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Principals of Light - Part 2

The general term for a speed like this speed is flash gun if you don't want to be brand whatever its speed gone I mean flash gun but speed like there is what is the difference in speed light and a flash do you guys know do you know julie? Sarah, what is it with you in a speed light and a flash is a flash on camera yes, yes, ondas and a speed light could come off the spirit is like a computer so it has its own brain. Yeah, okay, the flash was basically like it doesn't think very much like the simple set up it's just the flashes a little pop up thing that comes up a speed like it's a computer that can be set up wirelessly through radio slaves through optical it could be done optically can be done in many ways. So if somebody says I have a speed like it means a big unit like this somebody doesn't have a flash. Two things could be happening, eh? They don't know what the heck they're talking about or b they actually don't do just have a little pop up flash you mean so of course this is like...

the famous one off everybody knows me for this I'm photographing my teddy bear on this picture on the taliban's being photographed with speed lights as well different ways I've done a lot of my work based on my exercises that I've done with my terry where on with my different objects in my house like whatever fruits I confined and whatever so there we have real models so this is an amazing we were to me I'm like what is a human being you might have seen this before I wanted to go through this quickly this is one of the hallways in my in my in the building in a building here andi I'm goingto skip through this real quick just because I want you to see when I start bringing out the flash to try to change the mood off the floor off the whole way so the whole way now looks like, like, pretty like a big white frame but before he looked like a dark tunnel so because of the flash I change the character of what's in front of me I cannot related to food, you know, when you cook food and then you change the chemical compound off the food and it turns into something completely different I feel like flashes thought those that's flashes like fire you like changes the changes, the feel in the chemical compound of whatever your photograph and so you can do whatever you want with it, you know, this's a this is like a just going to go through this quickly I'm here trying to just experiment how I could create something special out of this lighting and I have my notebook to my left and I just keep writing every experiment I do so I say I want to try this racial right on the ratio take the picture then I goto photo shop and I printed the little thumbnails on glued to the note ok that way I can remember this is what happened this is the result this is what happened is the result here I'm like using the light is a backlight here using the letters a kicker you know different things okay here's the backlight and you just keep playing here I put in jail and you just keep messing but you know what happens is when you put in jail in a flash then you turn everything red or blue or yellow whatever the jealous and you don't want that and then people have to pull out another flash and then it's not working and it's complicated and your client staring at you right? And you're pushing buttons and you don't know why things are moving things are not doing this thing so I tried to put the guy that the maintenance man for the building and tried to put him in the back with the sunlight hits them because someone is fifty five calvin right or whatever you have to say for them but the flash is pure red so I'm trying to change the lighting on him versus the lighting on the hallway okay now I tried to do that and replicate that with a flash but look what happened now with the flash I got him exposed with proper lighting color but in the flashes on the other side when crazy and it just kind of basically turned off back in that ninety percent of it is off imagine if you had clients like figuring it out you know this happens because ofthe tt l u c t t ells and it's a subject we're going to discuss because it's like it keeps tricking people we're going to fix this we're going to fix the tl it's like go to a solution when you havin problems and it's also that ninety eight percent of the time is the source of the problem in the first place okay not that I'm against the deal I'm totally for it but let's understand it so we know how to use it you know that's it so look at this guy now so now the flash is a little bit brighter is a little bit stronger on we're developing a better balance look at this now now I bring in the flash towards the inside of the tunnel and look what's happening now it's going from white tow a cool grady in to read it's kind of like not so white and then red it's like switching slowly now that's feathering and feathering is a cool thing because if you study your flashes like I do after I've worked on many exercises and try to feather the light like if you put a jail or whatever and you want to feather that red to green or not red to white you don't just go red white because that looks really dumb in the picture you feather it's you know just smooth it out kind of like make up on a person you know you don't put the red cheekbones and then like just drops right then looks like a clown you have to kind of like blended in this is the original set up of the off the hallway just a regular good old hallway nothing special but from this I was able to produce forget the horns for this I was able to produce this I look at the difference it makes in the texture look at the difference it makes in the color in the field it's just all kinds of things now imagine being able to do start from the first photo and be able to get to this in five, ten seconds instead of being like ah stober thing is just not doing its thing is totally not me you know it's fun to try to it's fun to do these experiments I don't know why more people don't do it I have a facebook group called picture perfect practice by roberta violence whether that's me on dh people are starting to post photos off you know nikki closer she started posting photos of her she had a wedding where she had to do a car shot a night on instead of doing what most photographers do is wait till the wedding day