Original subtitles

So what we're going to do now is

we're going to do an indoor shoot through

with off-camera flash.

In other words, what we're going to do

is we're going to shoot through sparkly stuff.

Photographers love to shoot through sparkly stuff and

we're kind of, our eyes have always been

drawn to this.

In this case, I'm going to do it

in a portrait scenario, okay, but it does

work well for speeches or anything really where

you've got sparkly things to shoot through and

your subject matter is in a stationary distance

from the camera, okay.

So we're going to come on in here

to this space.

This is where we're going to do it

and I've chosen this space for a couple

reasons, but one of them is because the

amount of ambient light is quite dark here,

so it's pretty similar to what we face

with in a lot of reception spaces, okay.

And what I'm envisioning is we're going to

have some glassware here and I'm going to

photograph our couple, Florian and Sachi, are going

to be somewhere positioned over here, okay.

And ultimately what I'm going to have to

end up doing is lighting my subjects.

I'm going to be shooting through sparkly glasses

here and if I don't have enough ambient

light on the glass to make it sparkle,

then I'm going to bring in a second

flash and light that up.

All right, so what I've got here is

I've got an assortment of glassware and you

know obviously in a reception scenario we would

just organically use whatever is there, but because

this is a portrait I can kind of

do whatever I want.

So I've taken out some shiny sparkly glasses

that I'm going to arrange to shoot through.

I've got my camera.

For lens choice I'm going to be either

35, I think 35, or possibly 50.

I think if I go any wider than

35 they're going to be just too small

and if I go any bigger than 50

what happens when you're shooting through sparkly things

at wide apertures is the bokeh balls become

so big it just fills the entire frame.

Somewhere between 35 and 50 millimeter and then

I've got the two flashes because I'm going

to use one to light to light my

couple and then the other one to light

the glassware and that's going to be a

game time decision to decide if I need

more light on the foreground.

