IntroductionSetting the stage: Soccer kids| 00:00 |
So a couple years ago, I decided that I
wanted to primarily do two things with my camera.
| | 00:04 |
Number one, have fun, that's always an
important thing.
| | 00:07 |
And number two, to make pictures that
were of value to the community around me.
| | 00:11 |
So to that end, we are here today at the
Soccer Association of Columbia, at
| | 00:14 |
Covenant Park, and we're going to be
shooting pictures of goalkeepers.
| | 00:19 |
And that brings on its own challenges,
when you're shooting outside in, in well,
| | 00:22 |
not full daylight but most daylight at
this point.
| | 00:25 |
We've got strobes wrapped up around the
goal and we're going to be doing some
| | 00:28 |
tricks with high speed sync to help
extend the power of our strobes going
| | 00:30 |
into the shoot.
Hopefully, we'll be able to overpower the
| | 00:33 |
sun a little bit, shooting into the net
lying on the ground right in front of the
| | 00:36 |
goal keepers and bring them up in a
little studio every time they go to make
| | 00:38 |
a stop.
| | 00:40 |
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| Strategies for shooting outdoors with small flashes| 00:00 |
All right, shooting outside with small
flashes.
| | 00:02 |
It's always a problem because you, you
have a fairly small radius of where you
| | 00:05 |
can control in full daylight when you're
using small flashes.
| | 00:08 |
But, there are some ways to expand that
radius just a little bit.
| | 00:13 |
one way to be able to sync at above a
250th of a second, which is what you need
| | 00:16 |
to do.
Because that's going to give you a lower
| | 00:18 |
corresponding aperture, and your flashes
want to hit that aperture.
| | 00:22 |
which is to say that if I can, if I can
shoot at a 250th of f16, which is about
| | 00:26 |
right, I've gotta hit f16 with my flashes
which is tough.
| | 00:30 |
If I can shoot at 1000th of a second,
that drops down to f11 f8.
| | 00:34 |
Same ambient exposure, but my flashes
have to work one quarter as hard.
| | 00:38 |
There are a few ways that you can cheat
the sun with your flashes and cheat that sync.
| | 00:41 |
The first, since we're using all, like,
Nikon TTL flashes today in the manual mode.
| | 00:46 |
Is we could use focal plane sync, which
actually pulses the flash as your camera
| | 00:49 |
slit exposure goes across at at, say, a
thousandth of a second.
| | 00:54 |
That's neat in theory, but in practice
you're also robbing yourself of power
| | 00:57 |
from the flash, because that pulse is
hitting mostly black curtains.
| | 01:01 |
So if you're going to high speed sync
with the, with the TTL flashes, you
| | 01:04 |
either need to work in very close.
Or you need to add multiple flashes
| | 01:07 |
together to add to the power.
(SOUND).
| | 01:10 |
There are couple of other ways to to
cheat this, and one is fairly new, in fact.
| | 01:14 |
This is a, this is a Pocket Wizard beta
unit for a Flex TT5, and I've been
| | 01:17 |
playing with these for a little while.
And what I found on my B3 is, I can get
| | 01:22 |
up to around, I can get a clean 400th of
a second sync.
| | 01:26 |
I can get usually clean 500th of a second
sync and if I'm willing to lose that top
| | 01:30 |
or bottom a little bit I can sync to
640th of a second.
| | 01:34 |
This is really cool, because I'm getting
a full pop out of my flash.
| | 01:38 |
It's not one of those pulsing focal
points sync things, I'm literally
| | 01:41 |
changing the full sync speed of my
camera.
| | 01:44 |
And I do that by actually pre-triggering
the flash just a little bit before, so
| | 01:47 |
you're capturing almost all the energy in
the flash.
| | 01:50 |
But with a much faster shutter speed.
Now I'm going to do something a little
| | 01:53 |
different today, and it's something that
I pull out every now and then.
| | 01:56 |
It's kind of a bag of tricks thing that I
use.
| | 01:58 |
This is a Nikon D70S, which is not a
fantastic camera.
| | 02:01 |
It's 6 megapixels, it's 3000 dots on the
long side.
| | 02:04 |
But it has a very, very cool little trick
in that if it does not know that there's
| | 02:08 |
a flash attached to it It will sync at
any speed.
| | 02:12 |
meaning the physical shutter only opens
for a 60th of a second cathunk.
| | 02:16 |
Its kind of very low rent sort of an
amateur shutter compared to the D3.
| | 02:21 |
But as you progressively get higher it
takes electronic slices of time from that chip.
| | 02:27 |
Which means that if a flash can go off in
the full range of your shutter, for
| | 02:30 |
instance if your flash pulse lasts less
than a 2000th of a second.
| | 02:34 |
You can sync it at 2000ths of a second.
This is very, very cool because this
| | 02:38 |
little camera makes all my flashes way
more powerful.
| | 02:42 |
As I raise my shutter speed, I can drop
my aperture.
| | 02:44 |
As I drop my aperture, I can get much
more bang for my buck with small flashes.
| | 02:48 |
So in that way, we're going to be able to
use this camera today.
| | 02:51 |
And light with small flashes from, I
don't know, maybe up to 20 feet away in
| | 02:53 |
broad daylight, which is a pretty cool
trick for small flashes in the sun.
| | 02:58 |
we're triggering all these flashes
optically.
| | 03:00 |
Which is to say, this light is going to
be fire manually from the camera and my
| | 03:04 |
other SP-800 flashes are set in SU-4
mode.
| | 03:08 |
Which is a very capable optical flave
built into every, every high end Nikon flash.
| | 03:14 |
And a lot of third party flashes now as
well.
| | 03:17 |
So this can't, this, this light will fire
from the camera and all it really needs
| | 03:20 |
to do is set off one of any of the other
light.
| | 03:23 |
Because they're all pointed, the flaves
are all pointed in toward each other so
| | 03:26 |
it sets up a little crossfire zone.
So ironically it is more difficult to
| | 03:30 |
trigger sometimes it can be more
difficult to trigger one flash than it
| | 03:33 |
can be to trigger 50.
Because if you hit just any one of those
| | 03:37 |
flashes, it's going to set up a cascade,
wherein all the flashes see something
| | 03:41 |
going on, so everything happens.
So don't ever be impressed when you see a
| | 03:45 |
room full of flashes all set up with
slaves.
| | 03:47 |
The more flashes there are, the more
likely they are all to work.
| | 03:50 |
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|
|
1. The Photo ShootThe lighting plan| 00:00 |
All right, so let's talk about our lights
for a second.
| | 00:02 |
This is the light that sets everything
off.
| | 00:05 |
This is set on 1 32nd power plus 2 3rds,
so roughly what, a 16th power, let's call it.
| | 00:10 |
Not a lot of light, but this light has to
do two things.
| | 00:13 |
Number one, it has to trigger any of
these other three lights, because once it
| | 00:15 |
triggers one light, the other lights will
see it and they'll go off too.
| | 00:20 |
And number two, it's going to provide
fill that will come from almost right on
| | 00:23 |
the camera's axis.
So any, any shadows that these other
| | 00:27 |
three lights create are going to be
filled by this one to exactly the level
| | 00:30 |
that I want.
So I'm going to be looking for detail,
| | 00:33 |
but not full brightness.
I mean, shadows make drama, so you want
| | 00:36 |
to make the drama, but you also want
legibility, where you want to be able to
| | 00:38 |
see things.
So my key light's going to be over here.
| | 00:42 |
Right now that's on a stand.
but it's probably going to be being held
| | 00:46 |
by a voice activated lise, light stand,
AKA, Dave Kyle.
| | 00:49 |
And he's going to follow the goalkeeper
as they, as they come across.
| | 00:52 |
Because I want to take that beam and sort
of restrict to the area around their
| | 00:55 |
face, and just to highlight their face
and reaching for the ball and such.
| | 01:00 |
And if you come over to the net on the,
one the back sides of the net, we've got
| | 01:03 |
another couple of SB800s, and they're set
on one-quarter power.
| | 01:07 |
Nothing out here is set on more than
one-quarter power, which is kind of cool.
| | 01:10 |
That gives us it gives us recycle time.
I can shoot I can shoot quick if I need to.
| | 01:16 |
But it also gives us a very tight flash
pause duration time.
| | 01:20 |
So we're not, we're not going to be
getting movement as, as things are coming through.
| | 01:25 |
You will see me moving the camera as
people are moving.
| | 01:27 |
If there is any motion blur, I want it to
happen on the background and not on the
| | 01:30 |
person running.
So I'll track them with the camera as
| | 01:33 |
they're moving across unless I'm trying
to do a specifically framed shot.
| | 01:36 |
So that's one way of of controlling
motion board that that is induced by
| | 01:40 |
flash polls for your sink speed or or
just about anything.
| | 01:44 |
Tracking thing is important and like the
other things were, they're going to bore
| | 01:47 |
us a little bit.
| | 01:48 |
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| First test shots| 00:00 |
So, the funny thing, is the main thing
that I've got to worry about.
| | 00:03 |
I've got these other flashes far enough
back, to where they're going to create a
| | 00:05 |
fairly big zone of even light, but if I
come in close, that's very big difference
| | 00:08 |
in the film exposure than back there.
So, I'm going to have to remember to
| | 00:12 |
check that, every now and then, just look
on the screen and hope I can gauge it.
| | 00:16 |
Disadvantage of this camera is a tiny
little screen, so, we'll see.
| | 00:20 |
(NOISE) But I'm getting, I'm getting a
nice, nice pop on that.
| | 00:27 |
Alright, so Chris, I want you over here
and throw him a little beyond his reach
| | 00:31 |
that way.
This is actually good, because this'll
| | 00:34 |
help me get the timing set up.
Male How do you want it?
| | 00:39 |
Male Make, make him, make him, no.
He, he can bump his head against the top
| | 00:42 |
of that.
Mostly stretch him out horizontally.
| | 00:44 |
Male Okay.
Male Hang on, hang on, hang on.
| | 00:46 |
Let me see what my shutter is.
Of course, here comes the flash.
| | 00:49 |
Or the sun, rather.
This actually doesn't look half bad.
| | 00:52 |
No, no offense.
(LAUGH) I'm going to be picking this tire
| | 00:56 |
stuff out of.
Male Oh yeah.
| | 00:59 |
This is a good field.
Male It is.
| | 01:01 |
Alright, throw one out there.
I was late on that one.
| | 01:06 |
But I wasn't late.
Okay, I've got to really anticipate this camera.
| | 01:12 |
Alright?
Okay, that's going to be my problem.
| | 01:16 |
The shutter lag on this thing, is way
more than the shutter lag on my D3.
| | 01:20 |
So, you've got to think, okay the actions
going to happen in, in five 1000th of a
| | 01:22 |
second, so I'm going to push the button
now.
| | 01:25 |
Male Maybe like a countdown or
something.
| | 01:27 |
Male Nope, no, I should, I (LAUGH),
it's just me.
| | 01:29 |
I can blame physics all I want, okay?
Male Alright, ready?
| | 01:33 |
Male There we go.
Male You can make it feel like he's in
| | 01:35 |
the mood really good.
Male
| | 01:37 |
Male Hey, that was the short play.
Well, what does it, what does it.
| | 01:41 |
Male It looks good, it looks good.
Male Yeah.
| | 01:43 |
Male Okay, so I'm going to come in
tight.
| | 01:45 |
take take a good step over towards me for
a second, and let me focus on you right here.
| | 01:50 |
Okay, no go back.
Alright, go ahead.
| | 01:53 |
(SOUND) Okay, I gotta worry about that.
If I come in too close the fill is
| | 02:01 |
going to be too bright on the ball, so
Sorry, I have to dial that down or whatever.
| | 02:05 |
Let's take, just take it down.
Alright, back up for a second.
| | 02:07 |
Back up.
Eric, back up.
| | 02:09 |
There you go.
Little more.
| | 02:12 |
Alright, go ahead.
| | 02:13 |
(SOUND)
| | 02:15 |
Alright, one more.
So I gotta watch out when I'm not looking
| | 02:24 |
through my camera, because I'm likely to
get these flashes in the back drop.
| | 02:26 |
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| A closer look at the lighting| 00:00 |
Okay.
So, a couple of things about this flash.
| | 00:02 |
This is going to be the keylight.
which is why it's got a quarter CTO on
| | 00:05 |
the front to warm it up a little bit.
This little gel you see.
| | 00:08 |
It's also got tape on it that says
quarter CTO, and there's tape here, tape
| | 00:11 |
there and tape there.
And I want to know that anywhere that I
| | 00:14 |
look in this flash in my camera bag, I
can tell that it is my CTO flash.
| | 00:19 |
And that keeps me from having to put a
gel on every time I want to decide what
| | 00:21 |
I'm, what flash I'm going to light
someone's face with.
| | 00:25 |
So, rather than do that, I just have a
key light flash that I keep a gel on all
| | 00:28 |
the time.
So, there's a kind of a neat way that
| | 00:31 |
we're hooking these up.
this is a Frio Coldshoe, which ca, just
| | 00:34 |
came out, and they've got a little like a
couple airlock impressionist kind of a
| | 00:37 |
connection to them.
So, they hold the flash really securely
| | 00:41 |
and they're tiny, and I like them a lot.
but what we're doing is we're putting
| | 00:45 |
this in at a 90 degree angle, because
this flash is designed to tilt this way
| | 00:49 |
on the stand, but the slave is over here.
So, we're going to take it and rotate it
| | 00:54 |
this way.
So, the slave will be able to see the
| | 00:56 |
same way the flash is turning.
And like that, and now, because we've got
| | 01:00 |
it mounted at a 90 degree angle to where
it should be mounted, we can tilt the
| | 01:02 |
flash up and down and have the slide
pointing toward the other flashes.
| | 01:07 |
So, it doesn't do a whole lotta good to
have your slide pointing out into left
| | 01:09 |
field, or to take away your ability to
move your flash up and down, but this way
| | 01:12 |
it gives us the ability to do both.
So, the really nice thing about having a
| | 01:18 |
backlight is that number one it gives you
separation.
| | 01:21 |
So, I got one on each side.
