All language subtitles for 3. Liquid Light

If you're still not understanding light and wondering

what on earth is Jerry teaching me right

now, oh my god, I'm just so confused

with the inverse square law, how does it

all work, and god forbid Jerry actually talks

about lighting ratios.

You know what, I am going to talk

about lighting ratios, but I'm actually going to

share it with you as I feel like

I want to be a responsible teacher, but

then I'm going to simplify it dramatically.

So I'm going to come to what this

actually means, liquid light, what does that mean?

First of all, let me discuss lighting ratios.

So you may have actually heard about lighting

ratios, but what do they actually mean?

And why is it almost irrelevant when it

comes to today's photography when you're actually photographing

digitally and so on?

Now what you must understand is back in

the old days, and I feel old when

I talk about this, but back in the

old days when you used to shoot with

film and you did not have a Polaroid

back, so when you shoot with film you

could actually have a Polaroid, like you know

the Polaroid cameras, the Polaroid back, take a

photograph and actually see an idea of what

your photograph was going to appear like and

look like.

Well of course now with digital and especially

with the mirrorless cameras you can actually see

live what everything is doing in your camera

and it's just so easy, it's ridiculously easy.

Lighting ratios were important back in the day

because you needed to know well what kind

of look do you want?

Do you want it very, very light over

here and quite dark on here?

Let's say the light is coming from this

direction causing a shadow over this side, what

difference do I want on the highlight side

and the shadow side?

Because I can sort of see it in

my camera but I don't really know until

I take that photograph.

Certainly when you're photographing with flash you're using

a modelling light arguably to sort of see

where that light is falling but you are

not going to get the contrast of when

that flash hits the subject.

So understanding ratios back in the day is

arguably more important.

What I'd rather and prefer you to understand

is just understand well what do I like?

What do I feel?

What looks good?

I don't really care about saying I want

to achieve this ratio today.

I'd rather you say I want to achieve

this look and feel today based upon your

instinct and your gut and what works.

But I feel like if I'm teaching a

bit about lighting I feel like I want

to touch upon what ratios mean but then

I'm going to simplify it very, very dramatically

for you.

So what are lighting and contrast ratios?

Well it's ultimately the difference between the value

of light on the shadow side and the

highlight side of your subject or it could

be a mountain, it doesn't really matter, it's

the same sort of thing.

So let's discuss it in a little bit

more detail.

So what we're talking about now is the

difference between a main light, they call it

a main light, a key light or a

fill light.

So one is just filling in detail, one's

illuminating me sort of all over and then

one is actually creating the accent, the key

light, the main light.

This is giving me what I'm basically trying

to say.

So again ratios are the difference of intensity,

the f-stops of your main light and

your fill light which is the difference between

the highlights and the shadows.

It's basically a measure of contrast on your

subject.

So you may have heard what a one

-to-one ratio is, it's basically meaning that

your fill and main light are the exact

same output of light.

In this case we've given you an example

f11, f11, that's what basically we're saying.

If you don't know what I'm talking about

it's simply we have the same power of

light here and the same power of light

there, it's flat, it's even, that's a one

-to-one ratio.

A two-to-one ratio is for example

where your main light is f11 and your

fill is say for example f8.

So it just it basically depends on what

you're looking for.

If you're looking for that a little bit

of shadow on on that one side and

light on the other side that difference is

not so great and as you go further

in the ratios the more dramatic that contrast

between highlight and shadow is.

Now if I've confused the hell out of

you and I probably have as I was

confused when I first learned photography, you know

arguably you may be an experienced photographer and

you're just reinventing yourself, filling up some holes

in your knowledge, whatever the case may be,

I want to talk about lighting with an

understanding that light is like water, it behaves

like water.

Let me explain.

Here we have if we liken light to

water for example, if we have let's say

a small hose and I had it on

my face and that hose was hitting me

would that actually feel sharper on my skin,

harder on my skin or softer on my

skin?

Well yes it depends on the on the

water pressure but let's just say there's a

constant water pressure, it's sort of fairly even,

it's not just sort of drooping out like

you know how you turn the tap and

get the hose as kids when you're playing

in the backyard and you would just drink

from the hose.

Well I'm talking about some decent water pressure

and if I had a small size of

water on my face that would feel sharper

on my face and my cheek.

If I for example had a little bit

bigger shower head rather than a small one

that will feel a little bit softer.

If I had one of those when you

go to the hotel room and they have

those really luxurious sort of rain ceilings that

feels softer because it's enveloping me completely.

In other words where the water touches me

that's where the light is touching me, where

it's not that's where the shadows are, that's

where I'm not getting wet.

Does that make sense?

So whenever you are thinking about light and

you're thinking Jerry talked about lighting ratios, Jerry

talked about the inverse square law, I'm just

not getting it.

Well let's just talk about it in the

in the sense of of water.

Trust me you will understand light like this.

Ready?

So here we see we've got a half,

one, two, three, four, we've got four and

a half shower heads basically illuminating this wallpaper.

