Skip to main content

Midday Hard Sun with Profoto

Lesson 14 from: Lighting 401

Pye Jirsa, SLR Lounge

Midday Hard Sun with Profoto

Lesson 14 from: Lighting 401

Pye Jirsa, SLR Lounge

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

14. Midday Hard Sun with Profoto

Pye explores the concept taught in the previous video, but this time he looks at the effects of using gels and he tries a different brand of lighting gear. Post-production instructions are included in this tutorial.

Lesson Info

Midday Hard Sun with Profoto

we're going to pause for another case study because in this video, not only do I want to show you guys that we can do the exact same setup using a different set of gear this go around, we're gonna be using pro photo Lasko. We used Botox. We're also going to use a different set of gels because I want you to see how the Shadow is gonna look different based on different gel colors. In addition, we'll close this out by going and watching the last section of the shoot. We're gonna incorporate those smoke effects. We use the same W p 40 smoke grenade that we used in ships video this go around. We're going to use a blue one to kind of match his suit, whereas in ships we use the purple. So it's going to add a really cool style effect to it. And it's going to convincing look like we shot these images during daytime. So first, let's talk about the different gear set up. So in the first set, you saw that we use the Botox 82 hundreds and we paired those with the mag boxes. Whereas in the second se...

t we used pro photo everything. And so we had the B one or the B 10 off the wall, and we used in a one for our subject. Now, the two images are the ones that you see here. Where the one on the left side. This is the go doc set up. This is the A one set up. There's certain things that are different about each of these. For example, on the left side, with the go doc set, we use the mag mod CTB. This is a corrective blue gel that we added over the flash, and it creates a more subtle blue, whereas on the right side, I ended up using the just blew the just blue pro photo gel is a very blue gel that is probably twice as blue as the other one. And it ends up giving us a little bit more of a stylized look, by the way, we are looking at the raw file for both of these shots. So on the right side, you can see how if we zoom into these shadows. Well, now, just flip flop to the left side. Okay, so on the left side, if you look at the pro photo side, you can see how much deeper and more blue the shadows are on this side vs on this side. Now what I would say is, as far as what's more natural looking? Well, use a CTB if you're trying to aim for a more natural kind of, um, daylight reflective blue inside of the shadows, the CTB is adequate. If you want to go more stylized and have a very blue look in those shadows, then you might want to use a darker blue gel. But keep in mind something else, too. These blue gels on each side dramatically cut down the amount of light that's coming through the flash. So okay, knowing that and knowing what you guys know now about lighting could we have done this lighting setup in a way that used less flash power? And the answer would be yes. So let me draw and kind of what I'm demonstrating. So here we have next standing right here and let's say in the background, we're just going to use a umbrella, okay? And that umbrella is gonna fill light forward into our scene and currently inside of this light we're using a C T B. And then on the right side we have are bare bulb flash setup and it's flashing across. And this is Bear. So this is just daylight balanced. So leaving our camera at, let's say, 5500. Kelvin, I don't know why I wrote 55 So leaving the camera 5500 Kelvin, this works right, because we're filling the scene with blue light and then we're adding that bear flash at daylight balance that works. The issue is, Well, we're gonna need a lot of power on the CTB because a CTB will generally cut power by around two stops. And if you're using the just blue, it'll cut power by up to four stops. So that means a 500 watt strobe turns into a regular flash. That's a lot of power that you're losing. So how could we do this in a way where we're not gonna lose as much power where we can use smaller lights? Well, again, let's think back to what we know now about color temperature. If what if I actually drop my in camera white balance to 3600? Kelvin, I hope you kind of get where I'm going at now. From this just I could actually flash with just standard flash, right? If I if I dial my in camera balance down to 3600 and back here now I use a bear flash. Then this whole scene would go blue, would it not? A bear flashes at 5500 Kelvin. Now, to get the warmth onto my subject and into the background, I would flip flop, and I would change this to a CTO. What this would do is now I would reduce the amount of light that I'm losing by maybe around one stop if not at most, two stops of light. That means that I can use less light, smaller gear to achieve a similar effect. I say similar because the only thing here is that using the C t o over the flash here on skin might yield a slightly different tonality and quality to the light than using a bearable flash that's balanced to 5500, Kelvin. But we can achieve the exact same result by kind of flip flopping our temperatures and our white balances in camera. Hopefully, you guys kind of can make sense of