Full Transcript for EP162 Beyond Soft Shadows – What Really Makes Light Flattering?

screen. 00:02:11.449 --> 00:02:16.669 'cause she does all the selections, but also she knows exactly, exactly 00:02:16.669 --> 00:02:19.309 what's required to design a great album. 00:02:19.309 --> 00:02:22.489 Because at the end of the day, I. It's Sarah designs them. 00:02:22.789 --> 00:02:25.219 So it was a real beautiful thing to be able to do. 00:02:25.219 --> 00:02:27.799 Sarah has created some wonderful imagery. 00:02:27.799 --> 00:02:32.509 We've also had a couple of portrait shoots, three or four this week, which 00:02:32.509 --> 00:02:34.069 I've really enjoyed today actually. 00:02:34.069 --> 00:02:37.069 We've had one came in for a reveal and one came in for a shoot. 00:02:37.069 --> 00:02:40.459 Two lovely families, and at the end of the day, that is still 00:02:40.459 --> 00:02:41.644 what this business is about. 00:02:42.054 --> 00:02:46.279 There is so much going on out there in the news about ai, about 00:02:46.279 --> 00:02:48.529 technology, about the economy. 00:02:48.994 --> 00:02:52.834 But in the end, the bit of the industry that I sit in, this 00:02:52.834 --> 00:02:56.014 bit here is all about families. 00:02:56.014 --> 00:02:59.494 It's about memories, it's about real people doing real things. 00:02:59.494 --> 00:03:02.319 So it's been absolutely brilliant to be. 00:03:03.409 --> 00:03:08.089 Uh, photographing families, uh, and also selling, uh, a beautiful frame. 00:03:08.089 --> 00:03:08.449 This morning. 00:03:08.449 --> 00:03:12.679 It was absolutely lovely, big layup of multiple images, uh, to go on the wall. 00:03:12.799 --> 00:03:19.939 Uh, also this week, um, I took a trip into London to photograph the Barclays bank. 00:03:20.029 --> 00:03:23.689 A GM set up quite specifically the setup. 00:03:23.689 --> 00:03:27.559 The brief actually said, do not include people where it's possible. 00:03:27.559 --> 00:03:28.789 So that's fine. 00:03:29.029 --> 00:03:31.939 I was there to photograph, um, for the, um. 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:35.659 The production company that do all of the work behind the scenes. 00:03:35.659 --> 00:03:37.879 They create all the staging, they create all of the film work. 00:03:38.209 --> 00:03:42.619 My job was quite literally, quite literally, to be there and make sure that 00:03:42.619 --> 00:03:45.349 was really well documented, which I did. 00:03:45.349 --> 00:03:48.199 But of course, because it was such an early start, I had my, 00:03:48.259 --> 00:03:51.769 um, original call in time at the venue in the security on this. 00:03:51.769 --> 00:03:54.349 As you can imagine, this is Barclay's, the A GM. 00:03:54.949 --> 00:03:57.619 Um, I've never seen security like it, and I've actually photographed this 00:03:57.619 --> 00:04:00.079 event probably 10 years or so now. 00:04:00.364 --> 00:04:03.124 I never seen security quite like this one. 00:04:03.604 --> 00:04:07.774 And with a seven o'clock start, I had to, uh, stay over in a hotel 00:04:07.774 --> 00:04:09.394 the night before, which was great. 00:04:09.394 --> 00:04:10.354 I mean, it's no problem. 00:04:10.354 --> 00:04:13.654 There's plenty of hotels in London, but it did mean I got to go out for 00:04:13.654 --> 00:04:15.904 the evening with Harriet, our daughter. 00:04:15.994 --> 00:04:21.334 So the two of us met up the night before, um, had pizza, margaritas, a beer, a 00:04:21.334 --> 00:04:23.824 glass of wine or two and more or less. 00:04:24.529 --> 00:04:29.719 Gassed just gossiped, um, all the way through until it was time for both 00:04:29.719 --> 00:04:33.949 of us to part our ways, me to go to the hotel and for her to head home. 00:04:34.189 --> 00:04:37.489 And there was really something really special about getting to 00:04:37.489 --> 00:04:40.339 spend time with your kids as a dad. 00:04:41.479 --> 00:04:43.459 It is the greatest pleasure. 00:04:43.459 --> 00:04:46.399 As you watch your kids grow up, you watch their confidence increase, 00:04:46.759 --> 00:04:49.279 you just, well, I do anyway. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:52.669 Absolutely love spending time, uh, with both of 'em. 00:04:52.669 --> 00:04:53.899 So that was really, really nice. 00:04:53.989 --> 00:04:56.629 Then of course, the next day, um, I went and photographed all of 00:04:56.629 --> 00:04:58.639 the bits and pieces for the A GM. 00:04:59.494 --> 00:05:02.464 And then at the end of that took the opportunity to go and meet 00:05:02.464 --> 00:05:06.514 a prospective client that we are planning a shoot for a big client. 