Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Still Images

So what I'm using is I'm actually using pocket wizards to fire the pro photo packs and the reason we're using a cz often is possible I tried to use nikon strobes but it's full daylight outside and I want to be able to overpower the sun and so the way to do that is actually use bigger lights and want to produce more light so jordan of course was setting up these lights while we're shooting video so we already have a head start in terms of our exposure I'm one hundred s o two hundred fiftieth of a second and five six is our starting point so I'm going to right now I'm not even gonna worry about ok? So I'm shooting so you have to shoot through you okay, so this is pretty rare that I actually shoot still photos in live you but I'm gonna try to do this so I just want to test it and see what this looks like someone to take a friend and then I'm gonna press place that I can actually check that exposure in jordan is going to look at this with me so we're definitely overpowering son, which is g...

reat actually it's quite a nice look so now I think what I'm going to do, I think I should reframe in fact so that the boat is over here because I don't really like this doc in the background or is there a pelt why don't we slide this pelican case and so I could just stand a little higher and to stand right on the edge here all star I'll actually leave the composition the way it is for right now and then we'll just kind of kick the boat out on this side so maybe you can slide the weight farther over perfect okay, yeah, that looks good perfect and jim I would say on this shot it's probably what could you have in your hands? I think because this is a stand alone photographed probably not the beer maybe it's even like a fishing rod or I don't think the fish makes sense necessarily yeah paddle let's do that paddles great. Okay, so now we're trying to shoot to that compliments of that story bored you guys were trying to overpower the sun and really try to make a compelling photograph with the kayak in the background there's context in terms of you know jim is our professional angler let me see you naturally how you'd stand there kind of like leaning on a paddle okay, yeah, I think that's even better when it's just on the ground. Okay, jordan, I'm not you can actually kind of hang near that pack because I have a feeling you're gonna be wrestling with that boat quite a bit do you want like, a mono pod or anything? Okay okay he's man photo mono pod they're really good for both pushing that's like in their description it's one of the things they recommend that was the deal spot I think the ideal spot is just in a little from where it is now I mean it kind of blew into a nice spot there I'm gonna do a few test frames while we're waiting that looks really good with them right in there yep that looks good okay guys, I think at the end of shooting the still photo were probably enough time for a few more questions so we'll probably shoot for a few minutes five ten minutes and then we'll probably have enough time for a few questions at the end of the session so if you've got them send them in or get them ready ok, that looks pretty good right there jordan okay okay and then maybe all of you kind of duck out for a second jim you're looking right into the camera okay? Jordan pushed the boat out a little this one probably in a drift there okay perfect camera let it drift jim you're doing perfectly right? Good. Ok nice double fired the strobes they're great they're going about smiling a little bit good let's try without your sunglasses how about drop your sunglasses down? I saw the soft box reflection and his shades okay good just like that how about hand on your hip great a great big smile there yeah, that looks good that looks for you again. How about both hands on the paddle actually yeah what's what's yeah that's good like you just kind of standing on a dock talking perfect how about actually really smile laugh and good okay, now guys, I know I'm shooting this a little sloppy right now when you're looking at this online you can actually see the weight in the background but I know we're going to go in and do postproduction so to me I like to do as much as possible in camera like make the perfect frame but the reality is it's faster right now to just shoot the frame is the votes drifting back and forth and compositing out that wait is pretty easy stuff so I'm just going to keep on shooting rather than worry about where that weight is in the ideal world I would hide that behind him so it's the last post production work bligh's such a stud and photos show it doesn't matter he'll just make it disappear okay good nice there you go, jim great. What else would you do with your hands let's? Try maybe let's even yeah that's good that feels really that feels good okay, nice jordan maybe push the boat out just a tiny bit again can I can't tell if I'm actually auto focusing or not okay all of those frames might have been out of focus because I rarely shoot in live you so let me let's do that again and that's the key when you realize your effing something up in the field the key is that you actually go back and correct it versus you know you want to try to discover it in the field not discovered when you're sitting at your computer back at home okay so I just realized that just shot out of focus frames okay let's let's drift the boat back this way jordan okay that looks good okay jim you looking at me fantastic great. You're looking right at the camera laughing a little bit great good let me get a little lower good here we get big smile happened great okay, I'm gonna move back just a tiny bit great here good just like that that's great jordan can we put a little more power on this pack let's go like maybe a half a stop brighter jim let me go ahead and let me see what this looks like going you're looking right at me okay great great that looks really good and we're just we're probably we're probably two stops over over daylight maybe a stop and a half over daylight such is nice and dramatic I mean it makes for a nice contrast the image rather than just that flat light that we're shooting the video so jordan let's push that vote out one more time so now I feel like we have a decent frame and I'm just looking for a nice moment out of gym so I'm now it's composition we have and jordan just for the heck of it once you push the boat I might have you actually moved the weight slightly behind jim great right there that's good that just saved blye three hours and host production okay and let's actually, um blinding would you guys mind is jumping on the dock and sliding these scrim bacchus faras you can't it's pretty we're not using it but the stands there still a little in the shot cool that helps great all right and you guys understand we set up we call it a scream or a silk that's set up if we didn't have clouds we would have put jim in the shadow of that scrim so we could really control the light that's on his body. Okay, here we go, jim you're looking right at me and I'm waiting for the boat to drift behind you put your other hand in your in your paddling jacket again. That was