And we got these backed up pretty far
| | 01:24 |
away, but fortunately you don't need
allot of you don't need allot of power to
| | 01:27 |
kiss the light off of someone from the
back.
| | 01:30 |
The light is very efficient as it just
bounces off.
| | 01:33 |
And if you make a mistake with the back
light more often than not, it's going to
| | 01:36 |
be that the back light is too bright.
| | 01:38 |
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| The photo shoot| 00:00 |
this is a penalty shot, I'd come forward
a little bit.
| | 00:06 |
You guys need to warm up.
Yeah I just did before we left.
| | 00:13 |
Charge them.
(LAUGH) Oh, this is going to be fun.
| | 00:16 |
Male Let me shoot.
Male So Eric, Mr Eric, whom you met
| | 00:17 |
before, right?
Over here?
| | 00:18 |
He's going to be throwing balls like we
do in practice a lot of the time, okay?
| | 00:24 |
And you guys are going to be kind of on
this side of the goal.
| | 00:35 |
And he's always going to throw 'em on
that side of you, okay, so think going
| | 00:38 |
out not with two hands necessarily, but
going out with one hand and just trying
| | 00:41 |
to get a hand on the ball, alright?
We're going to, don't dive yet.
| | 00:45 |
Just going to warm up a little bit, and
take some pictures.
| | 00:47 |
But when we get you diving, we're
going to have a mattress out there so you
| | 00:49 |
can literally splay like straight out
over it, okay?
| | 00:52 |
Male I'm just going to check the light
first.
| | 00:58 |
Wow, this looks good.
Okay, so take a step over that way.
| | 01:02 |
So Eric, you're going to be laying it up.
Right in here, okay.
| | 01:07 |
Male Okay.
Male Alright, now back up.
| | 01:13 |
No, no, no.
back up to where you were.
| | 01:15 |
Come forward and back over.
All right.
| | 01:17 |
Tell me when you're throwing it.
Okay.
| | 01:25 |
All right.
The light looks really good.
| | 01:27 |
So I'm at F8 with one 1600th of a second.
All righty.
| | 01:32 |
Male Get it, get it past him.
Ok no, hey no no, I know you, I know that
| | 01:36 |
you know where the ball's going to be,
but you can't react until he throws okay?
| | 01:41 |
Male Okay.
Male (UNKNOWN) Alright?
| | 01:43 |
Male Rolling Yep.
Oh that looks good.
| | 01:52 |
This rim light's a little hot because are
closer than we have the other rim, and
| | 01:55 |
this could actually come up a little bit.
Okay there, there, okay I got a
| | 02:08 |
completely different camera now.
Alright so go over a little bit to that
| | 02:13 |
way so you can come across Ben.
And shoot it low into, into my right, Eric.
| | 02:18 |
Alright?
Okay.
| | 02:19 |
I put the shadow of the ball on his face.
That's nice, nice shooting there, Tex.
| | 02:29 |
we're going to pretend we can't tell.
(LAUGH) Alright, move over to your, to,
| | 02:35 |
there you, move over a little more, Ben,
over little more.
| | 02:38 |
Shoot it past him.
Two, one (INAUDIBLE) and that's a good one.
| | 02:42 |
A couple more like that.
Okay.
| | 02:45 |
That's okay.
Male (INAUDIBLE) That's okay, the
| | 02:48 |
ball's in the background.
That's alright.
| | 02:52 |
Okay, kick it out, Ben.
Not at me, not at me, not at me.
| | 02:57 |
Thank you.
Alright, just one hand, Ben.
| | 03:00 |
(SOUND) There you go.
Okay, look at it really closely, follow
| | 03:02 |
it with your eyes, and when you get in,
do a Geraldine.
| | 03:05 |
That was actually a really good one.
Yep.
| | 03:26 |
Okay there, alright, go ahead.
That's a really good one Joe.
| | 03:31 |
Your eyes are open and everything.
Its fantastic.
| | 03:37 |
(SOUND) I totally missed that, but it's
okay, you got a hand on it.
| | 03:41 |
Your eyes are almost open.
Track the ball.
| | 03:43 |
(CROSSTALK) That, I thought that was his
head hitting the pole for a second there.
| | 03:48 |
Male Did it go in?
Male Yeah.
| | 03:49 |
Male Okay, Andrew for a second, and
then we're going to shoot Jered and
| | 03:54 |
Andrew really quickly.
Male Alright, Andrew come in, there we go.
| | 04:00 |
Male Ready.
Male Yep.
| | 04:03 |
Male 1, 2, 1, 1.
Male Good, stretch him out a little, a
| | 04:07 |
little more horizontal Eric.
Male One more.
| | 04:10 |
Male Yep.
Male (LAUGH), Andrew you did one of
| | 04:14 |
these, (SOUND) , (LAUGH), it's coming in,
alright.
| | 04:19 |
You do it again I got no ball.
Alright that's a wrap on that, let me,
| | 04:27 |
Gerald and Andrew in just a second I want
to shoot you guys.
| | 04:32 |
Male One and two, okay.
I want to switch up on this really quick,
| | 04:35 |
but I want to take the two back flashes
and make em really hard rim lights, and
| | 04:38 |
I'm going to put a little soft box right
above them, and we're going to do kind of
| | 04:40 |
a cool we're going to do,
Guys, go get on whatever jersey you want
| | 04:44 |
to get on, okay.
I know these aren't your favorite jerseys.
| | 04:46 |
Get your favorite.
Get your.
| | 04:47 |
Are you good?
You got your Brazil colors.
| | 04:48 |
Joe, get your favorite jersey on.
| | 04:50 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Lighting notebook: Goalkeepers in action| 00:02 |
Welcome to the the wild world of poorly
drawn stick people.
| | 00:06 |
And this, this stick alien represents
Gerald, who is the the goal keeper that
| | 00:10 |
you saw in the last frame.
And that's him splaying out trying to
| | 00:15 |
catch the ball.
And the first thing that we're going to
| | 00:17 |
do in this is, is we're going to let the
the fact that we're working in a high
| | 00:20 |
ambient light late afternoon light,
dictate the choice of camera that we're
| | 00:23 |
using, as we talked about earlier.
I'm using the Nikon D70S, which is a
| | 00:28 |
small chip camera that does an amazing
little thing if it doesn't know a flash
| | 00:31 |
is on it.
And that is that it syncs at any speed.
| | 00:35 |
That's why I, I keep a few of these
cameras, they're still very cheap on
| | 00:38 |
eBay, just a couple hundred bucks.
I keep them in the drawer for when this
| | 00:42 |
one breaks, and I hope to be using these
for a long time.
| | 00:46 |
Because they don't make these special
cameras anymore.
| | 00:48 |
Pock Wizard as I said, has come out with
a, a remote that gets me a couple more
| | 00:51 |
stops of shutter speed.
But I can't sync in two thousandths of a
| | 00:55 |
second with a full pop of flash, like
this baby can.
| | 00:58 |
So, I'm very happy to use these whenever
I get the chance.
| | 01:03 |
So, this is going to be our, our, our
camera, and that's going to allow us to
| | 01:05 |
shoot at a high shutter speed.
For instance, a 16 100th of a second,
| | 01:09 |
which gives us a correspondingly
wide-open aperture for the sky even if
| | 01:13 |
we're underexposing it.
And that means that we're going to go in
| | 01:17 |
and be able to overpower that
mid-afternoon light with small flashes.
| | 01:21 |
Even with that kind of even with that
kind of a working arrangement, you're
| | 01:25 |
still going to have to use hard light.
Because you can't you won't be able to
| | 01:29 |
overpower with small flashes and
umbrellas or soft boxes, unless you move
| | 01:32 |
in very close.
And we don't have that luxury.
| | 01:35 |
case in point here are our two rim
lights, and they're going to be far on
| | 01:38 |
each side of the goal.
And those rim lights are, are basically
| | 01:42 |
going to define the edges of our goal
keepers against the sky, which I'm
| | 01:46 |
underexposing by a stop and a half to two
stops.
| | 01:50 |
So, let's go to the, let's go to the
picture real quick and see what these rim
| | 01:52 |
lights are doing.
So, I've circled the zones on the on the
| | 01:56 |
camera right side of Gerald where the rim
light is going to be having an effect.
| | 02:00 |
And the rim light really gives him that
shape and three dimensionality coming
| | 02:03 |
around the back side of his body.
It's also going to throw shadows from the
| | 02:07 |
goal onto the grass, and, and just make
some nice texture across that frame.
| | 02:13 |
Obviously, the rim light on camera right
is doing the same thing on the other side.
| | 02:16 |
but those two rim lights are a classic
look.
| | 02:19 |
if you can remember one thing, maybe it's
try not to be so hot with your rim lights.
| | 02:25 |
you can do a lot with subtlety in
revealing that form with that backlight
| | 02:28 |
wrapping around.
You don't have to nuke them until they
| | 02:31 |
glow, unless that's what you want.
But there's a lot of interesting to be
| | 02:35 |
had driving those lights further and
further down the scale, and just
| | 02:37 |
revealing that texture coming around that
side rather than making it glow in a
| | 02:40 |
nuclear away.
Back to our diagram, now we've added in
| | 02:47 |
the the key light, which is at SB-800
over to the middle right of the of the diagram.
| | 02:53 |
And this light is going to be hitting
Gerald's face not from straight on.
| | 02:57 |
If it was, let's think of this overhead
view as a clock, and this is coming in at
| | 03:01 |
roughly three o'clock on the scale.
Gerald is looking at about four o'clock
| | 03:05 |
on the scale, so, this light slightly
behind him as slightly behind a profile setting.
| | 03:11 |
And that's because I really don't have
any interest in lighting that far ear.
| | 03:15 |
I, I'd much rather shape his face, and,
and use that light to add shape to his
| | 03:18 |
body as he's coming across.
You'll find that by pushing ut, it around
| | 03:23 |
a little bit past profile, you're
going to get a better look than if you,
| | 03:25 |
if you aim the light at the person
exactly from the direction in which
| | 03:28 |
they're going to be gesturing and
looking.
| | 03:34 |
So, here are typical areas that are
usually affected by this key light.
| | 03:37 |
Obviously, it's going to be designed to
be hitting his face.
| | 03:39 |
I'm going to caption his mitts, and, and,
you know, his goalkeeping gloves.
| | 03:43 |
And, and his jersey in the front.
and this is what's going to give an
| | 03:47 |
overall shape and call attention to what
I call attention to it on him.
| | 03:51 |
So, these lights that we've seen so far
are for shade.
| | 03:54 |
The, the rim lights and the and, and the
key light, are setting up kind of really
| | 03:58 |
like tall isosceles triangle, sort of a
triangle light system.
| | 04:04 |
And if I didn't have the final light that
I'm going to add, which, go ahead and add
| | 04:08 |
that now.
That is an on camera flash that is
| | 04:11 |
going to work sort of like an on access
fill light, but again, I don't have the
| | 04:14 |
luxury of the power of an umbrella or the
power of a ring light.
| | 04:19 |
So, I'm just going to pop that light,
right on top of the camera and, and let
| | 04:22 |
it do it's job as, as, as a poor man's
ring flash.
| | 04:27 |
Now, this light's going to do several
things for me.
| | 04:29 |
going back to the picture.
It's going to, it's going to fill in
| | 04:32 |
detail and, and give me legibility
everywhere any of those other three
| | 04:35 |
lights aren't hitting.
On the far side of his neck, on his knees
| | 04:39 |
underneath there even up under his sleeve
going in there, that's not going to be black.
| | 04:44 |
And that's an important thing to me
because remember I am severely
| | 04:47 |
underexposing this ambient light.
So, any place the flash doesn't hit him
| | 04:51 |
is going to be pure black.
That may be what I want, it may not be
| | 04:54 |
what I want.
In this case I do want legibility.
| | 04:57 |
And that fore light wrap around gives me
a lot of Christmas and free imaginality,
| | 05:01 |
which is always something I'm going for
him in most of my subjects.
| | 05:06 |
So, the other thing that light is
(UNKNOWN) do that.
| | 05:09 |
Fill light is, is going to be my primary
light that's connected to the camera.
| | 05:13 |
It's the only sinked light, and it's
going to set off all this other lights
| | 05:16 |
using optical slaves (UNKNOWN) to Nikon
SB-800.
| | 05:19 |
you set them on SU4 mode and for your
flash and manual, and (UNKNOWN).
| | 05:24 |
You have a very, very sensitive play that
can fire at up to 100 feet away in broad daylight.
| | 05:29 |
It's awesome.
now here's the trick.
| | 05:32 |
I don't have to have all of those other
lights to where they can see the light
| | 05:34 |
that's on my camera.
And frankly, the key light, almost
| | 05:37 |
certainly can't see the light that's on
my camera right now.
| | 05:41 |
But if any one of those rim lights
catches and fires from the slave on my
| | 05:44 |
on-camera flash, it's going to set up a
little cascade to where all of the other
| | 05:47 |
flashes are going to go off very easily.
That's because I've got all of their
| | 05:52 |
slave eyes turned in towards each other.
So, I just have to get any one of them,
| | 05:56 |
and then they're all going to go.
in that way, it's kind of interesting in
| | 06:00 |
that it is easier to slave a room full of
50 flashes with absolute certainty than
| | 06:04 |
it is to slave just one flash.
Because all you have to do is set up one
| | 06:08 |
of those 50 flashes and they're going to
cascade in all the other flashes.
| | 06:12 |
so, that's a very cool trick.
If you need to use a lot of lights in the
| | 06:15 |
room, you're going to be very, very safe
using optical flashes as long as no one
| | 06:18 |
else is going to be triggering your
flashes with another device.
| | 06:22 |
So, let's take a look at three of these
pictures.
| | 06:25 |
Now, let's here's Gerald without all the,
without the red lipstick on him and
| | 06:29 |
And you can see that each of those lights
are doing their own thing, but in the
| | 06:33 |
aggregate they're not calling a lot of
attention to themselves.
| | 06:37 |
none of them are really over lighting
him.
| | 06:39 |
he's just, he's just really 3-D and
popping in the set underexposed sky.
| | 06:43 |
here's another one, his brother Andrew
the time they're all very enthusiastic
| | 06:47 |
goalkeepers in the U-10 league.
