♪ ♪ - These images were taken
with the same Softbox. We got a completely different result.
We're going to show you how we did that with a technique called feathering. ♪ ♪ Hi this J. P. Morgan
We're out on location here with beautiful Elaina, some peacocks,
a horse and a dog next door. We're going to show you a technique called
feathering, gaining control of your Softbox with just simple movements make a
huge difference. So, let's get started and see what we can do. ♪ ♪ So what is feathering?
Feathering is using the area of coverage to light just what you want to light.
The area of coverage is a large, it's like a large beam that comes
out of your Softbox. The outside edges are softer, the inside area is a little
harder. So what we're going to do is learn how to feather that area of coverage,
so it just views the outside edges. Now remember, in Softboxes 101, we learned
that large boxes don't cover large areas and small boxes don't cover smaller
areas. They cover the same areas. Large boxes are softer, small boxes are harder.
But we're going to take the area of coverage, the area and we're going to
start to manipulate that and to turn it and to be able to light exactly
what we want to see. So most people just plunk their light
down, take their first shot. What do they get? They get exactly this. Everything is
lit. I don't want all of the grass on the ground. So the first thing I'm going to do
is I'm going to take and I'm going to feather this towards the camera. What
that's going to do is it's going to take the light off from the barbed wire
in the background. So we've moved our light forward
but it's still all over the ground. Now we're going to take it
and were' going to tilt it up and take another shot.
There's the shot with the light feathered. Light is up, light is
towards the camera. I put my softboxes up like this all of the time.
I don't need a grid in this situation. I mean, a grid will narrow the area of
coverage but this takes it so that we're using the soft edge of the area of
coverage. We're taking it off the ground and then we pitched it up to get it off
from the lower part of her dress. It really finesses the shot. It only
lights the area that we want to see. It takes the light off of the areas we
don't want to see. It's almost like a vignette. It creates a nice pool of light
just on our subject matter, makes a very pretty light. Let's take a look
at some practical examples of feathering Softboxes. ♪ ♪ When I was shooting for my
time period art series, I did a shot of a man in front of
a biplane. In this image, I'm using two lights. One is an Octadome
for camera left, aims a key light on our pilot up front. The second is a head with only a reflector
aimed at the airplane in the background. In the first image, the octadome is aimed
directly at the subject and the head with the reflector on it is aimed directly at
the airplane. The area of coverage is covering everything, the ground, his
pants. There's no control over this image what so ever. In the second image, we redirected both
the lights. We feathered the octadome by tilting it up, take the light off his
pants and then feather it towards the camera to take the light off from the
background. The head with the reflector we tilted up to take the light off from the
ground and to keep it only on the airplane. As a result, we got a much more
controlled image with prettier light. In this case, feathering the light by
tilting it up and towards the camera creates a natural vignette that keeps the
light off from things in the shot that don't tell a story and let the light
emphasize the things that tastefully do tell a story. Shot number two is a much
nicer lit image. The difference is subtle but very noticeable to me. Number 1 looks like strobe light and
Number 2 looks more naturally lit. It's good to note that when I feather the
light by turning it towards the camera, I will put up a flag to cut the light
off the camera. Let's now go to the studio and see how
the same feathering technique works there. ♪ ♪ So we brought Elaina back here
to the studio and we're going to demonstrate this
principle of feathering in a studio situation. We looked at what it does if
you're out on location, where you've got big boxes and you rolling them up and
around but how does it work on set where the space is a little smaller and the
light is a little more finessed? It actually works every bit as well and in
some ways, it's probably the principle that gives you the best light. Everybody
can throw a light up but it's how you finesse it and how you work the light that
really makes the difference. So, in this case, I've got that area of coverage.
That big area of coverage is aiming directly at Elaina. It's lighting her entire face. It's
lighting the background and I'm using that middle of that area of coverage.
The light's a little harder on her face and it's very directional. So I'm going to
just feather this away from the background and when I get it to about the right spot
there, it's going to split her face. And what I get now is I've taken that
large area of coverage and I've moved it off from the background. So I'm just using
the edge of it. So the light side of her face has dark background so it separates.
The dark side of her face has a lighter background, so it's going to
separate as well. If you go to Basics of a One Light Set Up,
you'll this completely explained in that video. But now if I don't want light on
the background, I can take that area of coverage and just roll it around a little
further. I'm just starting to clip with the area of coverage her ear there. But
now, I've got a nice light on her face and I've lost all the light
on the background. This gives me the ability now to add a
second light on the background and to do whatever I'd like with it on the
background. Okay, now I'm going to take this area of coverage and I'm going to
pitch this way up. So I'm going to pitch this up to where I just start to just get
the edge of her chin, the back of her ear. So, there shouldn't be anything on the
background just a little glow on her face. It's going to cut the light off
from her neck. Now we've taken and feathered this way off
from her face. Now this is with an open face Softbox. It doesn't have a diffusion
on it, so it's very easy to see because it a very hard line. Now, if you put
that cover back on and you put the Softbox on a strobe, you can get the same look.
But, with continuous light, when you put that cover back on, it diffuses the light
so much. These lights, the LED, are just so soft that you don't get a nice hard
punch through them like you do with the strobe. But, for demonstration purposes,
we're leaving it with continuous light so you can see how the area of coverage
can be moved around. But we've really moved this
around, given a nice look on her face, just a pretty look at the light there.
It's just something interesting. Now let's think about this. What happens if we go
exactly the opposite direction? We pitch it all the way down, area of
coverage on the top and we pitch it all the way out. What do we get? We get a
really crappy looking shot because all we've done is thrown the light on
everything we don't want to see and we've really not lit her very nicely. You could
probably make something work with this but in my mind, it doesn't work near as well
as up and towards the camera. Remember, you may have to put a flag in
front of the camera. The flag will block the lens but up and towards the camera is
going to work. So let's get back to that, up and towards the camera, right there. So
now what we're going to do is we're going to put a fill card in but we're going to
use feathering with our fill card in order to control a little bit of light on her
face as a fill and also on the background. Now we're going to take our reflector and
we're going to slide this in. As we slide it into her face, it just opens up the
shadow side of her face. It gives us a nice look there of her face. But now with
this, we can do one of two things with it. We can either feather this towards her,
which is going to brighten the background and brighten the side of her face, or we
can feather this away from the background and that's going darken the background and
slightly darken the side of her face. So there's a principle using feathering
with both the key light and now also with the reflector, which is becoming our fill
light. With the combination of those two lights and feathering them, there are a
multiplicity of different looks you can get. So when you just put a light down and
aim it at your subject, you're making one decision that will give you one look. But when you feather your light up and
away and you feather your fill in out or up and away, it's going to give you
multiple looks. Small adjustments make a huge difference. So I hope you learned
somethings about finessing your light. Get out there, work those Softboxes, look at
the light, make changes, really finess it. Keep those camera rolling,
keep on clicking. ♪ ♪