great. Okay, great. And I'm waiting for the boat to drift good okay really laugh and good, excellent good. How about you're kind of looking this way like right at the soft box? Yep, perfect okay hold on. Um you know jordan is that yeah, maybe push the ballad about that way okay? And jim you're looking right at the soft box. Great. Okay, push that bow out for a second. Great okay right there and okay lie good looking at that about bring that mono pot out of the shot yep, right you bring your eyes up higher jim there we go. Good. Okay, great good. Okay, good. You really laugh and we're getting a real moment here. Good, excellent kit let me just get a little bit lower. That looks fantastic. Okay, good. Nice. Okay, how about a little more hard core? You're like you're looking straight into the camera good let's actually, what else can we do? I feel like that hand is so high let's lose the paddle altogether and maybe it's just both. Do you ever put your thumbs in your pft kind of yeah let's do that perfect. It just seems a little more compact. Great. Just like that. I like that expression that's good jordan right there, let's, let let me shoot it. Great. Okay, looking right at me. Okay, now these are a little sloppy the frames, but let's actually push the boat back out by and when I say sloppy there's, I can see the flannel shirt and the cables in it but that's I'm trying to just move through the process so that we're making a couple of nice images along the way okay but I pushed the boat a little more okay there we go that's good just like that okay great just like that perfect jim hardcore you're looking at me yeah that's a nice frame I like that expression this is perfect the boats in a nice position great me just get that perfect great good so it's working these are definitely the best frames. Okay great perfect. Let me just look at this jordan let's give let's put a little more rim on him. What did you just give me about a stop gap now let's see what a half does? Okay, well I pull the maybe pull the bow a little toward shore just kicks out a little more of an angle um more this way by the bow uh I think your tail end out and then the biologist closer towards you. Yeah, exactly up right about there. Okay, let's, try that. Okay and right like that perfect. That looks good. Fantastic. Let me try to get to some nice light right there. You know let's let's switch to twenty four to seventy I'm feeling like the fifty I love the look of the fifty but it's so tight right now that I'm actually having a hard time getting the boat and jim in the shot but with every frame, we're kind of evolving the shot and it's getting better and better in terms of the moment. That was nice. I liked your hands in the vast I liked the boats starting to dio. That was good. The serious look. Good. All right, back into a live view. Okay. In live, you were going to go to about thirty five millimeters. Okay, I'm gonna try to not fall off of this, doc here. Okay, that looks really good. All right, then. Here we g o great. Perfect. Upsetting a double fired there. Great. Yeah, I may have pushed that out a little. Dane. Thank you. Kiss I'm going to check to make sure that it's working it's looking quite nice. And one of the things I'm thinking about in shooting these still photos isn't my leaving enough room to put that jackson kayak logo because we know at some point when it goes into the layout that we need to have some dead space where we can drop the jackson kayak logo, they're probably gonna want to put jim's name and, like, a little biographical information. So I want to make sure there's a little bit of dead space, okay, here we go that looks good, jim wow, that looks great. I can see jordan's foot in the shop but I don't think there's anywhere from to go so much so shoot it wide can you push that out a little more then where the bow is is perfect it's just yeah just like that that's great. Okay, okay just move over ever so slightly great perfect jim let's turn your body so you're facing the soft box there we go. Perfect. Yeah, I know you're still looking at that's like head toward the soft box yet perfect perfect out looks good that's a kayak is okay for one second it's alright and looking right at me, jim great that's actually. Really nice frame and you can see there's a lot of moving parts here. The kayak is moving. If we had more time, probably one other thing we would do is actually light the kayak. We'd set up one more head and we'd put a grid right on the kayak so that we could just accent that kayak so I'm gonna do a few more frames, then we'll go to questions because I feel like we have something here. Okay, here we go. One last time, jim great, perfect. Are you ready for questions? Yes, I was just about to say I think we nailed it thankyou, jim all right, thank you, jordan so there you go, stills in motion. We just got both. I was awesome. That was, I think, it's funny, I'm standing on a pelican case, but I'll just stay here love it, love it, and I'm looking down on everybody, alright, let's, have some question, right? We have time for about one question before we go to break our braley asked another were moving into stills. How do you match the lighting to the video? Well, in this situation, we don't I'm not trying to match the light to video this image, we wanted to be distinctly different that's, why we're lighting it versus using natural light, so we made a conscious decision that we're going to use pro photo packs that we're actually going to light it overpower the sun, we used soft key light, which is a shame era medium soft box, and then we had another pro photo pack with the reflector just acting as a rim light over there over jim's shoulder, so if we were trying to make the images look very similar, then we wouldn't have brought an artificial lighting. We would have just shot natural light for the video clip, as well as the still photographs so coy for those of us, maybe just getting started or have smaller budgets and are going to go do both video and stills out at a remote location is there good kind of portrait setup that you found that's kind of good for entry level people just trying to get started, but is going to be a good tool belt to use for one one person? Sure, absolutely. I think the basic level it's buying a rigid reflector system something that you can actually pop out when their son and bounce light back into your subject. The next step up from a reflector actually would be a nikon strobe ideally it's a strobe with a commander unit so that you can control the stroll when it's off camera, and then if you need more power than that, you get into the pro photo style packs. Um, and then on the video lighting side again that reflectors a great start. And if the reflector is not enough for you than some of the small led lights like the chroma are really great options, they're not going to work for you when it's bright sun out, but they'll work for you when it gets into that low light at the end of the day, and you just want to create a little video set up for an interview for even beautiful still portrait. Sometimes I'll go right to an led light because it's, continuous, and I can see what that light is doing.