All language subtitles for 3_Crack the Code - I

I went back to

our one light master class, and we're
going to do what I call cracking the

code to lighting, to crack the code.

So

I'm going to cover a few things in this
little section right here that I've

covered under my

master class.

I did under the craft.

I covered a lot of lighting.

I have added a whole bunch of new
stuff, but I've got a few things that

I've got to repeat.

And since some of you may not have
watched that, I want to make sure that

I get all this information to you.

So I think this is very important.

When you're done with listening to what
I'm going to say, I think

you're going to say,

I have never looked at it like that.

I've never thought I was that simple.

It is as simple as I

can't even imagine.

Imagine trying to learn lighting in the
old fashioned way of

lighting ratios

with,

well, I say, use a flashmeter, but
taking and trying to work it from a

technical perspective.

I'm going to teach you lighting from an
intuitive,

artistic

process.

Why is this important?

Well, for one, the end result, for us
to get a great picture is a creative process.

Yes, we have technical things we have
to learn.

if I can learn a technical process,
creatively, or using my intuition, and

as my guide,

then I am

really a lot further along that someone
that's learning technical, because you

can learn all the technical things about

creating an image and have a complete
boring picture.

I don't want that.

I don't think you want that.

So I want to go beyond that and say, I
want to create an image that's dynamic.

So I know there's two worlds, the
technical and the creative.

However,

I think

the way I teach is that if I teach you
from your intuition, your creative

approach, you can light anything, you
can get to your end result.

Very easily.

I find that most people that learn
lighting from a technical perspective

get complete, bogged down.

They lose sight of what the result is,
and then they get this, I say, what, I

think, a very average or boring
picture.

So I don't want that.

So let's go from here.

And we're going to talk about cracking
the code to lighting.

And this will be part one.

All right, I have said this before, and
I say this a lot, is that how light

strikes a subject to me is paramount.

So I look at that.

I don't know why I'm drawn to that so
much, but for some reason.

I just love lighting and how it lights

a subject.

Now

I've mentioned this before when I talk
about music.

I was in a band, I played a guitar and
wrote and saying, whatever.

And so the same basic principles apply
in music as in photography, and that

you can learn all the technical things
and how to put your fingers on a guitar

and make it a core progression.

But if you learn,

like, for example,

how to create emotion in your song,

you draw your listener in.

If you create a motion in a photograph,
you draw your viewer in.

That's what I want.

So there's very similar

things that I look at that when I was
doing music, the same thing with

photography is that I'm trying to bring
and win somebody over and suck them in,

pull them in.

What's the hook, those kinds of things.

lighting is one of those things that

is paramount, meaning that if you get
your lighting right, boy, those things

look great.

And so I think you want to get your
lightning skills up.

And so that

is important.

So here we have my cowboy, guy, like
this.

This is sitting over my fireplace
downstairs.

I say that if you take an image, and
you make a print, and put it over your

fireplace.

It must be pretty near and good, or at
least it must be, to me, something that

I really like.

But look at this guy's face.

This is Greg wildman.

the horse has got a good looking face
too, you must admit.

the face,

the roughness of him, the way the
light's cutting across

his coat, as vast as chaps,

and it is just like,

wow,

maybe you want to be a cowboy,

or you want to

hang out with the cowboys.

In fact, you're kind of a dian breathe.

We don't have as many cowboys as we had
100 years ago.

But I love this picture, and I, I say,
goes great over a fireplace.

All right.

So I'm going to give you a secret to
lighting.

Here it is.

When I was at brooksarst institute.

I put this up, and I hears what it is,
it's the size of the source time, the

time's, the corresponding shape of the
modifier, equals the subject to value rating.

Divide that by the distance to the
subject, minus the diffusion factor,

plus the number of Watts output on your
flash, equals a number of lighting

ratios.

Take that fraction, one over 125th
times the n l r equal to your f.

Stops then the sunny sixteen rule,
divided by the inverse square law.

This gives you the point to source in
three dimensional space,

ok?

That's a total joke.

The reason why I did that is,

I've gone to lectures where someone
goes, and they give you this incredible

formula, and you're going,

I'm confused.

So that is a joke.

