Lighting masterclass, 28th July

Here are a few of mine. The compression artifacts are terrible, but there you go

9409649828

9409647722

9409618702

9409626020

9409666160

9406915083


Edit: Well, that didn't work, will try again later
 
OK, some edits from me, done fairly quickly, probably more OTT than I would normally do and making use of some CS6 presets I have especially for the none work related stuff. Haven't done anything to the backgrounds other than the incidental effect of the editing - they could probably do with being cutouts really.

1 - Dani


models001 by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr

2 - illy - definitely needs cutting out


models002 by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr

3 - Illy again, with THAT gun

9407546289_c746686862_b.jpg


4 - Dani getting all floaty


models004 by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr

5 - Illy and some fruit


models005 by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr

6 - Dani - so I was getting bored of the pouty glamour look :exit:


models006 by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr
 
Yvonne go girl I love them well done :)

H
 
Criticism...I think everyone will be awe

H
 
Yv said:
:nuts: not sure about that, now I have uploaded them to flickr, you can't half see some dodgy marks on that last one :puke:
Click to expand...

ok but you said they were quick edits, I think you are being far to modest

I like to see things before to much editing, what you get from the camera and lighting.

H
 
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Thanks Helen, appreciated. Really looking forward to seeing Garry's finished edits, as this was his idea so looking forward to his end results. Was a really worthwhile enjoyable day and something I wouldn't normally do. (y)


edit: ref your edit... give 2 mins, will do a before after of that 1st one of Dani, that probably the most extreme in terms of before after
 
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Yv said:
Thanks Helen, appreciated. Really looking forward to seeing Garry's finished edits, as this was his idea so looking forward to his end results. Was a really worthwhile enjoyable day and something I wouldn't normally do. (y)
Click to expand...

I'm even more sorry I missed out :(

H
 
Ok, here you go. Lit, as I recall, with a Fresnel spot above model, a low powered fill light through a shoot through brolly behind camera and a gridded hair light from behind/left [as you look] ... sure someone will correct me if I am wrong.

Editing was a crop [obviously], a gentle 'portraiture' layer to smooth skin, plus curves adjustment to lighten RGB and and increase contrast a little [all done as an action I created for other stuff but gives a good base to start from and you can adjust to suit different images as they are all applied in layers] I then used a Florabella action called 'classic film' to give that sort of 'Hollywood' look - well, Hollywood is the best way I can think to describe it :thinking: - I toned it down a little afterwards to maintain some skin detail, the basic action does tend to push them a bit harder than I really like.


edits by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr


Edit: sorry should have also said, due to the light being set for Dani having her face tilted higher than I wanted it, its a tad underexposed, so before starting the CS edits, I lifted the exposure by about half a stop and then pulled down the highlights a little so her hair wasn't blown :)
 
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I like the edit. May look better with the wood cloned out and a tiny bit more space to the right of the frame?
 
landerson07 said:
I like the edit. May look better with the wood cloned out and a tiny bit more space to the right of the frame?
Click to expand...

maybe and when I have time will do something with the backgrounds. A little more space to the right, would also need more space to the left too for me, so she has space to 'look into' if that makes sense? I cropped so tight to remove most of the wood to be honest, sheer bloody laziness :LOL:
 
When I looked back on some of mine from the day I had windows and all sorts in the background lol.
 
I'm not sure how much credit I can claim, Garry set the lights and the models needed very little direction but here's my first few edits:

1, These 2 were set up as silhouettes, but I liked the idea of throwing some light back with a reflector to create form.
Dani2BW.jpg
2
DaniBW.jpg
3 My take on Illy with the strawberry
Strawberry.jpg
4, and the 'giant condom' latex dress
latex1.jpg
5, a colour one of Dani
DaniColour.jpg
 
Yv said:
Phil, I love that first silhouette image, I didn't do those, was too busy chatting studios to Les [Toxic] :LOL:
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Thanks, they were my favourites from the day. I had my chat to Les during the gun session, guns don't really do it for me ( sorry Garry).