00:05:06.994 --> 00:05:12.304 Um, and they want to create over two days, sort of 50 unique portraits 00:05:12.844 --> 00:05:16.834 of different people with different backgrounds, but all looking like 00:05:17.314 --> 00:05:19.239 their shot in their place of work. 00:05:20.074 --> 00:05:23.614 But they're coming from all over the uk so we're gonna do it in one location, a mix 00:05:23.614 --> 00:05:28.264 of the street, a mix of different offices, almost like, um, filming really, it's 00:05:28.264 --> 00:05:33.304 a bit like putting together, um, a film or a documentary where you use different 00:05:33.304 --> 00:05:34.714 backgrounds to tell different stories. 00:05:34.714 --> 00:05:40.324 So I met up with a client, um, a marketer and a graphic designer, and it was. 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:43.909 It was actually quite a laugh because I didn't think I was only really there 00:05:43.909 --> 00:05:49.129 to help them shape the job, help them figure out how we're going to do it. 00:05:49.129 --> 00:05:51.649 But of course, I had all my cameras with me from the job I was doing in 00:05:51.649 --> 00:05:55.189 the morning, and so I dragged one out, dragged a lens out, um, and we 00:05:55.189 --> 00:06:00.409 sort of barreled around the building, taking portraits of them, um, having a 00:06:00.409 --> 00:06:02.929 look at how the different backgrounds might work, discussing lots of little 00:06:02.929 --> 00:06:06.649 details, you know, the things that people miss when you're working on

location. 00:06:07.474 --> 00:06:11.434 You can't, for instance, assume that you're going to be able to use 00:06:11.494 --> 00:06:17.674 strobes because much of this building is an open plan, and us firing 00:06:17.674 --> 00:06:22.054 strobes while we're doing portraiture probably isn't gonna work because 00:06:22.054 --> 00:06:23.734 it's distracting for everybody. 00:06:24.064 --> 00:06:27.604 Now, if we're in a closed room, that's fine, but if we're out in an 00:06:27.604 --> 00:06:31.714 open plan or in the atrium, or in the restaurant, or in the library. 00:06:32.344 --> 00:06:35.074 I'm gonna guess that's gonna be majorly distracting. 00:06:35.074 --> 00:06:39.034 So things like allowing for the fact that we are probably gonna be 00:06:39.034 --> 00:06:43.054 using continuous lighting, probably gonna be using LEDs, which is fine. 00:06:43.054 --> 00:06:44.014 There's no problem with that. 00:06:44.314 --> 00:06:47.254 But that has other knock-on effects because it's slightly different 00:06:47.254 --> 00:06:50.644 equipment and it will work when the light levels are reasonably low. 00:06:51.009 --> 00:06:55.299 But you can't overcome things like direct sunlight or you can balance to a degree, 00:06:55.749 --> 00:06:58.179 but it gets very bright very quickly. 00:06:58.209 --> 00:06:59.739 And we are not a film studio. 00:06:59.739 --> 00:07:04.389 I'm not gonna go and set huge great shadow boxes and things over the windows. 00:07:04.389 --> 00:07:06.759 I'm not gonna have a tunnel lighting. 00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:10.509 I'm gonna have a very simple portrait photographers lighting set up. 00:07:11.314 --> 00:07:13.294 But it was a huge amount of fun, and the pictures have 00:07:13.294 --> 00:07:14.344 actually come out pretty well. 00:07:14.344 --> 00:07:15.214 I'm quite pleased with them. 00:07:15.454 --> 00:07:17.974 Even though we were working off brief, we were just sketching. 00:07:17.974 --> 00:07:20.524 But of course, as a portrait photographer, that's your job. 00:07:20.524 --> 00:07:22.984 And when you do this at weddings, people expect that of you. 00:07:23.374 --> 00:07:27.664 But when you're working on the commercial side, I think it surprised 00:07:27.664 --> 00:07:29.794 everyone that it was well, that easy. 00:07:30.424 --> 00:07:35.194 I don't mean I'm not playing this industry down, but taking a portrait is mostly 00:07:35.194 --> 00:07:39.244 about understanding how light works and then understanding how to read. 00:07:39.814 --> 00:07:44.224 And manipulate characters, how to be a people person with great light. 00:07:44.584 --> 00:07:47.074 Actually, that could be the topic of a podcast. 00:07:47.074 --> 00:07:51.124 All and of its all, all in and of itself is, you know, portrait 00:07:51.124 --> 00:07:52.924 photography is understanding light. 