hi guys welcome and welcome back thanks so much for joining me today we're not going
to be talking about camera bags but the camera bag is going to help us out today we're going
to be talking about this little light here so this light is really really important for
your portrait photography because if you're going to be doing things like entering competitions
or go for a qualification or a certification then the quality of the light that's separating
the subject from the background is really really important so if you're new here please
do remember to hit the Subscribe button go ahead and hit the Bell icon the Bell icon
will help you give you a notification every single time we release a video which is every
single Friday at 12 noon UK time but you can join from anywhere in the world and without
further ado I guess let's just put five minutes on the clock and get stuck in
so we have the camera bag here this Tenba bag is just being used so that I can have
a dummy before I bring in a subject to balance all my light levels out so you'll notice that
I have one light with a large modifier on to my immediate right hand side this is a
citi 600 Pro strobe so it's a 600 watt strobe this is going to be acting as my key light
today or my main light to light up my subject which isn't going to be a camera bag but it
is for now so then at this side I actually have a pika 200 Pro which is the light that's
been involved in our giveaway so that giveaway closes in a couple of days so don't delay
putting your name into that pot to get that so the 200 watt strobe over here is just going
to be acting as our Rim light and that's what we're talking about so I've had images Merit
in competition and not gone further and when I've asked for feedback about these Studio
shots the judges have said you know it would have done more it would have gone further
it would have done better had this image had additional separation from the background
round and that separation really only happens properly with a rim light although you can
light your background to give you separation as well but we're not going to be discussing
that today we're going to be talking about this so placement is really important you
want to be looking at a realistically a 45 degree angle behind the subject so if I was
to stand in a straight line to this light it's going to be here so it's got a grid on
it which prevents spill outwards keeps it very directional and also will protect my
lens from lens flare so we've got that happening we have the subject here this is about the
same size-ish as the subject that's actually going to be coming in to have the photograph
taken today and so I know roughly where it's going to be I also have a prop to raise them
up off the floor which just makes it easier for everybody involved and also keeps the
subject in one place so this light the power of this is so important and you want to set
your lights up by firing them individually and then putting them all together as like
a little full family so the first thing that we're going to do is we're going to take a
photograph at normal Studio settings to look at normal Studio settings we do have a couple
of videos on that how to shoot in a small space goes through settings in a really easy
to understand I think fashion but this one what this needs to do is just give it a little
kiss of light down the side it's not there to overpower or match the power of the main
light that's not the point of it it just gives an edge so it's the whole reason it's there
so you want to start by taking a shot probably on a really low power and there might be no
light visible at all that's fine not a problem you want to keep increasing the power in little
stops until you get to the point where you can just see that little kiss of light down
the side if the light is hitting anything on the front side of the object then usually
you want to rotate the light further behind if the light is not hitting the side of the
object you want to bring the light round okay if there's no light hitting the top of the
object and you want that light then you want to raise the light up so we've kind of gone
through that process already here and we're pretty much set up in the right place using
something like a black camera bag is great if you're going to go and then shoot a black
dog which is what we're going to do if your light has too much power and it looks like
when you pair up the lights together for a shot if it looks like it's almost the same
power or very similar power to your main light it's too strong and you need to turn it back
down okay
all righty okay so subject placement is also important we've already discussed kind of
the locations that we have in play Beanie's here okay so we want her to be positioned
in a way that that rim light actually hits I think at this stage it's going to miss her
ear especially if she sat far forwards like she currently is so what I'll probably just
do is give that a little bit of a tweak and a rotation and then see where we end up wait
wait so that's perfect it's potentially hitting over even a little bit too much now but we'll
see where we end up good girl wait and I've got a feeling we're going to add a reflector
in so if Beanie can just sit and wait and we'll just get a pretty much bog standard
boring shot wait no come sit wait because we're not going to have a catch light I don't
think in that eye
good girl okay so you can see from that file there that there isn't a catch light in the
right eye which is pretty normal with most dogs so I'm just going to rotate this light
round very slightly and also I'm not happy with the catch light placement so we need
to go up there we go so I've gone up I'm then going to come in and we're still sitting on
an angle good girl Beanie sit wait good wait so she sat a little bit wonky waiting me but
I'm not bothered about composition I just need that catch light in that eye so I might
even good girl wait move in
super okay good so actually I really like that I think that that's super sweet the rim
light doesn't look like it's doing anything but what I'll do is I'll do another one I'll
turn it off so that you can see each light interacting and then we'll put it all together
if Beanie will hold her weight for long enough so she needs to hold a sit and a wait even
if she huffs at me so I'm just going to turn off A so that we can just look at the rim
so it's on her nose a little bit too much wait
good girl wait and I'm just going to turn up the power of B like we thought we might
need to do still keeping A off wait
better rim still on the side of the nose at the moment but separation good girl wait and
if I turn B off turn A on lots of buttons good girl wait
you can see A interacting in the wait turn B on
Beanie wait
okay good girl super so that little walk through will have been hopefully really useful to
see how each one interacts is the picture gonna win anything uh because of its composition
and stuff no there's also a lot of dark shadow happening underneath the subject's chest so
I'm just going to introduce another stand here that's going to hold a reflector
Funny Sounds
Reward, okay good girl super
Awesome that's gorgeous so we have that beautiful beautiful little rim on that right hand side
10 out of 10 from for me on that the reflector is doing a really good job of just lifting
the side of that that area there good girl and the key light is doing a great job of
filling in that side so this I'm really really happy with how these have ended up do I wish
I had a darker studio floor at this stage in my life absolutely yes but it's it's a
really really nice shot nonetheless and we've actually ended up closer to Butterfly lighting
really than anything else just with the placement of this main light so you know I've reverted
back to my natural habitat I guess in terms of the light so hopefully you can see with
those shots that the room light made literally all of the difference if that wasn't there
it would look a little bit more two-dimensional that gives us more of a 3D look and hopefully
you can see that on the dark side there is a clear rim down the side of Beanie to just
separate her off from the background so I think Beanie's done a super great job today
she deserves all of the snacks in the world for her if you have any questions about this
please drop them in the comments below hopefully this was useful for you if it was remember
to give it a like and I'll see you back next week for another five minute Friday