in this video
I on 27 questions about how to use of light
in a studio environment Adorama TV presents
take and make great photography with Gavin Hoey
where you learn how to take stunning photos and then polished and in
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here's your host gaps and holes
hello and Gavin Hoey and watching Adorama TV brought to you by Adorama
the camera still have everything us photographers now that I am back in the
studio and I'm joined by Jack
you can be doing some modeling for us and we're gonna have a look at lighting
specifically soft lighting how to create it
and how you can use it
well it's not
makes lighting knots of maybe having a myth in a room a
and that is if you grab yourself a needle to the paper napkins near
kinda put it over the flash does that make your lights off
no it doesn't it just makes it less powerful
to make a lighting soft you need to think about the size of the light
relative to the subject you're photographing the bigger the light
source
the softer the light but before we have a look at that time aka
hard light and see what that is compared to soft light
let you take a picture of jack kemp we just grab the the flashgun
will pop it right in front of Jack or just off to the side and I'll take a
shot
here we go so this has no flash modified on 20
it is just a straight shot and the end result is really harsh
lighting now how we know it's harsh lighting well have a look at the shadows
look really close particularly underneath the chicken
and you'll notice that the cut of between shadow and highlight is very
very sudden
and that's a hard light
well yes and no because
motor pool lights should in theory give you a big a light source
but we got multiple hard lights as a result
yes you guessed slightly softer look but you also get multiple shadows
let's have a look and see how that works out in the real world we take pitcher
Jack
okay so here Jackson you look towards me were in hugo 23
bang and as you can see in the picture there are multiple shadows
on the background the lighting on Jack that he doesn't look too bad
but if you can have a shadow anywhere in the shot think long and hard before you
use
multiple lights like this so there a solution for this well yes there is all
you gotta do
is turn these three lights into one light
and we do it by adding one of these some satellites
modifier in this case to shoot through umbrella
know what I'm gonna do it's just catch that onto my little light stand there
and now I've got
three lights but im in reality only one of them is that you can hit
Jack gonna be this large umbrella at the front and that should make much softer
lighting
and see how that works okay
same thing as before and as you can see what a difference
now the shadow is still there but the three light sources have been blended
merged into one
so we have one very soft diffuse shadow
and much much softer light
well no it isn't always the rights to the lighting depends on the subject
and the look you're going for effective plenty of occasions when Hard lighting
exactly the right sideline you and moody dramatic shot
and often in black and white hard like I was really well gonna find out more
about how to use hard light
check out the Adorama Learning Center the lot information and articles
how to get the best with hard lighting however when it comes to
lighting portrays know me what we want to do with a flatter are subjects
and that's where soft lighting really comes in much more flattering than hard
light
most of the time
well yes it can but not in the way that I'm using it here
I gotta like pointing straight at Jack thats all I'm gonna get the light from
here
it's going to come see rate how other flash and it's gonna be really hard
light
but now actually doing anything to the flash other than changing its direction
I can make this soft now amid a is pointed away from Jack
and at this white wall camber white wall then bouncing off the ceiling
anything we can be helped the flash just to give you a softer light
by bouncing them I i'm gonna turn it from a small sauce a blight
into a big source of light remember the bigger the light source
relative to the subject the softer the lights gonna be
when I need to do is remember when I'm bouncing the light of the wall
I need to make this a lot more powerful would just end
Harrap on the flash okay what's for dinner and what a difference that makes
the pitcher
beautiful soft lighting and a great portrayed
well I like the softbox and
I like the umbrella but which one is best well as any one way to find out
and have to test them and that's what we're gonna do here we're gonna test by
the softbox
and the umbrella now to give a very different type in light
but they will both give soft light site it's not the umbrella
so with the
umbrella set up alternative is a really simple shot and then I'll repeat it with
the softbox
and we'll see how it changes the patent in shape and light
okay sir Jackie ready we get was gonna take a lil hadn't showed a sharp
just like that now as you can see in this picture
it is very very flat lighting but it lit not only Jack space but also
the background has it done that well because the way an umbrella works
particularly one like this which is known as a shoot through umbrella
it scatters the light everywhere yes the light comes through the umbrella lights
jack in the face but summit
batches of the background some but that's not the ceiling it scatters the
lie around like a hand grenade applied
it's very very soft as a result
but it's very uncontrollable to switch to the softbox
and see how it looks different so with the softbox in roughly the same place
I'm gonna take the same shot and see how it changes the look
