Test Shoot Setup: Location, Lighting, Styling
Miss Aniela
Lesson Info
7. Test Shoot Setup: Location, Lighting, Styling
Lessons
Defining Fine Art & Fashion Photography
33:54 2Why & How to Channel Your Passion
29:26 3When Passion Meets Business
22:44 4Method in Madness of the Right Brain Photographer
26:01 5Right Brain Needs a Left Brain/Shooting Planning
43:26 6Gear Overview
15:55 7Test Shoot Setup: Location, Lighting, Styling
43:35Simple Test Shoot vs Couture Test Shoot
24:19 9Inspiration vs Imitation & Having Moodboards
33:41 10Creating a Pitch
45:48 11What Makes it Fashion or Fine Art
47:17 12Sourcing Locations On a Limited Budget
16:59 13Submitting Work to Magazines
15:18 14Lo-Fi (Small Production) Shoot
21:26 15Lo-Fi Shoot Continued
40:05 16Couture Fashion Shoot - Part 1
34:30 17Couture Fashion Shoot - Part 2
30:30 18Couture Fashion Shoot - Part 3
34:01 19Team Q & A
49:39 20Reviewing Images from Shoots
12:03 21Tackling Anti-Photoshop Debates
30:23 22Image Selection & Simple Editing
49:17 23Compositing Process of Hi-Fi Image
37:23 24Possibilities for Surreal Storytelling in Images
35:09 25The Purpose of Finding Your Style
40:07 26Acknowledging Your Photography Journey
47:15 27Marketing & Social Media Audience
35:21 28Preparing for Job Offers & Dream Job
32:44Lesson Info
Test Shoot Setup: Location, Lighting, Styling
So I will play the first test shoot so the first one there's gonna be three initial reactions to the location? So when we were going to the when we were thinking about what's important to show of this test shoot, what is important what's important topics to cover with regards to the point of why we're doing a test? You the reactions are directions air a good part off the test shoot to cover because he's basically account for all of those times where we first recchi location so we haven't had the opportunity like on this. Usually we have the opportunity to have a look at our location before we shoot it. This was a great opportunity to do that for this particular thing, so I'll just go right in to show you that and talk more about after you've seen it. Well, cool oh, I really like it. This is you guys outdone yourself? I love the scale to the room, I think it's just bigger than I even thought in the pictures. So much artistry all around us. Beautiful, really fascinating details as well, ...
like the lamppost? Yeah it's very visual room, isn't it? I mean, we're inside of a pair of yeah, exactly real and magical I'm pleased I'm excited too few the birds chirping in the hours and the you know night three off sick so I see so much potential, which is really good because it's quite a compact spaces well, so it's not like we've got the whole house to kind of go around but one room, but it's got a lot of texture and detail a lot of layers, son, every single corner will look like it's a different location on okay, so much you're right, it's a fascinating place so I think for what we're after is well, obviously we wantto we want to make the dress looks like it's in a beautiful element so I see the dresses being really in its element here what do you reckon? Like how do you how do you feel that way in reaction to this room? Now that you've got the dress here and everything? Well, you have seen the pictures first, I can envision how the dress will look here, but now seeing it in person, I know the colors match perfectly and she's gonna we're gonna have feeling like she's inside that also outside and it's going to even maximize the surrealists of it. So it's perfect, so quick set up for everyone who may be joining us because there's some new faces in that video that they haven't seen before, but we want to let everyone know we did do this test shoot two days ago on dh so at the location do you want to walk through kind of who was there who we were talking to and what your reaction? Yep so we went with the fourteen pretty much to the location so in the video you see me we've leonid the stylist s so it's the first time he's seeing the location is well but he's seen it through pictures in order to kind of concoct his styling contribution for it but like matthew and I he is new to see it in the in the flesh as it were on this shoot because obviously we've been flown in from other places on dh we've got the crew's well we have we have that we have to make up artist the model and the hair stylist also on on this shoot as well preparing the model for the test shoot just very roughly so not completely a cz she will be on the wheel shoots that takes a lot more time but we wanted a general kind of palate on logan tiny bit of her starting just so we can see roughly where it's going it's almost like a physical sketch of what's to come up the real shoot we also have matthew who I've mentioned earlier in terms of him being the what kind of apartment my partner and I am left brain is it were he's the he's does a lot of theo organization and also the lie fightings that he's his main role on this particular. Well, the tissue is the lighting, so he set that lighting up over a few hours and he's very thinking about how his lighting diagram that I showed you earlier is actually coming into reality and what we might not need from that lighting diagram when it came to the test shots. So the initial reactions to the location are important. I mean, thie like I say, their reactions to this location represents how I would respond if I was checking out location a swell, because seeing in pictures is one thing and that draws you to them and then you want also come around, come along and see it in room in the real you want to see how much of those pictures is