All language subtitles for 04-Working With Light

[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?