We have the bride here with her back

on the wall, she's bringing her body a

little bit further out.

Why is she doing that?

Because if let's say she had her body

completely against the wall and she had a

bigger bust then the water would only hit

her bust and the bust would cause a

shadow on the rest of her body.

In other words it would be like a

veranda so to speak.

The water would actually hit her face, hit

her bust and not hit the rest of

her body.

Now yes you could liken it to a

waterfall and it'll eventually get there but light

does not behave like that.

We've already discussed that light travels in straight

lines.

It's not going to go there and wrap

around and everything.

Yes, light can bounce and all those different

things but ultimately this water, the light is

hitting her face, not the shadow side, therefore

that's dry and it's hitting her chest and

little parts of her body.

And of course you can see where the

water is actually not hitting the wallpaper, therefore

that's where the shadow is.

You have to liken light to water and

you'll completely understand how to shape it because

when we think of light, it's almost not

tangible.

When you think of water, well you can

drink water, you can put it on your

face, you can have a water fight, you

can dunk yourself into it.

That is what light really is.

It's all around us and once we understand

that light is like water again, we can

shape it.

Let's look at this for example.

We've got a little bit of a soft

spray of water so to speak on here.

We've got detail everywhere.

You see a little bit more water here

and that little evidence of water here which

basically means that we have a light source

behind them, an extra shower head is hitting.

Now we don't see a stronger, this light

source we don't see from here.

So in other words, the difference between highlight

and shadow is not so great because the

water pressure is hitting her on the face

and his face and there's a little bit

more coming over here, therefore the contrast.

On the back of her neck there's a

little bit of water coming from behind the

actual frame as in light and therefore we

get this beautiful feel.

So it's important to know that in situations

like this for example, you've probably heard of

the word vignette where basically we're darkening the

edges around a frame and it's a little

bit darker so we're focusing our eye on

the attention of where we want the viewer

to look at depending on what we're doing.

So in this case what I wanted to

do is I wanted less water on her

forehead and the side of her face and

I wanted the water only on her eyes

and her nose and her lips and part

of her body and so on.

So I got her to actually just recess

a little bit, recess a little bit more

into that car just so we get less

water, less light on her face.

Again, you must think of it like water.

So for example, if I have a shower

head like this okay, so we have a

shower head like that and then light as

we've discussed travels in straight lines.

Now often our instinct is to put our

subject right in the firing line so they

can get wet completely.

Well what happens if I want to create

drama and mood and texture and depth, dimension

and form?

Well I might put my subject, of course

you're looking at a bird's eye view, I

might put my subject on the fringe of

that light.

What's been popularized over the years is feathering

where I put my subject in a position

where they're getting that residual water, that residual

spray of water, that light and therefore now

and depending on my angle and depending on

where they stand in proportion in relation to

where I am, we can get a completely

different look.

Let's show you again, let's liken this to

water.

Now we have this big shower head, we

have this big shower head, therefore the photograph

is quite soft.

The way she's standing, now we do have

a arm, we've got a shadow basically over

here and on the middle of her back

there as well but you can see that

little hint of highlight on her shoulder blade

here and here and the small of her

back.

So it's soft but there's also depth and

mood and dimension and form.

So I said a name that sounded like

Apple's, I'm not going to say the name

and she's on Do Not Disturb but she

thought I was saying her name and that's

why she interrupted us but life is good.

All right, so again, shadow over here, big

shower head, what the actual water can see

of course is where it's going to be

wet, where it's going to be lit, where

it's not, that's going to be in shadow.

Now let's look at a small light source.

Now you might think well wait a second,

is this off-camera flash, what is it?

There looks like some backlight, well what's happening

is the sunlight being a smaller light source

is actually illuminating her from behind or it's

like drenching her from behind and as a

small light source hitting her on the back

of the head, it's ricocheting, the water, the

light is ricocheting on a reflector and it's

actually a silver reflector.

So think of silver as stainless steel, do

you think water will actually ricochet more on

stainless steel rather than a plasterboard or something

like that or a normal painted wall?

Well I guess of course it's going to

be a little bit contrasty and sharper off

a stainless steel wall.

So I liken my silver reflector to stainless

steel, I liken light to water so therefore

we've got water hitting the back of her,

water hitting the stainless steel and back on

her, so now it's a small light source

being the reflector and it's ricocheting and that's

what we get.

Now watch what happens when the light, same

girl, the sunlight hits the clouds, now think

of light like being through a strainer and

we're diffusing and we're spreading the light further

and further and further and therefore we're getting

a little bit of a softer more diffused

look than we would get in this one.

Remember light is exactly like water, I can't

think of almost any situation where that analogy

or metaphor of light being like water that

doesn't actually work.

This one we have a similar effect, we've

got the sunlight hitting the back of her,

on this side we have this huge white

wall, it is big, it's a big light

source although it started off small as in

the sun is a small light source and

yes it has so much power, in other

words we've got a small hose with so

much pressure it's ricocheting off this white wall

and now it's spraying light everywhere and therefore

the transition between light and shadow is not

so great.