to do it she actually the night before she was inspired by what I've been trying to share with the world for ten years which is to please do something about your education and do something at home monday through friday so you can perform on saturday that's kind of like my whole message um she went home and got her car she put the two thirty bears and she practiced her lighting rations and she were out it down what you need to do how far does that I need to be house the light behaving is tt l the interruption is manual the better option what's going to give me the last variables to worry about and she figured it out sure enough the next day waiting came bride and groom get in the car they were waiting she's a professional photographer and she gets what she behaves like one because she's like everybody get in the car flash poem poem settings poom poom take a picture pam done to you later and that was awesome and I was just like so happy to see that you know so happy to see somebody who worked hard on it paid off she practiced it for ten minutes and it paid off so pretty cool huh I love that I just love this beautiful I love flash I love it I use it all the time without flash I wouldn't be able to get ninety percent of the photos I do on the beautiful off my style of living is different than other people's right that's what we all have different flavors of ice cream we like that's where there's thirty one flavors at baskin robbins but I like my flash toby for the most part very subtle but always presents okay for you it needs to be dead on it has to be right there because you have to see for the criminal pictures right? Like there's no trying to blame the name with natural light now write it just has to be well balanced inhumanly lit so that you get all the fine detail without blowing out heavy shadows. So exact challenge yeah that's right especially with thirty five millimeter sensors which are very sensitive to to the extremes shadows and highlights the camera cannot handle that very well I don't know why they haven't fixed that yet it's the strip problem like instead of fighting for the makeup pixel race why don't we fight for a better sensor you know it's like forget the mega pixels let's go for a better sensor let's get something that can capture more more values off light, you know or more values of dark shadow why don't they do that? Because people are caught up in the makeup takes us oh, my god, this is thirty six megapixels and it's like now you have thirty mega pixels of crap basically is what you have. You have a thirty six megapixel snapshot, you know? So roberto, before you move on because I love this image so much and I don't know if you were about to do this, but could you talk about how you used flash in this image? Little neighborhood came by this is like the back towards the little villas in beverly hills hotel. Now, if you look at this image carefully, you can kind of see how that my brain was kind of thinking, it's just a quick shot done properly in my opinion, because if you're walking, you're basically walking through this well queer, right? So why did I back up stop the bride? Come around? Why did I? Why did I put this fountain in front? What's it to you with all of that? It all plays a role and the reason is I like to have three layers are foreground a middle ground on the background on I don't want a question off who's the main object in my photograph who's the main subject is it the fountain isn't the greenery is it the grounds or is it my subjects? So instead of me taking a picture on hoping that you guys realize this is my subjects is my mark my branding room I basically put the most beautiful amount of light on them doing the same thing that's happening naturally with a son in the back, off the water off the founding so the son was illuminated what's lykkebak illuminating the fountain. So I just start outback illuminate the bride and groom so it looks like it's being lit by the same like you say it's a lot stronger in them but that's kind of taken that now this bride beautiful bride not the most patient people in the world doesn't make sense beautiful bride, great person that I love her to pieces e I e o number two pieces just getting up now she's great, but definitely everything you want to do it no, but can we go now? Let's just walk through them like so whatever. Whenever I do do something, it needs to be done very quickly because if you're sitting there fiddling around it's just not gonna work my take on flash and I repeat my take on flash because flashes a very technical subjects people get all fancy they get all geeky and stuff online so let me repeat my technical my technical my take on it to simply fight flash robby could you see could you give me my other flashes please? There's like three or four in there just you don't have to take him out of the back just give me the whole bag like that no, I mean bringing the flash bags yeah, yeah that's it, man thank you so much. This is robbie, everybody he's awesome body bobby this is bobby way think I would remember that this is basically the same name I have write this is uncle bob, by the way. Bob bob bobby okay, I'm gonna ask you guys if you're watching online, see if you might be nodding your head on this one like yes, yes, like this or like this you have all these flashes of all these books, you have all the stuff you're in a job, you have a bride and groom the heck are you supposed to do? Think about this. This is what you look like. This is what this is, what your brain is thinking your brain is like, oh, I have fifteen lenses in the bag too, you know? So so we're like this your brain is like I got I got too much action, right no actually it's not bad but when you're looking about photographic action you can I want to chill you see what I mean what's all this stuff this is how your brain is what we're doing to it I don't know that you have these prices are just being difficult or clients or senior portrait or whatever my take on flash is very simple let's drop this act completely unless divide everything into three different things so I put this here let's clear the brain so let me see where's my marker if you can please take a look at this board this iss sort off this looks really dirty this is your brain this is the oh my gosh this is really bad timing this is your brain okay my gosh this is looking