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Lighting

Lighting once you decide their focal length, once you decide your angle of view, lighting lighting is the most we can't see anything without light where photographers right at the end of day, we just photographing like level less suit lights, a very subjective thing, right? What may be good lighting to may we try to quantify it in different organizations, but at the end of the day, each of us has specific lighting setup that we like and understanding the capacity that you're working into. The limitations that you have is important. You know what I'm thinking about something like this? The person that I think it would benefit the most is the person that's working at home that want to set up a home studio or the person let's say that is working in a garage and it's going to be wintertime, and they're not going to have that extra open element of space when they open the garage door to step out onto the driveway like those of the people that I'm thinking will definitely benefit from thinki...

ng in the same capacity. Or maybe you get hired to travel to different places and figuring out lighting before you get there making your own production, so consider what we're gonna discuss for lighting if you're gonna travel or if you're gonna set up a new studio, save yourself money, time and aggravation because it's happened to me or you fly out, you're like, I don't know how big the spaces if you accommodate accordingly, you can under compensate rather than over, or so you can overcompensate rather than under compensate because you want to be under prepared more so than anything because we're shooting in a really small space, very, very small control is important control is absolutely evident when you're working in a larger space and you're using a soft box or very soft form of light doesn't really matter, because at the end of the day, nothing is bouncing off of anything you have very open plain so it's going to hit the subject if they're far enough in the background and you don't want any light in the background it's a town of space, it really there's, not as a definitive in issue is if I put this beauty dish here and it's lighting my subject, but it's also hitting my background because I'm hitting the subject in the background it's facing the background itself, they're still fall off there I want control my environment as much as possible. So let's, discuss this suit grids are your friend when you're shooting a really small environment cath, smaller, smaller modifiers and grids are your best friends and what you think about this this week, I'm working a really small environment I mentioned for if I take that need additional lights the background they can physically see the background so let's move forward two seconds I have a soft box here I measured this out it is a thirty six inch soft box in regards to general size so if I was going to be able to map and legend it's approximately thirty six inches three feet it takes up two boxes if I turn it sideways and I think about that because it's going affect my angle of you it's going to be in my photograph from using a thirty five from using anything that's there so I need to have those considerations that light goes off I don't have a great I don't have anything modifying it it's going to spread out flight it's going to hit that background and if I was going to create a very dramatic image I wanted to create something that's a little more uh I was gonna say again dramatic uh I don't necessarily want to have fall off in the background I want to have control in that environment so shooting a grid I can start shortening that area of light right haven't moved a light yet but you can see that it starts closing and directing life accordingly I know hadn't changed a relevant the relative position of my life to my subject now and I can go ahead and take light and if you were to follow that line towards that background I wouldn't have light on the background itself it's starting to grate the background it goes back to black it goes back to dark and all I did was change the angle of light that I have and I think is a lot of photographers first go into that situation they look at their giant thirty six inch soft box in that small of space in there like I in under prepared I needed something smaller I needed a different light and it literally is using grid walking in there and making sure your lights adjusted accordingly it's really that easy so what if you don't have a grid? What do you do? But if you're under prepared and you don't need you don't have anything so in that case that's happened to me before black flags you can go toe joan's or other craft shop I thought little black flags little from course for about three four dollars and I can use those toe five of two flag off the light of the background I can use it was in a white format or white phone core and went to reflect light to really cheap solution especially when you're going that's a overseas you don't have much to bring you want to bring in enough here to bring in a backpack I became very, very lazy so you guys know the photographer is like on it carries little is possible I don't want to overcome and say I don't want fifty lenses my backpack today has like fifteen thes you'll never see me on a commercial food like that because that is way too much gear for me at this point I'm like minimum minimize everything is best it's possible we just keep things very, very simple, so if I know that I'm going to go somewhere let's say, but I'm going to fly to florida gonna go do not issue in orlando, I'm originally from orlando some of this while going back in my mind, there's not much in orlando there's like one camera store, but they don't like pick up their phone or any of those thing it's weird it's like this little mom and pop and but I know that I could go to joan's if they're not gonna pick up the phone because I can't get a reflector there they have no engines or I gotto joan's find a solution, I can get a cake pan, I can get a bunch of different things to be able to reflect light I'm being very crafting that regard, but knowing that I have those tools available to my disposal is important, you know you can't walk into see and think I have no options, you have all these options and just being creative and coming up with a solution speed, lights so if you using studio strobes which is what those air based off of that massive lights right which means massive modifiers in that small space so a lot of people just ought to use speed lights and to be like modifiers which is a great solution in a pinch because at the end of the day I've been able to take one of these which is a foe takes pictures plus and now this is the regular metros maitresse places on that side and put in my backpack jump on my motorcycle and writes my job, which is really weird think about like some guy shows up he's a photographer he's not in a car he comes up on his like harley with the helmets like I'm here that's may if you guys get a chance I've been producing short videos on howto shoot with speed lights that are all available on youtube in very, very small amount of spaces I'm using small speed lights to be able to control the light better it's a smaller footprint told you guys I think about this is like the sims I look at the little great on the floor, I think where can I put less stuff? This is a less dense object then the studio shrubs itself so I can select that I'm seeing select like I'm watching myself and clicking like in my mind like it