Lessons

Lesson Info

Getting the Lighting Right for Your Client's Body

Okay so we're going to get her in and finally start shooting so there's a couple things that I do when I set up my life my lights are generally set up like this when I'm doing a uh I like beauty lighting on women fill every shadow so I've got I'm doing a three lights set up today and I know the question is going to come up why three and why not foreign that kind of thing I started out sitting on a window so so when I created my light I put it is a four lights set up to create this flat even lighting sometimes I like a little bit of shadowing underneath the john line just a touch just accentuate the jawline and the three does that I'll leave a gap between these two on I'm favoring the left so my key light is really my lefts left side because most people are gonna be left but usually with women I don't flip it around if I'm busy but with guys I will you'll see that because I'm going to shoot some guys and we're going to use lighting on both sides and with guys I use a kick I got the kick...

er in the back and with women I do this three lights set up without a kicker so didn't come forward a little bit so now the key come forward what do you doing way back there it's very bright right? Okay, so I have these these the flex kid is an led kit that allows me dim abilities everybody's got a different eye sensitivity so we're looking me right now do you think this these lights are a good height for her? Well, first of all I couldn't get the camera and she would have to like bend down like this is not good like I need to adjust my lighting so what I do is I always put the top light that I keep on an angle usually like this I don't like my I don't like my angles tio I usually do this kind of action usually I told this one a little bit like this I took this one a little bit like this and then I bring up my buddy phil there's my favorite fills your favorite fills your buddy let me tell you women generally like phil a lot and I always I always I always cater to them by giving them phil um and I usually have a gap. So what I'm doing is is there's like a little bit there's gonna be fallout from this light and phil's working up in this side's working in and I like to catch lights with the triangle too, so I usually leave a gap here and that'll really it'll just get me a slight accentuation of the jaw line, which is barely noticeable but if I'm shooting somebody that I want to hit him with everything I got I'm gonna put my fourth light in here I just thought for today and you're normally my lights instead of like this so it's cool um so I'm gonna put this light just so it's out of my frame a lot of times I'll shoot with my light in frame I don't care it's on a white background or it's gray or its black and I'm gonna my retouching he's gotta work for his money so I shoot my lights and frame a lot I also mikey light is my light over here I want the center of the light and I put it right in the right at the bottom of the year loeb center like bottom of the year lobe so then in step wait you know what we'll do why I did this on purpose I'm just going to do it because somebody's going out there wants measurements so we're gonna measure because there's a couple things that I need to measure so the center of her ear lobe is about fifty seven inches, so the center of this light needs to go up because it's fifty five inches so I'm going to bring this light up a couple inches all right and now I'm mad about now does this really matter? You know I went a little bit too high went berserk does that really matter maybe if it's really far off I just want the centre of light to do its job I wanted to light the whole face um on the lights I'm using strobes I used be ones on my background I want them to hit the background where I'm pointing the camera so the camera the back lights and the front lights all have to be in unison they don't have to work together so I basically want the I like the lights on the background to be it about shoulder height so let's go for shoulders what about fifty three on the shoulder now do I go on measure with all my clients now I don't pull out the measuring tape for my clients but I'm just giving you guys you know let's just do it all right? We're a little lost john set these up way too low for dinner so I'm fifty three, right? Well, you were right about there may be a little bit high you go, we go fifty seven fifty three it's not a big deal and then what I do this one's about right could go a little bit her what I do is I got the pro board back here now there's a couple things I love about pro board I can let this fall off to nice gray I don't have to blow the strobes right, usually I shoot with the flat's too, so I'll put the flats here, but since we need to show what we're doing, you're not gonna get b flat, so I'm gonna watch if we're getting flare off these lights, I'm actually going to move them a little bit behind her to make sure that I'm not getting anything stray from that light hitting her and I like the white matte probe or because I couldn't let it fall off to a really nice gray on dh my client's flip out when when I shoot the white background all the time and then I'll send I turn the strobe off, I go out, we're just going to go for a great background now and I shoot it and then people don't know anything about the inverse square law are strobes or anything they go how'd you do that gremlins back there? They put it up real quick, it's fast, they just take care of it. So and you know what it does like again? Remember how getting the person in front of the camera with their kids or their boyfriend or their husband is takes two seconds? How long's it take me to go from a white background to a great background one might give me I'm giving them a whole different look just because I turned the strobe off they love it will start with the strobe off and we'll build up the stroh because I don't want to overpower this I want to get these lights on this strobe and ken has got a question for me actually we have a question here in the audience from sheldon so do you have your client standing up or is there any situation where you sit them down? I don't ever sit them down unless I'm doing a portrait or something then I'll sit people down but for headshots I'm always shooting headshots event usually we always wanted a long eight bodies you want to be elongating the body so if you sit somebody sometimes they have a tendency to slouch clothes change things happen I started out in my career early sitting people and I haven't sent anybody since so I've been shooting people standing for fifteen, twelve years or whatever I always stand people okay? So I want these pointed directly at the background I'm going to start loan work high so I'm going to put him at let's start him at just four point oh john parliament for point on we could do that with the with the remote I have actually you know what we're going to do? We're going to start grey just to show how the fall ofthe two gray is we're going to bring um we're just going to make sure we're firing on all cylinders here and the first shot I take of didn't let me see scooch thatwe need you close to my tequila you know don't scoot back a little bit now it's a couple of things going on camera height we didn't talk about that camera height needs to be about I like it to be about the same as the