actually close to reality. You want to see what's being moved, you want to see how you just feel is well, when you walk in there, this is an when I come down to the right brain thing, the right brain, the instinct, feeling of magic and feeling of inspiration is something that you but I'm very serious about when I come to a location that I think about how first feel when I get in there and how that might be captured in the pictures I create there. That's important part of it that's part ofthe, you know, an important iraqi or a test shoot, and just as important as the logistical and technical aspect as well. So there we have the initial reactions we have landed, and I looking at the room that we're gonna be shooting in thinking about how it's there's our imagination and inspirations, thinking about leanings, obviously thinking about his dress, lies designed, and how it's going to be best represented in this in this place on I'm also particularly struck by all the paintings and murals on the walls as well, which really makes it quite a surreal location, which makes it exciting for me because that's my thing and it's, not just a normal ballroom, you've got all these different worlds going on on on the walls themselves, you've got these interesting love posters well in the room, which give it a really outdoors indoors field that's um, and could also buy the tree paintings on the ceiling, so you really feel like this opportunity to make the most of that through the pictures that you've taken is almost as pressure. I feel myself to really best capture that, so I say inspiration, but it's also slash pressure because you also feel like always yearning to put on all of this magical feeling into your images on dh like how mentioned you know, sometimes the good thing about iraqi is that you get over that excitement that initial kind of nave thrill and you can then get down to business when you do set up and get your shop properly going because getting over that thrill means you khun sort through everything you've seen in the location and think how much is actually appropriate to my shop because no, everything I seen this location is going to actually be part of my outcome so you you make a start on working on that, sorting through all of the stuff that excited you, what is actually going to be realistically in my picture? But then again, how am I gonna best convey this location in my images? Because that is one of my big priorities when shooting on location otherwise there's no point really being that a community about a shooting studio, so okay, so that's the first video do we have any question we do? We do have some questions even just related to this and again grabbing mike if you guys dio I want to know what you felt it. I heard the words excitement and I heard the word thrill what are those other things that you felt when you walked into this room? Uh, like I was just saying that the word pressure definitely pressure because sometimes when you have all this inspiration off the location being quite unique and not everyday location, you want to manifest that the best you can in your images, the location also has other rooms inside it, which are I'm just is exciting, maybe without the scale of the ballroom, which is why I like the fact you chose the ballroom to shoot him on dh, just like with any location that were scouting or test shooting in for commercial job, you will want to make sure that you are actually picking the best part of the location. Teo, do what you need to do in and every shoe always has time limits as well. So you want to make sure you spend your time in the best part of the location that urine? Andi, even if it's a one room you're in, you want to shoot in the best way in that room as well, it all comes down to just getting the best of the best. While you're there, there's always you're always up against the clock to get it. So walking into that walking into the ballroom, I felt as if there was a lot off color and a lot of texture and mood that I want to. Bring more to life in my images, but I also know that it's important to keep it simple as well, and this is something I'm going to be talking about as I talk more about the test you on that the shoot tomorrow, keeping it simple with something matt and I are basically reminding each other to do because we have these great ingredients, we have a great location, we have lean it's styling how do we just kind of know overcomplicated too much and bring them together is a great foundation to start with and then we can build from there because that is how I've got most of my pictures in my cereal fashion portfolio, so I've got to kind of remind myself of that and remind myself to go make sure I get strong image on work and build from that I think it's fascinating that you say keep it simple home because when I look at your image is simple is not the word that comes to mind exactly. Yeah, so it's really cool to say that you need to start with that? Yeah face I'm going to talk more about that because I'm aware that does sound kind of contradictory when you see a lot my pictures and because obviously I'm not going for simple, I'm going for something extraordinary, but how do I get there? How do I get there? I am trying to keep things simple and strong all the way, but you're going to see more of that as I shoot and as I process, and also as I show you, the the work flow to a lot of the pictures I've already created, to see how I might my thought process through that and it's always about trying in some way, shape or form to get the simplicity and two, and because you want to be able