In this video I'll show you
how to create a grungy window effect
in your small home studio.
Hello I'm Gavin Hoey
and you're watching AdoramaTV
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for us photographers.
Well today you join me in my small
home studio and I'm going to do a portrait
shoot with a bit of a grungy feel,
using this. This is an offcut
of polycarbonate sheeting
that we picked up from a local supplier
and I'm going to set this up to
become what looks like a broken window
except it'll be perfectly safe because
this is polycarbonate, so let's get some
lights set, let's get a model in,
let's get shooting.
So behind the piece of polycarbonate
is Beth and Beth's going
to be the model for this shoot.
There we go,
it really is a brand new
piece of polycarbonate,
so let's see how it looks brand new
straight out the packaging.
I've got an eVolv 200
which is going to be the key light,
we'll pop it up nice
and high and we'll just take a shot
like this and see how it looks.
So being very new and shiny,
the first thing I see is reflections
from the room lights and if
I turn the room lights off
well I don't really see any of the polycarbonate
sheeting anymore,
so what we need to do
is to give this sheet a distressed look
and I've got a few ideas in mind
on how we might do that.
So my first idea is sort
of non-destructive way of working
with this sheet. I've just put some cling
film, it's the the plastic wrap
you put around food
and that gives it a lovely
sort of texture to the sheet.
Now I will need to turn
the video lights out
otherwise you'll just see reflections
of those so the picture you'll see
in a second will be the one
without the video lights turned on
but let's see how this looks.
Here we go Beth so that really gives
some texture to the sheet
but it's not really the look I'm going for,
it really does say piece of cling film
on plastic, so we need to try something
else and something else might be just
a little bit more destructive.
Polycarbonate has a couple of properties
that really might help this shoot.
One of them is the fact
that it's incredibly easy to scratch,
so I've got a little wire brush here,
let's see if we can add some scratches
to the surface and here that sort of distress look.
So I've added a fine layer of scratches
to the plastic. The key light that's lighting
Beth is still in the same place,
let's take a shot like this
and see how it looks.
Here we go.
So this is looking really good but
the bit I'm not too happy about
is the edge.
It's very clean.
It's very crisp.
It's freshly cut.
What I'd like is a little bit more
of a distressed look so
that's what I'm going to do next
and Beth you might want to step out
for this bit,
because it does involve an axe.
One of the other properties of polycarbonate
is it's incredible impact resistance.
So what I'm going to do is just take the axe
and just chip off a few little bits along
the edge to give a rough finish,
make it a little bit more like a broken window.
There we go so I've added a few chips
along the top and I've added a few
deeper scratches using the little
hatchet here and yeah that looks a lot
more distressed than it did
when I bought it,
so great,
Beth do you want to come back in?
Let's see how this looks,
so of course the lighting is still unchanged
I haven't changed a thing
there so the exposure should be the same
here we go Beth,
the only thing I think that's missing
is some light in the background,
particularly on the opposite side
to the key light
just to put a bit of splash of
detail back here
so let's add that in,
it's another eVolv 200, it's on its
lowest possible power,
just for a touch of light,
here we go
and that just adds a nice little bit of separation
over in that left-hand corner,
so this is really
good I think we're set now everything
is the way I want it,
so let's take a few
pictures like this. Beth are you ready?
Okay here we go,
all right so Beth do you want
to just bring a hand up to there?
I'm really surprised how quickly
I could turn this pristine sheet of
polycarbonate into something
much more grungy just using a wire brush
and a small hatchet,
but this is polycarbonate
not acrylic. If I was to use a sheet
of acrylic and I hit it with one of these
it's likely to crack or splinter
and for pretty obvious reasons
you wouldn't want
to use a sheet of glass
and one of these.
So if you've enjoyed this video
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I'm Gavin Hoey,
thanks for watching.