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Shoot: White Trash Ballerina

Lesson 16 from: Studio Lighting

Zack Arias

Shoot: White Trash Ballerina

Lesson 16 from: Studio Lighting

Zack Arias

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Lesson Info

16. Shoot: White Trash Ballerina

Lesson Info

Shoot: White Trash Ballerina

I was a photographer uh that last session who there's a lot of madness going on I had a client over here um and the music set um I wanted to get students up and running and I wanted to be listening to them are they talking to their clients are they uh figuring out their exposure I gotta check on them I've got to make sure they're okay I've got to continue talking to uh our online audience um here's what's going through my head and here's what I'm thinking about it here's how I'm lighting for the band for the individual's way had the grid spot with the soft chaser so a grid spot in this on one stand coming up in the middle of that octa about one stop hotter than the octo bank itself so this nice touch light on the face and then this nice soft phil coming in behind it um and I've got to be thinking through all my other shots of the day all my other things that I need to be doing alright coming back over to you guys talk to you uh how did you got everyone got to shoot right all right did ...

you finally find your exposure you finally get that all right did you you see what I was saying and that you were overexposed uh on her you got that ratio down looked good all right was it a little maddening yeah is it one of those things where okay looks easy enough and then when you have to do it suddenly it's not so easy I had to learn that lesson as I was assisting I assisted other photographers for four years commercial and editorial and uh product photographers um I could send somebody else's lights up they'd say I give me a light over there and put that one over there and get me a medium soft box and I when I worked with a photographer enough I I knew their ratios I knew how they like the light and I could go in and see ruffin a set for them it's kind of much like what dan does for me now he can kind of have things sort of set in cause he's he knows what I'm thinking about um when I stepped out of the assisting role and into the shooting role it's almost like all of that information I had in my head suddenly disappeared now it was my set now is my lights now is my client and suddenly there's a lot of other pressure on me and I would chuck and I had to learn to get over that and I had to learn to keep it simple so I start with one light I get that set up I find that exposure I move on to the next you know I turned on that second light if I needed as a phil if I needed is a background light whatever but my main light is set first and then I set my second and then I set my third I'm comfortable with it enough now that I can walk into a set and say give me this one it about half ish something put one over on that wall eight stick went over their eighth two and let's start there and let's fire them all and then I look at it I make an adjustment I say bring that up to stop that one down to stop and we should be ready to go but it has taken time and experience if you absorbed this information alright you're taking this information and you're taking this information and you're taking this information and you do nothing with it why even show up you need to take this information and then you need to go plug it in you're going to stumble you're gonna fall you're going to trip you're going to go it's not working I'm not getting my ratio is blowing out too much slow down slow down slow down slow down think it through if you don't have anyone to sit in front of your camera take pictures of your vacuum cleaner I've said that many times before in my own workshop and then every now and then I have logged into facebook and there's this picture and I'm tagged in and I'm like I want that that I click on it hears his vacuum cleaner on a hill in this dramatic sky and it's lit really cool I took your advice I shot my vacuum cleaner kudos because if you can like nail the light on a vacuum cleaner all you got to do is pull the back and clean it out and put a person there and you're done right it is comfort level if you're gonna take music lessons what are you gonna be doing scales scales and scales and learn the notes boring boring boring boring like this morning next modifier next modifier next modifier uh soft box okay umbrella do it over over over over and over again run it through so when that umbrella comes out uses see it in your head you go I know what that's gonna look like and they're this how do you get there bye doing not by reading not by thinking not by sitting around playing xbox I wish I had time to work on my photography headshot yeah turn off the xbox turn off the tv turn off the whatever turn off the internet not just yet let's finish up this class and then turn off the internet um and go do it all right all right cat how you doing way have cat on set and when we walked into this space we loved this wall like this would wall we actually we're going to try to create our rednecks set and this is megan's set meghan did the music meghan did the rednecks set she and robin have been working run around seattle and find stuff for us like I was saying earlier I I understand the technical I get the technical magan is my creative alright my wife megan is my creative jeff stop shutter speeds sometimes she don't know her f stop from her bus stop right she's getting there but I'm not letting her get too close to their she'll be a better photographer than I will be right so she's got to give me my thing that's why I don't play piano because you know I don't want to play better than her that never happened so she comes to me with these ideas let's do this and I go that's a cool idea but where am I gonna add the logistics and the framing and the I don't have a three hundred millimeter linz and that's what I would need for that and where we're going to get those four bathtubs and put them in the front of the major street at five o'clock right all right where are we going to get the dinosaur honey but I want a dinosaur you know so she has the ideas she sees thie idea and it's my job to technically go okay how do I technically pull that off um sometimes I come up with ideas on everyone stands around oh my gosh that had an idea um you know I sometimes