Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Formal Portraits

I'm thinking I'm gonna try and do this let's kill those curtains will fast let's see if we can manage this um and we'll probably need to kill that overhead light too so if I can have my bride and groom for one second I'm gonna have you right where video is right here and all I want you to do is hold hands and face me this way stan understand right about there because I don't want you the exit side behind your head so come forward a little bit little more right there that's where I want you okay, I'm gonna shoot within eighty five I'm gonna wait till that light goes down and see if we can kill it that looks good can we kill what do we got going on over here because we have some light all right? I think that's just that uh can't can you cook uh, curtains can you pull that down? That's awesome. All right, so what I'm gonna do I'm an issue within eighty five because here's typically what I end up with is a large church with a long range so if they were here and they were this let's just sa...

y this is the island they were walking down the aisle towards me, okay? So just hold hands and there well, you don't have to walk I just want you to be here I'm gonna nail that pillar right there simply by stepping back here and seeing how far this thing will actually shoot. Okay, so first I've got to go back to that ambient light situation see what I have okay, so I'm doing this because I'm pointing towards that pillar over there I'm needing to do this and I know my video friend over there's gonna be blocking my danke, sir, and I'm gonna go okay that's minus one about right there let's see what we got? I still can get it and it's doing it it's actually look kind of nice in it, but it's not what I was hoping for because I was looking for a little more of the shadows on this side and the highlights on that side. So sometimes this what happens for me when I go to a church? I kind of set this up first when I look at the church to see where I have to light from what my positions will be at what level do I use this thing? How much do I scrim it? Because again, notice that I'm pointing to slightly forward because I'm at a distance now to pull this all the way back to try and get that okay from the side, so if I were to go here and used that pillar let's, see if it makes a difference let's see if they got any front lighting on that second one it should have been less and maybe not. Yeah, yeah, so we have a little more shadow on that side on her than there was over here and actually there's actually a little more light us well coming from that pillar. Okay, so the idea is this is something that you got practice over and over and just dial in and try the minus one sometimes depending on the camera because night cons work a little different from kanan er you might have to experiment and try to stops or a stop and a half or a third and try utilizing that technique, okay? And again dialing a low f stop so that you don't ask you flash to go all the way over there all the way back and really struggled to do that, especially at five, six, six, three, seven one eight it's gonna not happen, maybe once and then this thing won't work, it'll recycle. Did you understand? Yeah, so what I'm seeing on here and I will show you in postproduction how this really looks it looks different than what you see on the screen. This is much more dramatic what I have here, so we'll work this and tomorrow I'll show you what thes processed images look like, ok, um so does anybody. I think the students should try a little bit of this and then, uh we'll try. Do you want to? You want to try it over there in the middle? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So let's have the bride and groom go over there and here if you you want to be tethered. Sure, I don't know where it is in. You need twenty four seven gonna be too tight. Okay. Do you want this back while I go? Change is out. I don't need this right now. Go ahead and get that. This is just, like, horrible light doing it. It's okay, we'll see how she does. Um, if we want to be, uh, chat hostesses if we want to, uh, while we're having a little lad time here waiting for one of the students get months if there's a question that pops up really quickly. Feel free. Um, yeah. All right. What do you think? You know where? Toles photography in atlanta. Who says I noticed that he is shooting with a shutter speed lower than its focal length. Are you not worried about motion blur? Well, since they're standing, I'm not worried. Okay, yeah, I know and and I'm still enough to where usually sixtieth of a second and now granted this sixteenth of a second is the default by any camera manufacturer in the flashes going forward, it's usually defaults to a sixty five six or something when you put your flash on camera unless you change the settings through manual right? So that is typically to default because the flash directed to the subject will go out freeze everything but when you go that direction ask it the bounce back this is why typically if they're walking I'm going to use a faster shutter speed because I'm shooting wide open uh that's the one thing for the light but however, as