Sometimes the iPhone flashlight alone is enough to

give that the sparkly glass that that sparkle

and glitter and then to control the light

coming off the flashes of course I'm going

to use the grids because we're indoors we

have low ceilings we have lots of walls

around the couple so to isolate the light

on them and keep it off of the

walls I'm going to use probably one or

two of these grids and then possibly I'll

need a grid for the for the light

on the glasses as well just to keep

it off keep it from from affecting my

ambient exposure okay and then here's the quarter

cut CTO gel this is the subtle warming

gel I'm going to use this one for

the flash on the couple that should balance

the the color temperature on their skin tones

relative to the ambient light and then these

ones are just some funky creative gels that

I might experiment possibly for the flash that's

not lighting the skin but that's lighting the

the glass in the foreground so I'm not

really sure how I'm going to orient these

but the main thing I'm trying to do

here is fill the foreground with lots of

sparkly glass and I think maybe if we

could close those blinds because already you can

see shooting through this it's going to sparkle

right because I've got lots of natural ambient

light on it but I want to kind

of replicate a scenario where you don't have

that you have to make your own foreground

light okay so I'm just going to eyeball

this and see so Florian and Sachi you

guys are going to be a little bit

more that way okay right about there and

don't worry about your position now you're just

hanging out I'm going to try to create

a little peak hole through which to frame

you yeah if I go down here I'm

only going to get their upper bodies but

if I come up here then I can

probably get their whole bodies so I'm going

to create a little peak hole right in

here okay and I'm probably going to get

another glass here and here because I'm going

to try to do this with 35 and

I want to make sure the whole foreground

is all sparkly bokeh so basically going to

try to frame them right through this little

peak hole and encase them in sparkly bokeh

yeah okay so this is looking good I've

got a little peak hole they kind of

fit perfectly in between that glass so in

order to make this as cool as possible

essentially what I want is for this foreground

these foreground glasses to be extremely out of

focus so to do that a couple things

I'm going to choose a lens that allows

me to go to a really wide aperture

so I got the 35 1.4 in

this case and I want that glass right

up literally in front of my lens so

that by focusing on the couple this glass

is going to be extremely out of focus

and when it has a light source on

it like it does here already it's going

to sparkle so that's if you want foreground

bokeh that's essentially what you need you want

wide open aperture you want it right in

front of the lens and you want some

sort of a light source on it okay

so I got my 35 1.4 I've

got my transmitter on here because I know

that I'm going to want to fire my

my flashes but I'm going to keep the

transmitter turned off because the first thing I

want to dial in of course is my

ambient light right I want to get the

ambient set and then start adding my lights

okay so basically get get the canvas that

I want for the ambient light and then

start painting with light so first let's figure

out the composition I'm going to get the

lens right up where I need it right

away I can see the bokeh I can

see the bokeh in my viewfinder here and

with center point back button focus I'm going

to focus on the couple and I can

see that they're basically surrounded by this sparkly

foreground app so I'm choosing on my lowest

possible iso because I'm actually trying to kill

as much of this ambient light as I

can at wide open aperture so I'm going

to try to shoot this at 1.4

I'm at 50 iso f 1.4 and

my my shutter speed has to be 1

200th of a second or slower so I'm

going to go right to 1 200th of

a second so that I can so that

I can sync with the flash okay I'm

going to do a test shot iso 50

1 200th of a second f 1.4

focused on the couple through the glasses test

shot and right away I've got dreamy bokeh

in the foreground my couple though of course

is in complete darkness okay so I'm basically

at those settings I'm exposed for the highlights

up here and the highlight in the light

behind them and kind of the highlights that

are refracting off of this glass so now

I need to start to make my own

highlights where I need them one more test

shot so I'm going to add a flash

on the couple so I'm going to take

one of the flashes turn it on grab

a light stand and I'm going to light

you guys are great right where you are

you're in a perfect position I'm going to

I'm going to try to light them in

a way that is short lighting them okay

so it's going to be dramatic and edgy

but also I need to orient the direction

so that I'm not lighting up any of

these white walls that are in my frame

so I want the highlights only on the

subjects so I figure if I bring my

light and hide it back here and light

them this direction it's going to short light

them for me and hopefully with a grid

not light up these walls too much okay

so okay distance

wise doesn't matter too much it depends on

the space in this case I can get

it about this far back and I think

that'll work well with a grid and height

wise I want to be in about this

range right magic hour angle we don't want

to go right up too high but we

don't want to be coming from an unnatural

angle from below so just a little bit

higher than than my couple here I'm going

to aim it okay now I know that

I'm going to want to put a grid

on here because if I don't I'm going

to light up the entire the roof the

wall the entire scene and it's going to

change my ambient exposure by controlling it with

the grid that's going to keep my ambient

exposure where it is and just paint with

light just on the subject so I'll grab

a grid and quarter cut cto warming gel

okay so that should balance the skin tones

and again I'm just shooting auto auto white

balance here okay and seeing what I get

I'm just putting the flash somewhere in the

mid-range now I don't really care because

I'm going to eyeball it and adjust okay

so that should be positioned well we can

tweak it we're going to start tasting the

soup and tweaking things as we go so

now that I've got that ambient exposure dialed

in I'm going to turn on my transmitter

okay I'm in mechanical shutter mode so that

I can fire the flash wirelessly okay and

we're still just test shotting guys so don't

stress I'm still exposed for the highlights in

the room test shot one all right so

right away that flash is about where I

want it let me just zoom in yeah

flash power the angle is where I want

it zooming out okay but I don't have

them positioned on the dark background ideally yet

so if you guys just shuffle towards the

flash a little bit yeah right there yep

perfect okay so now they're right on the

dark background actually just half an inch back

this way yeah right like that okay and

so we're going to do a couple shots

like this now and we're going to snuggle

this one snuggle for real that's nice with

the shoulder up now I need to see

your face as well Florian so if you

can kind of nuzzle in on this side

of Sachi maybe kind of kissing on the

forehead filling the frame in the foreground with

the glass okay that's good guys just relax

you know what I'm going to turn that

flash down a touch it's just a little

too hot and I'm playing around a little

bit with where they are relative to the

bokeh balls because sometimes it's hard to predict

where it's going to look the coolest okay

the flash is a little bit too hard

it's coming in a little bit too harsh

so I'm gonna move it out so it's

not at quite quite as hard an angle

I'm gonna move it this way okay so

I'm coming from like a 90 degree angle

and I'm going more acute with that angle

so it's so it's not quite as edgy

it's a little bit too dramatic now this

might mess me up because I'm thinking it

might light up this wall so we'll just

test it and see all right so new

flash angle let's see if this works yeah

it's definitely hitting that wall a little bit

more but it doesn't bother me too much

so we're gonna go with that I'm gonna

dial it down just a touch more okay

now already I'm getting really cool bokeh on

the foreground here but I could probably get

even more sparkly if I add some light

so I'm gonna add a second flash I'm

on the same group right now so I'm

gonna switch this one to B so that

I can control the flash power I can

control the flash power now independently okay now

usually what happens is this this flash ends

up being quite close to the glass so

I'll probably have it quite a bit lower

and I'm probably just gonna set it down

here like that and dial it down okay

right now I'm just gonna you know what

I'm gonna get a grid on there otherwise

that light's gonna spray everywhere change the ambient

exposure so we'll control it with a grid

okay same thing let's see what this does

whoa way too hot so I'm just gonna

turn it all the way down pull it

away a little farther away and try that

and I'm essentially controlling three independent exposures within

this within this one exposure right I've got

the ambient exposure which I dialed in first

and then the flash exposure on the couple

and then the second flash exposure on the

glasses and I can control those all independently

okay so that's cool I'm gonna do one

more like this and then we're gonna get

really funky with the foreground light but now

that I turned that foreground light down and

moved it away it's perfectly in the sweet

spot so you guys just shuffle a half

an inch that way yeah there we go

framed on the dark background focus on the

couple okay hamming up guys yes yes perfect

okay okay cool now let's just play around

and see what happens if we take a

funky a funky gel okay which is going

to totally transform the color temperature on these

bokeh balls let's let's try this aqua with

the grid and what might happen now is

that gel is going to hold back some

of the light so I might have to

turn that flash up a touch but we'll

just eyeball it there we go okay

that's cool but again I just want to

stress that this is like an interesting kind

of cool gimmicky thing that we can do

with our cameras and it works well when

we can control things right like in a

portrait scenario when I can control the distance

and all the variables or potentially in a

documentary scenario where a your subject matter is

a set distance from your lens because you're

a wide open aperture like a speech at

a podium for example and then you and

there's another reason to do it other than

just it's cool like it helps you solve

some sort of a compositional problem that you're

dealing with it helps you obscure some distractions

or it just helps you fill an otherwise

boring frame with something of visual interest