to know what you're doing, to some degree whilst being inspired as well, to try things out along the same lines, new york, clyde and toronto kind of want to know how often are like the paintings on the wall and the colors in the room problem? Is it too busy? Sometimes? Or do you ever feel overwhelmed by the rooms? You scout, what are the things that will make a room too busy for you to use too much clutter? What are the things that you used to determine that? Oh, yeah, that's definitely an issue, definitely, I mean, it's it's, kind of one of the downsides of being a location driven photographer, as I tend to be, because there are some shots in my portfolio where I have, you know, but very rarely, but sometimes I almost obscured the location out, and I kind of some images I have a black background not not many at all on those images you might look at them and think, well they could be shot a studio in that particular frame it could have been but then there'll be another picture that I did really want to use the location for but yet overwhelmed is a really good word because that's how I do feel when I enter a lot of locations there is a particular location that much and I was shooting up last year which is just an absolute feast for the eyes when you walk in there's so much to look at but when it comes to taking a picture you have to think differently when you almost have to strip out everything at least in your mind and think where do I start with all these things? Because you you can't necessarily walk into a beautiful room and just turn your camera on and take a great picture because it may be that there's too much in the pit you actually have to take things out and it really is about composing I mean, we talk about the word composing when we're putting together a shot and you're literally composing putting, letting things in length things out as well and a lot of the time it's about as much as what you leave ours what you put in and I'm going to be that I mean that is a principal to my compositing as well, because in the same way you could want to put too much in when it comes to, you know, stock images and trying to make something really bizarre and surreal and just putting too much in. So in the same way, whether you've got things in the room or in folk shop ready to put into into a picture it's all about making very careful decisions as to what works, you know, when you're moving furniture about in a room or when you're moving things about folk shop, you're composing the shop on dh it's not easy, you know, it feels easier than he actually is to make things look beautiful to the eye, as it does in a picture like it did when you first saw it physically so definitely is I mean, that's, the whole challenge of photography that I come up with time and time again. And when I walked into that ballroom, I felt as if the wall's necessarily were okay because they are part off the flavour that they're not physical. Things are in the way they're all kind of the same color tone, mostly, but the good thing is that we moved all the chairs out of the room, so we had this space to play with. So I felt as if we have a nice palate to work with the lamp posts at the side as well punctuate the room so in this particular situation I feel a little bit more focus because there isn't so much physical bulk around me but but yeah, it definitely is an issue to be overwhelmed with things that's why you're gonna give yourself a chance to just calm down and think what actually works in my image yeah go ahead I was just curious I saw that you know when you walked in with the stylist that you hadn't seen it before obviously are there any changes that are made in styling once you walk into a room and also how much do you work and collaborate with the stylist to decide the direction of that side of things? Yeah so and styling I think lean it may well add bits and pieces but the main I mean the main office of the color of the dress the kind of vibe the inspirations he had when he first saw the room they're going to be still intact because the room is still the same flavor on we knew that was gonna be you know, the same colors and the murals that we saw in the pictures and then when we're doing you see when we're doing some test shots I found that you know we might discuss for example putting more fabric in so it khun looks like it's blowing behind her or the potential for building on it a little bit more with what he already has, but usually it's going to follow the line of you know what? He's actually brought along on scene because the thing's not going to really change you wanna at least know the direction of the mood we want to evoke with with the outcomes from it. So little tweaks here and there, but they're mainly just enhance something or to make toe down something that we have already kind of put into place. And when it comes to mine put, it depends. I mean, I'd like sometimes I like to leave the stars to do what I'm doing, but then I think is a great benefit to the photographer communicating with the styles, obviously, especially to start with when your first telling them the brief and you're getting their initial reactions that's always important. But then, as the stylist is building their vision, it's very useful toe keep communicating because you might find that you are what we lean it, I find that we've landed there is we're on the same page off the time when it comes to what we're imagining on, we're building the vision together. It's difficult because sometimes you want to leave status to do what they do and haven't just kind of walk in and do what