And and this final one is knucklehead.
| | 06:53 |
aka my son Ben, who is working hard at
being a good goalkeeper too.
| | 06:57 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
2. Portrait of the Soccer KidsSetting up for a portrait| 00:00 |
I’m going to make these nice and bright,
one eight.
| | 00:05 |
(LAUGH) So, I’m putting the I’m putting
the rim lights over, over the goal so
| | 00:12 |
they won’t make the net nuclear,
hopefully.
| | 00:21 |
bring it a little bit like here.
Put a power.
| | 00:29 |
Go a little bit.
Going up to a quarter power in each of
| | 00:42 |
these room lights.
And we're just going to do a really quick portrait.
| | 00:48 |
Gerald and Andrew are are twins.
Hey, Gerald.
| | 00:52 |
Which one of you guys is oldest?
Male They don't know.
| | 00:54 |
They don't know, their parents won't tell
them.
| | 00:56 |
That's how competitive they are.
Okay.
| | 00:58 |
So, we're going to turn on one of these
little speed lights into a mini soft box.
| | 01:01 |
Here's a cinch strap.
So, this is a LumiQuest LTp which turns a
| | 01:09 |
flash into a soft box the size of your
laptop.
| | 01:13 |
We're going to put on a speed strap.
Here's a little elasticized straps that
| | 01:17 |
make the flash hold really tight.
And I'm going to drop this right over.
| | 01:21 |
This is going to be a really cool,
athletic kind of a Nike Gatorade looking picture.
| | 01:24 |
So, guys, give me about three or four
minutes and I'll have this ready to go, okay?
| | 01:28 |
See if I can do this right.
we'll go the other way and the, front
| | 01:47 |
load it.
It's not the easiest thing to do, this
| | 01:57 |
flash or on a light stand.
Quick and dirty.
| | 02:06 |
So, this is not a particularly huge light
source, but it's much bigger than just a
| | 02:09 |
bare flash.
See if I can do this without crashing it.
| | 02:14 |
Oh yeah, that's neat.
There we go.
| | 02:19 |
So, now when we take this and point it
down, it's, it's, hey guys?
| | 02:22 |
You ready?
Male
| | 02:26 |
(INAUDIBLE).
| | 02:34 |
Male (LAUGH) One quarter.
So I'm going to still trigger this
| | 02:41 |
optically just because it's the easiest
way to trigger it.
| | 02:44 |
I've got it set on slate already, so, I'm
just going to fire a flash up into it.
| | 02:47 |
going to fire, yeah.
Plenty of light.
| | 02:55 |
Little too much actually.
So, I'm at a quarter power and I'm
| | 03:00 |
going to go to eh, 16th power.
Doesn't take a lot of light out of these
| | 03:05 |
when you're this close.
Alright, Joe and Andrew, come on in.
| | 03:08 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The photo shoot| 00:01 |
So, I'm going to put you right about
here.
| | 00:04 |
I'm going to have to adjust my lens.
Get right in the middle of the goal, one
| | 00:08 |
on each side of each other.
There.
| | 00:18 |
Okay, stand right on right on like where
the penalty shots would be coming in, okay?
| | 00:22 |
Can you see that light back here or is
that pole blocking it?
| | 00:28 |
Male We can see it.
Male That's pretty good.
| | 00:30 |
Let me do the same thing with this rack.
I want to make them even though because
| | 00:35 |
I'm going to let you guys give it a cool
look and then we'll do some post
| | 00:37 |
processing and make you look even cooler.
Male It's even cooler than we already are.
| | 00:44 |
Male (LAUGH) As if that were possible,
right.
| | 00:46 |
Oh yeah.
That's really smart Ben.
| | 00:47 |
>> (LAUGH).
>> Here we go.
| | 00:48 |
Okay.
Let's see how close you are.
| | 00:52 |
Okay.
That's a pretty close first shot.
| | 00:53 |
Alright.
So.
| | 00:54 |
>> Are we trying to save the ball?
>> So, let's see.
| | 00:58 |
I want you to come, turn towards each
chuh, other, other just a little bit and
| | 01:01 |
come just a tad out right there.
>> Let me take a look.
| | 01:05 |
And I'm going, I'm going to point this
down a little bit so you look,
| | 01:12 |
>> Kind of cool.
>> (LAUGH) Yeah, as if that we
| | 01:14 |
possible, right, right, right.
I know.
| | 01:17 |
Okay, so I'm at f5, lets go to f3.
Okay, it's going to be a very cool
| | 01:21 |
picture, you're going to like this.
I want you to come in really close and
| | 01:24 |
turn towards each other.
No, no, not like, towards me, but close
| | 01:27 |
to each other, okay?
I want you to go back, let's try back-to-back.
| | 01:32 |
Turn around and go back-to-back.
Male (LAUGH).
| | 01:36 |
Male All ready.
I want to be right on axis with this, so.
| | 01:46 |
(SOUND) Yeah, alright, so I've got a
really dramatic picture, I've got the sky
| | 01:49 |
nice and dark, in fact I've got to open
that up a little bit.
| | 01:52 |
(SOUND) Just checking.
Okay, here we go.
| | 01:56 |
Bring the ball in tight.
And chins up, just give me a little attitude.
| | 02:02 |
Yeah, maybe not quite that much attitude
(LAUGH).
| | 02:07 |
Gerald rest, rest an arm on Andrew like
that.
| | 02:11 |
I want you nice and tight.
There you go, there you go.
| | 02:15 |
There you go, tuck, tuck the, tuck the
ball under your arms like that.
| | 02:20 |
That's good.
(SOUND) Okay, so what I'm going to do is
| | 02:24 |
get a little bit of flash for you guys.
Just a tiniest bit.
| | 02:29 |
In the front.
There we go.
| | 02:35 |
Alright here we go.
Like hands, hands like around the ball
| | 02:37 |
like that.
There you go both, both.
| | 02:39 |
Can you do that without looking goofy?
Figure out a way to hold the ball where
| | 02:42 |
it's just natural, so hold, hold the ball
however you want.
| | 02:44 |
There you go.
Say we love you, Mommy.
| | 02:45 |
(LAUGH) Get back there, I'm just messing
with you.
| | 02:59 |
(LAUGH) That's okay, we have audio of
this, you know that, right?
| | 03:03 |
Male Oh yeah.
Male Alright, squeeze in a little
| | 03:05 |
closer together, just like that.
Don't ever, your mom will never know how
| | 03:11 |
we got you guys, got to stand you this
close.
| | 03:17 |
Okay, almost done.
Now, pull your feet together.
| | 03:26 |
(SOUND) Wait, wait, wait.
Oh wait, don't move.
| | 03:28 |
There you go!
Getting the geese.
| | 03:34 |
I'll take it, whatever.
Alright, give me the toughest look you
| | 03:38 |
can give me.
(LAUGH) We're done guys.
| | 03:45 |
Thank you very much.
We'll take this and start with it.
| | 03:48 |
But the thing is, it's, I mean, their
mom, they're family friends so we want to
| | 03:50 |
surprise their mom with a kind of a cool
goalkeeper picture of them.
| | 03:54 |
So that's.
never ever pass up a chance to do that.
| | 03:58 |
I mean why, why not?
It's, it's, five minutes, and it's huge.
| | 04:02 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Lighting notebook: Soccer kids portrait| 00:02 |
Okay, we're finish with the soccer action
shoot and we got a few minutes left.
| | 00:04 |
And again this is these are family
friends.
| | 00:07 |
This is Gerald and Andrew are the two
blond goalkeepers, for instance.
| | 00:11 |
We're shooting not too long before
Christmas and we got all the lights set up.
| | 00:14 |
So rather than just tear everything down,
why not take just five to ten minutes
| | 00:18 |
and, and I want to make a a quick shot of
them.
| | 00:21 |
Their twins, do a nice print for their
mom for Christmas.
| | 00:24 |
but why not, really?
your lights are set up, you're good to
| | 00:28 |
go, it's crazy not to do this.
Especially when you realize that you can
| | 00:33 |
output nice 5 by 7s or 8 by 10s at
Costco, for under a buck.
| | 00:37 |
So we're going to take a really quick
change up to the light, and make it very
| | 00:40 |
similar to what we were using for the
action shots.
| | 00:43 |
And now we got Gerald and Andrew here in
front of the goal, and camera straight on.
| | 00:48 |
So what we're going to do is to bring in
these these REM lights, bring them in a
| | 00:50 |
little tighter.
Because we know exactly where the
| | 00:53 |
subjects are going to be.
And let's build our exposure here before
| | 00:56 |
we get any further.
The ambient exposure is going to be based
| | 01:00 |
on the sky behind them.
it's probably going to be under-exposed
| | 01:03 |
about a stop.
Maybe a stop and a half choose an
| | 01:06 |
aperture and shutter speed combination
that makes sure we can sync the flash.
| | 01:10 |
So we got to be at a reasonable sync
speed, because I've switched back to a
| | 01:14 |
normal camera now, my D3, and that only
syncs at a 250th or below.
| | 01:19 |
So let's get our ambient exposure for the
sky.
| | 01:21 |
And then the next step is we just dial in
the power at that aperture, until the rim
| | 01:25 |
light around my hand.
Which I'm going to be using as a model
| | 01:29 |
until the boys get in there, looks good.
So now we've built our sky, and we've
| | 01:33 |
built our rim lights, and I'm going to
take and, and put my On-Camera Fill.
| | 01:38 |
And this is just going to be a, a on
camera flash again working quick and
| | 01:41 |
dirty this is, this is not a
sophisticated picture at all.
| | 01:45 |
And that's going to fill in our shadow a
little until its about a stop to a stop
| | 01:48 |
and a half underexposed on the front of
the boys.
| | 01:52 |
And this is going to keep the part of
them that do not get lit by the keylight
| | 01:55 |
which is coming next.
For the most part anyway, from going to,
| | 02:00 |
to pure black.
Now after all that we can lay in our key
| | 02:04 |
light with a high degree of confidence.
Because we know that everywhere the key
| | 02:08 |
light doesn't hit.
it's going to be taken care of either by,
| | 02:11 |
you know, the sky as, a, the exposure's
chosen for the sky.
| | 02:14 |
And the power levels are chosen for our
rim light and our fill light's set to a
| | 02:17 |
stop and a half down or so.
So any place that key light doesn't hit's
| | 02:21 |
still going to be fine.
it gives us a lot of flexibility.
| | 02:24 |
We can key light them the way we want to
key light them.
| | 02:27 |
And frankly, the key light is the only
image in this frame that is fully exposed.
| | 02:32 |
Or, it's the only part of the image, the
only light.
| | 02:34 |
But this is happening really quickly.
And one really good reason to be using
| | 02:38 |
low power on flashes, we were at 1 8th
power I believe or below on all of these flashes.
| | 02:44 |
So, if they move in to something like
this, this second frame here and then
| | 02:47 |
when they're starting to come right at me
in the third frame.
| | 02:51 |
I can just motor and I can get it.
And that's exactly what we ended up doing
| | 02:54 |
if you go back to this pictures this 1,
2, 3 picture sequence.
| | 02:59 |
they, they were mounted as three, three
different pictures in one frame and its
| | 03:02 |
the, its the sequence which really,
really defines who the boys are.
| | 03:07 |
Not one single image, but the neat thing
is that sequence all happens in cool light.
| | 03:12 |
And it all happens really fast, so if you
have those lights down a little power,
| | 03:14 |
and you've got everything worked out.
You can just go boom, boom, boom and say,
| | 03:18 |
and say you know coming to attack the
photographer.
| | 03:21 |
And you're going to get a nice series of
frames that is going to help their mom
| | 03:23 |
really have a nice Christmas.
| | 03:25 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Photo Shoot: FencersSetting the stage| 00:00 |
Alright so this is probably a, a neat
side of typical shoot for what I'm trying
| | 00:05 |
to do with HoCo360.
A lot of local stuff, I'm trying to
| | 00:08 |
introduce people to things they didn't
know in the county and do so in that
| | 00:10 |
produces good pictures.
backstory on this my daughter, Emily, who
| | 00:15 |
is 12 took a fencing camp with the Hauer
county, the, the rec program and she
| | 00:18 |
ended up here this summer, had a
fantastic time.
| | 00:23 |
I have no idea this place was here.
She comes for 9 out of the 10 days.
| | 00:27 |
And on the tenth day I come to pick her
up and I see the, just this awesome thing
| | 00:29 |
I didn't know existed in Howard county.
the lobby has pictures up, but I think
| | 00:33 |
man, those picture could totally be
amped.
| | 00:35 |
We could have some fun with that.
And I immediately put that in the back of
| | 00:37 |
my mind, to come back and shoot later.
So, that's not the kind of thing you do
| | 00:41 |
two days later.
Six months later, seven months later,
| | 00:44 |
you've had time for ideas to percolate,
you had time to solve some technical problems.
| | 00:49 |
So what we're going to do today is we're
going to try to take this fluorescent-lit
| | 00:53 |
room, big white room, 60th at ISO 400,
and just using a couple of speed lights,
| | 00:56 |
completely reshape the room and, and do
so in a way that gives it kind of an epic look.
| | 01:03 |
We want to make the room look how fencing
must feel, and this is from a non-fencer.
| | 01:06 |
But it sure looks fun from the outside.
So first thing we're going to be thinking
| | 01:10 |
about in this room is getting the ambient
light down.
| | 01:13 |
So we can bring other light back up.
we can take that down very quickly by
| | 01:17 |
going to 2-50 of second and going at
about F1-6 or F-8.
| | 01:21 |
That's going to make this from black, and
at that point the fluorescent lights
| | 01:24 |
don't matter anymore, and the room
becomes a canvas for us to try to do
| | 01:26 |
whatever we want with the light.
We're going to be doing, doing a group
| | 01:30 |
shot with, six or seven people.
I plan to do that with, maybe three steam lights.
| | 01:36 |
we're going to be doing an action shot.
And that's going to get a little more complicated.
| | 01:39 |
So, we'll get a, we'll get a float, an
orb of light over the fencers.
| | 01:44 |
And then hopefully take it out and away
to what it looks like it was never there
| | 01:46 |
and the light looks really cool.
But the important thing is with just two
| | 01:50 |
flashes, we can completely transform this
room which is, man, I want to say 25 by
| | 01:54 |
50 feet with 25 foot ceilings and we're
talking about lighting the entire room
| | 01:57 |
with two speed lights.