00:07:52.924 --> 00:07:54.469 I. And how to manipulate people. 00:07:54.499 --> 00:07:57.979 And once you're there, there's not an awful lot left, uh, to do. 00:07:57.979 --> 00:08:00.499 So that was, that was a real blast. 00:08:00.529 --> 00:08:02.809 Um, I'm looking forward to doing the actual gig. 00:08:02.809 --> 00:08:05.989 We sort of got our heads around the scope of it now and that couple of 00:08:05.989 --> 00:08:12.769 hours we spent really did illustrate the best way to plan the shoot book 00:08:12.769 --> 00:08:15.229 people in, and generally approach him. 00:08:16.084 --> 00:08:21.574 Uh, also this week we spent a day, uh, Sarah, Katie, myself and, uh, 00:08:21.574 --> 00:08:23.164 Abby, one of our regular models. 00:08:23.644 --> 00:08:27.874 Um, the video we're recording for the mastering portrait photography website. 00:08:27.874 --> 00:08:33.424 This time round is going to be all about those lighting patterns 00:08:33.424 --> 00:08:35.824 that have names, the eight or so. 00:08:36.374 --> 00:08:39.734 Um, lighting patterns, uh, single light lighting patterns. 00:08:40.964 --> 00:08:44.834 Lighting patterns with one light, maybe that sounds better, where, um, they're 00:08:44.834 --> 00:08:46.034 sort of lighting patterns for me. 00:08:46.034 --> 00:08:50.384 I, I didn't really understand or didn't know, rather, the 00:08:50.384 --> 00:08:54.704 lighting, the names of lighting patterns until I started to teach. 00:08:54.704 --> 00:08:57.434 And still, in fact, we wrote the original mastering portrait photography 00:08:57.884 --> 00:09:00.494 book because although I knew them. 00:09:01.249 --> 00:09:03.169 I didn't even know they had names. 00:09:03.469 --> 00:09:08.809 I'm not in that regard, a formal photographer, but it's really useful 00:09:08.809 --> 00:09:12.829 to know them because you can jump straight to that starting point. 00:09:12.829 --> 00:09:18.499 It's a little bit like learning your scales on the piano or maybe 00:09:18.499 --> 00:09:21.469 learning your rudiments as a drummer. 00:09:22.594 --> 00:09:23.914 To me, certainly. 00:09:23.974 --> 00:09:29.584 I mean, I've done both of those things and to me they were the est, most boring, 00:09:29.584 --> 00:09:35.794 mundane things that you had to do, but you had to do them as a piano player. 00:09:35.794 --> 00:09:40.474 You had to get your fingers to have muscle memory so that if you needed to move 00:09:40.474 --> 00:09:42.814 around certain notes, you could get there. 00:09:43.594 --> 00:09:46.894 You needed to know in certain keys what notes went together. 00:09:47.254 --> 00:09:51.364 Similarly, as a drummer, you had to get your wrists loose and your fingers loose. 00:09:52.204 --> 00:09:57.064 And be able to move around the drum kit fluently, fluidly, and 00:09:57.064 --> 00:10:02.014 fluently, and the only way of doing that is repe repetitive practice. 00:10:02.014 --> 00:10:05.104 It's repetition, doing it over and over and over again. 00:10:05.404 --> 00:10:09.844 Much as I didn't enjoy it, it paid dividends when I found myself on 00:10:09.844 --> 00:10:12.184 stage or in a recording studio. 00:10:13.534 --> 00:10:17.524 Then all

of those hours spent at a practice pad or. 00:10:17.929 --> 00:10:22.219 As a piano player learning my scales suddenly came to fruition. 00:10:22.219 --> 00:10:25.219 And just for clarity here, I was an awful piano player. 00:10:25.339 --> 00:10:28.249 I hated the scales and I had very little talent. 00:10:28.249 --> 00:10:32.149 I, I could play a bit, I could play enough to, you know, Russell 00:10:32.479 --> 00:10:36.379 Une, if I really thought about it, um, was not a great piano player. 00:10:37.099 --> 00:10:42.679 However, as a photographer, the value in learning these named lighting 00:10:42.679 --> 00:10:46.309 patterns isn't about the names and the lighting patterns themselves. 00:10:46.864 --> 00:10:51.184 It's learning why they're called what they are and how to do them and be 00:10:51.184 --> 00:10:55.294 able to recall them if you need to, and certainly when, for instance, 00:10:55.294 --> 00:10:56.884 as a mentor and as a trainer. 00:10:57.709 --> 00:11:02.059 It's so much easier if we can talk about lighting patterns by name. 00:11:02.569 --> 00:11:04.849 You know, I can, we can talk about this shot would've been 00:11:04.849 --> 00:11:06.889 better lit short or lit narrow. 