they do because it's then playing to their strengths especially if you contrast them to do what they're doing but then I think it does benefit there has been times where I have suggested something to a stylist like like that why don't we leave her here like this so why don't we put it here like this or let's not have too much of this makeup or lets you know try this and I think it is important to do that because it means you're remaining engaged with what's going on because ultimately it's the pictures were all gonna have all your names on at the end but it's going to be you're gonna be the main name on it concealed a photographer and you want to make sure that the ingredients just preened throughout so that they're coming out for the best the best result at the end of it so constant communication is nice it means you're you can keep on the same page but then at the same time it's also nice when you work with someone that you can trust that you know I'm kind of thinking in the same way you're thinking thinking in the same language as you are which we really find lena when feel very fortunate because of that we spent a long time kind of you know, working a different stylists, and then I think we've landed, we found someone who really, I think I can say things in the same language thinks in the same kind of colorful way that I like to be in, I like to put forward in my images, fantastic. Keep these questions coming, everybody, we have another video that we're gonna go on to really quick. One other question, one topic that we did want to get to right before we left a very important one, that a lot of people fat joe and others were asking whenever you go into a location, do you ask for a property release? Do you need to get permission to shoot places, or do you just go in, shoot and then leave before anyone notices? Well, most of the time, when we shooting locations, we have actually hired them on dh s so it's part of the agreement, sometimes it requires us to actually get a proper team lose, just to make sure we know for sure, but most of time, it's just kind of included in the agreement, but then there's also times are I've bean locations, and you haven't necessarily hired them, but I've just seen in them sometimes have taken pictures, I generally don't tend to use him that much, because ah you don't have usually doesn't like to have time to shoot the images that I use and usually I much for shooting a model in this situation I'm not often shooting an image is stock and then transposing model onto it although I do do that sometimes but not regularly usually I'm shooting a model in a situation and it's the location that we've paid for us part of the production but then again you know going back to talk more about locations on the ways in which people khun source locations if they haven't got big budgets but when we used to shoot in abandoned buildings that's more like a shoot on ron kind type scenarios so yeah that's relevant there no there was no property release involved in the abandoned locations it's just more like a a bit of a and uh little bit of an adventure let's call it e I love it thank you for touching on that and that I think we are good to move on to the next video yeah tell us what we're going to see yeah okay so next we've got the lighting set up so matthew much to his delight is going to be on camera talking about he'll be forced to do more speaking soon so don't worry he is going to talk about his lighting setup on dh yeah I'll just let him get on with it and then we will just talk about it afterwards we've got three different light sources we've got the led for nellis you can see one here we've got strobes at the top we've got the house tungsten lights so we're gonna find a nice balance between these on it's gonna be a little bit challenging I'm shooting, chewing, tethered as well so we're gonna be monitoring everything on dh tweaking with grades gels the barn doors on I'll say I'm tryingto trying to get this nice effect coming down to the model almost like a spotlight almost theatrical that the room is very theatrical and this is something where we're china enter size hence the spotlights on color as well if you've got a very flamboyant dress so yeah, yeah, I just got to try out all these different lighting and hopefully national like at least one of them what do you think this is using? You know, lang room? It is a sort of usual intolerable doesn't encourage you to do more things with your legs not your lab will like a room like this. Well, wait bought lots of different types of lighting here because way honestly didn't know what was going to work in here because there's lots of color going on is quite dark on dh we want to try out some senates indifference and different styles on dh we're gonna be using possibly using a low fog machine hamza machine as well so we've got the friend l's toe to emphasize the haze there, so that should be quite interesting and then the strobes really just just punch in some nice light into into the subject yeah it's uh it's going to be fun thus I'm literally just going to be tweaking now probably another half and I'm not sure how much time I've got left, so hurry up against the clock here, okay? So we have bean given a peep inside matthews brain there, as when it comes to all the lighting that we've brought along for the shoot like he says, we were a little bit open minded about I know how we're gonna put the lighting into the picture literally for this you because we hadn't seen the location prior physically, just but by pictures so he wanted to make sure we're covering all bases, all