Folks,

hope you got to

laugh out of it.

Let's talk about how simple lighting
really is.

Ultimately, there's no right or wrong.

There's no right or wrong.

Folks,

why is that?

Ok,

because

it is a subjective process.

So

you may want shrieking from the top
down, across the face.

That looks like, kind of like a horror,
you know,

movie

that's your goal.

That might be your goal.

Now, if you're doing beauty fashion,
that probably isn't going to work very

well.

So what I mean, by there's no right or
wrong, is that

you can take any light source out
there, and

take light from below, you're taking a
flashlight and go, he, scare.

I guess your camp.

When I was at camp, we need to do that.

Scare my camp mates.

So you can take lighting and do some
really drastic things to it to produce

something, an outcome.

And so if you show me a picture, and I
look at it, and I go,

well, for beauty fashion, that's not
really good light.

I might say that,

but I really say, I don't know what gin
result is.

So there's really no right or wrong.

So I think it's crazy when

I hear critique and things like that,
and photographers that

want to

show off how smart they are, whatever,
they'll shred somebody's work.

And I look at it and I go, hmm,

I don't know if that's the best way to
approach critique.

I might say to someone, what is your
inn result?

Why are you doing this?

And then they may say, and I say, I
would not approach it with that

lighting.

And so that's how you might critique
something.

But I wouldn't say, oh, I did it all
wrong.

Because, again, I don't know everyone's
result.

I don't know what

your inn result is.

And as an artist, we have to know,
accept that not everyone's going to

like what we do.

But in the end, what's most important
is what you like.

as we create images,

or as you create images, as you work
toward any result, you have to go by

what you like.

And we talk a lot about that in the
artist.

So if you have not,

if you have not

looked at my

whole series on the artist.

I go into great depths about this, and
is so, as important as you become a

creative person,

you understand how to do that as an
artist, how to be an artist.

So my goal is to master.

Or the goal I think I want you to go,
is the master,

the ability to control light, striking,
fix.

I want you to master that.

You can say, where a client comes to
you and says, I want this, look, you

got it.

The problem.

And I have the confidence now that
pretty much anything you throw at me,

any client, throws up.

Mammy.

I can figure it out.

I can do it.

And it is fun.

And there's always problems on a set.

Whenever I do a big commercial ad shoot,

and things are twenty, people standing
around and, yeah, makeupar's wardrobe,

you got everything's going on,

art, directors, the client, creative
dictors, whatever who's there,

and all of a sudden they go, oh, we
have a problem.

Can we do this?

I'm like, yup.

I can do it.

I love that.

I love it because I've done my
homework, I've cracked the code to

lighting.

I can solve it very quickly.

I want you to do that.

And I know I feel very confident, you
can, by the time you get them with this

session, you can have that.

All right?

So we had to look at something

that when I'm standing outside in the
sun, maybe it's high noon, the sun's

kind of breaking across me.

Or sometimes you stand underneath a
light,

you've been in a building when you
stand on the light, and it's just like,

really bad lighting.

Jerry seinfeld did a thing where he met
this girl,

and she was under this beautiful flat
lighting scenario.

And then

he set up a date, whatever, and he went
to go pick her up, and when she opened

the door, there was this really harsh
lighting going across her face, the

whole skit

of that

sitcom, whatever.

That

was basically lighting

matters.

Like, he's important.

Because he thought of the different
girl.

I was like, I'm here for so and so, oh,
that's me, what?

You don't look the same, because she
was on a beautiful flat lighting

before.

And so it's kind of a funny thing.

Well, so, but

if I want to duplicate the real world
around me,

well, there's really bad lighting.

So is my goal to duplicate the real
world around me?

I have people come up to me and say,
oh, you know,

that's not a realistic scenario
whatever lighting them do in a picture,

I'm like, that's not my goal.

And my goal is not to create the world
around me.

My world is create a fantasy world, me,
or a flattering world, world that makes

people look good, or a superhero, or

an athlete, look tougher than they are,
or whatever it is

I used to shoot a lot of

CEOs, or top

profile people, politicians.

You've got to make them look like they
are somebody of authority.

