The Essential Lighting Techniques

1. Chapter 1 Introduction: Hey, guys. Thank you so very much for buying our new instructional video. I'm sure you're gonna love this one now, you know, in the faster We did a lot of instructional videos on creative lighting styling posters at France photo show. We did some stuff on travel photography, but one thing that a lot of people kept asking me, Frank, can you go back to basics? You just simply show how to make a white background or a black big drop or whatever. So these videos for you guys Now you will find several chapters in this video. Feel free to watch him in any order you want. However, there is a particular order that we suggest for you guys. And that's how they are actually in this file. So if you have any questions, just email me and I would works right and enjoy the video 2. Chapter 2 Strobe Advice: Strope advice like a kid in a candy store. Old D strokes. Wow. But, hey, if you start out your studio, you don't have all these gear. So let's talk a little bit about what to buy and when to buy it. Now, when you start out with studio and know for sure, you're never going to go on location. And trust me, you will. But let's say you never want to go on location. We all know these strokes right there called Mona Heads. Now why are they mono? It's very simple. You put in a mains power and you plug it in the wall and you have everything in the head. So in other words, you can change your modeling light. You can change the output off the stroke. A. You can do whatever you want with it. It's a Mona head. It's totally self contained, but it only runs on mains. In the case of this eel sea from Ellen Graham, and by the way, this is without a doubt my favorite mono ahead. At the moment, they're very, very fast. They recycle like crazy, and with all these extra options, like Straw Briscoe, pick effect and Oh, wait a minute. Let's keep it simple. Let me put it that way. It's a pretty have fun Strope. Now, the moment you realize Oh my I also want to go on location. Then what do you buy? Well, in the L Ingram system, you have a few options. You can of course, get a ranger Rx 1100. What seconds? Yeah, that's a big baby. I really like this or you have a smaller one. The Quadra. Also the Ranger Eriks. But in this case, the quarter. This is four hundreds, probably 425 watts. And by the way, this is a territories claim and we used these to put him on our stands. And these are really, really handy, I believe a link in the description below. Now these are great. Now on the Ranger, you use ahead like this and you already see that this is not a Mona ahead. This is actually what we sometimes refer to us. Just a dumb heads. In other words, it doesn't have any settings inside the head. And this is the one for the Quadra. Same story. So the quarter you actually connected this one and this big baby, you connect to this one now, everything that's the brain off your stroke is actually inside the better re pecs. So in other words, if you want to change the output, you use it. You do it in the better re peck. If you want to change the output off the Ranger, you do it on the battery pick. So not on the hits. Now you see that there are two connectors that means you can use two strokes now indicates off this ranger they're both equal in outputs of 50% indicates off this ranger. There's a 3 to 2 ratio that that means there's one gets way more output than the other one . You can't change that. That's, I think, one off the limitations. So on location, I prefer to use to off these or two off these if I used to heads because I want to be able to control those lights separately. So that's what L. Ingram has to offer. And by the way, if you think wow, man, that quarter rise big, it's not really big. We have conferred to ring on here that we can actually use the big size L'Engle modifiers on the Quadra, so it makes it a little bit more bulky. But I think it's the best solution because otherwise, chef to also by separate modifies for your Quadra instead of using what you already have in studio. Okay, so that's selling Rome and Ellen Graham has been my favorites throw brand for, I think, over 12 years now. Recently, we also started experimenting with a different brand, and it's actually forex. Now. What is the difference between Ellen Graham for ticks? In all honesty, when I look at this stroke, it's a very, very well built strope. It's something I don't want to drop it. But I think if it drops, it will actually survive. If you go to the desert without any problems will survive. If you look at these things, they're built to last there really, really sturdy. But if you don't go to the desert or you don't drop your gear and you you just shoot on location and well, let me put it this way. You feel limited budget, then for ticks is without a doubt at the moment, my favorite choice off brands. For one very simple reason. This is an Indra the brains are in the Indra, they only of one cable. Now there are two options. The first option is what you would use in studio, and this is an A C pic. So you just connect the mains over here, you have two options for two heads. Remember, the brain is inside the Indra. So that means if I couldn't take two strokes on this, I can just manually select both strokes. I can turn on the power or sorry, erased the power or lower to power. No problem at all, because, well, it's all connected to literally dumb comforter. It doesn't do anything else, the brain says in the That's in studio. Now we go on location and, of course, I want to bring my Indra because we're live. All the modifies for the Indra just love thean drain and how it works. That's where fall takes really has a smart solution. This it's actually about equal to the quarter of from Ellen Groom on. Look at the size difference. It's a little bit smaller and on location that really counts yourself to connectors. So what's the difference? Remember the brains in Handwara? So that means that on location. If I have two strokes and now can actually connect two strokes toe one better epic and still I'm able to control those tropes separately so I can put one on 100% and one actually on, for example, 10%. Okay, so for six old away, right? Not exactly, because there's more, and now you have to determine if this is important for you. Let's talk about triggers. What is a trigger frank? The trigger. You actually need to fired strokes pretty important right now. In the past, and especially for small flesh, there were triggers that worked with optical optical signals, infrared or many different options. The problem is outside with son. It didn't work all the time. So you actually need radio triggers. And radio triggers are great because you have the wider range. It always works. And, well, you don't have to look at your stroke to fire them. But there many different sorts. So this is pretty simple. One. This is the old Sky port from El Ingram. It's not really the old one, but it's an older one. So what can you do? Well, you can choose groups. You can set it on and off. You can change the output off your stroke if you put him in groups and well, and you can do test. Pretty simple. In addition, antenna Cool. Really small. Now, if you go to the foot X system, this is the strata. It's a little bit comparable to the Ellen Groom sky port. You can put it in groups you can press test and well, you can turn it on and off pretty standard stuff. But there's more. This is a modern day sky port. This is where it gets interesting because in this sky port it actually skins for the strokes that are in your studio. So, for example, if you have to e l sees it will actually find to a Elsie's and outer coating is you don't have to put him in groups anymore. You can just go toe one off the E Elsie's change the output, go to another one, for example of br x A. Just change the output. So that's a really, really great to. Now I could actually do this and then open up again and I will tell you guys Hey, this is an Odin. The full text version because the Odin looks exactly the same as the sky port. Now, with the Odin, you can also change the outputs off your Indra so you can make it go a little bit more output, less output. But, hey, there's one extra thing that also is available on the foot X system. And it's called E T T l. I'm not a big fan of E T T l. Now, wait a minute, Frank. What is e t T 00 k e T T l is something you probably know from your speed lights. You looked through your lens, you press the shutter and everything happens by magic. F relighting is correct. That's not really correct. But you know what I mean, right? It's pretty on the money now. TTCL means that you can place your stroke close to your model. You press the shutter and you get a perfect exposure. It's not perfect, but let me put it this way. You can fix it in photo shop. Now, you move your stroke further away from your model and you don't have to re meter. You just press the shutter again and the exposure is in the ballpark now you change the stroke to, let's say a higher angle or you have more output and everything is calculated inside your camera, and it's called E T T L. The L Ingram system doesn't f e t t l. The full tick system does, and there's more. Do you realize sometimes that you're outside and the sun is pretty bright Now? If you work with all the strop's, there's something called an ex sink. Now the X ings differs a little bit per camera. Sometimes the ex English 160. Sometimes it's 1 25 That's actually in most cases, and sometimes it's 1 200 But it actually means that as soon as you take the picture, you mirror locks up and you first shut the curtains opens. Now there's an area where the whole sensor is actually open for light. Now, if you raise your shutter speed to, let's say 14 hundreds off a second, the first shut the curtains opens, but the second already follow. So that means that there's this area on your sensor that is actually blocked by a shutter curtain. Now, if he ever worked in the studio with strokes and you had a too high shutter speed. You actually recognize this because it's like a black bar on top off your frame and looks weird. That's actually your second construct occurred. Now they're several solutions to overcome this problem. And this is the difference between Forex and L. Ingram. The new L Ingram Systems use a system called H S Hi sink. That means that they use really slow strokes and you can shoot up to, let's say, 18 thousands of a second, a 1 4000 of a second. Do realize by the way, that you lose a lot of power. As soon as you come above let's say 16 hundreds off a second, so you lose a lot of power. The full tax system. Use something called H s s high speed sink. We'll notice from our speed lights. They don't use a slowest throw, but they actually do is they use a pulse like 50 hertz. So the stroke actually goes really fast. T. And it means that as soon as the shutter curtains moved over the sensor every time the sensors actually lit by one off the pulses, it costs you a lot of power again. So none of these solutions will give you Let's say F 32 ad 1 4000 seconds. You might be lucky if you had, like, well, 2.8 at 800. And you probably are lucky if you if you read set with soft book. So you need better modifiers, More light output. But both systems make it possible to break that 125th off second rule. Which one is my favorite? I'm leaning a little bit towards High s s high speed sink because, in essence, I can use a light meter on high speed sink and a conscious that on high sink. So I prefer a little bit the folic system. In this case, it's telegram system fold. No, of course not. HS is a great system if a little bit more power and it just works really well, but I just prefer HSS. Okay, so let's talk a little bit more about what you should buy. As soon as you make the decision about the Strope, you have to realize one thing that stroke is only your first purchase. After that, it gets way more expensive because now you're actually going to start buying modifiers. What is a modifier? An umbrella and soft books strip light beauty. This the big soft books. Smaller sourcebooks? A bigger So the list goes on and on and on. Just look at one of the brochures. You go crazy. There's so much you can buy my advice for you guys. If you just start out, there are a few modifies. You have to buy the 1st 1 without any doubt. A beauty dish with a grid. It's absolutely stunning. In today's video, you're going to see everything about the beauty dish. The 2nd 1 is actually a strip light preferable with a grit, and the 3rd 1 you probably already have, which your lighting set up is actually a reflector. But get an extra great set for that one, and maybe some gels to do color effects. Now you have three different modifies. But the cool thing is, you can use those modifies in many different ways. Hey, and when you're in the camera store, just pick up an umbrella because with umbrellas you can really fine tune the quality off light, and it's an OK lighters. It's not my favorite, but it's an OK, light source, especially FC if if you have too deep umbrellas, You know what Later on in feeling I'm going to show you some tricks with the deep umbrella . So after that, what do you have to buy? Don't buy a lot. Start practicing with what you have and realize that with actually those three modifies you can do almost anything. And then when you monster everything and you go like I want more gets the moment when you go to the store and buy more. But at that point, you already know what you want to buy. Okay, So which branch shooter by should I go out and buy full ticks? Should I go out and Breitling Room? Or should I buy vulcanized pro photo? And so Braun Caller, it's pretty much open to your budget and your preference. I really, really like the modifiers from Ellen Graham, for example, their beauty dish I really like I love the for a Nel spot. I really love the way that they have soft boxes, that you don't have to work for an hour to get him assembled. You just press down like an umbrella and you have for soft box. Really great stuff. It's called the Rotor Looks. Just look it up online. It's awesome. So I really like the younger modifiers. Luckily, nowadays you can get confer touring so you can use your L'Engle modifiers on, for example, the full tax system, which actually has a bones connector. So what should you buy? Well, if you're just starting out, I really advise you guys to steer away from the really cheap brand. So don't buy a whole flesh set up for 190 euros. The quality will be may be good to start out, but then slowly you start to buy more modifiers, and you find out that later, if you shreds to a bigger brand like Ellen Groom Hansel or for ticks or whatever, you you probably won't be using those modify us again because you will see that the quality is just a lot less. So. My advice start out with, for