options, and we've trying out what we have in our arsenal and how it can make our grand picture come to life in this room. Um, I'm most drawn I mean flush is something that we were maybe thinking about what we wanted to make sure that flashes in there as an option on probably going to be used in some way or another because flash is going to give us that that strong look that we think is pretty much necessary in a location in a in a room that is doesn't have much natural light at all on also give us a guide I to looking at the model and being dynamic fashion image that's what's important with the high production set up on also as you saw there we have him showing the picture my life's a swell that we've brought dotted about the place that which can we would I wouldn't want to shoot alone with them I've shown you examples of where I have shot with them alone but I think in this situation there more accessories to a shop where you have the flash in the soft boxes and that the main flashes of one that's going to be coming down diagonally on a boom arm above the model which sugar seymour off on dh he's also mentioned gels as well for effect the room that was shooting in is very much like a storybook room like the one I was watching the video there just reminded of how did you like the room their walls so rich with color and imagery and then you had the lamppost against them. It really reminds me of, you know, kind of kind of non here feel like a nighttime narnia and that's something that is sean's party inspiration that's in my mind as I'm kind of thinking you know how to make the best image possible in this room so the lighting is one of those things that's kind of for my very minimalist origin, kind of using that to light, using myself doing everything myself, origin, the one of the downsides of working with same as you, there is a lot more time taken, you know? Matthew mentions tweeting, tweaking, tweaking the lighting to something just constantly tweeting to get the very best shot because you've actually got this whole new when you go from natural lighting flash, you've got this whole new world of possibility, and that can be daunting can be overwhelming and the lighting certainly we've all thie set up, but we've got going. There is an element of being overwhelmed with possibility and it's about always checking in with what is your ultimate aim? I want to make this model stand out from the room, but then in the same way she has, I want to make it some kind of like storybook image where she looks like she's part of it she's not blending into it, you know, in a way that she looks and dull, but she's she's coming to life with it. And so you've got this kind of paradox of trying to make her stand out and make a blend in and there's always one of the many conflicts of things you're tryingto balance out when you're making your final picture. So yeah, that's and just a brief introduction to the lighting obviously we haven't been looked at the lighting set up, how it's, how it stands we just heard matthew talking about it so you'll see more of that soon, so I'll take any questions on what we have shown with regards to matthew said about the lighting and what I've said about the lighting so far it's kind of lighting related, but it's also something matthew said right at the end of his video hey mentioned bringing in a fog machine or a haze machine? I'm just wondering if there's any other elements like that, I guess more theatrical elements or props that you generally bring in two locations and second part of the question is if so, is that a decision you make when you're initially planning or once you've seen the room and you can kind of recognize what might add another dimension to the shoot? Okay, um thank you. Um well, yeah, I mean folk in the hayes there's no many other thing means that we have using terms because we've got so many ingredients already you've got the dress addresses like this massive prop in itself on the location brings its own little forms of props around her on where I mean, we talk about simplicity, it sounds contradictory, but once you've got all these complicated things in place you want to then bring your camera in and capture in a simple way the foreign hes a nice because they they just pump out and effect that is not necessarily a whole new prop but they're emphasizing the effect off the props that they're going to surround foreign hayes and this is what I mean uh they're not necessarily always easy to work with because they're kind of like they're giving an effect in the image that you have to it's another thing to harness is another thing to rein in so I I wouldn't want to bring any more in on top of that with regards to effect, I can't think right now off other effects that we have used it mainly comes down to the styling in the location on also any props that may have being like designed for the shoot not for this particular case but other shoots that we've done if we're having anything involved like other elements which if you for example we're doing a shoot in water under water then that's going to become a whole new element to the shoot that you have to harness so you want to make sure that you have enough stuff to work with to be creative with but also all these things are you know, potential things that could run away with themselves as well so you have to bring them all back together and so yeah, on this particular shoot we have I mean, we don't know for sure whether well use the forget hayes we're going, we're going to try and see if it benefits the shop that bean shoots I've done with fog, where it