this is all about the fundamentals i
want to show you specifically how subtle
adjustments to your lighting your camera
angle your posing can take your images
from this to this
my name is pai and i'm one of the
founders of lin and jersa photography
and
slrlounge.com we're teaming up with
adorama to bring you a new series of
photography tutorials called master your
craft right here on adoramatv so let's
dive in what's up friends my name is pai
welcome to adoramatv we're gonna get
straight into this look i'm here working
with jesus in studio we're gonna bring
him on in just a second
but in working together i was kind of
like i want to do this fundamentals
video where i can walk you guys
specifically through just a very simple
setup but to show you how step-by-step
subtle refinements are going to
completely transform your images let's
have enough of an intro let's get
straight into this all i'm going to do
for my lighting setup we're going to
start with lighting we're going to then
go to the pose and then to camera angle
so first lighting i have just a single
strobe up on a c-stand this is the
westcott fj400 it's a 400 watt second
light you can use whatever light you
like this is a great one at a really
good price point and on it i have just a
standard softbox this is what looks like
probably like a 32 36 inch octa on it
okay so any basic off-camera flash and
modifier is totally fine
this is what we often do so i'm going to
start from right here we're going to
turn on our modeling light so you can
see kind of the placement of the light
and
you can use any camera lens you like my
workhorse setup is this canon r5 with a
28-70 so as long as you can get an
off-camera remote on there you're good
to use whatever you want
jesus go ahead and come on out this is
jesus a friend a dancer we'll link him
up so you guys can give him a follow
the very first thing that we typically
do when setting up a shot or at least
what i see often happening is a
photographer is going to place their
light you know maybe 45 degrees off
their camera angle their subject jesus
is going to stand like right here and
i'm just going to start working
basically i'm going to go ahead and just
adjust this angle of light and then
stand right here and start figuring out
my photograph
so what we'll do is she's going to stand
just kind of flat-footed in just a basic
shot right now
and i'm going to stand right here
and we'll take a shot just to see power
settings wise
i think it's close to about right i
might bring this up
i'm currently at 1 200 of a second at
5.6 and iso 100 this is set to 6. i
think full power on this guy's a 9 so
that means
8 would be half power 7 is quarter 6 is
like 1 8. so
what i'll do is i'll just bring my iso
up to 200 i think that'll get us to
about a right exposure
okay that looks nice
and then from here we just start
shooting right
but
this is where i want you guys to pause i
want you to think about refining each
step along this path because the first
thing that i want to do is
this lighting pattern is is fine there's
nothing wrong with this kind of 45
degrees lighting pattern that comes off
we're getting a bit of a rembrandt light
which means that if i go close on
jesus and take this shot
okay you kind of have this
we're in between loop and rembrandt what
that means is the lights off to the side
where it creates a highlight on this far
side if it's rembrandt the highlight's
closed off meaning the cheek doesn't
have
it's basically separated by shadow if
it's loop it's connected with a
highlight but regardless this looks okay
but i want to set up for something
that's a little more intentional
see
jesus is kind of dressed in a very high
fashion kind of dance look and we're
actually going to put him into a dance
pose in fact the ultimate shot that i
want to go for is going to be probably a
squatting shot where we can also show
off his heels right
so thinking that way i'm going to go for
a little bit of a different lighting
setup i'm going to start by refining
first to maybe more of a paramount setup
something that i might typically see in
fashion in hollywood and it's going to
be this top down light that's coming
from the front
so the first thing i'm going to make an
adjustment to
is the actual direction of light
we don't want this to be 30 minutes long
so we're going to kind of skip to each
process so i'm going to boom this up and
i'm going to shift my angle
okay
my light is now secured and we're in
this paramount light setup it's not
super close to where jesus was so i'm
actually just going to move him rather
than trying to move the whole stand so
i'm going to place him like right over
here
this is the next piece i want to make
sure that you guys get your angles right
okay i've tipped this forward a little
bit what that means is the light's kind
of coming so if you look from the side
direction you're going to notice the
light is coming straight kind of at this
angle where it's coming down onto his
face there's a few things here that i
want you to pay attention to number one
if we don't get that light source coming
top down if it's kind of like this
it's going to look like a bottom-up
light source and come close you'll
actually see these unnatural highlights
and shadows in the face so when i'm
creating a light source i generally want
my main light except for when i'm going
for like some sort of special effect i
generally want it to be coming top down
meaning from a higher position
and i want it to be angled so that i'm
not closing off the light
you can see the difference if i just
bring jesus forward so if i bring him
forward where he's underneath the light
more come forward forward forward and
i'm going to go ahead and boom this up a
little bit more
okay
if i take this shot this would be
equivalent to kind of not angling the
light enough
so we get not only too much brightness
on the kind of head but then also we
create these deep dark shadows there's
easy ways to adjust this number one is
just making sure that the angle light is