If you make them look like a little
whimp,

they're not going to be very happy with
you

unless you don't like their politics,
maybe.

And that's what your goal is.

The point is that

my goal is not to represent the world
perfectly as I see it around me, but to

create something that is,

I don't know what you'd call it,
Hollywood, I mean,

or a fantasy lamb, right?

I want people to pay me to and also
like what I do.

So I want them to look great.

All right.

So I've said this, and we already
talked about this.

And when we looked at a bunch of
pictures, the most flattering light

it's top down.

I got a big, old soft box right here.

Top down, I would make myself look, is
as good as I can I wish I had a big old

card and hear that help a little bit

across.

The top light coming down, or cross
light, those are the two most

flattering lights on the planet.

Now, you can run a light 45 degrees to
your subject.

You can do that, and you can get nice
soft light coming across.

And to me, it's acceptable.

I like it more.

Going cross that's just my personal
approach.

And I believe the Renaissance, the
Baroque painters,

we know by studying

that.

I studied them that their studio were
set up with a window that was ninety

degrees to the subject, was not 45
degrees.

But

if you like a 45 degrees, you can do
that.

But I want to teach you basically, top
down or cross light.

And you can vary that in lots of
different ways.

So let's talk about a definition, and
that is the quality of light.

So I'm going to define that by,

I can either

increase

my softness, get us softer, or

decrease it or get it harsher.

So I want to either make something
softer, make something harsher.

Once you learn that,

then you could, like I said before, I
think when I was going through the

pictures, you can pretty much do
anything

you've got to know how to increase or
decrease your

softness or harshness to your subject.

Once that happens, it's so easy.

Folks, so let's think let's talk about
two things that determine the quality

light to your subject.

Now, if you've heard this before and
you say, Joe, I just heard that on your

craft and went through all that, I got
a whole bunch of new things in here.

So stick with me.

But I'm having to go through this
because I know some of you have not

gone through my other courses.

two things that determine the quality
light to a subject.

Number one, the size of your source,
how big your source is and how far it

is from your subject.

How big the source is, or the modifier,
what do you want to call it, and how

far it is from your subject.

Death.

Number one, number two, is how much
bounce or ambient light comes back in

your subject.

Those are the two

single most important things that
determine the quality of light

and how to make something softer
harsher to your subject.

We're going to now break that down

when I say that I, for probably the
first 25 years of shooting and creating

income and shooting national Ads, and
don't tell the art directors this.

But I really did not have it broken
down this simple.

I was fumbling, and I would often

I'd stumble across something and go,
oh, I look really good.

And then I go, well, why?

I didn't really know why.

And then a week later, I was trying to
duplicate it and turn out the way I

had the week before.

So I was really stumbling.

So

I don't stumble, I don't fumble around
now.

And so I don't want you to either.

So these

are the secrets to the whole thing
right here.

The source.

Let's talk about the source, the larger

or the smaller, the source

or the modifier.

You got to call it source modifier.

And raceship to study, it's soft, the
heart.

I'm going to demonstrate that here in a
minute, but

it's

almost opposite of what you would think
inspect might teach this.

And we're going to talk about the
inverse square law in another session.

And

when I look at the infra square law,
I'm like,

that's opposite of what I thought it
would be like.

So the inn result, as I get to
understand it, I'm like,

that's opposite.

And there's a lot of things like that
in life.

As you go through and you go,

that's exactly opposite what I thought
it would be.

Right?

And lighting is like that in a lot of
ways.

When you start to, you think I back up
a source, it should be spreading light,

wider across the scene.

That is true,

but it's making it harsher, edgier.

So

let's take a look at this.

We have a source here, so creating a
softer harsher source.

So if I move that

closer, it's going to get softer.

If I go away, it's going to get
harsher.

Now, when I talk about this, this seems
to me pretty obvious, but some people

come up, mask me go.

What about the exposure?

Well, yeah.

So keep in mind that you have the just
exposure

to

get whatever you call an acceptable
exposure to your model, to your

subject.

So as you bring your soft box or light
modifier in, it's going to give you all

brighter value to your subject.

So you have to counter that.

You have to.

And I do it by either use.

I do it by the power of the source, not
of the light, not enough stops.

