Original subtitles

[MUSIC]

You know immediately if you're talking

to someone who wants to talk shop with you about--

I mean, my cameras don't have names.

If that's what you're thinking about,

you're not taking pictures.

And for many, many years, I just worked with natural light,

and learned about natural light, and learned

and learned about natural light, and learned

to see what the natural light gives you.

I think what is kind of incredible--

and I guess we have lost this with the loss of the darkroom--

is to take a photograph.

Take the camera.

Go out in the world.

Take a picture.

Come back to the darkroom.

Process the film and see it come up in the trays.

I mean, as a kid, it was just like magic.

I mean, as a kid, it was just like magic.

It was just so powerful to see it.

And that's how I learned, was constantly looking at this work

over and over again.

And it was always like a miracle to me.

Oh my god, it came out!

You know, I couldn't believe it came out.

There are different issues now.

Like you see the image on the back of your camera.

To me, it sort of stops you as you're going along.

It's hard to believe this, but you used to photograph

It's hard to believe this, but you used to photograph

and not know what you had for hours, if not days, afterwards.

You didn't know if you had it.

I think there's still--

that is still going on.

No one's going to want to hear this, but it's just work.

Photography really is the study of light.

Photography really is the study of light.

I use natural light as a teacher.

I constantly am looking, like, where is the light coming from?

What does it look like?

I'm trying to emulate actually natural light.

Most of the time, I use a lot of the ambient light

and then I add a small key light on the person,

usually from the direction of where the ambient

light is coming from.

And I'm very, very, very aware of ambient light,

And I'm very, very, very aware of ambient light,

and of the light, and where it is.

And I'm very interested in what it

means to try to get a room to look like it really

is the natural light that you're seeing in the room.

And it's-- one of my biggest frustrations is I see what

the natural light looks like.

And I want to try to take a photograph that

feels like that natural light.

And it just drives me crazy sometimes

when, if you start to put up lights,

when, if you start to put up lights,

you take away what the natural light is giving you.

And I'm very aware of that, and it's a constant struggle.

Now with the digital you have--

one has this idea that you can use less light, and you can.

But the imagery changes.

I mean, it really does change.

I remember being on the road with the Clinton campaign.

And I was with several photographers--

And I was with several photographers--

The New York Times, The Washington Post,

and several other photographers-- and Mrs.

Clinton went into a very dark restaurant,

and there was hardly any light in it at all.

And I go in and I'm trying to shoot it as if I'm seeing--

the way I'm seeing it.

That light, you know, the very dark--

and it's filled with 100 people meeting Mrs. Clinton.

And I'm trying to shoot in it.

And I'm trying to shoot in it.

And the walls are wood, and it's just everything

is really dark inside.

And I'm trying to shoot how that looks.

And then I come out and I get in the car

with the other photographers, and they're

sending in their work.

And I'm looking over their shoulder and they shot it F60.

They set their film speed for 6,400, or 8,000, or something.

And the work looks like they were in McDonald's.

And the work looks like they were in McDonald's.

I mean, it looks bright as hell.

I realize that they have to get the image regardless

of what happens to the look of the picture.

But I just-- that wasn't the same room I was in.

We're all trying to figure out digital right now,

and understand how to use it.

I like going somewhere with one--

possibly one small, battery-powered light source,

possibly one small, battery-powered light source,

and that's it.

You know what I mean?

And then maybe some bounce boards.

And maybe an umbrella, you know, in case it--

you don't have a choice about how bright the sun is.

But I think that when you start to build up too much equipment,

you're just dead.

You can't move.

You can't pivot.

You can't change your mind.

It's really about how you see and translating

It's really about how you see and translating

the best you can with the limits of a camera,

and film, or digital, into making imagery.

For the longest time, I couldn't stand a light inside a room.

And I would put lights outside the windows

and push it through, and just create light in the room.

and push it through, and just create light in the room.

But that got a little boring after a while,

because I didn't really--

it just looked canned to me.

It just looked canned.

I continued to use the natural light.

And I add a little bit of strobe.

I do believe Nicole Kidman has probably a strobe going

through the window.

I could be shooting at a slow shutter speed just to--

because when you mix the slow shutter speed--

because when you mix the slow shutter speed--

which brings in more ambient light in with the strobe--

it makes it softer.

It does make it softer.

Jack Nicholson, very same thing.

You have the lights on the car.

You have the sunset and there's just a key light on him.

A small key light on him, and you're opening up

for the rest of the picture.

And you're balancing your little strobe

that's on Jack Nicholson with the rest.

You know, obviously, I'm not lighting up

the Mulholland hills there.

the Mulholland hills there.

And those are the lights from the car

that are the back lights.

I mean, you're just balancing the natural light

with the strobe.

And the strobe is giving you some direction.

You learn.

I used to work at the end of the day waiting--

you're supposed to work at the end of the day

and the beginning of the day.

Right?

That's when you have "the best light", quote unquote.

But at the end of the day, I used

But at the end of the day, I used

to sit there and watch the sun just go.

And you would have to meter the sun as it was going.

And you'd have to be constantly working out

your ratios between the daylight and the strobe light

to sort of balance.

And hence a lot of the work being sort of over-strobed

at the beginning.

Cannot really knowing how to sort of balance that strobe

as the light goes down.

as the light goes down.

I have sort of learned to use less and less strobe.

And sometimes I shoot--

a good rule of thumb is to do your strobe at maybe a stop

under the ambient light.

So you're actually going--

the strobe really does--

it picks up a lot.

It's a lot brighter than you think it is.

I'm scared of a sunny day.

I don't like sunny days.

It's sort of a joke.

You get there.

You get there.

Whoever you're with says, aren't you glad I brought you

the good weather?

And it's like, for me--

for the kind of work that I do where I mix

the strobe with the ambient--

I pray for an overcast day.

Because I can work better in flatter light and just

add my little strobe to it than if I have bright sunshine

or no clouds in the sky.

I start to weep if I see a sunny day.

So you could-- and the odds of getting--

So you could-- and the odds of getting--

well, the days of getting your subject

in the early morning or the end of the day are sort of over.

You just get the time you get.

You never get the best time of day.

When you're-- like it's suddenly 12:00 noon,

and you have to sort of make the best of it.

You have to decide what you're going to do.

Sometimes I use shade umbrellas to just soften the hard light

Sometimes I use shade umbrellas to just soften the hard light

over the subject.

And then I still add my strobe.

It's safer if you're doing this kind of work

to probably work in the morning because you have

the option of having some soft light in the morning

and then as the light stays up.

If you're working at night, you get that beautiful light

and then it's dark.

So you have a better chance of being

able to work longer in the morning.

I think a wonderful way of trying

to understand natural light and how it works

would be to take a willing subject

and take that person in the same place

three different times a day.

Early morning, noon, early evening.

And notice how the light changes in each photograph.

And how does the different lighting

change the mood of the image?

Why?

And which one do you like?