Its good to see the differences in interpretation . I want to see your jump shots though.
 
Phil V said:
Thanks, they were my favourites from the day. I had my chat to Les during the gun session, guns don't really do it for me ( sorry Garry).

Its good to see the differences in interpretation . I want to see your jump shots though.
Click to expand...

the one I have posted is an 'end of jump' shot, did process another more in the air one, will post it as soon as The Last Leg has finished ;)
 
Some nice pics here with great PP skills..still waiting to do my edits...not that I am any good at it..;-). will post some soon
 
By way of explanation for those who weren't there...

Silhouette shots - I wasn't involved, just got some people doing it while others were doing something else. Basically just a big (8' x 8' x 4') box with a couple of flash heads permanently mounted inside it, a window cut out of it complete with glazing bars, and an old lace curtain. It's on wheels, so pushes around the studio as required, whenever a fake window is needed. At 200 ISO f/11, it shows a little detail in the lace curtains, at f/8 the curtains disappear and it becomes a horrible lovely Hi-Lite clone. Excellent for silhouettes, add a light or reflector and it can produce semi silhouettes. Being mean I didn't give anyone any lights, just a reflector, a very useful learning tool.

Gun shots - not actually a gun, a Martini Henry rifle, complete with bayonet, from the Zulu wars. A good, legal prop as it isn't officially classed as a firearm. I bought it because of family connections with the battle of Rorkes Drift. The whole idea was to demonstrate that a nude model doesn't have to look vulnerable, she can look powerful and very much in charge - a combination of having an extremely hard light, as low as it will go, at an acute angle, creating a shadow larger than the subject, a low camera position (look up at the subject and you turn them into a hero, the jargon term is a heroic shot) and then the gun, to make her very much in charge of the situation. Phil, never mind that you don't like guns, each to his own. I was pretty much born with a gun in my hand, my dad was an army sniper and taught me to shoot before I could even hold a rifle.

The models struggled a bit with that shot, they both tried to turn it into a glamour-style shot, which is understandable, but they were required to stand there, strong and dominant.

Chavground shots - nothing to do with me, someone wanted to shoot against a beautiful white background so I disappeared while they did it:)

Models - several people commented on how good they were. Actually they weren't. I was perfectly happy with both and I'm sure that I will book both of them in the future, but they are pretty much the standard photographers should expect of a model. As I mentioned at the time, I'm happiest when working either with models who have absolutely no experience (but who have a natural ability) or with experienced models. The ones that are a waste of space are the wannabees who have done a little bit of TFP with bad photographers, because they have learned how to pose badly. Neither of these models are full time pros, but they are both experienced and both tried hard, so it worked well.

Anyway, whether or not people actually like the results we got, the idea was to demonstrate that lighting is all about the creation of the right shadows in the right places. Obviously, with harsh, strongly directional and precise lighting, even a slight change of position produces an entirely different effect, and sometimes an unintended effect can be surprisingly good, but the failure rate is high.

As I pointed out at the time, think about what you want to achieve from the shot, experiment, and see what can be done. Maybe you will want to incorporate some of these techniques into your own shots. But don't try to be me, because you're not me. We become giants by standing on the shoulders of giants, not by becoming clones of giants - don't sacrifice your own creativity and orginality by copying, just pick the bits that you find personally useful.

And finally, I hope it was clear that studio lighting is actually pretty easy. Some people over-complicate it by talking about lighting ratios, trying to "balance" lighting and somehow manage to turn a perfectly straightforward process into a black art that can allegedly be practiced only by the masters. I like to debunk that nonsense.
 
the jump shots - well 3 of them... 2 of them SOOC other than cropping... I like Garrys version with the black background but would like to keep the floor in, soooooo, at least one of these will be played with properly soon. I think the jump needed slightly further forward in truth, but was close to what I wanted - fancy trying this with a dancer/gymnast


models002 by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr

ignore background, just filled with content aware fill and its rubbish


models001 by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr


models001-2 by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr
 
ShutterWork said:
Some nice pics here with great PP skills..still waiting to do my edits...not that I am any good at it..;-). will post some soon
Click to expand...

