Відео

Joe Zeltsman, the Master PPofA photographer who taught my employer and mentor Monte Zucker had a very clever strategy for Fill in his studio: He painted the back wall of his studio white and mounted flashes on the ceiling aimed backwards. The logic? If you want natural looking artificial light mimic what occurs in nature: wrap-around nearly shadowless fill from the sky resulting in only one source producing the shadows and specular highlights which provide the clues to 3D shape in 2D images. The problem with artificial fill placed off the camera axis is that it will create a second shadow and in deep area of the face where the shadows from the fill and key light cross there will be dark unfilled voids in the lighting pattern. Just look critically at any photo take with side fill and locate all the darkest shadows. They will be in the smile lines, corners of the mouth, inside the mouth… This is also why it is good practice first light the face of a subject with just the fill source which makes it very easy to to see where the Fill is creating shadow and specular highlights. A huge difference between natural and artificial lighting is the effect of the inverse square law on shadow gradients, how the fill light falls off from tip of nose to back of head and key light from nearest to furthest side. The closer the light source is placed to the face the higher the contrast (distance between optimally exposed highlights and shadows will be. An easy way to to understand and remember this taught by Monte was to just memorize the f/stop number because they have the same affect on light intensity. If you meter a light from 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45 feet you will find it decreases in one f/stop increments; two stops for each doubling of the distance. How does this affect how “Hard” or “Soft” the light looks? If a light is 4 feet from the face then be a stop darker at 5.6 which is higher contrast than a light placed a 11 feet and is one stop darker at 8 feet. The difference? 3 ft vs 1.6 ft so the roll-off from highlights to shadows will be more gradual. We created very perceptually “soft” looking lighting with a pair of identical unmodified ‘speedlight’ flashes by: 1) keeping fill centered over the camera lens to eliminate any unfilled DARK VOIDS in the light pattern, something which contributes to the perception of light being ‘HARD”, and; 2) always using enough fill to put detail in the darkest shaded (fill only) objects. Try this alternative approach: 1) Drape white and black hand towels on a stand at same height the subject’s face will be while they relax in the next room. 2) Set camera f/stop to f/8 (to keep the entire head in focus) 3) Place fill directly above and behind the camera - remembering the further it is away the softer the gradient of highlight to shadow on the face it will create. Raise its power until detail is seen in the black towel and the spike it creates on the histogram is kissing the left side. 4) Turn on the Key light placed 45° from the nose and above height of face then just adjust its power until clipping warning appears on white towel them back down until it disappears What that simple four step procedure will do is match the scene range EXACTLY to the range your camera sensor can record detail over. This will vary somewhat from camera to camera. Any subject with any complexion and any clothing will be exposed optimally at the same distance as the towel targets. The camera histogram eliminates the need for hand metering entirely. From that baseline of “normal looking detail everywhere” you can start with more fill and move key light further away for a ‘softer’ look or start with less fill and move the key light closer to the face for more rapid fall-off from highlight to shadow. You can also use that inverse-square = f/stops trick to predict how many stops darker than the front of the face the background will be based on illumination from the centered fill. For example if fill is 11ft from subject and background is 16 ft from the fill the fill will make the background one stop darker. Try everything, compare the results and learn to see the subtle differences. 😊

High 5 to you both! That was great!

thanks my frien it is great see you

No thanks. Seems like a serious lack of control.

REALLY helpful Mark. thanks for sharing.

Fantastic, thank you! Very simple to understand. It would be great to have a similar video with explanation about what power of lights make the best set up for this 3 light studio lighting.

What is the difference in Canon R5 of taking photos at Shutter Speeds macanical 200 sec and elec.1st-curtain 250sg. can you explain...thank you...

The ending 😭😭

Great Video Mark!

Thank you so much Mark. I recently started following you and have already learned so much from you. Your instructions have all been clear and informative. I'm looking forward to both watching your earlier videos as well as any of your future ones. Again, Thank you.

Sir i have a question u used light meeter .can you please make a video without light metter?.i am a wedding photographer.now days we don't carry light metter in real situation.manily wedding.

Sir make a video in outdoor setup.. hss

You truly are a gifted teacher. Always succinct in your explanations.

Good instructor. Like to follow trends and refresh my memory in case needed. Thanks.

You are awesome you need to do a live show

great, if Mark makes now more videos on YT ;-)

Hi Mark Admire all your videos that I’ve seen, whether your channel or Adorama. 👍🏻 When I do portrait work I have been using Anthropics Technology, Portrait Pro Studio, and I’ve gotten quite used to the product and processes even after all the updates/upgrades. The question: Do you think this Evoto product will take anything away from portrait photographers? I know photoshop has AI as does Lightroom, and I think even Portrait Pro has some AI technology, but this Evoto seems next level. Maybe it’s just me, though. I don’t know. Do we really need AI to do almost everything for us? Not looking to start an argument or anything with anyone, just your honest opinion. Cheers Mark

Very well done, thanks

Sky replacement. You're just twisting your own memories of when you were there taking the picture. Part of the photograph journey is to fail. The weather is sometimes against us. You as a photographer should expect it.