example, an L Ingram delight that the delight are the cheapest one in the L Ingram Range. They're very affordable. Get the 100 watt seconds because in a small studio or even in a big studio, 100 watts is more than enough with modern day cameras. You can shoot without any problem when I s 0 400 and the cool thing about 100 is actually because you have low power, you can also shoot. For example, in 2.8. That's great. If you have, like a 400 what seconds 2.8 will be a little bit more harder. Oh, by the way, do you want to know how that works? With stops? It's very simple, very quick. If you have 100 watch and let's say your maximum Aceh fades and you go to 200 watch your maximum will be F 11. Now you have to go to 400 watch to get F 16. Have to goto 800 watch to get F 22. So every time you need to stop, you have to double D power. So you see, In essence, there's not much difference between 100 watts trope and a 400 foot. It's like two stops. Hey, Frank. Two stops is a lot of light, I know, but in studio environment, you don't really need a lot off light. And quoting is if if delight once the pretty chief to get into. But you already are buying the Ellen grow modifiers. So when you grow into the big stuff like the l C sort of br x or maybe some old are excess you can find on eBay, you can use those same modifies. And if you go outside with a quadra used to confer to ring and you can use you, say, modify so in the end to save money. Now, if you're like me, you want to go on location, you want to be in the studio, you want to be really flexible and, well, you don't want to carry around a lot of kids. In my opinion at the moment, the full ticks with their double solution life T A, C kids, the battery kids and one Indra. And those are 500 watts. So the pretty powerful, I think at the moment if you start out and you want to do both. This set is without any doubt, highly, highly recommended and as a trigger you can use to strata to. Or you can use the road into which looks exactly like an Al Ingram sky port. And that's because there's an alliance between of course l Ingram and full ticks and cyclonic. Oh, about light meters. If you use this iconic light meter, the modern version, there's actually a triggering site for the strata. Isn't that cool? Oh, and by the way, about speed lights. You also want to use the speed lights right? That's why I'm leaning a little bit more towards for ticks. Because if you have the Indra system, you often Odin to remote control. You can actually you sure, metros plus, And that's actually the name off the speed lights from four takes. So you can just combine your Indra your speed lights all with the same remote, so you don't have to learn all those different remote Hey, and on the topic. If you need small strokes inside the studio on manual or et al, you wanna combining with Ian dress, you just mix and match because it's the same remote control. So that's right. Lean a little bit more towards for fixing your advice, but in the end, go to a store and find the brand that fits your needs because you can only spend your money ones, so spend it wisely. 3. Chapter 3 Tethering: okay in the studio. It's absolutely a big, big advantage. If you shoot straight to a monitor, I can explain very simply why you have your client in the studio and you're taking great shots. Of course, you want your client to see those shots, and it's very, very cumbersome to every time. Go like OK, took a great shot. Look at this. Look at this. Great shots, right? You don't want that for the very simple reason. Hello, sir, From private space, right? And the client is to constantly looking at small screen, so it's great off a big monitor in your studio to shoot terror two. Because that's the name off the game. Shooting tattered Now what is shooting tethered? It's actually pretty simple. You used to use B cable or network cable or FireWire. If you've been with the camera and just connect your camera to your computer, and as soon as you press the shutter, the images are transferred over the cable to the computer to, for example, capture one tpp Sony Remote control or light room. It doesn't matter. There are a lot of sulfur solutions that actually support tethering as soon as the images in the computer, it will actually show you full screen. So now your client can see the images and make sure that if you have a model one tip the monitor a little bit away. So the model conceit, because otherwise he looks in the camera and looks at the monitor. Looks in the camera looks at the monitor, and that's very, very well, let me put it this way. It takes you out of your work flux so you don't want it. Now there's one slight. Actually, it's a little problem, which is a huge problem in the little problem is to connect her. Not most cameras like this Sony have really, really tiny USB port, micro USB or meaning use be. You know, it sounds great, micro and mini, but it's actually horrendous because those are really small connectors and they break off real easy now, Frank, I'm always careful with my gear. I know I'm too, but in the heat of the moment, while you're shooting or if somebody else steps on your cable, it happens. A lot of cable gets yanked out off your port. Is that a real problem? Actually, it is because those connectors are incredibly fresh out and they will break off total cost anywhere up to six or 700 euros. But most of all, you lose your camera for a few weeks, and that's terrible. Of course. Are there any solutions? Well, the Sony camera has a great solution. It has this big connector on top where you can actually route through the cable and connected. Great. If you camera doesn't have anything like this, there's a company out there called Ted or tools. Do you want to be in a price? What the steady tools do? It's a joke. Of course. The name says it'll they make stuff for tethering and we love him. And this is one off the things that you absolutely have to have. This is the jerk stopper. Hey, what's in a name? It's the jerk stopper from territories. What you do is you connect the two, your camera, a route cable through the jerk stopper and a dead moment. If you step on your cable, you actually feel some tension, you know? Oh, stop. I'm standing on my cable. Hey, Frank, that sounds like a great idea. But what if it tanks out my camera from my hands. Yeah, that can happen. Show one other advice. On the other hand, off the camera. Make something like this. This is actually a hand strip and you just do your and true it on your wrist. And now you hold your camera one off the tips. I want to give more. Make sure it's an elastic one like this one, because now, if you stand on your cable and forces more going down, you'll actually lose your cable. But so you will lose your camera, but it will hang on your wrist. So this is a pretty safe solution. So what do you need? Well, in the previous scene, I already showed you that you need 10 or tools. Jerk stopper Now in front of me are actually the cables that I use. So this is a use B three extension cable. Although I'm shooting with the U. S. B two camera I'm still using used the three extension cable because they're a little bit thicker, and I just feel that they're a little bit, well, more durable. This is the cable that actually goes to my camera. So we have used beyond this site and we have two small USB connector on that side, which I don't like. I just hate those smaller connectors. Now when you connect us to your computer, in most cases when you only use this one, there will be no problem. It'll lights room or capture. One will recognize your camera. You compress the shutter and boom, the images come in. But sometimes if you use an extension, and especially on newer Mex especially does with the dung gal's or on PCs that don't have that well, huge power supply to the U. S. B port, it can actually happen that you lose connection or that if you shoot a high, Siri's after each other that the image is don't come in or really slow. As soon as it happens, you will immediately recognize it. So what do you do? Well, there's something from terror tools that I highly recommend you guys using anyway, and it's actually the Tedder boost. Now. What you do is you connect Terra boost to your extension cable like this, and then you connect this cable here. Now you don't this Will X actually give you an extra boost in power. Now, if that's not enough There's actually a connector on the site where you can put an extra power supply and it can be a use. Be better now. This can come loose really easy. And of course, you can use Giffords tape or duct tape or whatever. But you also have this, and this is actually called extension look, and you just open it up. You put your cabling, and now you look it twist and how it's also waterproof. So that means that if you're on location, don't have to worry about your cables getting wet or the connections actually getting loose . So these I also highly recommend. Now, of course, who use or in scales because we're Dutch. Now there's a reason behind it. If you're in the studio, it's often dark. And if you have darker cables on the floor, that actually means that you can trip over them easy, or you just don't see him with the Oren's cables, their high visibility cables so you can actually see those cables. Hey, Frank, I really like that you promote genitals, but they're way too expensive. I can get cables that are way, way cheaper. Yeah, I see that one coming. Don't worry what you could do, and I highly recommend you to do it. If you don't trust me, it's just take sisters and no, not going to show you. And just open up this cable and open up a cheap cable. You know what? We're gonna show you picture because somebody did. And now you know why detector to cables work way better than those cheap cables? A frank, I have those cheap cables and a work great, Well, more power to you. That's great. And because I'm Dutch, I love to save money. But trust me, in long term and in durability, you will actually destroy those cables very, very easily. And these cables are very, very durable. Will they last forever? It depends how how careful you are. We travel around the world with these and we use them on locations. And during every workshop there's somebody standing on the cables and my efforts lifetime for these cables are around six months to a year, depending on. So I think that's pretty good. If I use those cheap cables, I will probably need a lot more. So in the end, these are actually cheaper because I don't have to replace him constantly. Now. So far useful tethering any so far that is delivered with your camera often supports tethering. My personal preferences is capture one because it's a very solid connection and it's a great role developer, and you can zoom in really fast your focus overlay. You know, I did a video on capture one. If you want to know more about that by that video, because capture one is great, you can also use light room. The thing I don't like I really like about light room is the way you set up tethering. You have to start tethering, and then you get this pop up with your camera controls, and sometimes it just stops. You have to stop tethering started up again. You have to use different folders. I make it sound complicated. In essence, it isn't really complicated, but it's more work than with capture one where you just turn on your camera and it just works. Hey, in the end, it's your preference. Capture one is not a cheap program and light room in Creative Cloud. Most of you guys already have light room, so if you want to use light from for Kettering. Great. It works flawlessly most of the time. Catch one. It's a separate program. It works flawlessly, also most of the time, because they can always go something wrong. So tethering without any doubt, do it and use, of course, the proper cables. Because that's safe to a lot of headaches. They also shoot wireless. Yes, you can. There many solutions out there don't go into them this much. But the most solutions are, for example, the case air from terror tools. You have the Kim Ranger. You have to Kempf, I and, well, you just have to look online. Which solution will fit your needs? But make sure you find a solution that will leave the raw files on the cart and only trans first Jay Peak files. Because if you want to transfer role files through the air, you should. His beard will be a lot longer because raw files are use and take a lot of time on the Sony cameras. By the way, inside the Sony camera, there's an epic, cult smart remote, and with smart remote you can shoot Cheddars, and it's only sends over two megapixel files, so it goes really fast to your iPad, iPhone or your computer, and I personally love that solution. It's pretty stable. It works like 99% off the time. The only thing is on the A seven are, too, and it's has been frustrating me for years. Years now, as long as after camera as soon as the start of smart remote. My E v f doesn't work anymore self to actually look on the back off my screen. Is that a big thing? Not really, because I really like the way that I can now shoot Wireless Tedder. So, yeah, sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose in the new a nine. By the way, we recently tested the E V F stays on. So I am very, very hopeful that in any new camera from Sony, the E V f will actually stay on and then you for built in wireless solution that actually rocks. And I also believe cannon and I can have a solution. So why choose for a cable, Frank? Well, if you have your smartphone and just open up your WiFi connection table, if you only see one fifi network in your area, yea, you could shoot wireless without any problem. If you see like a whole list of WiFi stations, use cables on trade shows. Don't even try to shoot violence for the very simple reason. It's all in the 2.4 gigahertz system or even five gig airs, and those bends are really crowded. So unless you want to do it like this, with your iPhone almost connected to your camera and then even sometimes it doesn't work. Always make sure that you also have a wired connection available. And in my opinion, will the name already says it. Tedder tools te little sister brand to check out if you want to do tethering. So hey, I think we're almost ready to go into the studio and our model. Roche's here. So let's start with playing with light and learning this stuff, the lighting techniques you need to know. Let's go 4. Chapter 4 Intro Learning Shadows: Now, when we go back to lighting, what is the most important thing in lighting? A lot of people will tell you lighting the most important thing is the light itself. And although that is true, it's not well the way that I want to teach you how to know. Lighting the best thing to watch for lighting is actually shadows so frank. How do we learn everything about shadows? Actually, it's quite simple. You see