My processing skills are non-existent. There's not more than 5 mins gone into any of them,

Would love to see what you have produced.
 
Garry Edwards said:
By way of explanation for those who weren't there...

Silhouette shots - I wasn't involved, just got some people doing it while others were doing something else. Basically just a big (8' x 8' x 4') box with a couple of flash heads permanently mounted inside it, a window cut out of it complete with glazing bars, and an old lace curtain. It's on wheels, so pushes around the studio as required, whenever a fake window is needed. At 200 ISO f/11, it shows a little detail in the lace curtains, at f/8 the curtains disappear and it becomes a horrible lovely Hi-Lite clone. Excellent for silhouettes, add a light or reflector and it can produce semi silhouettes. Being mean I didn't give anyone any lights, just a reflector, a very useful learning tool.

Gun shots - not actually a gun, a Martini Henry rifle, complete with bayonet, from the Zulu wars. A good, legal prop as it isn't officially classed as a firearm. I bought it because of family connections with the battle of Rorkes Drift. The whole idea was to demonstrate that a nude model doesn't have to look vulnerable, she can look powerful and very much in charge - a combination of having an extremely hard light, as low as it will go, at an acute angle, creating a shadow larger than the subject, a low camera position (look up at the subject and you turn them into a hero, the jargon term is a heroic shot) and then the gun, to make her very much in charge of the situation. Phil, never mind that you don't like guns, each to his own. I was pretty much born with a gun in my hand, my dad was an army sniper and taught me to shoot before I could even hold a rifle.

The models struggled a bit with that shot, they both tried to turn it into a glamour-style shot, which is understandable, but they were required to stand there, strong and dominant.

Chavground shots - nothing to do with me, someone wanted to shoot against a beautiful white background so I disappeared while they did it:)

Models - several people commented on how good they were. Actually they weren't. I was perfectly happy with both and I'm sure that I will book both of them in the future, but they are pretty much the standard photographers should expect of a model. As I mentioned at the time, I'm happiest when working either with models who have absolutely no experience (but who have a natural ability) or with experienced models. The ones that are a waste of space are the wannabees who have done a little bit of TFP with bad photographers, because they have learned how to pose badly. Neither of these models are full time pros, but they are both experienced and both tried hard, so it worked well.

Anyway, whether or not people actually like the results we got, the idea was to demonstrate that lighting is all about the creation of the right shadows in the right places. Obviously, with harsh, strongly directional and precise lighting, even a slight change of position produces an entirely different effect, and sometimes an unintended effect can be surprisingly good, but the failure rate is high.

As I pointed out at the time, think about what you want to achieve from the shot, experiment, and see what can be done. Maybe you will want to incorporate some of these techniques into your own shots. But don't try to be me, because you're not me. We become giants by standing on the shoulders of giants, not by becoming clones of giants - don't sacrifice your own creativity and orginality by copying, just pick the bits that you find personally useful.

And finally, I hope it was clear that studio lighting is actually pretty easy. Some people over-complicate it by talking about lighting ratios, trying to "balance" lighting and somehow manage to turn a perfectly straightforward process into a black art that can allegedly be practiced only by the masters. I like to debunk that nonsense.
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Ref the bolded bit - of course I remembered afterwards the words that had totally escpaed me when you were trying to explain to them what you wanted.... amazonian warriors - still not sure it would have worked mind :bonk:
 
Yv said:
the jump shots - well 3 of them... 2 of them SOOC other than cropping... I like Garrys version with the black background but would like to keep the floor in, soooooo, at least one of these will be played with properly soon. I think the jump needed slightly further forward in truth, but was close to what I wanted - fancy trying this with a dancer/gymnast

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wgi/9409494885/
models002 by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr

ignore background, just filled with content aware fill and its rubbish

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wgi/9409495047/
models001 by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wgi/9409495195/
models001-2 by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr
Click to expand...