Not just getting by, but doing so in a
| | 02:02 |
cool way because we want to dial up the
epic on this just a little bit so,
| | 02:04 |
hopefully it'll work and let's see what
happens.
| | 02:08 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Group Portrait of the FencersThe lighting plan| 00:00 |
Okay, so, we've got a big white room with
fluorescent lights.
| | 00:06 |
we're working way over the fluorescent
lights.
| | 00:08 |
This is going to be a group shot of six
or seven people, all wearing white in a
| | 00:10 |
white room but we want to amp it up and
dial in the drama a little bit.
| | 00:15 |
So, I've got a Paul Buff boom holding a
Softlighter.
| | 00:20 |
I think it's a Softlighter II, actually,
and all it's got in it is one speed light
| | 00:22 |
set to quarter power.
That's going to give me plenty of light
| | 00:26 |
for this group, because we're shooting it
ISO 400.
| | 00:28 |
I could go the half or full power and get
the depth of field, but what I would lose
| | 00:30 |
would be the ability to boom, boom, boom,
shoot fast.
| | 00:34 |
In the back, I've got Illuma Pro LP 160.
This is an SB 800 in there.
| | 00:38 |
Illuma Pro 160, which is slave, and
that's going to come back, we're going to
| | 00:41 |
have the tallest person right about here.
So that's going to rim light the tallest
| | 00:46 |
person, and the other people are going to
be spread around so that flash is
| | 00:49 |
going to be able to see their face so
that's going to put really cool edge
| | 00:51 |
light across the other people in the
picture.
| | 00:55 |
And then if you look back there on the
ground, there's another flash back there,
| | 00:58 |
maybe I can pop it.
Going off, and that's going to throw just
| | 01:03 |
a splash of color up on the wall.
So both of these have tungsten gels on
| | 01:07 |
them, CTO's, and that's going to give a
really warm overall feel.
| | 01:11 |
But this one only has a quarter CTO on
it, so the flesh tones are going to be
| | 01:13 |
naturally warm but not, like, terribly
warm.
| | 01:16 |
The fill is going to come off the floor.
I don't think we need anything other than that.
| | 01:20 |
they're wearing white, so they're
going to pick up that fill really well.
| | 01:23 |
And I'm going to set everything off with
just one flash pointed up at the ceiling
| | 01:26 |
dialed in to, maybe a sixteenth power.
So power levels right now, this is
| | 01:30 |
running at a quarter power.
This is running at I want to say maybe
| | 01:34 |
64th power?
Let me check.
| | 01:41 |
It was set to full power, we can turn it
back on, I need to turn that down.
| | 01:45 |
So, we'll take that.
That's on 1 32nd power and in the back,
| | 01:48 |
this is dialed down as far as it can go
to 128th power, or so.
| | 01:51 |
I just need a little bit of color on that
wall, which would have black without that flash.
| | 01:56 |
This is the one thing that I may need to
adjust a little bit and that's what I'll
| | 01:59 |
do, so.
When I look at the picture, 2, 0 looks
| | 02:02 |
best from this top light, this nice,
bathing just falling down from the top light.
| | 02:06 |
And this is too bright.
Once I adjust for this, I'll dial it up,
| | 02:09 |
or down, as needed.
Alright, can I bring, can I bring you
| | 02:13 |
guys in, we'll do a quick test?
And then we'll bring in our fencers.
| | 02:16 |
Okay, so 16th power, everything gets set
off fine.
| | 02:20 |
(SOUND).
Now it looks very cool.
| | 02:26 |
There's no light happening back on that
wall other than the flash it's hitting.
| | 02:30 |
So just a little bit of a glow wrapped
around them and that glow is also
| | 02:32 |
going to give the the person in the
center a little bit more of a center of interest.
| | 02:37 |
my rim light looks good.
Lisa, I want you to turn to where your
| | 02:41 |
feet are almost facing.
There you go, now, now wrap around and
| | 02:43 |
look towards me.
face maybe towards that fencing post or
| | 02:46 |
an eye towards me.
There we go.
| | 02:49 |
(SOUND) Now that rim light works on your
face a lot better so, so try that and
| | 02:53 |
we'll bring them in a couple of minutes.
I think we will be good to go.
| | 02:59 |
If I, If I really want to get fancy with
this, right now this light going up into
| | 03:02 |
this ceiling.
If need more fill of the floor, I may
| | 03:05 |
actually turn the camera upside down and
shoot at point this flash down towards
| | 03:08 |
the floor to make that one bunch come of
the floor.
| | 03:12 |
I don't know I've needed that, if we do
it's there
| | 03:14 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The photo shoot| 00:00 |
Male Alright, so Chris when your'e
ready I'm going to put you right here
| | 00:04 |
dead, dead center.
Male Where am I at?
| | 00:07 |
Where am I at?
Male You're like right, you're like
| | 00:09 |
splitting, splitting this t, right here,
okay?
| | 00:10 |
Male Splitting the line?
Male Absolutely.
| | 00:12 |
Yeah, so that's how low I can be, let me
drop that flash just a tad behind you my
| | 00:15 |
background, my background flash is
picking up overhead just a little bit so
| | 00:19 |
I want to make sure I don't see it in the
picture.
| | 00:25 |
Alright, that's good.
Alright, now I'm going to work everybody
| | 00:28 |
around Chris for the most part.
What you're going to do is you're
| | 00:31 |
going to stand a little in front of him,
and if you're on this side, I want you
| | 00:33 |
turned in, like your body's turned in
this way and you'll kind of.
| | 00:36 |
Split the difference, like instead of
looking right at me with your face, maybe
| | 00:39 |
you turn your face halfway to me and just
look at me the rest of the way with your eyes.
| | 00:42 |
Does that make sense?
because we've got a light back here
| | 00:44 |
that's going to just do, be doing, like,
little epic splash lights across your
| | 00:47 |
face also.
I don't, I don't think I want to be that
| | 00:50 |
anal-retentive about it, I think I just
want to just, like, throw them in and,
| | 00:54 |
normally like, wedding picture, yeah.
Male but, but I just want to throw you
| | 00:59 |
guys together more rock band style than
that, okay?
| | 01:01 |
So everybody just come in, let's see,
let's see how it flows naturally.
| | 01:05 |
And we have pizza right after?
Sweet.
| | 01:09 |
Okay, so you want to instead of flowing
that way, you want to flow around Chris.
| | 01:12 |
Matthew, I'm definitely going to have you
in the front, okay?
| | 01:14 |
All right?
Male Front and center, buddy.
| | 01:18 |
Alright, excellent, so, alright.
So we're going to collapse this space a
| | 01:22 |
little bit.
I'm, Im, going to really really act like
| | 01:24 |
you like each other kind of a thing.
In the back, the guy hiding in the back.
| | 01:29 |
You are?
Male Jamie.
| | 01:30 |
Male Jamie.
Okay, Gabriel I'm going to pull you
| | 01:31 |
forward, just a little bit.
There we go, so, everyone that's around
| | 01:35 |
the sides if you turn you should be able
to see the light behind Chris, okay, I
| | 01:37 |
want to make sure that I can see you.
Matthew, I think you're a little bit of a
| | 01:41 |
special case there as far as the light
behind, behind Chris.
| | 01:43 |
so Third Rock from the Sun guy, come in
just a little bit, there we go.
| | 01:47 |
You might want to put your, I'm just
messin' with you, sorry.
| | 01:50 |
yeah you might want to switch arms here
so you don't have to have that mask
| | 01:52 |
collapsing all that.
if you can hold that.
| | 01:55 |
Oh no, that's right, you can't cause
that's your weapon.
| | 01:57 |
Got it, got it.
Exactly.
| | 01:58 |
Swap sides.
Swap sides.
| | 02:00 |
Male I can just put it under my weapon
arm.
| | 02:01 |
Male That's good.
Okay so now you can tuck in behind Gabrielle.
| | 02:03 |
That's excellent.
Okay so I'm going to, I'm going to get
| | 02:05 |
you guys in position but when it comes to
tbringing the attitude that's completely
| | 02:08 |
up to you.
So I mean I'm going to need that from you.
| | 02:11 |
Male Okay alright.
So I've got four people over here and two
| | 02:15 |
people over here.
So, Matthew, I want to tuck you over and
| | 02:18 |
be, come on over and stand in, now rotate
around a little bit.
| | 02:22 |
Got it, got it.
Okay, now I didn't get your name yet.
| | 02:25 |
Male Mike.
Male Mike.
| | 02:26 |
I'll forget that momentarily.
If you could slide back in a little bit.
| | 02:28 |
Now come in.
There you go.
| | 02:30 |
Collapsing that space just a bit.
Okay, let's see how you look just on a
| | 02:35 |
first quick top.
Alright, so I want you to see.
| | 02:39 |
Well, I'm going to make some quick
adjustments but just as a first look you
| | 02:42 |
guys are starting to look kind of,
kind of good.
| | 02:44 |
I'm going to, we're going to tweak things
a little bit.
| | 02:47 |
My biggest problem is my back wall's too
dark, and I'm also losing I'm losing some
| | 02:51 |
I'm losing you down at the bottom a
little bit.
| | 02:54 |
So I'm going to fix both of those things
very quickly.
| | 02:56 |
Everybody hang loose, but don't move.
Okay, let's see how that does.
| | 03:10 |
OK, so what I've done is to go back and
raise the power on my backlight a little bit.
| | 03:14 |
I wasn't getting enough of a glow behind
them, thanks for the reminder.
| | 03:17 |
Quick look, you don't have to do
anything, guys.
| | 03:21 |
That's way better, way better.
Okay, so I still got a problem that I
| | 03:24 |
can't quite see what's happening down
around your feet.
| | 03:28 |
So let me, that's not, it's not you, it's
me, it's me.
| | 03:33 |
And checking one more time, you blinked.
Okay, so I think I'm going to push a
| | 03:38 |
little light from the front.
Let me grab a ring flash.
| | 03:40 |
(SOUND) So I'm going to use this same
little donut thing I used on you earlier,
| | 03:45 |
Matthew, okay?
1 16th power, this is me fumbling.
| | 03:54 |
Male (INAUDIBLE) I'm glad you guys are
all in white because it would have been
| | 03:58 |
difficult if half the people were in
white and half were in black and one
| | 04:02 |
guy's in Hawaiian print and the other
one's in purple lame and that kind of
| | 04:06 |
stuff, so.
Okay, quick test.
| | 04:13 |
Alright that's better.
Now I can really see you.
| | 04:16 |
So what I'm what I'm doing now is I'm
filling in, I'm filling in these shadows
| | 04:18 |
around your feet.
Let's, let's see how you look now.
| | 04:22 |
Alright.
Are we ready.
| | 04:23 |
There.
Let me look.
| | 04:26 |
I'm going to look at you, quick look.
Alright.Everybody looks good except for
| | 04:33 |
Kidding, kidding.
Everybody's is important.
| | 04:37 |
No, no.
(LAUGH) Alright I think I'm going to pull
| | 04:39 |
my back light back and light up more of
that back wall because I'm losing you
| | 04:42 |
guys on the end.
So I want to make sure everybody's got a
| | 04:45 |
little bit of a glow around them.
It's your fault.
| | 04:47 |
It's always your fault man.
(SOUND) I'm going to take this light and
| | 04:51 |
move it further away And crank it up in
power.
| | 04:57 |
So now I'm looking to splash more of this
white wall.
| | 05:05 |
That should work.
Okay, just a quick, quick glance without
| | 05:11 |
the ring flash.
Male (SOUND) Nothing.
| | 05:20 |
Oh yes, yes, yes, yes.
Okay, now my work is almost done.
| | 05:24 |
I'm about to hand it over to you guys to
actually bring some attitude, okay?
| | 05:27 |
Did you guys see the picture out in the
lobby?
| | 05:28 |
Do you see how they, they looked?
Male Yeah.
| | 05:30 |
Male Yeah, it was definitely a okay, so
last final, final things to dress this.
| | 05:35 |
alright I don't have you on the, your
name on the end.
| | 05:38 |
Male Jonathan.
Male Jonathan, yeah, you told me that
| | 05:40 |
once, didn't you?
yes, I am just odd.
| | 05:42 |
Ok, so rotate your body around just a
little bit.
| | 05:45 |
Can everyone turn around and see the
light that's behind you, OK.
| | 05:51 |
so Mathew, you, you will be able to see
in a couple of years I think because you
| | 05:54 |
are at a fast growth stage.
Okay so let's, let's take a quick look
| | 05:59 |
and see where we're at here.
We're almost there.
| | 06:06 |
Double checking everything, manual
automatic.
| | 06:11 |
(LAUGH) Okay so let's look at the way
everybody's holding their weapon.
| | 06:13 |
So be conscious of that everything looks
good.
| | 06:16 |
Male who do we have, Chris?
No, Chris, who's the guy next to you?
| | 06:20 |
Male James.
Male James, yes.
| | 06:21 |
I don't see anything of yours as far as
weaponary or mask or anything.
| | 06:24 |
Do you have anything.
If you, if you can get that weapon in
| | 06:26 |
your just with, with, put both hands on
it and stick it in that little area
| | 06:30 |
between you and I might have you lose
your, lose, lose your mask.
| | 06:34 |
There we go.
(SOUND) It's a $2,000 mask he just threw
| | 06:38 |
across like that.
(CROSSTALK) (LAUGH) Okay, let's see.
| | 06:44 |
Let's see how we're doing.
Yeah, now we're talking.
| | 06:49 |
Alright you guys ready to make some
pictures.
| | 06:51 |
Check one last thing.
I've got your feet everywhere.
| | 06:54 |
I've got the floor.
Okay, now it's all about attitude.
| | 06:57 |
I'm, my work is done, and now it's all up
to you guys.
| | 06:59 |
So I want chins up just a little bit.
Basically it's we're fencers and you're
| | 07:03 |
not is, is the look I'm going for.
James, I want you to move over that way
| | 07:06 |
just a tad.
There you go.
| | 07:07 |
So Gabrielle's not blocking you.
That's good.
| | 07:11 |
And here we go.
Good.
| | 07:14 |
Matthew, everybody looking right down the
center of this lens, all the time.
| | 07:18 |
(NOISE) So Matthew, I want you to bring a
little more intensity to it, okay?
| | 07:22 |
Because the thing is, you know you could
beat most of these people, right?
| | 07:26 |
Yes?
