Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Group Portrait

What I wanted to talk about him on the beauty of this thing is the amount of light that it sends out and how it spreads out it is off the charts crazy stupid remarkable so here's what? We're going to look a little quick class shock of all of you with one light ok, so everybody get up here I need that stool and can I have that white still right there? Yeah can you bring that over here just for a second? I don't want to walk too far I can't walk too far off sentence um it might it might that's great thank you know, I don't think I think we'll be ok let's do this let's get two of you they're on the same here one there one there on three of you who have three standing so get wherever you want just get comfortable and then the rest of the family fill in so we're doing this big family portrait, right? So whereby smiles everyone smiles. All right, so I'm gonna bring this guy I'm gonna bring this guy around here before getting too high and I have to pull him down I'm gonna tipping down just a ...

little bit further like about that and power wise I'm going take this guy up one stop just so I'm staying so I got a good eleven or something out of it and up well, kind of like a bad and let me get back and take a peek at it. Oh, uh I'm feeling very olympic about this wear basking so so again so here's I mean, again, all of these tools have reasons to exist, and some of these tools have really a lot of reasons to exist. It's like a soft box I can make magic with a soft box. Do you remember the old guillotine paper trimmers? I could almost write my name with one of those things I used I used one so much. I mean, I could curve that paper around as I'm coming down and do magic with and then you couldn't find him and we had to buy the road roller things and they were just awful every tool you can do cool things with tools, you just have to think about it and triumph in different unique positions and trying new things with so let me get a reading here. Damn right there got myself eight and two thirds f eight o point seven so if you go to the richter scale, bob, what that means is f ten on the digital camera. It's f ten that's eight, two thirds f eight and one third will be f nine in case you're keeping score so there we go right there we got you right there over a little bit hot on this side so I'm gonna spend this off just a little bit to try to even it out a little bit we're good there but we're a little hot on this side so as your as your metering for each person you're just looking to see that it's consistent that you're getting the same readings I just want to be even I just want to be even and I'm a little hotter with bob there because and if you think about it bothers picking up by standing bob's but what we're seeing is just left of center it's on access to bob more so than anybody else so it's going to hit bob quicker you say it, bob yeah so I'm just going to spend that so so you aren't getting hit on this side of heavier so I will do that by going like that damn, I kind of like that what's my way here we go here we go here we go let's try this one more time let's be sure yep it if ten have ten f tim hold it, hold it, wait for it. Wait for it. Wait for it ten okay, so we're even were even all the way across score what winning winning that's what I did last time so what this means everybody at home watching since they're not listening to me longer, what this means is simply this it means that all of them, when we zoom into these faces, everybody space is going to be absolutely perfectly exposed because I'm doing what the meter told me and I just double checked it to make sure that we're consistent all the way across the board we're dead on can't miss how can I do this without a meter? I don't understand I just don't get it and I'm not a genius in fact, I'm not even very smart, okay, so here we go f ten is right there I need to back up and zoom out so let me just back up a little bit and try to get everybody in there and I need to back up another step sorry, so sorry. Sorry. Can I get you guys to all just squeeze in a little bit closer together, get in close and then just kind of leaned forward and get into close hold. This is good. This is good. This is the best looking family I've done all day. I'm not kidding. I'm not even kidding. Okay, here we go. Here we go, hang on one second sharpening up right there, everybody's looking great, great, great, nobody moves, smiles, everyone smiles all that was gorgeous holy toledo, holy toledo spin around and take a look at this so now mike if we could can you zoom in on faced by face and just kind of scroll around a little bit and drive around how's that look on on bob well I might have a little high any to drop it down I'll drive down the high to get his eyes a little bit more life got good good catch lights on well let's just face it bob's got deep set beady little eyes so you know we kind of lost bob way made up for we made up for with brit okay so scant scroll around scroll around look at that look at those that what there's no reflection there were good okay, here we go look at ms lee we're doing ok you guys how's our exposures now just zoom back out there you go look at this on ly thing I would do is I would probably lower this down just a little bit I think it's I'm a little bit high exposure wise compositionally and all that kind of stuff that we confined to all those things but we're kind of dead on there you know? I just don't have uh I know that I'm old school and my old school buddies that are watching we'll say yeah right on tony in my new school buddies will say shut up tony but what I'm not going to do is guess this picture and I'm not going to shoot one that's not good and then say let me adjust it after actually didn't look at it and I can fix that when you shoot it again I can fix it and shoot it again I just can't keep doing that over and over and over it just wears you out you know and and and let's tell you know not to mention the wear and tear on your camera people that don't use a meter are taken three and four times the amount of exposures on their cameras their cameras going toe wear out quicker than those that aren't so does that make sense but quick question from louise are just wonders if it is a typical practice two meter each person like that when you're doing a group shot it is a