this? This is an iPhone and, well, you have maybe another brand of smartphone. Or maybe your flashlight, and it's actually the best learning tool you can have for understanding shadows. Now, on my desk, there's Yobe Port. We absolutely love those, and this is a set up. I want to show you very quickly how you can understand lighting in just a few simple steps . Okay, so let's see what we can do with the iPhone. Now, on every smartphone, there's something called a flashlight. Now, on the iPhone, you just swipe up. And you if your flashlight like this so they're relieved. Flashlight. Now I want to show you what it does on his Yobe polls, but first we have to turn off all the studio lighting. So, ladies, that's one. And it's too. So now it's dark, right? This is, by the way, Halloween lighting. Don't use that, Okay, so now we have to job people. Now the thing is, and this is very, very cool to do, you can just move around and what you can see. It's exactly what shadows do. So let's say I move this up and you can see that the shadow changes, and if I move it around, you can exactly see on the Jobi pot what happens now? This is one off the best learning tools you can have for photography because you literally see real life. What's going on with your shadows. So again you have not see shadows on your backdrop. You just raise it up and going on the shadows. Let's also do this for the other camera, have some shadows on the background, just raised the light until the shadows are gone. So this is a really cool way off, understanding how lighting works and with most of all, how shadows work 5. Chapter 5 Camera: a guy's now. One of the things that a lot of people talk about is, if you're a professional, you have safe Sony or Canon or Nikon. Hey, look at my great camera. You know what camera this is? This is the A seven are, too, and I have to 24 to 70 g m f A 2.8 lens from the G master, and it has to switch out of focus manual focus. And my serial number is 1807 37 That's very important. There's a lot off 17 there because then the image is sharper because it's seven. You get it right. And of course we have this magical ends. Who'd you have to put it on like this? Not the other way around, because it will. You know where I'm going, right? That isn't true. One of the things you have to realize is that photography it's not about the gear. Photography is about what you have in your minds to get it on the sensor or to get it on your screen. It doesn't matter which camera use. It doesn't matter which lens nowadays. This is an amazing camera. This is an iPhone seven, and the camera in here is way better than the digital camera I started out with. Do you imagine? Yes, because we all have it. The thing about photography It's not about technique. It's not about perfect lighting. It's not about how many megapixels your camera has. Its about a story, a frozen moment in time that will never come back again. Sounds hurry very hard, right? Very, very emotional, Very moody. But in essence, it's true this camera with this amazing G master and trust me, it is an amazing lens. It's just a tool. If you give me an iPhone, I can take the same shot. You can trigger strokes with the dead easily, but in essence you can take the same shot. I dare to say that actually, that perfect moment, Remember, breast. So the decisive moment is 11 thousands off a second. And if you can shoot it with your iPhone because you have your iPhone with you, you have an amazing shot and people will go like Wow, if you are a little bit too late and shoot it with a camera like this with 42 megapixels and again that amazing G master lends. People will look at your image and go like, Yeah, better still, if a person looks at your image and you go like, hey, you know, it's a little bit out of focus, it actually means that the story isn't right. Because if you look at the old masters like breasts on this, you know, and all the old photographers street style, they shot. Most of those images aren't perfect. They are a little bit blurry. There are a little bit moved, but it's the moment they shot the emotion. It's Hey, it's the story, guys. It's all about story now in this video, actually kind of talk about technology. How weird is that, Right, Because we're gonna talk about lighting. You need to know. Oh, my other videos was a little bit more about that storytelling and getting that point off. But it's still wanted to start this video out because I know a lot of beginning photographers will watch this video. Guys don't make yourself crazy by having to after newest gear. If there's a new 7201st into that has one microsecond morning focus. You don't need it. Learn to shoot your images with the camera and the gear you have make the best possible image and noise. Don't worry about noise on your monitor. You will see it, but as soon as you print it or put it on Instagram, the noise will be gone because on a monitor is zooming in way too much, and it's better to have to shut with a little bit of noise. Then more blur because she didn't want to go to that high rise. So, in essence, this is just a hammer and a nail to put on the painting and painting. It's where it's all about storytelling. But before we can go into storytelling, we have to do the lighting techniques that you shoot. No, let's start. 6. Chapter 6 Preparing For The Model: Okay, guy. So it's the day off the photo shoot. You're all excited. You're ramped up, you're ready to shoot. You have your favorite debt metal trick blasting in the era, and you go like this in the studio, you jump up and down, you're totally into it, and then you model comes in. What is the chance that your model also likes death metal? I don't know. Probably not that much. Now, the most important thing in a successful photo shoot is dead. The model feels at ease in your studio. So before she comes and make sure you have email contact with her and just ask her. Hey, what kind of music do you like nowadays? Really Spotify iTunes or maybe a TV story, radio station or whatever? Make sure that when you model comes in, she listens to the music that see likes now. If you're into death metal and she loves Jody Bernal, a Dutch artist, play Jordi Bear now because in the end it's all about how sea or he feels in front of in front of your camera, because that makes the photo shoot so much easier. And other thing when she comes in Don't just start with the photo shoot. Give him or her something to drink. A nice conversation. Get to know each other because it's way better to shoot a friends or somebody you know, then a total stranger. And when you work with your model that way, I guarantee you you will have way more success in your photo shoot. 7. Chapter 7 Light Meter: Hey, guys, let's talk a little bit about one of my favorite tools, the light meter. And I know a lot of people will go like, Oh, we don't need a light meter. We have to digital Polaroid on the back. That's not true. The light meter is a very, very handy tool. Now, there are two ways with me during the 1st 1 is incident. In this case, I hold the light meter in front of the area. I want correctly lit. I fired my strokes or a meter. Of course. The direct sunlight or Amy and light. It works for everything. You will see a number on the display, and that actually corresponds to what you have to put in your camera. I have to remember, if you set up the light meter, I really advise you to set it up in full stops. So you go from 5.6 to 8, 2 11 to 16. Now the light meter itself will give you another value. It's Bill, for example, tell you okay, this is 11 point something. Now remember that your camera works interference often F stop and your light meter, and often also your strokes works intense off F stops, so full F stops intense in between. That means every time you see the number three, it's one click up from the F stop, you see. So, for example, if you see 5.63 you go up one click on your camera from 5.6. If you see 5.66 you go pinata. Click. And if you see 5.69 you add 1/10 of an F stop extra. You were at the next effort. Now the other way of metering is actually looking through your light meter and aiming it at something that is actually also how your camera works. But there's a little bit of a problem with that. It's very, very accurate, but it gives you the value not for the correct exposure, but for 18% gray. Now, think about when you shoot a landscape on your camera. It looks pretty nice, right? And that's because in nature, if you calculate everything together, you will get about 18% gray for perfect exposure, because there's a little bit of light, little bit of dark. Now imagine this. You're shooting the snow landscape. We're really really wide sky. What do you get? You get an under exposed shut for the very simple reason everything is white and camera thrives to do. 80% pray. Now, if you do a city escape, it will be overexposed because a lot is dark and the camera will try to do 18% Great. So in your camera there's a reflective meter. That's actually the same thing that you do hear. You looked through the meter you point somewhere, you get value for 18% grade. Now, why is it handy? Well, very simple. In the video, we're gonna explain white and black backdrops. If you do a meter reading reflective, you know the value for 18% gray and after death, you can do a very simple calculation to make something pure white or pure black. But most of all, you can actually meet her. For example, if a wedding dress has still detail in in whites, or if the groom still shows detail in his black shoot. So that's very you see right, Oh, later on in the video, you're going to see how easy it is. But most awful, remember, the light meter is just where you start your exposure so it doesn't take away of creativity or something. It's just a tool. It's like the ruler for a carpenter. So, without any doubt, highly recommend the light meter. 8. Chapter 8 Reflector With Grid: Okay, guys, we have now rose against a white backdrop, and it's actually another wide backdrop. It's actually a wall, and the reason I love this wall is because there's actually structure in the ball. And as photographers, we love structure because if you have structure, you can work with, well, shadows. Now, of course, in this case, the stroke is aimed straight at our model because I want to show you something about grits . Now, let's just start with this because, of course, images silk way better their words. So we're going to meet a delight on our more LaRosa, and I'm gonna meet it towards the light source. Hold it in front of the area. One correctly late and I'm not at 11.1 11.1 means every 11 and one tense, often f stop now. One tends often f stop. Well, these strokes can only be set up in one turrets. What I'm actually going to do moved a little bit back and I was probably at 11. Okay, let's take the camera and let's take the first shot. So we're gonna turn the camera on, set it on F 11 and just take one shot. Absolutely love it. Great. Okay. But it's also a little bit boring. What it would like to do is get a little bit more attention to my model. And this is where grits coming. Let me show you very quickly, and we can you bring me the grits. So here we have a collection grits, and these are actually labeled. And this is a very wide grid. Now, this is a little bit more narrow. This is even more narrow. And this is somewhere in the middle. Now I'm gonna show you all because though the idea will be clear, let's start with this one. This is the widest I have. And then let's go to this one. This is actually the most narrow one. Okay, We're gonna place this one in front of my reflector, and then we go. And now the only thing I have to ask about the lighting is actually Rosa, can you look straight through? Greater is black. Is this better or worse? We're okay. And if I move it down, Is that better or worse? Perfect. Better a perfect. Okay, now we go. So what I did actually is let the model look straight to the grid. Let me walk up to with this camera and show you. Now you see my face and I look straight through the great and I see you. So that means that the light travel straight through the grid. Now, if I do this or this, you don't see me directly. So that means that the light isn't perfectly on the model's face. Okay, so this was actually the widest great. So that means that it steers toe light, but it's not very narrow, so it's pretty white now. Do we have to re meter? Yes, of course. Because we changed the light source. Okay, The whole thing from the few models face F 8.698 point 06 means F eight and two clicks up. So on your camera, that's actually F 10. So let's go to F 10. Okay, that's take a shot. Very nice on. Let's zoom out a little bit so you can see the effect better. Now what you see is that when I assume in, there's not much off a difference. But as soon as assume out, you can see that we have this thing getting around a model. It's almost like a spotlight. Now let's change this great for the much narrower one. And by the way, there's a reason there are these little plastic flips because they can get very hot in certain stroke systems are with this one. We have led lighting, so it won't be dead hot a month. If you have strokes that actually use old light sources. Yeah, they can get really, really hot, so make sure you always put him in with this little flap out. You can take him out easier. Okay, we have to re meet her again. I'm need a ring very closer. I 8.0 Fife. That's pretty close to what we did before. So that actually means that we ain't a stroke pretty good because there's no light in output or Sorry. There's no change in the output, and it's actually the way it should be because the light is still in the same setting. Okay, so we're still going to shoot on F 10 because that's F 8.6 okay, lets you first to close up really nice and already you now see that that's been getting around. The model is way more intense. Now, if I zoom out, you actually see that the spot effect is even better. I have to move it a little bit more that way. Their regards analyses, almost dead center. You cross your arms. That's awesome. I love it. She's not just a little bit. So that's what agreed. Thus now, of course, you can also use creates in soft boxes and strip lights. Let's do it in a strip light and show you a totally different set up. This set up is what I call set up that will earn you money because you can make a lot of shots with just one light set up. 9. Chapter 9 Striplight With Grid: okay for the next set up, we actually edit a strip light and a grit. I love that combination for the very simple reason I want to be in control of my lighting. And how are you in control of your lighting By making sure that the lighting on Lee goes there where you wanted to go Sounds like a commercial. It almost is because I really love those strips with grit. Now, the thing is, why I love strip light is actually, it's very long So I can like my model from top to bottom, but it's very narrow. So that means that I only lied my model. If I for big soft books, the light will actually go everywhere. So in front of the white backdrop, it will actually like the whole wide backdrop. And I don't want it. I only wanted to focus on my model. The other thing you can do and we're going to go into that later on is actually feathered a light. So I'm not gonna aim it straight at my model. I'm actually gonna feder it away just slightly from using the site off the light. And it also means that the light doesn't hit the wall behind her at full power. It just gives it a little bit off light. That case off light, one could say, Okay, let's meet it a light. So we aim again towards the light source in this case, and we have 8.0 on the light meter. That's perfect, because that's exactly F eight. So I promise you guys a light set up that would actually make you money very quickly. Watch this. So I'm Nam F eight. Turn on the camera. Works way better. Okay. And I'm going to do the first set up in the first is actually more like a flat lighting. You can look straight. Very nice, Okay? Till she knows a little bit that way. What's out with shadows? There we go. That's better. So this is more like a fled lighting set up. It's nice. It's okay. Now if I shoot from here, Okay, look out. I get a little bit more contrast in my lighting. I like this way better. This gives a little bit more three dimensionality to my shots. I love this. No. What's this? The third set up and it's actually from here. Can look really nice. And now you can see that we have a high contrast. Look, now this is something that I really love because now you have a lot of contrast in your shop and three dimensionality. And as you can see, you can move from one side to the other side and are in total control of your lighting. He also seated on the backdrop if a little bit of light. Now, if I fed it is light further away. Everything will look exactly the same. So let's try that. So I'm actually moving it away from my model. They were going almost pointing it straight. Words going to grip the meter. Gonna meet her again. 