How Did I Shoot this One?

1. Introduction How Did I Shoot This One: Hey, guys, my name is Frank Dorof and welcome in our studio in Emalorth. As you can see, we love old lenses. We love converters. We love weird light sources like Frenels. But if you know my work, you know that I also teach a lot of workshops, and we thought it would be awesome to show you guys behind the scenes during the workshops. Now, normally for these workshops, you have to come to our studio. But during the workshops, we also film all our lighting setups. And in this series, I'm going to tell you exactly how did I shoot this one? We're going to give you tips, lighting setups. Explaining the techniques, but also a lot of tips about working with your models, finding the right angles, leading lines, using old gear, using gobo projectors, I'm getting really enthusiastic. I hope you guys are ready for it. I don't want to spend any more time. Let's start with the first episode of How did I shoot this one on Skill Share. 2. 1 Making a Portrait: Ys, and welcome to another episode. And in this series, I show you images we shot during the workshops, and how did I shoot this one? And today, we're going to take a look at this portrait from Jenica. Now, I love old fashioned photography. I don't know what it is, but new lenses are, of course, perfect, but sometimes they miss a little bit of character. You might wonder, What's character? I don't know. If you put it next to each other, I may or may not pick out the old lens, but when you shoot with those lenses, I don't know, something magical happens. So that's why I love collecting those old lenses. Now, of course, we didn't shoot it with a Jessica. Don't you just love these kinds of cameras? Oh, by the way, if you take the lens cap off, it works much better. Now, this one is awesome because it has a light meter inside and it has, of course, a twin reflex. The problem with these kinds of lenses, by the way, is that you look through one lens, and you take the picture with another one. So there's always a little bit of a difference between what you see and what you get. But that's so cool about these kinds of cameras. Still use them. They're awesome. Of course, we also have the 35 mil ca R cameras, great cameras, but most of all, great lenses, if you can't afford the M lenses. But if we go even further back in time, we of course, have our older Pentax cameras or minota cameras with great lenses. Now, you might wonder, Frank, where are you going with this? Well, let me tell you. As you can see here, this is a so called Zebra lens. And here we have another one. If you see silver with black, it's often called Zebra lens. Now, those lenses are very special, and that's also because they have a certain name. You might wonder what that name is. Did you ever hear the name Yena? Probably not, but did you ever hear the name Zeis yeah, you probably did hear the name Zeis, right? Zeis Jenna. Those older lenses, I kid you not, are absolutely awesome. Now, the most lenses I'm using are, of course, the 42 mount. Now, the 42 mount, let's make it very simple. In the past, you, of course, Nikon, Cannon, and they all have different mounts. And one of the screw mounts is 42. Now, how do you fit something like this on a modern camera? Well, there are several converters on the market, like, for example, Photo Dox or tech art, and they make actually converters that you can use these lenses on your camera and you have auto focus. Believe it or not, it works like a charm. But for this setup, I'm not using one of these older lenses. I'm actually using a minota 8,051.8 lens, and it's an awesome lens, and it has a very, very high quality. I think it's maybe even better than some of the modern lenses because it has more character. So how do I use a lens like that, including out of focus on my modern Sony A seven R five? Well, that's where you need the so called LAI converters from Sony. Now, in this setup, I'm using the LA and I hope I can pronounce it correctly, the version five. Now, be careful when you use the minota lenses on your A seven R five, that the four and the three will give you some issues because they don't translate well with an older lens. The weird thing is on the A seven R three, everything worked fine. On the A seven R five, I really need the converter five. So if you're into old lenses, make sure you buy version five. Now, for this setup, I'm using the lens wide open. Now, wide open gives you a very shallow depth of field, but you have to be careful. If you want a shallow depth of field, it can also help to shoot from a slightly lower angle because then you get this really nice, smoothly silk focus. It's just awesome, as you can see in the final results in a moment and already in the image I saw you in the start. There are a few things you have to be very careful when shooting wide open. And that's, of course, make sure that your focus is on the closest eye and make sure you focus correctly, because one slight difference, especially when you shoot from a lower or higher angle will be dramatical in your images. It will be totally unusable. So this is also one of the things why I highly recommend shooting tattered, because if you shoot tattered, you see the images coming in, and you can immediately check if the focus is on the eye. But hey, how do we use our lighting setup for this? Because I want to shoot wide open. Now, wide open with strokes can be a problem for the very simple reason, a strope has a lot of output. And in the studio, we have to shoot on 125th of a second because of the sync. So we need strokes that can go down to a very, very low setting. Luckily, we are using our Gigoto stropes and they have something that is, of course, well, a heritage from the speed light era, they can go all the way down to 128th of an output, and that gives me very, very low light output. And that means they're perfect to combine with wide open lenses. My main light setup is the Jicoto quickie softbox to make sure that I focus my light on my model. But of course, we also want to open up the shadows on the other side, give a nice accent light. And that's why I'm using an accent light on the