00:11:07.369 --> 00:11:12.859 I think this face shape might have looked better lit. Broad maybe. 00:11:13.069 --> 00:11:16.249 Um, you know, Rembrandt lighting is very theatrical actually. 00:11:16.249 --> 00:11:18.949 Rembrandt light is one of those really obscure lighting patterns 00:11:19.339 --> 00:11:20.449 that everybody knows about. 00:11:20.449 --> 00:11:24.889 Every photographer, loves and can name and can create the triangle on the cheek. 00:11:25.564 --> 00:11:27.754 But that's usually done with a hard light source. 00:11:27.754 --> 00:11:30.694 But if you really want to use it, you've gotta use a soft light source. 00:11:30.694 --> 00:11:34.864 But knowing where the light goes so that you can create that beautiful, 00:11:34.864 --> 00:11:39.604 gentle roll off across the top of a cheekbone is a practice thing. 00:11:40.024 --> 00:11:41.284 So anyway, we spent the day. 00:11:42.034 --> 00:11:44.104 Recording all of these different lighting patterns, and they're 00:11:44.104 --> 00:11:44.944 gonna look really beautiful. 00:11:44.944 --> 00:11:46.174 I mean, Abby's a beautiful model. 00:11:46.534 --> 00:11:49.654 Um, we shot it really clean, so every picture you'll be able to see 00:11:49.654 --> 00:11:51.094 precisely what we're talking about. 00:11:51.094 --> 00:11:54.394 So we shot each one with a hard light so you can see exactly where 00:11:54.394 --> 00:11:57.904 the light lands, where it falls, and then we shot them with a soft light. 00:11:57.904 --> 00:12:02.854 So you can see how might, how you might use exactly the same positioning of 00:12:02.854 --> 00:12:05.164 the light to create great portraits. 00:12:05.164 --> 00:12:07.474 So I'm looking forward to finishing that video up, which we'll do, uh, 00:12:07.474 --> 00:12:10.474 I'm gonna guess Wednesday next week. 00:12:11.464 --> 00:12:13.144 Um, and that will go out onto MPP. 00:12:13.144 --> 00:12:15.664 That'll be this month's, uh, video. 00:12:15.724 --> 00:12:16.504 Uh, a lot of fun. 00:12:16.804 --> 00:12:19.414 Um, today, uh, like I said, a reveal. 00:12:19.414 --> 00:12:20.314 All the cookies have gone. 00:12:20.884 --> 00:12:22.084 The kids needed chocolate. 00:12:22.564 --> 00:12:24.664 Um, so I'm sitting in the studio thinking like, quite fancy a 00:12:24.664 --> 00:12:26.224 cookie and nope, they're all gone. 00:12:26.584 --> 00:12:31.324 Um, but the sun has been beautiful and so what a lovely, a lovely thing to do. 00:12:31.774 --> 00:12:33.304 Uh, some big news. 00:12:33.304 --> 00:12:38.404 Now, this has actually been rumbling on since, uh, January, I think. 00:12:38.949 --> 00:12:44.229 Um, but it's now, um, out of embargo is that we've, Sarah Platon and 00:12:44.229 --> 00:12:51.099 myself have been asked to revise the mastering portrait photography book. 00:12:51.549 --> 00:12:54.489 Um, the reason the website is called Mastering Portrait Photography 00:12:54.489 --> 00:12:55.809 is 'cause we produce the book. 00:12:56.109 --> 00:12:57.999 The publisher have asked us to rework it. 00:12:57.999 --> 00:13:01.869 And so I've actually just spent a few months, um, reworking 00:13:01.959 --> 00:13:04.569 every single portrait. 00:13:05.419 --> 00:13:09.319 Except for the one of me, you can't really see that it's me. 00:13:09.829 --> 00:13:10.909 I dunno when it was shot. 00:13:10.909 --> 00:13:14.689 I look like, um, I've been dragged through a hedge backwards, and I've left 00:13:14.689 --> 00:13:16.369 it well alone because it makes me laugh. 00:13:16.789 --> 00:13:19.939 So there's still a shot of me holding a camera in there that hasn't been revised. 00:13:20.809 --> 00:13:24.529 But every other portrait in there has been, they're my clients. 00:13:25.069 --> 00:13:28.759 Every single one of the people in that book is a client of ours, or 00:13:28.759 --> 00:13:31.879 it's from a job where we're doing a workshop or a masterclass or something. 00:13:32.329 --> 00:13:37.819 I can tell you a story about every single picture, and it's been such a pleasure. 00:13:37.819 --> 00:13:39.649 It's 10 years old this year. 00:13:39.709 --> 00:13:44.449 The book, it came out around about, I think it came out in May. 00:13:44.959 --> 00:13:47.239 Well, I could look the dates up in, um. 00:13:47.989 --> 00:13:51.909 2015 and it's gonna come out is, I think the launch date is the 9th 00:13:51.909 --> 00:13:54.499 of September this year, 10 years. 00:13:54.589 --> 00:14:00.559 10 years ago we first created it, but we've reworked all of it bit by bit by 00:14:00.559 --> 00:14:04.399 bit, picture by picture, by picture, um, so that it's still the same book. 00:14:04.549 --> 00:14:05.929 Um, it's definitely a second revision. 00:14:05.929 --> 00:14:07.609 We haven't changed all of the wording. 00:14:07.609 --> 00:14:08.899 We've

