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Rooftop Shoot at Dusk

On a rooftop all right, so, um I love shooting on rooftops. I love big blue skies typically to get that big blue sky we've got to get up on a rooftop now we are seven fingers to sunset all right, that's not just like a name for a cool clint eastwood movie. Um, it's going to be awhile to that sunset and the light is changing pretty rapidly because some cloud cover is coming in. All right, so we've got, like, a great sky um I made some phone calls and stopped the rain just for this because if it was raining like this was off um so wei have this bright blue sky, which is ambient light, right? Um, it's ambient light and I want teo teo use that. I'm probably going to be appear shooting some available light and I'm probably going to be appear shooting strobe, I am going to shoot stroke we have, uh on hand some hot shoe flash and we've got the bron color mobile, the big twelve hundred watt second light because the reason I have the broad in color light up here is because it is so bright up he...

re, and if I want to control that sky like we saw earlier today, I need to, uh, if I want to drop that light down then I need a lot of light to come back in now a couple things we have going on here we have full sun peeking through every now and then and there are times at this end of day is that light the sun is getting close to the horizon the light is gorgeous it really is you don't need no stinkin stroke for that you just shoot the available light all right um but I like this direct kind of sunlight farm or than I like two o'clock in the afternoon light I mean, if you think about it I will bring my strobe at this direction on somebody but it's rare I have a strobe right over someone's head just like I don't like the sun right over somebody's head so I'm usually not bringing my strobes over right over somebody's head but as it gets down at an angle um it's pretty nice. All right, so uh we have great blue skies now as I look towards the sun it's bright, pretty brilliant right over in this direction I've got the space needle all right on that is of course a landmark of seattle. So I'm thinking I want that in a shot right next to my viewpoint is a hotel that I don't want in my shot so I'm trying to think through this scenario uh where do I need to go like I want the space needle predominantly in my shot I start thinking focal length all right if I start shooting with a twenty four millimeter lin's right? Going back to what we talked about yesterday with lenses if I walk over here twenty four millimeter lens that space needle gets further away and diminishes in my shot as I go telephoto the space needle gets closer perspective wise visually, it gets closer into my shot so when I'm thinking of taking a picture in this direction towards the space needle, then I'm thinking telephoto all right? Uh, I swing back over this way and I've got your basic apartment buildings and corporate offices and a bit of the seattle skyline and if I want this to be a very urban kind of feel that I'm thinking telephoto to bring those buildings in all right um if I just want more blue sky and less building, then I'm thinking white angle toe push visually, push those buildings away, all right? If I look in this direction, we've got this kind of flat white kind of sky there's a little bit of blue up there there's some nice clouds, it gets more blue is I look up this way and if I want that blue, blue, blue sky with those nice white clouds than I have to shoot in that direction up that means I take a lower camera position, I'm going to take a knee or lay down on the ground and shoot up towards that sky and I've got to think through my shot think through my shot if I'm shooting up at somebody than my light needs to drop a shadow here it's it's going to look better on them? All right um and I have these power lines I have to deal with. So if I put my person here further away from the power lines, then it's going to cut through them it's going to be coming out of their body somewhere, I try to avoid power lights. If I cannot completely avoid the power lines, then I ask myself, how can I make those power lines part of the composition? Because they could become leading lines all right, so right over in this corner we have a couple power lines coming in this direction perpendicular to the other power lines, which means that if I dropped low and I'm shooting lines going at each other in a perpendicular direction, then they will create a triangle alright visually so if I go to the corner of this roof, shoot back up towards those, then those lines air coming in at a perpendicular angle, creating a triangle on creating leading lines so maybe I should something there, all right um maybe I use the line of the roof and the line of the power lines as a frame within a frame so maybe I include both the line of the roof and the lines the power lines and now I have framing elements for my subject I want to make sure the head is in a clean spot best I can head in a clean spot had a clean spot way have this a c unit over here that has the cooling uh whatever that is the grill for the aluminum um it's kind of an interesting little background so maybe I just pop a shot off over there that doesn't have anything to do do with the sky it's just this kind of industrial metallic background um so just because you're on a rooftop doesn't mean that it all has to be all the time always rooftop photos. All right, so, uh what's our available light looking like right now the available light I want to use my handheld meter. I want to stand out here and take a meter reading and it's telling me two point eight at five hundredth of a second at I s o one hundred. If I take that down to one hundred sixty eight of a second my sink speed um I'm a five point o that's just for the available light five point o one hundred sixtieth that's not really reading the sky okay that's just reading the light falling right here on the subject this light right here is five point o one hundred sixty of the second so if I'm thinking flash I really need to know what's going on with that blue sky all right uh if you don't have a meter this one has a spot meter like your camera does and if I want to take a meter reading of that sky remember I am I so one hundred I go down to one hundred sixtieth of a second then I'm going to spot meter somewhere in the blue of the sky and I want to zero out my aperture I'm just going to die all my aperture around until it hits zero all right and that is going to give me f eleven and I'm simply going to take a picture at f eleven man f eleven it looks kind of nice like the sky looks good I've got good detail in the clouds if I stand my subject here if I can focus then my subjects standing years everyone pop everything popping up nico under that screen if my subject standing there they're going to be under exposed because the light here just falling on them is darker or less than the light on the sky if the sky at that color and that density of cloud is important to me then I have to expose for the sky and light for the subject all right, I hope everyone's following I don't have a like life class up here and so crew you followed with me okay, yeah just build me up uh let me go. All right, so no uh f eleven one hundred sixty eighth of a second that's looking pretty good now let's say all I've got hot shoe flesh all right, hot shoe flash uh let's grab that julianne let's uh have you pop up over here for a second? Uh how you doing? Been hanging onto rooftops likely citi field all right, I know it's kind of you, sir. So let's see let's I've got to think about my tether let's go over here. Um all right? So the sun is peeking through the clouds behind a cloud through the clouds behind the clouds as soon as full on sun comes