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Lesson Info

Lighting Tricks and Tips

okay so now we've got kind of our basic idea but look at what I want you to notice is look what this kind of strong light source the smaller lights or look at the shadows on the right hand side of the right hand picture they're becoming a little bit stronger on the face and do you see what it did to her nose is that flattering know what that did was that actually made her nose looked larger and it's not flattering for the subject at all it's not a flattering picture so that's the thing you want to think about when you're setting up your lighting you want to look at the subject's face look at the way that you were photographing them the light that you're using and is this the most flattering angle on their face isn't going to give you ru minimizing or making areas of their body looked larger for instance a hair light if somebody's bald I mean first of all maybe we don't need a caroline because there's not anything up their light so so maybe you want a light from use a different light pa...

ttern than that so I always like teo to figure out ways and look at the picture looking at this way and that's okay well what can I do to correct for this uncle john what would you do I would probably bring this light around forward a little more maybe skimming across the fence sort of feminine so that around her a little bit more come out here we could also wait a phil court that's right we could put in a film we could use that reflector that we have infected my studio that's what I do a lot is I'll bring in a reflector on the right hand side because then it's going to get me I want just a little bit I want to fill in a little bit you see that image on the right hand side is just too heavy if there's too much of a drastic change between the highlight side and the shadow side of face so let's see what this looks like bring it down in here okay let's see how that makes a difference right here lovett kinsey gorgeous we'll see what that looks like now that's better that's definitely better on her that's better but would you not agree that now we compare this to the clamshell lighting that we used earlier is there any comparison the clamshell lighting was a beautiful soft glamorous lighting on on her face the other thing to this this this the smaller reflector that you see here look at how much would a huge difference huge huge difference on her face she just looks absolutely amazing the other thing that would help too though is that the higher camera angle would be very beneficial for in my opinion on the way that we photographed her you see whenever you start getting those shadows underneath a nose like that for her all that's doing is just putting abroad it's making the nose look like it's more spread out and making it look larger than it isthe so okay so what we've done that now uncle john let's go and change our life a little bit more and let's use a large light source a large three toe a larger of soft box and then let's add that little bit of a reflector on the side okay what you want to take some questions well moving like yeah let's take some questions asking about your white balance oh great question yeah that's an excellent question regarding white balance if I'm using strobes I'm gonna use the setting on the camera for for using the strop's setting is not what we have a set on john had a custom of about fifty six hundred you send fifty six okay so we set this fifty six hundred however if I'm in my studio I generally either using a fifty six hundred or set it a usual lightning bolt for the regular white balance is that they have in my cannon settings I find that that gets me pretty much in the ballpark I'm not I'm not one of those people who carry around one of those little great cards or something and get really crazy with my my my color temperature and the reason I don't is that those if I need to have any color work done also now after my eleven let them worry about the color correcting and such on guys just one more thing for me to think about again I'm not one of those people who does who uses a lot of gadgetry I try to just keep it as clean as I can it's not absolute anal annie perfect but it's this purpose I can get it in my comfort zone so you know for whatever any other questions len thank you yeah question from sarah renee photography when you're in receptions do you ever bounce light off the ceiling great question absolutely not no no no no you don't want to bounce it off the ceiling but let me tell you why because what happens when you bounce your flash off the ceiling guess what you take the light is the main light becomes one that is coming from up above which is going to give you a new attractive shadows under the eyes it's very unflattering it's like photographing on a bright sunny day outside when it's twelve o'clock noon the main lights coming from a boat is not flattering on the subject so don't bounce it it's not a natural it's not natural to bounce it off the ceiling not only that but it makes your ceilings really bright and that pulls your eye away from your subject and pulls it to this to the top of the room especially of white ceilings in the rooms so you do not want to bounce it off the ceiling if I don't have light colored walls to work with and I have tio if I have to if I can't use if I can't use a white wall to bounce it off then I will use lets this name gary fong makes a beautiful little light modifier it looks kind of like a toilet plunger oh I know does every know what the real name of it is I call it the light sphere I know that's what I call them sorry gary but I have my own names for everything and everybody you know so um so but any right to make a long story short I'll use that if I want to soften the light a bit if I don't have light colored walls to work with but you'd be surprised by increasing your s o how much more beautiful your images can be by using bouncing the light off off a light colored wall doesn't have to be white it needs to be a light color you don't want to bounce it off a green wall of course because you're gonna get kind of a green cast but a lighter tone ality like a warm terra cotta color a liar you know white creams things like that work really good yes oh great question generally I like from like the waist with a clamshell lighting that's that's my comfort zone is if I'm gonna use the clamshell lighting I wanted to be fairly close up but the good thing about clamshell lady you saw how easy that is to set up if you're doing pictures of the bride with her family and such it is absolutely beautiful beautiful light toe like two people you could like three people with clam shell easily easily couples so you can set up and do beautiful porch it's at your wedding receptions of family and friends that are there and in a very very simple space without a lot of nonsense you don't have to bring in backgrounds anything like that use a light tone wall keep your subjects about three feet or so from the wall don't get him too close because you don't want that wall to become too too sharp on focus on dso in fact I think I might even would move let's move our her away from the background a little more it's a little bit too sharp to me I'd rather have it be um a little bit less focused okay and then we're almost ready to uncle john's got our light modifier all set up um let's try the white side of the reflector bambi a question from ta three do you ever gel your flashes great question do I ever gel yes we do occasionally jill are are are are lights but I'm not a huge fan I don't like to get too crazy with that stuff again that's kind of techie things my michael and my style of photography is very simple and very pure and so I mean I won't get crazy with gels and all of that kind of thing I prefer to