hi guys a couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by Paul Fontenelle from the
Photography TV YouTube channel he's a really really good interviewer and it's
got lots of really cool stuff going on on his channel and he's sponsoring this
video please go and check it out go and see what he's got now during that
interview he was talking to me about learning we were discussing learning and
we never stopped learning and he asked me for an example of something that I'd
learned recently so I was telling him about a technique my buddy Simon Taplin
showed me and that's actually what is in this video because we filmed him
demonstrating that techniques I thought you guys would really enjoy it
so let's go have a look at what I learned recently but please hang on till
the end because Paul has got a couple of really cool giveaways for you from
amongst my training courses if you followed very many of my videos you'll
probably know that I'm not big on the whole professional secrets type of thing
reason is most of our secrets they're common sense as I keep on saying
photography happens outside the camera cameras don't take pictures people take
pictures the camera captures the light onto the sensor but it's your use of
your environment and technique and the way you think your shots through you got
to think like a photographer and that means using that environment now a
couple of years ago I was over in Vietnam with my buddy Simon Chaplin who
we run workshops in Asia and we were doing a recce for the Viet Nam workshop
one of the sponsors of that trip had asked us to do some shots for a spirit
on sand hotels one of those shots you're asked to take was of a cocktail the
experiences of signature drink so we arrived at this place it's already dark
it's very very hot very humid we've got to film cruise we've got a producer the
Simon myself and other people there everybody wants to eat and we got to do
this shot and I'm looking at it saying what the hell are we going to do with
that now the only lighting for that shot was just a single bulb on a wall behind
it but Simon very cleverly came up with this and I think it's quite genius but
what he did to do it is a technique that he calls nonsense a bit of nonsense he
said don't worry about it we'll stick a bit of nonsense in there and it's all
about using your environment and thinking a little bit outside the box so
I thought we come down to the ship in here and see
we can recreate a flavor of that shot for you remember exactly the same
conditions but I think you'll see what a brilliantly simple idea is to add
emphasis to a particular area within a shot
how's it going mr. Taplin well we get this shot down quickly before my steak
so which get the confidence we've added some food viewers sort of try and make
it a bit more interesting yeah so although we can't recreate exactly
the shot you did back in Vietnam talking through what shot what's the shot you
want to do can you come and show us yeah well we're always working in challenging
environments and we just have to work what we have sometimes and really
quickly so there's some little simple tricks that we can do just was
effectively and make the shot interesting so what I'm looking at here
is show us show us what we're doing I'm looking at trying to use reflection on
the table interesting I'm looking at this I'm also looking at using what
light is available to us at the moment and we have the sky outside so I'm going
to backlight the glass so I'm going to be looking for a low angle piece of
glass reflection steak sandwich and there are a little glasses on the clock
and then just a maybe a bit of a chair in the background you know so it's an
ant fresco dining experience Sirians yes their dining experience okay okay and
today we're going to look through here and then you were going to exclude some
of this stuff around edges using your nonsense technique so shall we do one
without and then one with yeah and then people can see what you're on about all
right let's do that okay let's just do a straight short so you're going to shoot
a track from here now what sort of focal length you're going to be using either
to I want to lose the background I want to isolate the drink so I don't want any
nonsense going on sense around the picture not going away I just want to
isolate the product you know the glass from the background and ski-out simple
so I'm going to using a 200 millimeter lens on here and I'm going to be using a
fairly wide aperture Jack 5.6 yeah if you've got a faster lens at hand you
know you can go down to 1.2 1.4 but both lenses are very
but we can still get very good results 5.64 at about 200 so right right now
guys simon is using my 2:8 lens but we're going to shoot this at five six
because i want you to see that it is possible you know with the lens which
doesn't have that kind of capability and what i'm trying to do is I'm going to
try and create depth within the picture so I'm going to layer it so potentially
taking a two-dimensional picture making a three-dimensional so I'm going to add
them a bit of foreground and I'm going to to the picture to create that kind of
depth feel so okay I'm looking here I'm looking at this glassless let's just do
one straight standard shot first of all okay I'm not loving those knives and
forks there did you want me to move them if you could move where do you want them
I think take them out of the shot please is the knives very jarring and it's
really nice yeah and we could just move share in the shot slightly step out on
the corner of a chair so we know seating alfresco if you can move it yeah that's
