Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Silhouettes and Back Lighting

so we're going to start with silhouettes I love silhouettes not even just for pregnancy I love them for children as well um our models the information they are going to be coming um the silhouette the idea of the silhouette is what you ever have a flashlight when you're little right and you shine the light nickel like that or you make shapes right and clearly who we had nothing to do when we were growing up in new york it was not x box that we were doing all sorts of things that silhouette the idea of the silhouette is the light is behind the subject whatever we were doing this whole time lights in front of the subject so when we put the light behind the subject what happens you get a shadow right now in silhouettes you'll see that if you've ever played around and had a incorrect exposure with just a little play camera you play camera like a point shoot as I mean to say you many times we'll get silhouettes when you're out at the beach and it's getting crazy in the night and you're like...

oh I just got a said we didn't mean to you know because the light is so bright when you go on location you khun do silhouettes on location or in studio it doesn't have to be as long as that light is behind the subject now I call it silhouettes and backlighting because I love backlighting when I'm on location I love windows I love doors you know I tell all on location shooters just go find a door a window looking curtains where that light is steaming in I think we spend so much time as photographers finding the perfect light for the face that we often miss the life that's behind this right and so on because I get very bored of myself and I feel like I sometimes get in a rut whenever I feel that way it's like a semblance and I'm going to show you how to do with pregnancy but I really want to encourage you to do with children our silhouette specials are one of our most popular specials and the only thing I regret about this three days is that I don't really have time to explore the world of children with you because I love children not just because of a mother I lets children before I was a mother I was in the church nursery I babysat I was an aunt anna I love children and so I'd like to incorporate things and when I do and with pregnancy the silhouettes came after I was photographing silhouettes for children if you get them in here with two twos and skirts and boys on their helmets and their baseball bats and you put him in silhouette it's so much fun it's one of our most requested specials we do it about twice a year and it's really fun and not just the eight by ten profile so I wanted to open up your mind to the possibilities of what I'm showing you doesn't just have to be pregnant see because if you incorporated with children you will have so much fun I wish we could have even spent more time with children because we could have a whole baby wrangling when a one class because I think that children so any photographers are afraid to invite children into things and I always have an open door and I could spend a whole day I'm just working with children but we're going to get back to silhouettes and the reason I say back wing is we're going to do a little a little light play with one of her other models and we're going to show you how you're just going to move her away from the light turn of the light layer down and just explore be creative once you got the transition opposing down and then you start you know you got the fan you got that you got the husband and wife you got the black you're like I got it I got it all now what silhouettes so we're going to bring in our first model is a elissa alicia no that's on our first month this is c c is our first mouth yes okay good I like the sea do you do sign language that's like perfect because I have some clients that are interpreters and they talked to me the whole time in time language which is like the best thing ever I mean they'll talk verbally to but they do so that's why I was like oh I wonder if you okay so talking about dresses she's wearing a full lacey mama dress now you're going to come well actually I want you away from the light was looking at the back waiting for a minute here is the thing I'm purposely put her on this dress because I want the lace too I want a little bit of texture in there one of the things that I really used to do with this was do just a full black dress I don't know if I have it here we'll pull it out where it was like it's skin tight it's called their mama slim and it's a skin tight dress and it just sucks them all in and you can use it on any body type I women hold this thing up and they're like really anna and I'm like really just think of it like a scuba dressed for maternity but the reason is it's like I want clean lines so I'll pull this just to show you what I mean and maybe we'll even have her change into it but for fun I'm gonna add a little bit of texture because it doesn't just have to be clothing I actually started my pregnancy silhouettes with them nude and what I taught me was to look at the human form in my old old studio had a black studio every the walls were all black and so I would just put the lights on and when we were doing in noon silhouette it was kind of quiet and intimate close and it was like pitch dark and it was like I loved it but I hated it I hated my black studio but I loved it but now I'm in like an all white studio and I prefer it better but then the woman is a little bit more exposed when she's just standing there naked but if she was naked you know you're just watching the lines and just watching you don't want bumpy boobs you know what bobby boobs or