not too extreme like not going straight
top down but the second one is just
moving jesus back into that right spot
so scoop back a little bit a little bit
more and you'll see that the eyes are
going to open up right there the eyes
open up
and now when i take that same shot
that looks so much better that looks
fantastic the only other thing i might
notice is that if the light's a little
bit hot meaning too bright i might pull
it down just a bit we'll bring this down
so i'm going to pull it down one more
stop i'm also going to reduce my iso to
100 so my final settings 1 200 f5 6 and
iso 100 the angle of light is good now
we could stop here but i'm going to go a
little bit further this is where i'm
going to bring in negative fill so this
is my next refinement to lighting i have
v-flats
these are v-flats from v-flat world
they're nice because they can kind of
break down and go anywhere
but
you can really use anything you want you
could use a reflector that's just on a
stand use the black side you can make
your own with foam core
whatever you would like
this is going to go on both sides
so the black side is facing jesus
because what this is going to do is
subtract light from each side and it's
going to contour the face a little bit
more
contour the face and the entire body
so with the exact same settings
what you'll notice in those two shots is
that you start to see more shadow
dimension anywhere where there was
shadow in that first image now when you
look at the second it gets a little bit
more dramatic so we're kind of darkening
those shadows a little bit and you can
control that further by just pulling
those in and out
just from this basic stuff we've already
made some
huge improvements to the overall shot
right
next thing that we're going to do is
work to pose so with the pose what i
want to do obviously is create
interesting shapes with the body that's
going to add a lot of visual interest to
each of our shots and we can do a number
of things in fact because i have jesus i
can do tons of things because you can
dance you can do everything so we're
going to do some basic poses we're just
starting to use the hands and the feet
as
as adding visual interest so first with
the feet kind of think shoulder width
apart is a good place to start and with
the hands we want to be doing something
with them that isn't just leaving them
at the side but i also like it to have
context if you don't know what to do
with the hands you can always place one
hand in a pocket and the other hand out
so if he puts one hand in the pocket and
leaves the other hand out it's actually
going to look pretty natural and if the
pockets are a little bit tighter just
put a thumb in and kind of relax it
there right there so
oddly just with this subtle change right
all we did was we put a hand into the
pocket
and then
he basically just opened up the legs a
little bit and shifted into one of the
hips
compare that to the prior shot
but now we can start doing more things
because this is sort of fashion-esque we
can do a lot and get away with it so
jesus just start moving a little bit
create some movement
that dance that pull-up shot was really
cool so look at this i want you guys to
take a look at this shot
what's happening right here is that
his limbs and arms are making shapes we
have triangles naturally coming in the
arm in the leg coming up we have one
hand up everything kind of leads through
it looks really really interesting and
fun to look at even shots like this once
again so we see a triangle right here
coming down with his arm going to the
leg and then back up there's a triangle
where his legs are opening up at the
bottom of the frame and guess what his
other hand is actually framing the head
so it kind of wraps up and brings us
right into where the fingers are
pointing which are right at his eyes
again very visually interesting because
it's a it's a dynamic pose something
that's a little more like if you want
something that's just going to work
every single time go back to that thumb
and pocket and just resting a hand or
you can potentially do this where the
hands are kind of in front
okay
this is like the bodyguard stance or
another one that works for everybody you
could you could fold the arms but that's
going to be a little bit more i want you
guys to think body language right so
each of these poses not only we're
making shapes but we're also conveying a
message when he brings the arms across
the body this is closing the chest off
is there anything wrong with it no
there's nothing wrong with it except for
when you're trying to
this is one of the big things with
posing refinement
what you're trying to communicate needs
to match up with the pose if i'm trying
to get shots of jesus that makes him
look approachable like anyone can talk
to me
i don't want to fold the arms because
the arms being folded doesn't go along
with that look which means that if i
give him so jesus i want you to fold
your arms right now okay but i want you
to give me like this open nice hearted
smile like like
cheese yes
okay this is going to look a little bit
off because
his body language is showing that he's
kind of closed to the camera that he's
protecting himself right but then his
emotion his face is showing that he's
like open-hearted like just ready so
what would make more sense would be okay
if i wanted to get a strong and dynamic
shot keep the arms folded lean into one
leg kind of like beyonce there you go
chin up a little bit and i want you to
kind of look down at the camera
now this makes sense the only thing that
changed there was that your expression
lined up with the language of the body
right
so when you're refining a pose i want
you to think language of the body making
sure that the expression matches that
language so any of these things are
great we want to add shape but we want
to make sure expression lines up
i'm going to give them a squatting pose
in just a second but i like everything
we've done so far there's one other