oh I have this idea and then I know howto light it I'm the kind of guy I get the technical I struggle with the cunt conceptual some photographers air great conceptually they struggled with the technical on then there's the very few that come together that's a great shot going live right now um there's the few photographers that air conceptual and technical and they bring it together I'm the kind of photographer that I need a creative on my team to help me with create excuse me I need a creative on team to help me with the creative um I know creatives who need technical their assistance like their set they have the big idea here's the set I just built someone come light it for me right so I sometimes I'm down on myself but I'm talking too much huh so kat how are you now cat tell us about yourself what do you do I'm a dancer I just moved back to seattle get e make coffee and what I do so there's coffee going on in this town oh yeah yeah really just really want beans never heard of uh someone dan your grandfather's tell me he remembers a coffee shop that says this is your last chance for coffee stop here now stop here now your last chance for coffee for fifty feet um yeah so I did my time behind bars a cz well I was a barista like it I love it I love running the bar don't put me on a pastry case or cash register but stick me on the bar and I could sewn in that's awesome uh what kind of dates do you do mainly jazz but I've done ballet in my whole life I'm just not tall enough to be a ballerina yeah me too so yeah but I do a bit of everything I did when I dabble alright awesome so way have you in our redneck set you just wanted to feel like home where from atlanta on you know this whole seattle things just we're out of our element this is nice you know if we could have a shotgun leaning up against the wall it would be even better but so we're putting this together and what uh meg was looking for wass way have a dancer right on let's take a dancer and contrast let's take a dancer with ballet slippers and put her in a redneck set right so we like to build contrast alright so way are using the alien be ring flash all right the ring flash has been asked a lot like how to use ring flash could you use a ring flash right my right kate like bring flashing flashing flash will hear it isthe yeah now questions here's thing about the ring flash what camera and my own camera number one sounds like a good idea camera number one so the ring flash is kind of a one trick pony all right uh and a one trick pony is when you use the ring flash in its typical standard way to where you are shooting your lynn's straight through the middle of it it's a one trick pony it's got one look that it had and it looks like a ring flash uh someone asked on twitter how do you not overuse it uh don't use it um I have a ring flower I specifically ona ring flash because ah guy I know in texas this little wedding photog for goes by j v s all right uh joe was um was selling his ring flashy put it on twitter so hey sauntering flash baba block I'm like oh that's going to have so good mojo on it so he gave me a really good deal on it okay I have a ring flash um if I turn this around a camera for those of you not familiar with the ring flash way have a tube inside of here I'm not going to take it all apart because it's a little funky to put back together way have a tube around tube inside of here and it sends out this light straight from the axis of the camera all right um and it has one specific kind of look to it and it puts a little shadow kind of around everyone's very frontal light and it's kind of a cool light uh don't get me wrong it's a pretty cool light um but it's ring flashlight and comes and goes in waves it's sometimes very popular and everyone's shooting with the ring um and then like oh everyone's sick of it oh it's a ring flash man that picture looks five years old as soon as you took it because that was really popular five years ago uh some people like if you watch david hobbies work that he shoots he has the one of the hot shoe uh the orbis or the ray flash um there's a couple like good ring flashes for thirty five millimeter on camera hot shoe strobe it's the orbits and the ray ray ring is it ray flash all right I don't own either so I can't speak to him but they do a good job and how hobby uses it in a couple other commercial shooters that I know youse a ring flashes they use this as a fill they come in and they use other light soft boxes octa banks all of this is a cz lights and then they come in with this ring flash phil that's kind of cool all right another interesting thing to think about this is an eight hundred all right so it's just like a nate hundred mon alight a little more difficult to plug in um tio you're having umbrella or soft box on it but let's say you want to use uh one eight hundred alien be eight hundred on one side of a white seamless you take your ring flash and point it there and it's now the second light all right uh has this thing will can you grab that gold looking crazy thing over there looks like a bad marty girl hat thank you it has this thing called the moon unit all right alien be this kind of specific to alien bees it is a soft box for a ring flash and when uh joe was selling this stuff this came with it and I pulled it out and put it together and I said this's the stupidest thing in the world are you kidding me right now that is stupid watch this I want to put this thing on here and we're going to see how stupid this is aunt I took a picture and I'm like that is the coolest thing in the world I look at this and go that's kind of silly it's basically a soft box for a ring flash all right and we'll put it together here in a minute and take shot with it and I thought is gonna be dumb and it's actually really cool um this is the moon unit alien bees is the only one I know that make something like this there may be others I'm sure we'll see it in three two one oh there's a delay someone all chime in going also and so it makes one for such a such like um so it can also be a soft box all right you put it up here and it's just a soft box it's a small little kind of soft box and I use it like that sometimes not all the time because I have a soft box but if I had a ring flashing the moon unit and not much else than this would light up my white background this with this would become a soft box for me it would become a little beauty dish did we get somebody hensel