seems that doesn't actually happen in real life but for the purposes of this it's a smaller footprint, therefore I have more room to photograph and if you just have to be ones like the profile to be once it's fine, but do you have other solutions? If you needed to invest into something, speed lights might be a good option for you if you were doing something in a studio and you just you want a bigger footprint? This is the type of work I'm able to create with one like nothing else. So if it's just a very, very dramatic light and it's literally just using one rogue flash bender xl pro with the grid on it so I'm able to use that light to light my subject, we're going to go back one frame I'm able to like my subject and like the background with that small speed light because the relative distance of the light works the same way the angle viewed us for the lens as I pull that light back, I'm able to hit a broader area of light so that small speed like pulling it back for my subject. It's not directing just a small area in space I within I would say a foot and a half to two feet from his face I'm able to like both his face and have some fall off a flight in the background, so I'm able to create images like this and images like this with that one speed light in their very classic porch trip it's a speed light I arrived to my harley I tattooed and I shot classic portraiture like I surprise somebody they're like that's a good place to be other little modifiers little things that we can use this is their rogue grid their road griddle light a subject and make sure that there's no follow from the background I mean actually I have one here I'll show you up back here I'm gonna grab it don't yell at me this is literally brand new I know it's brand new because I opened it before I got here I'd like for them at home it still has a little tag on the inside for pumping it out so you guys get to see it for the first time his little borough grid this this doesn't actually belong in it but this is how you set it up comes a little honey congress so we'll talk to will discuss letting a little later but this it's my bag it's a grated spot grade is basically all of this and I could photograph my subject with a speed light and not need a giant snoot not need a giant modifier from a studio stroke I literally can fit this in my camera bag and just I'm going to go I'm not gonna put this together in just being here don't judge may not using two of those remember to create something like an eyewear add to speed lights, two rogue honey, come grids to row grid um and be able to photograph my subject with those two lights and shoot something that I can use for eyewear, which is fun. So this photograph that peter lindbergh did recently within the last year and it's a, um there's a company that he wanted photographing month blunk that's what this campaign? What? Mont blanc! And it was like a really expensive production, and if you don't know some of these productions, they cost two hundred fifty, three hundred thousand dollars to make these productions the grids cost me fifty bucks apiece. It's a similar style it's not perfect that's something I'm not saying it's peter lindbergh, but I'm able to do it in a lawsuit. I'm able to do something similar in a lot less in regards to one unable to carry, and I didn't need thirty assistance to be their gets face to bay studio strips that looks like a giant on relics really small, its toe pro photo umbrella deep small see, this is why it's it's a whole mouthful there was a white reflector using those two things I'm in this small a space that we have here, I'm able to create images like this and again it starts looking at my my settings mean using a cannon eighty five millimeter we talked about angle of view not very far from my subjects relatively close it was a very very small space between us using a very small modifier toe like my subject and using a three dollar reflector in order to reflect light off I'm able to like my background if you pay attention to light here at the same time with that same line it's the same way that I did with speed light it's just a softer form of light so remember and I'm going to say this before we move on this smaller the light source is to your subject the more contrast ing your image is going to be the larger it isthe this soft artist in general terms mark wallace is a great analogy which is putting a subject for example us right now if we have the sun outside it's a really bright day to get really contrast the edges under our eyes and on our facial features and such but if you would take the sun and we ever be able to survive and bring the planet just close to the sun that's going to fill in all the shadows we're just gonna have softer form of light so if you're trying to create really soft images that's your goal and you want to create stuff like soft reforms the other one was very dramatic big contrast between light and dark you need a bigger light source comparatively to the subject right? So this is a fine example of just that I can go ahead and manipulate my subject and with my subject around with an eighty five or again we're in a very, very small space is a very intimate setting and I've also learned that intimacy creates either awkwardness or you guys get along and you guys can set sit there and have a connection chat discuss things I started I started shooting in smaller spaces as well because it creates that connection with someone I get a chance to put down my camera and talk because it's a very awkward thing, especially when you're here in new york you're used to traveling with people so close in proximity that you want space when you're a little bit is like this bubble that you want when you're in that bubble and it's that smaller space there's a lot of conversation there because if not it's very awkward for us to sit that close to one another unless somebody by somebody dinner same thing and you can tell I photographed these so I was putting element of myself in that photograph and if you guys ever watch men in black is it is a child many black watch because I'm honored this photograph here if you look at the settings that we had before were it one twenty fifth seven one high so one hundred I'm not f one eight one twenty fifth I so one hundred's until you guys hattaway photograph subjects in corners, if that's that this seance here corner of that point and I don't want to see a blur, it told you guys, you have a bunch of ways that you can control what you're trying to photograph that the field is one of those now these are very, very powerful lights writes if I'm trying to photograph a subject wide open, I need a neutral density filter enabled in order to photograph that subject because I can't get that power low enough to be able to get a proper exposure ok, so you have the option of getting a filter for your camera for your lens and putting that on there to shoot wide open because that's what compensates for that extra depth of field? Ok, so in this case it's a very expensive usual density filter it's ah, that is close to three, four hundred dollars it's a variable nd it goes up to I think six six stops where it just shuts down it's, a very big friend to go from one point to the other, but there are cheaper solutions, so if you guys got it want to go on retail sites to be able to find those just look up um what's russ what's, the filter that use what's the company. Um, for which the neutra density filter. Oh, I don't actually have one. We need to have this discussion later. You need one, ok, apparently, I do.