I keep my app stops the same.

So I bring it in, downpower the light,
I back it up, power the light

now, or the power of the start.

Now if I get back

twenty feet and on my full power

and I want more,

you probably usually change my iso or
my f stop.

But the fact is, I'm adjusting the power

in and out

as I move.

My light

that's a given.

But as I move closer, it is softer.

As I move it away, it is harsher.

Now

when we say softer, I'm going to use it
term, broad

Broads the light here.

So this help illustrate.

This is some new stuff that I just got
through putting together here.

So let's say, this guy's looking toward
the light.

I just had to grab a little clip art.

And so

I want

to have you illustrate.

So this lights way away,

so it's very small and compared to
maybe the size of his head.

So it's really far away.

And that light coming to him is going
to be what we call a short light.

When I use the tumor short

there, in the old

Hollywood, they would say the short
light is the light that has a least

amount of light on the face.

The broad light is the

amount of light that's mostly filling
the face.

But

that term is, yes, we use that term.

So don't someone email, mean going on.

So definitions here.

When I say short it's going to be a
harsher light.

So it's the harshest shortest,

what I would call this, that we're look
at shadows in a minute, but it creates

a very harsh shadow.

As I bring it in, it's going to get
broad.

So that's why i'll use the word broad.

It gets broader to my subject.

That creates a softer light, because
it's wrapping my subject with light

where, when it's far away,

it has a very narrow angle of view to
your

subject.

So if you turn like that, there's
nothing on this side it's like dark.

The bigger, the bigger the source, the
broader it gets, the softer it gets.

So let's take a look at this.

And this is what's really confusing
about

lighting.

And when we come to all these options,
we have modifiers.

So you have to understand something.

If you just started out photography
today, which some of you probably have

not.

But if you're pretty new to photography,

we have today

a whole bunch of modifiers that we have

purchase.

And so we hear the term soft box,
octobox

stripped lights.

We have

just the radar sockboxes, rectangle
boxes of square boxes,

there's lanterns.

Now that you drop that you know have
just kind of 360

it done for film.

But we have all these different
options.

Now, when I started,

you know, the options are, work,
basically for a modifier one, well, you

say the hood that you had on your
strobe was one, and then umbrella.

I've saw we pretty much had we had to
do.

And I made my first soft box out of.

It was a phone core in tracing paper,
and one of them cut on fire.

That's how bad it was.

That's my starting out

with monifiers and lighting stuff.

So there wasn't a lot out there today.

We have a lot.

So what were the options that we had
that?

And I didn't know much about lighting
back then.

when I say this, I can look back and
see what a lot of photographers are

using.

I didn't understand at the time, now I
understand it.

But you could take a white wall, and I
had to sort of separate this so you

could see it.

But let's just say, that wall in the
back is white, but it's kind of it's

subdued with lighting.

And I blast

a spot, move it really close, and it's
just a small circle on the wall.

I put a subject next to that that wall,

say, it's the side, ok?

So here's my light, hits a wall, and I
have a small circle of light, and it

bounces back to my subject.

That's going to create a short light,
or a harsh light,

because it's small,

it's a big wall.

So in a way, you could say that wall is
a modifier while it is,

but the light that's hitting it is very
small.

So we would call that it produces a
very harsh light.

And so

photographers that didn't have big soft
boxes, and stuffed, back in the old

days, in fact, I remember shooting a
car for a client once years ago.

Oh my gosh.

I didn't know anything about carsic.

They then hire me and I'm like, sure, I
can shoot a car.

And the studio that we rented was

flats.

They were on big cranes or whatever.

They could move.

The big flat flat was like, literally
thirty by forty feet or something.

And so you go, you put your car
underneath it, and you move it,

whatever, accordingly, and then you
throw a light up into the flat.

That's

a fairly simple way

to create a big, broad light.

Now, movie industry did it.

The movies did it.

Now they shifted a little bit because
they loved in the 50s.

I still like that.

They had some really harsh lights

because they didn't have modifiers like
we have today.

So, but they did use flats.

Now we also use silk.

We can shoot through a big piece of
diffusion,

so that becomes the modifier.

