Hello, I'm Quentin Caffier and I am a French photographer specialised in
studio work. During this lockdown event, I am stuck at home and I cannot go to my
studio, where I have all my gear and all my shooting habits. So to avoid to get
depressed, I have to find out what to keep shooting at home, and I would share
some of my tips with you. Let's talk about the gear. I am lucky enough to
have my camera and to have all my lenses here, so it's not an issue, but I do not have
any lighting gear, except a very basic reflector with a white side in a silver side,
so I will need to shoot everything in raw, natural light. I think this a very
specific time, and can be a nice opportunity to step out of your comfort zones. So I
will try myself a brand new kind of portrait, the surprise shot.
Well, I have to be honest with myself, it was not a good idea, so I'm going to try
something different let's take a self-portrait.
No, I won't do that. No, rather jumps directly to step three.
It's the natural light, indoor portrait.
I am using the Canon EOS 5d Mark IV and I think the perfect lens for portraits in
the 85mm 1.2. Not only the focal length is perfect to shoot a nice
portrait without deforming the face but also the opening at 1.2
allows to you to create a very shallow depth of field and it's very good to
isolate your subjects when you are shooting in a space that is not designed
to be a shooting space. Okay, now I have to find the best spot to make this shooting.
So it's a nice way to have a new look at my apartment and I checked a little bit
and I soon discovered that the best option is the living room.
There is this wall that is in a chilled blue color that is complementary to the
skin tone, so that's very nice to pop your character out of the background and
also this is the easiest way to make some space because I just need to put
some canvas of the walls, move the table, and I have enough space to make a portrait.
Here is a tip; if you have issues finding wide enough background,
what you can do is, if you have some space behind you, you can use a longer
focal length and you get far more from your model because in this situation you will
compress the distance between the character and the background and it will
help you to give the impression of having a bigger background. Another good
point is this wall is facing a big French door leading to the balcony, so we
can provide a lot of soft light all day long. Here on this image, you can see that
the light is coming from behind me and providing the soft light that is
creating nice lighting without shadow. Now that I choose my spots, I have
to remember that the only thing I can do to control the lightning is to choose
the right to shoot. Every time I'm shooting on
location, I spent some time trying to understand what is the lighting scheme.
For example, how the Sun is moving, what kind of reflection it's creating, what kind of
shade it's casting - and with all this, I can decide when is the best time to shoot.
And I think it will make the difference between a nice shooting and very good shooting.
As soon as I start studying the light in my living room, I realize that
most of the shades and most of the reflection were cast on a very low
level, so it was obvious that I cannot have direct sunlight on a standing point
of view, so I asked my wife to just lie down on the carpet and bathe herself in
the direct natural light. In this specific situation we have all the
direct light in the face and almost nothing on the background, so the
background get very dark and you have a very contrasted image. If you don't like it,
if you want something a little bit smoother, one of the best option to lower
the contrast is to use diffuser gel like this one. If you don't have it, you
can use like baking paper and it will do the same. Everyone has it in the kitchen.
On this image, what I really like is that the direct sunlight is
reflecting on the wall rather than the rest of the model is lit by the handiest
light that is bouncing everywhere in the flat. So it gives you something softer,
but with this bluish tint on the side, and I think it's a very powerful effect.
If you want to do something like this but you don't have a painted wall, it's
quite easy because you can use a coloured cloth that you put on your wall.
But if you are lucky enough to have a balcony, it's obviously the best place to create some
sunny portraits, especially if your balcony is facing the sunrise or the sunset.
In my opinion, I like when the model is facing the light, especially
when you can create a nice triangle with the eye. It makes the face strong, readable
and with the light and shadows you can check the slight expression.
I don't like when you face the other side, because I think it's creating
a lot of shades and lighting and it's not readable enough. Make it simple,
make it clear. These kinds of images can be very powerful both in color and black
and white, as soon as we can manage the contrast, and one of the easiest way to
do so is to use a very basic reflector. If you don't have it with you is very
simple, you can also use aluminum foil, you can use white cardboard, anything
that can bring the light to the shadowy areas. Here is something very important
that you have to know when you are using a reflector to unblock the shadows,
especially when the light come from the side. Don't use it from under because the
light from under is always unnatural and not very pretty.
So rather hold it up and you will bounce the light from above. If you live in a
tiny flat, maybe you won't even find any empty wall or spot that can be used as
the background. There is still an option and it's called the window background.
A few years ago, I was supposed to make the portrait of a writer doing an
interview and we were in this untidy office. There was stuff everywhere and
this was not what the newspaper was looking for. So I asked the writer to stand
in front of the window, and I used it as a background. Because the camera now
have a very nice dynamic range it, was easy for me to just unblock the shadow
with a reflector and play with the flares and add this nice and moody
portrait. So thank you so much for watching. I really hope you enjoyed it
and that it gives you a lot of ideas to create nice indoor portraits during
this time. Bye.