2. Portrait Lighting SetupsUsing butterfly lighting for portraits| 00:00 | For the rest of the course I'll be showing you
some of the lighting I use for my portraiture.
| | 00:05 | Sam will be helping me.
| | 00:07 | He's not a seasoned assistant, but
just wants to learn more about lighting.
| | 00:11 | And because the lights in the studio are
daylight balanced, I use daylight balanced bulbs in
| | 00:16 | my light too.
| | 00:18 | One word of caution, these lights get hot.
| | 00:22 | Never handle a bulb with your
bare fingers after it's been on.
| | 00:26 | You'll get burned.
| | 00:27 | And it's a good idea to wear
gloves when you change bulbs too.
| | 00:31 | The oil from your fingers can cause
some styles of bulbs to explode.
| | 00:36 | When you think of Hollywood portraits,
you think of the butterfly lighting.
| | 00:40 | The lightest placed above this subject,
pretty much on access with the camera. It sculpts
| | 00:45 | the face and is named for the little shadow
under the nose. Evey's face will be lovely
| | 00:50 | with this light.
| | 00:52 | Okay, you look great! So Sam, we're going
to do a very classic lighting setup today,
| | 01:00 | we're going to basically use one
light and then the hair light later on.
| | 01:04 | This light was used by a guy named George
Hurrell back in the '20s, and he photographed
| | 01:09 | all the starlets and did amazing work.
| | 01:12 | His style continues till today
as a beautiful, beautiful style.
| | 01:18 | Go ahead and let's pull this light over.
Now it's on a boom. Do you know what a boom is?
| | 01:23 | Sam: I've used one once before.
| | 01:25 | Natalie Fobes: Okay, perfect!
| | 01:26 | Sam: And then--
| | 01:27 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah, go ahead and raise it
up. Now what we're looking for is a shadow
| | 01:31 | under her nose that looks according to some
people, looks like a butterfly. That's too
| | 01:36 | high up, let's bring it back down, bring it
back down, and pull it in real nice and tight.
| | 01:43 | Sam: Close in her, okay.
| | 01:44 | Natalie Fobes: A little closer, but now let's
pull it right on access to were I'm going
| | 01:52 | to be shooting, and you can see how--that beautiful
little light there, right underneath her nose.
| | 01:58 | Sam: Oh yeah, okay.
| | 01:59 | Natalie Fobes: Other characteristics of this
style of lighting include the shading on either
| | 02:03 | side of the face, and the cheekbones, right
underneath her brows, and underneath her lip,
| | 02:11 | and her chin. It's just a very glamorous
looking light and it suits you so well.
| | 02:18 | Well, let me take a meter reading.
See what kind of light we have.
| | 02:25 | So I am at 4, F4.5, and so
I'm going to expose about F4.
| | 02:31 | The reason I do that is that I want to have
her, the true value of her skin in the proper
| | 02:38 | place, meaning that if I shot at F4.5,
then she would be a medium gray.
| | 02:43 | Sam: Oh, okay.
| | 02:44 | Natalie Fobes: And you can see her skin is
translucent. It's going to bring it up just
| | 02:49 | a little bit and give it the
glow that it naturally has.
| | 02:54 | Let's take a gray card. Have you
ever worked with a gray card?
| | 02:57 | Sam: Uh, no.
Natalie Fobes: Okay.
| | 02:59 | Gray card is simply a way for me to figure out
what my white balance is truly in postproduction.
| | 03:04 | Sam: Oh, okay.
| | 03:05 | Natalie Fobes: Even though I have a good idea
of what it is now, in postproduction, I may
| | 03:09 | want to tweak it a little bit.
| | 03:10 | So this will give me a constant that I can
adjust from there. Hold it up, you take a
| | 03:19 | shot and that's all I have to do.
Go ahead and put it down there.
| | 03:26 | Sam: Sure!
Natalie Fobes: All right, okay.
| | 03:30 | So go ahead and lean forward just a
little bit, very nice, and down.
| | 03:34 | I want to make sure that I'm continuing
to get those catch lights in her eyes.
| | 03:40 | Because those catch lights will
really tell us that she's alive.
| | 03:45 | So go ahead and turn a little bit this way,
give me a little bit of attitude, starlet.
| | 03:51 | Beautiful! Beautiful! So I am really liking
this, but I'm feeling we need to have a hair
| | 04:02 | light to separate her from the background,
so let's bring that other light in.
| | 04:06 | Sam: It just on--it's just on her head?
| | 04:08 | Natalie Fobes: It's just going to be on her
head and actually I am going to have it pointed
| | 04:11 | off on this side.
| | 04:14 | Sam: Okay. How high above
her head should this be?
| | 04:18 | Natalie Fobes: Right about there is fine.
| | 04:20 | The great thing about using these continuous
lights is that we can really see what we get.
| | 04:25 | So bring it on in.
| | 04:29 | So this exposure will tell me--I think it's
going to be about even. Yup. It's 4.5 or
| | 04:38 | so, and even though it's 4.5, it's the
same intensity as this, as our key light.
| | 04:45 | Because her hair is so nice and
shiny, it's reflecting right back.
| | 04:49 | It's going to look much
brighter. It's exactly what I want.
| | 04:52 | So go ahead and lean forward, there you go.
| | 04:55 | And lower you chin just a little bit, there
you go, beautiful! Okay, look right on at
| | 05:00 | me and open your eyes a little.
There you go, got the catch light.
| | 05:06 | Turn your nose right
toward me, right toward me.
| | 05:10 | There you go, beautiful.
| | 05:13 | Okay, and now I want you to have one hand up.
| | 05:16 | There you go, perfect! Very nice, very nice!
| | 05:23 | Now let's try one--couple like that. Here
again I'm concentrating on classic poses, Myrna
| | 05:31 | Loy I believe was one who had this pose.
Nice, and eyes open and a little bit more there.
| | 05:38 | Oh, beautiful, great!
| | 05:43 | Okay that's fantastic.
| | 05:45 | Natalie Fobes: Now I'll show you something
else here. This is at hard light, a nice hard
| | 05:52 | light. It would look great in black and white.
Perfect! But let's soften up the shadows.
| | 05:59 | Can you see how that--
| | 06:00 | Sam: Oh yeah, it is not as severe--
| | 06:04 | Natalie Fobes: Not as severe. The edges are
broader and it's still--it's still the butterfly
| | 06:09 | light, but it is absolutely a gorgeous light.
| | 06:13 | So if you could hold that for me.
Sam: Yeah, sure.
| | 06:14 | Natalie Fobes: Just right over her head, even
a little bit. We need to get it up so I can
| | 06:21 | peek in there. There you go.
| | 06:24 | Let me take a couple there too.
| | 06:28 | And lower your chin just a little bit Evey,
there we go, nice, and tilt just a little.
| | 06:34 | Very nice, very nice!
| | 06:38 | So that's butterfly lighting.
| | 06:40 | Now there is another kind of lighting that
is very similar to butterfly lighting, it's
| | 06:45 | called loop lighting, and simply moving the
light this way causes the shadow of her nose
| | 06:54 | to go--to make a little loop.
| | 06:56 | See that little loop right there?
| | 06:56 | Sam: Oh right around--like right
around here? Yeah.
| | 06:59 | Natalie Fobes: And what this kind of lighting
does is it--turn, go ahead and turn that light
| | 07:03 | off, so you can see it a little bit easier.
| | 07:05 | What this kind of lighting does is that it
puts more shadow on the side of her face here,
| | 07:12 | more shading there, and it also
creates more shading on her nose.
| | 07:17 | It still has that beautiful shading here on
her lips and things like that, but it adds
| | 07:23 | just maybe a little bit more depth to this.
| | 07:26 | Sam: So using the butterfly light comes from
straight over the top, lots of shadows, but
| | 07:30 | very symmetrical.
Natalie Fobes: Right!
| | 07:32 | Sam: By just by moving it a little bit,
you get a different, a different style.
| | 07:37 | Natalie Fobes: A different style, yeah, and
still does a very nice job of creating shape
| | 07:43 | and depth to a person's face.
It's a really beautiful light.
| | 07:48 | Okay, well, I think we've
got it. Thank you so much!
| | 07:53 | By having her look up and away from the
camera and by bringing in a bright hair light, I
| | 07:58 | added to the vintage feel. The hard light
and its sharp shadows are enhanced when I
| | 08:03 | turn the photograph into black and white.