kind of it means that you have to be careful off trying to get the best shot the model with the best hall effect around her, and if you're getting around that you're getting great shots of the model, but the fog isn't doing its thing, then you're potentially ruining shots that could be good, so you have to be careful where you kind of injecting these new elements, you know, making sure you kind of do have some control over them, get your foundation shot first and then maybe add fog once you've got shots in the bag without it so that's the way I'm going to be thinking on the shoot itself when it comes to all of these things coming to life at once and feeling trying to being control of them and remain as the kind of director of all of these things that could be kind of making a whole life of their own, keeping them, getting them all back down get getting them all back down to like a simple foundation as much as you can be simple with howto interpret what's in front of your camera which is always a challenging part I'm not saying it's easy, it's it's the biggest challenge of what we do with especially the more we work with production allele a mints just there's more imaginative things to play with, but they can also, you know, run riot so you want to always try and bring it back down to some form of I don't know, I just left brain formality so that you can also have fun with creativity as well. Question from mia online how long did the lighting take to set up and I'll extend that how long was the test shoot in total uh they test shoot, we weigh well in terms of setting up we were a couple of hours wei have thie we have the location from around nine top two three, which sound like a long time but in that we only did maybe about two hours in total of shooting, if that so a lot of it was setting up lighting, which took a long time because we're doing it for the first time in that location on dh it does take a long time anyway and it's not something that I was dealing with I was doing my finger matthew his helpers were doing that part, so is something like I say, when you do start getting into higher production, it becomes a lot more time consuming sometimes it can be annoying you know you've got all these things that are going on tweaking you can't just go and get the shop without waiting first for the lighting so yeah it's something that is time consuming but ultimately gets effects that you want in the end hopefully well and that was one of those questions that I ask everyone smile where I knew the answer going into it but I thought it was an important note to hit because it is something that we see a lot of people who like personally, you know I'll spend four hours on the actual shoot you're spending four to six hours on the test shoot not even the actual shoot itself and so that's the key is putting in all of that work putting in all that effort ahead of time so that you do have the result that you want at the end and it was it was really impressive to me the work ethic and the just dedication time necessary that it takes sometimes that's right? Yeah I mean, when I first thought about was doing a test you I thought, what are we just gonna be replicating stuff that we're doing on the real shoot? But I think it was very necessary and very useful not I mean you also got a very mind based created five as well, so where we wanted to we're not just doing a shoot were also presenting it so there's also that part of the machine that's going on which we want that to be a sufficient as possible it might sound like that's a unique situation but there have been situations where we have been hired to do a shoot that is not just a chute it's also a form of event something that is being presented to somebody else at the same time so there have been in the situations like that that part of real life so yeah the test she was great for us to just get to grips with our tools and how they're going to be implemented in this particular scenario so that we can be more efficient with them on the real shoot cause I know that an hour and a half to shoot that high production set up is just going to fly by on dh especially when you when you're working with all the lighting and everything cause there's a million tweets you can make on dh that an hour and a half we'll just slip by so quick that you know well billy give me a chance to really hone in on that that final final magnificent shot I wanna capture with the lighting and potentially the fathers well so you you already answered the question from visual pop about how important a test shoot is but do you try and have them on every shoot they're not always possible because a lot of the time we it's just down to constraints off budget because obviously you have to basically higher everything or mostly everything for another day or half a day, I think it's so I could say most of our shoots, we have some form of preparation looking at the mood boards, storyboards, thie stylists, thoughts were going to be looking at those things bit later on, so but most a lot of time, no, but for him it's for jobs that allow the budget for that, that where you're spending a lot of money on shoot, you want to make sure that that money is gonna be well spent. Two you want to have a trial run so it's worth and it's worth budgeting for that, but you know you'll be able to tell for yourself whether it's worth it because it'll come ultimately down to the money that you have your you've been given for a particular job and whether it's worth it whether whether you feel as if you know if stuff if something went wrong on the big day, would