A Simple 3 Hard Light Setup: A Lighting Lesson

[jaylolli]

what steps are required to add the tonal contrast in end of this video ?

[larams2813]

Hardly call this simple....

[carcrazycobra]

This is awesome thank you for the ideas !

[robbyjai]

fanstastic photo !!! very creative and amazing!!

[guitarsquiddy]

Just wow!

[gtrxdude]

Great video!! Thanks for posting, I really want to start experimenting with composites like this!

[reptedjess]

Jay P. Morgan? Wow, what a horrible name to have. I would have to change it

[robbyhenry]

I LOVE your creativity and style of photography! You are an inspiration and have demonstrated that photography can be so much more than what it typically is (static and boring). You're awesome!

[TheSlantedLens]

@robbyhenry Thanks. I am glad to help!

[joecichlid]

Call me a prick about details. You may not have noticed but anyone that has spent much time around guns would have noticed. The casings you used for the composite are from a revolver, the gun being used in the photos is a semiautomatic. Knowing the difference can go a long way to making things more realistic, if no one on the crew knows much about such things try to consult someone that does.

No matter how good a photo may be, little details like that can draw a persons eye to the wrong area

[TheSlantedLens]

@joecichlid You're right on about the casings. They were from the revolver that we shot the blanks in not from the gun we saw in the shot. I admire a guy that looks at things so closly. It was one of those moments when we did not have the right castings on set and went with what we had. Thanks for keep us on our toes.

[joecichlid]

@TheSlantedLens I learned a long time ago that whenever I shoot photos of guns I either make sure I know enough about the perticular gun I am working with to know something is out of place and to make sure I have everything I need from the correct dummy ammo to magazines/speed loaders and such.  There is a famous, or rather infamous catalog cover for a comapany called Heckler and Koch with ammo loaded in the magazines backwards. It got by the photographer, PAs, Editors and H&K itself.

[TheSlantedLens]

@joecichlid That is the way to do it. By any chance do you have link to the catalog cover. It would be fun to see that.

[joecichlid]

@TheSlantedLens Sure do. I will have to send it in a private message here as YouTube isn't letting me post the URL.

[TheSlantedLens]

@joecichlid wow, definitively goofy. Thanks for sharing. 

[LightingShowroom]

Good work

[sunflowernbklyn]

this was a cool video.I wish i had the space and time to play with stuff like this.

[TheSlantedLens]

@julianmarsalis There is a software that I use as a plug in Photoshop that gives you that look. The company is Nik Software and the program is called Color Efex Pro 3.0. I used the Tonal Contrast filter to give the image an illustrated look. It’s not hard. There are many more filters than just the Tonal contrast. There is a 15 day trial so you can check it out. Let me know what you think.

[slewis]

thanks for this video. Why not just shoot the model with the right color temp to begin with? And why not use a green screen lit evenly for the background to comp everything more easily? Just curious.

[TheSlantedLens]

@slewis I wanted the option to play with the color on the model in post. So I shot with warm light to match the alley and then altered her and the alley in post. I don't do green screen on still images because it’s just as fast to outline in photoshop. Julene (She does all the retouching here) does not like the green screen for stills. She likes a contrasting color to outline to. Setting up a green screen is time consuming; shooting on white or black is very fast and just as easy to outline to.

[mwreeve]

Would also love to see how the tonal contrast was done. Great photo!

[TheSlantedLens]

@mwreeve Check out my reply to julianmarsalis in this post.

I will do a video on the Tonal contrast process. Stay tune.

[terimakeup]

I am glad I was apart of this project doing makeup on Katie :)

[erlongs]

Camera? Lens? Resolution? Iso? And also what is your way to cut off the background to have a clean hair? Awesome work. Thanks for share.

[TheSlantedLens]

@erlongs I shot with a Canon 5D using a 16-35 mm L series canon zoom lens. I shot at f10 for 2.5 seconds. My ISO was set at 160. For the Canon, 160 produces cleaner images that 100 ISO. For some reason 160, 320, 640 are the better ISO speeds for that camera. Canon is not even sure why.

[disruptfam]

did you shoot with custom white balance? or do in post? For the alley

[TheSlantedLens]

@disruptfam I set the custom white balance to 3450. It took some of the warmth out of the alley but when I processed the raw I took the temperature to 2000. It's a little surreal looking but I liked the look.

[disruptfam]

WOW amazing work

[noslen1968]

Very nice. Are her eyes open?

[TheSlantedLens]

More information about the photographs and a breakdown of the lighting build up can be seen on the Slanted Lens facebook page.

[julianmarsalis]

Jay great video and image could you share your process for adding tonal contrast in PS?

[garym5]

Love your work Jay.. Really love watchin your videos..Keep it up