Pay attention!
Sometimes your best shot presents itself as a mistake and if you are not paying attention
you will fix the mistake and wind up with a less creative, less exciting, less interesting
photograph.
I'll show you an example from a recent shoot where this happened to me.
Stay tuned!
Hey gang!
My name is Joe Edelman and my mission is to help photographers like YOU to develop a solid
understanding of the HOWS & WHYS behind great photography so that you can achieve your goals
as a photographer.
The process of making great photographs of people requires a lot of multi tasking.
You have to pay attention to your gear, your lighting, proper exposure, depth of field,
composition - oh and there is that issue of engaging and directing and often times entertaining
your subject.
If you're lucky you'll have enough bandwidth left over to be creative.
You know ironically, as much as we humans think we're great at multitasking, research
has proven that we really aren't.
So with that said, I want to show you why it's important to slow down and pay attention,
even to your mistakes.
My plan here was to shoot a simple headshot to you a new lighting hack that I worked out.
I scheduled this shoot with Monae very last minute and she was kind enough to agree but
didn't have time do anything special with her hair and asked if I would be ok with kind
of an urban look with the knit cap.
I agreed and set-up my lights with the intent of doing a shot that looks something like
this.
I know - basic portrait - pretty girl - simple lighting - nothing special.
I had Monae sitting about four feet in front of a white wall and I placed a Godox AD200
Pocket Flash on a stand behind her to light the wall and another AD200 as my main or key
light above her and on camera left.
The key light had the modifier hack that I'll share soon.
I wanted to shoot at f/5.6, so I took a few meter readings and powered my key light to
1/64 power.
Then I turned on the background strobe and without metering just took a test shot.
It just happened that the background strobe was set to full power and the resulting test
shot was what you see here.
From a technical standpoint this image is what we are taught is a mistake - but from
a creative standpoint I think it looks really cool.
You know I am partial the backlight concept.
So at this point my SOS kicked in.
I realized that while my lighting hack that I intended to do the video about was cool
- this was cooler with the outfit, hair and color combination and I had to explore it.
BTW…
SOS is Shiny Object Syndrome - it's a real thing - Google it.
I realized pretty quickly that I wanted a bit more contrast than the overblown background
was going to allow so I dialed the background light back to 1/4 power and still at f/5.6
got this look which has a real crisp commercial feel, but still also a fashion feel.
Part portrait - part fashion = fashion portrait.
As I always do, I then proceeded to work the shot with some simple variations on camera
angles and a few variations on hands.
All of these are done with this really simple two light set-up using the Godox AD200's.
You could accomplish this same look with speedlights or studio strobes.
The secret is the close proximity to the white background and the fact that the background
is about 4 stops brighter than my subject so it creates a lot of spill or flair which
helps give the shot this glowing dreamy look.
I used a MagMod MagBounce as my modifier for the key light in this shot.
I'll be sharing a video in the next few weeks about the MagMod gear and all the cool things
you can do with it.
This MagBounce is designed to give you a soft light with a very wide spread by bouncing
the light off the silicone dome.
But you know me - I don't like rules and I love to experiment with light, so I decided
to use it as a flash diffuser with the flash shining through the MagBounce.
Yup - I placed the AD200 about 2 feet above Monae and aimed it straight at her.
Then I placed the MagBounce on the strobe - backwards - with the open part of the dome
aimed towards the ceiling.
You can see in this portrait version that I showed you, I get a nice small catchlight
and subtle light falloff on the camera right side of Monaes face for a nice soft shaping
of her face.
I'll share more about this hack in an upcoming video.
I will tell you that I am really enjoying the MagMod modifiers and I'll share some cool
tricks for using them.
Pose is a four letter word and you know I recommend avoiding four letter words.
Generally when I shoot portraits or headshots my goal is to keep my subject relaxed and
not looking stiff.
So usually I do the work.
I'll change my camera angles shooting high, low, left or right depending on which is their
good side and at most I'll have my subject do very subtle turns or tilts.
In this particular case since I decided to follow my SOS and go for more of a fashion
portrait I did incorporate some arms and hands to make things a bit more dramatic.
When working with hands - be really careful not to make claws with the hands.
Elegance is important.
If you struggle with helping your models achieve elegant hands in your photos - be sure to
watch this video and take notes!
The link is in the description below.
The final images required very little post production beyond the usual color, contrast
and sharpening and of course removing of blemishes - I say this just as reminder of the importance
of great hair and makeup.
You have heard me say WORK YOUR SHOT many times.
The idea being that it is foolish to assume that your first set-up is the best set-up.
The moral here is that in addition to the need to work your shot - you should always
be aware and looking for opportunities to create something beyond your original idea
- beyond the rules and beyond your comfort level.
You don't have to be the most creative person in th world to be a great photographer - but
you do have to keep your eyes open - always look for opportunities and be brave enough
to explore them when they present themselves.
That's all I did here and in this case I am pretty happy with the result.
In case you are wondering - THIS is my favorite from the set.
If you want a closer look at the images - you can see all of them on my website - the link
is below.
As always, I hope that gives you some ideas, so take this idea and run with it - go create
and show me what you come up with.
Until next time, Please hit that thumbs up and subscribe so that you don't miss any
videos and don't keep all this cool stuff to yourself - please share it with your photography
friends.
Remember - photography is not a competition - its a passion to be shared.
Now go pick up that camera and shoot something because your BEST shot - it's your NEXT
shot, so keep learning, keep thinking, keep shooting.
Adios!
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