other side. Now, in this case, I'm using a strip light, and I'm using a strip light for a reason. I don't want to use the strip light only to open up the shadows on that side and give a nice accent, but I also want to use the strip light to give a little bit of light on the backdrop. And this is where the strip light is awesome. I always tell people the strip light you can see as three different light sources. In the middle, you have a very bright, harder light source, and on the sides, it just fares away. So in this case, I'm using the sights to give the accent on my model. I'm using the sight to light the backdrop, and the middle part, it just disappears a little bit between the model and the backdrop. So it doesn't really bother me in the shot. Also call this a sandwich technique where you're using the outsides of the stroke and the middle side. Of course, it will infect the image, but it doesn't have a big impact. And the cool thing about this setup is you can just angle your strip light to get more light on the backdrop and a little bit less on your model or aim it the other way, get more light on your model, less on the backdrop. It's an awesome way to shoot. But we can talk about it for hours and I feel like I already did with all these nice lenses. Let's take a look at the behind the scenes video. As you can see, shooting wide open gives you a totally different look. Now, it's not something I would advise to do all the time because it can get old very quickly, but sometimes and especially with shots like this, it just really adds some atmosphere to the shots. 3. 2 Using the Lantern as your main light: Hey, guys, Frank, here, and welcome to another episode in our series. How did I shoot this one? And today we're going to take a look at this shot, and it's actually much easier than you might think. Now, sometimes during the workshops, we do have some time left, and I always love to do an extra set, even if it's just 15 minutes or 20 minutes, I just love to do extra sets. And one of the sets that's very easy to set up, but is always very cool to shoot is with the Gekoto lantern. Now, every single light shaper, if you look at the design of the light shaper, you can predict what it's going to do. For example, if you compare the S 26 from Dakoto with the quickie, you can see that the S 26 spreads out the light more and the quickie focuses the light more. But if you look at all the soft boxes, you can see that they're all black on the side and white on the front. And that means they don't emit light from the sides, but just from the front, may mean you don't have any spi light. And that's awesome, right? Because if you don't have any spi light, well, you don't have to flack everything, and we can really focus your light on your model. But what if you do newborn photography or product photography or a fashion shot where you want the whole set to be lit, but you can't move all the way back to create that effect or you can't bounce off the ceiling or maybe you want those shadows to run there, but you need more light. Now, of course, you can use an umbrella, but an umbrella it's a great light source, but it's a little bit limiting, of course. One of the light sources that I love to use for these kinds of setups is our brand new Lantern from Gigoto. Now, the Lantern from Gigoto has a great design. You still have that flat front so you can focus your light on your model, but the sites are totally open. This is something else than a normal lantern, where you have that round front. This is a straight front. Now, I'm using the lantern mostly to use, for example, side lighting in a Rembrandt setup, where you don't need any lighting on your backdrop anymore, you place the light slightly behind your model, and because it's open on the side, it also spreads out over your backdrop, creating a much nicer setup than with previous setups where you use a softbox and excellent lighting from that side. Now, in this case, we wanted to mimic something that well, a little bit of a wink to the old folk commercials. So a great red dress, a big hat, and, of course, well, a little bit of an old fashioned backdrop. I just love that backdrop from click backdrop so you can see the three dimensionality. Lighting wise, just a lantern only from the side, creating a little bit of shadow, but a very soft shadow, and that shadow actually creates depth. Now, to let our model pose against, we're using a big box that we have in our studio, and that's actually the whole setup, meter it and shoot it. So let's take a look at the behind the scenes video of this very simple but very cool lighting setup. So as you can see, lighting setups don't have to be very complicated or difficult or expensive. One light source can go a long way. Now, of course, normally, I love the more high contrast stuff and the more darker stuff. But in this case, well, sometimes it's just fun to do something like this. And, of course, sometimes clients need an image like this. You can, of course, create everything high contrast and dark and reembrant like. But if your client doesn't see anything bright and he looks for anything bright, he won't call you. So make sure in your portfolio, you always have different kinds of images. 4. 3 Using the FlashBender Pro XL as your mainlight: Hey, guys, Frank, here. And today, we're going to take a look at this shot that I shot during the workshop in Belgium with our model Flora. Now, during the workshops, I always try to, well, push myself a little bit to do different things. But there's always, of course, a part that comes back, and that's creating contrast with one light source. Now, you might wonder, why is that important? Yeah, well, it is important for the very simple reason. Sometimes you're on a location with a client and your client wants something else. Like, you can't get away with always just shooting the headshots with straight flat lighting, and there we go. There are a lot of clients that just love to do something different. They want to well, be different than the competition. And that's where high contrast images can be awesome. It doesn't work for everybody, but when it works, you get some really