makes one pencil makes awesome gear pencil forty lithium twelve hundred care of zacarias atlanta georgia give you my studio dress emails no but hansel makes gorgeous gorgeous lighting gear so they make one of these right according to someone in the chat room there's that cat lindbergh says they call it a sun haze the sun hes awesome so what I want you to let me have you step up for a second that this is always the funny part for clients I'm gonna have you in here sitting and I want you your knees air kind of down or I want to see your ballerina slippers that's kind of important so maybe there okay um I don't want your knees a lot closer to the camera so you could be like this and you're kind of hanging out here all right now it's always silly when I have to go do some like feminine lounge post but I will get into that pose for first on that gives them the basic structure of where they need to be now if you can bring your elbow further closer right so think of your torso is about the same line is your knees all right I wanted to keep her knees away not so close what's up hop danger hey buddy hawk dangers on set I wanted to keep if hurt I'm shooting wide angle for this through the alien be and I want to keep her knees from being to close that they're too close to camera they're going to look really big right so I don't want that to happen do you want that do you like big knee syndrome I like I like it when it's right way find out what channel I'm on that's channel two over there was soon as I get this set up we're going to be ready to roll wait find out what's handle in my own over here four so I've got but my son psychotic pocket wizard someone asked on the chat room or twitter I can't remember which of wit it's meter I'm using specifically and I am using the l five fifty eight r l five fifty eight r it has been replaced with I want to say the seven fifty eight all right that's a new one um fantastic meter the spot metering it does incident does reflective um it's a fantastic meter I picked mine up on craigslist used for like one hundred twenty five bucks why because in the age of digital people don't value the meter is much anymore I'm in it I s so one hundred I am at one twenty fifth of a second I'm getting f nine on my meter and you look great right there so I want you to do is bring your chin down just a bit and I want to have to bring my if I shoot at this angle where I'm sitting right now she's goingto have a plate intersecting with her head one of my main mantra is of composition is head in a clean spot learned that from steve schaffer heading a clean spot perfect right there dan you around brother can you bring this chair over here and just roll it a little closer into that suitcase I'm pulling that chair and to hide all this ugly conduit chin down just a little more but I just want you looking off camera this way one annoying thing about a ring flashes when your client looks directly into it it is a really bright bright light source so it can be a little bit annoying on it's kind of a cool light you guys on the light room let's go to a light room real quick now that looks slow contrast here on my monitor so no telling what the internet is saying I'm going to reposition her right there from the internet uh ring flash recommendation lens length and fall off honoring light uh falls off pretty quick you get a vignette ng uh vignette withering flash um the further you get away with it you'll see it we're seeing it pretty heavy right now very bright in the centre if we go to the light room machine very hot center and you see these corners over here they're falling off pretty quickly um focal length I like to be twenty four millimeter toe fifty millimeter on my focal length with that to pay the five go on in really close for a tight portrait um fifty millimeter to seventy probably um if I'm trying to shoot one of these wide shots it's definitely wide angle um one thing that officially you should mount your camera on this on a something like this and get it angled toe where it's dead center in the middle of the ring for best results I don't I really worry about it so I just hand hold it I put the ring flash on a light stand and I just hand hold it no one thing if you're using pocket wizards sometimes I would mount my pocket wizard to the side of my stand but but what I have found is when pocket wizards get within a few inches of each other you could have misfire is or it won't fire at all so now what I do is I hang my pocket wizard off away from the main one on the camera and I have more consistent firing results all right so we have this shot let's change it up I want your head in your head's going to be in this kind of area here now so same kind of thing perfect or actually let's let's have toes down and yes exactly but you're leaning forward on let's give you a delicious way that's how we in the south man that's a nice meal mass like well then we have this for our anniversary dinner honey that's a celebration meal right tournament so you're just doing that kind of coming down to your knees oh hawk danger all right he's good fussy it's a family affair alright so head to clean spot that's much better perfect just like that and my camera somewhere and I am at twenty four million a meter and I'm going vertical and I'm gonna have some negative space at the top the reason I'm going vertical is because of all the crap on the sides of this set perfect right there looking chin down just a bit face to me straight on a little more right there perfect and that fork in just a bit right there all right finding my composition here we go a little more serious and just glance your eyes this way on glance your eyes this way perfect your internet critics are saying we want to see the tv in the shot would there be similar oh yeah it's coming a client yeah they should be in the shots coming all right the thing is the reason the tv is not in the shot right now because I have a different idea for that um which we're going to go to so I have my ring flash look um we're gonna pull the ring flash off for now and dan while we pull this ring flash off can you set the moon unit thing up on it zach could you talk about managing your clients if they have something in their head but you've got something in yours right and how do you meet the middle okay the question is my clients have one thing that they're thinking about um they want this idea I have another idea uh many times my clients