Does that make sense?

So you really have to again, whenever you're

stuck and you're freaking out and think wait

a second, where do I want to wet

the face?

Where do I not want water?

Well of course you would turn the face

a certain way and that's what it's like.

So for me when I photograph a person

usually, I'm not saying this is an absolute,

but usually what I would do if I

have my light source over here, I would

turn the face away from the light and

turn my face until this eye socket gets

wet.

Once I do that, light hits the side

of my face, actually I've got the bridge

of the nose which allows a pocket of

light to actually illuminate my socket, the eye

socket.

Why I say eye socket?

I don't want to just say the eye

because you might not actually illuminate the total

eye socket and I turn the face until

the eye that was furthest away from the

camera is actually now the closest and then

now I create a shadow side of the

face, often referred to as the narrow side

or the short side and that gives me

no moisture, as in it's not wet on

this side, that's where the shadow is.

Make sense?

Here we have full sun, I want water

on her face, I want water on the

background but I don't want any water so

to speak on the background to actually show

the shape and the shadow of that crown

and you see how there's no water actually

hitting the bottom of her eyes because she's

got this eyelash extensions on, we've got no

water so to speak or very little water

on her on the upper part of her

bottom lip, that gives us that beautiful sort

of wing shape and it's just beautiful and

of course there's no water on the bottom

of her neck but that gives us this

strong depth dimensions and shape and form and

it's really contrasty but remember we've got a

small light source, lots of pressure which means

there's more contrast.

Simple.

This is open shade, so this is basically

an open door of this house and then

we've got basically a flood of light coming

in, yes most outdoor light, well outdoor light

is basically sunlight or moonlight but once it's

diffused through clouds or once it's diffused with

something overhanging then it now becomes a flood

so rather than let's say for example it

being direct sunlight, rather than it being just

with clouds, now we've got the light sort

of spraying and bouncing and then flooding underneath

the veranda hitting this couple so now we

have a soft quality of light, we have

a softer transition from high light to shadow

as in most of them are you know

their body, their bodies and the clothes and

the environment, most of that environment is wet.

Make sense?

All right let's keep on going with a

here this is, you've got sort of light

being sprayed everywhere at the background, this is

basically some DJ lights, some atmospheric lights and

all that kind of stuff that the coordinator

had placed, this is at the end of

a long night and what I've done to

illuminate these guys is a handful of candles

so what we're doing is we're putting a

shower head right down below and we're spraying

the couple up this way, in other words

we're spraying right up the nose, the light,

the water does not hit the upper cheekbones,

that's very unflattering and so on and so

forth so if I want my couple to

get wet on the face I have to

actually get them to lean a little bit,

lean towards that shower head, that light source

to get lit or wet, does that make

sense?

So again remember you just have to liken

light to water to understand how to shape

it.

Let's look at this example, so now we've

got little fountains in the background, candles become

like little mini fountains, they're just spraying water

out, not too much, there's not much pressure,

it's pretty much got a little bit of

water here and there's a little bit of

spray of light illuminating and a glow around

them, we've got some accent lights and sconces

on the wall and so on, I needed

some light, some water to spray on their

faces so what do I do?

I actually get the ice light and that's

a continuous LED light source that I actually

invented myself personally, I've actually got the groom

holding that light, holding that shower head or

sprinkler, whatever you want to call it and

he's holding it behind and what's happening is

that we've got light mainly hitting her but

it's ricocheting off her face and hitting him

a little bit, that's why we have that

soft little glow of light around him, so

remember just think of it like light.

What about this?

We've got a strong hose, this is the

DJ light, there's a strong hose going right

on their faces and actually water is passing

them on the ground, you can see water

being sprayed as and you know that I'm

saying all this in inverted commas here, is

being sprayed by those DJ lights everywhere, now

why do we get light between their faces?

Because what's happening is if water, let's say

for example me and Melissa are here, my

wife and I are right here and water

was behind us, well it would basically ricochet

off both of us and just splatter this

way, therefore we would get a little bit

wet so to speak on the face, same

thing that we're doing here, we don't get

complete water or light in front of them,

of course that was just some ambient fill

that was there but that's what makes me

know how to actually shape it.

So guys hopefully that's given you enough example

there to really understand how to shape the

light, now we're going to go further into

different kind of qualities of light and shapes

of light and what we would, what's commonly

used at a wedding, what do we need

to know, all those different things.

Now yes you could totally ignore and never

watch a part of the bundle there that

discusses lighting ratios or the inverse square law

ever again as long as you understand those

fundamentals and why we need to know them,

but ultimately if you forget everything that I've

actually mentioned so far in this lighting course,

remember that light is like water and once

you understand that you know how to shape

it, where the light hits the subject that's

where the person gets wet, where it doesn't

that's where the person doesn't get wet as

in that's where the shadow is.

Hope you enjoyed that, hope that makes you

understand everything and remember you're in trouble, think

of it like water and you'll be free

of the algebra of lighting.