high impact images. And well, the tool that I use for this the most is actually my own frame Dorhof a flash bender from Rogue. Now, the flash bender is a really interesting article because you can use it as a strip light, as you can see here, but you can also take this off. And of course, it makes a nice sound. You can use it as a bounce card, but you can also do this, and now it doesn't lose any light to the ceiling. And the fun thing is, you also get a softbox attachment with it, and if you are a little bit creative, and of course, as photographers, we are, you can even fold it, and this one is a little bit stiff still, but you can also fold it as a snoot. So there we go. Now we have a snoot. Now you might wonder, how do you use a snoot like this? Well, it's actually pretty simple. If you think about it, think about this. You have a wedding, and there's not a lot of great lighting, but you do have three strokes with you. Of course, three Cicoto strokes, right? Now, how about this? Using our rogue magnetic system with a blue and red gel on one side. Do on both sides, one red, one blue. And then giving your assistant the snoot and just put your camera on ETTL put it on flash exposure compensation, zero or plus two, depending on your camera, and, of course, your exposure conversation on minus two. Now, why did I tell you the flash exposure conversation in two settings? Very simple. Some cameras connected to your exposure compensation, and then when you go down two stops in your exposure compensation, you have to go up two stops in your flash exposure compensation to make sure that the flash looks right, and some cameras don't. They just disconnect them, and then you can say, Okay, my ambient light has to be two stops down. My flash has to be normal, so you just leave it on zero, depending on your camera. And now you get great shots with your bride and groom dancing around in full light, and the rest is a little bit dark, and you get these beautiful blue and red lights from the side. Totally different venue. But hey, it's not about that. The thing that I love to use the flash Banda for is creating contrast. Now, the cool thing about something like the hybrid strokes from Gekoto is that you can place them in very, very nice locations. So you can place them in a location where a normal big stroke is a little bit more difficult to place, plus, you can very easily use them in horizontal and vertical setting. If you look at the video now, you can see that I'm using the flash bender in the horizontal setting, and I'm aiming it slightly down. So it's actually above my model aiming down. The nice thing about the flash bender is that the light spread is pretty white. We didn't make it very small but pretty white. And that means that when I shoot straight into my model, as you can see in this image, you have a really nice flat looking contrast image. So it's still high contrast, but it's literally a little bit flat on the face, which gives you a beautiful portrait. But as soon as I start to walk around my model, that's where I get my contrast. So, for example, when I shoot into the light, you get this beautiful, almost silhouette like model shot. And when you shoot it straight from the front, well, at a blue gel, add a little bit of motion, and look at that. Now you got some really cool shots. Hey, as usual, let's take a look at the behind the scenes. The video of this setup. As you can see, very simple setup, only one stroke, and of course, because of the flesh bender, we can turn it around on our stroke because it doesn't fit fixed. You can literally just move it around. And of course, you can use it vertical and horizontal. And in this case, as you can see, I'm lighting both my backdrop and my model with the same light source to create some really nice images. 5. 4 (Wide) Angles: Today, we're going to take a look at this shot, and how did I shoot this one? During the workshops, it's always nice to work, of course, with lighting, with models, but also with sets. But one of the things that I really find interesting is to explain what angles do. Now, you might wonder, like, Hey, Frank, what do you mean with angles? Well, when we start with photography, we all know that we probably start from an eyes perspective. In other words, we just place the camera straight in front of our eyes and we take the picture. And in all honesty, that looks great if you just capture something for prosperity. But what if you want to do something different? What if you want to tell a story with your images, if you want to draw the few or more in? That's when the angle becomes very, very interesting. For example, a lower angle, I often call the hero post because the model just looks larger than life. But when you shoot from the top down, yeah, that just looks a little bit funky. But what happens if you don't just take into account the angle but also the length of your lens? You have to realize that every time you use a different lens on your camera, the rendering will be different. For example, a longer lens, like a 200 mil will compress everything. That means that everything will be put together a little bit more in the picture. It also gives you the big advantage, of cours, with a longer lens that it will throw the backdrop out of focus. We all love that. Actually, we don't love that anymore, right, that funky backdrop that you can't recognize. It's great when you start out with your 1.2 lens, but in the end, you just want a great image, right? So yeah, that part, I don't find that interesting anymore. But as soon as you start using wider angles, then you lose that backdrop that's out of focus, but you get something back that's much more interesting, distortion. Now, you might think distortion is a bad thing, and most of the times we actually think that distortion is a bad thing. We don't want it in there. But if you use it creatively, it can be awesome. Like, for example, if you use a 70 mill lens and you sit on the floor and you shoot up to your model, you shoot from a lower angle, and it looks great. But if you do the same shot on a 24 mill, this is a totally different image. And that's what actually in this set