come to me and they have a great idea I never thought of that that's fantastic I love that idea let's do it I had this other idea your idea is better than mine I am not too proud to say that all right I'm not too proud to say you know what I was going to go this direction but what you just came up with his fantastic what does that make client feel like wow I just came up with a great idea and my photographer loves it and he's running with it right great I'm not too proud to say that I'm not too proud to ditch my own ideas uh sometimes they got a good idea that's pretty good idea I could do that I got this other idea wait we have enough time we do both and it's not a competition umm but there are the rare times the one out of ten's where my client has I got this idea all right I got said he's gonna be a great idea way need that church and I'm gonna lay on the altar and you're gonna cover me and blood okay you got a church set up for this one like no we just you think we'd find one day no like no it's not gonna have uh I've had the uh you know here is our singer songwriter artist we want a picture where they're holding their guitar case walking down a road looking over their shoulder I haven't seen that one before except for the million times I've seen that before so there are times that clients come to me and they haven't the hardest ones or when they have an idea and I don't want to do it all right I don't want to shoot that picture um I'm not going to shoot a musician on the railroad tracks I'm not going to shoot a musician against a brick wall when we had head like a kite playing last night one of them the easiest place to this stage them was against a brick wall in that other room and I'm like we can't do that we cannot have musicians in front of a brick wall will we will we will get made fun off we will end up on rock and roll confidential dot com let's shut that site down today no um so we have to change it we have to do something different when they have an idea and I don't want to really do it it's down to diplomacy that's what it comes down to diplomacy on there have been a few times where I say you know what I appreciate that idea but if we shoot that picture people are going to make fun of you and here's why so on and so forth and so on so forth no one wants me made fun off really like really like yeah like let me show you this website rock and roll confidential dot com you know because I work with bands musicians a lot and there's like a hundred pictures of how not shoot a press kit photo and it's just it's a great place to say here are all the stereotypes we're not doing that all right okay so merrin unit is on ready to go we're going to shoot one more with this and then meg you liked this lighting right mags being my art director today three light you like this and then you want something different right and you're seeing like she's watching the television on there's light coming from that and then more from the television okay all right we'll get it um can someone get me a couple sheets of white paper and some gaff tape please andi let's uh dan mom is going to fly over my head here in a minute all right so we're just going to look at the difference in this now my exposure may have just changed so can you are doing great okay yeah that's good to know yes I want you living forward on your knees just a little bit more exactly right there looking right at me now I'm gonna go ahead and open up like two thirds of a stop the f ate here I think I was f nine before but I'm a f ate now I want to take a test shot on that's looking pretty good it just softens the ring flash look I want to come in really close cap for a picture while I'm getting my two sheets of white paper gaff tape awesome thanks there's some in the green room good I'm kind of leaning forward again that's awesome right there you're doing great you know I'll bring my power down a little bit cycle through my flash good hold that I'm bringing the power down uh let's bring one thing I don't like about this moon unit or a ring flash but moon for unity specifically because I don't like having to come around my modifier to talk to my subject I like to be ableto talk conversation as I'm shooting it's a conversation and this is like hey blah blah blah okay I'll be back down over here hey you know um it's kind of weird peek a boo session I want you coming forward just kind of leaning forward on right there excellent looking right into the flash chin down just a little bit that's kind of a weird peepholes kind of hey hey can you look down a little bit that's awesome great good chin down just a bit more perfect another nice thing about ring bring lights is the catch lights in the eyes bringing your face straight onto the camera good head tilt over this way chin down just a switch in good just that's perfect right there good it's really a beautiful light this moonlight is um I don't use it all that much because I don't want to overuse it all right um you could easily over use it now let's get rid of this way didn't ring flash it's just a flash remember it's just a flash you just it just goes around your camera lens hey zack we have a couple of requests to see maybe before and after shots from white room with the moon unit without real quick I can do I'm here to serve a second all right um just bump expert no no that won't let me get the exposure uh a little more equal to each other grid develop help that up just a bit more compare okay picture on the left is with the moon unit picture on the right is without uh it's softened the moon unit softens the shadow around the subject a bit of a heavier vignette and you'd see it more as we get closer thes close shots and then look at that catch light in the eyes that's kind of cool kind of dig it that moon unit if I'm going to use a ring flash most likely it's gonna be with that moon unit on it the thing I thought this is stupid because it's a hat um it's really nice all right um I've even floated in and actors as a beauty dish in fact that was my beauty dish until I bought a beauty dish kind of thing um pieces of paper we got a piece of paper give me couple piece paper now I gotta light down here let's get john's camera over here you know grab this all right and what I have is a hot shoe flash on magic arm um I am going to do a grip video and I've decided do it on my block that way that way I could take time with it and do it right not like half do it and