bumpy belly and so what I'm what you're going to see it is you're going to face them if she would've put her hands on her belly I forgot to tell you about what aperture we're shooting at I shoot twenty two f twenty two for silhouettes so if I were to do your tiny I'm gonna pop out your belly little how far along are you so what how many pounds ten twelve felt of about twelve twelve okay so she could if she was coming to me I could say she could wait a little bit longer now so she we're gonna see what she looks like but we don't want this because what's gonna happen you're going to see a bumpy belly so you have to be careful with nude because you're going to get an extra move down here with the elbow right and then if you do this you get a bumpy boob see you've got a kind of experiment with when they're doing naked so guess what I've done when I'm doing naked nothing they're just out there it looks great so I love your eyes you're like and well then we're not doing that today so keep in mind when you do silhouettes um and you're doing them nude you know just watch everything okay so I am gonna put your hands on your under your belly and I want to get that belly out can you blow uh okay that's good could we bend this leg I love that you're so tiny but your tiny look at these bones been this leg now I still want to shape right I still want to shape I don't want gathering of the material so I'm gonna really we're going to really look at this and look at the details we want to look at the hair because member this is a shadow so I'm going to can I go in I'm gonna tuck your hair you're having a boy is saying we're just so tiny like you just feel so light in my hands and you gotta watch the chin so you're just going to stand tall and just look out and down and everything I was mentioning in the beginning and go down more what I was tell people is like a chicken looking over the ledge and every time we say that it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever but whenever I say it women do it they go oh I just feel like a chicken looking out on the ledge and they'll be like oh good and then someone said I don't really think chickens look out of religion I'm like I don't think they do either and I know where it came from but I've been saying it for like ten years so what I want the chin out because you will see a double chin even in silhouette and we want to stand tall and so it seems like it's hard but it's not that hard see there were in silhouette and so we're going to go ahead and shoot it now we get these light spots light spots are kind of annoying but there's a lot going on and you get them and you can just we'll just have to fix him because sometimes we just can't avoid him I do have the lights power all the way up right john and I'm gonna bring them right up to the backdrop so when you're doing this in studio your lights are on the back drop their power all the way up I'm going to go to f twenty two you heard that pop that's a really that's a really strong pop of your lights you hope don't burn the house down but when you hear that pop that's what you're hearing because you're full power this's the on ly time that I'm at full power now you want to have even more fun you put it on monochrome okay cc chin now and looking down but stand tall I feel like we're a little slow cheap let's start with the belly and I'll work on the posture so she were leaning forward cc let's lean back let's lean back see however leaning forward I might put you in a tighter dress because you're just so little but let's let's stand tall let's arch what's to china what do we do that up there's shit up in there there's chin up so you need to help because when someone says when I say chin up all the women they just go like this you need to come up okay so it's the same thing with the arch in the back when I say arch there back there's arch the back and then there's arch the back okay so that's why you're getting paid your the director they don't know so people will say I'm intimidating and I'm afraid to talk to the pregnant moms I'm sorry they're paying you for a reason because you're the expert there not yes yes okay I'm going to focus just on her belly and this like I said noon looks really really good but this should be good with the texture to see how simple and classic this's in monochrome do I need to do any post processing no I do not spend a lot of time in post you guys I just don't have time for it I would much rather get it right in the camera I do not wanna have to fix it later so let's do full body and I'm going to shoot her like this but now I'm going to adjust her a little bit more and I do tell people to smile it's going to change your bone structure okay beautiful right yes we like it I was feeling from quiet so wake up we had salad for lunch for all healthy right I want you to just relax and just sit back and just arch not it good and she up up up beautiful love it smile big smith kicking me and chin up and laugh sometimes make him off just to relax fun huh now let's put both hands on the back like this cc and now give me an arch there we go drop those shoulders pull back and just arch up beautiful now can you stay in that position and look down without a double too oh yes beautiful beautiful is that not the simplest thing ever or what right right so so simple I want you to put on a tighter dress so I could do more with your body okay so we're gonna take a we're going to switch miles we're gonna bring alicia how are you feeling good questions that was almost too easy right right how was easy there was a question and the question was would you be able this was some photo by am would you be able to do silhouettes in natural light yes you