5.64 So that's 5.6 and one click up because it's very close to 5.63 Okay, there you go. Kinross. Okay, look that way. Gonna do the same thing. But now it's a little bit more Feder. They see that the light quality is immediately a little bit softer. Give it a little bit medium contrast and now high contrast from this side. There we go. So you see you are in total control off your lighting. And that's the cool thing about understanding what lighting does. You don't have to worry on a set. You can just focus on shooting the model. Hey, Frank, I don't have a strip light with grit. They do it with an umbrella. Yes, we can. And we're also going to talk a little bit about backdrops. 10. Chapter 10 Backgrounds: Okay, so it's finally time for your first photo shoot with where do you place your model? You can, of course, use seamless backgrounds paper, and you have many different colors. You've gray you if, why to have black of purple, whatever. There are many, many colors. In my opinion, paper is okay, but it's not that exciting. What I like more is to use walls. Now, if you look around in our studio, you will actually see that we have different walls and they're painted in different teams. So, for example, if I walk to this wall, you can see that we start off pretty dark and we go to pretty light. Now, the thing is, if you know, light fall off. This is actually a trick. That's very, very cool to use, because if I'm shooting that way, my life fall off will be a little bit less harsh because I'm going to a slightly lighter wall. If I shoot dead way, the light fall off will be very, very fast because I go to a dark wall. Now, here you go on like Frank. Sorry. We can't paint our walls in the studio like this because, well, we will be kicked out there. Our landlord or my wife doesn't like it because I'm actually using my my living room. It's a studio or my ethic. Yeah, well, it can be a problem, but you can even use a wide wall or wallpaper. You have to be creative about what you use as a backdrop. Hey, Frank, I really have a situation where I don't like it at all. Artist Solutions. Yes, our friends from Leicester Lite created something that I absolutely love. And that's this. Let me bring warning. These are the sole called Brubeck's Backgrounds. I absolutely love these. You just put your money only from of it. And because there's already shadow in the back row up in the backdrop, you actually know how to aim your life to enhance those shadows, and it creates an incredibly realistic image. I'm going to show you some images we already shot with these. You saw how incredible those big drops look. You can bring them everywhere you can bring two or tree and just one back. And the cool thing is, this is the front, and when there's a front, there's also a big and there we go. And there we have a graffiti wall. Isn't it awesome? But in all essence, anything can be a backdrop. It's your creativity that's actually the limit. Just go for it. Put your model in front of it. But most of all letter connect with that background. If you just put her in front of it. It's a backdrop and a model. If you make a connect with it, you could see shadows. You can play with those shadows and shadows are your friends shadows out of solo for shot so backdrops anything goes seamless, pretty safe. 11. Chapter 11 Umbrella: Okay, let's talk about one off the most used Modify its for a lighting, and it's actually the umbrella. Now, in this case, we're using a reflective umbrella. That means we're actually shooting in the umbrella. And the umbrella reflects the light back to our subject. In this case, we use silver inlay. Why? Silver Silver is a little bit harder than white. My personal preference. I like that speculator iti in my shots, so I like it. Silver. But how do you Just an umbrella. Is it just the umbrella, or do you need to do something? Well, if you can see here, this is the rot. And what we know actually do is we open this up and of course I can do this. Do this far away as possible now, actually, you will have some light spillage and that can be really not see on your model or your backdrop or whatever. It just not the way it's supposed to be. The thing is, the umbrella is actually pretty awesome because you can do several things with one modifier . Now, if you look at lighting the bigger delight source, the softer the quality of light, the smaller delight, sores, the harsher, the quality off light. So what's what you can do with an umbrella? If we open this up, I cannot actually move the umbrella up until around here. Now, if I close this, the umbrella is approximately perfectly lit. There's no lights village, and the whole umbrella is used. So if the biggest possible light source Now, of course, Normally in a stroke, you can also use a reflector, so you bundle the light more towards your umbrella. But in this case, we just use the bear stroke just to show you guys, you can do something else. What you can do is loosen this up again, and now I can actually make my lights or smaller. So did means I make my life shores harder. And this is of course, a really cool trick. If you only have one mother fire and you still want that really nice, crisp light quality, just make your umbrella smaller or you make your umbrella larger. And the thing is in a dark studio, you just have to look at the sites off your umbrella, and as soon as you see it spills over, you just go back and then you fast in this crew. That's how an umbrella works. Okay, guys, behind me, you can see an umbrella. Now, I did cheat a little bit because this umbrella is actually umbrella that you shoot into and it reflects back, and it's what we call a deep umbrella. So in other words, it's a little bit deeper and again that has everything to do with steering that light. I just love that I love to stay in my life. I have to make sure that it goes where I want it to go. So what I do I have in my hands because I'm using a different modifier. I again if the color checker and of course, the light meter. Because first we have to make sure that the light is correct on our model Rosa. And it's exactly F eight Now. I don't think you always have to shoot on F eight in the studio today. It's just a today, probably. I don't know. King Rosa here is the color checker. Great. Hold it in front of your face and make sure that you shoot to call a checker as flat as possible. So that means that she has to point towards the light source and how we go big smile like you're doing this for X rise and now a little bit less off a creepy smile. That's nice. Awesome. So now we have a lot of shots from the color checker. Great. So let's just put that away. And let's first start out with just using this umbrella like, Well, it's intended to be, according to a lot of people just straight on the model. Great risk. A look a little bit towards me. It's nice. Put your ice towards me. Love it. Let's go to a slightly lower angle. Makes the model look a little bit taller. And they absolutely loved it. Of course, I love a chin down just a little bit. And the final shot. Great. Now these are okay, shots, But let's say you want a little bit more control over your shot. What we're gonna do in the next scene is actually we're gonna feather delight. What I'm gonna do is I'm actually going to use the site off the light. The cool thing is the sites off the lights are always a little bit softer, a little bit more creamy They just look better if you go for a softer look. Of course. So let's feather the light away from our model. So let's do it like this. There we go. Of course, we have to re meet it because we changed the life. And on its 5.65 let's go back to F eight. Okay, gripped camera and just look at the difference. Okay? Really nice. Gonna go for a lower angle immediately. Okay, there we go. I love it. And in case you get a more intimate look now, let's just Federer the way for more. But also moved the light very, very close to the backdrop. Not too much. And then, Federer, it like this looks ridiculous. Trust me. Let's meet a delight very quickly. Okay, 8.5 So that's on the camera. F eight and two clicks up. So that's F 10 again. I'm going to go for the lower angle immediately because we love the models to be told standing against Victor, Please love it really nice and not what you see us as we get this really dark and it's the only promise. We have a little bit off the umbrella in the image so Rosa can step one step that way came opening off just 1/3 of an F stop, just to be sure. Okay? And there we go. And of course, I can move around my model and changed the look off the shot again. Now you still have thirds a shadow off your umbrella. So let's off that in the next thing. Okay, so what did we change? Look behind me. The umbrella is actually way up there. Now, remember, in the start, when I showed you the whole frequently Yobe pulled This is where a lot of people struggle with their lighting. I see a shadow. How do I take it away? And one of the first things they actually do is at extra lighting, and it just over complicates the set enormously. Always try with one light source. If you think you need to try it with one. If you think you need three, try it with one. And if you think you need for what's this video, you can see that you can do a lot with only one or two light sources. Now, without kidding, What? I actually did it. I made sure that the light is so high up that it doesn't block the light spillage on the background anymore. In other words, you will have a nice evening lead background. And Rosa, our model is actually hit by the sights off the light. Because the light is not aimed at Rosa anymore. It's not actually aims a little bit like here, so way in front of Rosa now, because there's no subjecting from the Rose, huh? It doesn't matter. So we're just gonna use the site of the light. And I look at the effect. I'm sure you're gonna love this because this is way different. The only thing, of course I have to take care of his. That Rosa look straight into the lights were for the very simple reason we want those we want. Those gets lights in your eyes. Okay, Look straight up a little bit. You love it. That's nice. Center your eyes. Really nice. And now you also see that the shadow falls way nicer on the back row really like this. So let's go for a slightly lower angle. There we go. And you could actually still walk around your model. That's I'm going to shoot it from here to make sure that there's no light sent, in a way, really like this or let's walk all the way over here and he looked a little bit up. I love this, and now we will see the light source in the frame probably, but just shoot from a higher angle up, and now it will be going again. If you make sure that your light source is not in the frame, it will not show up. So just follow the lines off the lights in your mind, and you will exactly know where those shadows hit now. Normally, when we don't have led lighting on for filming, the studio spits dark, and we can exactly see where that light is falling because use your modeling lights. But in this case, I have to figure it out just a little bit. But just thinking about where my life is, I can actually predict where those shadows fall. It's a little bit off experience, but over time you will find out that the more you practice this, the easier it will be. And at one point you will be an absolute magician for your client because you know exactly how the light is falling. Let's take one or two more shots. Hiroshi, look a little bit that way. I really love this. So go for portrait. I love this. Just tilt your head of just a little bit. I love it. Go for a slightly lower England. More half body. Okay, really nice. Now, if you want to spice to shut just up a little bit, that's that's emotion. Rosa, can you turn around? And then as soon as I say yes, turn around very violently. So we have all those hairs flying around. Are you ready? 123 Go. Love it in again. 123 Go. As you can see, we now, if that's really nice motion in our air and we just have a little bit off the Softworks on top Story off the umbrella. So let's try that again from a slightly higher angle. You could see what I mean. Yeah. Okay. Want to tree? Go. There we go. And one more. It was a little bit too fast. Doesn't matter. Are you ready? 123 Go! Awesome. So remember, follow those lines of light and you know exactly where the shares are gonna fall for the next set. I'm actually going to talk a little bit about light full off and a very small so, folks. 