Original subtitles

Sunlight, as we've already discussed, is quite a

small light source.

There's lots of pressure.

And when we liken light to water, it

is very, very, there's a lot of high

pressure.

High pressure, lots of power.

It's quite small, and of course, it can

be used in many different ways.

You can use full sun.

You can actually diffuse sun.

You can bounce it with a reflector and

so on.

But the idea is that when you are

photographing with sun, it's actually quite tough.

Most people will shy away from sunlight because

it's very difficult to photograph.

Now, whether it's because someone's squinting and can't

look at the actual light, whether it is

the fact is that it's harder to know

where to place the shadows.

Am I getting too much, too many deep

shadows?

What do I do?

Well, here's the thing.

What I'd like you to do on a

wedding day is if you know you're going

to, let's say, a cosmopolitan area, like you're

going to some buildings, you're going to a

cafe, and then you're going to a park

with trees, and then a beach, for example,

I want you to leave your sun poses

last.

In other words, what are poses that you

can actually do in the sun that actually

work?

Well, eyes down, looking away, kissing, closing your

eyes, looking into each other.

All those things are gonna be really good

looking into the sun.

If you want someone to look into the

sun and it's really, really tough, and they're

squinting like this, you just get them to

look at where you want, and then they

close their eyes.

Then you tell someone to relax their face,

relax their forehead, and just on the count

of three, open.

One, two, three, click.

And then you can squint all you want.

So that's really important, but again, if someone

struggles to look into the sun or anywhere

near it, looking into each other, away, kissing,

and all these different things.

What I love about the sun is that

it's very dramatic.

You've got strong shadows, you've got strong highlights,

but you can use it in a really

cool way.

In this case that we're actually photographing, Eric

and Megan, this was actually a recent shoot

in Venice.

We've got beautiful light.

We've already discussed that we should turn the

body away from the light and turn the

face back in.

And you see how I've turned her body

to a point where I've got shadow on

the cleavage, middle of the dress.

I've got texture, depth, dimension, and form.

Turning her face, cheekbone, jawline, it looks great.

And I've deliberately got him in shadow and

confined him within that patch of sun on

that column.

So we're actually making that sunlight, that harsh

sunlight, and we're bringing out the best in

it.

So basically embrace what others ignore because you

might just get a great shot that you

wouldn't have gotten in the first place.

Now, by the way, all the shots that

I'll be sharing with you right now and

the different light sources, they're all from various

recent shoots.

So Eric and Megan, we shot recently.

They were the 20th anniversary session and we

photographed in Florence and Venice.

There's a wedding of Nick and Mary's.

We've got a few various shoots, but they're

all of recent times.

So sort of just show you.

Some are out of camera, some are retouched,

but it gives you an idea.

While we're on the subject here, we're in

full sun.

What I did was I changed my picture

style, my picture control to vivid.

So I'm actually saturating the colors and put

my white balance on shade.

So in camera, I've gone from a neutral

look over here to something like this.

So now I've both got them basically in

the shade.

And then silhouetted against those columns in the

background, increase the warmth by going on the

shade white balance.

But then also we've got that vivid picture

style.

So in camera, we get this really beautiful

look and effect.

So as we're walking in the streets of

Florence, in this case, in this next one,

we have shafts of light going up against

the wall, which I absolutely love.

So watch this.

We've got the sunlight skimming this concrete wall

and it's providing this beautiful texture.

Now, what did we say about side lighting?

It basically increases texture, depth, dimension and form.

So now these little spots of concrete, for

example, could be likened to maybe pimples on

the skin.

So in this case, this is gonna be

quite tough to do on a face, but

you notice how I've turned the bride's face

into the sun to a point where I've

got that beautiful shadow on her, that cheekbone

and jawline.

And of course, here we have open loop.

We've already discussed this and let loop shadow

of the nose over here, it's an open

loop.

And then we're actually split lighting him.

So we've got soft feminine light for her,

split lighting for him, which is often considered

masculine, as we've already discussed.

And then this beautiful shaft of light.