far as movement, you need a little faster shutter speed because that's going to take a little longer to go there and come back so but in the meantime I think what I've been using here's the sixtieth or an eightieth and they're not moving so there they should not be any shape they should be tak sharp those images should we take another question? Sure. Okay as photo man from phoenix says with indoor group shots how does joe deal with a dramatic fall off with side bounce flash? Um well, we're going to play with that in a minute, okay? And and this is where typically um my primary shooter will have flash on camera and one camera in hand off camera and usually this one is either bounce or its side lit but usually bounce and this one is direct with the diffuser and usually this one on camera is slightly underneath in terms of the power that he's has in this one so this ends up being the fill up front and the directional lighting is the stronger light so you have a little more directional lighting but you're also filling from the front that that's what he usually does this or two to flash system have at it so settings I have s o at sixteen hundred okay so we don't start with s o we start with say okay three point two is fine if that's what you would do a sixteenth of a second is fine now I would point at them and if we can kill that curtain and then find out what I s so you have to use according to your meter so I would now put them in your frame try going vertical for saying so you can see the whole dress and everything is that's good that's good okay so now watch and you are on your nightgown so you're on uh matrix metering okay you teo yeah what's that thing adjust your eye so till you see minus one on the meter that much huh? Saying sixty four hundred yeah so uh what's what's which cameras this is the seven hundred so you could go to sixty four hundred on this one right I've never taken it okay so how about five thousand is that what you write it'll do sixty four hundred but let's leave it at five thousand for a second right so now watch where you flash needs to be okay this is in right you're tryingto point right at that pillar so I'll point for you if you just wanna frame for second I think you have to wait till it's because you're tethered okay see how bright it is said this is the difference between icon and cannon by the way the system's who are completely different and I mean every time I have a workshop nikon people adjust differently than the cannon folks have to it's the way the nature of the beast with these cameras and flashes and how they incorporate them okay, so that to me for me it's a little too bright yes for you to okay, so I would just take that um s o and bring it down some so make the I s l go tio I don't know you have thirty two hundred maybe or two twenty, five hundred twenty five hundred now check it out. Let me see yeah go ahead say it still kind of right right? The first was not as a bribe changed it a little bit now but watch this because we're taking this flash and we're pointing it slightly forward you're gonna have fall off right there to you and that's that's what the power of the snoot. So this is where I would grab that snoot wrap it around and pointed at the wall but let's just say I'm the snake okay, you've knocked down the whole front of lighting system, right? And let's see that we have shadows. Yeah, so there's shadow on his side right here and highlight shadow on her and a little highlight ah, the dresses in shadow right here. There you can see the valleys and peaks of the dress you see the whites and you see the darkness that's all because of the light coming from this side, right that changed it all together whenever you put your hand in a well and that's what I'm saying so the trick is when you do this little thing is you have to be aware of how much he's throwing this flash forward because even this much right here, your front lighting them and so you need to scream it with something and these the snoot you can actually do a partial if you want, but it doesn't help to also have the light bounce off of it like my hand and bounced back and then come back forward again so the snoot really works here because it's directional is coming out of one tight little hole and going right to that wall so you can really point it now you have to be accurate when you do this and the thing is it sounds all complicated it's not that complicated it's actually easy to work with I work with it really quickly but it's because I practice it and I don't use it all the time so it's not a function of the whole wedding I've got to go do this thing it is just during the reception or during the church when the church lighting is such like what you have now where there's hardly any light on them usually look we usually have a little more light in the church on them right there's rarely that it's this dark but I was trying to prove prove a point that you can get that from this scenario by throwing a light over there from your little flash so if you didn't use video light during the perception for cake cutting and dance and all that stuff is this what you had used? Yes so the alternative to my video light during cake cutting our first