do it wrong but this magic arm allows me to come in here and position thiss light and just about anyway I needed to be catching that and then once I get it where I want it which is where probably right where dan had it before caution you know how long it took me to do that like that I don't have it like that you tighten it down and it's solid really is magic now see this tv screen it doesn't actually work it could not be a uh they could not turn on and be a light source but meg wants this shot toe look a cz though she's watching television now a lot of people been asking about jelling lights on and I don't I just don't I don't use gels ijust don't it's just not my style we brought some red gels if I got time to do some with red gels I'll do something with ruth but I just I don't gel I don't I don't have a need for it until right now on this is what I need on dan let's bring big momma right over here just coming down into the center of the set and let's bring it to a really low power setting unplug the ring waken use that power so what meg wants gets you remember you said on the internet wade got a couple hundred witnesses so I'm gonna take my flash um gonna go halftime because I'm asking I'm going to bring in a flash and a uh and I won't bring my zoomed twenty four millimeter bring thirty five that's going back a quarter power on this nikon s p a t right here has a optical slave built into it so I don't need to have a pocket wizard on it so what I've done is I've taken a couple of white sheets of paper I have taped it to the screen because I want this to be my light source coming from the direction in which she is looking kind of knot maybe I'm going to shoot over it now why I wish I had a gel right now is I'd use a little blue gel and pop it into this because uh stereo typically uh light coming from a television would have a blue kind of cast to it so I wanted to be my main light so this is all the way down to its lowest level in power like that can I rip this out who brought this in canada for the wind yes thank jordan blue here we go does of you hey I want to see want to see gels here we go here it says the first time I've ever had to use that alright see yeah I mean some people love jails all right here's my thing some people love to use gels they use them all the time some people use them really well a lot of people don't um gels were a big staple in the editorial industry through the nineties uh through the nineties gels were like you jelled everything you had the corporate exec and he's jelled with a half cto and you got a red and green and blue it's like christmas just blew up behind him in his office you've got the scientist with the beaker of liquid and red and green gels behind him in a soft box with a quarter cto jelle jelle jelle jelle jelle you're taking a boring environment trying to make it look interesting right and so jail's got used a lot in uh the editorial world for a long time um and it looks stated to me it just does it looks dated so I don't do it all right just kind of hanging out right there uh you know what's really cool about these psychotic light meters is when he turned the power on its pretty cool all right so can we cut these overhead lights because I'm shooting this at about two point eight at two point eight it is telling me at one twenty fifth of a second I have twenty percent of my exposure coming in from the overheads I have a blue jell I'm just going to really wide on just take a test shot on I gotta make my wife happy on I want to do that and I need to shoot it to eight not f ate how about that and you're looking at the television screen do you do let's cut this light if I cut that light I cut my slave right where did our got a pc report here I've got pocket was somewhere I want to cut big momma here it may be adding too much light here let me just got one question from the internet uh tips on focusing in low light don't buy a cannon five d mark too seriously um I keep since I have a cannon five d mark to my number one gripe with it is low light situation focusing if I was a full time wedding photographer id never do it with a good I'm just dorking around with court um I wouldn't use five days is my main camera is a wedding photographer ever because you get to the reception your hos do you have to have you know focuses its lights and all of that mine icons and wedding situations they can lock focus uh in this situation right here I should have enough with the five d but man a lot of times I don't so I keep a little flashlight in my bag at all times way put the pocket wizard on the correct channel and I'm looking for blue and I have blue we'll go to our lightning machine I have really blue lots of blue get in there honey baby I just won't make you happy baby how'd you get it with the rabbit ears in there make it where it's almost no more more like that okay now I don't want it all blue I need a little bit of film what I have in this box right now I have an alien be sixteen hundred sixteenth power and it's given me too much phil because when I shoot this picture with my blue flash well that seems to be okay um one thing I'm getting here right there I'm seeing a lot of glare in seeing a lot of glare in the paintings on the wall so that glass out for that help you could take the glass out but that would take time that's right and we're taking up a lot of that is where are you taking up a lot of time the main one is that top that top one right there so maybe it doesn't show up in my composition I need to bring this power ratio down I want a little less blue a little more fill so I'm bringing my hot shoe flash down to eight I'm taking my eyes so moving to one sixty and I'm just shooting really wide right now to get proper ratio down where I want it to be yep thanks sir all right meg do you have to have that top that top one in your uh let me try that no no I know this for me huh hold that baby baby I'm gonna make you happy baby I told you that would make you happy one of you shot from this direction gave her a camera and look what happens all right what do you see it take shot the problem is that look more at the television try to drink your beer a lot more like that I'm gonna talk to me honey something like that well I wanted to be more where you can see she's a ballerina right I want to see your point shoes ok wei go to the light room dan I need another hot shoe all right light room computer this's the art director's idea she likes this angle more we on their couple issues head not in a clean spot so cat you're going to scoop just a smidge of good I'll probably read direct you from there that's kind of cool I see the top of the television but look at this big black area here on the side of the television that's going to need another little itty bitty tiny flash so I want cat's head right here I've got all of this going on I'm also seeing the side of this stand out comes my gaff and that looks like it's going to kind of go black anyways over on that side of the television so if I cover this whole thing up with gaff tape on you know what we need a big round of applause for brandy as well brandy brandy is one of our unsung heroes for the weekend so far of working so hard behind the scenes hair makeup in wardrobe like three people in one andi and at some point we'll jump on camera for a few minutes and talk about hair makeup wardrobe on things like that what's that nothing it's like it's like trinity hair makeup wardrobe uh please don't send us an email okay now I want a little bit of phil right here on this side so I'm bringing in a hot shoe flash at like sixty fourth power I don't want this the light up like boom big light just a little bit and I'm going to zoom it to fifty mil and I'm just gonna lay it on the ground it's on channel four it's always good to have some hot shoe flashes around even if you've got all the big strobes in the world it's great tohave a few hot shoe flashes and at sixty fourth power is way too much so down it comes to one twenty eight I'm afraid that's going to be too much at one twenty eights power all I want is a little tiny tiny bit of light right there and it's still too much I don't want to overpower I'm gonna pull out my white angle I had zoomed it in but when I zoom it in and cat you're doing grave soon as I get this figured out that's a bit better dan but I made it challenging enough for you you have but that's okay because you know what this is a job yeah grab grab an indie filter and a couple pieces of gaff forming police is internet board yet internet's happy because you shut down rock confidential dot com but it has come back so maybe spike to is uh coming up who else can we shut down like who do we want to shut down like I could say a lot of things that I'm not going teo that homeboys got plenty of bandwidth shut down we're getting some neutral density filters all right neutral density filters um I'm at one one twenty eighth power on my little hot shoe flash down here I need to cut it down another stop or so because on the side of that television set I just want it just barely lit up I want it a little less light and that on somewhere deep in the bowels of our bags we have indy filter he's human and feather after the right with that help now assume we gotta end will actually increase here ago so check this out instead of nd filter we're using a scrim way haven't really got to this when I talk about grip when I do my grip video this's like a netting on it can cut a stop or so light off so cat you're still doing great I'm going to get this all dialed in wait go I've got my little blue glow coming from the television I want you leaning in on your knees a little more and you're far more interested in the television hang on a second right there I don't like this any more so you're leaning in as she leans in her head intersects the dartboard so just a little scooch this way perfect right there awesome fantastic here to your left brandi's coming in shot with brandy in the shot that you were getting ever getting uh you know what one last thing if we could go to the roving camera thiss light stand whole apparatus on the feet of it are in my shot so out it goes we're still on my magic arm all right we got this I didn't say it all right we got the magic arm I'm putting it on the television stand magic arm is an awesome thing hopefully I can pull this off and keep it out of my way you put a cigarette in your other hand like you're you're almost cupping your helping your faith with a cigarette that yeah yeah all right thank you so much I will get this shot for you honey there we go now way alright if we could go to the light room computer real quick just so you see why I moved that magic arm look underneath the television you see my light stand hanging out underneath it can you all see that that light stand it's right here all right light stand right there I got it out of there I was able to use that magic arm instead of having to deal with it in postproduction I dealt with it here on camera do everything you can on camera to fix your problems instead of doing it and post it takes a few extra minutes but the amount of time it took me to reset the magic arm and get that out of there at least at my photo shop skill level was a whole lot less time than trying to take that that stand out in post production on somebody's gonna say well I could have done in thirty seconds well then you're being a sloppy photographer because if you're that good at it on you must have to do it a lot all right cat wait here we go good I got my little bit blue glow from the television I got the feet in the shot I've got no problem with glare and reflection you're right into that right into the television man looking at this it just makes it feel like home doesn't it honey it does a man like anyone got a dog waiting bar but doubt back in their mind they're people from atlanta going are you really representing us this way seriously I'm sent email me a real like like oh my god I can't believe I can't believe he left turn and came back from the day it there you go just like that honey like holy crap how in the hell did he do that I thought he loved the other one way jimmy we ate at that sandwich shop similar to that name all right so you're looking at the tv very surprised good fantastic I'm going to come back here honey yes you roll it well it's going to go on no sure yeah I'mjust compressing I'm compressing perspective well why don't you know it's not yeah I'm good all right surprise good all right that's the redneck set with ballerina ah clean spot clean spot one last picture stay right there same thing can happen a clean spot can you tell me what your current settings are uh two point eight I s so one sixty one twenty fifth of a second thank you excellent awesome now happy like wow I just want it I want a lottery aah all right that's my front door yeah thank you questions that chatters air wondering how much time you allow for emu a makeup and wardrobe and that brandy come on up here the question is how much time to allow for hair and makeup so let's start off with uh because that could be back to go anywhere right ah band of four guys that aren't into glam rock they just need kind of a clean what what you looking to do to guys like we had the fences in earlier the way that I would attack that is I'd ask you first what time do you want them on set and work backwards after I see them if there's any tattoos that have to be covered likely there wasn't but men usually just need to look even that and powders if you've got like the gentleman this morning was bald sometimes a bald head takes longer to do then hair because it's can be so shiny and there's specific products I used to keep that from being shiny what kind of product would that be um there is uh there's either there's liquid products that uh have talking them you can use powder you can use blood help block papers so the four guys to get them ready to go on set how long do you think that takes well we were in a rush and it took about forty minutes okay so about ten minutes each ok not too much if we weren't in a rush how much would you like you know I think that that part where the people are coming in and getting their hair and makeup done in such a important part and that's where I touched them and pet their ears so they get happy about being where they are and well you know like they want to make up no just just get people feeling comfortable about where they were and so I talked to them a lot and find out what they want what they're afraid of and um I do a lot of what you were talking about about moving your studio around I comb my eyebrows like seven or eight times because they have to figure out what kind of things they want and I'm looking at their face and figure you hear coming eyebrows not because you need to come the eyebrows but you're just here you're working looking busy and what you're thinking somewhere else in your head of what am I going to do here okay so ah model coming in we're doing a beauty shoot beauty how long does that take to ours that it could take two hours and that's what I plan on a beauty shoot I plan on two out right from initial hair it is all over the board if someone has long hair and we need very curly I spent three hours on some hair the other day that was gigantic and currently an amazing when we finish it but it was a three hour hairdo and then another hour and makeup if somebody's got really beautiful skin you spend a lot less time um for me skin is the important thing that's your canvas so I take a lot of time to even that out and keep it so anything else we put on this gonna look that how important is it um to match face and neck it's pretty important very very important um a lot of times women have become so accustomed to wearing sunscreen that their faces will be lighter than their chest for example and so usually how I counterbalance that is get the foundation to match right here and then use a powder that has a little bit more colors over their face and that the same colors their chest I get that a lot when people are doing their own hair and makeup um they come in and their faces one color their neck and chest are a different color and as soon as you flash with light you just see it you see it and it's hard to tell someone saying you're next a different color you know there's there's something about that too sometimes it's their actual skin that's lighter sometimes you could look at them and think they look ok but once the flash goes off they're two different colors and the reason for that is the way actually powders air made sometimes powders and this is giving sort of ridiculous but on the micro particles of powders are flat like place so we know that that reflects things right there's a kind of powder that's called jet milled so it's round spherical particles so it doesn't reflect light like that it looks completely different on camera actually exactly so it does depend the products that you that you cuse uh number one thing a photographer could do to help you oh my god thanks for asking I'm the best thing that photographer can do is just talk to me the thing that I wish you know I've been doing this for a really long time and the thing that I wish more photographers understood is that we can ruin each other's days or make him better so much faster I can make you look great you could make me look great I can spend four hours on makeup and then have bad lighting and it's happened and it's just a big disappointment if at photographer tells me what the expectations are even if it's ridiculous I've got forty minutes and I need those banned people on here at least I can in my head decide what's most important to get that on figure out what I could do on set while you're finishing the lighting it's all about communication and as faras as explaining looks like meg for example when we did this last look she said a ballerina and that could have been anything and ways talked a little bit more is she said you know really contrast we've got um this redneck said and how would the ballerina look and I was like oh so like really cost me over the top ridiculous liner that sort of thing and it was all the communication and had there not been that I would have not done that makeup because that's right I wouldn't assume that's what she wanted right so lots of talking yeah yeah the most important thing a makeup her hair artist can do for me personally is a photographer I can't speak because thie industries a hole but hair and makeup is thie uh if if we have hair and makeup on set they are first point of really contact and if we hire someone that it doesn't get along with people they don't have people skills then that person's been sitting in this chair for two hours with someone with no people skills and then they're sent to be and they're already kind of like like I have my hair and makeup artist I love to use because they're such great people person people people people and they do a great job as well as a hair and makeup and when that person walks out of the hair and makeup room they're just they're ready to go there comfort their ease they've had some laughs they're just like yeah you know the best of friends walking out of that room and when I see that when hair and makeup and client are walking out of the wardrobe laughing tio my job's easy