Now, the shaft of light is great because

we also just cut away that light into

the shadow and this all dwindles away, but

it keeps your eye focused on what we've

got going on here.

During the same session, we did this.

So you can actually use sun in a

very, very different way.

Here, of course, the shadow of her on

the background is quite abstract, but again, I'm

turning your body away from the light and

the face back in, using the hair over

there as well.

But we've got this beautiful texture of the

shadows of the window.

And then of course, we've got a hint

of his shadow.

Now, yes, the shadow is quite distorted because

it's quite high.

If the shadow was quite low and a

little bit more in front, those shadows, as

you'll see in this picture as well, would

be a little bit more to the shape

of actually their exact body types and shapes

and things like that.

But I love photographing with sun.

I feel like many of us ignore it.

And like I said, I think perhaps we

run to the open shade and try to

ignore it, but embrace it.

You will get some beautiful shots.

Of course, this is being backlit with the

sun, but giving us some beautiful long shadows.

And you can see how they're one foot's

behind the other, giving us a really beautiful

silhouette and beautiful negative space.

If you've learned from me before, you would

have heard me say that our eyes read

from top left to bottom right, giving us

a beautiful natural flow of composition, which is

very pleasing to the eye, and that works.

So in this case, she's sort of looking

downish.

Her body's turned away from the light and

her face back in.

His face is a complete shadow because we've

got the hat on him.

He turns his face right in, and it's

beautiful.

Because she's looking down, it actually works.

If she was looking into the sun, it

might be squinty, a little bit hard and

all that kind of thing.

But just remember that when people interact, they

care less about the sunlight.

In other words, if I was simply just

sitting here and looking into the camera and

just sort of posing, and the sun was

right behind, I'd be doing this.

But for some reason, if I was interacting,

having fun, giggling, whatever, I tend to forget

about the sun, and it's a lot easier.

So just remember those points when you're photographing.

This is a recent wedding in Phoenix.

As you can see, the shadow of them

on the wall behind him is more truer

to life because the sun is a little

bit lower and it's facing them.

Even though I'm on a bit of an

angle, that's why the shadows are unabstract.

So I try to get a position that

I can get at least her face, a

hint of his, but get that beautiful shadow

there.

And I want a representation of Phoenix.

And obviously, when you think of Phoenix, you

think of desert, you think of cactus or

cacti, and then you've got the foliage there

sort of balancing up the green, which I

think is really beautiful.

So remember to use the sun wisely.

It can be so much fun to use,

but this is where practice comes in.

If you always shy away from the sun,

then you'll never know how to use it

properly.

So my suggestion is take a model, take

a friend, take a cousin, take your wife,

husband, whatever, and then go out and photograph

in the sun.

So when it comes time for a wedding

day where you have no choice, you've got

it.

This shot, of course, is that we've got

the sun right behind them, and I've tilted

his chin up towards the camera and up

towards this way, so the light bounces off

his face, and that's why you get more

of a glow on her.

And I actually don't mind a little bit

of flare here.

Normally, I don't like flare, but I think

if it suits the photograph and the sensibility

of what I'm going for, I really, really

enjoy it, and I go for it.

Now, look at, pretty much the next shot

is gonna be the exact same pose, just

flipped, but I just have them in shadow.

So I've illuminated the background, brought them in

the shadow, exposed for that background, focused on

them, and now we have this sort of

semi-silhouette on them, which I think is

actually really cool.

So remember, embrace the sun.

It is quite intimidating at the start, but

when you know how to use it, it's

liberating and it works really well.

This recent, we had an anniversary shoot.

This was in the dry lake bed in

Las Vegas, one of them, of course, and

here we have the sun on a bit

of an angle.

You know how I said, turn the body

away from the light and the face back

in for the female form?

I also said, if you turn the body

way, way towards the light and then now

half the body's in shadow, that is almost

the same thing, but a different perspective.

So he's standing up nice and high.

We've got a beautiful long shadow.

We've made sure we've got negative space in

this particular frame, so it actually works there

as well.

Now, yes, in this photograph, they had to

close their eyes and count to three, and

that's how we got the shot.

Next, we're going to look at window light.