These poses were inspired by portraits of
| | 08:09 | Myrna Loy I saw years ago.
| | 08:14 |
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| Lighting a portrait with the Rembrandt pattern| 00:00 | The lighting pattern known as Rembrandt is
name for the master painter who used it in
| | 00:05 | his portrait work.
| | 00:07 | Its main characteristic is a triangle of light
on one cheek. Beautiful for both men and women,
| | 00:14 | you can adjust the ratio of key
to fill to increase the drama.
| | 00:18 | Natalie Fobes: So this is kind of where the loop
is in this area and see how the shadows don't touch on
| | 00:26 | the far side?
| | 00:27 | Sam: Yeah it-it's just under the
nose on the side of the nose.
| | 00:30 | Natalie Fobes: So Matt, go a head and just
turn your head a little bit this way. Opps,
| | 00:34 | that's little bit too much. There we go.
| | 00:38 | So this is now Rembrandt lighting.
| | 00:40 | Sam: I can see that the triangle
in there and shadows come together.
| | 00:44 | Natalie Fobes: The triangle is right there
and go ahead and lower your chin just a little
| | 00:47 | bit, and you still have that--the catch light in
his eye which isn't always there on Rembrandt
| | 00:53 | lighting, but it's certainly, you know
part of what I try to achieve anyway.
| | 00:57 | Sam: Right
| | 00:58 | Natalie Fobes: Now I want to show you something
here, about broad versus short or narrow lighting.
| | 01:08 | Broad lighting is when most of the
face is in light facing the camera.
| | 01:12 | I mean if you think of the face as in thirds,
if two thirds of the face is in light and
| | 01:21 | you're capturing that and
that's basically broad lighting.
| | 01:25 | Sam: And just 1/3 in shadow--
| | 01:25 | Natalie Fobes: And 1/3, in shadow.
Sam: Okay.
| | 01:27 | Natalie Fobes: Let me take a shot. It's--
it will be good to show you.
| | 01:33 | So you can see how most of the face is in.
| | 01:37 | Sam: Right and that's broad light.
| | 01:38 | Natalie Fobes: That's the broad lighting.
Sam: Okay.
| | 01:39 | Natalie Fobes: It's still a Rembrandt lighting
setup but it's in a broad, a broad position.
| | 01:45 | By simply moving this over here and
getting it into that at Rembrandt lighting.
| | 02:00 | Now I take the shot in 2/3rds.
| | 02:07 | Sam: So 2/3rds is in shadow now--
| | 02:10 | Natalie Fobes: Of the light is in shadow.
The shadow is on the camera side.
| | 02:14 | Now the reason that I would do a broad light--
I much prefer the short or narrow lighting.
| | 02:22 | I think it has more characteristic in it.
| | 02:24 | But the reason I would do a broad light
is if someone had a very slender face.
| | 02:28 | Sam: Okay
| | 02:28 | Natalie Fobes: And I wanted
to widen it a little bit.
| | 02:31 | But I think that it just adds
a little bit of breadth to it.
| | 02:35 | You definitely--the more shadows you have
in a photograph the more drama you have.
| | 02:40 | And so I think with a Rembrandt lighting and
this--then in this short setup, that you
| | 02:45 | definitely have more drama going on.
| | 02:47 | Sam: Okay
Natalie Fobes: I like drama in photos.
| | 02:49 | Sam: Absolutely.
Natalie Fobes: So yeah.
| | 02:51 | Okay well let's go a head and setup the light.
| | 02:54 | Can you adjust it while I take a look at it?
| | 02:58 | Sam: Yeah sure.
| | 02:59 | Natalie Fobes: Okay Matt, I want you to
be leaning forward just a little bit.
| | 03:03 | There you go.
| | 03:04 | Sam: So do you need this to go up right now?
| | 03:06 | Natalie Fobes: I think we--I think
we need to feather it this way.
| | 03:10 | Let's bring it this way just a little bit.
| | 03:13 | You know once we have the key light set up
then we are in good shape for the rest.
| | 03:17 | Sam: I guess when you're working with--when
you very specific about the shadow that you want.
| | 03:20 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah
Sam: It's got to exactly in the right spot?
| | 03:22 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah.
| | 03:23 | I would also like you to turn it up, point
it up just a little bit, and the reason for that
| | 03:30 | is that his hands are the
same value as his face.
| | 03:33 | Sam: Okay
| | 03:34 | Natalie Fobes: And the face is what
should be seen first in a portrait.
| | 03:38 | So in this situation we
take a little bit of that off.
| | 03:40 | I am going to even take more off by
putting up the diffusing a little bit.
| | 03:49 | Now that right--is very effective at
taking down the light here.
| | 03:55 | Sam: Oh yeah and there is not
nearly as much on his hands.
| | 03:58 | Natalie Fobes: There is not nearly as much.
| | 04:00 | I'm going to try this and
see if I like it.
| | 04:03 | I'm afraid there might be too little
light down here, might be too abrupt,
| | 04:06 | Sam: Okay.
| | 04:07 | Natalie Fobes: And if that's the
case we will have to adjust it.
| | 04:09 | So Matt, go ahead and pull your curls back.
| | 04:12 | Now you notice I'm also using a hard light on
him, and hard light in most cases is fine with men.
| | 04:19 | I like to have a little angularity to them,
sharp edges on the shadows, but I also love
| | 04:24 | to have the texture of his hair coming out.
| | 04:27 | So twist back a little
bit more, little bit more.
| | 04:30 | There you go, cool, excellent!
| | 04:32 | So let me take a shot, let
get our meter reading here.
| | 04:40 | Came over at 5.6. I am going to
pretty much put it that 5.6.
| | 04:44 | Sam: Should we do a gray card as well?
| | 04:45 | Natalie Fobes: Let's do a gray card.
| | 04:47 | Let me get my exposure, okay.
| | 04:53 | So I am looking at this, I think I'm a little
bit heavy on the exposure, so I am going to
| | 04:57 | bring it down, open it up, just
half a stop or 3rd of a stop to 5.
| | 05:04 | All right, so let's go
ahead and have some fun.
| | 05:06 | How you're doing?
| | 05:07 | Matt: Doing good.
| | 05:08 | Natalie Fobes: Good, and you're looking good.
| | 05:11 | So go ahead and tilt your head a
little that way and swing around.
| | 05:14 | There you go.
| | 05:16 | I see your hand there, bring
that back out just a little bit.
| | 05:21 | So this is looking good, but I think
we need a little bit of fill in here.
| | 05:26 | Let's bring that light in.
Sam: Just one here.
| | 05:28 | Natalie Fobes: Relax for a minute, yeah.
| | 05:32 | Sam: I see people use the umbrellas all the
time but I have never actually used one.
| | 05:37 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah.
| | 05:37 | Sam: Does it just shoot the light out more?
| | 05:40 | Natalie Fobes: Well the umbrellas are great
because the light is bouncing into
| | 05:44 | this surface and then
it's kind of softening it,
| | 05:47 | Sam: Okay.
Natalie Fobes: And it's also making it bigger.
| | 05:49 | Natalie Fobes: Its making it a bigger light
source and it's really nice for this kind
| | 05:54 | of fill situation because it's
going to give us a subtle fill.
| | 06:01 | It's not going to overwhelm. The whole point
of the fill is not to overwhelm the key light,
| | 06:07 | because you still want to have the key light
as the one that is giving the shape and form
| | 06:11 | to the person.
| | 06:12 | But this fill light--go ahead and
assume the position there Matt.
| | 06:17 | Yeah and lower your chin
just a little--there you go.
| | 06:21 | Now see how it changes as we go closer?
| | 06:24 | Sam: Oh yeah.
| | 06:24 | Natalie Fobes: That's like a two to
one, meaning a one-stop difference.
| | 06:29 | Sam: Right.
| | 06:30 | Natalie Fobes: And I bring it back
here, it's somewhere around 3, 3 to 1.
| | 06:34 | Sam: Okay.
| | 06:35 | Natalie Fobes: So I think that--that's going
to give us enough detail in the front, without
| | 06:41 | overpowering that nice strong
light we have coming in on the side.
| | 06:44 | Sam: Right.
| | 06:45 | Natalie Fobes: Okay, raise it
up just a little bit more.
| | 06:48 | Now the fill light can go pretty much anywhere
from where you're standing to over where I'm
| | 06:53 | standing, and there are some photographers who
like put it a little bit even more extreme.
| | 06:59 | So my tendency is to get it
pretty close to where I am.