That 3rd one is what I was hoping for, is that the one you'll be having another pop with the pp?
 
Garry Edwards said:
the idea was to demonstrate that lighting is all about the creation of the right shadows in the right places.

Which is something i wanted to work on, and it's good to see that most of the edits from what people have posted, have remained true to the lighting that was set up



And finally, I hope it was clear that studio lighting is actually pretty easy. Some people over-complicate it by talking about lighting ratios, trying to "balance" lighting and somehow manage to turn a perfectly straightforward process into a black art that can allegedly be practiced only by the masters. I like to debunk that nonsense.
Click to expand...

I think your approach to lighting certainly demonstrates the above (y)
 
Couple of my efforts..Very basic quick edits on View Nx...

9412539252_f3874ab467_c.jpg
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9412537194_4d0fea4637_c.jpg
[/url][/IMG]
 
Just wanted to let everyone know that Garry has put up the first part of the blog here.
 
Yv said:
I quite like this as a different take on the flowing dress, but background awful. I think i need Garrys cut out people :bang:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wgi/9413909035/
models001-3 by Yvonne White - WhiteGoldImages, on Flickr
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Ignoring the background which you can easily fix yourself in photoshop rather then paying someone, this has to be best shot posted so far it is definitely different and stands out compared to the others offerings which don't quite hit the spot.

For a lighting work shop the results aren't brilliant I would want to at least take home a single wow image rather then lots of under par offerings, sorry if its a little harsh.
 
kiteninja said:
Ignoring the background which you can easily fix yourself in photoshop rather then paying someone, this has to be best shot posted so far it is definitely different and stands out compared to the others offerings which don't quite hit the spot.

For a lighting work shop the results aren't brilliant I would want to at least take home a single wow image rather then lots of under par offerings, sorry if its a little harsh.
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Morgan,
That's an interesting perspective. That type of PP work, with very harsh contrast and blown highlights does have appeal (obviously it appeals to you) but different people have different tastes. One of the great things about photography is that it is almost entirely subjective.

The day was about my approach to strong lighting of models who have strong looks, strong personality - showing that there is much more to lighting and posing than taught in "red top" camera mags.

Actually, I fully intended to spend time on backgrounds, but there was just too much to do, so it got left.

As for fixing backgrounds in PS - fair enough, a lot of people enjoy DIY PS. Personally, I'm a pro photographer and it makes commercial/financial sense to me to contract out PP work to pro retouchers, especially when they live in a 3rd world country. Each to their own.
 
kiteninja said:
Ignoring the background which you can easily fix yourself in photoshop rather then paying someone, this has to be best shot posted so far it is definitely different and stands out compared to the others offerings which don't quite hit the spot.

For a lighting work shop the results aren't brilliant I would want to at least take home a single wow image rather then lots of under par offerings, sorry if its a little harsh.
Click to expand...

err, thanks, sort of :LOL:

I think it is a little harsh, not because I think some real wow images have been posted because basically we all got pretty much the same images and the only real variable is the post processing applied, and that is very much down to personal taste and a smattering of know how. The reason I think it harsh is that a - the day was completely free, as a trial for Garry of a different approach to masterclasses and b - the aim wasn't for us to get stunning images, in fact initially we probably wouldn't have got any at all, the aim was for us to be inspired to try and be a bit more adventurous when setting up lighting. As Garry said, not to copy, but to think and be more creative - you can only do that with some practice and of course, some errors - so I guess what I am saying is that it's harsh because one would hope the 'wow' photos are what will follow over the coming weeks/months for thos that have an opportunity to put the day into practice. Does that make sense?
 
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