Lessons
Day 1
1Course Introduction
21:51 2What Photographers Should Know
21:13 3Lighting Gear Box
17:16 4My Camera Gear
20:10 5Understanding the Magic of Flash
37:36 6Shoot: Essential Skill #1 - Lighting Positions
23:55 7Essential Skill #2 - Bright Light Situations
37:25Essential Skill #2 - Continued
37:15 9Essential Skill #3 - Low Contrast Lighting
31:38 10Essential Skill #3 - Continued
23:49 11Shoot: Essential Skill #3 - Low Contrast Lighting
28:59Day 2
12Essential Skills Overview
21:12 13Essential Skill #4: Low Light Techniques
31:02 14Shoot: Low Light Techniques
29:30 15Shoot: Flash & Color Gels
13:25 16Essential Skill #5: No Light Techniques
25:41 17Shoot: No Light Techniques
31:40 18Essential Skill #6: Composition - Rule 1
37:57 19Essential Skill #6: Composition - Rule 2 - 4
27:00 20Essential Skill #6: Composition - Rule 5 - 7
21:15 21Reception and Event Lighting: Auto Flash
28:06 22Shoot: Auto and Manual Flash
17:58 23Reception and Event Lighting: Dance Floor Demo
25:41 24Reception Lighting Q & A
11:45Day 3
25Image Critique
42:14 26Image Critique Continued
43:44 275 Essential Lenses
21:19 28Essential Lenses on a Budget
45:13 29Final Exam: Twinkle Lights
13:40 30Final Exam: Jumping Shot
13:34 31Final Exam: Long Exposure and Gel Color
19:53 32Final Exam: Silhouette and Hollywood Glamour
24:33 33General Q & A - Quick Critique
13:57 34Making your First Million: Perfect Job
34:34 35Making your First Million: Mentoring
30:09 36Making your First Million: Expanding
18:24Lesson Info
Reception Lighting Q & A
Anybody have any questions this far about these these two lighting set ups here anything like yes what did you have the flashes set act what did I have? The flash is set at yeah I just usually start up that one sixteenth power the reason why I want to do that is I want those flashes to go all night long so on a full set of batteries which I don't try so when I'm not using let's say get to the reception point and maybe I've got maybe I used one quarter of the power of the of the batteries left because maybe I did a bunch of group shots or whatever I don't know if that's out one sixteenth power I've got like I don't know well over a thousand photos at that thousand shots at that maybe six maybe almost two thousand total that have made minus a quarter so that's like I could just keep going instant recycle I rather turn my eyes so upon my camera to make those flashes more powerful of course is going to let more ambient light in but typically uh a reception it's really dark out there in the...
end so you don't have to worry about that okay um and so that's two and then um what you can also do at sea is let's do this let me turn my f stop let's go toe f or because they do that a lot and, um, change my eyes so to eight hundred so usually have a telephoto lens on which is about f four okay, I s o eight hundred now, let's, try another one where I'm putting on a third flash, but I'm firing up to the front now we are getting a nice front like this way naturally by itself, but let's add a little bit more and what it's going to do is kind of make the it might make the picture a little bit tighter and sharper. I am bouncing the light up and making it come down so it is going to be soft, but this is just kind of, uh, to show you actually was this was going off? No, I didn't turn it on good it's like so now this is when and I'm going to do the same thing here I'm going to just set it at sixteenth power here um and it's just going to fire up the wall and sometimes we'll even find, like, alleged like this our final speaker. I don't know where I just find something to put this third flash because I usually don't bring three stands with me, I just find somewhere else to put it, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to fire this flash up that this wall and have that light come back down okay? And just to see what kind of, uh let's see if everything goes off first. Okay? So everything's going off firing right? And I just need somebody to stand in the middle there and like, I can turn off all the lights, please. It's not possible, right? I'm indian monitor light there, which is a lot of light, actually, but this is with everything and it's a nice look I might wantto be see that right there that's that classic first dance feel let me just bump this up just more just to see what it looks like and it's just adding something like down to open things up so you can see something ok and that's with a little bit see how a little bit sharper it isthe with that other flash in there, it's a nice feel, right so you could do this first dance kind of feel right there dancing out thank you very much. All right, and so basically that's it that's the one flash that's to flash that's the three flashes I normally prepare for three flashes because I can't count on walls bouncing light around. Ok, so if I have this three flash set up unless they don't have this up here than out literally pointed back down and maybe I'll bust this down to one twenty eighth power one sixty fourth power whatever so it's just just I'll just figure out what the light iss okay and so that's what I'll do that way if I can't bounce it all right and that's basically how I do my reception lighting in my event lighting um and uh sure, I would love to ask these we've got drew who wants to know? Would you ever use a flash remotely triggered by a cameras built in flash never triggered that way? Um, no, I've done it on occasion um in a way, because that's an infrared system okay, so it needs a lot a line of sight to trigger and a lot of times there's people in the middle and I'm shooting down low like this and so there's stuff in the way of that light, and so it needs a clear path that sensor needs to see the sensor to fire and it's not radio that's infrared. I have radio, so I'll go through walls if I need to go through people, so when you use that in camera system is infrared, it can work in an emergency, you can use it if you especially consent your flashes to manual, you still do it, but put your flashes to manual but it's not as reliable, but if they can't work if you need it in a pinch uh let's see, I am andruzzi and one of the person wanted to know how do you handle combining flash with ambient or other light sources in the scene I've encountered problem is using a cto gel is not an option oh what do you mean just in general like when you're trying to match the colors if you're in an event space and there are much different light sources that there do you ever mix them and if so how do you do with okay what? Yeah, sometimes you're screwed especially if you're using high I esso and letting a lot of ambient light and what I try to do is eliminate that light bye bye eliminating some of the ambient light right? So how would I eliminates into the ambient light what's that yes, I can do that my shutter speed right what's but what happens if I need more than that? Because I can only go up to one sixteenth of a second or under two hundredth and I need mohr to reduce more like right if I'm orian a hundredth of a second or eighty eighth of a second and I can pull up my shutter speed to one sixtieth I'm only gaining one stop maybe I need to go down three stops to eliminate that light what would I do f stop right? I would have to change my f stop create more of a contrast I might have to up my flash, but I don't want to up it too much, but I may not get that nice super light all over the place because I'm making that light more speculator up there but it's still giving me that feel and then I would use mohr front flash to eliminate that extra light that's going around, you understand that concept? So I'm making money or if it was real bad, I'd probably put on camera flash on right? And so I would make sure my flash is stronger than the light that is on my subject now, a lot of times they're getting video aka first putting their own video light on there two so that's a special case and maybe if they're going to do that, maybe you just go with it and you use it right? And you kind of use it, you don't go next to him so let's say the video lights over here and the dance couples here, so maybe you use that as sidelight for you, okay? And then you have that flash going behind or whatever to give you that backlight, but sometimes you can use it or you can just overpower it with your own flash and reduce the ambient light now you're under control that was a great question one from let's see, I got to actually do something oh yeah, I can see that sometimes they put gels on those different colors but way did jails well actually that was the next question wayne was what jail would you use for flash at an evening party with those lights and the writebol I don't put gels on bones not less I have a third flash giving white light because I don't want my subjects to be purple or whatever so I sort of picked complementary colors a lot of times I like a yellow in a purple there and fire it back and then if I have some front white light then it looks cool but if you don't have any light then the faces air start to become that color of your jail and sometimes that's not cool s o I only do that if I'm using a third flash with some white light to kind of take out the color good questions great one more and I think it's about the last one we've got time for christopher mohr and seven other people actually I wanted to know this people how does scott deal with manual like settings on your camera and on your flashes when the light is constantly changing? So if you're in the in the event space and sometimes the lights air over here and sometimes they're bringing up lights and bringing down lights, how are you changing as you're working in menu? Oh um that's the case where you want to kind of overpower their light and eliminate their life you get it. You you want to be the daddy, you want to be in control, right? So whatever light there is at that bravest point, you set your stuff your f stop higher or whatever to eliminate the effect of that, right? You understand that concept? So you turn your f stop up on your camera, right or raise your shutter speed so you're trying to eliminate the light as much as possible. And so you're just using your own light and that's when you might have to get your flashes closer or something or pop the light, make it stronger, maybe sixteen power you gotta go to, you know, one eighth powder, maybe you have to even go up to a quarter power if it's that bad to eliminate everything. Sometimes I use it though to sometimes they use that light in my bound might area and I balance it and I just choose an area. You know where it's not giving me an adverse effect and just say, ok, I need to just shoot in this area here because if I go over there and look over there than that, lighting is going to throw everything off, so I try to control at least in area or I can have full control. The whole idea is you want to be in control of things and to be in control. You have to eliminate the ambient light. So you're the daddy, okay?
Class Materials
bonus material with purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Dan Frumkin
I read several reviews on this site which gave me hesitation to buy this course. Nonetheless, I pressed on. Now I have a suggestion for those considering parting with their cash. Before you buy, go to any of Scott’s galleries online. If you can shoot at Scott’s level move on. If you cannot see the artistry in Scott’s work, move on. If you cannot conceive of the technical proficiency Scott has with flash, move on. But if you are mortal photographer that desires to improve your work, compare your personal portfolio to Scott’s. He wins awards for good reasons. Invest the time and money. You will be amply rewarded. Real World Lighting: Advanced Techniques is worth every penny. So is Crazy, Stupid, Light. I purchased both and now use Scott’s advice and techniques daily. Plus, he provides a good dose of inspiration and humor. Scott is an awesome professional, fantastic photographer and a wonderful teacher.
user-f9ff5e
I already own Lim's class, "Crazy, Stupid Light" as well as two of his Strobie 230 flashes with transmitter (in addition to my Canon speedlight). I appreciate being able to get into lighting with flashes and equipment that costs much less than Profoto lights etc. that I couldn't afford yet. Lim has a very organized and energetic teaching style. He is a great speaker in that he is excited about what he is doing and seems to love to help others learn how to be successful with their lighting. He is very animated and funny and has the right blend of being confident yet self-effacing and admits his mess-ups during class. I find him very engaging and interesting. If you have less than $500 or $600 to spend on lights, but want to start adding lighting to your photo shoots, he is a great place to start.
a Creativelive Student
This class was fantastic! I've always opted for the easy way out when it came to lighting my subjects, usually resorting to using just natural light and a reflector even though I always have my lighting kit with me. I learned in this class how creating my own light can be the easiest way to get the results I want. It's much easier than trying to make the natural light do what I want it to do. Scott's passion for photography and teaching are evident, and his commitment to the success of his students is amazing. I definitely recommend this course for photographers at any level. I came away with many ideas on how to build upon the lighting tips presented here to make it my own. Thanks Scott Robert Lim!
Student Work
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Lighting