Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Guitar with Multiple Light Layers

many times when we're shooting way want to get the best shot we can uh with the tools that we have and I hear a lot of people saying well I don't have this and I don't have that on something else photo shop has given us the ability to do work with less tools because we can assemble it it's also given us the ability as for tires to do a great many things that we used to spend painstaking hours doing that we can now do ah little faster by doing it in photo shop doesn't mean we're fixing it in photoshopped means we're assembling it in photo shop so we're shooting a guitar here but rolling into use one light this light obviously isn't big enough to shoot the guitar that's okay we're going to shoot the guitar put it in multiple layers and then reveal back what it is that we want to see different ways of doing it I have my own way of doing it other people have their way as long as the camera doesn't move my way works for me um we'll have to see is weaken usually I'm firing it I'm shooting te...

thered usually I'm firing it from my keyboard okay so I don't use a remote control anymore I'm actually firing it from capture one or light room so the camera doesn't move and that's it that's imperative we've got this offender up here troops that I say that I didn't mean to say that I'm way have it's not offenders obviously guitar good bender obviously is it piece of a car way don't have a piece of a car here right now we have a guitar so we have a uh electric guitar it's got a really pretty designed to it's got a beautiful patina to it and we want to pull that out we already know that we're going to create highlights highlights are what we do when we're creating this product shot we can take the shot with one strobe just to uh to see what it looks like that's not going it's not gonna work this strobe obviously right doesn't cover the whole thing and if I bring it out here what's the problem with this that's a little tiny little hot spot on the guitar with no interest at all so we're going to use just a fill kharja foam core board and the this light and kind of go up and down the side of the guitar create what we want to create with it and then assemble it we'll try to do it as simple as possible obviously because we don't have a whole lot of time but I have I have done musical instruments I've done many different car parts and stuff with this type of lighting and assemble it in photo shop and it really makes a nice uh a nice unit it saves me time if you can imagine how much time we used to spend shooting something like this and having little pieces of card's suspended from little wires just tow light up this part of the guitar and all that stuff you spend hours in the production and now we don't spend hours in the production we spend a few less hours in photo shop to get the look that we want okay so I'm gonna have um john shoot it I'm going to hold the light and brett's going to hold a phil card and we're going to get a couple and as as we get ones that I want to say I'll say save this one and that's the one we put in the j peg put it in the folders so we can pull them all out uh and we'll start with the first one as the base in that layer fan to make sees your colon's gonna fire when we tell him that hear o calls and fart calling through behind the scenes working light room so he's going to actually fire the camera so I don't have to touch it fantastic we're all focused on their jobs when we're shooting at what believe it's after eleven half eleven confirmed that that's thirteen thirteen okay so we've got some good depth of field right all right so let's get a first capture on the front here I'm gonna bring it in right down here brett bring that in nice and tight all right let's get a capture here come on q so we get up here well aside the guitar looks nice doesn't it look at the the knobs over here the knobs look pretty pretty nice but this kind of dies right up in here doesn't it right in here so let's let me come over here with the light come back here a little bit brett bring that up just right in there yes okay that's very nice that's all I want is that stripe so I'm going to we're going to say that first one we're going to save this second when I can pull this stripe up just this little line up here just like that by blending them together and then revealing that by painting it bac k or painting it in that's very nice can I go back one shot please okay what's not showing up is this guy it's black on the screen what color is it us his silver right we can't have that happening so we got to figure out how to make that lighten up here I mean come up let's bring this right under here just like that john telling he's gonna pull it up okay all right well go call him thanks sir no we're not going to say that one let's bring this from the side a little more buses it's curved isn't it oh yeah is curved is it in the isn't in the shot okay let's try that okay thank you no that's a no okay it's gonna have we're gonna have to just isolate it right there right there clamshell it and ready little hot fife all right hand again on and we'll keep that one here we go now it's silver right so we do have the right side or camera left we got camera right we've got the little bridge cue I know drones I don't think we're going to come up here and do the neck of the guitar from this side and go can we jump back to the very first shot colin very first shot just to see it I want to save the necklace looks like I'm going to be able to blend it alright thank you colin will go to the middle of the middle of the next shot right about there ready way that looks pretty good and let's come up over the top of this right about like that and go fire that looks good let's change sides on we'll do it again right okay his last two put those in the queue as well perfect okay so we have all these little parts isolated right so all they they all work the camera has not moved so now we'll just simply begin to assemble them and photo shop would you won't get him already stuff why continue to chat thank you sir remember the order right the yeah you remember the order okay while we're getting him ready here I know there were some more questions that we