You're fast, you're young.
| | 07:28 |
They're going to get slower, you're
going to get faster.
| | 07:30 |
That's the way it works.
Here we go.
| | 07:31 |
Alright, everybody's right here, eyes to
me.
| | 07:34 |
Good, good, (SOUND), look at you.
I'm going to keep shooting but I'm
| | 07:38 |
going to walk over and show you how this
looks real quick, okay.
| | 07:45 |
This is cool, we got a kind of an epic,
like band of marauders kind of look to you.
| | 07:49 |
Oh, I lost you.
That's a tad dark, but
| | 07:54 |
Okay so I'm, I'm going to back up just a
little bit.
| | 07:56 |
Male Check my histogram.
Everything looks good.
| | 08:00 |
Male (CROSSTALK) Okay.
Is everybody.
| | 08:02 |
No I don't think you want your hair to be
too perfect here.
| | 08:06 |
The idea here is you just came you know
(SOUND).
| | 08:09 |
You just, you just got back from a, from
working.
| | 08:12 |
Alright, are we ready.
Yes.
| | 08:13 |
Matthew, everybody's looking right at me.
Male Right down the lens.
| | 08:19 |
(SOUND) Let's see.
We'll focus on Gabriel, she's our good.
| | 08:23 |
(SOUND) Excellent.
Everybody take a deep breath.
| | 08:29 |
(SOUND) Let it out.
(SOUND) And give me a little intensity in
| | 08:32 |
your face.
You ready?
| | 08:33 |
Yeah, a little toughness.
(SOUND) Good.
| | 08:35 |
(SOUND) Excellent.
James, move over just a little bit to
| | 08:39 |
your right.
Good, good, good.
| | 08:41 |
Perfect.
OK, here we go.
| | 08:45 |
Last couple of frames, no blinks.
Any blinks, I kill you.
| | 08:49 |
OK, you've got weapons.
That's it.
| | 08:53 |
Thank you guys, thank you very much.
Male This looks, this looks very sharp.
| | 08:59 |
That's going to make an awesome print.
Male Wow.
| | 09:00 |
Male Cool.
Male Looks good.
| | 09:03 |
Male So you guys will all have high RES
files of this.
| | 09:06 |
(CROSSTALK) Facebook is cool.
(LAUGH) Posting in your room is cool.
| | 09:10 |
Male Okay.
Male You know, billboard on a 2 million
| | 09:12 |
dollar advertising campaign not cool.
(LAUGH) But you know just anyway any
| | 09:16 |
reasonable way just throw it.
Male On your own personal web page it's
| | 09:20 |
a fencing club their website, whatever.
Obviously, there might be a big picture
| | 09:24 |
of this in the lobby somewhere.
You know, that kind of stuff, so.
| | 09:27 |
I'm thinking 20 by 30 feet on the back
wall.
| | 09:29 |
Male (LAUGH) Would look like, would
look awesome.
| | 09:32 |
Male Yes.
| | 09:32 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Lighting notebook: Group portrait| 00:02 |
Alright so here we are on the lighting
for the fencing group shot.
| | 00:05 |
But before we get to that I wanted to
talk about something that frankly is a
| | 00:08 |
little more important.
And that is how do you find yourself in a
| | 00:11 |
situation where you can have the access
to people like this to photograph them.
| | 00:16 |
You know, the first thing I can tell you
is you have to ask.
| | 00:18 |
You have to always keep your eyes open
and always be willing to put yourself out
| | 00:22 |
on a limb as a photographer to fall into
cool situations.
| | 00:26 |
Joe McNally says, one of my favorite
sayings, if you're pictures aren't good
| | 00:29 |
enough, try putting your camera in front
of more interesting things.
| | 00:33 |
And that's something that I've really
grown to subscribe to lately.
| | 00:36 |
And I will you know I'm not shy at all
about saying hey this is a cool operation
| | 00:39 |
I'd really like to come out and
photograph you guys.
| | 00:42 |
No money involved because I'm the one
asking its not like they're asking me.
| | 00:46 |
And what I'm wanting to do is to, to
intersperse the assignment work I'm getting.
| | 00:50 |
With the types of things that let me
shoot the exact kinds of pictures that I
| | 00:53 |
want to shoot.
Because those are the things that feed my
| | 00:56 |
portfolio, and feed my soul, and feed my
connections to the community.
| | 01:00 |
And all of those things are very
important.
| | 01:03 |
So that's exactly what I did at the
Baltimore Fencing Center, at their Convia branch.
| | 01:07 |
my daughter had fencing lessons there
just as a quick summer camp.
| | 01:10 |
And I walked in, and I immediately wanted
to shoot there but I didn't have a reason
| | 01:13 |
to shoot there.
So you've got to invite yourself.
| | 01:17 |
You've got to walk up and be willing to
talk to somebody and maybe have pictures
| | 01:20 |
on your iPhone that you can show them on
a moment's notice.
| | 01:23 |
And get them interested, all that sort of
thing.
| | 01:25 |
So long story short, a few months later
we went in and spent an evening.
| | 01:28 |
And as a result We made some cool
pictures, including one that pretty
| | 01:31 |
quickly dropped into my portfolio and I'm
very happy with it.
| | 01:35 |
We'll get to that one in a few minutes,
but right now, let's talk about the
| | 01:37 |
lighting group shot.
Alright, here we are.
| | 01:40 |
We have our seven people, and that's
always a little bit of an interesting
| | 01:43 |
thing to to pose.
I like to stagger people, make them a
| | 01:45 |
little less formal.
Small people in front, everyone turned
| | 01:48 |
towards the center, and just generally be
fairly loose.
| | 01:51 |
one critical thing I'm going to ask
people, is I'm going to make sure that
| | 01:54 |
they can see me with both of their eyes.
that's something that I can easily check,
| | 01:58 |
but I'm also going to make sure that they
can see the keylight with both of their eyes.
| | 02:02 |
And that way I know the keylight is
going to be reaching into their face.
| | 02:05 |
And speaking of our keylight, it is a, a
Nikon SV800 and it is a set inside a
| | 02:09 |
Photex Softlighter II.
Which is a 60-inch umbrella that has a
| | 02:13 |
diffusion panel that goes in front of it.
And the the shaft of the umbrella
| | 02:18 |
unscrewed, so, so that's a neat little
setup.
| | 02:22 |
It's a, it's a big, old octabox on the
cheap.
| | 02:24 |
They're under $100, and I'm a big fan of
them.
| | 02:27 |
We're finding that SB800 over m at one
quarter power.
| | 02:29 |
And I'm just going to walk in.
And before we shoot I, I grab an
| | 02:32 |
assistant and stuck him in the front or I
can shoot my hand or whatever.
| | 02:35 |
And rather than need her for that
lighting and get all fancy, I'm going to
| | 02:38 |
stick my hand in front of it at quarter
power.
| | 02:40 |
And dial in my, my my f-stop until my
hand looks good.
| | 02:45 |
I've already taken my shutter speed down
to 250th of a second so the, the ugly
| | 02:48 |
fluorescent light, which is running about
a 60th of a second, f 2.8 at ISO 400.
| | 02:53 |
Is not going to be an issue here, we're
building all of this light with flash,
| | 02:56 |
and we're building it on a warm color
base.
| | 02:59 |
So let's say for the sake of argument,
and I do believe that we're at, we were
| | 03:03 |
at f8.
And so that's going to be my key.
| | 03:06 |
That's my aperture and that's where I'm
going to base my whole shot.
| | 03:09 |
That's going to give me enough enough F
stop to cover focus on all those dancers,
| | 03:12 |
sorry, not dancers, it's fencers.
Please don't hurt me guys.
| | 03:16 |
but it's also going to give me since I'm
shooting at one quarter power, the
| | 03:19 |
ability to go pop, pop, pop if I need to
do that.
| | 03:23 |
So if they fall into a neat little
sequence of expressions I'm going to be
| | 03:25 |
ready to grab that.
I can just lay down in the shutter and
| | 03:28 |
I've got a four shot clip on full auto
before my flashes are going to deplete
| | 03:30 |
themselves of their power.
So let's look at our light in the
| | 03:34 |
background now.
the first light it says an SB800 but
| | 03:37 |
looking back I actually used a Lumapro
LP160.
| | 03:40 |
Which I use pretty much interchangeably
with the SB800's.
| | 03:43 |
Because they both are full manual
flashes, and they just got flipping
| | 03:47 |
awesome slaves built into them.
You can the Lumapro LP160, you can have
| | 03:52 |
it sitting in a room and, and slowly walk
into the next room.
| | 03:56 |
And bend down and whisper the name Dock
Edgerton and the flash would go off out
| | 03:59 |
of recognition.
It 's a great little piece of gear and at
| | 04:03 |
a 150 bucks they're, they're brainers/g.
If if you're looking for an alternative
| | 04:08 |
to searching out expensive used Nikon
speed lights.
| | 04:12 |
So, that's just up on a stand and running
at very low power.
| | 04:16 |
Not going to need very much, because all
we're doing is rim lighting the, the
| | 04:19 |
fencers with that.
I've got a full CTO gel on there to give
| | 04:22 |
it some warmth, and to give it a little
color key to the picture.
| | 04:26 |
And speaking of gels, on the overhead
light, we've got a one-quarter CTO gel
| | 04:29 |
Which is my standard warming gel anytime
I'm photographing people.
| | 04:34 |
So now we're going to have a fairly dark
background back there.
| | 04:36 |
And I want to throw a little interest in
that background to give it some 3 dimensionality.
| | 04:41 |
So we're going to set another flash on
the floor and that is an SB800 and we're
| | 04:44 |
just firing it back there on very low
power again.
| | 04:48 |
Literally just laying the flash on the
floor and tilting it up and letting it
| | 04:51 |
paint that wall.
So here's just a quick out of focus grab shot.
| | 04:54 |
I'm just looking to make sure those
lights are sinking.
| | 04:57 |
I don't care about my composition here.
I don't even care about a, about my focus.
| | 05:01 |
I just want to see relative levels and
that the lights are sinking to the main
| | 05:03 |
light, no problem.
They are, so the next thing I'm going to
| | 05:06 |
do is I'm going to hold my hand in front
and do a quick snap.
| | 05:10 |
And this is just standing back with a
wide angle lens.
| | 05:12 |
So the perspective's going to be all
warped.
| | 05:14 |
And the spotlight on the wall's going to
be very much smaller.
| | 05:17 |
But I want to see the relative level of
of that that background light, and that
| | 05:21 |
little rim light as it's hitting my hand.
And I can isolate out those two lights by
| | 05:26 |
keeping my hand out of the out of the
lash of light for the main light above.
| | 05:30 |
But this is just a quick tech quick
check, and shows me I'm in the ballpark.
| | 05:34 |
And everything will be minor adjustments
when I get the people in, which is what
| | 05:37 |
we do next.
So now we got everyone in, and people are
| | 05:40 |
just standing around talking.
While I'm talking with them and building
| | 05:44 |
a little rapport, this is the time to to
check my main and check my background light.
| | 05:49 |
And, and check my my little rim light
coming in there.
| | 05:52 |
And I see that everything is fine.
But one thing I want to notice is, is I'm
| | 05:55 |
getting, I'm getting a lot of falloff,
even though they were in light.
| | 05:59 |
It's very cool, and frankly, I could
separate them by throwing some light on
| | 06:02 |
the floor in the back.
And looking back at it, maybe that would
| | 06:05 |
be a better way to approach it next time.
Because I could leave that darkness and
| | 06:09 |
than mysterious quality down there around
their feet.
| | 06:12 |
But another way is, you could take a, you
could take an on access fill.
| | 06:16 |
In this case, you know, bing, surprise,
orbis ring flash.
| | 06:20 |
I'm, I'm a little function key that you
hit that, and, and I know this frame
| | 06:23 |
flash pops out sometimes.
What can I say?
| | 06:25 |
But that gives me the ability to, to push
a fill light up in there in a way that
| | 06:29 |
doesn't call attention to itself.
And, and in giving some separation and
| | 06:33 |
some tone inside those pants down at the
bottom when the key light is running out.
| | 06:39 |
Alright so all my lights are synced to
the orbis.
| | 06:41 |
they are, they're all slaved.
And again, in working in a multi-light
| | 06:44 |
situation you only have to have one light
go off and all the others are going to
| | 06:47 |
start to see it.
So the more slaved lights you have in the
| | 06:50 |
set up, the more likely you are for every
light to trip.
| | 06:53 |
So ironically if I'm just using one flash
I'm likely to be using a pocket wizard.
| | 06:58 |
if I'm using two flashes maybe i'm using
pocket wizards and maybe I will slave
| | 07:01 |
each flash to the other flash.
To be, to be extra safe, but if I'm using
| | 07:06 |
17 flashes, why bother?
I'm just going to sync one flash with
| | 07:10 |
hard core, maybe pop it onto the camera.
And I know that if any one of those
| | 07:13 |
flashes that are slaved sees my synced
flash, they're all going to start a
| | 07:16 |
cascade and they're all going to go off.
maybe you can slave one flash.
| | 07:21 |
Who knows?
Is the room small enough?
| | 07:22 |
Is the ambient light dark enough?
Guaranteed you can, you can slave 100
| | 07:26 |
flashes because they all like to start
talking when they see each other.
| | 07:29 |
So here's the final picture and again,
you can see the, the, the detail that,
| | 07:32 |
that orbis dials in to the legs in the
bottom.
| | 07:36 |
But it really doesn't call attention to
itself and it looks a natural fall off.
| | 07:40 |
And that detail is contretly completely
controllable in one third f stop increments.
| | 07:45 |
So that's an easy thing to to dial in or
dial out if I want to do that.
| | 07:49 |
But again, as an alternate here, you
could have very easily swashed the light
| | 07:52 |
on the floor back there and left those
legs darker.
| | 07:54 |
Which would have given a different
picture, little more epic, little less reproduceable.
| | 07:58 |
And, so, you know, it's a baker's,
baker's dozen or, I guess six and one
| | 08:01 |
half dozen of the other.
but, and this, this is the most important
| | 08:04 |
thing about the lighting is.
You can't make this picture unless you
| | 08:08 |
have the the courage to walk up to people
that you want to photograph and say.
| | 08:12 |
Hey, my name is David Hobby, I'm a local
photographer this is my website, for instance.
| | 08:16 |
And I would love to photograph you all
one evening and I'd be happy to share
| | 08:19 |
pictures with you in exchange for your
time.
| | 08:23 |
That's the key to this picture and
nothing in here happens, until that happens.
| | 08:27 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
5. Fencers in ActionHanging a strobe from a high ceiling without throwing it| 00:00 |
Okay.
Alright, so, nice and strong.
| | 00:05 |
Let me go get a, I should probably
explain this.
| | 00:09 |
This is a little caribiner and we got
this fishing line because we dont' have a
| | 00:12 |
boom that's 25 feet tall with an arm
that's 30 feet long.
| | 00:17 |
So what we're going to is is we're
going to hang the flash from the ceiling.
| | 00:20 |
I've got my little Frio there, and, don't
fail me Frio, because I'm going to be
| | 00:23 |
hanging this thing over sword fighting,
basically one of my SP 800 babies.
| | 00:28 |
And the nice thing about this, you can go
to the hardware store and just pick up a,
| | 00:30 |
a quarter by twenty and a wing nut, and,
and, screw it in, lock it, and you're
| | 00:33 |
good to go.
Just a little carabiner so we can, we can
| | 00:37 |
unhook it really quickly if we want to,
like if the building's on fire and we
| | 00:40 |
definitely want to save all the SP 800's
So now, the thing is, we gotta get this
| | 00:43 |
up through one of those little triangles,
way up there.
| | 00:49 |
Which is, I'm going to guess, 1, 3, 4.
This is a 25 foot ceiling, I think, so,
| | 00:55 |
and I'm 5' 6" on a good day, so.
This is, I think I'm going to have to
| | 01:02 |
throw it.
Be right back.
| | 01:04 |
Okay.
It's heavy enough.
| | 01:06 |
It's all right?
Male You, you want to throw it, or?
| | 01:11 |
No, I, I don't know if I trust you
throwing it.
| | 01:13 |
Okay, so the hole is like, this big, and
the flash is like, that big.
| | 01:21 |
It's definitely strong enough.
You're, anybody.
| | 01:25 |
Do you play baseball?
Can you throw it?
| | 01:27 |
Alright.
(SOUND) This makes me nervous honestly.
| | 01:31 |
Oh, no.
No.
| | 01:32 |
No.
Straight.
| | 01:34 |
Maybe it'll go better.
Should I swing it,or throw it?
| | 01:43 |
Oh, I know.
Does somebody have a cannon flash?
| | 01:45 |
Oh, oh.
You know what would be better?
| | 01:51 |
A dart with an eraser on it and by UK
fletchings.
| | 01:54 |
Let's try that instead.
Okay, the question is, how many tries
| | 01:58 |
before this dart goes through that.
I think I need to tie this off, actually.
| | 02:06 |
This this, can I have a little piece of
gaffer's tape?
| | 02:10 |
Anywhere at all?
Thank you, John.
| | 02:19 |
Male Alright so just tape, tape it
right in there so the dark flies
| | 02:23 |
relatively straight.
And drags the line.
| | 02:27 |
Engineer.
Okay, any guesses.
| | 02:31 |
Okay, so bring that slack up in here so
it'll and just lay it on the ground.
| | 02:34 |
I'm just going to toss it once and, and
make sure the the are we not tangled?
| | 02:40 |
Male Nope.
OK, so come in here behind me.
| | 02:43 |
Alrighty.
Please work, please don't break anything.
| | 02:48 |
Just go ahead and put that down on the
ground so it will splay out and come in
| | 02:52 |
closer so, yeah.
Okay, I'm really going to chuck it.
| | 03:00 |
Not bad.
Okay, that's good, that's good, slowly,
| | 03:03 |
slowly, slowly.
Alright, there's one.
| | 03:10 |
They're not watching.
Oh, they're watching.
| | 03:20 |
Alright, here goes.
There's two.
| | 03:25 |
Yes!
Second.
| | 03:28 |
(LAUGH) We're in.
That's a boom.
| | 03:35 |
Okay.
Alright, so let's tie this off with some
| | 03:38 |
slack so we can raise or lower it as
needed.
| | 03:41 |
Sweet.
Gabrielle, second try tonight.
| | 03:47 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The lighting plan| 00:00 |
Alright.
So, this is our $6 softbox.
| | 00:04 |
It's a silk Japanese lantern, and inside
it we've got an SB-800 just hanging on a,
| | 00:09 |
on the little rig we showed you before.
It's got a Steffen dome on it, so, it
| | 00:14 |
goes out in all directions.
And this Japanese lantern turns that
| | 00:18 |
little bare bulb into a big bare bulb.
And it throws the light out everywhere
| | 00:22 |
from inside the scene.
So, that's going to light the room, it's
| | 00:24 |
going to light the fencers.
It's going to really zero in on the fencers.
| | 00:27 |
And then we will we're actually going to
take it out on the final picture.
| | 00:30 |
So, you don't know where this light's
coming from, and it's going to feel like
| | 00:32 |
a light that's coming from out of frame
and pushing way, way down.
| | 00:36 |
If you were going to buy this
commercially, this set up is available on
| | 00:38 |
something called a Chimera lantern, and
they're like 350 bucks.
| | 00:43 |
But for $6 you can get a long, a long way
towards it.
| | 00:46 |
And these are, I mean they're, they're
almost indestructible.
| | 00:48 |
They're made out of silk.
They're not made out of paper.
| | 00:50 |
You can have one of these for a couple of
years, and, and, and not need to replace it.
| | 00:54 |
And it certainly a lot better than, than
spending a lot of money.
| | 00:56 |
So, we can bring this up.
We're hanging this literally from 20
| | 00:59 |
pound test, a couple feet higher than me.
I think that's, I think that's about it.
| | 01:06 |
See these things have a hole in the
bottom of 'em, and that's not going to be
| | 01:08 |
a good thing because that's going to show
raw light through there.
| | 01:11 |
So, what we did is we took some rosco
tough frost, and we velcroed it over that hole.
| | 01:15 |
So, so, now we had diffusion all the way
round.
| | 01:17 |
I don't care about the light coming out
the center at the top.
| | 01:20 |
But I want a nice even, even look to this
light on the bottom.
| | 01:22 |
So, I think it's going to do great.
| | 01:24 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The photo shoot| 00:00 |
Okay so walk right up to the center.
Let me grab a focus on you.
| | 00:03 |
Walk up to the center line.
Like stand, someone stand right there on
| | 00:05 |
that center line if you would.
I'm going to focus on you.
| | 00:09 |
There we go.
Okay, so it's going to take me a couple
| | 00:13 |
to figure out where the where the little,
the, the climactic moment is.
| | 00:18 |
So, whenever you're ready.
(SOUND).
| | 00:21 |
Okay, so take that whole thing and move
it over three feet that way so when you
| | 00:26 |
finish, you finish across the line from
each other, all right?
| | 00:31 |
So what i, what is the moment here?
Is it, is it when, is it when the blade's
| | 00:37 |
being parried?
Is that what's going on or?
| | 00:39 |
Male (INAUDIBLE) We assume one hand
over there.
| | 00:42 |
Male Okay, so, okay (CROSSTALK).
Slow, slow, give me slow motion is what
| | 00:46 |
you're doing cause I'm an idiot.
Okay, it's the second hit that I'm
| | 00:50 |
looking for right?
Male Yeah, yeah.
| | 00:52 |
Male That bump bump.
Male Yes.
| | 00:53 |
Male Got it.
Alright hit me.
| | 00:56 |
Not literally.
Male We're going to wait before you.
| | 00:58 |
Male Yeah, can someone else can tell us
what to do?
| | 00:59 |
Male (CROSSTALK) No no, I'm trusting
your instincts with this cause I really,
| | 01:02 |
as little as I understand fencing I
understand sabers less, okay?
| | 01:09 |
Male Okay, but I got that.
Alright, okay, hang on, let me reframe.
| | 01:14 |
I want to get this nice and tight.
Uno momento, por favour.
| | 01:25 |
Male Alright.
Go ahead.
| | 01:27 |
Okay, so here's what I'm looking for,
when you're coming down with it.
| | 01:33 |
Make sure that you don't lose your line,
but when you're coming down with that
| | 01:39 |
final hit, when you're coming down, your
saber starts to flex a little bit.
| | 01:48 |
So that, what that's doing is showing me
that there is motion and you are about to
| | 01:50 |
take one on the top of the head.
So it's that little of suspense that i'm
| | 01:56 |
trying to grab, okay?
And I'm late.
| | 02:00 |
I got the bounce, (LAUGH) does that
count?
| | 02:03 |
Okay?
(SOUND).
| | 02:06 |
That was better.
Okay, so I've got, I've got your, your,
| | 02:11 |
your saber literally bending around your,
his head as he took it that time.
| | 02:14 |
So, alright, go ahead.
Alright, so just keep going for him, you
| | 02:18 |
don't need me to tell you, just do them.
And I'm just working on my timing.
| | 02:26 |
You guys have it.
Okay, relax for a second.
| | 02:33 |
Okay, all right.
Hit him.
| | 02:35 |
Did you miss him to the side that time?
Okay, I, I thought it was me, all right?
| | 02:44 |
(LAUGH) Okay?
(SOUND) that I got, alright.
| | 02:51 |
Really come down on him, here we go.
(SOUND) , (LAUGH), does it hurt to get
| | 02:59 |
hit that many times in a row like that?
(LAUGH) Okay, go.
| | 03:05 |
Okay, I'm too early that time.
Alrighty, alright.
| | 03:21 |
sorry, sorry, sorry, I (LAUGH).
(LAUGH) I gave you an ambiguous queue.
| | 03:29 |
Alright, someone stand right on the line
for a second, I'm going to grab focus.
| | 03:35 |
Okay, you're sharp.
Okay, now back up to where you were.
| | 03:38 |
Here we go.
(SOUND).
| | 03:42 |
That's actually really good.
There were, you, you, your heel was just
| | 03:48 |
about to come down at that point.
So it's not the strike, but you're
| | 03:51 |
definitely moving in.
The light looks awesome.
| | 03:53 |
Alright, (SOUND) oh I like that you guys
are starting to improvise a little bit?
| | 04:00 |
Male Yeah.
Male Alright hit it.
| | 04:00 |
Go ahead.
I'm with you.
| | 04:01 |
(SOUND).
Male Alright, give me a couple of
| | 04:08 |
minutes of just sparring around that
line.
| | 04:17 |
So, so go ahead, I'm just going to play.
(SOUND) okay?
| | 04:25 |
(SOUND).
Kay you keep going I'm, I'm just going to
| | 04:31 |
shoot you.
(SOUND) , (LAUGH).
| | 04:37 |
Oh these are going to look awesome.
(SOUND), Okay, either one of you, take
| | 04:48 |
your weapon and, and put it up against
that light and give it a push where it will.
| | 04:55 |
Where it will move, this way or that way,
not, not towards me, but I just want to
| | 05:01 |
get it moving out of the way so I can I
can shoot a couple frames without it.
| | 05:09 |
Push it a little more.
Get, just give it a little more of, of a
| | 05:13 |
push, it's fine, it'll be, okay great
thank you.
| | 05:15 |
And you don't have to, you don't have to
do anything.
| | 05:17 |
I'm just going to shoot it as it goes out
of its line.
| | 05:18 |
(SOUND)
| | 05:23 |
Alrighty.
Gentlemen.
| | 05:30 |
Gentlemen, you're set.
You're good.
| | 05:31 |
Step back here for a second and look at
the camera.
| | 05:37 |
So I want to make sure that everyone,
Okay so this is, everybody hold up one,
| | 05:41 |
one finger so I'll know you were team
one.
| | 05:43 |
Okay, I'm going to do, I'll make sure I
have a final print done for everybody.
| | 05:46 |
Even if, even if it doesn't, doesn't make
the final print from the DVD I want to
| | 05:49 |
make sure everyone's in a poster with the
light taken out.
| | 05:53 |
(LAUGH), So hang on.
So take, take a look at this.
| | 05:57 |
And we get before the lights were
swinging.
| | 05:58 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Deconstructing the shoot| 00:00 |
Okay, so, for these, for these fencing
pictures, we're doing a little bit of a trick.
| | 00:04 |
If, if you see that light hanging down in
the middle of the picture, it looks
| | 00:07 |
kind of neat.
But I'd really like it if the light were
| | 00:09 |
gone, if the light itself were gone, the,
the fixture, but the light it's making
| | 00:12 |
was was, was still happening.
So, we're locking everything down on a tripod.
| | 00:18 |
We're shooting lots of action shots, and
then have them coming up and swing the
| | 00:20 |
light around, and, and get the light away
from where it normally is.
| | 00:24 |
I'm going to be shooting some pictures
while that light is moved out his normal path.
| | 00:28 |
So then we can go into Photoshop, lay the
picture of the light moved away in one layer.
| | 00:32 |
Lay the picture the light right over in
another layer, and now we can literally
| | 00:35 |
glow in and, and just erase that light.
As long as the light's fairly consistent
| | 00:40 |
on the wall behind them, it's going to
look fantastic.
| | 00:42 |
So we literally el, erased the light not
to a gray background or a white background.
| | 00:46 |
But to its physical background because
we've implanted that picture with the
| | 00:49 |
background behind it in the same light.
So if, if I play my cards right, you're
| | 00:53 |
going to see a picture where the light
looks really cool but your mind can't
| | 00:56 |
quite figure it out.
And you start thinking it's some really
| | 01:00 |
neat quality of light just coming down
from out of the frames.
| | 01:03 |
So I'm, I'm really psyched to see this.
I think it's going to work well.
| | 01:06 |
So when they first started fighting, we
were going through our choreographed one,
| | 01:10 |
two, three, pop, one, two, three, pop.
I knew exactly what they were going to do
| | 01:14 |
when, afterwards, I told them just to,
just to start free form, and we made lots
| | 01:17 |
of pictures.