| | 07:02 | In case there are shadows, then I want
those shadows to kind of just disappear.
| | 07:05 | Sam: Right.
| | 07:06 | Natalie Fobes: Very seldom do you get
shadows with this kind of situation, but
| | 07:11 | I think it looks more natural.
| | 07:12 | All right, so lower your
chin just a little bit more.
| | 07:16 | Swing around, there you go.
| | 07:17 | Got that nice triangle going, straight back.
| | 07:20 | Go ahead and lean forward even more.
| | 07:24 | Now the nice thing too is I am getting a
little bit of light on the background, so that'll
| | 07:28 | give us just enough texture back there.
| | 07:30 | But I am not liking how
intense the falloff is here.
| | 07:34 | Sam: Yeah.
| | 07:35 | Natalie Fobes: The diffusion panel is about a one
-stop difference, makes a one-stop difference,
| | 07:40 | I like it on I like the hard light on his
head, but right now we have lost too much of head.
| | 07:45 | Sam: It's a really dramatic
difference from the top of his head.
| | 07:48 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah it sure is.
| | 07:49 | Now let's pull that totally off and then we
will just put it back on at about the same height.
| | 07:55 | Sam: Oh so it's not folded
over then. It's only one line.
| | 07:58 | Natalie Fobes: So it's not folded over because
with that--when the diffusion panel is folded
| | 08:02 | over then it will be
actually two stops difference.
| | 08:06 | Sam: Do you think that height is okay Natalie?
| | 08:09 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah we'll take a look at it. I'd
like it to just falloff right about--starting about here.
| | 08:15 | And it looks like you're pretty well on it.
| | 08:18 | So you can see the difference in the shadow.
Look at the shadow edge going down and now
| | 08:23 | it's smoother, it's softer.
| | 08:25 | Again the diffusion panel softens that light.
| | 08:28 | Sam: Right and it already
looks a little less dark.
| | 08:30 | Natalie Fobes: It does, definitely.
| | 08:31 | Now I think that's what a good idea.
| | 08:34 | Okay straight back, lean forward, swing that
leg in closer. There you go, nice, tilt your
| | 08:41 | head, there you go, lower
your chin, there you go.
| | 08:46 | And you got that curl that's just
coming right up but shading your eyes.
| | 08:49 | Yeah, okay.
All right, very nice.
| | 08:54 | Now go ahead and lean
even further, further in.
| | 08:58 | We will make sure that he is still getting
the nice hot light on his face, which he is.
| | 09:04 | Lower your chin, swing your nose towards Sam.
| | 09:08 | Okay, very good.
| | 09:13 | All right, now one last thing I think that
this is going to be a great session, but I'd
| | 09:18 | like to--so far we've done a great job.
| | 09:21 | But I'd like to include what I
call an accent or kicker light.
| | 09:25 | Sam: Okay.
| | 09:26 | Natalie Fobes: So go ahead and
go over on the other side there.
| | 09:28 | Sam: Okay.
| | 09:29 | Natalie Fobes: And catch that
light, catch the key light.
| | 09:32 | Sam: Where should I be aiming
for the light to be?
| | 09:34 | Natalie Fobes: You should be aiming right--I
want to emphasize the texture in his curls
| | 09:40 | in right here.
| | 09:42 | And I wouldn't mind a small
little detail across here.
| | 09:45 | But take it over that way a little
because I don't want it to be overwhelming.
| | 09:50 | Okay now wrap it this way, that's good.
| | 09:53 | Think we might be kicking a
little light back into the--
| | 09:56 | Sam: Backdrop?
Natalie Fobes: Backdrop. That's cool too.
| | 09:59 | Go ahead and lean forward Matt.
| | 10:01 | And eyes, lower your
chin even more, okay, nice.
| | 10:07 | Okay, now let's kick it up a notch,
let's get the kicker right in there.
| | 10:13 | Really make it hard, hard, hard,
oops! You lost it, here you go.
| | 10:15 | Sam: There it is.
| | 10:16 | Natalie Fobes: There it is. Nice.
| | 10:20 | Let me back off and get another angle.
| | 10:23 | Okay, breathe through your mouth Matt.
| | 10:26 | There you go.
| | 10:27 | I am going to come in tight, okay.
| | 10:33 | And twist your head a little bit
more and lower your chin. Got it, okay.
| | 10:39 | Now just for fun look out that way.
| | 10:45 | And look up a little bit with your eyes.
| | 10:48 | Okay breathe through your mouth.
| | 10:49 | The reason I am saying breathe through
your mouth is it looks more natural.
| | 10:53 | Okay, all right.
| | 10:55 | And now just look at me with your eyes. Sweet.
| | 10:58 | Okay, I think we have got it.
| | 11:02 | Oh that was nice too, great.
| | 11:06 | Well thank you so much.
| | 11:07 | Matt: Thank you.
| | 11:08 | Natalie Fobes: It was fun.
| | 11:10 | Matt looks great with this
lighting. It sculpts his face well.
| | 11:14 | I like it more in the short position.
| | 11:17 | The broad setup adds too
much bulk in his face.
| | 11:20 | I love the combination of hard and soft light
that I achieved by pulling down the diffusion material.
| | 11:27 | The hard light brings out the texture of his
hair and makes those stronger shadow edge
| | 11:31 | transfers on his face.
| | 11:34 | The diffused light from his chest down drops
the exposure as well as softens the shadows.
| | 11:41 |
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| Working with the split lighting pattern| 00:00 | Split lighting often gives the feeling of
power and conviction, but not everyone's face
| | 00:06 | can handle it because the intense side light
brings out all of the texture of the skin.
| | 00:12 | It also puts part of the eye in shadow.
| | 00:14 | So with this setup, you've got to make small
adjustments, half an inch either way can make a difference.
| | 00:20 | I noticed that Craig was wearing
lapel pin in the shape of a hammer.
| | 00:24 | It was important to him
that I get it in the shot.
| | 00:27 | I needed to adjust it to get the
maximum reflection from the light.
| | 00:32 | Natalie Fobes: So today, we're going to
work on split lighting.
| | 00:35 | Sam: Okay.
| | 00:35 | Natalie Fobes: And basically what that is,
is that half of the face will be lit and the
| | 00:39 | other half will be in shadow.
| | 00:41 | It gives a very dramatic look to the subject.
| | 00:45 | So go ahead and let's bring this light over.
| | 00:47 | Sam: Sure.
| | 00:48 | Natalie Fobes: Now with dark skin, you give
shape and contour to the face by using the
| | 00:56 | specular highlights.
| | 00:58 | So go ahead and turn it vertically.
Sam: Okay.
| | 01:01 | Natalie Fobes: Now we're going to be kind of
working with just some very fine adjustments,
| | 01:08 | so bring it in further, as close as you can
get, even closer, even closer, even closer,
| | 01:15 | because I want that hard falloff from the
specular highlights side to the shadow side.
| | 01:20 | I want that to be a very
fast falloff into shadow.
| | 01:24 | Sam: Why did you prefer
vertical rather than horizontal?
| | 01:28 | Natalie Fobes: Because I want that part to
be lit, I want the vertical aspect of his
| | 01:33 | face to be lit, and if I had turned it or kept
it in a horizontal position, then the light
| | 01:38 | would creep around.
| | 01:39 | Sam: Spill on the other side of his face.
| | 01:40 | Natalie Fobes: Spill on his other face.
Sam: Okay.
| | 01:41 | Natalie Fobes: Now remember when were working--
when we work with soft lighting and we want that
| | 01:48 | wraparound, but in this kind of split lighting, I
don't. I want it to be a very distinct shadow,
| | 01:53 | a very deep shadow. I don't
want any spill over there.
| | 01:57 | Sam: Okay.
| | 01:57 | Natalie Fobes: So let me
show you something here too.
| | 02:01 | I am going to take a quick
meter reading just to set it.
| | 02:09 | Now come in a little closer and you can see
how there's some hotspots on his face in the
| | 02:15 | specular highlights side and that is
because we're working with that hard light.
| | 02:22 | Sam: Oh, yeah.
| | 02:23 | Natalie Fobes: It's a small light. It's
a small light in relation to his face.
| | 02:27 | Let's put the diffuser up.
Sam: Okay.
| | 02:30 | Natalie Fobes: So already, I can see the difference
in how the light has gotten a little bit softer.
| | 02:38 | I mean it's gotten more diffused and it's
broadened out. We no longer have those
| | 02:45 | heavy hotspots. Take a shot and show you.
| | 02:53 | So we changed our exposure about a stop
because of the diffusion fabric, it does affect it
| | 02:58 | that way, but I can easily adjust.
| | 03:00 | Go, check that out.
| | 03:02 | Sam: Oh yeah, it's much much better.
| | 03:04 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah, we still have the great
contrast between the shadow side and the specular
| | 03:08 | highlights side, but it's a much more beautiful
contouring of his skin than when we have the
| | 03:17 | hot lights there.
| | 03:19 | Let's go ahead and pull it in
just as close as you possibly can.
| | 03:21 | Sam: Okay.
| | 03:22 | Natalie Fobes: Now I want him at the
front of the box which is different.
| | 03:25 | Sam: Up here?
| | 03:26 | Natalie Fobes: Yes.
Sam: Okay.
| | 03:27 | Natalie Fobes: I want him toward the front
and the reason that is is I don't want to
| | 03:31 | have spill on the shadow side.
Sam: Right.
| | 03:34 | Natalie Fobes: Now you are a little bit off
angle from him. You are not parallel to him,
| | 03:38 | so move it in parallel to him even more.
| | 03:42 | So I think, go ahead and
look right here at me.
| | 03:45 | Okay, I think we're in good shape there,
but there is a shadow. Let me show you here.
| | 03:54 | There is a deep shadow by his eye.
| | 03:57 | Sam: Right inside his eye?
| | 03:58 | Natalie Fobes: Right inside his eye.
| | 03:59 | So let's try to kick a little light in there.
| | 04:02 | Go ahead and let's twist this
down a little bit, very good.
| | 04:08 | So this is looking pretty good here and
I think I'd like to try a few shots.
| | 04:15 | Now I know that the hammer is
something that we want to get bring out.
| | 04:23 | And so we're going to work with that.
| | 04:26 | Oh, I always take a gray card and then if
you would just hold that right there, we need
| | 04:33 | to get it in the light.
| | 04:35 | This will help me in post to make
sure that my white balance is correct.
| | 04:38 | Sam: Right.
| | 04:40 | Natalie Fobes: And it doesn't have to be a
fancy shot, but I'll be happy that I have
| | 04:44 | it later on.
| | 04:45 | Okay, so I'm going to open up just a little
bit and expose about a third of the stop more
| | 04:53 | because of the way we've
messed with the lights.
| | 04:56 | And let's see if we can bring this hammer out.
So, have we talked about angle of incidence,
| | 05:06 | angle of reflection?
| | 05:07 | Sam: I think you have mentioned it,
but I don't really remember.
| | 05:10 | Natalie Fobes: Okay, you know
you've had a lot of the hour.
| | 05:12 | So what happens is that light comes off, hits
the surface and then bounces off at the same
| | 05:17 | angle that it hits the surface at, and just
as you can see I'll move it a little bit,
| | 05:22 | it can really hit the reflective surface, then
light will just really catch in it or it
| | 05:30 | can go dark.
Sam: Right.
| | 05:31 | Natalie Fobes: I want that to go bright.
| | 05:36 | I always keep a little piece of Gaffer tape.
| | 05:40 | So I'm just going to bring that out, have
it just a little bit out, so that I can get
| | 05:50 | that light to reflect and there it is.
| | 05:55 | Sam: Um-hmm. It really pops there.
| | 05:57 | Natalie Fobes: It sure does. Okay.
| | 06:00 | So Craig, go ahead and tilt your head a
little that way and lower your chin.
| | 06:05 | Okay, turn your head a little toward the
light, and lower your chin, there you go.
| | 06:14 | Now I'm getting a little bit of light on his
eyes, but it's a beautiful light, so I'm not
| | 06:18 | worried about it. Oh, nice!
| | 06:20 | Sam: Oh, wow. I love the way
the hammer is just popping out there.
| | 06:24 | Natalie Fobes: So you can look at the--
the hammer is really out of the box there.
| | 06:29 | I think it would be nice to
have a background light.
| | 06:32 | So let's go ahead and put
it one on the background.
| | 06:35 | Sam: Okay, so use this one over here.
| | 06:37 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah, put it over there.
| | 06:39 | It's going to give us a little bit of depth,
maybe a little bit of interest because we've
| | 06:43 | got the nice brown speckled backdrop up.
| | 06:47 | Sam: So it shines directly
onto the backdrop then.
| | 06:50 | Natalie Fobes: No, in this case,
I don't want you to do that.
| | 06:53 | I want you to angle it off, even more and
get it as close as possible to the backdrop.
| | 06:59 | The reason I want that is that I don't want
it to be a vignette where you know his head
| | 07:06 | is in the middle of this
backdrop or the edge is going dark.
| | 07:10 | Sam: Right.
| | 07:10 | Natalie Fobes: In this case, I want to
establish a pattern where it's very dark on one side
| | 07:18 | and then it slowly goes to the light and
what that does is it gives me dark background,
| | 07:25 | light side of his face, dark side of his face,
| | 07:28 | Sam: And then more light.
| | 07:29 | Natalie Fobes: Light background.
| | 07:30 | The eye naturally goes to the place where
there is the darkest next to the lightest
| | 07:36 | and so that's going to be right on his face.
| | 07:39 | Let's take a look at it and go ahead and twist it
a little that way, oop, there you go. Very good.
| | 07:45 | Let's see what we've got here. Okay.
| | 07:49 | And Sam, if you could come over and
adjust the box a little bit more.
| | 07:53 | Sam: Since he is leaning forward?
| | 07:54 | Natalie Fobes: Since he is leaning forward,
go ahead and bring it closer to me, there
| | 07:59 | you go, that's it.
| | 08:00 | How are you doing?
| | 08:01 | Craig: Very good.
| | 08:02 | Natalie Fobes: Good.
| | 08:03 | And you're looking good.
| | 08:06 | So let's tilt your head down, even more. As
down as you can get it, and up just a quarter
| | 08:15 | inch, okay, okay.
| | 08:22 | Then I'll do a horizontal, because that's how I
am built, love the horizontals and in this
| | 08:28 | situation I am thinking about even as I am shooting,
I am thinking about turning it into a square.
| | 08:36 | Okay. So let's go ahead and have
you turn around this way.
| | 08:41 | We'll move the apple crate over there too.
| | 08:44 | Sam: Good?
| | 08:46 | Natalie Fobes: Yup! Go ahead and do the same
thing, lean in, I want you to turn your head
| | 08:54 | back this way, lower your chin a little bit.
| | 08:56 | And Sam, could you pull his shirt
down in the back, his suit coat?
| | 09:00 | Sam: Yeah. How's that?
| | 09:03 | Natalie Fobes: Looks good.
| | 09:06 | Okay, so turn a little bit more.
| | 09:09 | There you go.
| | 09:12 | That's very nice and again working with
that dark pattern of dark light, dark light.
| | 09:21 | That's nice, great.
| | 09:24 | That's looks great.
| | 09:27 | Sam: That's an awesome pattern.
| | 09:29 | Natalie Fobes: Thank you so much.
| | 09:32 | With this kind of intense lighting, I made
sure Craig's expression matched the mood.
| | 09:37 | A broad smile wouldn't have worked here.
| | 09:39 | For a variety, I took a couple of horizontal
shots, but it was obvious to me, it was going
| | 09:44 | to work better as a
vertical or possibly a square.
| | 09:50 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Backlighting in portraits| 00:00 | Backlight isn't normally referred to as a key
light even though it's often the brightest
| | 00:05 | light in the setup.
| | 00:06 | The key light would be the light
that shapes the body from the front.
| | 00:10 | As you'll see in the first setup, Evey was
looking directly at the camera with a light
| | 00:14 | behind and above her. The
reflector then became my key light.
| | 00:20 | Natalie Fobes: So today Sam, I want to have more of a
dramatic look than we had on the other sessions.
| | 00:25 | We are going to be working with one light.
| | 00:27 | This is going to be in a
backlight situation in the position.
| | 00:33 | It's going to increase the drama, working
with one light and having a lot of shadows
| | 00:38 | always increases the drama of a photograph.
| | 00:41 | Sam: Okay.
| | 00:41 | Natalie Fobes: So go ahead and take the diffuser
off here while I do a little bit of adjustment here.
| | 00:48 | How you are doing Evey?
| | 00:49 | Evey: I am good.
| | 00:50 | Natalie Fobes: Good.
| | 00:50 | Okay, so just go ahead and relax a little bit
I am going to fuss with your hair a little
| | 00:54 | just to get it ready.
| | 00:55 | We've got some beautiful light for you today.
| | 00:58 | I am so excited about doing this, all right.
| | 01:01 | Sam: Is that square enough for you Natalie?
| | 01:03 | Natalie Fobes: No, yeah square
it up please, that'd be nice.
| | 01:08 | And bring it forward toward me just a wee bit.
| | 01:11 | There you go, that should be fine.
| | 01:12 | Sam: Good.
| | 01:12 | Natalie Fobes: Okay so what I am looking Sam
is that I don't want any of that spill on
| | 01:17 | her face; I want it only to highlight her
hair and her shoulders. Look at the beautiful
| | 01:23 | shadows that are happening right through here.
| | 01:28 | We are going to do a few
things with reflectors.
| | 01:32 | I don't want to bring in a second fill or a
second light to fill, because it's--I don't
| | 01:37 | want to overpower this beautiful light that
we have happening here, and so let's see
| | 01:42 | what we can do with some reflector.
