In this video I'll show you how a change
in the wind direction will make a big
difference to your studio portraits.
Hello I'm Gavin Hoey and you're watching
AdoramaTV brought to you by Adorama,
the camera store that's got everything for
us photographers. Now when I'm shooting
portraits in my small home studio
and I want a shot with a bit more of a
dynamic feel then adding a breeze
and moving a models hair
is a great way to do it.
Now there's lots of ways you can
create a breeze in your small home
studio, in fact I've got a whole video
on it check out the Adorama Learning Center
for more information but spoiler alert
there's actually three ways I'd do it in
my studio. If I need a quick impromptu
breeze then grabbing a reflector
and giving it a quick waft
is perfect for the job.
But if I need a more sustained breeze
a household fan is great
and for the extra strong gust
well a wind machine is my tool of choice.
That will move both hair
and even clothes.
In this case we are
just looking at moving a models hair so
I could use any of these three and get a
great result, in fact we'll use all three
we'll mix it up through the video.
What we're actually looking at however is the
direction of that breeze and I'm going to
try different directions to see what
effects we get. I'm going to try from above
and from below, from the side, the front
and even the back. It should create a
fascinating range of different effects
and hopefully some great pictures along
the way. For the lighting I'm going to use
and eVOLV 200 in a Glow Softbox and
we'll put it in the classic Rembrandt
position. Just to put a little bit of
light on the back I'm going to use another
eVOLV 200 in a snoot and actually give
us a nice circle of light on the
background and I'm going to leave the
lights the same throughout the video.
Okay let's get the light set.
Let’s get the model in. Let's get shooting.
So to help me out with this shoot it's
great to have Beth back in the studio.
She's going to be the model for this but
I've also been assisted today by Sam
who's going to help with the first set up.
Because we're going to begin with the
wafting of a reflector from the side.
Now there's no actual rules here but there
are guidelines and my key guideline
whenever I'm adding a breeze in my small
home studio, is to get the direction to
go from below rather than above and
you'll see why. If we put that into
practice, okay Sam you want to do a
little a waft from above.
Are you ready? Okay go for it,
and as you can see the effect was
well, not that dramatic at all, there's
obviously some hair movement in there
but it's not that much, so let's compare
that to a waft from below using exactly
the same modifier, a small reflector and
with about the same amount of power. Okay
Sam are you ready? Okay
Beth ready? Go for it.
And the difference is quite remarkable.
There's an awful lot
more hair movement just by changing the
direction of the breeze so that works
really well. That's like a few shots like
this with the direction of the breeze
from the side.
So they look really good. There's a nice
amount of hair movement in there. It was
quite effective. There's a definite
direction to the breeze. Beth's hair is
going mostly towards one side,
the downside is well you do need an
assistant to help you out with this
and it can be quite exhausting for them as well,
so for the next set up I've got the
breeze coming from a different direction.
We've got a small fan and it's going to
blow a breeze directly in Beth's face.
Now there's a couple of advantages with
using a fan over a board. The first one is
I don't need somebody to assist me.
It can just sit there quite nicely.
It’s also a continuous breeze, as well, so
Beth can actually do a little bit of modelling.
She doesn't have to wait for the wind
to actually reach her. Now it is still in
the same direction and as much as it is
below and blowing up and that's still
the direction I want to shoot in.
Other than that everything else is basically
the same, so let's take some shots
see how it looks?
With a continuous breeze it's much more
of a fluid shoot and I think that really
comes over well in the photographs
and you'll notice that the hair is moving
pretty much equally but from the front,
the back of the hair is remaining pretty
much the same, which leads me onto the
question well what would happen if we
got a breeze coming from behind
and blowing Beth's hair from behind?
Let's find out?
So for the last setup I've got my
favorite wind machine. It’s pointing at
the back of Beth and it is literally
going to blow air right into her back and her
hair is going to come towards the camera.
It's going to give a very dramatic effect.
It's a little bit uncontrollable but
that's kind of half the fun! Okay let's
just do a test and see how this looks?
Okay here we go.
As you can see that is very breezy
and it is really messy. There is a little bit
of chaos in there and I like that in my
photography, so then let's do a few shots
like this, let me get you a prop.
That really was a great fun shoot to do
and if you're in any doubt before that
the direction of breeze matters
well now you know!
It really does, it's just like how the
direction of light affects your picture,
the direction of breeze will completely
change the look and the feel of the shot
as it moves around your model.
Now 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.