All language subtitles for 4. Purposeful Light

So now that we've learned some fundamentals on

lighting, you might actually say, well, where do

I start?

Okay, so I understand how light is like

water.

I understand how the distance from the light

to the subject, if it doubles, I reduce

by 75%, blah, blah, blah.

Where the hell do I begin now when

I light my subject?

Well, some people and some photographers, I'm not

saying this is wrong, have created styles on

one kind of lighting.

I backlight everything.

I'm a natural light shooter.

I don't use flash, I use on-camera

flash or off-camera flash as much as

possible.

That's okay, I'm telling you, fine.

I personally would strongly recommend that if you

ignore, well, recommend to really understand different qualities

of light, different types of light, because there'll

be situations where you would need to know

how to use all these different kind of

light sources.

So if you only practice what you're good

at, well, yeah, you'll get better at it,

but then if you ignore what you're not

good at, then all of a sudden you'll

be posed with a very challenging situation and

not know what to do.

So please don't just call yourself a natural

light shooter.

That's like saying, well, hashtag, I don't know

how to use flash.

So please, yes, you can create a style

out of it, and many people have and

very successfully, but just know your lighting.

No, like no different than a musician can

just know one song or wouldn't it be

great to know how to read music that

you can actually do it for any genre

that you basically want?

I'm saying to you that just like music,

essentially, we have 12 notes that are played

over and over again, and that's certainly been

popularized by Star Is Born.

I had that sort of in my head

as I was saying that.

There's 12 notes that really make up the

sound of almost any instrument.

The thing is that what do you play?

What's your song?

How do you make it different?

Well, how do you put those notes together?

Well, lighting your subject shouldn't just be, I'm

gonna light you like this because that's just

my style.

I personally believe that your lighting should dictate

pretty much what you're trying to say, either

about that story, about that subject, about that

person, if you wanna define shape, if it's

for flattery, if it's to make someone look

sinister, whatever it may be, you just have

to know how to use these light sources.

So this segment really is more about really

what you're trying to say and showing you

how light can look dramatically different depending on

the way it's shaped.

So this one here, for example, I have

the sun reflecting off a reflector and she's

turning her body away from the light and

turning her face back in, but you would

say this is quite sexy.

It defines the shape of her bust, the

shape of her body.

There's beautiful modeling on her face and her

cheekbone and her jawline and things look beautiful.

But now look at the difference now when

we combine that with full sun and then

the sun through a diffuser.

So what are we saying about this girl?

We're saying three different things.

We're saying perhaps more sexy on the left.

We're saying more fashion in the middle, more

sort of quite dramatic.

And then we're saying it's a little bit

more soft and pretty.

Now, yes, we can do those things, for

example, guys, with expression or whatever it may

be.

That's fine, we can do that.

But without saying a single word, without an

avertant expression, the fact is that we can

do this with lighting.

And that's what I'm getting at is that

every part of an image should really be

premeditated.

I'm not talking about photojournalism or anything like

that, but if you are saying something about

a bride or a portrait client or whatever

it may be, what you wanna do is

describe what you want with lighting, with cropping,

with composition, with feeling, emotion, mood, exposure.

Everything should scream what you want to say

to the view of that photograph about that

subject, person, landscape, whatever it may be.

But again, we see very different looks for

the same girl with different lighting.

How about this one?

We have just some soft light reflecting off

the door back on her face.

It's very soft, it's very pretty.

The smile suits that.

But now look at what we've got going

on here.

This is complete sunlight, and all of a

sudden she looks like a different person.

And I'm not saying that we can't do

both of those.

I believe, quite simply, I wanna give my

brides a variety between something that's a bit

soft and pretty and also something that's maybe

a little bit more dramatic as well.

So it just depends on what you're trying

to say with your client.

Okay, this girl.

We've got sort of soft, we've got some

strong backlight with the sun.

It's reflecting off a piece of white wall,

so it's a bigger light source, so we've

made a small light source a bigger light

source in relation to the subject.

And now it softens her, she looks quite

soft and innocent.

Almost, you would somewhat almost say vulnerable.

Now, let's now look at this.

Once we get the sun out, and then

we get a dramatic sort of fashionable kind

of a pose, look at the difference between

young, innocent, you know, almost vulnerable, and then

we've got a stronger light source, the full

sun, and she looks like a completely different

person.

So we need to know that lighting is

not just about flattery, it's also about describing

something, describing shape and form, describing personality and

so on.

So let's look at this girl, for example,

this couple.

This is a backlight, so it's being backlit

with the sun.