But if you take a big piece of
diffusion,

like a scrim, like, say, I have, I
think, eight by eight,

I set it all up, and I take a light,
and I walk it toward the scrim, and I

make a small circle.

That's going to be a harsh light.

I back it up, it gets broader and
broader and broader get softer and soft

or softer.

That fills the whole screm.

So this is my point to you, is that I
can use a wall or a flat, and I can go

and I can broad knit by backing a light
up.

Or if I take just a grid, I can make it
really small,

and then just take the grid off, make
it wider, and it blastline that wall.

And then it comes back to my subject.

Make a very soft light.

So I hope you get my point here,

how to broaden your light.

Now i'll interject here, which is
really important.

When I first got umbrellas, I didn't
know how to use them.

No one showed me how to use them.

There wasn't YouTube.

I didn't I have a fine arts degree in
photography?

Nobody was coaching me.

In fact, back when I was doing
photography, very few photographers let

their secrets out so that you couldn't
walk and do a studio, or say, hey, I

love your work.

Can you show me how you do it?

Hub.

Z, it was mum's was the word, right?

Because everybody was worried about
their competition.

Well, so my point is is that I had this
umbrella.

I did not use it.

I put on a standard hood.

The umbrella rod came through the head
back, the packs were on the ground at

that time, and then I would just slide
it up and shoot it.

Why didn't know?

I had a sixty inch umbrella, but I was
blasting light in the centre.

Only had a twenty inch modifier,

twenty inch circle of light.

And I'd put it over and take a picture
of a subject, go, wow, that's really harsh.

Then I put a sop box on when they came
out and go, oh, sockbox are soft.

Umbrellas are harsh.

I didn't know what I was doing.

I wasn't broadening the light on my
mon, my modifier.

So

you could take a

soft box.

You take the inner baffle out

you blast your head through there, and
it hits the center of the diffusion,

and it's not dispersed evenly.

And you have a hot spot in the center.

You put that up, and you take a
picture.

It's going to be fairly harsh to your
subject.

You put the inner baffle in, it spreads
the light evenly across the diffusion.

And then you get a broader source,
which is softer.

I hope you get what I'm trying to say
here.

It's kind of fun

to look at it.

This.

So don't think about modifiers

that are in a

black

material with a white diffusion

that is a modifier.

But modifiers can be anything.

So let's take a look at that.

Here we have an optobox.

Let's just say, it's off the side, or
I'm looking straight at it.

Here, my camera would be coming

straight toward him.

The same as cross light of thing.

And

lets you say

that.

I

like that light.

Let's say,

someone walks in, they take my modifier
and run out the door.

They steal it out from underneath me.

And I'm in the middle of a photoshoot.

I'm like,

what do we do?

Panic city, I've got to go down and buy
a new one.

Well, I don't have time for that.

The clients like let's do it.

Now

here's what I can do.

I can take a piece of foam core, take a
light,

blast it in the center of that

piece of white flat, and it gives me
the exact same quality light as that

octabox, if I get the same exposure
value to the subject.

Now, the hard thing I don't have, I
don't have a barn door on here, or a

flag.

You can set up a flag.

I've got flags that I bought that, or a
piece of foam core you can set up to

block the light from that hitting his
face.

You don't want that.

So if you can

not allow that light source right here
to go and strike the subject coming

across, but only strike the

piece of flat.

You cannot see the difference between
the two

modifiers.

So

you can take anything.

In fact, I did this once, and I heard
someone do this.

So I'm not the first originator of
this, but you literally take a white t

shirt, and you just take your strobe,
like, you know, you're doing something.

You get your camera, and just taking
blast light into your shirt, and it

bounces back into the subject to give a
soft light.

So there's a lot of fun tricks you can
do of course, you know, you take a

speed light and bounce it off a
ceiling.

That broadens the light across

your room, and that will soften the
light too.

So I want you to think like this.

The reason why I'm going this is
because don't think in just terms of

soft boxes, beauty, dish octoboxes,

strip lights, all those things.

Because once you get locked in there,

you're thinking, oh,

I got this.

Someone came up to me once and said,

I had this,

I'm not going to mention the brand, got
this modifier.

Oh, it's god's light, it's better than
any other modifier on the planet.