Sam: Okay.
| | 01:44 | Natalie Fobes: Go ahead and let's pull this
black cloth back. You know this will act a
| | 01:50 | little bit more like what we have out in
nature when we have a hard backlight situation.
| | 01:56 | Sam: Like bouncing off the white.
| | 01:57 | Natalie Fobes: It's bouncing off, you can
see how it added just a little bit and you
| | 02:01 | know maybe half a stop of balance to her face.
| | 02:03 | Why don't we go ahead and
let's try the mirror first.
| | 02:07 | Sam: Okay.
| | 02:07 | Natalie Fobes: This is kind of a cool technique,
I love this because I can actually make it
| | 02:13 | a spotlight right there, spot on her face.
| | 02:17 | So if we want to hold that I
am going to take a quick shot.
| | 02:20 | Sam: Okay.
| | 02:20 | Natalie Fobes: We still have that beautiful
backlight and we have a nice spot on her face.
| | 02:28 | Now this is the--this is almost as bright
as the backlight, in this situation though
| | 02:35 | I think that the specular
highlight is too much.
| | 02:39 | Sam: It really is like a spotlight.
| | 02:41 | Natalie Fobes: It does, it's a beautiful light,
but I think not for you because your features
| | 02:46 | are so gorgeous.
| | 02:47 | So let's put that down and take
a look at our insulation board.
| | 02:51 | Sam: This one?
Natalie Fobes: Yeah.
| | 02:53 | I got this at the hardware store on Saturday,
I love it, I love it; it's just so awesome.
| | 03:01 | And look at the light that bounces in her.
| | 03:03 | Sam: Oh yeah.
| | 03:04 | Natalie Fobes: Okay, so I want you to work
a little bit, move it around to see about
| | 03:08 | angle of incidence or
reflection and see how it changes.
| | 03:13 | Right about there is your maximum
reflection back into her face.
| | 03:17 | Let me take a shot there.
| | 03:20 | But you know I think I like it better this
way. Let's feather it out so that we have
| | 03:25 | a nice no shadow there, beautiful.
| | 03:28 | All right, Evey you want
to give me a little smile?
| | 03:31 | Oh there you go.
| | 03:32 | And we have got some beautiful specular highlights
happening in her eyes. They are a little bit
| | 03:38 | low so let's pull this off and I
want to do a little softer light.
| | 03:43 | So let's grab the white, white foam
core, I got that at the art store.
| | 03:49 | So bring it on in and again work the
angle of incidence or reflection.
| | 03:55 | Let's see, oh yeah there you go, all right.
| | 04:01 | And it is a much softer light.
| | 04:03 | And you can see in her--the reflection in her eyes,
you can see that it's much broader and softer.
| | 04:12 | So I think in this situation I'm going to
try something different. I'm not happy with
| | 04:18 | the way our reflectors are working today.
| | 04:21 | So go ahead and let's do a profile.
| | 04:24 | I love profiles.
| | 04:24 | Especially in this situation in
this kind of light, the backlight.
| | 04:29 | If you're in a situation where you don't
have reflection or can't reflect or put a fill
| | 04:34 | in, you can still get a beautiful shot.
| | 04:38 | Sam: It's a great outline too, yeah.
| | 04:39 | Natalie Fobes: Showing the person yeah
let me take a couple of quick ones.
| | 04:45 | And if you really lean
forward, really lean forward.
| | 04:50 | Now you have got a little bit of a
hair, I am going to pull this back.
| | 04:56 | So lean forward from the chest, there you go.
| | 05:00 | And twist your body just a little bit toward me.
Oops that's too much! Just your face back,
| | 05:05 | there you are.
| | 05:08 | Okay now really, really stretch,
there you go, nice, nice.
| | 05:16 | That's getting there.
Sam: Yeah.
| | 05:17 | Natalie Fobes: See how pretty it
is on the profile of her face?
| | 05:21 | Sam: Yeah it's so dramatic.
| | 05:21 | Natalie Fobes: It's so dramatic and that's the
shadows. You know shadows make a photograph very dramatic.
| | 05:27 | I want to do a little bit of changing of the
background, now I want to make it a little
| | 05:32 | darker and I want to change out
the light. It's not quite there.
| | 05:36 | So Evey swing around here and why don't you go
ahead and pull your hair back for me, that's
| | 05:42 | oh! Hold on, go ahead and do
that, let's see, oh great.
| | 05:49 | Let me take a couple of shots
here. Oh that is gorgeous!
| | 05:53 | And have your eyes up toward the light, I
want to get the catch light in there. Oh,
| | 05:59 | nice, nice!
| | 06:01 | Okay one more shot and go ahead and maybe
have your hand maybe really over like that.
| | 06:06 | There you go, nice.
| | 06:11 | Sweet! You are going to love this.
| | 06:13 | Sam: Wow that's amazing.
| | 06:15 | When you are about to change everything.
| | 06:18 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah, I know yeah. Well that's
a bonus shot. That's a bonus shot. The light
| | 06:22 | was great up for this shot.
| | 06:23 | So anyway, go ahead and take a break. We are
going to change out the background and the
| | 06:29 | lighting and we'll be right back with you.
Sam: Okay.
| | 06:31 | Natalie Fobes: Okay, so for this one I am
thinking that we want to pull this over here
| | 06:36 | and let's--we will get a black background.
| | 06:38 | Sam: Okay, on this side I'll
put a new back drop up, okay.
| | 06:42 | Natalie Fobes: Okay Sam, I am going to
have you do a little bit of tweaking here.
| | 06:46 | So go ahead and assume the position Evey.
| | 06:49 | Sam: Natalie why do we bring it down this
way as opposed to lighting from the top like
| | 06:55 | we were back lighting earlier?
| | 06:56 | Natalie Fobes: Well I really wanted to
emphasize her profile. It's just gorgeous.
| | 07:02 | And the top, having the light on the top was
creating a rim light around her whole upper body.
| | 07:08 | Sam: Right okay.
| | 07:09 | Natalie Fobes: So this when I finally get it
tweaked you'll see that this is just spectacular.
| | 07:14 | Sam: Okay.
| | 07:15 | Natalie Fobes: Okay, so push it back
that way just a little, like a hair.
| | 07:21 | Good, excellent, excellent, yeah looks good.
| | 07:26 | So come on over here I want to
show you something really cool.
| | 07:30 | Okay so, take a look at that very
slender--slim little highlight right here.
| | 07:36 | That's bounce from the floor.
| | 07:38 | Isn't that beautiful?
Sam: Yeah it's great.
| | 07:39 | Natalie Fobes: Just a small detail like that
will make a difference in the photograph.
| | 07:44 | So let me take a meter reading here.
| | 07:46 | You never want to use your camera meter when
you're metering in this situation because
| | 07:51 | the camera is going to take a look at the
scene, it's going to want to make the shadows
| | 07:58 | a medium gray.
| | 07:59 | I don't want the shadows to be medium.
| | 08:00 | Sam: No you want them to stay dark.
| | 08:01 | Natalie Fobes: I want them to stay dark.
| | 08:03 | And so this will be using my incident meter,
I'm still getting it about at F4 but that's
| | 08:11 | okay, because of the angle that I am photographing,
there is that nice angle of incidence law
| | 08:16 | coming in again where it's
coming in and bouncing back.
| | 08:19 | So it's actually going to give me a little
bit more of a highlight than what my meter
| | 08:25 | is indicating. You'll see in a
minute. It's going to be cool.
| | 08:29 | Okay, so really stretch out,
really stretch out, there you go.
| | 08:35 | And put your head down just
a little bit, there you go.
| | 08:38 | Oh nice, that is so nice.
| | 08:42 | This is going to be great.
| | 08:44 | See how that's working? But now
we are going to add a light here.
| | 08:48 | Sam: Yeah it's real dark.
| | 08:49 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah it's really dark, but
grab that reflector and let's get it in here.
| | 08:55 | I want it just rimming her--her arm, okay.
| | 09:00 | So pull it back just a little bit, back that
way. I am getting a little flare off of it
| | 09:06 | and raise it up.
| | 09:07 | Yup there you go, nice, oh nice.
| | 09:12 | Evey you are going to love this.
| | 09:16 | Okay, and now put it down
and turn your nose toward me.
| | 09:22 | There you go, gorgeous.
| | 09:26 | So what I am doing here is
concentrating just on her eyes.
| | 09:30 | That's great! Hey how about, you
have got your sunglasses, right?
| | 09:36 | Evey: Oh yeah.
| | 09:38 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah go ahead and put them on.
| | 09:40 | There, go ahead and have
your head up, oh yeah.
| | 09:43 | And twist a little bit back toward me, okay
and that's a little too much about--there you
| | 09:50 | go. A little bit more, a little more, there.
| | 09:56 | So what's happening Sam is that the sunglasses
are reflecting that light, the specular highlight
| | 10:03 | on that light is fantastic.
| | 10:06 | And it's just coming in and giving a little
bit more of an interest to that part of the
| | 10:11 | face, not that we needed that, but it still
is kind of more, kind of a modern, kind of
| | 10:16 | zoomy look, whereas before I was working
with some of the classic lines and poses.
| | 10:23 | So I think this is going to be fantastic.
| | 10:29 | In the second setup, I moved the light to
camera right and had Evey turn in profile.
| | 10:34 | At that point the backlight
did become the key light.
| | 10:37 | I love the variety of photographs I was
able to get from this one light setup.
| | 10:42 | I worked with poses and compositions and when I added
the sunglasses, it resulted in a clean modern look.
| | 10:50 | This photo session reminded me that you
should always be ready for the unexpected.
| | 10:56 | When Evey pulled her hair back, she
naturally looked up into the light.
| | 11:00 | I loved it and took a few moments
to photograph her in that position.
| | 11:04 | It was a totally unplanned photograph
that resulted in one more fantastic look.
| | 11:11 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Lighting a portrait with clamshell lighting| 00:00 | Clamshell lighting is a classic two-light
setup that makes the skin glow and flatters
| | 00:06 | women of all ages.
| | 00:08 | It's named clamshell because the lights are over
and under the subject and equal in intensity.
| | 00:14 | Paulina was our model for this setup. I knew
the clamshell lighting would bring out the
| | 00:18 | intensity of her eyes.
| | 00:21 | Natalie Fobes: So go ahead and up
there on that apple box.
| | 00:24 | I am going to have you lean
way forward, way forward.
| | 00:28 | Go ahead and relax a little bit.
| | 00:30 | Now Sam let's go and put--let's put this light
down below and we'll bring in the other one
| | 00:36 | on the boom.
| | 00:37 | Sam: Okay, just right in front of her?
| | 00:39 | Natalie Fobes: Yup, right in front of her.
| | 00:42 | Sam: Like here?
Natalie Fobes: Yeah, it's exactly right.
| | 00:42 | I would like this aimed up
just a little bit though.
| | 00:45 | I want it to be aimed up toward her collarbone,
neck area and you might have to bring it up
| | 00:52 | just a little bit more.
| | 00:54 | Before you turn it on, let's bring the other
one in. Now this one aiming for about 45 degree
| | 01:04 | angle down onto her face.
| | 01:06 | Sam: Okay, directly above this one?
| | 01:08 | Natalie Fobes: Directly above that one.
| | 01:10 | Yeah bring it in and you'll have to lower it
down a bit so that it comes in just right here. Okay.
| | 01:17 | Sam: How is that?
| | 01:19 | Natalie Fobes: I think that's going to be
okay, we'll do finesse it just a little bit
| | 01:23 | when I see it.
| | 01:25 | Now go ahead and let's turn on the lights,
turn that one on first, see how beautiful
| | 01:30 | that is, isn't it gorgeous?
| | 01:31 | Sam: Oh it's already nice.
| | 01:33 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah, it really is.
| | 01:34 | Sam: Go ahead and do this one too?
| | 01:35 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah, go ahead and do that one.
| | 01:37 | Ah, wow! Okay, so I think we need to
pull this one down a little bit more.
| | 01:44 | I am seeing the reflections in her eyes, and
there the bottom one is a little bit too intense,
| | 01:52 | or a little more intense. It's
hitting her a little bit more flat on.
| | 01:55 | Sam: Okay, some more?
| | 01:55 | Natalie Fobes: And let's lean it
down just a little bit, this way yeah.
| | 02:00 | Sam: How's that Natalie?
| | 02:01 | Natalie Fobes: I think that looks good, except
now take a real close look at the reflections
| | 02:08 | in her eyes.
Sam: Okay.
| | 02:09 | Natalie Fobes: See how the top one is off
to the side and the bottom one is off this way?
| | 02:13 | Sam: Oh yeah.
| | 02:14 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah that's going to
drive me nuts, so let's even them up.
| | 02:18 | Sam: So this one.
| | 02:19 | Natalie Fobes: Bring that over this way.
Sam: Okay.
| | 02:22 | Natalie Fobes: Just a
little bit, okay beautiful!
| | 02:24 | Sam: Good?
| | 02:25 | Natalie Fobes: It looks great. You are doing
great Paulina, you look so--I can't wait to
| | 02:31 | show you the photographs.
| | 02:32 | Okay, so go ahead and hold this for a minute,
I am going to check my light and this will
| | 02:40 | give me my white balance.
| | 02:43 | So I am getting 8.5 at 125th, so I am going
to expose--I think I'll expose at 8 because
| | 02:52 | I want to keep that glow in her face.
| | 02:55 | I want the true value of her skin to be a
little higher than medium gray, and point the
| | 03:01 | gray card right at me. There you go, perfect.
| | 03:05 | All right, so go ahead and take that out.
| | 03:08 | Okay now the fun begins.
| | 03:09 | All right, so go ahead and lower your chin
just a little bit, nice. That's very nice.
| | 03:18 | Turn a little bit this way, beautiful.
| | 03:21 | Now with your hands, have them perfect.
| | 03:24 | I want to have that graceful look, all right.
| | 03:28 | Lower your chin a little bit, nice.
| | 03:31 | And now breathe through your
mouth, a little bit more.
| | 03:37 | Okay and turn your head a
little bit towards Sam.
| | 03:39 | This time I am just going to get this and
let's put your other hand up here on the other
| | 03:43 | side and lower even more, even more, nice.
| | 03:48 | Beautiful, very good! So go ahead and just
relax for a minute, I am going to do a little
| | 03:54 | bit of adaption here.
| | 03:57 | Let's turn this off.
| | 04:01 | Sometimes I feel that the bottom light is
too intense, and I am going to get the same
| | 04:07 | effect by using my shower curtain reflector.
| | 04:10 | Sam: Ah, nice.
| | 04:10 | Natalie Fobes: Do you have a clamp?
| | 04:12 | Sam: Ah yeah.
| | 04:13 | Natalie Fobes: Let's just spread this out.
This could be a white sheet of paper, it could
| | 04:18 | be a cardboard, it could be a reflector.
| | 04:20 | In this case it's just my shower curtain.
| | 04:24 | But see we are still getting that nice
reflection, it's just not as intense.
| | 04:29 | Okay, so go ahead and drop
your chin a little bit, okay.
| | 04:35 | And smooth that hair away from this, nice.
| | 04:39 | Lower your chin, lower your
chin, even more, there you go.
| | 04:45 | I am coming in tight on
your eye, nice, great! Okay.
| | 04:50 | Sam: Natalie, does this sort of
lighting work for men as well?
| | 04:54 | Natalie Fobes: It works well.
| | 04:55 | For men, this is the kind I'd use, I would
not use the lower light and I actually would
| | 05:01 | even take this out and let it just
be the black reflecting back up.
| | 05:05 | Sam: Got you.
| | 05:05 | Natalie Fobes: Because it gives a
little bit more rugged feeling to a man.
| | 05:08 | Sam: Right.
| | 05:08 | Natalie Fobes: One thing I noticed with this,
I want to have some depth to it, so let's
| | 05:12 | put a background light in.
