My first taste of Zack came when I attended his 3-day weekend workshop on CreativeLive where he covered studio photography, and the do's and don'ts of running your own business. Lots of great ideas came out of that workshop.
His latest offering comes in the form of his new "OneLight Field Guide", a companion to his Onelight DVD and associated weekend workshops. While I can't attend his workshops, I did pick up a copy of his field guide.
It's exactly what it says it is - a field guide. He starts with a list of lights & modifiers that he typically takes on location shoots, and follows up with page after page of images he's shot, an accompanying diagram of equipment used and where it was placed, along with the camera settings required to create the shot.
However, it's not really a newbie's guide in that he doesn't walk you through an introduction to lighting. It's a field guide after all, and as such it's short and to the point. If you're an Over-Analytical (O-A) type, but don't have a reasonable grasp of lighting concepts, the guide might be best read in conjunction with his DVD, or after attending one of his workshops.
Since I am an O-A, and A-R to boot (chew on that one for awhile!), I decided I'd try to duplicate some of his results to make see if I could create the same effect with my equipment. For me, that first step of recreating helps me get a firm grasp of another's concepts. From there I can merge and incorporate it with my own style.
So, here's some of my results. Oh, and if you already have his field guide, note that Tammie has been with me a couple years now, so this is one concept I've already been practicing! (this will make sense when you read his guide)
I call this series "The many moods of Tammie"...
(all images are as shot, with only minor tweaks in Lightroom, except where noted)
One Light, large open umbrella
One light, large half-closed umbrella
Without moving the umbrella, simply closing it down and channeling the light tighter, you get a more dramatic look. The darker mood is enhanced by the lack of a catch light (impossible to get on a mannequin) in her eyes. Some may not like this look, but I'm intrigued by it. Notice how it looks like now she's almost blowing a kiss now?
Adjust the exposure in the camera a bit and zoom in tight on the eyes, and you get another mood from the exact same setup:
(No, those aren't actual catch lights in her eyes, they're painted dots, from the factory. Apparently mannequins with dead eyes don't sell clothes well.)
Back to an open umbrella, and toss in a gridded rim on the other side...
And she pops nicely out of the background while keeping the effect subtle.
Now, something I've only recently been playing with - the idea of moving the main light to more oblique angles...
Strobe with 7" reflector & 20 deg. grid
I placed a 2nd strobe to the side and just slightly behind Tammie, dialed up to create my main light. I kept the large umbrella where it was, and dialed it down till it just barely kissed her face and brought out her eye. To do this I had to feather it so most of the light fell on the background.
Why isn't the background showing up lighter? Inverse Square Law!!! If you don't believe me, read Zack's guide - he mentions it 7 different times in his book. Yes, it's that important...
Ok, last shot - turn off the umbrella light, relocate the gridded one and adjust the power...
(shot in tight, then pulled into Photoshop to extend the canvas to create the effect)
Quite a bit of mystery here...
Ok, so there you have my Zack Arias impression, with maybe a touch of me mixed in here and there. As David DuChemin puts it, these are all sketch photos - test shots of lighting concepts.
Some of them I think I've got dialed in very nicely, some I still want to work on. But they're still sketch shots till I get a chance to use these techniques on a live subject.
Hope you enjoyed...
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