So what you saw was me trying to grab
| | 01:20 |
that choreographed anticipated moment,
over and over again, at first.
| | 01:24 |
But later when they started going more
freeform, I was just laying down a button.
| | 01:27 |
My most powerful flash is set to one
quarter power, which means that it can
| | 01:31 |
fire four times very quickly before it
dumps that full charge.
| | 01:35 |
That means I don't have to wait 2 and a
half seconds, or 3 seconds, for the recycle.
| | 01:38 |
I can go, boom, boom, boom, boom, but I
can't go, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
| | 01:42 |
I can't do that 5th one.
I have to wait for a full charge after that.
| | 01:45 |
So, I got motorized sequence capability
as long as I don't go more than four
| | 01:47 |
frames at a time.
| | 01:49 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The photo shoot continues| 00:00 |
Alrighty.
Okay guys, lets see what you got.
| | 00:03 |
Okay, I need to, I need to just watch
this before I shoot.
| | 00:09 |
Feel free, go ahead, get him Matthew.
Okay, let me see how that looks.
| | 00:15 |
Okay, when you get him, you really gotta
sell it, okay?
| | 00:18 |
Come after him, none of this like, I'm
taking it easy on you because you're an
| | 00:21 |
old guy stuff.
Okay, move everything a little bit that
| | 00:25 |
way, a little bit.
Okay, good.
| | 00:27 |
Okay, now there you go, get him.
Okay, (SOUND) Excellent.
| | 00:37 |
Okay, let me see how that looks when.
Can I see it?
| | 00:43 |
Yes I can.
So Matthew, all right, go after him.
| | 00:46 |
Got it.
All right, so I'm going to give you guys
| | 00:48 |
a break for just a second.
Just free style, whatever you want.
| | 00:51 |
Go after each other, teach each other a
lesson.
| | 00:54 |
And I'm going to shoot some, I'm just
going to shoot whatever I see.
| | 01:07 |
Get them.
(SOUND) Don't get away from that light.
| | 01:13 |
(SOUND) Don't let him do that to you,
Matthew.
| | 01:24 |
Get him, get him.
Get him, get him.
| | 01:32 |
(SOUND) Oh, that was sweet.
(LAUGH) Alright, take take a break for a
| | 01:47 |
second give me a big swing on that light
up there if you could.
| | 01:50 |
And just let let it swing way out there
towards, towards the wall where the light
| | 01:52 |
stand is right there.
Nice, nice swing.
| | 01:55 |
Good, good, perfect.
Don't move, don't move, you're fine.
| | 02:01 |
(SOUND) Okay.
Alright, we got lots of good pictures.
| | 02:04 |
I'm going to try something a little
ambitious, okay?
| | 02:06 |
You guys, you guys ready to amp it a
little bit?
| | 02:08 |
>> Okay.
>> Can you take a breath, alright?
| | 02:11 |
So you guys are both really quick.
I want to try and, and help me
| | 02:14 |
choreograph this, because I'm, I may not
know fencing.
| | 02:18 |
>> Alright.
>> Okay?
| | 02:19 |
>> so what I want to try to make make
what we can do is, if possible, is to
| | 02:22 |
just have a short, short, choreograph
thing that's very, you know.
| | 02:26 |
That's where you're not, just like, ta,
like going 190 beats a minute, like you
| | 02:29 |
are now.
>> Right.
| | 02:31 |
>> And, and if you want, we can take a
shift, rest up a little bit and you guys
| | 02:33 |
can come back.
But what I'd like to do is to have one of
| | 02:36 |
you lunging at the other one.
And the other one like, like they come
| | 02:39 |
back to try to avoid it, okay?
>> Okay.
| | 02:42 |
>> do either of you feel comfortable
making that, making that backwards jump
| | 02:44 |
like that with that great form that I
just did?
| | 02:47 |
Right?
Don't laugh at me.
| | 02:48 |
Don't laugh at me.
>> You want her counter attacking at me.
| | 02:52 |
Yeah, I don't care about that at all.
>> So, so, walk me through how you guys
| | 02:55 |
think you'd like to try it.
The main thing is, whoever, whoever's
| | 02:59 |
leaping back, I want them to be fairly
close to this line.
| | 03:02 |
Because if we get it timed right, it's
going to look like a cobra trying to
| | 03:05 |
strike a mongoose and the mongoose is
saying, sorry, not today, alright?
| | 03:09 |
Okay, so figure out how you want to do it
and then walk it through in slow motion
| | 03:11 |
and and then we'll run through it a
couple times, okay?
| | 03:14 |
These look sweet.
Okay, I'm going to lock everything down.
| | 03:18 |
That looks good.
That looks good.
| | 03:20 |
Okay, oh, whoa, whoa, oh.
No, we're good.
| | 03:26 |
Okay, go ahead.
Okay, now I, okay, got it.
| | 03:30 |
Got it.
(SOUND) That is pretty sweet.
| | 03:36 |
You got some extension that time Ross.
(SOUND) Alright, there we go.
| | 03:46 |
Just keep at it.
>> Whoa.
| | 03:51 |
>> (SOUND)
| | 03:54 |
Oh.
| | 03:56 |
(LAUGH)
| | 03:59 |
This looks really epic guys.
This is sweet.
| | 04:10 |
(SOUND) Okay, tell you what.
For the last couple, Ross, go ahead and
| | 04:18 |
let your feet flair out a little bit, and
we'll see if that looks even better.
| | 04:32 |
Geez, nice extension that time.
(SOUND) Alright, alright, come back here,
| | 04:38 |
you gotta see that.
That just, I just want you to see these before.
| | 04:45 |
And then, I'm going to have, I'm going to
have you give that a push and I'll shoot
| | 04:50 |
the light out.
You're going to have the best poster in
| | 04:55 |
the neighborhood in, in a few days.
So alright, let me bring, let me bring
| | 04:59 |
these in.
>> Look at that.
| | 05:02 |
>> Yes.
Okay, yeah, yeah.
| | 05:07 |
That's going to, okay.
Oh, missed that.
| | 05:16 |
I missed, it's okay.
I missed, you, you didn't miss.
| | 05:19 |
I missed.
LAUGHS Okay.
| | 05:24 |
Okay, I need to wait for the flex, I
think.
| | 05:25 |
I'm, I'm grabbing the moment it hits and
that's not where the, the tension is visually.
| | 05:29 |
Alright, good.
Let me look at that.
| | 05:32 |
(SOUND) Okay.
So, okay.
| | 05:36 |
We can move it about, about a foot that
way, because you really extend, Gabrielle.
| | 05:39 |
And I want to make sure you, I want to
make sure you don't want to go into the
| | 05:41 |
shadows back there all righty?
| | 05:42 |
(SOUND)
| | 05:47 |
Okay.
(SOUND) Alright, so don't get too, like,
| | 05:53 |
I've done this 500 times and so I'm
going to just make that up.
| | 05:57 |
I'm going to let you guys just go ahead
and freestyle a little bit to.
| | 06:00 |
Because you will, it absolutely will get
stale doing the same thing over and over again.
| | 06:03 |
Fortunately, I can't see your face, so
it's all about body language if you are
| | 06:06 |
getting stale.
So, alright, yeah.
| | 06:09 |
What was the bell (LAUGH) oh, that was
sweet.
| | 06:14 |
(LAUGH) Hang on, okay?
Alright, well, you know, I think we're
| | 06:20 |
going to have to move everything a little
bit that way because by the time you can, yeah.
| | 06:29 |
Let me see, maybe I'm wrong.
Okay, got it, I've got my timing.
| | 06:38 |
Make sure you're a couple of feet behind
the light.
| | 06:40 |
>> Like when I enter?
>> No, I mean it like I don't want the
| | 06:43 |
light right over your head.
So have the light a couple of feet my
| | 06:47 |
side of you, okay?
So your, you're a little bit towards the
| | 06:49 |
wall from the light.
Not much.
| | 06:51 |
Okay, now wait a minute.
Gabrielle, come up to the line and stand
| | 06:53 |
on the line.
I'll grab a focus.
| | 06:57 |
Excellent.
Thank you.
| | 07:03 |
That was nice.
nice on your part, bad on my part.
| | 07:07 |
But oh, but, but the the reach is right
because you had, you had her by then and
| | 07:09 |
your blade was all bent and everything.
So, your feet weren't perfect but you had
| | 07:13 |
finished the move and you were going in.
Alright.
| | 07:17 |
Okay, go ahead.
Sweet, sweet.
| | 07:25 |
A bit of blade.
Alright, come, just so you see, I want
| | 07:30 |
you to come back here come back here
Johnathan so you can see this.
| | 07:35 |
So here, there's a picture existing, you
won't have the light in there.
| | 07:39 |
And this is maybe the tell me, so you got
the, everything's bent and everything's
| | 07:43 |
off the ground.
You're just splayed up, like
| | 07:46 |
>> That's nice.
>> So, that's kind of the moment that
| | 07:48 |
I'm going for, and I'm going to play on
variations of that.
| | 07:51 |
So, I'm, I'm not looking through the
camera because I'm, I just want to have
| | 07:53 |
my finger, like if there's, if there's no
pressure, and then there's half pressure.
| | 07:56 |
That makes a meter come on, and then you
gotta get to a 10.
| | 07:59 |
I want to be at 9 and a half with my
finger just watching you and just twitching.
| | 08:02 |
>> Okay.
>> Alright?
| | 08:05 |
Okay, do not let me forget to do a light
swinging picture after we do this
| | 08:08 |
sequence, okay?
because that, the magic doesn't happen
| | 08:11 |
without us moving that light out of the
way, alrighty?
| | 08:15 |
Oh, wait a minute.
Stand, stand on line Gabrielle.
| | 08:17 |
I'll make sure I got you in focus.
A little more, perfect.
| | 08:25 |
Thank you.
Nice.
| | 08:29 |
I'm tempted to zoom in and look at every
one of these.
| | 08:31 |
And maybe instead you foot, maybe your,
it's looks better when you're, the toe is
| | 08:34 |
just starting to leave the ground rather
than you're already on the air.
| | 08:38 |
But that's a me thing, let's do a you
thing.
| | 08:39 |
You just keep doing it.
You know what?
| | 08:49 |
We've got that, like, three times.
Sweet.
| | 08:51 |
So, I don't want you to burn yourself
out.
| | 08:53 |
let's give a, a lamp swinging one, so we
can make sure we get that registered, and
| | 08:55 |
give it a nice push.
I want it five, six feet out there
| | 08:58 |
towards the mirror.
Perfect.
| | 09:10 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Lighting notebook: Fencers in action| 00:01 |
Okay, here we are at the last of the
photo diagrams.
| | 00:03 |
And, and this is what I want to get in to
a little bit, to make sure we have plenty
| | 00:06 |
of understanding before we walk away from
this.
| | 00:08 |
first we talked about, in the in the
group shot for the fencers, what it takes
| | 00:12 |
to get in to a situation like this.
And this is the picture that I saw in my
| | 00:16 |
mind although frankly, not with this cool
of a pose from the fencers.
| | 00:20 |
When I walked into the, into the fencing
arena the fencing little place in the
| | 00:24 |
warehouse where the Baltimore Fencing
Club works.
| | 00:27 |
And, I was picking up my daughter from a,
from a fencing camp and I, I could just
| | 00:30 |
see this picture in my mind, but it did
not look like this.
| | 00:34 |
There's jumbles of wires everywhere and
the room is a fluorescent lit room and
| | 00:37 |
all kinds of weird things that, that are
happening in reality which I do not want
| | 00:40 |
happening in my picture.
So, we're going to go through the process
| | 00:44 |
of turning this room and I'm going to
show you what the room really looks like
| | 00:46 |
or you've already seen it if you've seen
the video, into this picture.
| | 00:52 |
So, let's start here from the beginning.
And this is probably the high point of my
| | 00:56 |
my stick people drawing in the history of
my entire life.
| | 01:00 |
So, I, I hope you're appreciating this,
this, this (INAUDIBLE) represents
| | 01:04 |
tremendous effort on my part because I
stink at drawing.
| | 01:07 |
But anyway, here are two fencers with a
little bit of a God's-eye perspective, up
| | 01:10 |
a little bit, looking down into the box.
And this is a pose which, as you know at
| | 01:15 |
this point once we finished with the
light, we worked with them over and over
| | 01:18 |
again to try to turn that good light
into, good light and a really good moment.
| | 01:23 |
That's very important, so we, we don't
want to, we don't want to mistake and
| | 01:26 |
forget about that.
so, this is, and it's a little tongue in
| | 01:29 |
cheek but this is the room shot without
flash.
| | 01:33 |
So, this is very important, we want to
take that room and drop it down to an
| | 01:36 |
exposure where everything is going to be
dark in the room.
| | 01:39 |
Now if we had daylight streaming in, this
would not be an easy thing to do.
| | 01:43 |
And this is one of those problems that
you solve for yourself by, when they ask
| | 01:45 |
well when would you like to do this.
And so well you know, any evening that's
| | 01:49 |
free with you guys.
My first thing I'm thinking is, get rid
| | 01:51 |
of that ambient light.
So, when we turn the room lights off or
| | 01:54 |
most of them anyway, we don't have to
worry about bright daylight streaming in
| | 01:56 |
through the garage bay and the windows.
So, this makes a, a very easy starting
| | 02:02 |
pallet for us to light this room.
This is a key, taking this room and
| | 02:06 |
taking it to dark with your ambient
exposure, is the key that allows you to
| | 02:09 |
create any kind of light you want with
your small flashes even in a big space
| | 02:13 |
like this.
So, this is a huge room, it's, it's 50
| | 02:17 |
feet by 25 feet with a 25 foot ceiling
and we're lighting this picture with two
| | 02:21 |
speed lights.
So, that to me is just really, it's, it's
| | 02:25 |
a cool thing to think about.
You don't need a lot of light.
| | 02:28 |
If your canvas doesn't have a lot of
light to begin with.
| | 02:31 |
Big dark rooms do not scare me.
Large, bright areas scare me because I
| | 02:35 |
don't have the light to overcome that and
work with any kind of a distance with
| | 02:38 |
speed lights.