12. Chapter 12 Light Fall Off: okay for the next set up, I'm actually going to show you what light fall off. Thus now, what is life fall off? It's actually pretty simple to explain the light force off over a distance. Right? The in first square low. We talked about it before. Now what I did is I actually use a very simple soft box. It's just a square soft box. In this case, it's actually an old pro Lingus soft books. Now, the cool thing is, nowadays you can buy comforters so you can use your old soft boxes on your new gear. Or, in my case, I can use all my L Ingram equipment on the full text ropes. And, of course, the other way around there just conferred the rings. Now what I did is I actually place it pretty high up, aiming down at the model to create a nice glow on the background. I don't want too much light on the background. Just a nice glow. But I'm gonna show you how you can change that glow into something a little bit more. But first, of course, we have to meet a delight. Okay, so again, we aim towards the light source because that's actually the area once correctly let and were it 8.7 So at 1/3 of an F stop There we go and we're on F 11 and again, Effie left any Jessica incidents, you have to determine your own depth of field. Now, what is depth of field? It's actually what is sharp and what is out of focus. So, for example, if you say okay, I only want the eye sharp, and I want the rest to be blurry. You shoot it on 2.8 or lower. 1.81 point four if you want the background sharp and the model shop he shooted on F 16 or F 22. Okay, so we're now it f 11. And let's just take a shot of rows away to call a check. Or so we'll call it triggering from a few face. Okay, great. So now we have a reference point, and let's take one simple portrait. Nice. Okay, look, a little bit more off. I love it, and I could see that we have will slide light on the background and our model is correctly lit. Really nice. Now let's say we want a little bit more light on the background and still have our model perfectly lit. That's very simple to do. The only thing you have to do, it's Wiffle that light towards the background. So we're gonna open this one up. Just gonna aim the light a little bit more up. Now, of course, you need to re meet her. But you know what video? Let's just forget about that for once. No. Good. Let's open up. And how you can see that the background is just a little bit more light. Let's say you want even more light on the background, Remember, in fair square law, Okay, What's this? What we're gonna do is we're actually not only aiming it towards the lights or background, actually, also raising to strope up and moving it slightly away from our model. So what I now do is that change the distance between my light source and the model and the distance between the background and the model is equal. So that means that now they should be way more light hitting the backdrop. And now I do really need to re meet her. Okay? Okay. We're at 5.6. Just shoot it as 5.6 and I will have a shallower depth of field and way more light on the background, as you can see now. And it's a pretty dramatic difference because we go from this moody set up that is mawr well, flat set up. There's little bit of separation between the background and a model. They're all in the same tins area, so I don't really like this. Now let's see if we can change very quickly back by only using the swivel. So let's do this very nice. Okay, a meter. And I'm actually also feathering the light because the light is actually aimed towards here . But because we're shooting a portrait, it will be okay. 5.64 That's actually 5.6 and one click up on the camera. So we go to 5.6 and in one click up 6.3. Okay. State. Really nice. I love it. Okay, so now, by changing the distance and swift feeling it a little bit, I'm now back at a more moody backdrop and my model now, without changing the model, can we make a docker? Yes, of course. watch this, and it's the same technique. I just want to give you a lot of information about this technique because this is one of the most important techniques I can teach you. So go really low. Now, go a little bit more to the site of my model like this and aim your light away like this. So now I actually, my hot spots should be here, and the model is over there. So let's see what happens. Hold it in front of the area you want correctly lit in this case, the model 8.8 So that's almost f 11. So just add a little bit here, so that should be at 11. And let's shoot this. Okay, look, a little bit up and there we go. Now we have this really nice moody backdrop. Now, if I walk around my model, I can again control contrasts. Looked at me Jean up just a little bit. Look towards the light. Perfect. So as you can see, you're in total control off your back. Drop off your model and everything else if you understand the very, very basic of lighting. And that's the infest prayer law sounds very, very high end. But in essence, in essence, it's really simple. Moved the light closer and the light full off will be faster. Moved the light further away and the light full off will be slower. So if you're more light on the background, change the distance between your model and the lighting. If you want less light on the background, change the distance again. But now make the light closer to the model, and the distance between the model in the background stays the same. That's actually being fast, Cuello. 13. Chapter 13 Butterfly: okay. One of the most famous lighting setups is, without any doubt, the butterfly lighting. Now what is butterfly lighting? It's very, very simple. It's light straight down on the model. You get this beautiful shadow under her nose, and it has to be a little bit symmetrical. If you've trouble with that, then just make it totally not so medical. Both anyway, the butterfly lighting is straight down on the model, and it's a really classic look. So first, let's meet a delight So we don't Rosa, it's 8.5 No case. Have to turn it down. There we go. Okay, let's take the shot on F eight. And now you can look a little bit down. Perfect. As you can see, I'm using my hands to coach the model. And here we have the beautiful, beautiful butterfly lighting absolutely loved this very classical. And rows, of course, is a great model for this kind of stuff. And this is especially in black and white, just an awesome technique. Now the butterfly lighting is one technique, and other one is actually Rembrandt. Personally, I like that a little bit more, but first you see with the butterfly lighting that there's a little bit off darkness on the risk in a story under her chin. How are we going to solve that? Very simple. We're going to use a reflector now. Reflectors there. Many kinds of reflectors big reflect the small reflectors with most reflectors are round. Now, the thing with around reflector is that it takes up a lot of space, and it only uses a small part to actually light the model, reflect back the light. So what I like to do is I actually love, um, or rectangular reflector. And in this case, we're going to use the Roque Reflector. Okay, so now she can see a Rose has actually holding her own reflector. Okay, look. A little bit down. That's awesome. Nice. A little bit more down. And also with your eyes. Nice till she knows a little bit that way. Perfect ice towards me. Absolutely gorgeous. Still, she knows a little bit more. Stop. That's it. She could see. I'm really trying to get a butterfly exactly on the needs. And there we go. That's it. Love it. And now you can see what it reflected. Does we? Using the seal for side if used the white side, it's a little bit softer. We just turned it around. They use the white side. There you go. That's really nice, closer and of course, also hear the in fair Skrela work. So if she holds it a little bit higher, we'll get a little bit less shadow. Personally, I love those deep shadows. So in my case, I actually don't like it that much with The Reflector. But we to reflect a more down. That's actually an option to just open up a little bit under the chin. And some people really hate it when the chain is really dark really helps out. And I just love the fact that it's more rectangular than round because with around, she would actually be hitting two stroke over here and she would only get a small area of light on her face. So this is awesome. 14. Chapter 14 Rembrandt: - Okay , so now we change the light actually to the site. And this means that we're now ready for more Rembrandt lighting, and it's actually my preferred way of lighting. Now, don't get me wrong. I like what we did before with the butterfly lighting, but I just like a little bit more contrast in my shots. So let's meet. It is. And again we use a light meter. You hold it in front of the area you want correctly lit. In this case, of course, it means aiming towards the light source because otherwise the light source wouldn't be there. So let's meet. It is very close to the model. Okay, that's a 5.68 Now, when you use a light meter, you always get full f soft if you set it up like that. And that's actually what I advise you guys. You get the full F soap. In this case, 5.6, you get a second number. That's eight. I have to remember that your light meter gives you tense off F stops. Your camera works in 1/3 off F stop so 5.63 means on the camera, 5.6 and one click up 5.66 means on the camera. 5.6 and then two clicks up. So 5.68 is almost f eight. But I'm gonna add to tens often f stop in. In this case with these throat, I'm gonna add 1/3 often epistle because those strobes are actually set up into its off f stops. Okay, so this should be a faith. Okay, Rosa, can you look that way and just send to your eyes? Now the reason I say send to your Isis because I don't want those walking dead ice with a lot of I, Weitz and pupil, the way gone. So when I asked my model to send through her eyes, she would get a beautiful, beautiful look. It's really nice. And I consider we have the beautiful Rembrandt triangle. If you want to try angle a little bit more, the only thing you have to do is ask your model to step one tiny step forward. There we go do the same thing. And now you have a really cool Rembrandt. I love this. Almost only I is shown in the triangle. Really cool. The only problem is that site is really dark, and I just love her jawline. So let's at an accent light. What is an accent light? It just makes sure, but you see a little bit more off the jawline. So let's say that one up, big guy. So we set up our excellent lighting, and it's actually a strip light from that side. And we have Brian here with a reflector. But let's first try it without reflectors. O'Brien, if you can stand out shit. Okay, Rosa looks trade towards them. Sent to your eyes Really nice. Okay, As you can see, the extent life gives a really nice actions around the jawline off the model, it's a little bit dark, so let's just open it up a little bit. Can take one step backward, okay? And look down. Very nice. Okay, this is a little bit better, but now let's say we want to open it up even more. So now we're gonna bring in the reflector again. So, Brian, if you can stand really close, Rose, I looked that way. Now what the Reflector actually does is it just opens off the shadow areas and by just moving it around like this, you can very quickly see exactly what kind of affected will do. So don't just put it in there, Really? Move it around a little bit closer, Brian. There we go. And just hold it like this. There we go, and it won't open up all the shadows, but it will just steak away. That's really darkness in the shadows. And this is actually how I prefer not nice. She not just a little bit and look towards the life. I want to see those kits. Lights Very nice. Says you can see it's a really simple set up. Make sure you have it from an angle and then use that strip light to just open up the jawline. It's an amazing set up, and you can create some stunning images with it. There's only one problem. The model can look straight at you because if she looks straight at you, it will look like this. Yeah, that's not the shot you want. Of course. 15. Chapter 15 White Background: Hey, guys, do you see this behind me? It's a white background now. One of the things about white backgrounds is that they're really hard to light. Well, in essence, it's pretty simple if you use one of thes the light meter Now, I want to explain something very quickly about using the light meter for a white background . The first thing you have to realize it's the background really white. Well, in this case, let's say it is now. There's a very simple rule in photography and in light metering. There are two ways to meet her one incident metering and two reflective metering. Now what is the difference between incident metering and reflective metering? It's actually pretty simple incident. Meter reading depends on where you hold your light meter. In other words, if I hold it in front of the area, I want correctly lit. I get the meter reading and I put it in the camera and it's recorded correctly. Reflective metering is something else. I actually aimed towards a shirt an area and get the value for 18% gray. Now have to calculate I'm going to show you that in a diagram right after I'm gonna tell you, 18% grace. Middle gray. Now, if you add one more stop, you're a 36% Great. If you had another stop, you're at 72. If you read another stop, you're at 144. You might say that if you overexpose the background by, let's say, 2.5 stops reflective, it should be pure white now. A lot of people do this. They will actually use incident meter reading and at 2.5 stops. That's wrong, because now the backgrounds will actually go nuclear. That means that it will actually reflect back more light on your model, and it took a few lens flare. So how do we set it up? Let's just start. Very simple. If I know the background is white, I can actually use incident meter reading because not every light meter actually has an option for reflective metering. So you aim you stroke atyou backdrop. You hold your life neither in front, you take a meter reading. Now let's say I want to shoot our model Rosa on F eight. Now if I meet a background on F eight, in theory, it should be pure white. Yeah, in theory, and it's a shame t reading that works. And why not? Well, there might be some Greece is in the background and maybe some. Maybe it's a little bit off white, I don't know. So just to be sure, and just to be safe, where you do an incident meter reading off your backdrop just at one stop to make sure that everything is nice and evenly lit and it's pure white now when you do reflective meter reading, that's actually what I'm going to stand over there. I'm gonna aim at the background and take several meter readings. That's way, way Mawr accurate for the very simple reason. If my backdrop is, let's say gray, it will still give me the value for 18% Great. And it just have to get 2.5 stops to make it pure white. If it's pure white, it will give me the value