typical practice for me because it's the only thing that makes sense but I know that a lot of people don't do that I think it is a good practice to to maybe come on one side of the set to get a reading and maybe come on the other side of set and get a ring and make sure that you're even and again to get even if you'll notice from the overhead shot here I'm skimming this light it looks like I'm a minute right past her even more so they're set almost in order to get it even all the way across still backing down, okay? And one from photo maker s f who wonders how did tony avoid glare on the glasses? Is the heightened angle of the light enough? Would tony typically put a reflector off to the subjects left his right near them to kind of fill and there's a little bit shadow on the right hand side? I probably would use a reflector or in this case, those big black v flats it's just for four by eight sheets of phone court I would probably make to him and take him and make a v that's white and just stand it up that would that would be enough to open up that shot of just a little bit for me, the avoiding the glare situation if you think about it, back to what we talked about earlier, one of the one of true rules that I know all those light rules in most time don't apply anymore, but I know that the one that does for sure is that, uh, the angle of incidence indeed equals the angle of reflective. And so what that means is I know that I've got a place her in such a way, like if you turn your head toward me, this one right there she's on access to the umbrella can you see that if you want to put a camera over my shoulder, just look at her glasses right there I know that when I posed her I've got to make sure that I posed her in such a way that just bring your head slowly, slowly, slowly more more, more, more, more, more, more, more a little bit more little bit more and chin down a tiny bit right I got to do this I've got to get that done so I can get rid of that it's all about that angle and if I have got a void that angle somehow you know and from a c m eighty three were here for focus point here oh good, good question so I'm on weathermen f ten and I'm back now zoom back to about seventy millimeter on my focal length so f ten I can pretty much told focus all the way through so I focused just past legal right in here on the shoulder great actually that's probably not true in this last shot I probably focus on lee's. Thanks. Yeah, great, but but somewhere in this plane toe let the focus in the and the death carry back to those guys are they start back there? Can you zoom on just zoom in on brits beard and cities sharp and if he is then we got it. We know we got enough yeah that's pretty stinking short so at ten at a seventy millimeter at this distance to the subject and at ten I've got planning sharpness let me do one more and I just want to try to get some light and bob's eyes here okay, here we go here we go everybody smiles everyone smiles everyone some down time and bring the head to me right there oh, everybody's looking good you guys are great right there really good really good nobody moves nobody moves here we go. Got it. Okay, I like this one better better and bob's gonna look better and let's face it, bob you know anything we do to help bob, you know, okay, you guys haven't seen hit the chairs. I think that, you know, again we talked you were talking about the title of this workshop was the power of control and, you know, for me, I guess that's I guess it's the one of the things that I'm kind of known for his dan in control, I don't think it makes me very I don't think it makes me a great photographer. I think it makes me a great uh, utility photographer. I've always considered myself a blue collar worker. I've always considered myself a blue collar photographer and you have been very, very fortunate to photograph some recognizable faces in my career, but the fact is I am I get called to do jobs that nobody wants to do that people there they're lighting challenges you know I was shooting a motorcycle shoot and I was trying to figure out how can I get this I need with speculation light on chrome anywhere that light does not touch chrome chrome will go black okay and I'm looking at this motorcycle thinking how am I gonna like this? I don't have a light source big enough to do that can I do this and I'm sitting here trying to figure this out and I've got the most there's a there's a big white sweep my big cove sweet there's my motorcycle in and I'm just standing out here shooting into it thinking how can I do this and then all of a sudden like a ton of bricks it was like I'm such an idiot my life sources that white cove so I moved the motorcycle out to about here I'm of me into here against the cove and I fired two strollers bam and I blasted this white wall behind me which lived the entire white wall which brought that light forward and coated the all the chrome with this perfect highlight and then I hung a big background behind the motorcycle out here so I use the white wall instead of my background is that is my light source and so from that I learned high life control highlight control served me real well fast forward when I was asked to photograph a bunch of pianos how do you photograph black shining pianos and have detail in the highlights? Well, you better have a really big light source. Well, I have white seamless paper I can turn it sideways and stretching across horizontally over four big old c stands and he's five rolls the gaffer's tape on and it worked and it worked brilliantly you know? So again I said this I've said this for years and and dean collins used to say it's not the tools it's the knowledge behind the tools those are great we all need the tools but you better know how to use the tools and some of the times when you most need to pull him out of your back pocket because it z it's rare that we aren't troubleshooters on a set all of us were trouble shooters and usually furniture movers you know, that's what we do that that's the definition of starving one who moves furniture you know? Sorry, it's like it's like I don't know why, but it took this. Yeah that's what I do I'm a furniture moving uh oh in a few she weddings than you're also a psychologist, you know, on it's usually not the bride that needs the help way know who the real mark the bride's I mean mom zilla, we know that bridezillas it's the mom