revised some of it. 00:14:09.229 --> 00:14:13.189 And the post-production chapter, I've reworked to be mostly about. 00:14:13.744 --> 00:14:17.914 As it happens, ai, so the mix of Lightroom, Photoshop, 00:14:18.244 --> 00:14:20.254 and then uh, tools like Voto. 00:14:21.049 --> 00:14:22.579 I should, again, for clarity. 00:14:22.939 --> 00:14:24.829 Uh, I'm not sponsored by any of these companies. 00:14:24.829 --> 00:14:28.879 These are tools and apps that I pay for. 00:14:29.509 --> 00:14:30.379 I wish I didn't. 00:14:30.769 --> 00:14:33.949 If, if a Voto are listening, feel free to b me a sponsorship. 00:14:33.949 --> 00:14:34.879 But no, I pay for it. 00:14:35.239 --> 00:14:38.359 Um, I pay for it because it's useful, makes my life easier. 00:14:38.689 --> 00:14:43.009 Um, it polishes images at a rate that I could not have kept up with. 00:14:43.009 --> 00:14:43.879 Photoshop, not. 00:14:44.249 --> 00:14:45.119 In this market. 00:14:45.119 --> 00:14:49.619 Now, if you are a high-end fashion house doing fashion photography, maybe you could 00:14:49.859 --> 00:14:52.289 beauty shots on the covers of magazines. 00:14:52.289 --> 00:14:53.309 Yeah, maybe you could. 00:14:53.969 --> 00:14:58.409 But to, we can produce, you know, to a level of about 18, maybe 00:14:58.409 --> 00:15:00.929 even 90% of that level of detail. 00:15:01.199 --> 00:15:02.459 And you can do it in a heartbeat. 00:15:02.519 --> 00:15:04.829 So things like a Voto, the last chapter in the book, the 00:15:04.829 --> 00:15:09.239 post-production, uh, chapter, has been completely rewritten to include. 00:15:09.859 --> 00:15:14.329 How we now use things like ai because if this book, let's say this book has 00:15:14.329 --> 00:15:19.459 another 10 years on a shelf before it needs revising or taking off ai, 00:15:19.729 --> 00:15:22.909 I think would've completely changed. 00:15:22.939 --> 00:15:27.529 Not just this industry, but every industry and the most valuable things 00:15:27.529 --> 00:15:31.669 will no longer be how good you are with a computer or how good you are as a coder, 00:15:31.909 --> 00:15:33.829 or even how good you are as a writer. 00:15:34.339 --> 00:15:35.689 All of that will become. 00:15:36.229 --> 00:15:37.159 Commoditized. 00:15:37.279 --> 00:15:40.219 You can simply tell a machine how to do it. 00:15:40.219 --> 00:15:48.499 The value will be, I think, in your intellectual capacity to imagine things. 00:15:49.039 --> 00:15:51.709 Now, I know you can go into Mid Journey and type a bunch of keywords 00:15:51.709 --> 00:15:58.669 in, or you know, Firefly or Dali or whatever, but in a very real sense. 00:15:59.569 --> 00:16:04.699 That's not art or creativity, it's just the computer spitting stuff back at you. 00:16:04.699 --> 00:16:09.649 And the same is true when you're doing creative writing, but if you truly 00:16:09.679 --> 00:16:15.619 have interesting and original ideas and configure out how to articulate 00:16:15.619 --> 00:16:20.449 those, AI is gonna be

sitting alongside you every step of the way. 00:16:20.449 --> 00:16:21.649 And what's left? 00:16:22.249 --> 00:16:23.479 What's left when. 00:16:24.424 --> 00:16:30.154 Those kinds of tools become just the heartbeat of your work. 00:16:31.114 --> 00:16:33.514 Whatever's left is the personal contact. 00:16:33.514 --> 00:16:37.234 It's the people to people, the human to human, the character to character, 00:16:37.264 --> 00:16:41.254 the very physicality of being in the same room as someone, hence the. 00:16:41.569 --> 00:16:43.939 Why I get so excited about doing portrait shoots. 00:16:43.939 --> 00:16:47.239 I've done that all my life, and I still feel that way, that when I'm 00:16:47.239 --> 00:16:48.619 face to face with a client, yeah. 00:16:48.619 --> 00:16:49.009 All right. 00:16:49.794 --> 00:16:56.479 I mean, I know I'm an idiot and I am loud and I laugh a lot and you know, 00:16:56.479 --> 00:16:59.884 every time I have a a, an adrenaline rush, when I'm working with a client 00:16:59.884 --> 00:17:04.699 or I meet new people afterwards, I will forever beat myself up for being. 00:17:05.464 --> 00:17:08.614 I guess embarrassing, but that's the joy of being human. 