thing i want you guys to keep in mind
which is camera angle
if i'm shooting up here this is going to
give me a more approachable look
shooting down here stronger let's go
back to that strong pose i want your
chest facing me yep just like that chin
up a little bit now if i come from right
here right this is top down on him
okay versus
lowering my camera angle to go bottom up
on him
same lens same focal length those look
totally different
again
lowering your angle gives the subject
the ability to take presence over your
frame they're going to dominate the
frame raising the camera makes them
diminished it makes it more approachable
like i'm looking down upon them they're
looking up at the camera right kind of
like a child this is like a child's view
someone had grown up this is a parent's
view coming down here so if you want
someone to look approachable you bring
the camera up it's also nice if you want
to flatter certain features like you
want to bring the face more into a
tension the body less attention you come
up top
but if i want him to have a dominating
presence i go down low so your camera
angle should again line up to the
language of the photograph
from lighting to pose to camera angle
these are three links that i want you
guys to think about to the overall
message to the story you're trying to
convey
we're gonna put it all together and just
start shooting now so look he's dressed
in a strong outfit this is
dancer strength presence i've got this
light set up so it has kind of a
hollywood vibe we increase the shadows
in the background i'm going to bring my
stance low
and from my knee we're going to start
working right here with just these shots
dope right there keep it right there but
i want you to go chin up and actually
scoot right underneath that light a
little bit more i'm going to make one
tiny little tweak oh you're good go back
and then this way right there
i'm just going to bring this closer
now i'm cropping at your thigh and a
little bit above the head okay
right there
from here i got some cool shots i'm
going to keep shooting but before i do i
want to bring him down to a different
pose see i actually want to exaggerate
not only the outfit but also the heels
that he has on so he's going to come
down to a squat
whenever we do something like this i
want you to keep in mind that we need to
adjust a bit of lighting and everything
else but all the principles hold true so
all i'm going to do now is lower the
light source one other thing just to
kind of keep in mind is usually when it
comes to a light source just a good rule
of thumb is to keep it about the
distance of the size to the subject's
face so if i'm looking at like a 32 inch
soft box i'm keeping it about 32 inches
from my subject
okay check this out what i'm going to do
now is look if i go top down on this
again i'm going for a strong kind of
pose right if i do this top down where
his chin's up and he's looking up into
the camera and cheese it
this is like cheese i'm ready for my
photo it doesn't make any sense i have
to bring my angle down we put them into
a strong pose i'm going to move one of
my v-flashes so i have a little more
space on this side
and my camera angle has to come down
to again exaggerate
[Music]
my camera angle along with my head has
to come down so i don't get it chopped
off okay now watch this i'm gonna have
him turn the heel so i can actually see
the shoe so turn the heel
okay
and you know what keep it straight we'll
show you the we'll show them the
adjustments from there so from right
here
this is where he's at
i'm going down low wide angle
what i'm gonna do is make an adjustment
first that heel turns so i can actually
see that you're wearing a heel other way
this way yep keep going
kind of point the toe there you go
extend it out a little bit further if
you can right there and then kind of put
it down flat on the ground if you can
okay okay bring that arm back a little
bit and then what we're going to do is i
want you to go chin up a little bit
looking down to the camera again
everything is holding the same the only
difference is
we're adjusting based on my camera
position bring that arm in a little bit
there right there
maybe hold the tassels
and then chin up more and kind of
looking down onto the camera
that's it
that's dope chin up like that bring the
nose back to me a little bit more turn
the chin this way there and then chin up
a little there it is right there
and rotate this foot a little bit more
toes in
there
now i can see the heel
dope
i love that okay from there move freely
[Music]
okay he's gonna do a bunch of crazy
gravity-defying stuff right now so
before he gets into that too much let me
just show you the difference those
subtle changes in the pose i want you to
look at the kind of the the shot where
his heel is kind of pointed directly at
me again starting with the top down shot
then we go to the bottom angle then we
turn the heel and then we start making
adjustments chin goes up nose comes back
and look at the final
huge differences but we're not doing
anything we're not changing anything
except except for just these subtle
adjustments
now
do your gravity defying stuff
[Music]
don't ask me how he does this stuff i
don't i don't know
i hope this was helpful just these
fundamentals of linking up your lighting
to wealth the pose and the story you're
trying to tell and making sure the
camera angle is on point it's a dramatic
difference in your images in the story
you're trying to convey that's it for me
if you guys enjoyed i'd love for you to
comment on the video let me know what
you think get a lot of ideas from those
comments also you know what to do here
on youtube you can tell adorama i'm
doing a good job by giving a thumbs up
to the video and subscribing to the
channel meantime we will link up jesus
you can give him a follow and all the
gear that we used is going to be in the
description of the video i'll see you
guys next time oh if you want to follow
me it's that by yourself
i'm going to get back to shooting peace