I have to bring out the big, heavy,
| | 02:42 |
expensive pro photos, not that I'm not
willing to do it but I certainly like
| | 02:45 |
working out of a waist pack where versus
having to carry a gear donkey.
| | 02:50 |
So, let's take a look at our, our main
line as we drop it in.
| | 02:54 |
This is (INAUDIBLE) suspended by fishing
line, which beats the heck out of a boom
| | 02:57 |
for portability any day, as far as I'm
concerned.
| | 03:01 |
Very pleased to have gotten this dart
through the little triangle up there on
| | 03:04 |
just the second try.
so we've got this suspend, we got a flash
| | 03:08 |
hanging in it and now what we've got is a
360 degree light source, that is going to
| | 03:11 |
push light out into this room from the
upper center of the space.
| | 03:16 |
That turns this room into something very
interesting.
| | 03:19 |
So, let's take a look at that real quick.
This is our room as it exists, at a 60th
| | 03:24 |
of a second at 2.8 on the daylight white
balance.
| | 03:27 |
So, this is an ugly yellowish-green
fluorescent so, even to be fair to the
| | 03:30 |
room, I'm going to take this room and
we'll correct it on (INAUDIBLE).
| | 03:34 |
And put it on a auto-white balance and
you'll see what the available light room
| | 03:37 |
would look like.
This does not look epic to me.
| | 03:41 |
This does not look like fencing must
feel.
| | 03:44 |
So, taking this light, removing the
imminent exposure from the room.
| | 03:48 |
And then pushing that light into the
center of the room from like a, a space
| | 03:51 |
and, and, uh,on the z axis right above
those guys is going to take this room and
| | 03:55 |
completely transform it.
So, this is right out of the camera.
| | 04:01 |
Instantly, we've got this room turned
into something where the light is focused
| | 04:04 |
on the fencers and those white walls are
muted and it's all a function of how far
| | 04:07 |
each thing is from the light source.
So, altering that light source position
| | 04:12 |
is going to alter that ratio, of how
bright the fencers are lit versus how
| | 04:15 |
bright the walls are lit.
I frankly would like to bring that light
| | 04:19 |
source down even lower.
But then I'm going to have a little bit
| | 04:21 |
of a logistical problem in that they
might, you know, get a little pinata
| | 04:24 |
action on them with the with the weapons,
and that's not what I want right now.
| | 04:28 |
So, let's go to a split-screen picture
and this to me is the essence of why you
| | 04:32 |
want to be lighting your pictures in one
frame.
| | 04:35 |
We go from left to right and that's even
giving them credit for the automatic
| | 04:39 |
white balance there so, we put the room
in white.
| | 04:42 |
This is not the same room, as far as I'm
concerned and the magic is walking into
| | 04:46 |
the room on the left, and in your mind
visualizing the room on the right.
| | 04:51 |
That's what this is all about.
And until you can walk in and see those
| | 04:53 |
pictures in your mind, you're just going
to be taking wild guesses when you're
| | 04:56 |
trying to make your lighting and trying
to design your pictures.
| | 05:00 |
So, concentrate on visualizing that
transformation when you walk into a space
| | 05:03 |
and the more you do it, the better you'll
get at it.
| | 05:06 |
So, for our second light and it is
included in those other lights but I
| | 05:09 |
wanted to, to be clear with it here
because I've got a cutaway of it in just
| | 05:12 |
a minute.
This is our background light, it is an
| | 05:16 |
SB800 it's slaved.
zoom to 105 millimeter, so it puts a
| | 05:20 |
little bit of a, a center weighted spot
on the wall back there.
| | 05:23 |
And this is this is going to fire when it
sees the other flash fire.
| | 05:26 |
So, let's look at just what that light is
doing.
| | 05:29 |
And frankly, this is not, (LAUGH) this is
not a bad picture itself I, I, I'm
| | 05:32 |
partial to silhouettes because you know,
I went to college and everybody's college
| | 05:35 |
portfolio has a bunch of silhouettes in
it.
| | 05:39 |
but anyway, here's an isolation of what
that background light's doing.
| | 05:41 |
And that's just giving another layer of
texture behind, behind the fencers.
| | 05:46 |
Got a little bit of a shiny happening
back there that's the sort of thing I'll
| | 05:49 |
tone down in Photoshop afterwards or just
remove from the wall, depending on how
| | 05:53 |
easy it is to remove.
we had a flag hanging back there, we had
| | 05:56 |
a clock hanging back there, we went ahead
and took those down right off the bat.
| | 06:00 |
and we, you know say, hey, you know, can
I like, take you clock off the wall?
| | 06:04 |
Just be a little authoritative about it.
Yeah, we'd really, let's g, let's get
| | 06:08 |
that clock off the wall back there and,
and get the flag off the wall and we'll
| | 06:10 |
have a nice clean backdrop and you won't
be bumping into things visually.
| | 06:14 |
So, taking that initiative will pay, will
pay off in cleaning up your background
| | 06:17 |
and that's assuming you have the ethical
ability to do that.
| | 06:20 |
If you're just shooting straight
photojournalism for a newspaper, that's
| | 06:23 |
not the kind of thing you want to do.
But this ain't the newspaper anymore, so
| | 06:26 |
I feel a little freer about those kinds
of things.
| | 06:30 |
Right, triggering all this we have an on
camera SB800 just pointed up at the
| | 06:34 |
ceiling and I, I went ahead and put this
on camera just in case I needed some more
| | 06:37 |
front light.
I figure a very bright light bouncing off
| | 06:41 |
the ceiling in front of them, would fill
them in a little bit just in case I
| | 06:44 |
needed it, I could pump it up to half
power or so.
| | 06:47 |
And definitely get some fill out of that
at the aperture at which we were working.
| | 06:51 |
But as it turned out it worked out just
fine without it.
| | 06:53 |
So, the only reason I was using this
light on my camera was to trigger either
| | 06:56 |
one of those other two lights and again,
if light a triggers than light b is
| | 07:00 |
going to see light a or vice versa.
So, the flash you see on the camera is
| | 07:04 |
only acting as a trigger, it's running at
about 116th power and pointed 25 feet up
| | 07:08 |
into the ceiling so, it's not
contributing to this picture at all.
| | 07:13 |
This is a two light picture, the third
light is just a trigger and it could've
| | 07:16 |
just as easily been a sync cord or a
pocket or whatever.
| | 07:19 |
I want to take just a minute and talk
about Photoshop I'm not a huge Photoshop guru.
| | 07:26 |
Coming from a newspaper, we didn't do a
ton of stuff with Photoshop, so I grew up
| | 07:29 |
in the school where you try to make as
much of it happen in camera, as possible.
| | 07:34 |
That said, I'm not a purest, like I say,
I'll tone down those things behind them
| | 07:37 |
if I need to.
in my final pictures, you'll see those
| | 07:41 |
kind of things go away or, or whatever.
and I will do some some minor Photoshop,
| | 07:46 |
so I'm not, I'm not a purist in that I go
by straight photojournalism rules and I'm
| | 07:49 |
not a Photoshop guru.
What I try to do is walk the middle
| | 07:53 |
ground and, and do the techniques that
will give me the picture that I want to
| | 07:56 |
be able to get, with a reasonable amount
of effort and not too much computer
| | 07:59 |
skills involved in the back end.
So, this is a straight out of camera
| | 08:05 |
picture and I just want to run through a
couple little things that I've done to it.
| | 08:10 |
You know, we got our, we got our dome up
there lighting them, that's on one
| | 08:13 |
quarter power.
And that's giving me a nice thick
| | 08:16 |
aperture like, maybe f8, I believe?
between f8 and f11.
| | 08:20 |
We've got the second flash, and that's
only on about a 16th power, popping that
| | 08:23 |
wall back there.
But we base the exposure on what that
| | 08:25 |
ball is doing, and then adjust that
background light to give just a little
| | 08:28 |
bit of glow.
It's all by touch and feel, we really
| | 08:31 |
don't need a meter there.
We're getting a lot of light out of that
| | 08:34 |
flash which is going through a stove
diffuser and then going through that big
| | 08:37 |
diffusion ball.
But this is it just as it came out of the
| | 08:41 |
camera and this is just a test shot a
little warm up shot.
| | 08:45 |
And so, I want to take this through very,
very simple Photoshop.
| | 08:48 |
Now, the first thing I'm going to do, is
I'm going to put a feather around that
| | 08:51 |
maybe a 250 pixel feather and just darken
the edges around a little bit to, to
| | 08:54 |
increase that epic quality to the light.
And call your attention to the fencers in
| | 09:00 |
the middle.
This is something I could have easily
| | 09:02 |
done with light, by dropping that light
down so its going to be closer to them
| | 09:05 |
relative to how far it is from the wall.
It's going to be closer to the floor and
| | 09:10 |
you're going to get that brightened area
in the center versus the wall.
| | 09:13 |
So, this can be done with light.
The problem is the light is almost
| | 09:16 |
certainly going to get skewered in the
first 30 seconds of their, of their exercise.
| | 09:21 |
So, what I want to do is raise that light
up, and I know that I can tweak this just
| | 09:23 |
a little bit and make up for the fact
that I can't put the light where I want
| | 09:26 |
it by tweaking this in Photoshop.
So, just a 250 pixel lasso around the,
| | 09:31 |
around the center of the picture you
invert that so now you've selected
| | 09:34 |
everything but the center and just use
curve to darken that down.
| | 09:40 |
Immediately, in addition to the light on
the fencers I like that light in the, on
| | 09:43 |
the floor, that little splotch of light
that's happening on the floor.
| | 09:47 |
And if you notice, that's happening in
front of them, it's not happening right
| | 09:50 |
by them and that's because if you put the
light right over them, that light is
| | 09:52 |
really not going to light down their
body.
| | 09:55 |
It's just going to light down their head
and shoulders and their body's going to
| | 09:58 |
go into shadow.
So, we cheated (INAUDIBLE) behind the
| | 10:00 |
light just the tiniest bit and that's why
that little splotch of light's happening
| | 10:03 |
in front.
And it's also why that that little
| | 10:06 |
Japanese lantern is doing such a good job
of lighting them all the way down.
| | 10:10 |
So, the next little tweak I'm going to do
in Photoshop is to lasso this little
| | 10:13 |
center area on the ground.
And I'm going to go the other way with that.
| | 10:16 |
I'm going to hit a lasso with a 250-pixel
feather, just something really soft and
| | 10:20 |
I'm going to curves and pull that up just
a little bit.
| | 10:25 |
So, now you got that little area of
brightness at the bottom and it really
| | 10:27 |
pulls people into the center the picture.
And that's pretty much all the Photoshop
| | 10:31 |
I did on this and this is typical not
that I put the last hole around and
| | 10:34 |
everything dark into the edges because I
don't.
| | 10:37 |
But this probably typical of the amount
of Photoshop I put on, on a normal picture.
| | 10:42 |
I may have to go in and clean up
something on white or whatever but I
| | 10:44 |
want to, I want to stress that these are,
these are tweaked pictures in Photoshop
| | 10:47 |
the pictures really are not built in the
computer.
| | 10:50 |
They're built with a light while we're
pushing the button.
| | 10:54 |
Last thing on this.
You've gone to all the trouble to make
| | 10:56 |
the contacts and get permission to come
in and, and shoot on a Sunday night.
| | 11:01 |
we had a lot of fun with this.
As I hope you can see from the video that
| | 11:05 |
we just watched.
this is pizza and a lot of people in a
| | 11:07 |
room, and some sugar and caffeine.
And everybody working together to try to
| | 11:12 |
make some epic pictures.
Now that's the other reason that I
| | 11:15 |
want to bring these guys into this
process as far as offering them pictures
| | 11:17 |
after the fact.
Because not only are they going to show
| | 11:20 |
up, but they're going to be looking to
make the very best pictures they can make.
| | 11:24 |
They're doing that for me and for them.
And frankly these guys got a little
| | 11:27 |
competitive, which I was really happy to
see.
| | 11:29 |
So, the last thing you want to, you
want to remember is to not forgot to push them.
| | 11:34 |
Once you get this light right, just push
it.
| | 11:35 |
Okay let's do just a few more.
I know you're tired.
| | 11:38 |
I like the way you're, you know, you held
that weapon the last time.
| | 11:41 |
Let's see if we can get a more extension.
Blah blah blah.
| | 11:42 |
And you'll end up with, what we ended up
with which is literally dozens and dozens
| | 11:46 |
of choices.
So, for me it came down to, to two frames.
| | 11:50 |
Here were my two favorite frames from the
shoot.
| | 11:53 |
I like this one with with, with just the
extension, he's reaching up in the air /g.
| | 11:56 |
And, and I love the fact that the that,
that the the person on the right is, is
| | 12:00 |
as he dodging the bullet, he's, he's
reaching in there to make a strike on his own.
| | 12:05 |
And I think that's very cool.
if you saw that happening on film, you
| | 12:08 |
see how repetitive that was, and he was
just jumping back.
| | 12:11 |
And we're really trying to to solve those
small variations.
| | 12:14 |
But just when you look at one picture it,
it gives you the feel that this was just
| | 12:17 |
an amazing moment that happened.
And was caught just really well, you
| | 12:21 |
know, just a lucky shot and, and it just
happened to be in this really cool
| | 12:24 |
environment with amazing light.
But all those things are built one layer
| | 12:28 |
at a time.
The same way your lighting is build one
| | 12:31 |
layer at a time, your pictures are built
one layer at a time and for these
| | 12:33 |
pictures, frankly, the first layer was
discovering these folks.
| | 12:37 |
The second layer was, okay, I want to see
a picture in here.
| | 12:40 |
The third was, I gotta reach out to them,
I want to try to find a way to to
| | 12:43 |
photograph these guys what's in it for
them and, and right down the line and you
| | 12:46 |
get to the lighting.
You know, maybe 23 steps later, and then
| | 12:50 |
you go through another layered process
and figure out how you're going to solve
| | 12:52 |
your lightning.
But we've done that too, and I hope
| | 12:55 |
that's pretty clear to you at this point.
So, so this was picture a, and then of
| | 12:58 |
course, the, the other picture was the
photo that ended up on the cover of this set.
| | 13:02 |
And it's one of my favorite pictures I've
done over the last couple of years, frankly.
| | 13:06 |
very cool to be able to hangout with a
group of people, make a picture like
| | 13:08 |
this, and even cooler to have video
cameras along for the ride to save it,
| | 13:11 |
cause this is going to make a neat
souvenir for me too.
| | 13:15 |
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