We've got sort of some open shade in

the foreground.

It's soft, it's pretty, it's elegant.

Now, then we put her next to a

window.

And again, think of that sort of that

big shower head, as we talked about light

like water.

We've got that big shower head here, illuminating

her.

It's quite soft.

Then we've got those luxurious shadows.

It looks a little bit more sensual, a

little bit more sexy, of course, that she's

also got the dress off in the back.

And so I'm adding mood with lighting, I'm

adding mood with pose, and I'm adding mood

with what she's wearing and what she's not

wearing or whatever we're doing.

Let's look at this.

This is a makeup mirror.

It's very glamorous.

We've got light bulbs all around, and she's

right next to that makeup mirror.

So it's sort of quite soft and it's

quite flat.

It's iridescent.

It just makes her look absolutely beautiful, but

it's very glamorous.

Now, when I use window light and I

stand where the window is and go front

on, do you see how soft and pretty

she looks?

Now, she's a gorgeous girl, there's no doubt,

but when you use different kind of lighting,

we're saying something different about this bride.

Now, we're on a boat, we're ready to

go to the ceremony that's just right along

the river there.

Now, I've got complete full sun and it

looks more fashion, it's quite dramatic.

Now, look at all of these together.

This is the exact same woman, but look

what happens.

We've got sort of soft and pretty on

the top left.

Here we've got very soft and sexy and

sensual.

We've got very pretty on the bottom left

there as well.

It's more iridescent than the top left one,

as you can see, because that was backlit.

The main light source in the bottom left

is what's hitting her.

The main light source is actually from behind.

Then you've got the open shade.

Here is quite glamorous.

It's sort of wrapping around her quite beautifully.

And then here we have a very strong

direction of light, a small quality of light,

of course, the sun.

We feel like it's actually, as we've said

before, we feel like it's a big light.

So it's actually small when it hits direct.

And that's why we get those sort of

strong shadows.

But we are saying something different.

And I'm not saying to you guys that

you have to say the same thing about

this girl all day, because that's who she

is.

She's just soft and pretty and elegant and

playful.

Therefore, I'll use all that lighting the whole

day way through.

I like to think that many of people

that we photograph, including myself, I have very

different parts of my personality.

And if I was being photographed, I would

like some shots that are playful, more dramatic,

more cool, whatever it may be that I

want to portray in that photograph or what

the photographer deems fit with that as well.

Now, look at this guy.

Cool looking dude, tough guy.

He's got a bit of a tattoo going

on there, whatever, but you sort of see

how the lighting is quite flat on him.

Maybe you might introduce him to your parents,

for example, but then when you get some

dramatic lighting, and then we start looking at

him here, now he arguably looks a little

bit more sinister or a little bit more

threatening rather than maybe like this.

But so do you see how lighting is

not just, let me just make him look

handsome.

Well, we can make him look handsome in

both ways with both kinds of lighting, but

we've got the sunlight reflecting off a building

to illuminate him here.

And then here we have off-camera flash.

So I like to say different things about

different people at different times of day because

I think it's really cool.

All right, so what about this gentleman?

Great character face.

I love his beard, great eyes.

Here, it's quite a soft light.

You can see how there's backlight and there's

some soft light.

He's got mature age skin.

So you think that the softer light sort

of hitting him is actually making his skin

look pretty good.

But watch what happens when we do something

like this.

The lighting is coming up quite high.

Now we've got shadows underneath the eyes.

It's quite dramatic.

It's almost Game of Thrones-y.

And you see more detail.

You see more of his pores.

You see more of the texture of his

beard, his upper beard and all these different

things.

Then if I actually illuminate him on the

other side, so I'm illuminating him from this

side, then it looks very dramatic.

I'm split lighting him.

It's very masculine.

And then I've got a bit of a

hint of a squint in his eyes there

as well.

So now there's a lot more mystery to

this shot.

Now this one, all I have to do

is slightly turn my angle and then I've

got a different shot again.

So if you look at all of these

photographs, these are, this is the exact same

person.

This was done within minutes of each other.

So if you think about it, it's just

so, so amazing that we can change the

mood by simply changing the size of light,

the pressure of the light, so to speak,

the intensity of the light, the size, all

these different things, the angle, the perspective, where

I stand, where they stand in proportion to

the angle, all these different things can change

the actual, what we're trying to say about

that particular person.

So this segment really, guys, is all about

this.

You might ask me, how do I light

my subject?

Now I'm gonna answer with a question myself.

Well, what are you trying to say?