that be a tremendous travesty? Is it worth doing that test shoot but test shoots even for smaller productions where you not where it's not involving necessarily massive budget, but you it's saying it's important for some of the reason like you want to you're working with things you haven't used before like even if you are like I don't know what even for machines or or the other you're doing something outside and you don't know what that particular location is going to look like a that time of day or you're working of elements your unused to or if you're working with animals like remember you did pop it with a snake years ago and you know that was a whole new unknown in itself the animal itself so when you're working with these new aspect it's really helpful to test them out and then you might find you actually even get shots on the test shoot you like so it might even serve that purpose as well craig come from some hot so this location you were mentioning that there's not very much natural light and there's no windows but you have ah um a pretty elaborate lighting setup so for someone who doesn't have the budget or access to as many lights as possible are you limited as in terms of location do you are you used to have to for example, choose a location that has a fair bit of natural light coming in to compensate for not having as many strobes and continuously it's a good question but it's exactly in line with the other shoot that we're doing on location so we're doing the uc shortly and why means examples off doing exactly an answer to what you have asked s o in this location, I also wanted to shoot without lights. I wanted to shoot the lo fi set up on dh shoot that without light so that I was demonstrating something closer to my earlier methods on these are different methods you might, for example, shoot with the on being like this there. So even though it has like a say about the limited natural light, you do have light coming from these sources, the chandeliers there's a lot of light coming from those actually on the lamppost and also comes down to lenses as well. So if you're shooting with the lens that goes down to you, no one point to one point for then you've got no that extra light you khun bring in for a shot with more open aperture, and that has good, great effect as well compared to that going to go down too, to put a s opening your aperture on also elongating your shutter speed. So you're doing a slower shutter speed image that does have implications because then you have to have your model keeping very still or you have to for the motion blur to be part of the image or so shutter speed as well, and obviously the other thing is bumping up your eye so so if you've got a great cameraman, I consider my eight hundred eighty to be good enough to go to like so of sixteen hundred on with sixteen hundred you can get a really great decent image in that particular room that I was trying out on the test you so I would consider sixteen hundred s o to be purple acceptable in terms of the noise in my image is not, you know, a great deal it's it looks like it's an image that I wouldn't consider to be poor quality in terms of the digital noise you might get otherwise, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend going up to sixteen hundred honor on the camera that's you know, a lower great in that like your kind of entry level dear salah wouldn't necessarily go up a size that because I've seen a lot of degraded images when you go that high on your own, but you've got these different things you've got I change in your eyes so changing a shot speed using a wider aperture you might also think about hey hdr as well as part ofthe the slow shutter speed things so you take your making different exposures some that are longer shutter speeds and others it does mean that you have to be very careful with how much the models moving if you were doing that, but yeah, these are just some of the possibilities if you didn't have any lighting, gear it all but you can play with and I have been playing with my lo fi portion off the test shoot on the real shoot, but we're gonna be doing and you'll see some examples of me shooting tori the model for the low fi set up in the videos to come as well. Great, I think we can move on to the next video the styling video if you want to set that up for us yes oh next video is leonid and I talking about the styling of the model to heal a little bit about leonids thoughts on how and why he star niles, prepare the styling this way on you'll see a little bit of well off model gang buddy right lin it's so how's it going with the look today it looks amazing, it's going very well, thank you. We have a beautiful place gorgeous model and you know, now that I put it on her, I don't see that it's actually coming out better than even in my much in some ways so what's being your inspiration behind the outfit and the design, you know, when you guys showed me the room is beautiful, beautiful room and an artist out has the ceiling, but in the trees and the birds inside, it gave me this idea off this surreal the concept of the outside with an inside so maybe it's happening in her mind even then invention this beautiful almost like a princess that maybe run away from the palace but then I thought maybe deeper maybe it's more than that or maybe she's not a victim at all maybe she's a sorceress going late at night you know, to the cemetery to find a very rare plant growth like once in a blue moon a twenty fifth hour of the night or something got your imaginations even more multi layered with minus so and details as well so you