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Sue & Felix: Shoot: Natural Light Portraits - LaQuan

I'm going to bring in our boy because this is very different when we bring in our boys. We like boys differently than we like. Okay, it's, not about the flat light to the face and I want you to come and sit on there, but you can drop that vast. All right down that's laquan, laquan made everybody all the way down. Yeah, way going some questions coming and there's a little bit of confusion about mita ring and when you're talking about meeting for the eye what do you mean? She meters for the ices tg photo wander I'm not sure I understand the concept of meeting on the I is it the iris? The people, the whites I thought we were supposed to meet her for skin. Well, what I do is my focal point in my life meter and I'm focused on the eye. So that's really my light reading is really coming from the island. I only focus on the I and it's reading the light that's hitting the face and I mean it. You just look at the final results and see if it works or not that's true, I didn't look at the back of ...

the lcd just don't make the mistake of being this kind of photographer. Because you know, you need to be with the person and so I'm watching in the camera and I only look at the back very briefly just to make sure I don't need to chop down or chop up you know I mean it's just something you should stay connected to the person if you can. All right, now we've got a boy in our light shell, ok? And right now we've got a white light shell and we've got the black side and then we've got a gap of about one point three meters I'm just going to take a picture of his fights just like this to show you the amount of light on his face. Okay, now I'm going to take the same shot but I'm going to take it up to uh is about here one stop under. Okay, so boys look better without light on their face girls look good like that, okay, I would never do that to a man's face. I want him to look angular in muscular okay, a woman wants to look soft in rounder and a man wants to look angula in muscular it's very intriguing that we are attracted to angular body and we try to be angular ourselves because we're not and it's one of those things that when you see it it makes a big difference so john, if you shut down the feed let's just tow half black so just close that side what's gonna happen is the client is going to get a totally different light on his face and it's going to suit him tim this way just to touch and I've to may now right now I'll just focus on his eye I'm kind of one stop under I'm starting to get quite low in my shallow speed but I won't go into forty no hand held and so now he's going to get a very strong light on his face which is met suit him way vita okay, now I'm just gonna stay there and I'm just going to drop down my exposure and do it again now it's gonna be even better so just watching the light that's coming onto his face watching it like you guys suit that that that is strong and sixty and it's very different so what I do a lot with male poses is I tend to notice katie was on a high still so it was all about making katie's body long and will away and beautiful and slim but the guys we want to make them wider shorter and wider and stronger with stronger light so I would put one lee up but I'm not going to elevate it obviously I don't want the knee shot you know that hey, I just want it enough so that when he brings his elbows out now I want you to not sit so straight you're sitting very beautifully that's it and as soon as he drops into his chest his shoulders get wider all right his shoulders get wider everything gets stronger he's in beautiful light but I'm posing him flight lee towards this light source right because because I'm not putting a reflector there so I actually need a little bit more directional light on him and let's take a shot so that there is pretty much I mean everything about it looks obviously has the most beautiful bone structure door and cheeks so and lip so he looks incredible in this light but I will never photograph a woman like that not in a million years and then what I'm gonna d'oh is I'm just gonna drop my expression down a little bit more now he's really strong take this out I'm shooting low I'm making his shoulders his arms bigger I've got lots of contrast in there I'm shooting it to stop sound that haven't changed six forty two point they can't do not change it I do not change it the middle of their body to make them look bigger with hey slain I should anybody layne below their eye line in anybody curvy above their eye line and there are line being his eye in relation to my camera so that his airline there if he's a bigger guy I would probably just be there to slow him down making his face the focus and getting in to push his chin forward alina body I go below the eye line and there was that linds toe I okay and wherever he is I am so if he's sitting I'm kneeling he's sitting on the floor I'm sitting on the floor if he's lying down online down and then I can just adjust what position I want to make his body looked better okay, so any questions about boys or lights or anything because I'm nearly I'm nearly wrecked in my segment can I created enough good standard shots for felix to replicate it but we should really do a black ball reference what you doing a zafar is by doing it on the run because I've noticed a little earlier that the sun came out I mean you were shooting at the time but what do you do when that when it happens and all of a sudden do you? You just changed my eyes are just just that quick and just be done with it okay? And it could go out there this could be a normal show I'll just pretend I'll go click son comes out damn it, damn it so I just went back in again click click down okay wait changing really fast okay quickly it just it can go cloud bright cloud right let's keep going that's kind of everyone that does photojournalism does the same thing they're just constantly on that dial just going all over the place yeah but the trick is to make sure that you're confident enough in your camera you're doing that without bangle like because you don't look like you know what you're doing bekir camera if you're playing with the beckett camel the time never sit there in front of your client in toggle through your images that don't do it interested to see I'm making lots of mental notes here so everything all right let's get you out of the set and then just do the plane reference just join me over here so our main focus this morning has bean so you can already see sorry