what was it fifty seven what was what was the race like the jawline like maybe even a little lower I could probably go fifty five honor I liked to go about where the mount thiss maybe a little less let's go fifty six so centre of my lens I hate shooting down on people why do you guys do that? Stop it's terrible if you want to empower people shoot lower if you want to take the power away make him look like a simp you shoot up and shoot down on them stop doing that don't listen to somebody who tells you that um it takes their power away so I want people to look confident in pictures you won't have confidence if you shoot down on him in the nineteen nineties some headshot photographer in new york sat somebody on the floor stood up and shot down on him and the person looking up like this and it just was like people thought it was cool I don't know why it's just not my speed I never liked it so I shoot straight at people a little bit lower sometimes and a little bit higher and if I am a little bit higher theres a reason last night I was hired because of glaring the glasses but I'll teach you all the teacher all that if we get to glare in the glasses today let's see well we're in about fifty five I'm going to keep it there we're good we're good I don't ever have this do not bring this out with a client you look like a chump don't do that they'll think why this person doesn't know what they're doing just eyeball it, but I want you to get it if you're shooting freebies or friends freebies and friends, you do stuff like that to you get it to you got your rhythm going, use the tape measure because believe me, you will not know where your camera height is. Camera height is one of the biggest variables in shooting in shooting hatch and I normally don't make people will sit in there that long while I'm talking don't put people in front of the lights that they're going to be there that long all right, but one thing I do is I always on a tripod there's a couple of reasons one I direct with my hands a big reason two I shoot it slow shutter speeds because I have to keep these power low it's continuous light can you handle that? How bright is that you're? You're fine who's really sai sensitive you sure you're positive don't worry about we're going to keep you there, but look, people with high sensitivity this one of the problems that I had with the other lights I was using, I couldn't dim um so I would get to this point where they just couldn't handle it and I would have to go to strokes and I don't like stroke because I want to be like this talking to the person, all right? So let me, uh, let me see her we where we should be good? So the first shot that I take, oh, back to the tripod just so you know, I set the level. Do you think that tendons high it's going to change is your change hiking to change over the course of the next fifteen minutes, but she's got heels on if you happen to change those, her height might change, right? But other than that it's not changing. So guess what if I'm going to shoot her elongated? I'm gonna keep her at that height, so I'm going to shoot her just like this, so I'm going to set my tripod and then when I have my proofing gallery, guess what if I was handheld, look how tall I am I'm going to do it again. This is like the third time I took it off the tribe, but, um look how tall I am like for me, I have to be down here and then I have to guess at where that height is that I want to be and and then she goes and change I come back and I I always have to think about it. I put the height, I set the height I'm done the rest of shoot my mind then in my proofing galley my shots look consistent, otherwise they're up, they're down there all over the place that they're just jumping around like crazy. So I recommend tripod I recommend getting one that's over six feet and that will go over six feet I shot ah uh shot some tall people in my day and I'm axis sucker out on a basketball player this guy he's, a commentator for espn, his name's jalen rose the guy was like way up here and I had this sucker although, and it was fine it made it I mean, I mean it with so no problem. So we have to do the first picture whenever you shoot the first picture of somebody it's very critical, all right, a couple of reasons why one is I normally like to get zero shot I usually don't direct on the first shot I'll shoot it and then I'm going to give you the direction I usually give after about ninety percent of the time but the first shot is called what why zero shot know what if you're just going to a baseline shawn yeah whatever what do you guys call it the first shot you take we'll be starting shot what most people call it a test shot I was trying to get their most people call it a test shot I don't call it that I call it a guest shot I'm gonna guess at my settings because her expression is going to be fleeting what if I get a good explain how many times you taking a picture and it's the best shot right off the bat phenomenal right it happens don't shake your head it will happen it will happen now that you said that um so I want to get it right so now I'm going to guess so guys I want to help guests with me I want you to be a human light meter right now I'm a human light meter I will guess the light wherever I am I want you get good at this you will be able to do it you don't need a light meal you just you you get it and then you can get close enough that you're not going to screw it up so the exposure's right and then adjust on the next shot but as long as you shoot overall file you can get in the zone you're fun but I like to take the guest shot so it's perfect so I'll start off what are the three settings that we have to adjust account for come on, hurry up stop fooling around all right? I'm sure all three were in there. It just sounded like a jumble of mess there. So what? I also should be at somebody give me one thrown out one six, two hundred I heard two hundred I heard one sixty why don't we go two hundred? I go to hundreds. Just uneven number it's nice I like lie like staying low if I can't but these don't put out much so then I have to go a little slower sugars people would happen sure we going for five, six, five, six two point eight for well, we're talking about depth of field now what do we want? That depends on your little look at your work. I don't mind going with a little more closed after I don't mind I don't I used to my nickname one of my buddies called me six point three I always used to shoot at six point three now I just married up a little bit, but so you guys want to do six three wait, do five six just to be crazy, we'll do five, six all right, give me give me a shutter. Speed hundred one one hundredth of a second. I like it one over to fifty. I think. Are you being a human light meter? Come on, it's going to be a little fast for way, remember these air? These aren't that bright because of the human eye sensitivity. One one. Twenty fifth. Yeah, we're getting there. I think one one hundredth is working. I mean, I'm guessing, right? So let's, go let's, go one, one hundred and, uh, and five six, you don't wanna go six, three. All right now I'm also I don't like shooting unless unless now see what happens. She changed, she was laughing, and I got all I almost got my eye and then the camera and she changed, right? Did you feel that? You felt like you had to do something. You had to do something right?