In this video I'll show you how
one basic black hat can be used
in five different looks.
Hello I'm Gavin Hoey
and you're watching AdoramaTV
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for us photographers.
Now when it comes to working
in my small home studio,
I do love a good prop
and in this video I'm only going to use one prop.
It’s this thing right here,
a black straw hat.
Basically the cheapest one I could get on eBay.
What I'm going to do with this is to
create five different looks,
that include this black hat in various ways,
so let's get some lights set,
let's get a model in,
let's get shooting.
So it's great to have
Fern back in the studio.
Fern is going to be the model
for this shoot and as you can see
she is wearing the black hat.
Now we're going to try a bunch of different setups
but to begin with,
we're going to go with a classic
lighting setup. So I've got my eVOLV 200
in a 70cm softbox.
It's elevated around about 45 degrees angle
from the model.
Now our hats can be problematic
and one of the things to watch out for
is shadows cast by the brim of the hat,
the bigger the brim,
the bigger the shadow.
Fortunately the solution
for this is really simple
and it goes like this,
so Fern if you can look up
towards the light for me
and as soon as I get Fern
to lift her chin slightly,
the light comes underneath
and we'll light her eyes
and gives me better exposure on the face,
so make sure that you review your pictures
constantly and you're getting exactly
what you want.
So for the next look
I'm going to move the light around to the side,
so rather than having it at 45 degrees,
I'm going to spin it around
and it's going to
come in from more like 90 degrees.
So all I need to do is take a picture
like this but if Fern doesn't move,
what we end up with is almost split light
we've got a lit side to Fern
and a shady side,
so the solution with this lighting scenario
is to ask Fern to move,
so in this case Fern can you turn
towards the light slightly
but not quite profile,
that's it,
pull your shoulders back.
So we've pointed her
in towards the light,
that should make a difference.
Let's have a look at this.
So that's really good.
That gives a very different look.
You notice the background
is much darker
because the light is turned away
from the background
but you'll also notice
because of the darker background,
how much more importance
that hat plays in this picture.
So for this setup
what I've done is, I've taken the light
and I've moved it much further behind Fern.
I've taken away the softbox
and I’ve replaced it with a standard
reflector and a 30-degree grid.
That's going to give us a very controlled
beam of light.
It’ll make the background go really black
and it should give a sort of rim lighting effect
on Fern however the direction
that Fern looks is going to be a bit more limited,
so if Fern looks straight ahead,
what we really have is a lit shoulder
and then everything
else of course is in shadow.
What I need Fern to do is to turn 90 degrees
to me and look towards the wall,
so this will be a full-on profile shot.
We have a very defined edge
to Ferns face.
A very thin key lined outline
and a really dramatic shot.
Once again the hat really
comes in here to give a little
bit of definition above Ferns head.
So for this look I've changed a few things.
I've gone for a full black background
because I want a really low-key feel
to this shot and I've added a softbox
on a boom arm
and that is almost right over
the top of Fern.
It’s not quite, it's slightly moved in front of her
so I end up with some light on the top
of Ferns head on the hat
and some light that can
come underneath and light her eyes,
if we get the positioning just right.
Now top tip when it comes to metering,
if like me you like to use flash meters
normally what I do with the flash meter
is I will pop it underneath Ferns chin
but there is a risk with the light position
here that I'll put this into a shadow
cast by her chin
or the brim of the hat,
so make sure when you get your flash meter
you move it slightly outside
any shadow area to avoid any exposure errors.
Okay f4 we're good to go,
okay, let's take a few shots like this.
That is what happens
if Fern lifts her chin
and we get the technically correct
light but sometimes we don't want to be
technically correct.
Sometimes what we
want is a sense of mystery
and that's where a brimmed black hat
like this can really come into its own.
Covers Ferns eyes in shadow
and looks absolutely fantastic.
So for the final setup
it's the most complicated of them all
and requires a little bit of trial and error,
but if we get it right, it should look
really good. It makes use of one
of the specific features of this particular
black hat. It’s a straw hat
with some holes in it
and I'm going to get the light to shine
through the holes
and create some dappled lighting
on Fern's face,
so to create the same look
on the other side of Fern's face
I've got a second eVOLV 200.
It’s also in a standard reflector
and it's in roughly
the same position
so it should create a similar pattern of light,
so that creates a very distinctive look
but of course just being sat there
is all well and good,
moving around is much more exciting
from a modeling point of view,
so we're going to take a few pictures
like this and allow Fern to move slightly.
I'm also going to change
the angle of the hat as we go through,
to get some different lighting patterns
from these side lights.
Let's see what we get.
Taking one simple prop
like this cheap black hat
and really getting the most out of it,
is a great way to improve your photography.
It’s also pretty good fun as well.
Now if you want to get better at photography,
there's another way
and that is of course
to subscribe to AdoramaTV.
So if you've enjoyed this video,
don't forget to leave me a comment below
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I'm Gavin Hoey,
thanks for watching.