need your light source to be behind you bitch would they be as dramatic it depends on the lighting okay so you're on the beach and you know how it can be really bright and then the sunset so if you catch the beach in the afternoon you have a really strong light source absolutely you're gonna obviously you're gonna have to play with your settings and adjust with it but yeah yeah I think people to actually do silhouettes natural light all the time they just don't know it will be like oops and then it was a shadow I didn't get anything I was a silhouette you just did you know I mean we do it all the time I still do it okay I'm gonna show hi this is felicia how are you lisa you're cute boy or girl boy find what's a boy's all these boys and girls to marry the boys okay we're going to turn the other way it's gonna feel weird because your back is gonna be to the audience this way and the reason is because she's gonna look down and I want to play with her curl a little bit um and I want to see I want to play with texture and and see what we see ok so we're going to be here and I liked you looking down can you look down uh good look down a little bit more cans in your belly you have a baby name you thanks thanks where'd you get that from it's your dad's name wait so three generation for banks the fourth wow his debut on creative live stop it shut the front door you have to look at the screen yes thank you good stuff huh good job thanks okay I love that when I saw her in the model room I said tino you're doing because models often they're so sweet they're so kind they just say ok and they really don't know and she goes yes texture they said you're my text your girl because I'm a curly haired girl I blow drying so I have to promote the curly haired girls of the world okay so I'm going to do a full body and can you put both hands just under your belly and thumbs in beautiful and looked down so are the other banks of the world's very excited yes good can you bend your left like yeah ben tamar like this listen and can you turn your face slightly to me you think you guys do you like it okay so now we're gonna do one more in silhouette and then we're going to play with some light okay is this not the easiest thing ever yes so I'm thinking what if you pull your hair up yes and lift it up and go up ah seriously keep one hand uh put one hand um sorry you just can't do it cause I don't have the light right but it was cute okay listen up here yes but I want to see your profile yep go even more down almost yes you're fine did you know your fun you are fun you are fun oh what happened what happened on that who's got it thiss wizards hair wizards were working really well today love it love it stay there anger and fill your belly a little this way money oh my gosh turn your belly a little bit more uncertain but look at her back oh my gosh go a little bit more this way and now go back the other way keep going a little bit more to the background a little bit more I can't even that's beautiful uh you've inspired me I love it that you have to look at yourself black eleven yeah belly looks perfect it is perfect it is perfect look at that so annie are you ready for some of your answers so a lot of the folks have been shooting silhouettes by accident but they love the results and carly says I do a lot of slow it's at the beach at sunset and but I should f eleven curious as to why you would recommend a twenty two in the studio oh f twenty two I love I can't tell you why it's perfect look at it I don't know about the beach the beach I will probably not be a twenty two probably would not be in fact I'm quite certain I would not be a twenty two at the beach got it but in the studio this is hard I've got lights power all the way out I have white paper I believe your sister may be watching right now do you have an older sister yes and she said you look adorable don't make us cry e I love it so let's angle a little bit more okay that's fun she older younger way wales yeah we're going to come a little closer to the light and so we're going to come a little bit closer to the light and we're going to do another one standing and then we're going to do her laying down because I know we want to see that okay so when she's going to be a little bit closer to the light what's happening lightest filling the lightest feeling onto her correct so let's look at what happens when we shoot at the same aperture and let's adjust so put a handful on top and below you may be on top of the material good and chin just a little bit to me you're beautiful pull a little bit out more where it's too hot yeah a little bit mac good now turn a little bit more to the light good so you're going to see you're going to get there is what I wanted that last one is what I wanted to see the lights still on her belly so that's what I was going a little bit too crazy it's like opened up to like sixteen because sometimes I love it but I mean I am going to open up when I get her on the ground so what happens with this is especially with the nude imagine this and she's nude covered and you just want lights bill on the bosom of the belly right and so you can take I'm giving you such a basic element that you I could tell each one of you to do it in a different way and the result could be totally different but the same technique to unite a mean so I want to give you something so basic so simple that you can just make anybody look good obviously which she's wearing looks great because we're dealing with texture but I'm telling you I did this nude most of the time and it was on ly when I started developing clothing that we started adding that element but you can really go crazy with that we can also add material in a