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Gear List

Ratings and Reviews

Martin B.
 

Zack - you're the man inside all of the studio classes !!! I've seen a lot of teachers, which are doing studio classes, but you do this on a very lively manner. I've never seen sudio classes like you do ;-) At fist I like your kind of "Cheap Shots" ... you take great images with a kind of inexpensive gear - especially the one light stories. Most of the other photographers are teaching classes by using a lot of light - you can fix the same shots with only one light *thumbs up*. By my selfe i'm teaching "low budget" stuff, but many people are going the other way ... don't know why. Even the available light is the most powerfull light you can work with. Also my theory fits with your "one light" kind of take this shot. Many people should think about your style of photography and related back to the beginning of photography (Adams, Feininger, ...) ;-) Keep on teaching/living your kind of photography - it's worth it - this class is worth all the money ... and much more !!! Martin (http://photoakademie.eu)

a Creativelive Student
 

I'm an alum of both the OneLight DVD and Zack's OneLight in-person class. I pre-purchased this course because I knew it would be amazing. I was a bit worried that there would be overlap from his other course offerings but was pleasantly surprised. I tell every photographer that I meet about Zack, his classes and the wealth of knowledge up for grabs on his blog. If you have never shot in a studio or if you are seasoned pro, I guarantee you'll get more than your money's worth out of this course. Zack's work pays his bills, not the equipment companies. Therefore, he can be up front about his likes and dislikes. Zack also doesn't screw around with people, he's the real deal and tells it like it is. Mark my word, buy this class and get the best ROI of anything else you'll buy this year. Zack has the natural gift of teaching. You'll quickly realize that it's not about the latest and greatest gear, it's about your client's needs and knowing how to find solutions with what you've got. Enjoy.

Anthony
 

Excellent class and worth every single penny! I have always been a big fan of Zack both in regards to his quality of work and skill set and who he is as a person. You can watch all the Youtube video tutorials in the world and you will gain some good knowledge, however many are holding back some information they do not want you to know about. This class has taught me so much about lighting where I feel much more confident with the technical side and can focus more on the creative side. Well worth your investment!

Student Work

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