for 18 present gray. I have to add 2.5 stops to make it pure white. Simple right. So with incident, you have to make sure that your background is white, which reflective really doesn't matter. But the reflective meters are a little bit more expensive now. 2.5 stops. That's to Yuri again. Nowadays, digital cameras are a little bit mawr advanced. So if I would have recorded this video 10 years ago, which I actually did, I would have told you guys 2.5 stops and it would blow out easily on Canon Nikon. Whatever camera you use nowadays, in all honesty with the new Sony sensors, they have something called a shoulder at the top. I don't worry, I'm not gonna explain it because that's a little bit more technical. But let me put it this way. It takes a long time before it's really blows out the white. So when you do reflective metering, although the calculation is 2.5 stops, feel free to add 3.5 stops. So incident at one stop reflective at about 3.5, maybe four stops. Just try it out with your own camera and see the dynamic range, because that's where the problem lies. Dynamic range of your camera. But don't overdo it as soon as you hit that. That's pure white point. Don't do more because then the background will start to reflect on your model and you will get lens flares. Okay, So how many lights do you need to properly light your backgrounds? Well, perfect is, too. But today we're gonna try it with one. Why? Because I know that most people will actually start out with two strokes and I want to keep this video. It's simple. It's possible for you guys. And of course, you can light it with four strokes. That's perfect. Um, let's just try it with one. Oh, and one more thing. Don't just meet her behind your model. Make sure you meet her on the sites on the top and on the bottom. And if you do with written reflective, make sure you do the same thing, so make sure that everything is evenly lit. Now, if you do have three strokes, don't light them like this. But actually Lightem in across. So one stroke on debt site is actually hitting that site, and the stroke on that side is actually hitting that strike site. Well, let's start and we have four model. We have a white background. Let's rock this white background. Okay, I'm in front of the white background I have my trusty light meter and I'm gonna meet in the background and we're going to do the incident. Light metering Now. I already determined they were going to shoot Rose our own F eight. And let's say you don't have that light meter that has reflective metering. Now we know that this is the white background, so we simply hold the light meter in front. Make sure you have it on the right. I e. Isso in, Of course, shutter speed. 1 25th We're gonna meet her here. 11.1 11.0. 8.7 8.9 That's approximately F 11 everywhere, 11.1 and 11.2. So overall, with one tourist often f stop, it's about 11. And the cool thing is, I'm only using one stroke on the background Now. I prefer to have, of course, two strokes on the background, but again, this video, we're going to keep its really, really simple Now. After this, we're also going to do a reflective metering, So I'm gonna walk over there and we going to do the same thing. But now it's reflective. Okay, now we just beat it the whole scene in incident mode. I'm not gonna actually meet her the scene in reflective mouth. Now, remember, when you shoot it, but you meet us something in reflective mode, it will give you to fail you for 18% gray. So now I have to calculate and a stated before we're just gonna at about 3 3.5 stops extra , and I already meet it incident. So let's see if I'm actually right. So gonna change the light meter to reflective now on some light needed. You have to turn on some light needs. You just press like on this one. I can just press a button. Okay, there we go. 22.4, 22.1, 22.7 0.7 16 and 22.0. Now, remember, we're going to shoot the model on F eight, so f A to F eel Effin is 1 16 and actually 22. So exactly three stops. So there's one stop above what it should be, and it's actually similar toward real incidents. Or now you see that the results are the same way and shoot, incident or reflective. The only advantage you have when you do this reflective is that it doesn't matter what the background is. In this case, it's pure white. But if it's a little bit off white, it's way better to do it with a reflective meter. But, hey, these are a little bit more expensive. Okay? We're ready to shoot the white background. And the cool thing is because I said everything up, I only have to concentrate on my model because I already know that the lighting is right. Now imagine this. You don't have to shoot which your client and go like Oh, you have to change something. Oh, now that doesn't look right. That looks so unprofessional. Now it's a matter off taking the shop. And the first shot will be right because you meet it everything gay Rose, Are you ready? Look straight at me. Please. Chin down just a little bit. There we go. The X smile like you're having fun. Awesome. That's great! A see. The images have come in our immediately right now the thing that we use, it's just a simple beauty dish and one reflector on the background. So with two strokes, if the perfect white backgrounds Do you want to see the same thing for black and a little bit more drama, Let's go to the next thing. 16. Chapter 16 Beautydish: welcome beauty dish without a doubt, one off the most use modifiers in beauty photography. That's why it's actually called a beauty dish. But how does the beauty disc work? It's actually pretty simple. It's a big dish, and there's this deflector in front. Now what happens is that two stroke, oh self, it actually hits the deflector and all the light goes back and through the beauty dish. So you have a really shallow dish that's actually lit from top to bottom and from side to side. And it creates a beautiful wraparound light effect without a doubt and without any doubt, the best thing to do. Portrait because it's soft light and it's a really beautiful quality of light, hence the name beauty dish. The other thing you can do with the beauty dish and that's actually also pretty cool is, of course, removed the deflector. And now, if away, harsher light quality. Now this is a small beauty dish. My personal preferences is actually a smaller beauty dish. Now you also from bigger But in all honesty, if I go bigger, I prefer soft box because there I don't know. I just like to look a little bit more, but the smaller beauty dishes with out a doubt, my favorite modifier for portrait. Now, if you think like, OK, Delight is okay, but it's still a little bit too broad. So I wanted Mawr aimed at a model. You could use something called a grit. So here we have a great now, the cool thing about the greatest Again, it steers delight words your subject. You can just click it on like this. It's really easy to do, and now you're very compact light source that literally steer slight straight on your subject beauty dish. One off the things I would really advice you guys to buy as soon as you get your first lighting. Kids a reflector and a beauty dish and published three plight. But there's another chips or about strope and modifier advice. Okay, guy. So we tried the Infra Square Law and nature works. Physics works, I mean, but it's not the perfect solution. What we need is a narrower beam off light. We need to steer that light away from the background background bet, model goods. So what we're going to use for that? It's a great now what is a great It's very simple. Now you see me and now you don't. Now you see me, and now you don't you determine which one you like better. Now, if a place is in front of my light source is actually means that the light source doesn't spread out all the way around. But it actually is very, very focused on my model. That means that the light actually won't hit the background for a very simple reason. We have under an angle aimed down and remember the job report example. If you don't let light hate a subject, you won't see the shadows. If your light doesn't hit the background, you can't see the light. So, in other words, let's play station from the far beauty dish. You just snap it on like this. It's really easy. And the cool thing is, now I don't need it this close to my model. I can now actually comfortably just move it a little bit more to the Beckett myself. A little bit more breathing space between me and my model. I'm not gonna meet it. The light again for F eight just turns. Here we go. Let's pick up the light meter Let's set it up for if. Eight. 2.88 eight points. Year of life. Let's go down and it should be a fade. Okay, Perfect. We're now and I have faith. Let's take the shop and see what happens on the background. You see me not even meeting the background for the very simple reason I now know for sure there will be no light hitting the background. 17. Chapter 17 Black Background: Okay, guys, we changed the white background for a black background, but is it really black? That's the question. Is it the dark side, or is it the light side? Well, of course, white backgrounds. You can very easily meet her. And you can add more light or less light on the background to make it perfect. Like we show in the brief. You seem now we have black. How do we meet her? That well, you can do the same calculation. If 18% grace middle gray and you go down one goes down to 9 4.5 2.21 I'm going to show you the diagram now. So you see, in theory, 4.5 stops down would mean that the background would be pure black. Yeah, In theory, nowadays, modern cameras, actually, if a little bit more dynamic range. So let's say five stops down should be pure black. Now we know that we meet it Rosa on F eight and we didn't change anything. The beauty this is still there. We still have a sticker on the ground where Rose is gonna stands. So let's just meet the backgrounds. First incidents Let's go. Okay, 1.4 well compared to F eight. That will probably mean that they're still a little bit of detail on the background. So, yeah, how do we show off this? Let's first see if my tear each correct and by the way, also when we meet her, it reflective. We still have some light on the background. So let's see if that's really the matter. Rosa, can you come into set and please stand? Okay, So we did it. Incident. Let's very quickly do. It's reflective. Okay, 1.47 1.46 And because I'm metering black, you get these results. Yeah, it's it's not pure black, so I'm pretty sure that I'll pick up my camera. I will actually see detail in the background. You know what? Let's do it. Let's just pick up the camera. There we go. We're still on F eight rows are still ready to go. Big smile like you're having fun showing up just a little bit. There we go. Awesome shelter. Really nice. And as you can see in the background, you actually see detail. So how are we going to solve this? Well, there's one way, and there's a second way that's first of the 1st 1 Now there's something in photo, photography and light called the in first Cray Low. That means if I move my life closer to a subject, the light fall off will be much faster. So in essence, now the beauty days is, let's say, one meter away from Rosa and Rosa is like maybe three meters away from the background. If I make the distance between my front light and the background, Biggers or, in other words, and moved this light closer to Rosa, the background will actually be darker. So let's start with that. And then we're gonna switch to Method to which I personally prefer. Okay, guys, we changed the light set up to really close to our model Rosa. It's pretty uncomfortable close. Now. Let's meet a dish. Let's see if I'm still in their fate. So I actually have to, after to step a little bit that courts, because he's so close. There we go. So, yeah, let's see if the in first career law really works. It should be okay, Let's pick up the camera. It's really difficult to make a shot like this big smile like you're having fun. That's nice. Okay, Now, as you can see, the big crunch is indeed darker. Yeah, but this is really uncomfortable. So we're gonna go to solution to in solving the problem off the background. That still catches light and debt, ladies and gentlemen is actually using a grit. Okay, so we set up the grit we have, Rosa, let's see if it works. We move to light, actually a little bit further away, which feels any more comfortable. And I can shoot easily. And there we go. Weeks, my like they're having fun. Awesome. Do you know if they asked a little bit? There we go. That's nice and very serious. Think about the big fashion. Look. Great. So, as you see, very, very simple set up just moved to light a little bit further way at a grid. And there's a perfect black background. There's one thing actually, we didn't do yet, and that's the most important shot of all. Shoot the color checker. So they see. Can you bring me to color checker, please? Now go. Okay. Hold it in front of your face and don't cover the squares. There we go. Now you have to make a funky face. Otherwise the color check on works. There we go. They always fall for that one. Now, this is the most important shot. Because this is where we actually determine accurate colors for your camera. Now, why didn't I shoot it with the white background? Very simple. Musing exactly the same light source. Now, if you want to be perfect, sure also shoot it with a white background. In my case, we just shoot it here. 18. Chapter 18 Plugins And Presets: Okay, guys, we all a photo shop. We all of light room capture one DX, so it doesn't matter. We all love it, But there's another thing, and that's plug ins. Now. For some people, it's the most evil thing you can do. You don't use plug ins. If you're a professional, you use whatever. For some people, it's just the best thing ever. I'm one of those guys because for the very simple reason I love doing stuff besides my photography. And if there's a tool that makes my work easier, more repeatable and in other words, faster, I'm all for it. So in this segment, we're going to switch to the computer, and I'm gonna actually show you my favorite plug ins. But first I want to say why I love plug ins now. Plug ins cost money without any doubt. Now let's look at two off my favorite plug ins for skin. For example, we have topaz clean, and we have image gnomic portraiture. No, I'm not affiliated by image gnomic portraiture. We do have an affiliate with Topaz, but I'm going to give you my honest opinion because you know me, right? I will never tell you anything that isn't my honest opinion. Topaz Clean is cheap. It does. It works flawless. It's probably just as good this image. Atomic portraiture. The thing is, with Topaz clean, and I'm going to show you that in a moment you have to go in to to pass clean, use the preset, change some stuff around and then save it. That's pretty