had before we took break we might uh take this time to go there a question in the audience how often do you do the composing technique like this I'm doing it mohr off more often now than I did in the past I mean I'm you know I have that mentality still doing it all in the camera and I just find myself really going there until it's becoming where it becomes to that point where became really difficult on then I'll do this but um recently on a couple of little catalog shots are little tech shots like we did with the little box had some clients than we did it on that just I just did it as a matter of course because it's so much easier so much easier to do it but you know what if you've never done it in camera you may not know how to do it this way either so I encourage everybody try to get it on camera with all the little filled cards and everything to do that so when you come out and do it this way you kind of know what you're doing with it because I think a lot of people might not have the photo shop skills yes oh layer everything and paint that in a way you're gonna be all right do we have a larger sheet of foam core by any chance uh well for eight my work quite right because there's a possibility we could do this one shot too yes question from the internet from jesus held all go um I love the d I y tools but working with a big shot company or agency how do you feel about bringing them to your home studio in letting them see all this equipment instead of expensive lights and tools that challenge there is a challenge of reality if you're shooting out of your living room with d I y stuff are you really getting big clients that's I don't see that happening by the time you're up into the big client legs you probably already you probably got some really really good gear um I use a lot of d I y and in the studio we have d I y screams like the ones we built we have those in the studio they're not ours are a little rough on the edges ours are all taped off etcetera so they look nice but we do have them in the studio and we use them what I don't do it fbi wise I don't make likes newts out of pringle cans and save them I'll do it on the shoot so man we need a snoop we don't have one run across the street get a thing of pringles you know eat the pringles will will make it but you know what we throw it away at the end of the shoot we don't take that that stuff home and if you're really really careful about your d I y stuff say take for instance the scream that we made it's made out of white pvc we'll spray paint it white or spray painted black take the edges and tape them down perfectly with gaffer's tape like we did spend another two hours on the unit and who's to know if it's if it's d I y or not who's to know on dh product photography most people don't care they really really don't care so even the big clients who come to our studio and we've had some big clients are studio petsmart purina harley davidson have big clients no one's ever said anything like oh you didn't buy that so so a question from kelly trumbull branson and perhaps other people around the world if we could just say into the record what d I y I mean do it yourself thank you d I y do it yourself thank you and ceo and let me know that people are asking about your intent with this set up what it was your approach and what is your goal I'm just trying to get a pretty shot of the guitar some nice highlights remember as we as we work through product retire feats all highlights where we put highlights that's our product shot sometimes using multiple light sources confuse the eye and end up looking yeah do you have to think of it no because it does but I didn't do anything with this shot that I wouldn't normally do with phil cards right so it's you know whenever you add a phil card to the side a full cart of the side starts to look a unnatural are I wants the light from one side to the other yeah but that's okay you know that's been product photography doesn't really just depends on your style on what the client wants sure a question from delores to a four uh why do you as a single shot then photoshopping a post in multiple lice and get one shot without oh no I'm just showing a technique absolutely could do this multiple shots what we're trying to do is to say if you only have one life that's all you've got is one light you can still do this kind of work yeah it's not that we wouldn't way have plenty of lights in here to use it just to show that particular technique so playing this guy appear bread like this and yeah just pick it up just pick the whole thing up can you hold it from the other side over there see your harem is out in front of the scrim uh yeah yeah ok right over there and well let's hope he's got a fire you turned your flash off the flash of course I did why would I leave the flash way were on what power okay eight power all right you can see you can see even with this size this it takes a big light toe like this guitar oh this isn't even big enough because the guitar the top spending away from us maybe it's a good idea right from there still think that tops gonna go right off yeah right into the dark in your studio if you could get it dark enough would you be able to you know hold bulb hold the shutter open and do a few clicks on the flag on the single shot I don't want to do that because I want I like it in photo shops and layers and I can use a passage e to get a cz muchas I want like they would all on one single thing I'm done with it he said was saying you're talking about painting with light no no no no no not at all um you know you set the bulb on your camera and you know you put your screaming place and just stand behind and fire your light like four times instead of just warns so if you're in a dark for more power yes yes yeah yeah exactly then that's what we did in in film days stop doing it in the early days of digital because leaving yours your shutter open and doing multiple pops get noise right now we don't get the noise anymore you can go back to that absolutely ifyou're strobe isn't powerful enough to give you f eleven right and you need f eleven for depth of field just turn all the lights off put it on bulb you have to know what your stroke is giving ifyou're strobes giving you f ate than two pops is f eleven