Sam: Okay.
| | 05:14 | Natalie Fobes: The light on you is
perfect. It's just making you glow.
| | 05:20 | The background light is just going
to separate you just a little bit.
| | 05:23 | Sam: This should be centered Natalie?
| | 05:24 | Natalie Fobes: Yes, please center it and we
are going to vignette you, so it will be darker
| | 05:29 | on the edges.
| | 05:32 | Can you push that in really tight? That
way there will be a faster falloff, okay.
| | 05:39 | Sam: How's that?
| | 05:41 | Natalie Fobes: That looks pretty good.
| | 05:43 | Let me take a shot, nice.
| | 05:47 | Okay, can you bring it in even closer and maybe
tilt it down just a little bit? Because
| | 05:54 | I'm seeing is the wash is
too broad up at the top.
| | 06:00 | So this time I want you to
turn a little bit this way.
| | 06:04 | Okay, that's nice.
| | 06:10 | Okay and now on the other, lean this way,
lower your chin just a little bit, okay, great.
| | 06:20 | Beautiful, great.
| | 06:24 | Well, thank you so much, that was awesome.
| | 06:31 | I love how this lighting brings out her
eyes and makes her skin luminescent.
| | 06:35 | When I replace the lower light with
a reflector, it changed the look.
| | 06:40 | The backlight adds depth to the photograph
and focuses attention on her face. It's now
| | 06:45 | a critical part of the composition.
| | 06:49 |
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3. Advanced Portrait LightingExploring a four-light portrait scenario| 00:00 | A four light setup can be used for everything
from corporate, to seniors, to character portraits.
| | 00:07 | It's also a great
lighting for video interviews.
| | 00:10 | I used four lights and a
reflector for this setup with Paulina.
| | 00:15 | Natalie Fobes: All right! Bring it in as
close as you can to her.
| | 00:20 | Sam: Okay.
Natalie Fobes: Even closer.
| | 00:24 | Remember that the closer and the larger the
light sources relation to their subject, the
| | 00:30 | softer the light.
| | 00:31 | Look what happens, when I
move the soft box back.
| | 00:36 | So here she is in the middle of the soft box.
| | 00:39 | A lot different light than
what we had in the front.
| | 00:43 | If the soft fox is in front or slightly
in front, then it wraps around her face.
| | 00:50 | Sam: And you can still get
some light on the right side.
| | 00:53 | Natalie Fobes: You get
the light on both sides.
| | 00:55 | Now that we've got our key light
figured out, let's work with the hair light.
| | 00:59 | I think it's going to be okay, but,
we're going to check it out.
| | 01:02 | Sam: Okay.
| | 01:05 | Natalie Fobes: Yes, that's great! Now I always
like to check the hair light without the key
| | 01:11 | light on and that way you can see whether
the light is going to be spilling over onto her face.
| | 01:17 | I don't want it to
pollute the front of her face.
| | 01:19 | Sam: Right!
| | 01:19 | Natalie Fobes: By that I mean I
don't want any kind of light to sneak over.
| | 01:23 | If she is half a foot back,
we'd have to adjust the light.
| | 01:27 | Sam: Does the hair light
always have to be overtop?
| | 01:28 | Natalie Fobes: It does not. No, you
can often--often I use it on the side.
| | 01:31 | Sam: Okay.
| | 01:32 | Natalie Fobes: I use it--right now we have
it on our boom and that's primarily, because
| | 01:36 | in the studio it's easier to maneuver it.
| | 01:39 | But I also put in back on
just a regular light stand.
| | 01:42 | Sam: Got you.
| | 01:43 | Natalie Fobes: Next, we will add a fill.
| | 01:46 | Now the beauty of continuous light
is that you can adjust it as needed.
| | 01:58 | Now I pull it closer and it's
more of a one-to-one ratio.
| | 02:02 | I'll move it back and you can see that the
difference between the highlight and the shadow
| | 02:08 | is about two stops at this point, very nice.
| | 02:13 | So we've got out key, we have got our hair
light, that's one stop down from our key and
| | 02:19 | this one is about two stops down from our key.
| | 02:22 | That's a beautiful ratio to use
within any kind of portraiture.
| | 02:25 | It gives depth to it, to the person's face.
| | 02:29 | And yet it doesn't seem too dark.
| | 02:32 | It doesn't seem too moody.
| | 02:34 | Let's put on the background right now.
| | 02:37 | Sam: Okay.
Natalie Fobes: Next.
| | 02:41 | Okay so, what I'm going for here is
exactly where we have it placed.
| | 02:46 | I'm going for that old pattern of
dark, to light, to dark, to light.
| | 02:51 | Sam: Right, going across.
Natalie Fobes: Yeah.
| | 02:53 | So it cuts across, it adds interest to the
background, and it also gives that sense of depth.
| | 02:58 | Can you lean forward, head down, chin down?
Nice! So let's bring in a reflector.
| | 03:08 | One of the round disks,
let's have the metallic one.
| | 03:12 | Sam: Okay.
Natalie Fobes: Now let's see.
| | 03:15 | Let me take a look at it, put it down.
| | 03:18 | I'll take a quick shot, there you go, even
more and lower you chin, great, looks good.
| | 03:30 | Okay, shake it out.
| | 03:33 | Okay now go back into that pose again, great!
| | 03:38 | Now the last touch, check this out Sam.
| | 03:43 | This is like cool.
| | 03:44 | This is really awesome.
| | 03:45 | Look what happens when I bring down in.
| | 03:47 | Sam: Oh yeah!
| | 03:48 | Natalie Fobes: Isn't that neat?
| | 03:49 | Sam: Yeah, it really
highlights her right there.
| | 03:51 | Natalie Fobes: It sure does.
| | 03:52 | Sam: Now would you have to hold this yourself
if I wasn't here, or could you have her hold it?
| | 03:57 | Natalie Fobes: If you weren't here
she could hold that, yeah definitely.
| | 04:00 | And I have had many many people
turned into temporary assistant.
| | 04:05 | Lower your chin a little bit, nice.
| | 04:09 | Once the lights were in place, I noticed that
we lost all detail in the side of her hair facing camera.
| | 04:14 | I had Sam hold the reflector to bounce
just a little light into that area.
| | 04:19 | It's barely noticeable, but reveals detail.
| | 04:23 | This lighting is perfect for
Paulina's pleasant expression.
| | 04:27 |
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| Portrait scenario: Athlete| 00:00 | I knew I wanted something creative
and edgy for this portrait of Craig.
| | 00:06 | He is an athlete with
amazing muscle definition.
| | 00:09 | And I set my lights to show that in the photo.
| | 00:12 | Natalie Fobes: Bring that strip
box around, please!
| | 00:13 | Sam: This one here?
| | 00:14 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah.
| | 00:15 | And I want it coming in on
an angle from the back.
| | 00:19 | Okay, so go ahead and flip that on and
we'll take a look at what's going on.
| | 00:26 | Right now it's in the horizontal position.
| | 00:28 | I don't want it in the horizontal position,
because it's wrapping too much around his body.
| | 00:32 | So make it vertical.
| | 00:33 | Sam: Can I just turn it?
| | 00:35 | Natalie Fobes: You can just turn it, yeah.
| | 00:39 | The diffusion at this point is just making
the light bigger, so I'm still getting this
| | 00:43 | strip all the way down to
about here, the light coming in.
| | 00:46 | But it doesn't have that soft wraparound look.
| | 00:49 | And in this case, we're moving it back to
the point where it's really hard again, which
| | 00:54 | is cool! What I'm looking for is a
really distinct light right here.
| | 01:01 | And the way the angle is, it's coming in on
his skin and it's bouncing right back off.
| | 01:07 | Now let me take a couple here, see what we've
got. And Craig another strong, straight on
| | 01:14 | at me, just, there we go, and chin down just
a little bit, and maybe tilted this way.
| | 01:22 | But eyes right at me, there you go.
| | 01:26 | But I am getting flared.
| | 01:29 | So go ahead and can you get the flag? Basically
to prevent stuff from light from going where
| | 01:36 | you don't want it go.
| | 01:37 | Sam: It keeps out of your lens, right?
| | 01:38 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah, yeah! And bring it in a
little bit closer, so, you can basically see,
| | 01:44 | yeah and twisted so a little bit more.
