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Shoot: One Speedlite Beauty Shot

you'll notice on my website. I've got, I don't know, probably 20 pictures of my portfolio view. So we did a lot of fun stuff together. When you look at the the blown out sort of that white look, you're, I think one of the first ever did that with and I think it's because you were a blonde back then It's but she changed her hair. And, you know, the good news is you have options. I don't My hair stuck the way it's gonna be. In fact, we were trying to put some extensions on earlier, Just didn't work. But we're gonna do a head shot and I've got some head shots of you that were amazing. And part of it is your smile. She's got the most beautiful smile. So we're gonna work on her at that. Jessica is really good in front of the camera to So there are some models that you can you know work with, and they work. And then there's some miles ago. Oh, my God. Every picture is amazing. So, um, we start out really simple, and then what we're gonna dio is I may add my two edge lights in to show you som...

ething like the one we have behind us. So it's like a beauty. But it still got that little edge to it. Not not my edge, but enough. Not too dramatic, but enough to show that there's a depth. And then we had this old table. Well, if the table actually we use over here for doing my photo shop. And I did a Siris for a while with the table that I found not quite as good as that table. And I was doing these portrait's and it's really kind of fun. Look, So I thought, looked the tables there. Why can't we just do it? And it's just one light, so we may bring that in. And if we have time, we might do that. All blown out Look, with the too big modifiers was sandwich time We have. So why don't you come around here in front of the, um, apple boxes and we might want to get John one more Apple box, see if we can find it. There's one over there and we might want to raise this up, but let me show you guys the inside of this modifier, so number one. I have a really small light stand, so I don't need a big light Stanford, cause it's not very heavy. And my, uh, boom is just a little Avenger. What do they call this, John? Help me out. It's just a standard Arms are like a C stand on. It's really simple, and I've ground a little flat spot on it so that my light doesn't, you know, spin on me, which it probably wouldn't anyway, because there's not a lot of weight here. But look inside here way have the speed light coming in hitting this dish. Bouncing around is all silver inside here. You can shoot this with the diffusion off. It's gonna be a little bit probably little bit harsher. A little more contrast the diffusion. I always shoot with diffusion. Typically. Now you might experiment. See, I've kind of get stuck in my own ways to write, but I have tried it without the diffusion, but I like a diffusion on their cause. What I would love that smooth kind of overall, even this on this front. And so and then, of course, the pill card's gonna bounce in, but so this is how simple it is. You just literally put it up and just hook it on here like this. And it's so lightweight. Also, I've done this where I've taken a paint poll you get at Home Depot or Lowe's or whatever, and you just have you can get it at, uh, Midwest photo. It's called painful adapter. You scream like the sound effects. You put that on there, and then you just stick this on here and you have someone walk around and put it right over right over your top, your camera and you walk an alley. You could carry this with you, but but outdoors is great. But if you have an assistant and just walk around and shoot up, gets old doors or old walls and just literally crank out a whole bunch of pictures, So this is super lightweight now. The only thing about a speed light is is when you're in full sunlight, it's hard to overpower the sun. But there are some ways you can stack to speed lights on top of each other, bun Jim together and get to popping through there at full power. You can get with with it being two feet away you can overpower the sun, but you can't put this 10 feet from your subject outdoors and expect toe, you know, over power of the sun. So that's one limitation for speed lights, but for in the studio here, I don't eat much light, so I think I got it set right now. Quarter power may have a little bit more, but let's just try that. So All right. Um, what my goal is to just do right across so I usually have a model bring, like, a tube top or something. That so I want to see just shoulders across the top, and I'm gonna just going to frame it up. So let's swing this around, and then you probably want to put it on the leading leg leg here just to be safe. So we'll tighten that up. And then what did I say? What's my rule of thumb? A two foot modifier. How far? Two feet. Okay, so this this is getting a little bit. The higher I get, it's going to be the more we might want to put a sandbag on it. Well, you know what we could do here? Let's spread the legs a bit more. I think that's part. My problem. Ah, look at that. Okay, That gives me a little more stability. I have not had a light hit a model in the head yet, so we don't want to do it on live session