it so I'm not perfect like that a bit more well actually can you believe this
you're lookin fi I want that that's it perfect by that exponent yeah okay okay
so here we go I'm working with a reflection here and actually that chairs
just blocking slightly maybe could just move it away all these are very very
minut details yeah you might make a different this one yeah that one there
which way to your yeah okay that's it okay say well yeah a bit war back in
slightly more that's it action War Collection wall fractional fraction more
friction or friction law that's good okay yeah we're good yeah and then I
think we should bring the spake sandwich forward slightly so yeah if you could
just write eight we maybe take the chips sorry sometimes okay the chipset chip
there okay sorry of you if you got tap it off
alright serious go on professionals we know okay bout there can you move the
chips to your right slightly that's it keep going
hang on Aon just oh if you could slide them on the platter I can't because
they'll fall off oh okay the flat is not wide enough so okay in
that case we'll take this forward here and that feels better
surprise okay who's in a bit too fiddly diddling it idly okay now I'm getting a
low angle here so I can give a bit of back lights in the sky you're happy with
a composition yeah it's good yeah okay I'm get out of the way let's come back
over here alright umm it's a bit of a wobbly bit
of stuff okay so I'm playing the reflection here the table yeah so what
what reflection where what are we talking about so we're actually is
reflecting off its table here oh I see so you'll be reflecting from my battling
this this reflection from here it's God's here we got a glass top table here
which is a time for reflection because of the angle Simon's at and it's
reflecting back into the camera now how about our well Vietnamese nonsense okay
so what we're going to do is introduce it's a glasses I prepared earlier yeah
and we're going to use them in the foreground just Edison Christine won't
you come around over to looks on this angle so guys can see kind of what
they're doing we've got Christina on camera guys
dancing about a second time of hand-holding and moving with the camera
so cut us some slack okay alright okay so what I'm doing is I'm going to shoot
through these glasses okay so you you're framing your shot
with either edge of these wineglass right yeah yeah yeah and this you can
add water to them obviously the shape is different refraction but what it's all
about depth again so we can move the glasses in and out and it just it
creates a bit of snow yes actually get a foreground young and creates a bit of a
bit of interest and it just gives it a very very subtle feel so there's no
science to it it's all about playing around it's all
about moving I'm still not quite happy with it it's just a bit of a blue Union
in the background and got me it's give me a spot color so let's do it so we got
a blue window over here guys these are things to watch out for you go watch
what's going on in your background as well don't just kind of look at the
subject it's the whole picture the whole thing overall the entire area you need
to sort of keep an eye on okay so I'm quite like of this now but at where I'm
framing up I'm just putting a bit of angle on it so I've got a reflection in
the table we've got the the cocktail the drink framed up on the right hand side
but just with a bit of softness and a bit of a steak sandwich as he fries yeah
that's really simple really subtle and really nice and when you kind of you
know if you if you viewers come on this way and just have a look from behind us
because then you can see that what we've just got the shot off
keep going crostini all right you're I'm actually won't hit anything they go back
a bit back a bit there you go looks now you see from where you're looking there
you wouldn't necessarily expect that the shot Symons just taken would look like
this and it's so simple this is what I was saying earlier on about using your
environment about moving things around he's in the zone now here is upon the
muses are upon him we were wandering around Vietnam going the muses are upon
me when we'd see something that we thought was interesting do you know what
muses I'll have a Google it's a creative thing about creative jinns or something
wasn't it yeah and the other cool thing with these sorts of techniques if you
ever going to go anywhere special you could do this in your back garden you
know you can practice things like this pretty much anywhere you haven't got a
go to Vietnam or go to some other crazy lots of exotic location to practice your
photography we'll come up with some cool techniques to make some nice pictures
now I want you to come to Vietnam with us because one it's a great craic
we've photographed some pretty amazing things so visit the website please check
it out we've got a couple of workshops going on in Asia but I really wanted to
share this little tip with you sorry about the rather abrupt ending there guy
Simon and I got a bit seeing what we were doing and took our
eye off the ball that we were making a video so I had to stop it somewhere I
said at the beginning that there was some giveaways for you on Paul fontanel
ease interview with me he's got three of my ultimate beginners courses which he
is giving away as a prize and little competition that he's running on that
interview video so please pop over check out the great interview and all the good
stuff that he's got on his channel if you've enjoyed Simon's nonsense
technique film you'd like to subscribe to my videos please click the subscribe
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