how much smaller and sharper that light source it's like it's giving you so much more shadow than that soft light we had for the girl that was bouncing back you can see it on there you're really selling me that ball you gonna you're gonna walk out of this and buy some christmas decorations ee felix came to sign a felix king bowl and I'm gonna wear around my neck okay most important thing about what I do I think what I do is really basic okay like so basic in fact that I don't understand why a lot of people are really watching that and doing that I mean to me it is so easy and yet I don't see a lot of people replicate it very well may be it's just a style that I got stuck on, that I haven't moved off yet, but at the same time, I confined images that a fifteen years old lit the same way that a store timers to me and my folio, so I haven't followed any lighting trains other than natural only I've never been opposed to studio lighting, I just don't know how to do it. I'm going to ask felix stupid questions because I'm not afraid to look stupid. I'm not afraid to ask questions everybody wishes they could ask, but too shy to, you know, write it down or ask it because I don't mind doing that, and because I actually want to learn how to do what I just did in a dark room, because if he can do that for me, it will change my world. Now what we're going to do tonight is this afternoon, we're going to retouch the images were going to reattach mine, and I'm going to retouch felixes em, do it side by side, and then we'll show these tomorrow we'll show everybody the lighting maps that we both used to achieve the exact same look, and I'm really excited about that, so what questions do we have from me? Because once we go over to the studio lighting it's going to be all about setting up studio like so natural light is done for the morning and after lunch I do another natural light segment with more bodywork and just show a little bit more light sculpting with with a finer light source so right now before we go to break is there any natural like questions anybody has for me? Just have a question from j hugs a lot who would like to know when you're shooting a guy and a girl together? Are you lighting the female more than the male? Are you trying to light them evenly? I'm always like the female so the little baby reflector goes towards here in away from him so when it's a couple I tend to turn him or her more towards the light source in him more on her side getting the contrast from her sideline questions here in the audience we can keep going with an extension of that if you're doing a mail in a field together and you typically like to do you know your shoots at two point eight how do you change okay to urinate? I make it really, really consciously ticket the eye line and exactly the same distance because I want to shit couples at two point eight I will shoot it up for and I will hate it but I do it I will never shoot a five point six ever or higher I should wide open because I love how it looks if he's a little bit out of focus I adjust the post but I mean to get them to line up guys yeah and my work is never shot it's never it's never shop and I don't care yeah it's not it's not obviously out of focus it's just not sure it's not shop like you know you can get a flashlight when you can see every eyelash and who wants to retouch that so just again a clarification on the meeting john I think it might be different for this versus studio and I want to make sure that we get that s o are you using spot metering matrix metering can you go over your camera setting was a little bit I don't know I've got a red box I put it over the eye I love it what is it no idea I didn't say I don't know just go I just doesn't look right doesn't it? You know that's I don't know I can't tell you well I kind of like that I mean can you talk a little bit about that approach just as I think it is something to wrap this up a little bit for this segment approach to the technical versus non technical lighting there's a lot of experts in this field and the most interesting thing about all the experts is everybody has their own idea well, I could ask twenty photographers to do something for me and photo shop, and I be they will do it a different way, and, um, I guess I grew up from the old school ofthe photography and winded, it'll became our world that I just needed to make sure I was exposed correctly and that I was in focus, so I never really learned anything about spot metering. I my camera has a little read focal points that I shift around, I toggle it, okay? And this is a big question that gets asked a lot if my client is sitting near, I hold my bed, but no, I do not back button focus. I don't understand why anybody would push two buttons when they've got one, I just don't get it. I've picked up cameras in there, and I'm like it's not focusing, yeah focuses on their art back, baton focus and like, what does that mean? They got what I focus here, then I click here and I go, I just spoke with their own click there e when you're the only thing you're doing it to speed I so an aperture and that's it that's how stubborn I am, I'm like, what do you know if you I just read this on facebook the other day I come from an era where if it don't it's no broken don't fix it, okay, so I presses down to move in toggle my focal point, then I'm both focussing in metering in my little red box and always on the I what do you do for white balance? I don't shift my white balance because I process and roar and they use photo shop and I can change the white balance in photo shops that never worries me. The only time I've ever had to adjust it was when I shooting in a room with tanks and lighting and I looked at the back of my camera with what is that way go to black and white? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But can I just say that approach off it? Just all that matters to me is what works in the end is the same one I do for lighting and people ask, you know, soft box with and then like using all these birds to describe like, is it soft or is it not that's all I care about? Yeah, what I liked about what felix did with the hollywood shoot was he set up their continuous lights, and then he did exactly what I did, he set up the continuous lights and then he pinned on fabric get taped on bits of data. Foam in heat molded the steer like the way I'm owed natural light. And I've never seen anybody do that. I just see them sit up lighting and say, this is how you should like a portrait. And I think that looks like a studio portrait looks like castle lighting.