fan and take it one step further so I am going to lay her down and just show you and then we're going to bring the other model back in who has a hard black dress so we can really look at the lines in the shape okay so what we're going to dio is I think john I want you to keep the lights there because I want to see how I want to open up a little bit and see how they spill so and as we're doing this new setup you know could you talk us through the lighting set up please sure and how we're creating this so keep in mind that you could do this with any lights I don't even have alien bees anymore I just noticed that john switch lights on may lay on your back I just noticed that that's good no thank you mike sure I like that john switch lights on me in my studio I used alien bees so I would I'm on track so I would push the alien bees all the way okay and I would have the silver domes on I would there would be no soft boxes no umbrellas it would just be the light powerful power and that's how you do it now john is going to explain why he said right so I just switched because I knew we'd be going back to soft box instead of disassembling the's a bit more powerful to get you twenty two yes and that is true because I will tell you that the bees especially at four hundred right there's you have an eight hundred and four hundred so I put two eight hundreds of the same sort of the same power back there because if I put a four hundred eight hundred up I'm not going to get this hard light so he's got two of these full power you definitely want to keep equal power lights great whatever they're pure white seamless what degree would you say that is john or anna oh it's thirty degree yeah they're in pretty shallow they're pretty close to the background and depends on how much space you have in the largest studio you can pull him around to the front a little more you can see the distance yeah I am great thanks coming from the background yeah they're just so it's so powerful and blowing it out it's but you don't have to avoid seamless I've seen people do silhouettes in fact I did tiffany's was at first or second pregnancy tiffany first where we had a damask a black and white damask background were you nude okay so she was topless in a black and white damask background and she's topless and we did a silhouette and it's still hanging in my bathroom so you can get creative that's my point that I want to stress all you need to know where some key elements actually won you're lighting to your camera setting that's it the rest is up to you and that's why I like to show these things because I'm not saying every picture should be a white background with a lacey outfit or a black dress I am and it's really hard when I'm teaching in a studio because I do so much natural light I want to tell you that everything I've been telling you yesterday and today should apply regardless of where you are whether you have a studio or you don't or whether you're a home run your application I don't want that boundary I want to break down that wall because at the end of the day it's about lighting and it's about posing it doesn't matter where you do it so let's break that down and stop saying she student shooting studio she's shooting natural I can't yes you can you can relate you can relate take that knowledge and a switch it to what you do how can I relate that to my business my life my lighting my situation you're going to hear me talk about that tomorrow with selling I don't want to hear I can't sell it sent out of the studio I want to break down the boundaries of who you are where you are and what you have and let's get to the core of what we want to do hi okay you're gonna lift your head up oops I'm stepping on your hair I'm so sorry and came back down and shut up beautiful now when you're on your belly let me see you blow uh that's what I want so when they're on their belly they can relax and I like to see them blow because when they're farther along they can't blow his much how far along are you okay so you still have a little bit of ways to go and you're still soft there's still room at the end so because there's still room I know that I can blow her up and you'll be fine where's some women when they're ready to pop their like anna I'm blowing and I'm like okay so you asked them and you feel just like feeling the baby's timing yesterday she's nice and soft they're usually the baby will start moving and saying what's going on mama what are you doing today and you can say it was my first photo shoot okay so when I say ready we're gonna blow the light and the first one is just gonna be a test so actually don't blow my simple life but you know you don't have to blow you just relax and just gonna do a quick test here is very quiet today you're soaking it all in and take that as a good sign okay let's put shit up blow your belly blow you want to fix your skirt that less light john well let's have a look to me it's a little bit more to the you know let's say a bit more to the back room and I'll even do the same okay let me hand above and hand below now we're getting where I want to know is where I went again I'm in eighteen right now and so what I was doing was bracketing you guys know what bracketing is bracketing is when you have the same image and you're shooting at different exposures so I went from twenty to twenty eighteen six eighteen fourteen so that's the point of back lining and light play I want to play with the light and I want to bracket I can scooch her a little bit closer to me a little bit closer and we're gonna blow again but this time I'm going to just move your hair more to the side to your face this way oh my gosh your little boy's gonna have beautiful hair