| | 01:48 | So you're not affecting the light on him,
but, you're affecting the light that might
| | 01:51 | hit my lens and flare.
| | 01:54 | So go ahead and assume
the position again, okay.
| | 01:57 | And this time a really
strong look, really strong.
| | 02:02 | Elbows out please.
| | 02:04 | And lean forward from the waist, even more,
okay, and turn your head, and down with your
| | 02:15 | chin, even more, there we go, great!
| | 02:20 | Let's bring our handy-dandy insulation panel.
| | 02:23 | I love this thing.
| | 02:25 | And this is as close to a mirror as
we've got right now in the studio.
| | 02:31 | And remember; look for this edge
right here on this side of his body.
| | 02:36 | I want to have that
really intense, right there.
| | 02:40 | What is happening is that I've got almost
a mirror of intensity on these two sides,
| | 02:46 | okay, you're good.
| | 02:47 | There you go, nice hard edge there.
| | 02:54 | Strong look with your face,
yup, that looks good.
| | 03:04 | One more thing I want to do.
| | 03:05 | Sam, take a look, if we zoom in on his eyes,
you can see that we don't really have a good
| | 03:12 | catch light there.
| | 03:13 | I have a little tiny LED light, and I'm
going to mount this right on top at my camera.
| | 03:19 | It's not going to be enough to overpower any
of our lights, but it's going to add a little sparkle.
| | 03:28 | And turn toward the light again with your
whole body, oops! The other way, there you go.
| | 03:35 | Now I am getting a nice shine off
of that new spritzing that we did.
| | 03:40 | So go ahead and that back elbow
out real strong, and a real strong look.
| | 03:49 | Let's just finesse it a little bit more.
| | 03:51 | I'm seeing a hotspot on the top of your head.
| | 03:55 | Just take that little scrap of foam core,
turn it so that the black is down on him,
| | 04:01 | bring it in a little closer.
| | 04:04 | And in this case we're just getting
over right there, yeah very nice.
| | 04:09 | And a real strong, strong arms,
out this way. There you go, got it.
| | 04:15 | And the chin all the way down.
| | 04:19 | Now just eyes up to me without
the eyebrows, there you go, nice!
| | 04:29 | By working the specular highlights and shadows,
I knew I could accentuate his muscle tone.
| | 04:34 | I wanted hard light rimming
his arms, shoulders and torso.
| | 04:39 | By spritzing him with a mixture of water and
glycerin, his skin glistened and reflected the lights.
| | 04:46 | It also made it look like
he had just worked out.
| | 04:49 | Small tweaks really make this photo stand out.
| | 04:52 | The photograph closest to my vision has hard
light, well-defined muscles, and a catch light
| | 04:58 | in his eyes.
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| Using wraparound lighting for a portrait| 00:00 | I used a wraparound lighting
setup for our model Evey.
| | 00:04 | The setup consists of one high backlight
directed at whiteboards that reflect the light back
| | 00:10 | into the model.
| | 00:11 | This setup is perfect for that
shadowless cover model look.
| | 00:15 | Natalie Fobes: Why don't you go ahead and
turn on the boom light.
| | 00:19 | This is up and high.
| | 00:20 | It's going to be our backlight.
| | 00:22 | It's going to be light
that illuminates everything.
| | 00:24 | It's the only light we're using today.
| | 00:28 | So these are Vcards.
| | 00:29 | Go ahead and get the Vcard.
| | 00:31 | I'd like you to take them out
| | 00:33 | Sam: Are they heavy?
| | 00:34 | Natalie Fobes: No, no.
| | 00:35 | The Vcards are basically foam core that I
bought at an art supply store and I cut them in half.
| | 00:44 | Sam: Is the white part facing
you or the black part facing you?
| | 00:48 | Natalie Fobes: White
facing her and bring it in.
| | 00:49 | We are going to make a little tint, okay.
| | 00:51 | Bring it in to the edge of the light.
| | 00:54 | All right, very good!
| | 00:58 | Sam: It's kind of a little V here right now.
| | 00:59 | Is it more like an L or..?
| | 01:00 | Natalie Fobes: It is kind of a V.
| | 01:02 | Yeah, no, that's exactly
how it's supposed to be.
| | 01:04 | I wanted to bring it up just a little bit
more and to open the back side of it, because
| | 01:09 | all of our light is coming from
there and we are just bouncing it in.
| | 01:12 | Now take the next one and we are
going to put it on the other side.
| | 01:15 | You're going to be enclosed, sorry! Great!
Go ahead and just click that button, pointed
| | 01:24 | straight at me, okay, four-and-a-half there.
| | 01:27 | Now I want you to turn it around and point
it back toward the light, all the way back
| | 01:30 | up here, just put it
right there, there you go.
| | 01:36 | That's going to tell me what kind of light
is coming off and that's about half a stop difference.
| | 01:41 | So I'm going to shoot at four.
| | 01:44 | And now let's go ahead and have some fun.
Okay, very good! So go ahead, I'm going to
| | 01:50 | shoot from your waist up,
Oh nice! Oh very nice.
| | 01:55 | And come in just a little bit
closer to me, there you go, very nice.
| | 02:01 | Yeah, bring that ponytail around, yup.
| | 02:04 | I understand that you wear glasses, and so
we're going to have to--we'll take a couple
| | 02:09 | with the glasses on.
| | 02:10 | But the beauty Sam, of this setup is that
you will not see any glare, because there
| | 02:17 | is so much light
surrounding it, beautiful, okay.
| | 02:21 | And down just a little bit more, just a little
bit more, there you go, nice! And how about
| | 02:28 | a little bit of this? Perfect, sweet,
oh that's great! Oh, I love it!
| | 02:36 | The lighting is gorgeous and works
with a variety of Evey's expressions.
| | 02:42 | In this case, I used one board per side, but
could also tape two boards together to give
| | 02:47 | the person more room to move.
| | 02:49 | This is a wonderful setup for women, young
and old, as it creates a shadowless light
| | 02:55 | and a bonus is that it doesn't
create any reflections in glasses.
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| Lighting for different skin tones| 00:00 | For this portrait, I'll be shooting
two models with different skin tones.
| | 00:05 | Light and dark skins react
differently to lighting.
| | 00:08 | I knew I wanted a large soft light
that would wraparound both of them.
| | 00:12 | Natalie Fobes: A little closer, a little closer and
gentlemen if you could take a step back, both of you.
| | 00:17 | In fact, I'm going to have you come over on
this side Craig, yeah, and Matt you are on this side.
| | 00:24 | Twist your body a little this way, all right.
| | 00:27 | Now Sam, let's bring that light
in just a little bit towards me.
| | 00:30 | Sam: Towards them?
| | 00:30 | Natalie Fobes: Toward me.
| | 00:31 | Sam: Toward you?
| | 00:31 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah, okay. That looks good.
| | 00:35 | Now the reason that I did this is that specular
highlights define dark skin and shadows define
| | 00:44 | the lighter skin.
| | 00:45 | Sam: So you wanted Craig closer to the light.
| | 00:47 | Natalie Fobes: And I wanted Craig closer to
the light, because his the skin tone is darker.
| | 00:51 | Otherwise, Matt would have been
overexposed if I'd switch them.
| | 00:56 | Sam: Got you.
| | 00:56 | Natalie Fobes: But the other thing is that
that the specular highlights on dark skin
| | 01:01 | give the face depth and contour.
| | 01:05 | And on the shadows, do the
same thing for lighter skin.
| | 01:08 | So go ahead and lean forward a little bit.
| | 01:11 | You'll really see this in
this photograph, okay.
| | 01:15 | You guys look good.
| | 01:17 | All right, just for fun let's bring the
light in a little bit closer to them.
| | 01:23 | Sam: Okay.
| | 01:23 | Natalie Fobes: Yeah, and put them at the back
of the light so that it wraps around them.
| | 01:28 | There you go, looks good.
| | 01:33 | Okay Craig, so go ahead and tilt your head.
There you go, and Matt, you're doing great.
| | 01:40 | Very good!
| | 01:41 | Thanks, that's good.
| | 01:43 | The photographs of the two men are great examples
of how different shades of skin react to light.
| | 01:50 | With darker skin or any dark surface,
the specular highlights give shape.
| | 01:56 | With the lighter surfaces, shadows give shape.
| | 01:59 | This is an important concept to remember when you
have light or dark subjects in your composition.
| | 02:07 |
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