this little study, and it's kind of interesting because someone actually brought this up in the community said, Could we do it this way? And I thought, Yeah, that's actually a great way to do it, too, because it would allow you to reduce light. But of course, if you did it this way, keep in mind just that that CTO might affect skin tone is a little bit, but it's something worth playing with and trying out. And I wanted to present to you guys Okay, so we have our styled pro photo looks. So let's look at a couple of the final images, Okay, So up top we had those, um, Botox images. So these are all Botox and then right about here when we transition, Um, we did the pro photo images. So if I grabbed a little sample set of these images and we kind of compared them, you kind of be able to see the difference between them. So the backgrounds, the the blue tones in these are just a little bit more deep right versus these ones. So this is processed this one's process, and you can see just how much more deep the blues are in those shadows. But using that bearable, we do get a nice coverage on the background compared to the shots above, so I would definitely recommend going bearable. Now let's go back to the video. Let's watch the remaining half of the pro photo version of this scene because that's where we're going to add in the smoke grenades to take this little sequence of stylized images that you see here. And of course, because the post processing in this section is identical to the last video, we're gonna skip processing these images. But I will give you a couple of them in your exercise files. Let's watch the rest of video and I'll see you in the next one. So these are the Enola Gay WP 40 their wire pull smoke grenades and just a couple quick tips. If you're going to use these great grandma online, they're fantastic. They're fun props, but just keeping pointed away from the body. Don't use them indoors. There's a whole bunch of safety tips and stuff like that. I won't bore you with them. What I've done now is in the last video we have been using the 200 watt second flash setup. So we had two of those flashes in the mag ring, and we're using that. Now we're using pro photo lights to do the exact same thing. So once again, I want you guys to see that you can use any gear to create the look. The look this time is gonna be slightly, a bit different, but it's still going to be very, very similar. And the main difference you're gonna see is the blues are gonna be a little bit stronger because of the tonal difference in the blue gel in the B one X. So we have the B one X up there. It's set to nine. So that's 251 seconds of power with the just blue gel on it that's gonna bounce off the wall and then we have the A one up there that's about at nine or eight or nine. So that's roughly 20 to watt seconds of power again, a standard flash will do. Now we're gonna use this and to you can clearly see that these two are really excited. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna Well, I don't think Nick's that excited. I think you guys are more excited than Nick is right now. They're gonna help me to pull the pins because I don't want Nick to get anything on his clothing or anything like that, and we're gonna hold it away. So we're gonna put one in each of his hands, and then we're basically just gonna get seconds to do whatever the freak we want. And hopefully it turns out well, we already planned a kind of sequence of shots. Um So, Nick, I'll tell you when to come off the wall after. I kind of I'm happy with one of the shots. Let's scooch you this way. So we kind of get you right there. Perfect. Let's go ahead and get you into your pose. They're gonna pull and then step out of the image. Hold on, hold on. I'm gonna touch the data. Tell us that, actually. Let's see here. Okay. Let's get a shot of you guys just for fun. The three of you give me a little pose. There you go at midday. Sun looks fantastic. All right. You already mhm. I should use a I don't know. I've never done one of these other ones that I've done in the twist off one. So we're both learning. I wish you look. Okay. So, Nick, when it goes, you're gonna go stoic for me. So any time you're looking at the camera, I wanted to be kind of stoic. Do you want to do some jumps? I mean, we can try to throw it in towards the end. That's close to, like, the 92nd mark and then transfer, jumping or two. So, yeah, let's do that. So let's do let's do walk up and then perfect. All right, so we'll no, no, we'll just We'll just do. He'll walk back to the wall so we'll do against the wall first against the wall first, then coming towards the camera. Then we'll go back to the wall. So go 20 or 30 seconds, then call it for the next thing. And 321 Oh, mhm. That's it. Point them up. A little more right there. There you go. Right there.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Lighting 401 Exercise Files

Ratings and Reviews

Nev Steer
 

Jye is an exceptional teacher and these videos really breakdown the construction of great lighting techniques. Enjoy the dry humour throughout. Well worth watching for even experienced photographers as there are lots of tips and tricks here.

Funfotog
 

Kyle made Pye's work look simple. I learned a lot of new ideas and was reminded of some that I had forgotten about. I'll be reviewing 201-401 again with the practice images.

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES