Game Plan and Game Changer
For the past few weeks, I've been deep diving into Youtube tutorials about artificial lights and I came across someone recommending a software to help with either planning shoots or to make notes about how a certain photo was lit. It's called a set.a.light 3D by Elixxier https://www.elixxier.com/en/index.php
I've seen these kinds of charts on youtube videos and tutorials on blogs but I never knew they use a software that is designed for this exact purpose. And not only that, but that you can actually try out your lightings and see how it effects the model in the picture. Of course this won't be completely accurate but I'm sure it's close enough to have some sort of idea, kinda like a sketch.
The software is pretty expensive, some 150€ but the first 15 days are free! I intend to use it for two weeks to plan as many shoots as I can and save my plans to be tried out at a later date. I know what lights and modifiers the school studio has, so I can pick those ones and put them in the plan and make some stuff up. I'm looking for youtube videos where I see studio shots I like and then try to see what they used and put them into this software as a note to try out. Pretty cool.
I am getting to test this out in practise tomorrow when I'm shooting a dressmaker in a dress she made for herself. It was an assignment given to me and my classmates today kinda on a whim and I agreed to be the photographer. I saw the girl real fast and she said the dress is blue silk with embroidery, that is all I know about the shoot thus far. We are going in blind here and there is maybe an hour to shoot and there will be two classes watching. We'll see how it goes.
I decided to make a bit of a plan for two separate scenarios and present that to my teacher and then the girl who is basically our clueless client. One for catalogue type of image, well lit, plain, but where you can see all the details and the fabric of the dress well. Then if the girl is game and not abso-motherfucking-lutely terrified after the first set, we'll set up a blue background and do a more dramatic lighting.
I'm not sure I'll be able to show you the pictures I take, I first need to take good ones and then ask the girl if she minds I share. I'll report back on a later date.
Ps. This game is more fun than Sims.
The blue background with the blue dress sounds really cool! I hope the photos come out well enough that you decide to show them to us. Can't wait to see!
If the program really helps with the planning of the lights, 150€ is a bargain in my opinion. Otherwise can't imagine how only one hour could be enough. Although you have a teacher there so that helps. And you are not yourself totally clueless either I might ad. But still, only one hour! Terrifying! :)
Well yeah 150€ is not that much if you have a lot of use for it for lets say next year or so, like if you do your own tutorials. But you can’t learn but simulation only and when you have access to a studio, then you can just try stuff out there.
Hour can feel like a long time if you and the model are both nervous as hell and there are 15 people watching you 🙃 My teacher doesn’t shoot people so he’s useless 😂😅