worse and worse and I want you to just clear for the second and think of flashes three things the first one flash khun b a necessity flash only something you need so dog you're taking a picture in this room do you need flash no so flash can be can be a need sometimes you're out there photographing and if you don't have a flash you're done that is the first thing you need to separate flash can be something you just need okay the second thing flash khun b is flash khun b an enhancer you khun grab your existing light it's ok you can take a picture but with this you can enhance and you can bring out the best in what's already there so it's my third language thank you very much flashman be an enhancer can you give an example of that bringing out shadows in a room teo evenly like the area okay, so what's an example off when the flash becomes an enhancer bringing out putting ah catch light in the eyes beautiful another one could be julie I'm gonna speak for you now another one problem another one could be what I did with the photo that can ask me about that one in beverly hills hotel basically I wanted to draw your attention to that part of the image that's an enhancer? Okay, the third thing the flash khun b it could be a change it could be a changer. Any questions? Well, let's have an example of a change, will you? Changer is when you grab the scene around you on you decide I wanted a different flavor altogether like that's when you say I have a totally different vision then what's available in front of my eyes this is where you can make ah boring room look very moody ok? Or your holy all your hallway or a bar or a restaurant or a cake or a reception whatever you want. So instead of dealing with all of this stuff before you take out your flashes, ask yourself three things do I need it so I want enhance or you want to change the look of it? Okay, that should be a good start to simply fly flashes because out of all the books I've read on flash on all the reading of donning flash I don't know why it's never been simplified that way before it's like when do you take it out? Are you supposed to change everything? Are you supposed to enhance everything? Sometimes the photos and need enhancement sometimes no using the flash is knowing when to use flash is the way you know that is by not using it sometimes you know you don't have to throw out all that because you have it so let's be very clear on those three items necessity means you have a dark room you don't have enough light you just going to take a picture you know bring the flash where you can actually expose properly okay that's what we go survival mode okay survival mode ah lot off receptions are a necessity. Photographing a reception without a flash is a style thing but in my opinion it's too risky it's too risky you have strokes in the stoplight and the spotlights and the reds and the yellows and the crazy mirror thing spinning around and whatever disco balls and stuff is just risky. However, some of the most beautiful reception pictures I've ever seen we're taken without a flash in natural light but that's probably one of ten thousand on my client won't be happy with that see what I mean um on enhancer again is when you have something like today so they were gonna be doing a lot of enhancing we're going to be doing from necessity but we'll be doing some really fun stuff on the last segment on changing the whole room altogether ok any questions on these three guys does this help you there's three things I hope this gives you a quick thought process okay all right uh there's a lot of questions coming in from the internet beautiful but I think that a lot of them you're going to be addressing as the day goes on okay let's just keep plowing it sounds good here's a necessity us brother right shoot yeah, I did. I spell that right? Right. Okay, I'm walking around and I see this beautiful painting and I put the bride in front of the painting because it's awesome part of my book picture progressed it shows you that if you see a painting you might want to use it instead of just ignoring it. You see this but this is the this is to expose for the painting you have to completely under exposed the bride because again our cameras can only handle one or the other so this is an example of a necessity when you have something like this you say please give me a flash I mean a speed light this lighter up you know, so here's the here's the picture with a properly explosives a little bread on the screen but look how much fun that is, you know, look at the leading in her face the angle of the light is not by accident had I not workin my manikins and stuff I would have put shadows really nasty shadows underneath her eyes underneath her nose I would have given her raccoon eyes had I don't this okay, you're the bride right? Sarah? And you're going like I'm like I don't know what I'm doing but I'm really cool because I have ten flashes and I don't know what I'm doing but I'm awesome I think a picture like this now you have a nasty shadow coming on the other side of the face so I purposely positioned the bride so I can position the flash properly so it hits her in the right angle look at her face her light her face is being live properly okay here's an enhancer I mean a beautiful forest area it's all good on my bride and groom are ready they're like reverted you ready and this is what I was like I was with my camera without a flash and I said totally not and they're like why we're here on my dress is getting dirty totally don't care, honey but you don't care okay okay do not make susan angry nothing smiling make susan angry she comes from alaska you know wrestle a whale down to the ground if you make her angry shoe so I decided to pull out the flash no, I am not ready yes you khun wait two seconds for me to get my flash be confident people please be confident don't be scared don't let your client's dictate what you do you are the artist you need to do something that's special if they're telling you the aggressive dresses getting there li be sensitive to that but you say no I have a vision so I pulled out my flash two of them one for my master wants a nice life I did my quick adjustments quickly because I know what I'm doing or at least tried to know what I'm doing and I took this picture right away okay this is an example ofthe good use off petey ale flash t ell