keep it just clean and let it do its job and lighting this subject and let the picture be about that but I can't say never that would never do that any other questions were removed before move on quite a few people are wondering why you're shooting horizontally instead of vertically great questions boy those guys are really smart you know what I the there's not an absolute but I really like I find myself more shooting horizontally I find that when I'm doing an album that they look prettier across the page spread or one big beautiful horizontal looks beautiful you know in a in a beautiful album and I just find that verticals tend to cut things cut the book in half I am not worried about it we have to make an eight by ten this is way I feel about making eight by tens well the first thing I would do is for anything I don't want to do and this is the one quote you wantto learn guys and you want to put this into practice which is I wish I could anything I don't want to dio I'm gonna tell you oh I wish I could somebody when somebody wants to make it eight by ten out of one of my pictures and it's not gonna be good for the picture guess what I say I wish I could but you wouldn't like it because it's going to crop this way this way I'll make a seven by ten which is quite acceptable today or I will put that image on a larger background so that the background could be eight by ten and the picture might be seven by ten or six by nine or something of that nature something that's not going to compromise the integrity I tried to photograph in the camera the way that I think tells the best story without again without a lot of work in my mind I'm I'm really try to shoot these days I'm shooting so many more horizontal images than ever before I'd say probably eighty percent my weddings our shot in horizontal mode of some sort I just some tender like that a little better but that's not an absolute and there are times when a beautiful big vertical is a pretty pretty way to go a swell so I hope that answers the question okay any other questions we've got about five o we got about five minutes left before you could use a clamshell for boudoir like oh I don't use clamshell for boudoir in a minute it is such a beautiful light source for boudoir because it really does fill in in a very very pleasing way and it just did you notice what makes that skin glow so especially if you're photographing a plus sized girl and you want to do some beautiful boudoir of her guess what if you can't see it it doesn't exist so if you're trying to if you want a photograph something is a plus sized girl and you want to really show off there their best features you know cover up the areas that that would not be their best features and then come in tighter and do beautiful beautiful face shots or do beautiful to head and shoulders or waist up kinds of images and you'll get absolutely phenomenal pictures without a lot of fuss and then again you don't have to do so much retouching us well it's a really pretty way to do it again I'm like a lot of variety so in my camera room one of my areas will be set up for doing clamshell lighting that we can use and do some beautiful glamour lighting and then I would have other areas that are by my beautiful windows where I can take advantage of some that beautiful natural light that comes in because the whole goal for me is to give them lots of well moments I want lots of variety because at the end of day if I don't have any variety than guess what there's only one choice they're going one choice and that's one picture and I want him to buy every picture that I have because this is my profession and that's what I do levi you had one more question before you move on yeah real quick do you think it's too feminine for for men to be lit with clamshell lighting that's a good question no I don't I don't perceive feel that it is too feminine for a man to be lit that way I think that it could actually look nice for a man to be illuminated with clam shell lining if he had a lot of facial imperfections like like blemishes and things I think it's a matter of personal taste so there's no I don't so I don't say that there's absolutes I do stay with men though that we have a bit more leeway with men then with women like francis on your face I would not like you with clamshell lighting because you have that little butt chin yes you you have a cleft in your chin which is adorable and it's just great and I would want to show that off and you know that if I were working with clam shell lining which is a real flat light that might fill that in too much so I like a more three two one lighting ratio which means lighting one side of the face a bit more than the other side I like that for someone like you great question okay we're almost down to the wire here so we're gonna do just a few more pictures are gorgeous mckinsey and I just want to show you what it looks like to shoot this now we're gonna fill in the side of her face using the white side of the reflector and mackenzie right about here love it darling oh good just love it you were doing so good so see now we use the white side of the reflector but it's not giving me quite what I need so let's try this uncle john now flip it over to the silver side real gold always a goal you know that's okay then don't worry about that that's what I want to do anyway let's try something different mackenzie turn your face this way not a lot just a little bit right in there and uncle john bring that in a lot bring it real close right there and now you'll notice where I'm standing is on the shadow side of mckinsey space beautiful mckinsey love and dulling good just honey let's see how that works oh that is one hundred percent better hello hang on it's going to come up in a second she's looking good see how beautiful that looks but now dc where why I had to move myself you see it's about moving yourself see we moved in the reflector all whole bunch because we want that real soft creamy look on her face but no notice what difference do that's I'm photographing on the shadow side of the face which is short lighting in other words very little of her face is illuminated by the broad part of the light but now notice what happens I'm going to move myself I'm not going to change anything but I'm going to move myself now to the other side of mckinsey space perfect right there mckinsey love turn your face that way a little bit love it with your eyes right here goods his darling uh she's so cute and noticed the difference in the way that she looks now because I chose to move myself on the broadside of the face and photographing and see the difference it changes how it changes the whole shape of the face so you want to think about that most people unless you have a really long narrow face benefit by standing on the shadow side of the face to photograph because you're going to minimize to make that face look more narrow than you would on the broadside so on the broad side the person has that really long narrow face that's beautiful for them because it makes your face look a bit broader and it kind of widens out their face a bit john do you have any because you're really quite an expert on lighting other anything's that she would like to mention because jon is just he's my little technical guru I mean I know people gonna be asking in the chat room what we're using here so this umbrella is a sixty inch foe tech soft lighter which is basically an umbrella with the diffusion screen in front of it we had a pro photo thirty three foot thirty centimeters so soft box always was the smaller one it's just getting late in front catching the eyes sometimes say you know the cameras your friend the late your friend keep your your nose pointed between them and that you get how you get your soft on the short side lighting excellent great great answer