All language subtitles for 01-ClassIntroduction.mp4

I'm Chris knight.

I'm a portrait photographer, primarily
based in New York.

And today I'm here to talk to you about
one of my favorite loves,

which is creating images that look very
cinematic.

I love movies.

It's always been something that I've
been passionate about pretty much my

whole life.

When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up
to be a film director.

And so this kind of scratches the itch
for me as a photographer.

And I've spent a lot of time

trying to hone and work on these kinds
of sets with this kind of lighting.

And I want to

lift the veil up, so to speak, and show
you a little bit about what that production

looks like.

And so we've got a few different,

few different

things that we're going to talk about
over the course of this entire program.

We are going to talk a bit about what
cinematic lighting is, what that looks

like, kind of how it's evolved and
changed a little bit over time.

We're going to break down a little bit
more of what that classic

cinematic look is that we kind of
associate

to the cinematic looking photographs.

And then I'm going to take you on two
different productions.

And it's entirely location based.

We're going to do a shoot in this
beautiful old theater here in Seattle,

and I'm going to show you what that
production looked like and how involved

that production was.

And then on the second shoot, we are
going to be taking a look at this

really cool

shoot that we did, where we got to
shoot at the historic historic flight

here here outside of Seattle.

We got to shoot a bunch of vintage
airplanes, and we created something

that was themed around some old World
War ii imagery.

So it's very, very exciting.

We have a lot to show you

and a lot to break down.

Now, over the course of today,

I'm going to show you a little bit
about what we're going to be talking about,

so specifically, what cinematic
lighting is

breaking down that process and giving,
you know, some nuggets that you can

take away,

where the inspiration can come from and
a lot of these

different situations and kinds of
shoots.

I'm going to take you through the
entire preproduction process.

For me, what that looks like, the
elements that are involved,

this whole thing,

more or less,

is created way beforehand.

And so

this kind of shooting, at least at
least for me, is rarely something you

show up on the day with and spend an
hour putting together and expect to get

these kinds of results.

We spent a whole lot of preproduction
time

on both of these shoots.

And I want to take you through what
that process looks like so you can kind

of see how the planning, the planning
comes around.

And then,

because I think it's something that
photographers don't get enough love

for, I'm going to spend a bit of time
talking about the tools that we use to

create these sets and work with on
these sets, specifically the

gear and the grip.

I think grip is probably an
underutilized bit of knowledge by a lot

of photographers.

And so I want to spend some time
talking about that, not just the tools

that we as photographers use, but also
the tools that filmmakers use that you

might not be as familiar with.

So we're going to take a look at these
concepts.

We're going to talk about the things
that are involved in this preproduction

process.

I'm going to go through things like
mood boards,

what those look like, so that you can
share them with your team, the actors

or the models that you use.

Different considerations that we would
make for wardrobe hair and make up,

etc.

Think of yourself when you're doing
this kind of stuff is you're like an

actor producer.

Sometimes you often give input on
styling and hair and makeup.

And so it's important to have a little
bit of understanding about what's

happening across each of those
spectrums so that you can contribute

your decisions to the overall image.

I'm a big believer that concept is
king.

And so what that basically means is all
of these little, creative decisions

that go into the image and all serve
the Greater purpose of what that shot

is trying to say.

And when your little ingredients fight,
the bigger picture, the image is a

little bit less successful.

And so if you can keep making these
decisions that go along with what the

image needs to look like, it's going to
set yourself up for success

down the road,