here. All right, So I have discovered for my personal taste as an artist that if I take my modifier and put it pretty much on my lens, I am like, golden right. But every model's face is a little different, so I want to, um, do a test and take a look at it. Now look how close I am. Remember we talked about this. Do I have to have a long lens to do this? No, I I'm gonna probably hopefully around 35 millimeter 50 something like that. So let me get this loosened up so I could spend my camera around, and I'm gonna focus. I'm at 7.1, and I should be at around my sinks beat. But I have discovered something with these of the older pocket wizards. This a plus twos. If I run my sync speed at 200 of a second, I get kind of like a camera balance things out. A little curtain, You know, it's not quite getting the sink. So I knocked my sink down to one sixties. Did you put that on that for me? Oh, no, it's on 1 60 So would you say yes? Yeah, he did, but usually keep it was just a little bit below. And I get my sync speed. If you don't know that a first going what's going on with my what's what's happening here. Right. So, um and that has to do with that curtain coming and closes the same. You know, at that at that time now with the new pocket wizards. Utkan. I think they saw that. But you can also take it in with your computer and you could dial it in and do all sorts of really fun stuff, but all right, so we're at 7.1. I s 0 100 were at quarter power on here, and so we'll see. What kind of what kind of, um, exposure. Get ready. 123 And hopefully got all I think sync up here. Oh, yeah. Okay. Not bad for the first, you know, pop here. And of course, that's not Jessica. There she is. Okay, so I'm gonna look at my look at my overall feel here, and I'm gonna say background value looks pretty good. So I think I've done a pretty good job there in terms of distance. It's kind of a dark grey, which would be good. For what? Remember that texture thing I did the other day yesterday? I could add that really quick to it. Um, in terms of overall lighting here, I could maybe, uh, let's say let's let me try to go. I kind of like this little white along here, but let's just zoom in a little bit and I'm gonna back it up just a fraction. It's like you think I could still clear Here is a little less white angle. All right, Ready? 123 It's a little less wide angle and maybe drop your chin down just a little bit right there, Gorgeous. Right there. Okay, so we're working it all right. And so let's go. And let's give you I know you have that incredible smile, so let's just try some smile stuff. Jessica comes alive when she starts smiling, but we can't have every picture smile. Right. But we can maybe do that, right? Nothing wrong with a good smile. Okay, so I'm just gonna start working this. And I would say that, um, let's try usually, but I do in my hand. Right? I'll just bring this up. I know John wants to do with this. John wants to hold it, but I like to bring it up a little bit. Just about a little bit more in there, See what that looks like. Now we're getting there, and let's try to do this. Let's try to I'm gonna try to push the limit how far I can get her skin to blow. That's usually the goal. I have. And with this, um, I don't use the speed lights that often, but let's give it a little bit extra punch here. So that's 1/3 of a stop. Let's go. 2/3 of a stop, cause you only goes in thirds on this on this on this splash. Okay, so let's just see what happens in ready 123 And that will give a little bit smoother. And I think we're gonna get a little bit better result, so I'm gonna push it as far as I can because I know what number one, that if I go a little too far, photo shop will recover it. You can put your blinking is on. I tell you, if you get too much, you know, Blinky is going on the face, but I don't think I would have. Blinky is on this situation, but I want to smooth the skin out. That's my goal. I want to make her look like a $1,000,000. So, um, so let's say that looks pretty good. Actual exposure wise. And remember that my camera is a little darker than the monitor. So in here, I look like I got plenty. Plenty of room. So let me try something like this to I'm gonna zoom in just a little bit. Something drop trim the top of the head a little bit. I don't know if I like that right now. Yeah. Um, so let me let me back up a little bit. Let's just see. I might again, with the wide angle, we might find that I'm just It's a little too wide for her. So right now we just shoot another one here. So that's that's on my 70 millimeter. So now at 70 so I went from about 50 to 70. So it's stretching a little bit more, trying one, dropping your chin down right there like that. And then let's, um let's take, um, put your hit. You're holding it. Um, take take and let's put your hands on your hips. Will. But I want to see the shoulder slope. That's what I want. There we go. Beautiful. Here. Hold on to me. Focused. I dropped out about an inch, but they're ready. 