gonna have obviously accessories and we're gonna have her accessorize completely on top with beautiful bowling yeah considerably and the well, the thing about the volume here you know, I needed to come up with a technique to make it seem really larger and voluminous but keep it straight open on the front yeah so I came up with this um, button techniques you know so we can attach it here so it's really creative beautiful there's going to be another layer off tool here but it's open in the front that's what a good idea and we're gonna have a little bit of something well, a little bit of gone with the wind yeah you're going to be all the best stuff yeah I certainly see the cinderella in the color of the powder blue what girl doesn't dream of becoming a cinderella you know at least once in her life on the hearse bottoms will you what you're planning on directing zoe with the hairstyling I'm looking for a really large almost kind of a main step of thinking really wild and committed the volume on the square but then we have really tiny waist here it's a beautiful really exaggerated are less shape altogether yeah so obviously the house darling we're gonna have more time to work with on the show itself for the test you were just going toe basically want to get an idea of how the outfits coming across so then I can figure out also her styling will be like the last piece of the puzzle visually on the accessories as well the formidable no you place her in the room yeah we have a lot of work with so be good to get an idea of just how everything's working visually and placing taylor in the room as well because there's obviously like you know the room is so big we want to get an idea of how where to position it to get the most out of the impact of the outfit as well obviously because it's so big there's impact already but capturing it is a whole new art so that's where I have to try my audio do you justice so cool that's fantastic we're going there and of course for the final friday we'll have we'll have it all bling, though. Yeah, great. Okay, so you see and lean and night talking about the styling of the model it's. Always interesting to hear lean it's interpretation or you know what he's thinking when he first saw pictures of the location, andi pretty much kind of left him to interpret it flat out from the location on, then kind of picked up with his thoughts and that's, something I tend to do of stylists a lot, actually, when? Well, not not on all shoots on shoots where it starts with a location on, give them a picture of the location because that's ultimately what's going to be visually in the pictures alongside the styling. I just want to know where their thoughts lie, and then we can kind of tweak on where it might evolve toward, too, but then leanings thoughts on this on the room, on on the styling with reference to the room, a bit of a shooting and we're just exactly in line with how I imagined it. He has designed a dress that please it's very large have a lot of volume on potentially can kind of if we were to use fog before could be like an extension implied of the dress and you've got this kind of outdoor indoor field off the decoration of the rooms we've got the forest and the lamp posts so I'm seeing this is being this kind of very mystical image, where the woman is implied, a plant implied to be outside, almost. But in this surreal room s I really like the idea of that kind of contradiction about paradoxes, of two worlds brought together like a world under a roof. So so, yeah, it's lean it is like to give landed his kind of time and space to be able to bring together his creations. It sometimes is a challenge, because we always have time restriction, someway. But he's, really good at keeping to those and time restrictions, which is great, because, you know, when your creative being creative and being organized at the same time is not an easy thing. In general, when you're finding other people toe, toe, work for you. So that's great t have the mix of qualities in him that is so professional, and also yet so an imaginative as well.
Class Materials
Ratings and Reviews
Charlotte Madsen
I find this class truly inspiring and fascinating. To me, it was not so much the parts of photography, but all the thoughts behind it she talks about. The thoughts, the planning, all the what, where and how questions you can/should ask yourself as a photographer. Especially about your own journey and what you want to do with your photography. This class made me realise that I am actually not on the right track as where to my dreams are, but more on a track of one idea taking the next and then time just passes by. Miss Aniela has made me stop and reconsider what photography is for me and why it is important to me. And to me, knowing what is in your heart and why you are doing what you are, is just as important to know as the skills you need to take good pictures. I think there are many other classes here on Creative Live that get more into the technical stuff. But what is good photography skills if you don't know what you want to say with it? It is true, she talks a lot. But I enjoyed every word she said. I find there are a deeper meaning in all she says, and I am actually really sad its over. I could go on listening to her for hours :D
Roberta
I LOVED this course!!! Very informative, I thoroughly enjoyed it!!! I realize I probably won't get to shoot the 'hi-fi' shoots, especially in such grandiose locations, but I loved looking in, behind the scenes, and what all goes into these shoots. Miss Aniela was a fantastic instructor. Thank you for this course!