on than the light on my subject and the light on the sky are starting to equalize and I kind of don't need any flash at that point all right but then I have to decide is is is my like quality from the sun something good to deal with. So, julian, you're going to try to hang out right there face back towards me that's good hold right there uh, dan let's get thea twenty eight inch box all right, I want to show you where this starts to fall apart with um uh with hot shoe flash and very bright bright bright sunlight all right so I'm going to take uh my hashi flash have the westcott apollo twenty eight inch soft box all right and it's kind of windy out here so I'm hoping it won't fall over I love this box and dan if you could hand me my camera make sure everything's turned on through that beforehand level bracket looks great so then on full power great now um your mom how many kids how many kids? One girl all right you went yeah, four times we have you have a fuller boys all boys I know right uh I'm ok with that meg on the other hand that's what she said she might have been drinking some beers okay uh no um yeah. So four boys like I like that like I wouldn't mind having a girl I just want a teenage girl that got through that what? I'd fearing the connect yeah, yeah. All right. Camera all right yeah. So you're good right there so I'm just gonna have you just standing right over here. Okay? So I've got a hot shoe flash alright hussian flash at full power um and I'm needing f eleven out of it all right, so let me have you rotate a bit this way right and that's really blowing in your face so I'm going to move the light based on how her hair is kind of uh falling on her face thanks to the wind I'm going to move the light under the other side and I want to keep a foot on this light stand let me have you step this way just a little bit more I'm at full power on my flash and I'm just going to a test shot here right there hold that and return my pocket was it on there we go tend to just not do that a lot and at f eleven I'm under exposing all right I need a good another stop or so out of this light all right um to expose now it's close but it's not close enough and this light is really it's sze close in as I want it for the the composition if I got to pull it off with hot to flash this light has to come in close so watch out this lights coming in really really close and here comes the sun so hanging out there now your limits of your gear if you don't have a sandbag my talking to this camera uh if I don't have a sandbag I don't have an assistant and it's windy and I'm flying a modifier I've got to stay really close to it and I need f eleven out of this hot shoot so that means it's got come in really close to my subject all right she's sort of at the back end of the soft box it's pointing back at her a little bit and this is going to change the composition that I'm trying to make if if I want to put her more in the centre third I can't because this thing's physically in my box or in my shot and here comes the full sun which is going to change exposure but it's going to sneak back behind a cloud and a minute and what's interesting just standing here looking at julianne this soft box is becoming a reflector and it's getting the full sun and reflecting it back to julian but not quite so much so here's what we're going to do I'm still wanting to demonstrate this I'm going to flip this box around uh camera tell a stupid tether alright stand right there and I want to use this soft box the flag that sunlight off of her but I'm not going to do it very well so full on son this happens all the time okay you get set up you do your meter readings if I'm not sitting here talking to cameras I usually knocked out a couple of shots but now I have full on son and I'm not sure when it's coming back all right so if I have to decide to get rid of the flash and just shoot the available light if I just shoot the available light where she stands now half of her is lit with sun and half of her is in shade uh it's not the greatest light in the world so let me have you rotate look towards that window uh the window the hotel across the street all right so she is in direct straight son it's not soft uh it's not um it's just not always a soft beautiful light so I could make the decision of I'm going to shoot this light or not shoot this light I would say if the sun was down a little bit lower in the horizon then it would be a prettier light right now it's still just a bit harsh so I'm not going to shoot this shot could I don't like the quality of the light it's not what I want now if I walk to the other side of the roof that's in shade whether the sun is out or the sun is behind a cloud that side of the roof will always be in shape so I start looking at that side of the roof saying well maybe I start over there because the building across the street is casting a shadow across the roof and I might be able to shoot over their light my subject deal with the sky but I don't have his clean of a shot of the sky over there as I do over here and if I ramble on enough the sun will go away all right so some kind of went away and now it's actually kind of it's really quite beautiful but we're talking about flash at the moment I need to get this shot done before the sun comes back so perfect kind of rotate for me this way just a bit and bring your face back to me and let's just bring the hair just in fact just a bit yeah but it's actually kind of cool kind of dig it and we're taking a test shot and it didn't fire and when I hold out right there uh my pocket was a cable disconnected that's awesome put that back and how old is your daughter she's eight she's eight percent domesticate that's a good age yeah yeah just waiting for the time when it's not awesome right there at f eleven at this close it is still too dark on her rotate for me a little more this way perfect just sneak this and I my flashes at full power just kind of hair out of that eye right there perfect how to bring your hand up like that again just adjusting your her awesome awesome all right so my flash is about one foot away from her face and I'm finally getting a pretty decent exposure but it is one foot from her face at full power to get f eleven and get a decent exposure out of them uh so if I'm up here with hot shoe flash and I want a soft box and I want to deal with that sky, I'm at full power f eleven and my box has to be one foot away from her imagine if I needed that sky to be f sixteen then pardon me for a minute but the box would be like that to get f sixteen all right, if I want to bring this box back here so I can shoot a wider composition, then it's too dark and if I try to bring that exposure up in light room, I bring the exposure of everything up in light room, so now I've got to go in I've got to make a mask of her face and create all of that and try to bring that up in photo shop later. Well, if I shoot ten pictures here and I have to mask her face ten times, how long is that going to take me like a long time? How much is your time worth? We're going to get into that tomorrow your time is worth, so I'm sitting here working on this job for five hours and photoshopped to work on ten pictures I'm not shooting the correct gear, all right, dan let's grab that braun color all rights julian you're doing great right where you are we're going to switch out equipment here so just hang out there for you doing all right you stay in one alright yes it's a little cool appear all right so we're going to bring big mama and hear a fifty inch westcott soft bucks it is on a c stand which came round my honor my eye on you okay, so uh fifty and soft box honesty stand now we're going with twelve hundred watt seconds of like I want to shoot a wider composition of this shot um I want mohr light I have to go to a bigger