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foreign
of what you might have read on the
internet you can use a large light
modifier with a small light source so
this little speed light will happily
fill this large soft box as long as
you're sensible and realistic with what
it's capable of doing hello I'm Gavin
hoey and you're watching adoramatv
brought to you by Adorama the camera
store that's got everything for us
photographers apart from my hand-painted
background in this video I'm going to
create some beautiful low-key images
using nothing more than a single speed
light and a large softbox in my small
home studio and the low-key bit really
matters because with Loki I like to get
my light source really close to my
subject and that does away with the main
problem of a speed light which is its
relative lack of power
so with that said I think we should get
a light set but whilst I'm doing that
you should click on the Subscribe button
and the bell icon so you never miss a
video right here on adoramatv so let's
get a light set let's get a model in
let's get shooting let's turn the light
on there we go
so to help me out today I've got the
amazing Jade Jade's gonna be the model
for this photo session and I'm going to
start with my light way back over here
which for a low-key image might not be
the right place and in fact it means I
have to have my flash set to full power
it is just a speed light remember so
let's see how this looks okay Jade quick
little test photo here we go
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and from back here well the light is
doing a good job it's lighting Jade
correctly but it's also lighting the
background exactly how I'm seeing it the
Shadows are nice and soft because it's a
big light source but this isn't a
low-key image
so in fact the position I want to put my
light for a low key portrait is really
close and I do mean as close as you can
reasonably get it this close to Jade has
a couple of advantages firstly it means
that to get my fa aperture I'm now using
1 8 power on the speed light so that's a
good thing also the light this close to
Jade means that the background is going
to appear relatively darker than it did
before and of course that's what we're
after for a low-key image however a
large softbox like this this is not a
good place to put it but let me show you
why
okay Jay quick little test photo here we
go
although I'm getting nice even Lighting
on Jade what I'm actually getting is
most of the softbox below Jade's eye
line which means most of the light is
coming up from below not a great look
so what I'm going to do is actually
raise the light up really quite high so
most of the softbox is above Jade's head
but I'm not going to stop there because
there's one more thing I'm going to do
and that's add a very slight tilt to the
softbox like so now that's not going to
affect the direction of the light
because it comes out pretty much at 180
degrees from the surface of the softbox
but what it will do is remove this part
of the softbox from the framing of my
image gives me a few more options when
it comes to taking the photos
it might adjust my exposure let's just
take a test photo and we'll see how it
looks here we go
so this time we have much better
Lighting on Jade now the Shadows are all
heading in the right direction we have
that lovely low-key feel it's really
dark but there's still highlights in
there and this is a great place to take
some photos I'm really happy with this
the low-key lighting looks really good
so I think we're all set so Jade are you
ready yeah let's take a few photos here
we go
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you often see Loki images as black and
white photos but they don't have to be
you could have low-key color images as
well but for this session I think what
I'm going to do is probably go somewhere
in the middle and have a low-key muted
color image
foreign
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the second setup is this which if you're
looking at it and thinking well that's
the same as the first setup guess what
you're absolutely right it is exactly
the same but I am going to change one
thing and that is the direction that the
softbox is pointing because at the
moment it's pointing towards Jade which
makes sense but I can feather the light
and Feathering the light is just another
way of saying turning it Jade I'm going
to turn this around here we go so now
I'm pointing the light towards the
background uh Jay can you see any of the
white of the softbox now if Jake can see
the white of the softbox light will
still reach Jade so how much light is
the question well let's take a meter
reading and find out the chances are
it's not going to be that dissimilar to
what it was before but it's always worth
double checking and once again I'm going
to get my flash meter and point it at
the light source I want to meter and
I've lost a stop of Light by doing that
so I just need to increase the power of
my flash up to one quarter power
get it back to f8 and now we can take a
little test photo like this Okay Jade
here we go
quick little test photo
and what I'm getting here is low key
lighting on Jade in as much as there's
lots of Shadows but really what I've
done is just light the background and