00:17:09.214 --> 00:17:13.474 Um, the tooling, the behind the scenes stuff, the management, even social media. 00:17:14.044 --> 00:17:18.424 You don't have to go onto social media for very long before you start to see AI 00:17:18.424 --> 00:17:21.094 generated videos, AI generated images. 00:17:21.724 --> 00:17:25.744 Um, and the truth of it is, I'm not sure I can tell the difference anymore, 00:17:25.834 --> 00:17:30.274 but the, the days of six fingers to three hands funny necks, they're gone. 00:17:30.904 --> 00:17:34.684 These, the AI tools that are appearing now are super realistic. 00:17:35.134 --> 00:17:38.014 Um, and if you can do that with words, imagine what you can do with 00:17:38.014 --> 00:17:39.784 a photograph as your reference point. 00:17:39.784 --> 00:17:41.794 So anyway, the book will be out. 00:17:41.824 --> 00:17:42.844 Sorry, I've digressed slightly. 00:17:42.844 --> 00:17:45.154 The book will be out on the 9th of September. 00:17:45.154 --> 00:17:46.624 It's called Mastering Portrait Photography. 00:17:46.984 --> 00:17:47.284 Um. 00:17:47.299 --> 00:17:51.379 Um, it's already available for pre-order on Amazon, which means I 00:17:51.379 --> 00:17:54.109 can now, um, share details of it. 00:17:54.109 --> 00:17:58.099 We've been under embargo up until this point, but, um, the rework has been done. 00:17:58.639 --> 00:18:00.349 Now looking forward to, um. 00:18:01.399 --> 00:18:05.149 Seeing the actual printed, but I've got some proofs sitting here 00:18:05.149 --> 00:18:06.769 beside me that arrived this morning. 00:18:07.189 --> 00:18:10.879 Uh, that, uh, I just wanted to confirm some of the colors were are 00:18:10.879 --> 00:18:15.469 spot on because one of the great things I think about Amini to produce 00:18:15.469 --> 00:18:17.899 this book is their color work. 00:18:17.899 --> 00:18:20.509 That printed work is just beautiful. 00:18:20.509 --> 00:18:22.729 The prints look like competition prints in the book. 00:18:22.729 --> 00:18:25.399 It's a proper, it's, I mean, for us it's a training book. 00:18:25.399 --> 00:18:27.139 It's a kind of a walkthrough. 00:18:27.139 --> 00:18:29.749 Things you should think about as a portrait photographer, but actually. 00:18:29.789 --> 00:18:30.929 As the photographer. 00:18:31.259 --> 00:18:34.679 It's a coffee table book of some of my favorite work, so 00:18:34.679 --> 00:18:36.629 that'll be out 9th of September. 00:18:36.989 --> 00:18:38.849 You can google mastering portrait photography. 00:18:38.849 --> 00:18:42.299 The book is available on Amazon, and of course we'll announce 00:18:42.299 --> 00:18:44.309 details of, uh, signed copies. 00:18:45.119 --> 00:18:47.459 Uh, we're gonna have some kind of launch bash, I'm sure of it. 00:18:47.909 --> 00:18:51.149 Uh, I cannot, absolutely cannot wait. 00:18:51.299 --> 00:18:58.229 Uh, and then onto, I think what I intended to talk about today, which is linked to 00:18:58.259 --> 00:18:59.669 the lighting patterns I talked about. 00:19:00.574 --> 00:19:08.194 But it is simply this question, what makes flattering light? 00:19:09.394 --> 00:19:12.784 And I see titles of videos, how to use flattering light, how to 00:19:12.784 --> 00:19:15.874 use this light, how to use that light, and nobody really explains. 00:19:17.104 --> 00:19:19.354 What do you mean by flattering? 00:19:20.344 --> 00:19:22.414 You know, Rembrandt pioneered. 00:19:22.819 --> 00:19:23.749 Well, did he pioneer? 00:19:23.749 --> 00:19:24.679 That's, no, he didn't. 00:19:24.679 --> 00:19:28.789 He put his name to an observed lighting pattern that created a 00:19:28.789 --> 00:19:30.649 triangle of light on his cheek. 00:19:31.249 --> 00:19:33.409 Um, is that flattering? 00:19:33.409 --> 00:19:37.159 Well, it created a very effective, very gloomy portrait, 00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:38.689 the way he painted it Anyway. 00:19:39.769 --> 00:19:40.729 Is it flattering? 00:19:40.999 --> 00:19:41.479 I dunno. 00:19:41.479 --> 00:19:43.429 I mean, certainly it looks great. 00:19:44.419 --> 00:19:45.439 What about soft light? 00:19:46.249 --> 00:19:50.359 The thing about soft light is we all always talk about soft, flattering light. 00:19:50.359 --> 00:19:54.289 I mean, if you ever hear the word flattering light, you're probably, it's 00:19:54.289 --> 00:19:56.539 probably prefixed by the word soft. 00:19:56.959 --> 00:19:58.039 And what do we mean by soft? 00:19:58.039 --> 00:20:01.189 Well, usually soft. 00:20:01.189 --> 00:20:03.349 We talk about soft edged shadows. 00:20:03.349 --> 00:20:05.029 That's normally what we're talking about. 00:20:05.449 --> 00:20:12.379 But of course, contrast ratios are supremely important, too soft. 00:20:13.279 --> 00:20:19.519 Edged shadows and low contrast tend to give forgiving light. 00:20:19.879 --> 00:20:26.179 They