light now if you find yourself in this situation every six months you don't need to go spend three grand on the light if you find yourself in this situation every sixth days then that dictates to you I may need a bigger light if this is kind of the style that you want to shoot it's what? Your clients dictator what the assignments dictate and you're doing this all the time then you need a big light all right, so let's get big obama up uh we probably need a pocket wizard on that way have a state court for it yes, go for it can limb asked what a different light modifier other than the soft box work e snood or grid without the diffusion yes uh if I shot snoot or grid even with a sandbag in a day and bag of things still fall over um yes, a snooper grid is a straight flash like you're getting a light straight out of the light the soft box has taken a stop to to stop somewhere in that range of light and so yes, you will get an extra punch but then you're not getting that soft quality of light at some point you just shoot sunshine when the sun comes out she'd son right? Because it's a direct light um there are times when hot she flashed that's all I've got all right and I have to shoot straight flash isn't the most flattering light in the world know what I rather shoot this? Yes, but when I'd rather shoot with a soft box but I don't have enough power to run it and I have to shoot straight flash and it is a compromise that is a to compromise of I'd rather have a better quality of light all right, so we have big mama's set up here right way powered up full power set to eleven uh, bring it down a little bit. Yeah, bring it down. Bring it down. Bring it down a little more. Little more excellent. Uh, a little let's try that so, julian, you're going to turn this way just a little bit eyes to the light, right? I still like this is my light source this is my light source eyes go in this general direction that wind is just having fun with us yeah right I'm just doing a test shot right now and boom at f eleven I have too much light I got so much light like I got f sixteen light or more so let's bring this down more than a stop eight point nine if I didn't bring it down a bit more than that we're just doing test shots right now there we go I've got my big momma soft box I've got my f eleven um I'm shooting at about half power on the bron color pack so half power on the bron color pack that's twelve hundred watt seconds full power six hundred watt seconds half power so I could be out here with an alien be sixteen hundred at full power because it's six hundred forty watt seconds so this half power is equal to an alien b six forty at full power or an einstein at full power all right uh I'm good okay so uh now that my exposure said one hundred sixty eighth of a second f eleven everything looks really good uh that light will be changing pretty quickly on me on dh I'm going to go I want to just start shooting some pictures all right so good looking right here julian does it now this meet the lights a little too much to the side of her and her eyes were getting dark so let me have you take a step back a little bit and come this which stair come back this way just a little bit perfect right there excellent and face is gonna come around this way excellent right there hold that shit up a little bit should not excellent awesome the eyes are still getting kind of dark so I'm going to move this light and we got three sandbags on this thing that's insane what I want this light from more from camera position all right hi it's rotating on me yeah it's coming off the light altogether so it's kind of windy and falling apart right got it you got it you got it you know on this thing's all right we got in questions well dan's putting our light back together with a speed light without the soft blocks and get enough eleven and get away f eleven no well I mean yeah you can you can do it but it's going to be a straight hard light it is just it's a hard flash right? Right you could either a just used the sun or be you've got to understand there is no soft quality of the light so every wrinkle every blemish every everything on the face is going to just be accentuated right and you like you that gives you parties for thought all right um so so you're thinking ok, I like I like straight flash what? I'm shooting hip hop and everyone always be hard then hard light right hard light maybe we'll have a discussion between soft light hard light tomorrow but but hard light hard attitude hard light, bright bright highlights dark shadows but I don't really want that up here I love the look of my soft box and if I want that soft box light at this time a day, then I've got to go to this and what we're going to see coming up is we can do this shot with this soft box with a hot shoe, but that son has to hit the horizon we have the weight and there's going to be a window of opportunity where the soft box of hot shoe flash everything works fantastic we have all the light in the world we need on we're shooting f four but not at f eleven you want to do this shot while the sun is that still still high? You've got to have more powerful lights just have to all right, so back up with the light over shooting position the reason I needed here is I want those eyes lit I want those eyes just brightening up good looking right at me that is fantastic right there, all right, chin up right there, hold on oh, I love it now my sky is already getting darker I'm an f eleven I'm going to go toe f eight and I'm gonna bring this power down one stop because my sky is already changing good looking right here showing up awesome fantastical I think I can bring that down just a bit more all right back up just for me just a little bit right there good good looking right I've got those power lines in my shot but I'm making sure that they don't intersect her head and they're just going to be a little lines at the top of the frame fantastic good chin up a little more perfect go horizontal with this with my f point focus on the eye recomposed my shot shit up excellent that's great, great great job now I want you kind of looking over this way I'm going to be shooting this angle yeah that'd be good that would be good now if I shoot from this position right here the internet conceive my life my tether right? We're still on tether head not in a clean spot see those lines coming through her head in her neck not loving it at all so I changed my angle and I still have the power lines but her head is in a clean spot at this point good still looking off this way julian perfect right there hold that awesome when you hear that braun color fire off it's just this sounds awesome I love the sound of it how far can my tether go? Can you go a little closer to the edge? All right let's grab this light julie and I want to I want to head over this way just a little more and you are going to be not too close to that edge but you're going to stand right over here looking back this way way we had a dear friend recently take a fall but dear friend of ours who's a teacher on this whole creative life thing david do sherman was teaching in italy and was leaning over a wall some are between twenty and thirty feet and david david none of that we're thinking of you praying for you, david and we're glad you're on home soil he's he's going to be good he's going to the office feet for like three months but yeah so but I can't tell you how many times I have danced around edges of buildings and parking decks trying to get that shot and you just push yourself and push yourself you hope that's all going to be all right uh now now that I've gotten closer to these lines, I can get that same kind of shot but cleanup that sky that's fantastic perfect just like that you're doing great now just bring a keeper face exactly like that just bring your eyes to