I also watched your Evoto review. Do you have a preference? Like many other Adobe users, I am fed up and looking for alternatives. Thanks Mark.

Damn good job with the larger softbox! Really loved the look

Have they fixed the performance issues? It’s painfully slow compared to Lightroom

There are some overlapping features of Evoto. Which step do you apply all of your metadata/copyright data to the images? During culling using Photo Mechanic or LightRoom?

This software is a good addition to something like Lightroom or just for more casual and quick editing. All suggested edits/filters should be toned down by about 80% so they don't feel too artificial as in some of the quick examples above. As for the sky replacement, I wouldn't use it myself but if I did I would make sure that the light in the clouds respects the sun's location. In the Louvre example the replaced sky indicates that sun should be behind the building on the right of the frame when in reality it's located behind the glass pyramid.

Move over Photoshop

Thank you for sharing ❤

That animation cracked me up good 😅 Great explanation of a concept. Beautiful model and shots. Thanks for sharing

Mark do you use mechanical shutter or electronic 1st curtain as i get black banding at 1/200 on my R5 using Godox lights?

Seeing quite a few Luminar Neo reviews recently. Wouldn’t surprise me if they’re making a push to boost sales before they launch a completely new product they’ll sell separately. Leica uses this tactic, sending out cameras to creators 3+ years after release to revive interest in their remaining stock & then a new version of the camera is announced a few months later.

Does the tethering work with any camera? I have a Lumix G85. Do i need a special cable too?

This “AI” is nowhere close to perfection. It results into something that we used to do back in 2017-18. The wax polished thing I meant LOL. And this being an stand alone will make it even difficult to get into the industry workflow. I’d rather go for the Retouch4me for sure.

Excelent Mark !!

Beautiful in-depth tutorial. Mark are you able to generously share your preset with me? Does Evoto allows for one to upload presets? I love what you have done.

we love you Mark! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us

Most Informative

Great 🎉

Excellent Video, Thank You for imparting your knowledge of Photography & Lighting Techniques. I enjoyed the Video, and learnd a lot.

Best animation to explain this concept. Great job.

I have a question regarding this tutorial..just wanted to know may i achieve this kind of looks only one soft box??is it possible??

Thank you sir for making a tutorial for us again. I am from kolkata india. There are several tutorial on UA-cam but i only understand how u teach.thaank you please do a more more videos like this for us🙏❤

Thank you for this great video! Do you consider this software as a Capture One replacement? If you already have LightRoom, Photoshop, and Capture One, can you import the images you took using those applications? Thanks in advance!

Great video!

Hey mark, i still use my 5d markiv by canon and most of the time (not always) when i start tethering the images are coming into lightroom but after a few shots the camera or lightroom just stops importing. 😑 I use a macbook M3 pro, firmware of the camera is up to date. I just don't know how to solve this issue. i was hoping your experience maybe has a solution?

Mark i don’t have a large box would two small ones give the same effect with one on either side of the model? Love all you videos I learn something from each one.

How affective will LED lights used with soft boxes work?

What a great video. Just want to ask why you didn't you use TTL mode with face exposure priority to save time?

Where have you been Mark , are you back in the states?

Save yourself $700 if using a digital camera with histogram by draping white and black hand towels on a stand representing the extremes of any subject range. Next place set aperture based on desire DOF. Place fill centered above lens of camera. Raise its power until detail is seen in the folds of the black towel in playback. Histgram spike from black towel should kiss the left edge. White towel one will be underexposed with its spike somewhere in the middle with fill only. Turn on key light. Putting it 45° to side of nose and higher than head but not so high the brow shades eye. Nose shadow should cover half the nose and not hang out sideways. Raise its power until the highlights on the white towel are exposed with only specular highlights clipping in playback. Brightest highlights need to be exposed at around 245-250 in order for specular highlights to provide 3D shape clues. What this scenario does is exactly match the range of the black and white towels to the range of the camera sensor via the histogram and via visual inspection of the texture and specular highlights which the lights will create on their texture. I started doing this back in 2004 when I got my Canon 580ex flashes which could not be metered with my Sekonic meter and realized it was actually faster and more accurate than using the meter with manual flash. What is the numerical lighting ratio? It can be measured with an incident or reflection spot meter but does it really matter if you can see the results? Typically a 2:1 incident / 3:1 reflected ratio will record both black and white towels accurately but that varies with the actual DR of the sensor why this method is more accurate if goal is detail over entire tonal range. From that “normal” contrast baseline if lighter / softer shadows are desired just start with more Fill power. For higher contrast where some detail is intentionally lost for a darker, moodier look start with less fill. Fill exposes for the shadows / Key exposed for the highlights. To shift the midtones use the middle slider in LEVELS when editing or move the center point of the curve in CURVES.