tend to reduce wrinkles or they reduce the amount of modeling that might 00:20:26.179 --> 00:20:32.959 be across a part of someone's figure or face, um, that makes it harder to discern. 00:20:33.439 --> 00:20:41.569 Lumps, bumps, textures, hard light, hard edged shadows tend to reveal. 00:20:42.669 --> 00:20:44.164 I tend to reveal light. 00:20:44.224 --> 00:20:47.764 That's a shape more than soft light. 00:20:48.604 --> 00:20:56.104 But what if you want to, for instance, reduce the perception of somebody's width? 00:20:56.164 --> 00:20:59.764 Is soft, light, soft edge shadows, low contrast, light 00:20:59.764 --> 00:21:02.524 better, or is it better to have. 00:21:02.959 --> 00:21:03.859 Very contrasty. 00:21:03.859 --> 00:21:09.469 Light, dark, dark shadows where everything disappears into the gloom and hard edge 00:21:09.469 --> 00:21:14.449 shadows where when it's wrapping around a curve around a body, for instance, the lip 00:21:14.449 --> 00:21:18.319 part is gonna be slightly narrower than if you lit it with a soft edged light. 00:21:19.399 --> 00:21:20.449 Well, no one can answer that. 00:21:21.259 --> 00:21:25.639 No one can tell you which is the most flattering, only the subject 00:21:25.729 --> 00:21:29.509 and the creator can tell you the people actually there in the room. 00:21:29.509 --> 00:21:31.489 The interaction between the subject. 00:21:32.224 --> 00:21:35.044 And the creator, you the photographer. 00:21:35.974 --> 00:21:39.544 So when we talk about flattering light, what really do we mean? 00:21:39.694 --> 00:21:45.154 And I think what we mean and what we have to agree to mean is flattering light is 00:21:45.154 --> 00:21:50.284 the light that creates a picture that you love and a picture that your client loves. 00:21:51.154 --> 00:21:54.544 If that's hard light, if it's contrasty light, if it's soft edge 00:21:54.544 --> 00:21:59.164 shadow light, if it's low contrast light, it doesn't really matter. 00:22:00.514 --> 00:22:04.114 Your ability to read your subject, your ability to read, shape and 00:22:04.114 --> 00:22:10.264 form and textures, and how to either exaggerate that or reduce that. 00:22:11.464 --> 00:22:15.634 Well, that to me is what creating flattering light is all about. 00:22:16.234 --> 00:22:20.164 Anyway, uh, that was not, which I, I dunno why I thought that would be 00:22:20.164 --> 00:22:22.324 a topic to talk about, uh, today. 00:22:22.354 --> 00:22:26.644 And the last thing, um, I'm just, before I sign off, I've, I'm just, so I'm gazing 00:22:26.644 --> 00:22:28.624 round our studio as the sun is going down. 00:22:29.404 --> 00:22:31.624 I have to do a big tidy up tomorrow. 00:22:31.624 --> 00:22:35.974 That's my job tomorrow, is to absolutely sort this studio out so it's nice 00:22:35.974 --> 00:22:41.914 and tidy for our very first, uh, inaugural two day bootcamp, which 00:22:41.914 --> 00:22:44.044 is Monday and Tuesday next week. 00:22:44.074 --> 00:22:47.674 Now, you may be listening to this podcast after that's been done, 00:22:48.124 --> 00:22:49.669 um, but I will give you an update. 00:22:50.074 --> 00:22:52.924 Next week as to how it has gone. 00:22:53.074 --> 00:22:55.564 So it's two days, a maximum of 10 people. 00:22:56.014 --> 00:23:00.364 Um, a mix of being here at the studio out on location round our amazing village. 00:23:00.724 --> 00:23:05.914 Um, we've also rented, um, a hall in a local church, which will give us a ton of 00:23:05.914 --> 00:23:08.464 room to really play and explore lighting. 00:23:08.464 --> 00:23:09.934 Our studio here is incredible. 00:23:09.934 --> 00:23:10.444 I love it. 00:23:10.444 --> 00:23:14.374 It creates the pictures that I love and pictures that clearly our clients love. 00:23:14.824 --> 00:23:18.514 But putting 10 people plus me plus models into it is just. 00:23:18.764 --> 00:23:21.884 I'm gonna be a little bit tight if I want to move the lighting around. 00:23:22.394 --> 00:23:25.994 So we're gonna have, uh, spend some time over at local church hall, which is 00:23:25.994 --> 00:23:30.494 always funny, um, because it's very real for most people who don't own a studio. 