the camera perfect I'm dropping a shadow underneath the chin that gives good shape to the face I'm not lighting underneath the chin if my soft box started dropping lower light would start going under the chin and would not want that whatsoever that's perfect right there hold that excellent! I'm gonna shoot a wide angle shot here full length excellent if I'm on a magazine assignment this is kind of just the work that I do excellent chin up just a little bit right there and why I keep saying chin up chin up chin up is eyes tabloid well, I'm down here so you think you know I need to look at the camera when I really need and plus it goes back to the body language I'm shooting from a low position on high position that that makes her larger than life kind of things right? And yeah, you're powerful you're in control and it's not snotty like you're looking down your nose at me but it's it's it's your larger than life and if you could make someone look larger than life but not look snotty and it's people like award and that people don't always say oh wow look you shot me from a lower shooting angle I look larger than life now it's been empowering right? Exactly perfect excellent a few more shots here should not love that love it love it all right so uh I've been around a lot let's grab this light and we're gonna walk down to this corner we'll see how far this tether goes you know big ups to creative life a for making all this happened be forgetting all the technology together for running cables up the sides of buildings for figuring out how to put like fourteen billion usb cords together you know I mean you realize how much hard work it is just the like stream stuff on the internet and you know to have my ugly face doing it that's just crazy right julianne you're right here at this corner looking this way I think and then that light again right where I had it before so uh all right we actually need let's move this light a little bit further back and this is where braun color ron color three sandbags a c stand big momma soft box on a roof top uh with the c stand we need to actually move it back this isn't really a one man operation all right, so you're shooting a three thousand dollars light it's you're out here in situations where you kind of need an assistant all right um if I'm out here as a single photographer with uh uh just me no assistant and on ly hot shoe flash I'm waiting a good extra thirty minutes until that light drops to where I just do it on my own so that means I'm off somewhere else making pictures. I can't be up here making pictures at this time of day because I don't have enough light and then in the wind, I don't have enough assistance to help me out. Um so when do you need an assistant? When you start getting these kind of jobs? Okay, miss julie, come for it here just a little bit more for me in this way. All right? Good. I'm going to get lower and you're looking again up over that way and way have these these, uh, lines in our shot, which I'm normally trying to avoid that's perfect just like that. Hold that. So now I'm going to try to use them in my photograph. Where is my shop? Where is we? Shot number number right there. All right, perfect. And just stay just like that kind of looking back this way. One wide angle. Just bringing those lines and that looks great. Heading to clean his spot as I can get. Ah, that's fantastic! I love it. So I'm going to use those power lines as part of my shot and I'm the wondering if I can't lose and I got it, I got it, thanks losing my mic pet, I wantto hide that power pole all right here's what? Wendy I want to make this shot right got to do it right take the time do it right this'll light comes back a little more I need here a little further away from those lines that's good. That should be it julian come on for just for me a little bit more and right over here right there I wantto cover that whole phone pole and I'm gonna need to use her body to do so best I can all right, julian just a little bit this way just get scooped whole body that's right there all right back again just a little right there. All right, now this arm on this side I just want the elbow coming out a little bit more away from your body. Yeah, so that's good right there. Now I'm gonna just be split right there perfect hold that. I'm just gonna have to split the difference best they can and it's all about the sky it's all about these lines yeah ah fantastic good right there. Hold that now I'm going to shoot this shot available late teo teo which is why for fun? Yeah, we're getting to the point where the light and her in the light of this guy's starting to equalize and we'll have just a few minutes so that sky isn't quite as dark or dramatic is when I'm lighting it and under exposing it and the light changes on her but there's this time period at this time of day where the light on the subject the light in the sky equalizes and you can turn your flash off and you you don't need too much of it or any of it at all um and we're about at that point but uh not quite there yet almost on dh when you have it you have it for like five minutes and it's done it's finished all right so hang out for me right there I do want to shoot some available light as that sun drops and drops and drops all she back into the available light and I need to get my my space needle shot as well uh hold on one second dan go ahead and take big mama off that way you don't have to like baby sit it all right and I'm going to go to my eighty to two hundred now you know what I want go to my frankenstein linds let's shoot this hassle black here now tomorrow I'm going to talk about why I'm moving the hassle glad I want to talk about why digital slr czar absolutely boring the crap out of me at the moment I've got a hassle black one hundred fifty millimeter f four lens on that uh somewhere I don't I don't know what equivalent vocal link would be but something on by a back light my subject s o julian let me have you come right over here get my handy dandy little light meter out that's good standing right there perfect all right uh so do you see you see like what your daughter is going to do this she have a theatrical kind of flair to her or center blood yeah I don't wish it on but I think my my bit of a career getting that right and what to do awesome as she done any acting our enemy plays or yeah yeah yeah she's teaching also your writing is well and right kids okay so I let them sort of right way characters places that's one thing that's very cool all right I'm gonna take a couple test shots I I'm not used to this lindsay and I'm using this different linds it's so great like it's awesome like don't like it looks fantastic your hair's great all right great because are you well that's got to be tough yeah, well I mean check this out like I love this shot I just love just just it's it's dramatic but it's not like overly lit dramatic and sky looks great and yeah and the light on your face and I loved just they have the hair is blowing and great great great great now no, no no it's just cameras stuff okay? So I wouldn't do a couple test shots my meter is telling me f for at one twenty fifth of a second and I'm going to see how close that isn't gosh, this must be like a two hundred millimeter lens on this camera all right? Perfect just holding right there I've got a manually focus and I had say I'm going to give myself an extra stop which this must be like a two hundred millimeter lens and I'm sitting here at sixteen of a second hand holding and hoping I'm sure a little overexposed we're going eightieth for sex and actually I would go up to two hundred click that up three clicks one hundred sixteen of a second perfect right there hold that julian wonderful this last light of day it is just beautiful just soft out of focus background figure out my focus