I learned Sooo much from that animation years ago...still relevant today!!! Gracias Maestro Wallace!!!🙏🏽🙏🏽👍🏾💯!!!

I learned lighting from a master, Monte Zucker, as his apprentice in 1972. His reputation was built in the early days of color wedding photography in the late 1960s by deciding to use light from a north facing widow for all his posed portraits using a Reflectasol silver reflector for fill and innovating the use of two electronic flashes in an overlapping key over CENTERED fill to control SCENE RANGE and fit it to the limited range of color print paper which is very similar to the range of digital sensors. I had gotten the job with Monte because I’d learned and master the Adams Zone system with B&W which is based on fitting scene contrast, sunny or overcast, to the range of #2 print paper by altering development time of the negative [affecting highlight density] according to the EV range of the scene to always fit the #2 paper. What I realized Monte was doing with his key over CENTERED fill lighting strategy was similar to Ansel Adams except he was using the flash to make the SCENE RANGE AT SUBJECT DISTANCE match the fixed range of color prints and the same strategy needs to be used with digital camera to record a full range of tone and detail similar to what is seen by eye. What amazed me about Monte’s flash technique using two bare flashes was how ‘soft’ the lighting looked. Being an INTP wanting to know WHY my brain was seeing HARD light as being SOFT. The answer was the centered fill which falls off front-to-back on faces according to the inverse-square law which decreased the intensity by 1/4 or two f/stops each time the distance from the light is doubled. You can see this cause and effect buy using a “butterfly / paramount” lighting strategy where both key light and fill are kept centered vertically on the camera axis. This is the most commonly used lighting strategy for full face photos of models who have PERFECTLY SYMMETRICAL NARROW HEADS which that symmetrical lighting pattern complements. If the face is very close to the lights the rapid inverse-square fall-off makes the shadows get very dark very close to the highlighted front of the face. But if the same centered strategy is used but the model’s face is 10-15’ feet from the lights the GRADIENT of the highlight-shadow transitions front-to-back will be buttery smooth! I realized the reason window light produces such smooth gradient isn’t just the fact the light is diffuse but because the atmosphere the light is bouncing off of is much further away that you can put an artificial source. What Monte used as a baseline for shooting with bare reflector single power flash was a shooting distance of 11feet. Then with a bracketed exposure test you find out what f/stop will produce SHADOW DETAIL with only the fill directly over the camera lens. Then the ‘key’ light is added 45° to the side of the nose (wherever it is pointing) and high enough to keep the brow from shading it from the eyes and causing the shadow from the nose to fall over but not beyond the top of the nostril on the shadow side modeling the 3D shape of the nose perfectly with shadow and SPECULAR HIGHLIGHT clues the brain uses to SUBCONSCIOUSLY discern 3D shape in 2D reproductions. Monte simply moved the key light in to the subject until the delicate details of the bead work on the brides dress were reproduced exactly as seen by eye with contrast between the white stain and bead and the SPECULAR HIGHLIGHTS ON THEM WHICH PROVIDE THE IMPORTANT CLUES TO 3D Shape! I had always only focused on the shadows the light sources produced, their tone and the CONTRAST of their transitions front-to-back but I realized that made the use of direct PARALLEL RAY sources (like the sun and direct flash) obvious wasn’t the tone or contrast in the shadows it was the CHARACTER of the specular highlights! Specular reflections are the reflection of the light source. If the relative size of the source creating the specular reflection is small the specular reflection will also be small and perceived as being HARDER than a larger light source at the same distance, creating the same front-to-back inverse fall off and shadow transition contrast! It is the appearance of the specular highlights flash creates which trigger the brain of the viewer to perceive the lighting as HARD or SOFT or NATURAL or FAKE. The reason Monte used a bracket which lifted the flash 16-18” above the lens was to hide the shadow from the head directly behind the subject and eliminate ‘red eye’ reflections from the retina, but it also placed the SPECULAR HIGHLIGHTS on the 3D shape of the faces similar to natural downward lighting. That explains why flash in the hot shoe in Portrait mode looks fake. The specular highlights the flash creates on the face are UNNATURALLY low which the viewer of the photo will react to on a subconscious level to the fact it doesn’t match the pattern they are accustomed to seeing in natural lighting. The takeaway here is that that distance or the flash sources and the angle they come from relative to the face or 3D object affects the PERCEPTION of lighting being SOFT or HARD as much or more than the relative size of the light sources. If you understand how to use FILL DISTANCE to control inverse-square shadow transitions what the apparent size of the sources does is change the perception of the specular highlights as being HARD (small and distinct) or SOFT (large with more gradual transitions). It is possible to get SOFT looking lighting with HARD (Parallel Light Ray) sources with a combination of distance control and feathering of the source to the subject using the umbra / penumbra cause and effect of how light sources spread which is how photographers back in the days of fresnel lights did it. It is a lost art worth learning.