12 Yes. Now we're talking. Actually, kind of like the the dressed in there are not dressed, but the top blouse is kind of gives me a little bit of an anchor, so let's try this. Ready? Beautiful. Okay. So look how fast the this is. Recycling. Got plenty of power. Pulley recycle. And I've got a little speed light in a little teeny little 20 inch, 22 inch type overhead. Pretty darn simple. We're getting there. We're getting there. See? Now we're starting to work. It was trying to get the feel of the rhythm with her. And let's just so what we'll do is that I'm gonna back I'm going to go a little lower, so right, We're That's perfect right there. So let's go right here. I love it. I love it. See, Jessica knows how to move. She just got the moves. Yep. So again, what? I'm Here's what I'm looking for. As I start snapping pictures all of a sudden, there's gonna be one picture, one move where she goes. I just go. That is it. And so I just keep looking for that. And Jessica knows this now good model is knowing that 98% of everything you photograph, you're throwing out the door. You need that one image? Maybe 23 whatever. Best not a lot of images. So she's willing to take the risk as huge. A lot of miles are afraid to take the risk of doing something stupid. So if you're ruling, take the risk. Then you go look terrible. But then all of sudden, that one picture does it. So that's that's what's fun about working with a good mark model. Good smiles. Okay, so I'm working her and I'm a portrait shooter. I want personality. I want something about her. I want I want something that reveals her and me together. It's kind like a combo of I'm the artist. She's an artist. She's an artist in different way, right? She's an artist in revealing life about humanity, her beauty, all that stuff. So I'm just gonna keep working it now. See my shoulders. I gotta watch my shoulders. So if I ever do knock her out, I've got her in their little tight over here right now. She looks like she's gonna be mad at me there. Yeah, she's like, Come on. Beautiful. Now see how she's moving. She's timing what I'm doing. Not too fast. And I gotta tell you that a confession, First time ever model in front of my lens. The model did this and I was like, I fired before she got there. And so I'm like, this is back in college. She's like, and then she gets there and she's waiting and she's waiting and she waiting. Finally, I take a picture, right? And then it's like the sink was way off. And when I got done, I had a friend that was he was gonna let me shoot. He's like, Joel is never gonna be a photographer, right? It was It was brutal, right? And I walked away from there with a tail between my legs. Right? But I think that's 35 years ago, right? So it takes a lot for me to learn how to work with models. So we all have a road lips. We go. 123 That's kind of cool. Look there. She's kind of got arms back a little bit. There are a lot of megapixels around her, but so that's good to where you just kind of off to one side. There you go. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. So you guys get my point here. I could do this all day long, you know? I mean, I could just keep doing it. And again, the only thing I could say now is if I raise my light, what happens? Increase the shadows. So let's just show you one just for kicks. Let's raise a little bit. That's going to stretch my shadow. And if she if you bring your chin up a little bit, then that's kind of a cool look right there. See? So she's looking into the light a little bit. That's not a bad look right there. That's kind of that That one of them for the routes. You're like this. It's kind of a cool look. Beautiful. All right, let's get this dude again. Take eyes closed and eyes open really wide, right? They're beautiful. Um, so now we go straight on to see what the shadows look like. So that's gonna be a lot of shadow under her lot of shadow under her. Oh, I like that one there, though. That's too much chattels, right? Yeah. Look, this don't don't don't don't freak out, Jessica, but this is It's gonna let make you look like, Was that it? Here it is. But it's a lot of shadow, right? So that Phil So let's do this. I'm gonna just come in here and I'm gonna drop this on top of the limbs. And one of the things that I do is I actually do this. I'll kind of go over the top of the lens and actually kind of, like, bend it into the lens, getting close to a ring light, but watch what this does. Okay, So I'm a little bit wider, though. Home on second. Let me go right about there. It's a little wider. And then maybe try your chin down now. Right there, straight on. But and I'm a little over. I'm starting. Get, like, a really light. But I'm a little over now. Maybe not, but it gets to be a little bit stretched here with his lens. So let's try this right there. So now zoomed in. So now I've got I don't have the wide angle effect, but I'm I'm in tight. That's kind of a cool look there. That looks good. Her skin looks great there, doesn't it? That's that's the goals, really. So let's try a couple more tight ones like this. Beautiful, Beautiful. Oh, yes. So I'm at 7.1. So 7.1 gives me enough depth of field that I know I'm covered. So I'm going to focus on her eyes. But it's not like if she moves or whatever. I've lost the picture. I'm 2.8. That's gonna be a problem. I love it. Let me zoom back a little bit, do that same kind of thing. I'm a zoom backs like now I have your whole head there