right there no flash got some hairs just yeah gone right just there were those little tiny hairs like going straight year I that's perfect but the finding my focus hold right there beautiful looks great excellent. I love the wind right now good focus. Wonderful. And right now my goal is I'm just shooting portrait's I'm not shooting a head shot of not I'm just taken portrait ce all right chin up just a little bit right there I've just got to find my focus I hate manually focusing on dslr hated focusing skirts suck right there love it uh, I'm getting a little back light from the sun. Thank you, son. That's fine. I'm just trying to find my focus on mental focus spiritual focus good. We're coming a little closer here. It's heavy, right that right there, julian. Excellent. Hold that right there. You find my focus is it is wonderful right there and I'm shooting a number of frames here because the hair is blowing and I'm just trying to catch it and different amounts of blown state, whatever that would be right there. Hold that love this light love this light love it don't need a flash don't need whatever just available light, but it only going to last for a minute or two and then it just gets kind of right. This is it's his moments photographers talk about, you know, the magic our or the little sections of time when you have magic like you don't have a lot of it and what's important is you're set up ready in position, so if it happens, you're there. If you're in your car driving the location and you see that magic light your host you lost it kind of thing right there. You're probably different exposure since the sun is hitting you and you are so I went about two hundred of a second, so what I'm doing right now uh the last you got any questions? What you doing? Uh is my mike on at him? It is now excellent. I do have questions. I've really wanted to ask this one this alien be make a version of dan for consumer use is opposed to the pro model dan zak uses no there's only one damn sorry and I haven't sorry I haven't I'm just wasting time right now. I want to take questions on a more serious note. Yeah. Would you consider doubling your speed light in your twenty eight apollo to achieve the power you need? Uh, yes. Remember as you double flash power name on this camera here is you double flash power. You gain one stop of light. All right, so if you're at one hot shoe flash at full power and you put two of them in at full power let's say that what is giving you f eight two will give you f eleven if you need to get the f sixteen guess what? That's for every time you double flash power, you gain one stop of light. All right, so you can and they make brackets that can hold two they make brackets, it can hold four I've seen um yeah, you have four five hundred dollars flashes stuck in there and you're a two thousand dollars that's a ellen crumb ranger at eleven hundred watts seconds which is button up right against the bron color I'd rather have the ranger than four sb nine hundreds if you said here's an eleven hundred second pack zack or hears four sb nine hundreds I would totally take eleven hundred watt second pack over that yeah other questions other question if shooting with a sing with only a single hot shoe flash to zack prefer do you prefer soft box or umbrella and want uh it goes back and forth when I'm out here on a rooftop it kind of go either way um an umbrella where my right I'm here so an umbrella up here in the wind it's over it's just over in a heartbeat a soft box handles the wind a little bit better it will go over pretty quickly on you as well but I I've found an experience that if I've got to fly about a fire in a kind of a windy breezy situation like what we're in right now then I'd rather fly a soft box um I could uh win when the light drops and that sky gets to f four f for with a shoot through umbrella uh over your head I call it my vanity fair lighting because it's just it's fantastic it's just it's soft and it's beautiful and the sky is just perfect the light is just perfect in hot shoe flash and everybody's let anyone who has ears is laughing way don't have years, so we don't know it's so funny, right? Yeah, right. So it's been a long day, and here we are up on a rooftop in seattle and it's pretty awesome. Hey, this bonus material. So, um, so umbrella soft box, whatever I what I say is, if you're new to all of this and you don't know exactly which one to use by a thirty dollars, sixty inch umbrella, the sixty inch impact convertible from being a tch by one of those actually by tubes, you're gonna lose one to win, you need a backup on hand er thirty dollars umbrella and shoot with it for six months to a year. Seriously, discipline yourself enough to say, I'm going to have this one modifier for six months to a year, and then you need to be shooting with that modifier every week at least every week and at the end of the six months to a year when you add a soft box to the mix, open up a soft box, put it on your subject you have seen sixty inch convertible light for a year, and then that soft box turns on hits your subject and you go, oh it's different and you're going to know exactly how it's different is because you've on ly known sixty inch umbrella light for so long. You add a twenty eight inch soft box into that and you say wow, look at the difference between the two right if you go by umbrellas in too soft boxes and talked the bank and you don't know jack about any of them you don't know what's going to pick out you don't know which one to go to you don't know which one you're going to prefer more than the other um in some situations I like the twenty eight inch box over the fifty inch box and in some situations I like fifty over the twenty eight and sometimes I can't put words to it I don't know it's just from experience I'm just shot it so many times that I want the twenty eight inch here I'll have darker shadows I want fifty inch here I want lighter shadows um I need the light thie environment and the subject that they're sitting in the subject and the environment like indoors umbrella I want a light the subject but not so much of the environment that they're said again soft box I'm out here and I don't really have any I don't have any environment the light at all because it's I got a bit of a floor but I can't like the freakin sky so soft box umbrella doesn't really kind of matter at that point but this shadows that it creates sometimes does that could be one too okay, the question is do I have a preference of catch light shape if I use the soft box get that's what I get a square or rectangle catch light if I use an umbrella I get around one you might have a preference I don't really care one or the other I'm looking at the light and not so much the catch like I do like the beauty dish for that perfectly round catch light I do love that an umbrella doesn't give you that perfectly round catch light and I'm asking a question when using strobes and flashes what's the lowest shutter speed he would use until ghosting comes in once it well, I'm comfortable hand holding for one second, but I better stays still and my subject better stay still I will hand hold down to one second and I'll fire off like five consecutive shots and I'm hoping one of them is sharp and not a lot of ghosting you start getting ghosting pretty quickly assume his thirtieth to fifteenth of a second so ghosting could start showing up quickly and that's from a little bit of camera motion a little bit of subject motion and if your subjects moving and you're moving it's very easy to start ghosting but I'm comfortable with down to one second wind zach feel a lend hood is necessary since you had one of the cannon lines but not here elin's hood is necessary typically, when I've got a sidelight coming in or I'm shooting, shoot your umbrella, shoot, doing