't use this then I used this this bar here, this rugged bar and it could do a variety of things not on lee can you actually mount four flashes on it? Okay, so you can mount four flashes on here and give you some great amazing life or you could kind of put a video light here ah, la times I do a video light here, I'll do a flash here and I'll just throw on an extra trigger here just in case I needed or so I just stuffed a whole things so you don't have to reach into your bag things and more convenient right here. And then I put this on top of an umbrella mount s o I can also mountain umbrella it's always pretty important actually to be able to mount an umbrella and you're going to see that because we're going to ride on that umbrella all day long in this lecture because it gives really great light. And so we're really gonna learn how to use that, um that's about all for any questions about my equipment. That's really? All I use, quite frankly, in regards the lighting that is very simple anything I mean, like, just in the interest of full disclosure, you do sell thiss equipment oh, what? At the same time, this is the equipment you use, right? So it's not like you're selling something you don't use. You actually worked with manufacturers to design these products according to what you find you need? Yeah, in the real world, which is what this course is all about his real world leading right, eh? So I just want to make sure, like some people are like, wait, does he sell this stuff and yes, absolutely he does, but he also uses it that's why I used everything I sell basically if I don't use it I don't really sell it I have to believe in what I do and I thought, you know what's great is that you help me you guys help me you know that because I'm teaching thousands and hundreds of students every year and we're out in the field and we're doing this and something you do you scott, you don't be great if you did this, you did that. I listened to everything right um and so I take that into account and then we make it better because I find that a lot of there's a lot of manufacturers out there but they're just doing it to add on stuff you really don't even need, right? And so I think I love that stuff from a working that a working photographer creates because it hits because that's what we do in the real world okay um anything about my dear any questions? Questions about the gear that you've got? First of all the light stands can you talk about what type of light? Stale yeah, I love the fact that these are cheetah stands right? So if you go to to to stand dot com, this is model c eight for I think eight stands for eight feet, ok, they have a larger side that wants to big this one to get in your bag. If you're going to travel, you're going to have to get, like a thirty two inch, uh, piece of luggage to fit it. So it does require a larger bag. But I love this. I can't go anywhere without it because it turns into a mano pod, right? Uh, and it just makes it easy for a person to hold. I don't know if you've ever been an assistant for somebody and you had to hold the light up like this. And even after a couple minutes, this is a natural tendency for the arm I had to do at it. Causally. Ok, hold it up a little bit higher. And so I find that if a person is holding onto a motto pod or anything like that, then this is perfect for okay on. They can just hold this all day. All right? They can even take bts pictures of you on the back and put them on instagram or facebook for you. Your system. Just hold it like this. You're good, right?