first baby are we planning on having more one day no pressure maybe when you're still young you don't even have a wrinkle not plenty of time the only reason I said this because if you had a little girl too should have pretty here but nina no pressure people who say that right like when we get through the first pregnancy even I would talk about the next one it's like when you're dating they wanted to get married when you get married they want you to have a baby when you're pregnant the weight of the next one okay all right here we go and so blow beautiful beautiful this is what I want I'm going to show you right now what I want nobody told you about planning the next shot while you're doing the first put both hands under the tummy just very soft just fun huh isn't a fun fun fun huh okay give me one more arm over head back there this way keep head where you were but took the hand hand right here can I take that office at a time I did not notice that before uh uh yes uh that's in my other photos isn't it blah blah blah oh I can't see your hand playing in a little bit more texting and in the boat and that belly like that but the hand in the head do you like check the hand in the belly she's like I don't know how I could do that so my my point is in this is when come on it is when you've done memory said before how when you've done everything you can do what do you do you move in a situation like this you can have her be there you could move over a little bit closer you can have relating down you could do a whole siri's unlike play and just have fun with it I shoot to create books to create wall art so in my mind like I've already designed like half her book and then I'm thinking gosh I could add writing to it she could read and no to her son how fun would that be right so you're laying down that belly image and you write a little note and it's in a book and he looks that years from now you know that says this is mom okay we're going teo bring back in cc one more minute teo show you two have any questions I just want to say some comments online atlanta ray photo says I am in awe this model is absolutely stunning she is gorgeous her hair is perfect and emma coleman said omg this model is something they just thought she was okay but she is funny she went c c did you say there's no way I'm getting in this dress you're in it maybe we'll just stay in it for a while right she's lying can I just wear it on your clothes I actually had a mom one time was like I need to order three of those I was like really she's a guy just like them I wanted she wonder where I'm underneath dresses like okay that's fun but what do we see her shape I want her shape I want this leg bent and I mean bent with all your might upon your toe yes I know what I want up posture up we're in her core is in there somewhere and let's work the arms what if we're I'm just making this up look up do you notice anything about the posing do you notice that it's almost all the same but different variations right if you think about it there's a lot of the very same elements that I've used in many different ways so don't get stuck in a rut like I did that pose are ready use your basic pose elements and adjust accordingly howie ladies feeling good excited still excited still loving it you know we could just hang here all week huh do you like it it's so simple arch a little bit more oh do that again he just did it you hold on for one second good it's so simple arms down sissy dccc now if we had a partner let's talk about that hi honey so if we had a partner he could be here and one of the common things that I've done is if my hands were on her face and you're touching my arms okay john john's gonna do it I'm gonna get my boy posture on haven't been a boy lately okay so you're here and I'm here your chin is up to me well I marching like you you've got to stand tall like a boy now you're you're the feminine one I'm the boy okay so chin to me there we go and so a lot of it is just adding in the you know the figure here you know I mean you know another thing is the boy the man you know the man's hands can be here he can behind here one of my favorite things to do though is if you have a toddler I'm now three and the toddler is here just like looking up to mom and it's so fun can you see it so because if you imagine like let's say you had a little girl and she's wearing a little too to school hurt and she's looking up it mom can you see it you have to see it you have to the purpose of imagination is to create what you can't see right I want you to do that I want you to create what you can't see but not be afraid that you can't see it because you can't create it if you could do that my job is done let's do one more I want a belly just a good belly so you're just like yeah you swing your hips to get it just getting good I want to search the march cheers here's the thing here's the rule bumming belly out yeah and blow you know what I like about this I tell you what I like the reason I like this is you can relax t see the reason I like everything we're doing that was wonderful thank you um is because it takes away size and skin color you know I mean and it allows you to play with light in texture if I was using somebody with really dark skin are somebody with really light skin shouldn't matter I photograph people of all skin colors and whether somebody is a size twelve or a size four shouldn't matter as faras the clothing put a pair of jeans on her pop out the tummy opened up the top button of the genes fun look jeans and a tank top fun look boy shorts pajama pants ah coat with the belly sticking out there's a million things what did I say the purpose of your imagination is to create which can't see