well, you've got to have a linds hood or if I don't have a lin said let's say, I'm shooting this lin's with no hood, I don't own one for this linds yet, and I have a shoot their umbrella right here in between my subject in my lens than my hand would be up like this, like trying to keep that shoot their umbrella light from striking the front of my lands. Um, if I've got the hood, I use it if I don't, this is mine. So and as much as I like, you know, bang my equipment and walls and stuff like a linds hood helps a little bit with protection of it. Question for zach, do you ever consider using a tripod when creating portrait outdoor or do you feel it just limits? You limits me, it just gets me just if I have to be shooting in two seconds or something, I have to go to a tripod, but if I'm out here shooting at one hundred sixty eight of the second or whatever, uh, I don't need a tripod, um, I and I want to move, I made. Frameup my photo here but I really need the photo to be here and if I'm on a tripod that's this whole apparatus I have to deal with I'm already a klutz enough as it is and the more crap you give in to me near my footprint the more I'm going to be pushing things over tripping over things I like I already hate I have this right I hate I have this as it is imagined put the whole tripod on here I'm really gonna hate life that's just me all right one more here is there an ideal direction to place the speed light strobe in relation to the sun's position good at all the fans is how much of the sun light is coming into your shot. If you're seeing sunlight coming into your shot from one direction and your stroke is coming in from another direction you may have shadows going into direct and in nature we you never see shadows in two directions because we have one light source so let's say I've got sudden coming barreling in in this shot I'll probably chase it with my flash or I'll backlight or use the sun as a rim light and then light from the front so that they're actually kind of going against each other but if I have sunlight coming in here I'm not going to bring flash in this way because I'm getting this cross light right, so if I have to shoot in this direction the sun is in that direction then the light comes from that direction the flash and and I'm trying to get it to chase the son so I'm not getting weird multiple shadows going in multiple directions if they're both creating shadows sometimes I can overpower the side I could take this brown color and their situation right can overpower the sun so much uh that whatever shadow it was creating I just like knocked it out with light yeah, get it right is there much of a difference between a thirty two in a sixty inch umbrella besides the size? Not a not a lot I mean huge tons it's just you've got x amount of money to spend and usually if you're modifying the light you want the softest light you can possibly get so for thirty bucks you could get a big sixty inch umbrella and there you go where I'd rather have a thirty two inch umbrella is if I need to soften the light, but I'm in a very small confined space like I'm in a hallway like a very narrow hallway I'm trying to shoot a portrait in this narrow hallway you open up a sixty inch umbrella and a narrow hallway and it's like massive or there have been times where I was like, I wish this thing was smaller because it's just too big but that's on lee in these weird, confined little space is so hard to have them and do this all right, what situations would use a beauty dish? What I'm shooting beauty um I love the beauty dish it's for closely it's this round light moderate looks like a big salad bowl I imagine a big, huge mixing bowler salad bowl it looks like that and it's this big round light source of twenty two inches in diameter and when I'm shooting close head shots um and I really like the beauty dish on a boom, I don't really like to be dish off over here on the side I love the beauty dish for the classic beauty dish looked you fly it out over your subject on a boom right here, but that requires a boom that requires more snow, sandbags or dan bags and like it's, I'll come up to ah rooftop with beauty dish, but I have to have an assistant or to really do it, and there are some decent beauty dishes built for hot shoe flashes that I've seen recently but nothing quite it's it's all like just kind of taken it like I I like a classic twenty two inch beauty dish that bare bulb head fits into in fires off correctly, not trying to fake it kind of looks at that you could use a twenty inch umbrella andahazi flashing sort of make it look like a beautiful sort of uh let me take a meter reading of the scott and wait for it to get the f four uh let's go two hundred julianna you doing okay stayed warm enough? Uh adrenaline alright meter the sky hundred sixty six was that sky look like five six oh it's still oh, I mean I said two hundred still uh five six all right, this guy right now is about five six I needed to stop down another stop. Um, over that side of the sky it looks a little bit darker on that side of the sky. Uh, five six looks pretty good there. Um I really like this guy to get the f four when it hits that for it's like perfect eso dan I want um go ahead and get the saber uh, all we need do is poppy, not yet, but we're not going to go to that yet, but as soon as the sky gets down to f or we're going to that, um so let's just get it turned on about half powers. So something like that, uh, using this new thing called a sabre strip uh, that just kind of hitting the market and it's like a strip box for hot shoe flash um and it handles wind awesome like that thing's been sitting up here if we can go over and take a look at this thing ah hot shoe flashes sitting inside of it and it's been sitting out here on the roof for this whole segment without a sandbag on it and it's yet to fall over um yeah, go over it hold it deals with wind so much better uh a few more questions before we start shooting. Okay, good question. Continuous lighting versus stroke. Ok, my initial thought is light is like in a discussion light is like whatever it is um but if you said zach here's a thousand bucks to spend on continuous lights are thousand bucks spent on strobes I'd much rather have stroked because continuous lights will take me up to a certain point and just leave me there like if I'm trying to overpower a bright sky with continuous lights I need a son of continuous life um where I come up here with a strobe and take care of it it's rare rare rare that whatever can be done with continuous light I couldn't do with stroke and then what I could do with strobe goes far beyond what I can do with continuous light continuous light is nice especially if you're just learning about lighting you turn it on what you see is what you get right uh but to get a nice bright continuous light source out of four double a batteries like good luck with that and I know led technology is getting a whole lot better pretty soon we'll have like big led panels that get pretty bright and good job dan um no uh uh but I would much rather have strobe then continuous light because I can do more with strobe that I can with continues like it and if I want to spend that money I'd rather have the money and strobes that I can do more with then in continuous light that I could do less with do use filters filters no, not really sometimes like is this son gets lower it warms up. The flash is very cold the son is very warm and there are times that I put like a half cto or full cto filter gel on my flash toe warm it up to match the son if I mixing a warm warm warm sunset with the cold cold cold hot shoe flash then a gel the hot shoe flash toe warm that up but this time of day right now I really would need it one more one more okay. Oh, I had and I lost it. How does susan kennedy