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Demo: V-Flats

Lesson 25 from: How to Take Amazing Photos with your DSLR

Julia Kelleher

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Lesson Info

25. Demo: V-Flats

Next Lesson: Demo: GOBOs

Lesson Info

Demo: V-Flats

- [Instructor] So now I'm going to take a huge, white v-flat, cumbersome things that they are. She's like, "Whoa. Don't let it fall on me." And it's going to do a very similar thing that the white reflector did, but it's just a larger source. And I'm going to, for poops and giggles, turn on the other light, just to see what a lot of light does. Any questions while this warms up? Any questions? Any questions? Oh, it's so pretty. Yes. - [Female] You're referring to the chimera light, but people might not be totally seeing it. Can you tell people what you're referring to? - It's basically one of the house lights in the studio here. It's this little tiny softbox. It's what? Two by three? Softbox that has a continuous of video light in it, so it's a slightly different color temperature than these lights over here, but it wasn't enough to be, to see it, really. I mean, you could if you looked real close, but I like the fact that it was sitting up there as, kind of, a hair light, or a kicker,...

we would call it. So, I just decided to use it as an additional light source. So, that's the first time in this entire class that I have introduced an additional light source, okay. That would be the next step, is to add a hair light or a kicker to your scene. So now, what I've got going on is a massive amount of light and a massive amount of bounce. It creates this glowy, effervescent look, okay. This is what happens when you bounce a lot of light off of a, like off of a building. Remember, I was talking about the white building yesterday, and the sun would go in and bounce it off? Now, granted, this situation is a little different because we have sun, or light, coming from both directions, and not just one direction, okay, because basically, I'm bouncing it off the big v-flat here. So, I'll take the shot, and you can see how glowy it is. This is my kind of light right here. It's a little flat. What do I mean when I say flat? There's no shadow. Very little shadow, as a matter of fact, I'm a little over-exposed because I realized I turned this light on here, and didn't adjust my exposure. But see how the glowy, effervescent it is? That might be a little bit under-exposed. No, let's go back. Here we go. It has that very, like bounced look. It is a little flat. Now, we still see some shadows. There's shadows here on her nose, there's shadows on this side of her neck, but it's extremely soft, okay. I love this kind of light. I shoot babies, babies, and kids. They are innocent, little, pretty creatures and they don't, like, that soft effervescent, low-contrast racial look. looks amazing on them, okay, because it's soft, it's light, it's soft contrast, it's ethereal. It has that feeling to it, which, if you're getting what I'm... if you're jumping ahead of me in getting what I'm getting at, color, light, composition. All these things impact the story and mood of images you're trying to create. So, if I'm trying to create an incredibly dramatic look, I'm going to use a small light source with very little fill. In a dark scene, with dramatic colors, and composition that's on that upper left, you know that very precipitous type of composition that has that kind of meaning, and that will change the way a viewer looks at the photograph, okay. That's what's beautiful about what we do, is we have so many options and tools to influence the story and the mood that the viewer is looking at the art with. It's the same thing as a painter. They just use paint and color. We use light exposure, color, and composition to create the mood. Okay? So, this is pretty, you're so pretty. She's one of my best friends and just such a pretty girl. I love it. Okay. So, I'll take that away, so that you guys aren't... so you can see.

Ratings and Reviews

user-3f7515
 

Julia is an amazing teacher!!!! Funny, go with the flow, honest, and obviously so gifted at what she does. That came through and also inspired those feelings in me as a novice photographer. I left her class feeling excited to play with my camera and appreciate that she encouraged me to use what I have now and get good before spending tons of money on fancier stuff. I also love that she showed how everyday materials from Home Depot can make for great images. I particularly appreciated the 2nd day on product photography, social media images and the short demos in PhotoShop. Please do a full class on just this Julia/Creative Live!!!!!

Brandon Couch
 

So first off I've been doing photography for a little bit now and only shot in manual 20% of the time and was okay with it. Since coming to this class and seeing how manual mode isn't scary, it is everything you need and want in the life of photography, I now will not use anything else. The team at Creative Live is amazing and Julia's love for other starting and even professional photographers is amazing. She would sit and talk to us together and individually and really loves those who love photography. I would recommend this class and any other one of Julia's classes here on CreativeLive. I can't wait to come back. Was AMAZING!!! LIFE CHANGING!!!

a Creativelive Student
 

What an awesome class! I am not a beginner and am currently making a living as a photographer and was interested in this class because #1 Julia is such a great teacher with such talent and #2 I was expecting to take away some valuable information to pass along to my little after school beinning photo club. I am happy to report Julia did not disappoint:-) What actually happened was that I learned so many things that I probably should have known being a seasoned professional that I lost track of my original intention of why I was there. I couldn't wait to pull out my camera and try all of the new things that I had just learned. The color balancing and the little dot showing when your camera (Nikon) was manually focused alone was worth the price. I enjoyed every minute of this course. Thanks Julia! Anyone would benefit from this course....

Student Work

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