00:23:30.494 --> 00:23:34.424 Being able to show how to rig and use studio lighting in any 00:23:34.424 --> 00:23:37.484 space you are in and all the considerations that go with it. 00:23:37.484 --> 00:23:41.744 For instance, we've been around there and, um, the, um, lots of the pin 00:23:41.744 --> 00:23:45.044 boards around the room have bright colors because they use it as a crash. 00:23:45.674 --> 00:23:47.384 Well, bright colors get bounced back. 00:23:47.809 --> 00:23:51.679 So you're gonna get yellows and pinks coming back off your light. 00:23:52.009 --> 00:23:57.649 So learning how to work with that and how to reduce the colors of light. 00:23:57.649 --> 00:23:59.689 You don't want an increase of color, of light you do want. 00:24:00.049 --> 00:24:01.399 Those are gonna be part of the topics. 00:24:01.399 --> 00:24:04.639 We've got two days in the evening between the two nights, uh, pizza, 00:24:04.669 --> 00:24:06.289 lots of chatter about portraits. 00:24:06.769 --> 00:24:08.539 Um, and then on the Tuesday, a wrap up. 00:24:08.539 --> 00:24:13.849 Uh, more photography and in the afternoon looking at, uh, technology, looking 00:24:13.849 --> 00:24:18.319 at, uh, Photoshop, Voto, imagine all of these tools that you can do things with. 00:24:18.709 --> 00:24:21.049 So I'm really, really, really excited about it. 00:24:21.049 --> 00:24:23.419 And that's, tomorrow's job is to go through the studio. 00:24:23.419 --> 00:24:26.329 You can see it, if you can see the edges of my desk, I'm kind of glancing around. 00:24:26.569 --> 00:24:28.669 It's, there's so much stuff here. 00:24:29.089 --> 00:24:30.259 Uh, I collect stuff. 00:24:30.289 --> 00:24:31.039 I can't help it. 00:24:31.069 --> 00:24:33.139 Sarah keeps trying to get me to either sell it or throw it. 00:24:33.559 --> 00:24:35.179 Um, and at some point, of course. 00:24:35.449 --> 00:24:39.469 I will, but in the meantime, in the meantime, if you fancy coming on one 00:24:39.469 --> 00:24:43.309 of our workshops, please do head over to mastering portrait photography.com 00:24:43.549 --> 00:24:46.399 and go to the academy section. 00:24:46.429 --> 00:24:48.769 All of our workshops are listed there. 00:24:48.784 --> 00:24:51.214 A bit too late, obviously for the bootcamp. 00:24:51.574 --> 00:24:54.064 Uh, that is Monday, Tuesday this week and it's sold out. 00:24:54.574 --> 00:24:59.314 Uh, but coming up, uh, our various workshops throughout the summer ranging 00:24:59.314 --> 00:25:04.024 from our on location in Oxford Workshop, which might be, and we haven't done 00:25:04.024 --> 00:25:05.644 the two day, uh, two day bootcamp yet. 00:25:05.644 --> 00:25:10.684 This might turn out to be my favorite, but working in Oxford for the day, 00:25:10.744 --> 00:25:14.764 just taking pictures on the street using whatever light we can find. 00:25:14.824 --> 00:25:17.344 And our client, oh, sorry, our models this time. 00:25:18.184 --> 00:25:21.274 Uh, one of our wedding clients, the beautiful people who I 00:25:21.274 --> 00:25:24.604 photographed at the Manir, the most unassuming and gorgeous couple. 00:25:24.934 --> 00:25:26.674 So I think that's my favorite. 00:25:26.674 --> 00:25:28.264 That's, uh, on our website. 00:25:28.264 --> 00:25:30.214 I don't, I think there's a space left. 00:25:30.664 --> 00:25:35.164 And then of course, there's a whole load of other workshops and opportunities 00:25:35.164 --> 00:25:38.314 for if you would like to come for some mentoring, like to come for training. 00:25:38.884 --> 00:25:39.304 Um. 00:25:39.564 --> 00:25:41.214 One-to-one, whatever it is. 00:25:41.574 --> 00:25:43.044 If we can help, we will. 00:25:43.224 --> 00:25:46.824 So if you fancy any of that, head over to mastering portrait photography.com 00:25:47.364 --> 00:25:51.204 and uh, go to the academy section. 00:25:51.414 --> 00:25:54.474 And on that happy note, I'm gonna go brave some hay fever. 00:25:54.504 --> 00:25:56.214 'cause it's the evening the sun is set. 00:25:56.364 --> 00:25:59.154 I feel there might be a barbecue in the offing. 00:25:59.154 --> 00:26:01.524 My nose is ever so slightly bonged up with hay fever. 00:26:01.524 --> 00:26:03.984 In spite, in spite of the drugs. 00:26:04.969 --> 00:26:06.199 So I'm gonna head away. 00:26:06.259 --> 00:26:12.139 Uh, hope all is well with all of you and whatever else on this beautiful, sunny 00:26:12.169 --> 00:26:15.859 Saturday evening, be kind to yourself. 00:26:16.249 --> 00:26:16.759 Take care.