now I've gone away from low key lighting
so actually what I'm going to do is turn
the softbox not towards the background
but away from the background I've still
got to make sure that Jade can see some
of the white the softbox Jay can you see
the white and softbox great so in theory
I shouldn't need to re-meter this
because the same amount of light that
was reaching Jade before is reaching her
now and I could double check or I could
just take a test photo which is what I'm
going to do Okay Jade here we go quick
little test photo
and sure enough I've got the perfect
light on Jade and the background well
it's completely disappeared because now
none of the light is reaching the
background and this feels low-key
and that's really all there is to this
feathered light away from the background
gives us a nice dark background I think
we're ready to take a few photos Jade
are you ready yeah okay here we go
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all right
asking Jake to sit on a chair does limit
some of the poses she can do but there
is an advantage particularly when the
lighting is positioned critical so as
you can see through my viewfinder the
light's not moving and Jade isn't moving
much either which means I get a
consistent result image after image
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for the final look I'm actually going to
take the light and move it it was a
slightly backwards in fact pretty much
as far back as I can get it here and I'm
going to ask Jay just to stand so she's
roughly lined up with the front edge of
the soft box and looking towards the
camera Direction like that now this is
going to change our low key effect quite
dramatically because it should give me a
lot more shadows and low-key is all
about Shadows it's also going to change
the light output a little bit because
I've moved the light so I'm going to get
my flash meter and if you're using a
flash meter remember Point The Flash
meter at the light source you want to
meter so it's this one here let's see
what we get so I am roughly the same
power we haven't changed much to get the
f8 aperture only the direction of light
has changed not the amount but have a
look at what the lighting does Now
spoiler alert it's going to get better
here we go Jade quick little test photo
and what I get is light coming in from
behind from that softbox lighting Jade's
hair and just the tip of her nose which
is not really what I'm after
the fix for this is remarkably simple
and Jade being a professional model she
knew this already I had to actually ask
her to do this wrong Jade can you just
look where you would look so she's going
to turn towards the light ever so
slightly and as she turns towards the
light well more light will reach her
face let me show you here we go Jade
same lighting same power same everything
the only thing that's changed is the
direction that Jade is looking in and
there's one more thing I can do to
affect the results and that's changed
the Feathering of the light so at the
moment it is fairly dark on the
background but maybe I want a little bit
more light and if I want a little bit
more light on that background I just
need to feather it a little bit and I do
mean a little bit it doesn't need a lot
to have an impact let's have a look and
see what that did okay Jake here we go
and before well it was pretty much black
now we've got just a hint of light back
there that's helping to separate Jade
out from that really dark background and
removes the need for a second Flash and
that's really all there is to this
lighting setup so I think we should take
a few photos like this Jade are you
ready
here we go
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foreign
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ERS a little bit of movement I've asked
Sam to use the blower it's actually on
its lowest possible power but even with
that there's plenty of movement in
Jade's hair and with the flash at a
quarter power it's still more than
capable of freezing that movement thanks
to its flash duration
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thank you
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as always you'll find links to all of
the gear I'm using today in the video
description below including the link to
both the flashpoint speed light and the
glow softbox but I've actually done
something to both of these too to make
this whole system a lot more efficient
let's start with the speed light it has
a zoom head like most speed lights do
I've changed the zoom head to 24
millimeters and I've pushed it as far
back into the mounting bracket as
possible why well that is around this
side because inside of the glow softbox
is absolutely nothing there's no inner
diffuser in here because that would take
away another stop of light we're already
running this fairly high in power as it
is I've also chosen the silver interior
as well because that's going to give
maximum efficiency for the light output
for our little speed lights so there you
go that's the secrets inside the softbox
now if you've enjoyed this video or
you've got any questions leave me a
comment down below click on the Bell
icon and you'll never miss a video right
here on adoramatv and of course click on
that subscribe button I'm Gavin hoey
thanks for watching