so here we go again jack once again jacks face is beautifully lit with
lovely soft lights
but look at the difference in the background look at the back and has gone
really
really dark that because the softbox produces very directional light
thats still soft but because its directional left at the light hits the
background
and therefore the background comes at Dhaka
well generally speaking their place in the light
the softer the light is all about relative size
and distance now up close this lie is very nearly hitting jack in the head
it's about as close as I can possibly get it
that's where I liked but my lights but then it is a nice big light source
if it was a bigger box of books even this
I could made it to the back and still get the same softness and light
I made a mistake this flashgun this flash gun
compared to the softbox is tiny if I mean a closer towards you
the closer I get the bigger it becomes relative to the subject
about coming at you about their it's about the same size
but that his okay data focus head is just a few inches away from the camera
so in other words if I wanted to get they splashed to be as soft as the
softbox
I have to get it very very close to a very very small subject
yes you can you can makes all sorts of different lighting
anytime you want now I'm using it to light set up here so
Mikey like my main light is still soft to give us they want the sawfly
on deck with a which one to flatter me to make a nice portrayed
but I like the background I added a second light
and that's a hard light bare light with nothing on it at all
in fact made even harder by putting a snoot
on which is gonna make the the edges just a little bit tighter to give me a a
nice look on the back grant
take a picture and see how it goes you again
so you can see we've got
soft lighting on Jack and then we got that allow the glow around the outside
caused by the second light only lighting the background
and the to complement each other perfectly right so let's put this into
practice
and we definitely will shoot with Jack here just run through a few kind of
ideas imposes
just to get some nice shots but all with soft lighting in fact all with exactly
the same lighting
when you use a softbox up a relatively high and also I put it right up against
the background
rather than using two lights i think is really simple one lives in a light by
Jack and the background simultaneously okay that the idealist taken pictures
and
see what we get duo
and
do
good
said let's have a look at what I did to the images
insider Photoshop well action every didn't do anything to them in Photoshop
I did all the work n roll and if you're not in use a
it's exactly the same in Leitrim develop much you now
what I'm gonna do is very very little because we spend time getting this right
in camera and in the studio
is really not much to change here in Photoshop
in fact what I'm gonna do is jump over to the 10k have
and apply my affect their because what I wanted to do was give this isn't about
a vintage feel we're gonna play with the town's slightly and is one of the
reasons I love to shoot against his grain mottled background
you can and jails to the background flash if you're using a moat
will flash set up or here in Photoshop I can apply that have color
by adjusting the tanker now working on the linear tone curve
and changing the raid I'm only I'm gonna bring that red channel in a little bit
and will drag it down Mike side packages would have a scion kala
to the image next time a drop can change the
green channel on the green channel I was gonna put a small
also love S curve in just like that get a little hint
a change find the and the jump over to the blue channel
and on the blue channel I'm gonna bring up the bottom
left corner and bring down the top right corner
just like that and that it adds the with a blue town
into wards the shadow passive the picture
and that is basically it to show you the difference
that's when I shot and that's just my 2 week in Cala
it's a gentle tweak is not a huge tweak now I'm gonna jump back over to the
basic panel here and we'll make a few changes here we need to
so let's come down to clarity because I haven't done anything with clarity am
feeling
my cat got withdrawal symptoms and normally if you know my work I love to
bun
pump up the clarity really high in this case it doesn't fit it doesn't fit with
the soft lighting
so I'm gonna bring the clarity down and will make a nice and gentle
glow with the clarity like that I will push the contrast a little bit higher
could do like my images perhaps in contrast in them
but is not the same as clarity parity contrast slightly different results
and also if you look at the histogram summer he might look at this and think
well this is really underexposed
but it is a low-key image but it isn't underexposed if you look really
carefully the line does extend right to the end
if I turn on my clipping highlights you can see there are just a little bit a
clipping
is going on in the nose area there I can just tweak my whites chest until I am
just put a little bit of clipping in there
I don't mind a tiny bit but I don't want too much so don't be fooled me looking
histograms
easy to misread them and that's it click on open image
you leave role behind and you open your image
up into Photoshop and that is my picture completed
so there we go that's the shootdown
Jackman absolute star we got some great shots with beautiful soft lighting
now if you wanna see more videos by me and have a great present is here
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I'm Gavin how a thanks for watching
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