this this guy when using any lights not plugged into the wall? What does he recommend for battery power what's that again when using any lights not plugged into the wall what do you recommend for battery power? Um well with the hot shoe flashes I use the biggest rechargeable batteries I could find the twenty four hundred miller of hippo unicef pickle batteries whatever that, whatever that is mh g good whatever honesty batteries I like chemistry batteries s o is just big double a rechargeable cz whatever I could get for my alien b I have a vagabond system the things weighs like eighteen pounds the bron color that weighs about eighteen twenty pounds it has a big battery system for it. Um so yeah that's what I the vagabond is great and I have a new one that's like three and a half pounds but it's hard to get because they're back ordered forever kind of thing all right? Any other questions while I'm meter in the sky you is a ring flush oh was it so I have a ring flash um I'm probably selling my ring flash soon because, um I have the uh still bright it seems like it's getting darker but that sky is still super bright just killing time we'll go shoot some other pictures. Well, I'm waiting for that s o ring flash yes, but a ring flashes if you use the ring flash for the way it is is uh it's a one trick pony it's got one look and um I don't use it all that much. You khun, eh? I don't know it's got one thing that it does. And one thing I have the orvis ring flash for hot shoe and so I'm going to sell my alien be ring flash and just use the little hot show ring when I need it I do like it is a phil light every now, rd generally used for being light what's that how much power do you generally use for a room light for room light rim light. All right. Oh, rim light. Oh, well, it all okay. How much power do I use for a room like it depends on the power of the main light. All right, it's all kind of a ratio. I usually want the rim light to be, like a stop less than the main light. Whichever cameron, you know, I'm going to you. So I want the rim, like, typically to be a stop darker than the main light. So let's, just say my main lights at half power that I'm probably going to start the rim light at quarter power. Um, I don't want it typically to be as bright as the main light, all right, all right, let's, do this let's, do this started shot against that thing? Let's dan, grab the hot shoe over there the nikon with nothing on it julianne let's walk over here all right? I've been eyeing this have you stand right in front of that front center perfect frame within a frame right um and I'm going to go straight flash with this and I'm using a little honnold grid little hajnal grid spot and she's getting fit with full sun right now but that full sons about the disappear and I'm not quite sure what I want over here but I'm just kind of just kind of drawn tio I'm gonna have to go up power lines to be at least half of this I'm just drawn to this grid I'm drawn to this square box I see it his frame within a frame um I see blue sky behind it I'm thinking wide angle maybe something I don't know I'm thinking square crop is well uh when I shoot a lot of musicians I think square crops a lot for cd artwork so what I need you to do right now? Oh, crap. You know what I need a semi twenty four seventy I walked over here with the wrong day england's but I can still take a test shot all right, so ambien lights looking for point five of one hundred sixty eight of a second and I really want that son to just disappear slights kind of nice right there though now my flashes working my flash is looking pretty decent let's change lenses I'm still thinking sky shot thinking hey, the sky will we'll stop get tow f four here soon perfect so julianne that's going to be a very symmetrical kind of shots and you need to come this way a little more come forward for a little bit on dh right there perfect and I'm just doing a test shot here and I need to stop down to about five point six just using a little grid and five six, one hundred sixty it's I'm looking good on the flash you do do you good woman all right, we're probably going to take like, a ten minute break here soon so less right here I'm going to just shoot a few pictures here off son of a gun just lost tether uh I want to take about a ten minute break here because I just want this light to drop just and everyone's cold and you got to think about the crew you've got to think about your client got to think about your subject and everyone's been out on this rooftop long enough to want to take a little bit of break everyone go inside kind of warm up and when the skies perfect I would say skies perfect get on up here and let's you hot she flashed small strobe all of that all right but I want to get this shot done first perfect and you're looking over my head it's hawk danger I heard him yeah it's hawk across the street hi hawk hi okay don't michael jackson this thing honey all right there's a screen and all of that they're perfect so standing right there all he was dead perfect all right right there back just a bit and then come forward just for me just a little bit this way and looking over my head straight over my head right there hold that awesome I love it it's a strong contrast the light I'm getting a little bit of the sunlight in there but I can deal with that I want to go to two hundredth of a second on my sink I'm probably going to lose a little bit of it but I want to lose it below the grid and I'm just trying to kill the sunlight a little bit more than what I am and then I'm gonna go to rule of thirds over here to the side and step forward for me just a bit all right she stepped closer to my light I'm moving my life a little bit further I just want to frame her within a frame frame within a frame frame was in a frame accident I like it here centered up perfect move my point just a little bit this way right there hold right there heading a clean spot frame within the frame right on backed up just just they write that for right there is she moved forward a little bit her head was intersected um I think that's going to make a nice square crop awesome let's take like a ten and everyone just sort of warm up for a second and we're good to go all right, we're back all right so uh I wanted tio let that sky droppin exposure until it started getting in between the f four and five six range all right, so I'm a one hundred sixty eighth of a second my sky is sitting right around f four it's looking pretty good right now f four looks beautiful um it's a beautiful sky and if I are we still tethering up okay, yes, we are if I shoot my subject against that sky she's going to be a silhouette against it so I made one hundred sixty eight of a second that's my sink speed I'm an f four and I've got hot shoe flash and I'm using this thing called a sabre strip. All right? Um I'm really starting the love this light modifier number one it's windy and breezy out here I don't have any sand bag on my stand and I can still use this now it's more like a strip light um so, it's not this kind of wide area of coverage that a bigger soft box or an umbrella would get and there's some pretty cool stuff that you can do. You get two of them, put two in an l shape on do you start to get kind of a soft box light out of it? So I've got my flash now it like quarter power or so when that sky hits f for that tells me I have plenty of range to work with as some point during the day I'm fighting against the sky fighting against the sky and then it's perfect and then I start slowing down my shutter speed. Um to pull it back and pull it back, pull it back. But right now it's fantastic said julian here great. Just like that I want you kind of looking off in this direction. Perfect. That savour strip is just flying right over her. I could get far away from