much how it works Now with image atomic portraiture, you do the same thing. You go into image number portraiture. You click on some areas. It renders it a little bit faster than to pass, and then it exports it back into Photoshopped pretty much the same, right up until there. The cool thing is that with image gnomic portraiture, you can actually do actions, and its remembers the settings, so in workflow it's a little bit faster. The mosque is a little bit better, but I do that anyway later in photo show. So if you do, let's say 10 images a week. Go for auto plants. Topaz clean. If you do a gazillion images a week, go for image stomach portraiture. If you need that out of mosque in go for image normal portraiture, it's a huge difference between I think, 30 euros and 200 euros. Now. There are a lot of people online that will make you crazy after. If this plug it, you have to have this always step back and realize, what does the plug in do you see a lot of plug ins being sold by? We go from this dull image to this amazing image. Yeah, sure, and it makes money to no. Most plug ins are, and I don't want to put down those plug ins, but they're simply plug ins that make your life easier. You can do those yourself. Just play a rounding photo shop or light room with some settings like Contrast, a. D. Hayes Clarity and Store does as presets and you pretty much there. Of course, there's an intelligence engine working, But you have to realize, Do I really want to spend that money on that? In my personal opinion? No. The plug ins that I do like and I'm going to show you in a moment are actually blocking to do something special, like, for example, dxl film back or aliens can exposure does really changed the look off your images. I can do that with curves, but I like to do it with a plugging because it's easier now. The other thing. I want to warn you for those guys out there selling presets for 199 euros. A look at those presets and you go like Oh, my, I want that look. Now, remember one thing, If I show you something, do you really think I'm going to show you that with an average example or and I'm going to show you that with an image that's actually quite sucky? And then I run my preset and it looks awesome. Of course I'm going to do the last thing now. Remember that the plug ins itself are great. Those are the sofa packages. Those are the ones that make it possible to create that look, the presets itself. I'm not a fan of to sell those, because presets are actually settings off the sliders now when you buy. So for pickets like alien skin exposure, you already get a lot of those presets for free. Now you can change them, for example, at a little bit more grain at a little bit more. Read anything getting or a lighting effect or whatever, but you can change that yourself. In other words, if you buy presets, don't spend 199 euros on Appreciate pick. That's ridiculous. Hey, Frank, you also sell presets, right? Absolutely true. I saw my own presets to you guys, but we only charts like 10 euros or 15 euros. He get a lot of presets for that. Can I make those presets myself? Yes, of course you can. But if you buy my presets, I just help you. Let's say this is where alien skin exposure is. This is where you want to be, and my presets are probably over there, so you just have to change a little bit. It's safe. Shoot timing for 10 euros. Hey, I have no problem selling my presets for debt, but 199 euros. Just think about it. You can do it yourself, and then you can save a lot of money and buy some proper plug ins. A long talk. Let's head over to the computer, and I'm going to show you some of my absolutely favorite plug ins and precepts. Hey, guys, let's start talking about my favorite flooding's not let me put one thing first. Plug ins are important. It's safe should time. But, hey, we already talked about this. Now the 1st 1 I want to show you is for the skin, and this is a more expensive one, and it's called image gnomic portraiture. You could see here image gnomic portrait here. Now The reason I prefer this one is because it's really, really fast, and you can actually make actions with it. And if you do a lot of retouching and really advise you to get this one, so the thing you have to do is go to 100% few way go, and you can already see the difference between before and after we're doing screen recording. So it's slightly slower. This you can see, and I have everything on full blast to show you guys exactly what happens so normally your way more subtler. Of course, this you can see it makes it really soft now what you would normally do. It's probably something in the smoothing medium area, so this is way more natural now. What's image nor fortitude does. It also creates a layer mosque. Or let me put it this way. It claims to only select the skin as soon as I do this, so I take the effect out. You can already see that that's not true because also the Polish effect that. And that's because in the wall there's actually the same color tones in her skin. Okay, now, if you don't have the money for this one, there's one that's actually pretty good. And even when a model has really bad skin, this is actually the one that I prefer. To be honest. Goto filters and get toe passed, clean and clean is a little bit weird because you can create stuff. That's, um, it's a little bit over the top, but overall, you have a really powerful option here. So let's go down and it's zooming on the face. Now. Of course, we don't want cartoon or Crisp. We want skin. So let's just do an D crunch. Let's start with this one now. What you see is it does a really, really good job, So if we do before and after, you can actually see that if you go to original, it's actually pretty good. It's a little bit mawr over here. You see it's a little bit more plasticky, but that's where you can actually change the strength, for example, to zero. And you can change your dress hold if you want more or less, I make it a little bit more natural now. The cool thing is, you can also add texture back. So, for example, let's say you have a model that has really bad skin in image gnomic. That's more like a softening effect. But in to pass clean, you can actually put texture inside the image. Make sure you guys how that works. So now we can actually put picturing. This is a little bit too much, of course, but it emulates the portion off the models skin, so that's a pretty pretty cool option. So here we have before and here we have to retouch version again. It's it's a little bit over the top at the moment, so let's just make it a little bit lower. Have to be honest. This works way better in image from a portraiture with Topas, it's a little bit like sometimes it's dragging. As you can see here, it's It's not a smooth s image, normal portraiture, but hey, we're also doing screen recording in the back. So I'm doing this on my left over to walk home. So it takes a lot off power away from what? We actually want to show you guys. But you get the idea, right? It's a really cool plugging. Okay, let's do some. Okay, Okay. We have the effect now in and out wearing photo shops in everything. Speech up again A little bit. So if you can see it doesn't really tremendous job. And it's like one tense off the coast of image Roman portraiture. So, yeah, I really loved this one. Now, of course, what we have to do with this and this is, by the way, not a photo shop video. I just want to show you what I like and what I use. So let's make a very quick a layer mask and it's brushed. You fixed out. Okay, We'll just have to be a great retouch, but before and after loved the effect for a fraction off the money. Let's go a layer flatten image. And let's look at some other fields that I really like. But before that, let's take out this very quickly. Okay? Now, to give the background a little bit more pop, one of the filters that I absolutely love. And it's also from to bash that's actually told pass clarity now there to tow past versions that I really like this detail and clarity now for this one. I absolutely love clarity because it brings out more on the background. I'm not going to run this field. I'm just going to show you the effect, and I'm gonna show you what actually detailed us. So let's go into, for example, just some standards. What I already created, like the full version. Here we go, he conceded. That really just enhances the background a lot. Of course, you have to use Leia months to get it out of the skin. It's on the skin. It's really nasty, but it's I always describe this s clarity on steroids to really, really cool effect. Okay, the other one. That's detail. So let's cancel. It's going to filter Tobias in detail. No detail is a little bit more difficult to explain, but let's call it a hyper sharpener. So if you have detail like for example, in skies or grass that you wanna do, you really wanna make jump out and sharpness. That's when you actually start using detail with clarity. It's more for smoke herb ICS backgrounds, and it's sort of stuff. So you would normally in light room or catch Juan or whatever program you use you would normally use clarity for no detail is way, way more refined. So let's just go to 100% for now. And let's focus on parts off the wool and on our hair. He can actually do, for example, shadow release. You can do shadow detail and what it actually does. Is it hype and sharpens your images? So you see, it's way more subtle. If you go to original, you can really see what happens. And, of course, you have a lot of settings here. Now this is something that I actually use a lot for. For example, if you have street or travel, photography really wanted hyper realistic. Look your buildings, and this is absolutely also, for example, when it rains and you want those reflections to really show up. This is an amazing filter for that. Okay, another filter I absolutely can't live without. It's actually for tenting my images. Now, if you look online you know that a lot of my images are actually always tended. I just love analog photography, and somehow I like this shot. But I like it to be a little bit more tins. So what you can do is dig so lapse film pick. And this is more if you want natural looking Film looks. So in other words, if you go like OK, I really like Philadelphia. I want something that's really close, or in my case, I actually changed everything around that you could see here. It's already made some really different looks, and you have black and white. But this is more aimed at film looks per se, so it doesn't has a lot of extra stuff. It's film looks, and it does it incredibly well. So, of course, you can go into your settings and change everything around. You go to modify, and you can use your grain. You can say exposure saturation tone curve If automatic corrections have some graphical effects like picture or light leaks, and in this case, there's no leak available. Mexican, of course, also used to leaks that are here that you can see here on the the bottom, but Hey, this is something that I really like. If you want accurate film techniques, there's 11 other plugging, actually, that I like a little bit more for film looks, and it's actually alien skin exposure. So let's go to Alien Skin Exposure X two. And this one is way, way mawr at funds in the form off. Of course, you have a lot of film looks. And personally, I like the film looks in D actual film back better, especially the grains. But in all honesty, this I really like for its versatility. You can do so much with this. So let's first find one that I like. Like, for example, fifties posters. It's a little bit too reddish. I take one. Great. Here we go show now you for before and after option, Of course, before, after there's actually one brushstroke here did have to remove guys and, of course, also here you for before and after. But the cool thing about alien skin is that you can actually just hover over the looks, and it will show you two look so you don't have to click because I still have my favorite selected that you can see here I can just hover over the different looks and alien skin will render them for me, and I can choose if I like one better. Of course, you can change everything you want, but as you can see here, there are way more options. So that's just close. This one mosque ing and, for example, you can do your teamed exposure highlights shadows, so that's pretty normal stuff. Joseph. A detail for sharpening and noise reduction, and now it gets more interesting. You also have Color Fielder's, and you can, for example, put a color filter on top off your image could change the density. You can really make those old faded looks. You could make it cooler or warmer. Let's go for a little bit cooler. I can use Call a saturation per color, for example, of need aretz and a lot of this stuff you will also find in other so for packages. But I think alien skin just hits Aled the marks you could do you curves and of course, you can have your red, green and blue curves and more down you go to the more creative stuff like thing getting so white and of course black. I was like the black ones. You can play short thing getting center there. And now it comes. The interesting stuff, the overlays. Now I'm not a big border kind guy, like I like borders. But in all honesty, I don't think they add a lot for your images. Delighting effects. Now that's a whole lot of story. Here you have so many options, and let's go to all just scroll through them. She has a low these options. Sometimes that gives me a lot of options to, for example, an arms, A little bit of smoke you can see year. Don't worry. I used this very, very spiritually. So most of the stuff that you see for me let's say 99.9% doesn't use any alien skin exposure to enhance. But sometimes, for example, if there's just an area where the smoke doesn't really work, you can edit with alien skin exposure. And the cool thing is that you can see here you see it on top. But let's say on it a little bit more zoomed out or zoomed in, depending on which side to go, you can actually change these. You can change the opacity, and it's just so incredibly powerful. You see? Okay, let's go down. And we also have texture. So now you can actually at a lot of textures. Let's go toe all again to show you guys. And I think by now you get the idea right. It's an incredibly extensive option and stuff to work with. And of course, you can create your own stuff if an import option where you can create your own texture so you can start shooting, for example, concrete or whatever. It's your own creativity. You know there's no limit to what you can do, okay, and of course you can. You can protect locations, for example, the face off the model. But that's not all you have. Focus where you can actually change. For example, your sharpness and your brew effects. You have grain pretty good grain, but away there you have