In this video we're gonna find out that
we can use fewer lights to get better results.
Hi everybody, welcome to another
episode of Exploring Photography right
here on AdoramaTV.
I'm Mark Wallace and
joining me today is Nadia, you might
recognize her from a video we did a
couple years ago about using grids in
the studio. It's so good to have you back
with us today, well today we're gonna be
taking on a different challenge, and that
is how can we simplify our lighting
setup. So I want to get a really stunning
image of Nadia, something that is a
beauty shot, maybe a horizontal, or a
vertical shot, and something that
could be used in a portfolio image, on a
website, something like that. So that's what
we're going to start with. First we're
gonna do it the way that you shouldn't
do it! So Nadia, we're gonna have you
go back here. I've already set things up
in a way that is pretty standard, but
it's the way that you probably shouldn't
be lighting your subject. So let me just
show you really quickly how all of this
is set up. This is just a normal shallow
white medium umbrella by ProFoto, and
it is just off axis, from where the
camera will be located, to give us a nice
soft light on Nadia's face, and this is
illuminating just this side of Nadia's
face, but because it's really nice soft
light, we're not gonna get a lot of
shadows, which means it might be a little
bit bland. So I have the option of using
this Godox strip light right here, this
is about a 5 foot tall strip light, and
that'll add just a little bit of light
to this side of Nadia's cheek, and
that'll be pretty cool, but we might need
to bounce a little bit of light in, to
fill in the shadows, and so I've got just
this little foam core board over here we
might bring in, but once we do all of
that, we might see that this isn't so
exciting. So let's start shooting and
I'll show you the results. Okay to begin
with, we're only gonna use the umbrella
and so we're going to shoot this. I've
already metered this at f/8 so we're
gonna do just a horizontal shot here,
we're going to take a look... right at me!
Beautiful... and it's... it's sort of a
bland image, we're gonna do a vertical
shot here, and okay, alright, well when I
look at these images, they're just well,
they're not bad, they're just not
exciting. There's just nothing to them,
there's just no contrast, blah! So what
I'm gonna do here is, I'm gonna try to
fix this by adding this strip light, so
I've already metered this, and set it up.
All I'm doing here is, I'm turning it on,
this has an optical slave, and so this
light will fire that light. So let's try
shooting now with a kicker light to see
if that spices things up. So again Nadia,
look straight at me. Just like that,
gorgeous, take that image.. yeah it's a
little bit better, mmm.. okay, this is just
all going wonky, so we have just a boring
image. Even with the kicker light.. with
this nice soft light... there's just
nothing going on here. There's nothing to
draw the eye into the image, it's just
something that you would look at, and
pass right by. So we need to do something
better, so sometimes more is not better,
and less is more.
So we're gonna do less.. next.
Well Nadia.. you know trying too hard
to set up too many lights, sometimes it
doesn't work out, and the easiest
solution is the easiest solution, and so
that's what we're going to do, we're
going to use one single source of light,
and one of my favorite light modifiers.
This is a ProFoto magnum reflector. Now
that seems sort of counterintuitive
because we want really soft beautiful
light, but we're using a hard light
reflector, but you can use hard light to
do beauty portraits. it just depends on
where you put that light, and how you get
that, how close you get that to your
subject. So what we're gonna do here is
Nadia... we're gonna have you go back just
to the edge of the seamless, like we had
you before...
Now this magnum reflector... let me just
show you this really quickly. It is a
large source of light, and we have it set
just off-axis of where I'm going to be
standing, and so what that's going to do
is, it's going to give a little bit of
shadow to this side of Nadia's face, and
on this side of her neck, and let this
side of her fall into darkness, but the
other side is going to be perfectly
exposed. So the first thing I need to do
is a meter this, and so I want this to be
at f/8, that is my go to Beauty lighting
setup. Because it gives me a nice depth
of field with a 50mm lens,
which is what I'm shooting. So I want
this to meter at f/8. So let's meter this,
first so I'm gonna point this straight
to where my camera is going to be. Take
my meter reading, and that meters right at 8.
So I sort of got lucky right there,
that's perfect, the other thing I'm going
to do is, I'm going to shoot a vertical
portrait, and that's going to help
eliminate the shadow that's going to be
on the background. So first I'll do a
horizontal, and then we'll do a vertical.
So let's do that, really fast. This is the
first, this is the horizontal shot, this
is really not how this should be shot,
but it looks pretty good.
The next shot is the vertical, this is
really how this is set up. Nadia you
look right at me, beautiful. Chin down,
just a hair, there you go. Look right at
me again, this is great.
Wow, I could shoot this all day long just
look at these images, they are beautiful,
and it's really, really simple. So once we
have this set up, we can shoot lots, what
we're gonna do right now, and then I'll
show you the results.
Okay I just said not to do a horizontal
shot. I don't know what I was thinking,
because the horizontal shots look
spectacular, and so we're going to shoot
some horizontals as well as some
verticals. Why not! That will allow me to
have some choices when I'm doing my
post-production, to do either a sixteen
by nine horizontal shot, or some
verticals. You know really shoot
everything, and then in post you can get
rid of this stuff you don't like. Don't
limit yourself on your shooting in the
studio, that was bad advice that I just
gave you! Shoot some horizontals, that's
what we're gonna do!
Let's do it right now.
Well I think these images turned out
really spectacularly well, and we did it
with just one light! You don't have to
overcomplicate things to get great
results, well thank you so much for
joining me. Make sure you check out
Nadia's Instagram profile. Here it is..
Nadia Boulif, and she's got some really
amazing portraits. Check me out on
Instagram as well here is my link
@JMarkWallace.
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Thanks again.
I will see you again next time.