it. I don't have to worry about it too much. Falling over it's a really cool quality of light. This is one of those situations where I had a wish. I had a bit of a shorter light stand to get it this is a pretty tall stand and I want the light. Lighting her eyes it's facing back to her and I'm just doing some test shots right now and I took a break because you need teo you need to think about your subjects and I think I want to change this light position uh you've got to think about your subjects comfort there times when I'll just I push my subjects so they're kind of breaking point if it's worth the photograph if it's worth of photo and I'm no it's cold I know it's miserable I know it's just bad for you right now but it's worth it um then I continue shooting all right and and I empathize with with my subject and I just know this sucks trust me on this right? But we're getting to the point where I knew I needed fifteen minutes toe wait for that sky we want to do it with hot shoe flash then I've gotta wait and wait and wait for the sky and there's no reason stand up here in the cold for fifteen minutes waiting for the sky so let's take a break let's regroup and then we'll come back at it perfect so you're just kind of hang out put a kind of arm um bring that lets yeah that works right there looking right back towards me perfect beautiful chin up good always eyes to the light and it acts like a boom is well it's still just a little too high on her so I'm gonna back it out a little bit bring it down lower I love this strip this thing is awesome is called the saber strip it's not really available in stores right now they're in small production on these things um and they're very cool. They kind of made from home kind of see uh it's great awesome right there. Hold that and I want you take your ah left arm yeah and and and now take your right hand and just kind of bring across your lab. Yeah, perfect. Bring it close to your knee that's excellent right there. Chin up perfect. Hold that my sky looks great in fact, my skies getting darker and I accidentally but my shutter speed so I need to bring that down fantastic chin up. Good. Awesome. All right, uh, what else can I do with this? Dan grabbed that other hot shoe that's still over there at the air conditioning unit and put big mama on all right. So another cool thing about this let's try this when we go hand held with this um your flashes sitting up inside of here we won't bring this down and power a little bit so we get a closer now I'm going to kind of hold this in close to you it's going to kind of feel sort of odd that I'm you know hold this light in near you uh but it's it looks nice right just at a fraction of a second wind I plug a pocket wizard in a movie magic there we go all right excellent let's not hold this right off it's beautiful like fantastic right there good it's really got a narrow narrow area so I can hold it and still keep it out of my light out of my shot a little wide angle here a little more fifty millimeter action going on perfect right there that's fantastic right there with that I want to move to that corner with big momma uh in the two hundred um put put big mama over there by these satellite dishes turning this chair around for a couple of shots to sure yeah yeah what's something yeah yeah, that angle is kind of nice and all right right there hold up good. All right. Excellent. Well shoot a few more right here um may have been coming in and light stand for me bring it in like right there and around front a little more perfect. All right, julian looking right at me now my skies getting darker and darker and darker so my shutter speed starts to go slower I find that as bring that light up a little bit on and around front just a little bit right there if that's guy goes to under exposed it gets a really noisy excellent right there it's beautiful excellent they're not for its sixteenth of a second fantastic all right she had a few more here kind of looking up off this way right there hold that get some negative space good good good all right great let's move over here big mama you can just believe it ok uh good wireless fantastic let's go that seventy two hundred all right, get me up to about a quarter power on that and let's see how that looks right there dan bring that light right over here so we're going uh that we don't need that light any longer all right and it's gonna have to get closer and of course I'm putting it right into the wind back out just a little bit right there all right julianne just hanging out right there I'm just doing a test shot just a test shot test my light I've got the space needle back there I want to get that in my shot I'm taking a lower shooting position we're trying this again perfect right there hold that julian and if I d I'm gonna have a hard time starting to focus on I just want that space needle in the shot good rotate for me this way just a bit yeah now just take a little step this way right there. Excellent perfect right there. Space needle subject from shooting story about thin sneak this just rotated that way. Just a bit right there. Good. Awesome right there, julian. I'm at, uh, I'm somewhere around eighty five millimeter on my resume, just compressing that the space needle in if I compress it and even more, it gets closer visually, but goes out of focus and it starts to look like a flying saucer. Awesome. Now take a little half. Step back right there and rotate your body this way for me. Just a bit right there. Hold that good. Just directing her towards my light source. Shut up a little bit. I know it's cold and what? Sex? We're almost done. She backed in getting the space needle. Awesome. So my exposure good. Looks good. Mike. Sky looks good. I've got this space needle back there. I don't need a tax sharp. You get the idea of where it is, it gives you a sense of place. I'm not going to have it growing out of her head like that because that looks kind of weird. So like that. And then I want you to kind of looking off this way. Perfect. Tryingto keep the hotel out of my shot, we'll get a little bit of that building in there. But that's all right? I'm just seeing some of the windows and everything and the windows kind of look cool they're picking up the sunset perfect. You're still looking off that direction rotate just a little there right there. Perfect. Hold that right there. Excellent. Just cut your eyes to me wonderful awesome flips over shot my flash you did you did you is nice is nice. I like all right that's it that's a wrap my five uh rooftop you want to rush you flash you want haas you flash you want big light modifiers you want blue sky you gotta wait you gotta wait till the end of the day. All right, that sun is setting on dh your golden when you meet her this sky sink speed and hits f four to five six somewhere in there you're good to go when it's at eight eleven sixteen that's either bigger lights or straight flash full power in close but not soft light or you go find something else to shoot for a while until that like it's good, the more power you have or the faster sink speed that you can go then the earlier in the day you can shoot that stuff all right, so we're wrapping it up for the evening we are back tomorrow for a full day it's, more class lecture and uh, we're gonna be talking about vision. We're going to be talking about creativity. We're going to be doing live critiques of our students. I'm going to be throwing our students in the live shooting, like, go shoot this picture right now and see how they do, um, and we're going into the business. All right, here it comes. The numbers, pricing, um, networking, marketing, your work going out and finding clients, building your portfolio, all that junk and finishing up. Finally, with, like, trying to find a balance between life and all of this.