flash was the right solution for this particular situation and I'll explain why when we get to that section okay roberto, what part of that images, son and what part is flash that's a good question that's done especially coming through this way you can see a kind of coming in through here it's pretty down it's pretty down sunset area time the sun wasn't here was pretty much hear these guys looked as dead as my first bred in front of that painting it was just that light was pretty much dead I want to talk to you guys today about the intensity of light and with importance of that and you'll see why I told the bride no, I'm not ready I don't need to pull out a flash I'm going to enhance the hell out of what's already there but notice how the sunset coming through the trees kind of matches the color ofthe what's happening in their hair that's my style of lighting where it blends it you don't really know what's what? Okay here's another example of enhancer this's my gorgeous wife she's kind of like a sweet girl but she kind of can fight like kimbo slice so I tell her you know you don't want you do not want to make her angry either between her and susan is bad news I took this portrait of firm during her thirtieth birthday on dh folks the register her age in front of everybody I took this picture upon springs at the parker hotel in palm springs notice what's behind her guys you see the white wall behind her if there's a white wall behind her why did I put a flashed in that white wall reflects the sun this is cancer you're announcing it was a decision. I only have three choices with flash guys let's not remember this class is about answering questions about flash and simplifying things you only have three choices and flash for really you need it you want enhance you want change or you don't want to use it at all in my case I said this looks good I know what the point lighting looks like that one point lighting is gorgeous I'm a big fan of one point knighting so I said I'm just going to use it look at the photo of my wife over here saying same thing one point nine you see that doesn't look amazing like it's just an amazing quality of light you just wanna try that today, okay? Now what's in front of her face if I feel like this a reflector okay? And I'm taking the picture and doing so by myself like I'm holly the reflected with my leg and I have the flashing I mean is that school but look at the beautiful, beautiful portrait that she got on this takes that extra effort that extra annoying I'm not ready yes and we'll pull out a flash flash is good no, I am not satisfied I will pull out a reflector now it's good get to know a few setups that you know really well get to know like five setups that you know really well and then kind of go from their manipulators change those makes make an adjustment to one of those but get to know those five really? Well, this is an example of a changer. Okay, this was a typical hallway in the hotel there was nothing special about it but I saw this little metal thing and this little metal thing has horse and you can shoot through those holes and create that shadow so that was a changer. Those shadows on the couple were not there naturally I made them using my speed like okay, so you're changing things it's basically a gobo you no want it go, boys, do you know what goebel stands for? Yes, you must be. You must listen to a lot of creative like I must have learned that someone created by go bo is go between because you put the light and then he goes between something and then you show whatever is in the other side of that. So if you have, like, see bobby can I get that basket? Police yeah, thanks. You look beautiful as always. Here's a gobo itt's a basket but it's a global okay it's a basket to the average joe it's a gobo toe a photographer okay, you can put the flash inside here shoot it create a cush are up with the groom and then the group it will become a recipient not off the knot of your light part of your lighting lighting nineteen riding because now you're right remembers the relationship okay just getting him this is a changer I was walking around that hotel room with my bride and groom they were ready to go back to the reception and I decided I'm going to change this room really quickly put the flashier put yourself in the corner put the flash of this power this is a good example of manual flash tt I would have destroyed my picture I knew it before I even turn on the flash I didn't even give detail a chance I turned that sucker on manual baby right there no questions about okay I wanted a kiss off light whenever you want to kiss off light get rid of t l t l is going to always do on I'll explain this later eighteen percent gray or great depending on where you're from so um I don't know if you guys know what that means but if you have a blender if you have a blender and you throw in all kinds of brightness levels into this blender on all kinds of colors and all kinds of darks and shadows and he just keeps spitting into this blender it's all going to mix in on is going to do whatever it takes to give you eighteen percent of grey just also a luminous level okay can you tell that was a high school teacher for forty for like how many years like forever I was like guitar teacher for ten years a music theory teacher for two years on economics marketing accounting finance entrepreneurship teacher for four years and now photography teacher can you believe this it's like non ending I can't believe that you can believe it it's another cool change her look at this school one now people on the waiting for before I cannot take portrait again you can think whatever you want you're an artist you know whatever you want it's a vision this was a wall like this great one this was a pretty complicated light set up because ofthe just a nature of the shadows and the highlights I wanted to get his girl six foot two and she's just humongous she's actually works for victoria's secret she does the runway shows and stuff like that so beautiful face by the way I didn't I didn't show it because I like the mystery but she was standing in front of a great war like that it was nothing actually it was more of a light white like a white not know quite this great it was the lighting the way the lighting here heard that created this cool light and I was done with speed lights which is pretty fun