dance is bouncing my life I have both cameras on me so the long lens the seventy two, two hundred and you'll see it later on we'll have the frenzy on it with the soft box and that camera in front of me on my waist will have the twenty four seventy with the flash on it and I'm bouncing so when they first walk onto the dance floor I'm bouncing flash and then when they get into the dance and it becomes a little more romantic, I go to the long lens and I typically will follow them however I'm usually on the other side so that what im pointing at is the people that are seated behind them I don't like shooting this way because the band is right there I don't want the band to be the background I want the people to be the background because they're the ones that are smiling, our grandma's wiping a tear something like that is always going on in the audience right? And we're the guests are they don't know the band right and s o it's both at that point in time I'm shooting with flash on camera and I'm using my frenzy on the camera has a long list it's flash on cameras in manual frese is in p mode so that camera's in piemonte you want try something else I'd like to try it from this side okay, come on there you guys over there okay, so I'm gonna act like you're scrim for second so now the lighting is different here, right? So I would reassess I threw the meter where it is in terms of two whatever you had it on three point two sixtieth now find out where one stop underneath this you're there now watch where you are right so if you were to shoot right now you'd like her pretty really nice ok now try many do itjust exits on isn't it's okay it's pretty lit huh see I was closer didn't and well not only that but I think you went to sixty four hundred here and I was just watching where you thought minus one was because over here it was twenty five hundred and this was a little brighter than it is there so I would go back down the twenty five hundred and make that this is a whole night connie I think it's okay you need to figure out how your camera system meter and flash work usually in workshops that I have every student gets an opportunity to shoot so we try and make sure everybody has this practice run and then we find tune according to cameras some people bring a sony or fuji camera and it's a different set up than the nikon over the cannon and I don't know why that is but I think it is the fact that each camera system works a little differently in terms of how the flashes incorporated with the meat oring ah usually it's distance sometimes it is reflectiveness it's it's just all depends on which system you using so they're all going to be slightly different the idea will work on each one of them you just gotta find tune whatever camera gear you have and please note that it is a function of making sure goes at a forty five and comes back and that the flash isn't too much forward or that no one influence is the feedback from the flash. In other words, if you were sitting there and it was slightly pointing at you, your white shirt with totally like them from the front, right? So it's a little tricky that's why say if I'm walking back down when I'm always obvious off my surroundings and I want to make sure I'm over their heads if they're standing because the flash directed at them as I'm walking backwards? Well, obviously influence to fill, so if it can't be done, then my assistant just takes over stands next to me, I point the flash down and I just have a soft box in front of me, which is the same thing like I said, if you had a stuff in on it and just let it from the front, but I'm a little off to the side so it's off camera soft box, which is nicer for me, it adds a little bit. It gives you a hint of highlight and shadows sometimes, uh it's, not even like if it was on camera it's flat lighting completely, but even if it's off from there at an angle it gives you that door in a setting like this you would on a wedding day typically probably take everybody outside and do all the if I can't there is times though, where the couple wants to be on the altar if their religious the family's religious they want their portrait on the altar so we're gonna do a little bit in a second here where I'm actually going to use a little bit of side lighting to try and get it across the whole group having said that it now if you can imagine that that whole bridal party's about that wide up here going in a forty five right there you're gonna have fall off so you might as well work on the first or second person by the time you're at that and it's not there anymore. So now my flash is a little more of a function of hitting over here and it's it's a little more flatter of the lighting because I'm now trying toe like everyone, right? What about backup plans for weather? Um just going into on our wedding day usually have a backup plan being that we're living like that I live in vancouver is that something that you do beforehand or do you just kind of I've had the worst scenarios that you can possibly think of where all sent it started raining and the whole thing was scheduled for outdoors and the coordinator wasn't that hip to where she had a black backup plan so we were quickly thrown into a tent that had nothing and we quickly through some chairs together and we had a ceremony it wasn't pretty so you know I don't do anything for backup plans I mean I just go with whatever the flow is I just follow the flow of the wedding and yes I'm sometimes comment so if I know that that bride is looking or expecting portrait's outside but she's taking so long and makeup and I'm starting to lose my life I will let her know ever so nicely I'm about to lose all the light love so here's what sometimes happens I see quickly do me a favor put on the veil right now and she already has a dress on what she's doing final touches on hair what have you I have them put out the veil I sitter in front of the window I grab some shots she goes back up to finish makeup or hair whatever she's doing and then you know I've got my portrait of her so uh that's kind of for me a backup plan I have to adjust teo whatever the scenario is see her dance in the flash because it's not a direct flash there's not that halo shadow but there was a slight shadow on the wall does that bother you at all or do not care no. You know, I try not to get that. So what ended up happening? It was it off a minor off of hers. I'll have to take a look at it because yeah, that bothers me is that the idea is not to have any shadows. That means that front light was just too strong, right? And I had to adjust for it on the second shot. It's just too much. So it's, one of the things. Like I said, when I come to the church, I have my assistant come down the aisle and I gauge how much distance I have, where I can bounce off of. And I checked that first. So there's, always a nice way to make sure that you're nailing this thing by having a run through first. And I do that with my assistant or my second shooter all the time. We do a quick little run through, he stands there, she stands there, I hit it, and I find out where it's dialed in on. Then I go back to whatever program when I was in, if I wasn't in p mode, but I'll know the settings for when I needed. There's nothing like having to try and do that an experiment as she's walking down the aisle doesn't work, so I want to have this thing dialed in and so I practise it before I get every church is different and then, depending on the distance, I have uh, it's different depending on what bounce scenario I have makes a difference so it's not just one setting, I just know I need a minimum of a sixtieth or eightieth of a second that's what I need if they're if they're standing there and they're doing a first kiss or their posing by the altar it's the sixtieth that's where I met, I'm happy there if they're moving I'm at an eightieth sometimes a hundredth of a second, but I'm always at sea the shutter speed is a function of how much available light I'm gonna let in ok, so I try to keep it open as much as I can, but if I have to go to a hundredth of a second, I will jack up my eyes a little bit so that I again grab that available like as I like the light that's on the altar, they always lighted it's, beautiful light it's, very romantic, it's, moody, all of that stuff, so if I'm in the twos sometimes in the ones if that eighty five millimeter at one point eight is crazy beautiful on an f too it's good, but you have to be accurate and the eighty five shallow depth of field. So if your focus is off, your toast is going to be soft, right? So now the fourteen or let's say make it the twenty four one four I can shoot that at one point eight since it's such a wide angle it's got that really great depth of field so at aa almost open f stop! That puppy will be sharp that's a great sharp lines that twenty four lens is sharp is heck and that's also because it's a wide angle, the more you go into telephoto, the more crucial and critical the focus is so if you're not dead on without eighty five a sharp is that lenses you're going to be off it's gonna be soft so that's why? I need at least two two point two two point five sometimes on the eighty five, especially if there's movement involved because that thing is always searching in the eighty five tends to be a slow searcher it's a big piece of glass so the fifty one two is amazing and the twenty four one four is incredible you can't go wrong with either one of those in terms of movement towards you during the ceremony, do you shoot mostly with the prime lenses or to use your twenty four to seventeen year seventy two, two hundred? I use my zooms during ceremony. Uh, it isn't until the recession that I switch and I try and nail this thing with a prime lens because I try not to move too much and zooms. They're easier standing. One position zoom in, turn out okay. So rather than having to run in and out, which is what a prime you have to do, there's, nothing you consume. So you got to move in and you got to move back out. So I try and not do that during the ceremony, so I'm usually on my zooms twenty four, seventy and seventy, two hundred does of the two that I use and then I swap out right before the ceremony ins and it's either twenty four uh millimeter or the fifty millimeter that I use when I backing up, shooting them depending on how grand ah the shot might be with the wide angle versus ah, fifty millimeter.