happens. I'm using one of my guitars, a great epiphone and I placed my model on a chair on our podium. Now, as you can see in the final images after the video, we are using a wider angle from a lower angle. And that means that I use my distortion, but I also use the legs of my model and the guitar as a strong leading line. Now, by the distortion of the wide angle, the feet will look a little bit bigger than normal, and it already gives you a nice funky image. The thing with wide angles that you really have to take into account, don't put anything that's really important on the edges of your frame because that, that doesn't look right. I will look really funky. But when you use a white angle from a low angle on your model and you use the feet as your main leading line, that can give you great images. Now, of course, you also want to know the lighting setup, right? So as our main light source, I'm using a Gikoto GT 400 with the Gikoto quickie softbox. Now, this is a really nice soffbox. It's a smaller sof box, but it really angles the light. It gives you that, how do you say, a little bit of a spot effect with the softbox and you don't have to place it really close to your model. I really love it for these kind of shots. As my accent light, I'm using a Gikoto GT 200 with the Rogue magnetic system, and, of course, a red gel to give that nice moving image. But hey, enough talk. Let's go to the behind the scenes video and, of course, the final results. As you can see, using your own props in a workshop is always fun. But when you add angles and a wide angle, well, it becomes a lot more fun. So, for your next photoshoot, drag that wide angle out of your closet, put it on your camera, and maybe you will never switch back to that 7,200, which was the perfect lens for portraiture in the past, right? I think it's the 24 to 70 because now you have a wide angle and a compression. 6. 5 Freezing Motion with a Jumping Model: Did I shoot this one? And today it's actually not about this shot. I just want to give you a tip about freezing motion. But I just love this shot, don't you? Now, this shot was shot during a workshop with Felisa, and we're using our gray backdrop from click backdrops. And I really like this one. It's not really gray. It's a little bit like a pattern, but it's a great backdrop for Well, if you don't know what kind of backdrop you want to use, this one always works. Light source, very simple, a big softbox on our model. And in this case, I'm using the lantern because that just an awesome softbox from Gigoto. Now, what is this video about? We get so many questions about freezing motion. I thought, let's give you a quick tip about how you can know in which setting your stroke is the fastest. Now, of course, you can buy this beautiful psychonic 858 light meter. It's awesome because with this light meter, you can literally meter your flash duration, believe it or not, it's really simple, as you can see in this video, it just gives you a graph. Now, if you don't have an expensive light meter, there's a very simple trick, how you can do the same thing. Now, first, let me explain why this is necessary. Now, you might think that your stroke always performs the same. You just turn it on and you turn it down and it just emits more and less light. In essence, that's true. But there's also something else that changes. Of course, you're recycling time, but don't talk about it now. We talk about the so called flash duration, the cutoff and the raise of your strope. Now, the flash duration is very important when you start to freeze motion. You want the fastest possible flash duration. Now, when you look at the stropes, they will change the flash duration over the power output. On full power, on most stropes you won't have the fastest flash duration. On the lowest setting on hybrid strokes, you often have a very, very high flash duration. But as soon as you start adding power, you will see that that flash duration actually drops down and a lot. So, for example, on a hybrid strope, it's very usual to get flash durations of 40,000 to one on the lower setting. But as soon as you go to the highest setting, they can go down as low as 700th of a second. So what do you need to freeze motion or, for example, a jumping model? Well, if you really want to freeze everything, I always advise to go for about 2020 500th of a second for your flash duration. Again, with a light meter like this, it's very easy. I just set it up, I meter, and it will give me the value of my flash duration. But what if you just want to know which setting on my strop is the fastest? Well, here comes the tip. Get a very, very simple fan. For example, like we have in our studio when it's hot, what you do is you place your camera on a tripod. You place the fan on full power, so it spins really fast. And the only thing you do is you start with your stroke on the lowest power, take a picture. Then at one stop, take a picture, add another stop, take a picture, just repeat it until it's on full power. Now, when you go into Lightroom, you look at all those different shots, and you know what you're going to see that in every single shot, the fan will be frozen just a little bit different. Now, it's very easy to see in which of those settings well, the fin is the sharpest, and that's where the fastest flash duration of your stroke is. So just note that down. And now every time that you need to freeze motion, you know, I place my stroke, for example, on 70%. You just move it closer and further away from your model or you change light modifiers to get the perfect exposure and, of course, the perfect freezing power on your model. Let's take a look at the behind the scenes video from this setup, and let's have some fun with Felisa and motion. Okay. As you can see, it's very easy to determine where your sweet spot is for your flash duration on your strokes. Go out today, test it because it can really save your photo shoot if you need to freeze motion. But the cool thing is, if you don't want to freeze motion perfectly, you want a little bit of a fade out, you just chooe one of the settings where it has a lower flash duration. It's that easy, right?