And I paid 895

dollars worth it's worth.

Every penny it's like, it's just a
modifier.

Folks,

it's not made of gold.

It's a modifier.

It's broadens the lighter, shortens a
light.

Those are things.

So

what do you pay for in a modifier?

Well, you pay for the quality, is in
the construction

of the materials and whatever.

Because you're going to be settin it
up, tearing down, settin up, tearing

down, you know, over years.

So the material, the construction,

and I always say,

is it easy to transport?

So I helped design with westcott that
24 ins, beauty dish that come, packs up

and sticks in a little sleeve, and you
put it in your suitcase or whatever,

and you on their plane.

I couldn't do that with a beauty dish
to hard shell beauty dishes, it's too much.

So it's the transporting of something
as small as a transport.

And as it can, you set up and tear down
very quickly.

So my brother bought a five foot octo on

bbay.

He was so excited.

I went over his house and he showed it
to me, and I said, wow, that's that

beautiful?

That's great.

But

how quick does it set up and tear it
down?

And he says, oh, it's a nightmare.

It takes me like twenty minutes to set
it up.

It's not worth it,

unless you have a studio, when you
always leave it up,

and

you get what you get what you pay for
in terms of quality, generally.

So if you buy a really cheap modifier
is going to fall apart.

I mean, I've had grids,

not from the company westcott.

Grids are amazing.

Before that, I had a company that I was
using,

and the grids, within a year were
literally shredding,

coming apart,

fraying everywhere

I've got grids right now that I'm using
on my

36 by 48

soft boxes that I got when

I started with westcott about six years
ago.

And you see me, I'm a rip, and I'm off,
put them, rip it a moth, put them on.

And I do that.

I don't honey days a year.

And they look brand.

Not one little fray, not all on little
things.

So you get what you pay for in the
construction

and the ability to set it up, tear down
and transport it.

So

don't believe the hype.

So that's what I'm saying,

if, look, and i'll say this too, and I
want you to think about this.

I'm just like you.

I want the best quality, right?

and when it comes to strobes, we can.

We've talked about strobes in my other
session quite a bit.

I've done some YouTube channel things
on strobes.

I want my struggles to work.

I want them to be consistent, all that.

But I don't want to go pay a fortune for

a stuff that, if I get it for a cheaper
price, i'll do that.

But I don't want to compromise also, if
I'm doing a big ad campaign, that I

have a piece of crap, you know, strobe,
and a key,

not working on me.

So

there, sometimes you say, I'm going to
spend that extra money for something.

But when it comes to modifiers, don't
believe the hype.

When someone says, oh, this whatever
brand is just incredible.

The reason why it's incredible, the
photographer that's using it,

understands lighting and knows how to
light, and that's how they're getting

an amazing picture.

It's not the modifier.

So don't get caught up in the heights.

So let's take a look at this one
concept that I always talk about, and

that is,

what about

all these shapes and modifiers?

What about that?

So the shape has little to do with the
quality light on the subject it's how

big it is, how close it is the subject,

how many times are going to repeat that.

So I didn't know that.

And

I got all worked up when I came to

silver interior versus white and tier.

I didn't know what the difference
works.

Well, you put a piece of fusion on the
front.

Doesn't matter.

If you take the diffusion off, like,
say, a beauty dish that has a silver interior,

it might give you a little more
specular punch than the white interior.

But when you put that diffusion on the
front, you cannot tell a difference.

I've done a gazillions of tests, trust
me.

So don't get too cut up on the shape.

So you can use a round modifier over
the top of the lens, and I do that a

lot and mostly.

And it creates a circular

reflection in the eye, which is very
pleasing.

But you can use our rectangular softbox

over the top of your camera and get
incredible results.

So

the shape

is not as important as you think it is.

Ok, let me repeat this one more time.

In the end, the quality light is
determined by how broad it is

to your subject

and how much bounce.

And Phil comes back in onto the subject

there's your secret to lighting.

So

let's do this.

I know I'm going fairly long here, and
I want to take a break.

And so I call that part one.

So let's go and take a break, and then
I will

start up right here at part two.

And we'll continue on.

I got some really cool stuff yet to come