your in front chicken, for example, use a little bit of glow. Some people love this. I personally I like it a little bit. Maybe maybe the fork bright. That's OK, but I think it looks too funky, so I'm not using that. These are the more interesting on your lens correction. We can actually change profiles. Trump, you can choose for a like a lens, Mumia, or whatever this is. This is a little bit similar to what you're seeing. Normal, raw, developing. So fair and you can change the distortion. And there we go. But this is pretty standard stuff. For if you used to light through more catch one. The other thing, that's pretty nice. And this so far is actually the Booker or bouquet, depending on how you will pronounce it, they conceded it sets a circle around Rose, and I can actually change this the way that I wanted to make it smaller. And I can also change the outer circle. What does he do? You can do a circle or like tilt shift effect. Or, for example, health, health plane are you know what I mean? And just change the effect first to maximum or off, and then just build it down until you see what you like. And this gets you really a lot of options for your photography. Now I'm not telling you to instagram the heck out of your shots, but it can really add a different look to your shots. Okay, so for the plug in section, those are actually my favorite blocking. So you have aliens can expose your ex, too dxl film picking If I have to choose between the two, I would go at this moment for exposure x two. But like a year ago, I would probably go for DHL film back and from toe pass. I really advise you guys to get clarity clean and detailed Piece tree are actually very, very good. Of course you can get the whole suite because also glow to its interesting and every really cool black and white effect. But clarity, clean and detail are absolutely awesome on. By the way, if you do a lot of cutouts, re mask is really good. And if you want some cool coloring, also test out restyle and oh, this one. I also want to show you simplify. This one can be pretty funky, but this is not one that I use a lot, but a lot of people actually love this one. You can actually use stuff for. For example, it's a cartoon or black lines more like a drawing idea. And of course you can change everything I've seen some amazing effects from the summer. When I do, though, my shots I was go like, yeah, I don't like it per se. I like it a little bit more natural, but some people are really into this stuff, so if you are to pass, that's a really cool and nice way of pricing their products there. Never overpriced, actually always think they're a little bit underpriced for what you get of hate. That's how they work. You guys love that, of course, because if you save money on one plugging, you can get a 2nd 1 Okay, so those are my favorite plug ins and one that I actually hardly ever used, but it's still wanted to show you guys and let's go on to the next topic. 19. Chapter 19 Color Checker And Calibration: now, how do you get constant results? In other words, if you start with a photo shoot and you end with photo shoot, how do you make sure that every image has the same look has the same quality? Of course, you use plug ins and Photoshopped to change your images. Or at least I do. I don't know what you guys do. Every light source has its own look. So, for example, of beauty days has a certain look. Eso folks has a certain local umbrella, but they can also be changes in color temperature. Now what is called a temperature? Let's not go too much into the material. But let's say if you have a lower color temperature, it's a little bit reddish. And it's if if you're for high color temperature, it's a little bit bluish. Let's just leave it at that Now. How do you make sure that every shot you take healthy except saying color? Look on? In other words, white balance. When you are our side, you can, of course, use out of white ballons. Hey, Frank, out of I balances. That's a solution for the studio. I'm so sorry. It isn't because your modeling lights in your strokes are off a lower or in any way a different color temperature than the strope itself. So if you use for example, you're out white balance, all your images will look funky. Now, if that's your thing, that's great. But for most people, it isn't so. How do you solve this? Very simple. They're several solutions. The most simple one is what called the White Balance Card. That's these now. White Banner. Scott is very simple. You let your model hold it in front of her face. You just use white balance in life from capture one or any program you one day all. If white balance and the color cost will be gone, because that's what it's called, the color cost. Hey, Frank! And we go a little bit deeper with that. Yes, off course. There are many different colors. You've red, green, blue shy magenta, yellow, purple, brown, everything in between. If you want all those colors to be registered correctly, that's possible. But did you ever, by the way, see a difference between a Canon and Nikon and Sony? One is a little bit more preference for blue. One likes a little bit more magenta. Any other one. Just love yellow, and you are frustrated because you have all these images that don't look the same. Now don't worry. There's a solution for this in the computer. It's actually known how red should look, how greens you look out. All those colors should look and a colt coordinates. I don't want to go too much in there, but there's an X y and a be quiet, and it's called saturation You and Lou Eminence. And those three coordinates are known. So how do you make sure that those cameras all look the same? That's where actually this little device comes in. This is an ex right color checker. The passport. Now what does he do? It is all these little squares. Now make sure that if you shoot it, I'm gonna show you, of course, in the in the shoot with Rosa. But make sure she holds it in from the fur face and flit lighting. So even if you use side lighting, you point the color checker towards your light source and shoot it That's fled. It's possible now in light room, you can create a so called DCP profiling. Wait a minute, we're going to start a video and I'm going to show you. As you can see here, Rosa holds the color checker in front of her face. Now it's incredibly important that this area off the color checker so the one way you can see X right color checker is totally open, so no fingers in front of thes squares. But it's also important that you use flat lighting as flat as possible. Big soapbox doesn't matter, but use it flat. So in other words, if you're setting up a shot with, for example, of friend L or with grated beauty dish, make sure that the color checker is as flat as possible towards the lights or so you can use any light. So if you want, you actually have to use the light source that you're shooting with and how the only thing you have to do, of course. First you have to install the show fair. But let's say you have done that, Of course, is go to file Goto Export and then go to your ex right presets and choose call a check a passport. Now just give it a name in this case for example, Arosa and then very simply, say, export. And in all honesty, that's about it. You can now see on top that it's processing the profile. It's now literally finding the color checker and creating that profile that's so important for the accurate colors, of course. So let's run these through and the higher the resolution. Of course it can can take a while for the process to be done. OK, there we go. The profile is being generated successfully. Light room must be restarted. That sounds easy. So that's close. This and let's open lights room again. Okay, now we're on the same picture. Now, what you do is you go to your develop module and in the develop module away at the bottom, you find something that's called camera calibration. Now let's zoom in a little bit on this. You can actually see what's happening. Okay, so we have camera calibration on normally that's on Adobe Standard. Now, what I always do is I will go to my white balance, and I will just select my white balance. There we go. That's already a big difference. Right now you go to Adobe Standard and which actually do issue select Rosa. And there we go. So that's a huge difference, as you can see between Adobe Standard and then Rosa, and this is especially, it depends a little bit for camera, but it can be a huge difference, I hope, on YouTube and on the video, you can also see this. There's a huge difference, and now the only thing you have to do is just select the images she shot under this light conditions. So in this case, or these images on just say sink. And at that point you have to make sure, of course, that your calibration is also seemed and in just singer Nice. And now all these images will have to correct color. And we'll, of course, have the color profiling set. And that's actually about it. There's no magic. There's nothing more so accurate colors and, of course, proper white balance. You can do it. Always call a check Passport from X, right? Okay, now that was easy, right? It's just export and it works Very, very easy solution. So this one is great. Do you need it for everything? Sometimes you don't use it. You use one standard profile for you Camera because what you actually do is you calibrate your sensor with this thing. And of course, the white balance that's separate from that. So this is the sensor calibration in the white balance is to call a cast. Sometimes you don't care about accurate college because you know you're gonna instagram the heck out of his shots. A frank What's instagramming? It means putting a lot of field to shine it, make it different colors. So then the color checker is important for accurate collars. You don't want accurate colors. You don't want continuity. Don't use it. In my opinion, just shoot it for every shot. Because, well, it doesn't take up any hard drive space. Just one shot and you can always go back to accurate colors. Okay, so now we have this one. Correct. Now you look on your monitor and you go like, you know what? It doesn't look right. That's because there's not a solution. And that's Kulti X right analyzers. And of course, there other brands. But hey, I love X right now. What is this that I hold in my hands? This is what they call the core analyzer. Nifty device, right? Small, nice looks cool. And this bad boy, This is also color analyzed, but this is a spectrometer now. A spectrometer doesn't read red, green, blue. It reads the whole spectrum, This one. It's called a tree stimulus meter. It's a little bit smaller. It's a little bit cheaper. It's a lot cheaper, actually, and it only reads certain areas off the spectrum of you're a hobbyist. This one does great. It's awesome. It's very accurate now. If you are a professional photographer, you know who I mean, Right? The guys that want everything perfect. This is the one you have to go for. It's a little bit more expensive. Lifestyle lifetime. It's a little bit longer, and every time you do the calibration, you have to recalibrate its by doing a dark reading. This is a professional, very, very accurate device, pricing around 400 euros and these will started around 80 to 100 euros. So what do you do? It does You put him in front of your monitor, you press a few buttons and well, you monitor is calibrated now you for proper calibrated monitor. Now a lot of people will go like Frank, But what if my client doesn't have a color calibrated monitor, so I have to call a calibrated monitor I use is amazing X right color. Check the passport. Emma Client looks and goes like Yeah, my monetarist calibrated. Now you have to remember one thing. Let's say you're color blind. Every green you see is a little bit towards brown. That means that if you see green somewhere, you recognize that the screen because you're used to seeing it a little bit brown. You know where I'm going, right? If your client doesn't have a calibrated monitor, he's used to seeing images on that calibrated monitor. Now most professional photographers or media persons will give few stuff that's calibrated . That's color corrected. They shoot, so he's used to seeing, for example, a little bit too blue are a little bit too green or whatever. If you don't calibrate, you monitor because your client dozens. And let's say your monitor is 20% to blue and your clients monitor is 20% to blue. You add those two together and it doesn't look right at all, so make sure you calibrated because then the client will recognize it as a correct image 20. Chapter 20 Extra Usb Tip For Tethering: Oh, and by the way, I almost forgot. There's one exhorting I really advice you guys to do. If you're in a studio environment, you want to make sure that your connection is always the best possible. Get a power to use. Be hup. Get that power to use, be up to your computer and then you know, always for sure that that connection is a solid as possible. Also, if you're from Echo PC, make sure you check out in your system reference that the USB ports are not put to sleep. There's an option in almost all systems where you can do power saving on, for example, USB pores. That's a disaster, because if the computer things, hey, there's no image coming in. Just put him to sleep. Yeah, and then you lose your images, so don't do that. Oh, and one more tip. We keep giving tips for tethering. Always make sure that you have a card in your camera. Now, on some systems, for example, with light room and Nikon, every image you shoot is off course, stored on the computer and on the cart. When you use capture one. In most situations, the Kardashian's isn't written to show. In other words, all the images go to your computer and the card is induced. Now why street to put the cart in their very simple If you lose connection, for example, somebody stands on your cable and it gets loose. You don't lose any images because it will actually save it on the cart. And one final thing. If you buy a power to use, be up, make sure you buy a good one. We tried several from brands I don't mention because they're pretty good brands, but they just didn't work for tethering. They kept up for about three or four months, and then they started dropping connection and weird connection problems. And, well, we changed it for a new one, and it worked great. And after three months again, the same problems and we switched over to actually a brand called Startek. Now Startek is expensive. I believe it's like 100 euros for a powered up, but we know already have it for a year and 1/2 and it still works the same way it worked. Day one. So if you want to make sure you have a rock solitary solution, make sure. Your cable. Sorry. In order, make sure you should Jerk soaper. You use dese, the power booster and a good powered up. 21. Chapter 21 Credits: