Your Photography Questions Answered ‘LIVE’ by Karl Taylor 🔴

hi I'm Karl Taylor welcome to Carl
Taylor live on social media whatever that means
right now today I'm going to take some Q&A for those of you that have any
photography related questions and would like to fire them in someone will relay
them to me on this iPad I think we have questions coming in from various social
media channels and they are collated here and I will do my best to answer
them for you now so yeah fire questions in guys happy to
answer those today let's have a look at a couple of things that we're going to
talk about I have something really exciting that I want to talk to you
about take a look at this yes that is correct
Tim flak legendary fine art and animal photographer Tim flack is going to be
joining me for a four day workshop in my studio and he's actually going to
photograph an animal we got the full itinerary published here the full
schedule of the four-day workshop we're gonna be going out to dinner with you
guys we're putting you in a lovely hotel we have the whole thing sorted we're
gonna be doing advertising product shoots Beauty shots and an animal shoot
on a beautiful horse and another animal as well all here in
this amazing studio space I can't wait for this is gonna be on the 12th to 15th
of March if you'd like to learn more about this workshop and you'd like to be
part of that small group of people that are going to take part in this workshop
on the 12th to 15th of March find it on our website go to our blog
Ashley's put together a really nice blog post about this workshop and a little
bit about some of the things we're going to be covering on color theory human
visual science all the sort of thing that Tim and I apply to our own work
that's covered in this blog post and then there's a link from this blog post
over to the itinerary page and everything you need to know about that
workshop so if you're interested in coming on a workshop a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to come on we're
shop legendary photographer Tim flack and myself here covering a broad range
of subjects then check that out be very very looking forward to welcome you here
right now let's let's move on what else do we want to talk about I want to talk
about this guy this guy here is called Didier Noir oh okay
now those of you that have enjoyed the blue planet and blue planet 2 and lots
of those amazing BBC Natural History programs that you see and others as well
now Didier Moro is a French underwater filmmaker and he's worked very
well-known and well-respected in the filmmaking circles and in the underwater
community he's just launched his own YouTube channel and I just wanted to
give it a shout-out so really respect this guy really respect his work he does
some amazing stuff he's just launched this YouTube channel and I think would
be great if you guys if you love good quality filmmaking Natural History stuff
be great if you could head over to his YouTube channel as Didier noir oh that's
di di ER n o iro T and I think Didier is going to be publishing you know lots of
little short stories bits about his work and some of his amazing footage and yeah
I think he you know if you can support the guy subscribe to his channel and
follow him that would be amazing because he does some really good stuff and as I
said he filmed for blue planet and blue planet 2 and all sorts of stuff like
eyes he's a really cool guy now talking of the underworld underwater world we
just launched a video yesterday on our YouTube channel this is me underwater
with a 28 thousand pound Hasselblad stuffed inside that underwater housing
this is a h6 camera I'm filming this scallop diver he's a professional
scallop diver and I'm filming him for a short film that I made now no one's ever
put a h6 in an underwater housing this was actually a housing for a h3 camera
that we had to make a few modifications to
to to basically get this to work and this was all for a short film that we
just made for Hasselblad and this film has just appeared on Hasselblad's
youtube channel so if you head over to Hasselblad's youtube channel i would
love to hear what you guys think about this film it's just a five or six minute
long film probably I pad it out a minute longer from the extra titles that
Hasselblad wanted put on this film but what's interesting about this film apart
from the underwater sequences is that I had to make a short film I was
commissioned to make it only using the H six medium format stills camera which
has many of people don't know this but has got a 4k video mode and the video
mode is really high quality because it uses the medium format sensor and it
uses its own codec so this was basically a demonstration of what the camera can
do using different lenses so basically you know I had to use this camera lots
of prime lenses filming on fishing boats getting in a drysuit
loading it into a housing that it didn't really fit in getting in the water
working out ways I could film this scallop diver doing his job and then
putting this all together as a short story to demonstrate the h6 used in in
that type of environment and it was a real challenge the team and I really
enjoyed it working with these guys and as I said the behind the scenes making
of it is on our YouTube channel so we really really appreciate it if you could
check out the film on Hasselblad's youtube channel give it a watch leave
comments below let us know what you think of it that would be great and then
you know if you'd like to see the challenges that were involved in making
that short film and how we did it you know the time-lapse is the sequences the
underwater stuff all of it's all in the behind the scenes making which you can
find on our YouTube channel Hasselblad I've actually published a slightest are
behind the scenes as well but they've completely obliterated our edit of the
behind the scenes and we don't like it so you can go and check out our own
behind the scenes edit of it instead but the actual film you'd need to watch on
their channel so if you get a chance to do that that will be great right we've
got a question come in here I'm just going to see what it says James Parish
says I'm looking at purchasing an octa box for a speedlight I'm debating
between the 36-inch verse the 48 which would be most versatile for both
full-body and head shots well it's very clear simple James always the bigger one
the bigger softbox you can do more with because when you
use it close it's softer and you can still use it further away and it will be
harder but if you've only got a smaller softbox then it can't get any softer
than when it's just you know a foot away 30 centimetres away so they're for the
bigger ones more versatile because you can make the bigger ones smaller by
moving it further away or by masking it slightly so I always recommend go with
the biggest softbox you can afford and that you can fit in your space
you should have far more versatility what you with what you can do with it
now over on our education Channel this might you might find this useful James
we've put in a new search function here so for example if I type in soft boxes
you can see with the new search function now we've got lots of different search
results will come up on everything related to soft boxes here so you see
all these results coming up on soft boxes so the new search function is
going down really well people are enjoying using that as well and now
while I'm on this page new courses coming out Louis we've been inundated
with requests for jewelry photography so I've done exactly that look we've got
this shot on how to photograph diamond rings we've got this new one on the
product stuff a little bit like jewelry that one we've got necklaces two
different necklace shoots we've got the post production on focus stacking all
sorts of stuff coming over coming soon on Kyle Taylor education $14 a month
can't say fairer than I'm gonna bang on about it because it's such a good deal
if you haven't done it by help you obviously can't read I think maybe
something like that right okay next question any questions yet no come on
guys send me some questions here right let me chat about some an idea here's
another question Tracy Freeman says what size lens do you
use in the studio I'm thinking of getting a 24 74 Nick
on for my studio no no no no Tracy stop right there do not think of the lens in
terms of what size lens for the studio I guess you're thinking about like how far
back you might be able to go in your studio you have to think of the lens
based on the type of photography you want to do so if you want to do portrait
work or sort of beauty head shots you got to be working 85 millimeter to about
110 120 mil that's together you can go up to about 130 ml but it start to get a
little bit sort of compression and fatter looking faces so you need to be
thinking and I'm assuming you're talking about full-frame cameras you need to be
thinking about lenses to suit the genre that you want a photograph so for
example for product photography which is most of my work what I do then I'm
shooting with 80 millimeter to 100 millimeter in medium format which is
about 50 to 80 millimeter in 35 millimeter format so that's the way you
need to think about it Tracy not just like what you can sort of fit in
distance wise now talking about product photography let me find my website there
is this is my website we're going to put a shout out to Squarespace Squarespace
are a sponsor of this show so in order for us to answer your questions and
answer your Q&A for it for us to be able to do that each month it's thanks to
Squarespace and Squarespace make amazing template websites like this one this is
my own commercial website here's the product photography I was talking about
Tracy so the product photography there I shoot is basically all loaded into this
Squarespace website or it's taking a little bit of time to come in there I
don't know why it doesn't normally do that and I use a Squarespace website for
all of my work all of my commercial work everything gets loaded into this
template this template by the way because we get asked what is the
template that I use and the template that I use is called wells okay wells is
the Squarespace template that I use for all my stuff so this is my Squarespace
website Carl Taylor calm if you guys wanted to check it out and a big thank
you to Squarespace remember you can use the offer code Carl that's ka RL at
checkout and you is it 10% discount you a 10% discount
off Squarespace websites if you decide to sign up right another question let's
go another question we have a question here from Ian Mia Octavian I think it is
Carl Taylor how do you make this live with camera and your Mac screen is the
software included in OS no it's not this is a very complicated process of a live
desk switcher wires and cables and all sorts of stuff going on
microphones HDMI feeds it's not a simple process and is even more complex because
I think we broadcast live simultaneously to a few social media channels so
obviously a part of our whole program on Carl Taylor education is doing live
photograph live photography shows where I shoot live demonstrate live techniques
so we have the technology for the education platform and then we can also
use it for stuff like this another question de Schickel says hi
Carl I'm an editorial and advertising photography student student what advice
could you offer me with regards to seeking work experience during the
summer months within the industry well it's a tricky one day you just have to
bang on doors basically choose some photographers work that you like that
you respect that are in your area that you can reach contact them nice a couple
of emails phone calls explain what you're doing you know and and try and
get in the door that way usually if you can make yourself more useful that's a
big plus now this is actually some advice that I give to a lot of people
looking for work in the industry as well if you're looking for work as an
assistant a big studio think about how you're going to make yourself more
useful to the photographer so what's your skill set if you can come in there
and say I'm an assistant I can move lights around and I can turn lights on
and off well great but pretty much anyone can do that you know within an
hour I can teach someone how to change f-stop ranges on a lighting power pack
or on a monoblock light so not too difficult either so the photographer
shouts out drop it 3/10 and an f-stop you know I can teach someone how to do
that now so obviously if you know that already
great bonus but it's kind of like knowing the kit a little bit better so
if you know that that studio uses bron color kit or Profoto or elinchrom
whatever know a little bit about a kiss so if they say right I need it sell on
the fastest flash duration get me down T point one blah blah blah if you know how
to do that that's a plus and if you can tell them you know how to do that that's
a plus but then if you know how to do other things you know how to use C
stands grip arms clamps all the other things setting up backgrounds all other
stuff that you don't have to be taught how to do that's a bonus but again lots
of assistants can do this stuff so how can you make yourself more saleable well
if you can then turn up and say you know what I'm very good at post-production so
I can take on some of your coloration work you're grading your retouching
things like that I can do your digital operating skills make yourself more
saleable this is the advice I always give to assistants or people looking for
work with other photographers because I just have to imagine it from my
perspective assistants came banging on my door we haven't got any vacancies by
the way but if they did then it's always a case of warm what can you do okay
the more you can do that makes my life easier and the more likely I am to give
you an opportunity okay we got next terrific says hi I'm from India and I
like your videos very much please say hi to me my name is terrific
Trivedi did I do it I think I did it already
hi terrific how are you doing hello in India next question Hamid Murad II
mr.

Carl I won't used material for defuser what's your opinion was the best
material for diffusion well the best material for diffusion is the diffusion
material that we use you can find it on Carl Taylor education comm in our shop
section it's a special diffusion material for photographers and the film
industry okay what have we got next we spoke about the new courses coming we
spoke about did en uro we spoke about that live shows
we've just finished up a week of filming with retouch of Victor fresh he did two
amazing live shows with us a talk show and a live retouching show those were
great you can watch those on replay December
it's coming around to December already can you believe it that means I'm gonna
have to go and do some Christmas shopping there is nothing more I loathe
than going and doing Christmas shopping okay I am probably going to pay someone
to go and do it for me because I love it that much I know that's a horrible thing
to say I just can't stand shopping right anyway
now talking or shopping or this is a good idea look at this right we're going
to do a product photograph of a high-end handbag whatever that means a high-end
handbag so I'm probably I'm probably gonna have to go and buy this handbag so
I think what I'll do is I'll buy the handbag and then give it to my wife for
Christmas that is an extremely good idea and I've just thought of that right now
but anyway what that means is that we are doing a product shoot live on Carl
Taylor education on handbag photography on the 6th of December and then on the
12th of December we are doing a members picture critique on product photography
and then in January I have amazing Russian food photographer Anna pushed in
a kovin I say Anna because that's how she pronounces even though it looks like
it's written anja she's coming back remember she's
been with us before did a whole load of food tutorials she's back with us in
January for a week filming and for two live shows as well she gonna do talk
show and we're gonna do a live food shoot show so if any of this stuff
interest you product photography food photography that's all coming up in the
next couple of months and of course if you're new to photography we got all the
beginner stuff as well anyway ever over on our education platform right now more
questions that's what we're here for we're here to do a QA even though I have
to try and push our brand at the same time we are doing QA what have we got
there's so many questions coming in now it's crazy Schmidt 11 says hi Carl back
in the days of analog cameras did you ever use large format ones yes I did I
used to use a sign our five by four film camera loved using that camera so yes
puto mine says what's the best camera for both photography and video shoot
well there's lots of good options like that the nikon d80
amazing 35 mil full-frame camera has got video mode the Canon 5d Mark for some of
the older canons we've got 5d Mark 3 is perfectly good video
my house Hasselblad h6 amazing video mode as you can see if you go and watch
that Guernsey scallop diver movie on the Hasselblad YouTube channel next question
flb photography I really want some studio space approximately how large
should have space be how should I consider a minimum for shooting
commercial fashion photography that is a good question and it's one that's
difficult to answer this studio here that I use is 24 meters long by through
12 meters wide in old money that's four thousand square feet that's pretty big
and we got offices upstairs this big studio because we do a lot of big
production stuff the education stuff the live shows filming videos still so in my
old studio the one before this it was about a third of this size it was 11
meters on it's longer so it was it was actually a meter shorter than the width
of this one and but in that studio I could do fashion and product work and I
would say I was just a squeeze for doing fashion work in there so 10 to 11 meters
on the longest length and I think it was about 7 meters wide I don't think you're
gonna get away with full length fashion in in a smaller space than that hope
that answers your question and Tonio Helfer hi greetings from Peru ask you
prefer tilt shift lens or normal lens for product photography use both we use
tilt shift adapter on the Hasselblad system which basically converts many of
us will add lenses into tilt and shift lenses sometimes I use focus stacking
instead as a matter of fact that's covered in these new courses so this
jewelry shot here these jewelry shots that I did which actually really got a
lot of I don't think we've got a page every yet with the picture on not sure
you know there's no picture but anyway there's a there's a mega amount of
detail in those jewelry shots and I used a focus stacking to do that so sometimes
focus stacking sometimes tilting shift man oh yeah TN yeah yeah tanning I don't
know how to say last name would love to cease in depth
series of micro beauty retouching specific are you kidding me man oh we
have tons of micro in depth beauty retouching tutorials on our post pro
action section we have absolutely loads of them and they can't go any more in
depth because we had a professional retoucher come in and film exactly every
step-by-step process of beauty retouching is a massively long tutorial
and even if you're starting at the basics this is of course by me on the
beginning levels of that mmm Shaggy says I have a 105 2.8 macro lens could I use
this for portraits or are there issues when using a macro lens in this format
the only difference I can see is how close they can focus yeah you're kind of
right you can use a 105 personally I think I wonder if I was slightly to
longer focal length for me I prefer to drop back to about 85 mil however it's
doable and it's usable the characteristics of each lens and this is
something that people don't always account for is a 105 mm micro lens is
not exactly the same as a 100 or 105 other lens because the way the lens
elements are designed are to optimize it for macro photography for close-ups and
there are certain things like the vignetting effect of the lens the
bouquet if you want to use that phrase for the out of focus blur behind the
characteristics of distortion barrel distortion pincushion distortion all
these little minor factors all go towards what makes a really nice lens
for portraiture or other particular work and yeah so there are lenses that are
more specified as portrait lenses that would probably do a better job but hey
no problem using it if you've got it bassy idaho says hey carl ever used a
macro lens meant for food for portrait as the same question there we go I've
already answered that Luci Angie says hey Karl in your opinion was the best
Nikon camera for product photography well Lucian I trialed the Nick on D 850
when I had to do these comparison tests of it against the Hasselblad and I was
very very impressed with the Nick on D 850 this camera is performed superbly
well for a 35 mil camera really good results but as I discovered with it it's
only as good as the glass that you put on the end of it so always keep in mind
with any camera you buy that get the best glass you can
I'm in Kaduri hi Carl is there any Black Friday deals no there is not ever any
deals I enjoy your content so much before and I'll again join again soon
well thank you very much I mean but we can't do a Black Friday deal we can't do
any deal we're never gonna do a deal Christmas deal Black Friday do any do we
are $14 per month we can't do it any cheaper we literally have to have
thousands of members to make it work at that price to manage this studio all the
staff all the work all the live production costs everything else
bringing guests from all over the world in to our talk shows a huge amount of
money we can't do it any cheaper we've done it rock-bottom price we're half the
price of all of our competitors and twice as good in my opinion so no there
will not be any deals I'm afraid that is it no deals you've got the best deal
there's ever gonna be well each say yeah Dee says hi Carl do you recommend the
battery grip attached to DSLR camera a long time is it going to affect camera
no as a matter of fact I've got a camera with a battery grip on it and I can't
get it off anymore because this thread went underneath it is still on it it's
been on it for years camera still works fine
I actually really like using the battery grip or on them because it means you can
turn the camera vertical and you get the extra button I prefer the grip I just
prefer the whole feeling of a camera when it's got the extra grip on it as
well so for me I like them and I leave them on my camera all the time and it
says and it's good seen Jack says hey Carl what is your opinion on the new
Fuji new ApS camera for professional and again as I reiterate many times on this
thing I'm not a gear technophobe II whatever you call it I am a technophobe
I suppose because I don't like all the technical stuff in that relation I am I
don't really like gear wait you're not we're about at this channel we're about
photography the art of photography the art of the exquisite control of light
the emotion the narrative the science behind making great pictures we're not
about pixel peeping jimping about one camera against the other it doesn't make
any difference all the cameras these days are good
enough for you most of them will surpass what you're ever going to be able to
shoot so don't go down that road buy the best you can afford and get good glass
that's the the advice I can give on gear beyond
that concentrate on the craft that are the skill that's where you need to put
your put your brainpower to Pat D mr.

Taylor what do you think do you think
film is dead in the studio environment I want to shoot medium format but can't
afford it now no films not dead I used to film for a
long long time I switched to digital for commercial reasons and make more sense
you see the pictures instantly clients want them quicker but I could still
shoot with film there's a certain way of shooting with film that's important it's
a sort of slower process obviously you can't see exactly what you're getting
you we used to shoot Polaroids in the old day and then take the Polaroid back
out then put the film back back on so film teaches you a discipline a way of
working which actually makes you a better photographer in my opinion but
you will feel it's a very slow process if you're using film compared to using
digital digital is also a great way of learning because you can see the results
instantly rather than waiting a few days for your film to get processed
Rahul Thakur says which MacBook do you use for the video editing I've got a
MacBook Pro this is not it this is Tim's computer today because my MacBook Pro is
currently rebuilding a rage Drive upstairs where I lost one of the drives
and it is rebuilding the moments I didn't want to unplug it but I use a
raid Drive Thunderbolt plugged into my MacBook Pro which is about a year old I
think and that gives me enough speed for editing 4k video our main video editor
Ben here uses an iMac pro with a massive what is it 96 terabyte drive the last
big 96 terabyte raid 5 it's got like 12 12 12 terabyte drives and I don't know
what a terabyte drives it anyway water the plants at 5 o'clock has just popped
up in the calendar I'm going to ignore that right now now next question where
are we where are we I'm losing my place here Wilber MDB photography and
cinematography hi for perspective correction do you use Lightroom or
Photoshop cc I don't really correct perspective very often because when I
shoot products we try to get the perspective fairly correct the tethered
software I use focus for the asura blonde it's got a
keystone correction but I have done correction in Lightroom and Photoshop
doesn't really matter what you use you get your your pictures vertical then
great if there needed to be vertical remember sometimes perspective
distortion is actually a wanted or required effect next one Vicki Smith
what's the best editing software on a Mac please editing for what I assume
we're talking photography rather than a Word document
I still use if it's for photography I use Photoshop I use Lightroom and I use
focus capture one is also good but I use focus for shooting tethered and I use it
for grading the images and sorting out and exporting the raw files into PSD s
and then doing the final edit in Photoshop
Thomas held off high from some Ives in Cornwall what can you do to improve my
mobile photography with the cold weather conditions I guess it could wear some
gloves but then you won't be able to use the the screen I've got a mobile phone
if that's what you mean by mobile photography if you just simply mean
about getting out there in difficult conditions then you just gotta suck it
up and and wear the right clothes get out there and do it because it offers
some great opportunities in stormy weather cold conditions great skies
sometimes as well just be careful when you're working down at the coast in
stormy conditions be careful of those big waves because they can catch you out
and I'm sure you'll be aware of that coming from San Ives in Cornwall
Sudeep Zappa do you have any formal education in photography and would you
recommend to take one for beginners or amateur photography
I don't know what you mean by formal we obviously have a whole education
platform of you know very high level tutorials to go through and remember
that our education platform is actually used by various universities and other
education providers around the world so I consider our education to be of the
highest standard urban media showcase what's an affordable way to shoot
clients when outside is cold and studios are pricey I've
the clients home yeah actually you know sometimes I've heard of people renting
community halls Church halls you know where's like places where in towns and
what have you they you might rent a place for a kid's birthday party might
rent a community hall or just an open space a gymnasium that's not being used
on a certain day just open spaces that are used for various other things
sometimes these places are available for rental and you can literally rack up
roll ups or a rock up with your camera gear your background and rent it for
half a day into a shoot and that can be a lot cheaper than renting a photography
studio obviously you got to supply your own kit though but actually some of
these places have really nice big large windows especially the old sort of
church hall rental places and then you can do some natural light portraiture in
there Tracy Freeman my partner is getting back into landscape photography
and he's watched the DVD I bought from you a few years back any more advice for
him he's using a Nikon d5 107 3300 yes Tracy get him to sign up to Carl Taylor
education comm because we've got tons more landscape tutorials on there now
since we did DVDs many years we stopped selling DVDs quite a quite a long time
ago now so everything's online we've got way more stuff they're videoed our power
to freeze liquid in product photography is it necessary to buy high speed sync
speed sync strobes presently I have the elinchrom D light by using
those lights my final output is blurry sharp my dear Salah no you see you get
and confuse all our max flash sync speed is 1 250th you're getting confused there
video about what freezes the liquid it's the flash that freezes the liquid so
high-speed sync isn't really necessary the 250th of a second flash sync just
needs to cut out the ambient light so that that doesn't leave an afterglow on
your images so make sure you're modeling lamps are on low your Studios dark and
down not lots of daylight pouring in and normally if you're shooting at sort of
f11 f-16 at 250th take a shot without the flash trigger on and see if there's
any light recorded and then if there isn't you know you get just the flash
during the freezing so what's necessary is to find flashes that have a fast
flash during burst so some of the elinchrom ones do
brawn color sir Oh certainly does then the score packs certainly do you need to
find flushes with a good T zero point one measurement and you're going to need
to be looking at least around about three thousandth of a second as the
minimum flash duration at t zero point one measurement and then the very
expensive ones go up to like ten thousandth of a second like on the score
oh packs but actually like the cirrus lights which are more affordable they've
got like an 8,000 or 9,000 flash duration that's the thing that does the
freezing of the liquid or the freezing of anything for that matter the flash
sync is irrelevant okay irrelevant as long as it cuts out the ambient light
that might leave an afterglow it's the flash duration that you need to
concentrate on Oppo says what camera is a better to buy a photographer to start
with an old Canon 5d Mark one on ebay or a new camera like a beginners Nick on
actually you know in many ways Oppo it's a good question I'd say probably an old
camera especially when you start and because you can buy it on ebay and then
you probably sell it for not much more than you paid for it anyway and then
when you're ready move up when you note because this is a thing actually the
more you learn about photography the more you realize how insignificant
camera actually is and how more significant lenses optics and lighting
and other knowledge –is now that sounds rich coming from someone who uses a
Hasselblad medium format system for my work but obviously it's my profession so
I'm looking for the absolute ultimate quality but that's not what everyone
needs when they're just starting out they just want to make some nice
pictures that they can blow up to this big important their wall you can deal
with that with cameras that were from you know six seven years ago so I think
ya get go go for the cheaper option on ebay and then work up from there just
keep in mind though that if you start buying into one particular system like
Canon and you start getting their lenses then you're not gonna be able to move
those lenses over to the Nikon system so you may get stuck in one particular
brand but again you can always sell and move on siobhan walder says hi Karl I'm
a member of your education program and I hear you talk about narrative a lot what
do you mean by narrative and does every shot have to have it I know this may
sound a bit dumb I see many photos and can't see what the
narrative is in them thank you well you know that Siobhan that is a very
intelligent question okay so it's not dumb at all because you know what it was
really good about that question is you're actually asking the right
question and thinking about photography the right way what we mean or what I
mean about narrative is the ability to tell a story okay so narrative is
storytelling it's about invoking an emotion invoking
a story so what we're trying to do in our pictures in is invoke emotion and
we're trying to do that visually through use of color through use of light
through use of composition but also through narrative so if we take this
shot for example here on my Squarespace site there's there's something going on
in the shot that makes you feel this is a little bit
of a sinister scene she's holding the knife there's a strong shadow the
expression on her face it's obviously quite ambiguous in that there's no real
story there but it gives you something to think about and that's the key thing
is it's in giving you something to think about now if we take again another
example it's about anticipation it's about the
moment so rather than just the model just stood there doing nothing then have
something happening something that's going to create anxiety tension
anticipation these are emotions and those motions are invoked through the
message in the photograph that is narrative now narrative is very easy to
apply or more easy to apply in filmmaking when you're making a movie
because it has a storyline that you can follow through but it has a storyline
that is evolved over 25 frames per second over a six minute 10 minute one
hour period with a still photo like that you're talking about one still photo but
it doesn't mean you can't invoke something so by having something
happening happen having some you know you can get a feel for what the image it
means or what it does through the use of light and through the use of narrative
so that is basically what we're talking about here Siobhan
another good example like this one here one of my older favorite
here is this model running away in this sort of mysterious dark eerie scene on
looks like it could be on another planet so Siobhan you win the award for the
best question of the day not the dumbest question because you are thinking about
photography rather than about and gear and that is going to make you a better
photographer than those that concentrate on gear alone Matt Brown says hi I'm
just wondering whether it's best to get close to the subject or go further away
and zoom in for the best pictures well it depends what you're shooting that but
my preference would always be to go closer because if you're shooting
portraits you don't want to be a long way away you want to have a little bit
of intimacy discussion shoot sort of you know maybe five six feet away max if
you're shooting products I like to be quite close to them so that the
perspective feels like you're more connected to them if you're a long way
away it looks like that in your pictures it looks like you shot them remotely now
you know wildlife pictures are usually shot from a long way away with big
telephoto lens but when you look at them you kind of know that they were shot
from a long way away wildlife pictures that always look the most dramatic like
some of the ones the National Geographic guys get you know like Nick Nichols and
Fran's Lanting some of those greats they use camera traps they use hides and they
shoot really close to elephants and other animals and the pictures look
amazingly more imposing and powerful because they were closer ah good
question though well EADS say Adi says do you recommend Canon 7d well actually
you know as gear questions go you know I don't like it I'll answer and gear
questions but I do know the 7d is a pretty good camera so that's all I can
tell you Brian Stricker when building a product portfolio how do you go about
the branding cover it leave it could it be misleading to leave it
visible indicate and you shot it for that brand no I don't think that's a
problem Brian a lot of photographers myself included you know other product
photographers that I know like David lund Barry Macario you know that we've
all shot for big brands but we also shoot other test shots with brand names
on and those brands don't really mind as long as you do a good job if they see an
image or their product that doesn't put it in a good light it doesn't make it
look very good then they'll probably ask you to remove it so I think as long as
you can do a good job wouldn't worry too much about it Jay
cubit says hello from Canada Carl hello Canada curious what your opinion
is on white versus silver lining on parabolic softbox umbrella well if
you're using a parabolic modifier not a parabolic umbrella because there isn't
really such thing in the para para proper parabolic modifier would be
silver softbox silver because you want it to bounce the light through but you
want two layers of diffusion in there to scatter it more with a soft box you want
homogeneous light with a parabolic light with no reflect no diffuser on the front
you just want the light funneled straight forwards that's the reason for
it those people that buy a deep deep umbrellas and then put a diffuser on the
front of it no waste of time that's just doesn't there's no physics there that
makes any sense okay once it's diffused at the front it's homogeneous it spreads
around evenly so there's no need for it to do anything other than scatter the
light inside which is better if it's silver but it usually needs that
internal diffusion as well so you know you know you see these people using
these special umbrellas and then just putting like front covers on it and then
into it didn't need to be in as long as it was an even light source it's just
diffused light at that point so silver is my preferred choice inside there are
some umbrellas with white inside but I'd rather shoot through a white shoot
through umbrella if you're going to do that I'd use a softbox anyway like dr.
box 150 is a good choice around thing a much prefer parabolic lighting though
for the three-dimensional looking games Brett flirty says do you celebrate
Thanksgiving in Guernsey no we don't and for those of you that are wondering what
Guernsey is Guernsey is an island in the English Channel between France and the
United Kingdom very close to France as a matter of fact if you throw a stone hard
enough you could probably hit France from here actually you know you'd need
to be Superman but you can see France from here on a good clear day and that's
where where I live that's where I'm from and we're connected from Guernsey to
London with short flights and we're connected to France by boat blah blah
blah no we don't even know what Thanksgiving
his favorite I have very little idea about what
Thanksgiving is I know it's something that's celebrated in America and if it's
Thanksgiving right now I wish you a good one
Richard Faulkner have you ever had to put one of your lenses through insurance
I've had to put a lot of stuff through insurance Richard we've we we flooded a
camera recently on a shoot that had to go through insurance we've smashed
studio lighting that has to go through insurance so you know you have to have
insurance for your business and everything else we actually break don't
break very much stuff at all generally speaking we don't break much stuff – I'm
not sure if that's going to be the same when we have tim flack coming in on on
this workshop because we don't have a horse in here okay a horse in this
studio it could be a little bit dodgy but I'm told that the horse is gonna be
a really beautiful well-behaved show horse so I have to take some extra
shirts for that Vicky Smith hi Carl what's the best way
to get yourself known and your name out there now this is obviously a generic
classic question that gets asked over and over again it's hard Vicky the first
thing is you've got to have good work if your work isn't up to it no one's gonna
give a monkey's okay so have good work whatever genre or field you decide you
want to shoot in the wedding portrait animals product fashion advertising make
sure your work is right up there and then market yourself in your demographic
first of all you probably going to be safe for starting off with a business in
your area where you can operate so then think about well is the work that I'm
shooting even relevant to this area is no good if you're like in a small town
on the north of Iceland trying to shoot fashion for Burberry
and Gucci okay it's probably not going to pan out too well for you up there
unless they wanted to do a shoot up there you you know you've got to think
about your Ural region so therefore landscape photography might
be amazing in Iceland there you know you've got to think about what type of
work you're gonna do and where your market isn't what your market will be so
shoot great work first then market yourself and you've got to market the
hell out yourself in you know we used to print printed
brochures materials postcards send them to ad agencies art directors market
yourself to the cities that you know you can operate in within reach
etc etc you know a lot of my photographer friends I work in London
David lives just outside London works in London Barry comes down from Manchester
works in Manchester and London so you know they're able to travel to do the
jobs and rent the studios where they need to do the work but they all market
themselves really well you know Instagram accounts but a lot of them and
like I used to do as well they still use printed marketing material okay now you
can find out more about this Vicki in our business section because I know a
business section on Kyle toner education I talk a lot about the marketing and how
you know how I've done it okay so go check that out
Geoffrey Romero says can you shoot a live fashion editorial from start
officially start finish yeah I think we could Jeffrey we've done quite a few
live shows with models and people in but never specifically just as a whole
demonstration of a fashion editorial because we're actually trying to show
lighting techniques and talk about the techniques rather than just shoot the
whole thing we just released a load of new fashion modules on our on our Kyle
Taylor education platform and I'm just trying to see where they where they
might be actually there's the post-production so yeah over in the
fashion section we have got these new fashion modules a matter of fact this
one here is a new want released today this is a new one released today all of
the fashion modules are out now there's also you can see in their great
interview with fashion photographer Daria bellick over so we've got tons of
stuff on fashion shoots and you know that one at that whole lot there was
done in a one week not all of it I think from there that whole batch there with
the model Kerris Craig was done in a one week period so that shows you what can
be accomplished in one week when you work with the team how you work with the
team nubu – what a great name says hey Karl what inspires your product shots
the paint buckets are probably some of my favorites that you've done
lots of things it's inspire me take inspiration from music film art cinema
books all sorts of stuff and then we apply a little bit of science to that
color theory science composition science and I sketch things out and work things
out I plan the shoot and then execute the
shoot so more about making the photo rather than taking the photo but I say
inspiration comes from all different places sometimes it comes from the
client you know client says we want this so you do it and you just make it as
good as you can next question where where am I am I here we are
Lucy Angie what are the best budget and high-end nikon lenses products are in no
idea Farah delayed hi Karl smiles from Zurich hi in Zurich is there a trick to
spread my work online except all known social media sources does not have to be
the world worldwide but specifying their um I don't know I know you can use
Facebook marketing to target specific zone cities so you could set up a
Facebook advertising campaign for your photography the type of thing you do and
then you can target it just for Zurich only then you can target it to a
specific type of person only age group sex male/female type thing so there's
lots of tools for doing that sort of stuff you can think about trade
magazines you can think about all such thing so yes it depends you can even do
some quite bespoke targeting in Google Adwords and Google Adsense as well
chiefin Kumari says card you have information about photography workflow
in Carl Taylor education yes we do I made mohamed morsy says I have issues
with focus in case shooting a group d610 any tips not particularly I'm afraid I
made because you know the camera should focus the lens should focus if there's
no mechanical issues then it's a technique issue that you need to resolve
so you need to think about depth of field shooting distance lens choice that
sort of stuff mmm shaggy again thoughts on shooting video in 4k and exporting as
a frame as an image my wife asked me why I wouldn't do this as you can always
capture the perfect moment well you can always capture the perfect moment in
video think you can there's 25 frames in a second of video but those 25 frames
aren't always the best moment I mean we've tried tons of times to extract a
frame right from one of our live shows or a video course to use the picture and
I'm always like this sort of stuff going on because you never get the moment
where you look like where is the still photo you can set it and you compose it
and then there's motion blur and a lot of this video frames that isn't good for
the still phone so I disagree I don't think you can really accurately capture
what you want and the resolution of 4k is okay but it's usually a lot noisier
than a still photo because video cameras are running at higher gain higher what
equivalent higher ISO you don't notice the gain the grain in a video camera
because the grain is changing with each frame but in a still photo you do J kuba
I'm brand new to capture one do you cover training on how to use it for a
beginner no we don't but we will be soon Jay Paul Thompson what tips for keeping
C spray from waters from filters did-did-did
p li filters write that question in under a false name I talked about this
in a previous live show li filters have got a new liquid cleaning spray called
clear something reversal was and it's spectacular li designed for keeping salt
spray off the filters so go and check that out on their website
Martin her ta have you ever broken expensive photo gear yes that alway I
really mentioned that before when the question came up about our insurance as
a matter of fact most recent thing I broke was the sony a7s 2 completely
flooded it in an underwater housing while filming on another project so that
was a wrecked camera now what are we got here farad says do you use macro slider
or do you just focus from the lens I just focus from the lens
Brian Dubin do been near wins what do you think of the 16 I think it's good
camera crass peter margaret mirrorless sony verse Nick on d800 why
d800 probably because I don't like mirrorless cameras that much I like to
see the actual photons hitting my eye through the through the viewfinder
Michael for castries there's a lot of questions coming I got five more minutes
there's no way I can take you I'm gonna no more questions please I'm gonna try
and finish these questions off mic off Akashi I'm a member on Carl
Taylor education can you tell me what your opinion about the Bron color
satellite star oh the video on the Bronco nature channel is not inspiring
would you recommend it I've got one over there I assume you're talking about the
one with the white acrylic perspex front and not the mirrored one I really like
the mirrored one it's funny actually I was at Tim flax studio he's got one of
the older big ones I don't make them anymore amazing powerful light reflector
for chucking the light at long distance they only do like the mini satellite now
in the mirrored finish which again you can use for as a matter of fact that
shot there this one is with the mini satellite which is gives a very sharp
very crisp type sunlight look lighting the one I think you're talking about
which is the acrylic fronted one you can see a comparison if you go into the
equipment section on Carl Taylor education you go in the equipment
section and there's a video in there where I compare different lighting
modifiers for beauty there it is beauty lighting comparison now in that
particular tutorial I I pitch all the lighting modifiers against each other
and show the results ok so you can see see in there ah where we are these
questions sadly Fuzzy's hi Carl what's the best strobe for outdoors and indoor
photography I would say the Cirrus lithium powered lights if that's what
you mean by strobe grant hi I have a confusion between resolution on medium
format and large format film compared to digital I've been hearing that since the
large that since the format is larger there is more resolution but I see
digitally shop ok resolution in film is something different ok is it in film
we're talking about it's like silver halide like crystals that record the
film now higher ISO films gonna make more grain so low ISO films like 50 100
whatever great I used to shoot 5 by 4 film now to get resolution out of a
piece of 5 by 4 film you would have to scan the film it has to be drum scanned
or these days it's scanned on a like a magnetic
children now you can scan the film to any resolution you can set the
resolution I want this resolution domain that the picture is gonna get sharper
because at some point the grain is gonna be visible now how does that compare
with medium format digital well I'd say now especially like I've got the h6 100
mega pixel that is sharper and higher resolution than a high resolution scan
of a 5 by 4 inch piece of film so in today's world I would say the high-end
digital cameras are higher resolution than film there was a lovely silkiness
though – 5 by 4 inch film beautiful tones but they're only as good as you
can scan them and because scanning now is becoming more of an art in itself
because there's not so many people doing it anymore so I've gone out the window
with film the film as only as good as the scan you can make from it
next question though tech fleed there are hi car what will you recommend to
get emotions from a model who is amateur that's a tricky one ok you have to work
hard work with them I'd recommend sitting down with the model and
explaining the project to them and talking them through that you know the
story the narrative the style of what you want to do what emotions you're
trying to invoke and get them to get into character get them involved get
them to be enthusiastic about it and and make them participate in it rather than
just be the model you know always try and talk to my models liaised with my
models and explain to them what I'm trying to do what I'm trying to get out
of it next one right ok at the end of naked camera yeah we worked with a
non-professional model so in our portrait section we actually
have a chapter that covers that I can't remember what the chapters called but
it's about how to work with your model and stuff so it's somewhere down here
right down here somewhere yeah where is it in there seventeen posing your
subject there you go so that modules in there on Carl Taylor education
I mean CAD re another question please I'm like how you use burning and dodging
to make your photos feel the way you want is there a tutorial on your website
to learn how to do it yes there is in the post-production section Suniya Gil
hi from Pakistan why don't you use Nick on cameras but why don't you use
Hasselblad's I have no idea that's that's a weird question
Clemence flora and yak there's nothing wrong with Nick Hans okay I have used
nickels i use nick cons probably before you were born
okay I've used Nick ons FM 2s Canon F ones Canon t-90s mamiya's Toyo's sign
ours I just use any camera that is the right tool for the job stop freaking out
about which camera you need to use or which cameras but they are tools in the
same way that you use a spanner to undo a bolt or a nut or whatever you want to
call it okay they are tools to do a job I'll use whatever tool will meet my
creative requirements okay clémence if you're on that hi nice to see your
videos and photos they're really good thank you very much that's a kind
comment photographing airplanes on airports I need some advice or
directions what should I look when I photograph an airplane I want to shoot
something different but I cannot find some perfect composition I know this is
off topic I hope you give an answer regards from Sevilla well it's a tricky
one I'm not I don't have any experience in that area I would say get the best
light get their early morning sunrise sunset stuff then you can incorporate
the Sun set the sunrise possibly in some of those long telephoto shots you could
have the best warm colored golden light coming off the side of the aircraft
that's what I think about the light razor 204 8 what come why companies like
Nick on release the source code for their firmware they're often unwilling
to release updates third-party firmware I'm afraid I've got no idea razor Joey
can last I was inspired by what you said before on to focus on light it's better
practice yourself seeing highlights and shadows by just looking your environment
or will it help a lot if you always have your camera with you
no I often don't take my camera with me Joey and I study light everywhere I go
everything I do when I'm sat in a cafe looking at the ocean
whatever I'm always looking at what light is doing and trying to figure out
little nuances little things that I could apply you know the other day I was
with my young daughter and there was a certain type of light and
tell you what it was but there was a certain type of like Hitler and it was
read very very unique how this light came about how it happened and I
memorized how this light came to hit her in a certain way and I thought right I
got a I got to use that technique so observation Dave scarce Jenkins high
Karl f-stop has said the other day that a Profoto with its shrouded bulb gives
the same result as a bare bulb with umbrellas I know you're adamant this is
not true can you give more science and examples please absolutely it's
impossible okay let's say for instance you've got to put
a bulb in a parabolic reflector there's the parabolic shape the point of light
source got to go here and the rays of light have to bounce at certain angles
to hit and M&A it can't do that from a flat-fronted light source so if there is
no bulb that protrudes out that can create light that can go out beyond 180
degrees and every angle otherwise it cannot reflect within certain modifiers
as effectively as a point light source that emanates out from the from the
actual lamp head so I'm afraid there are limitations not it can still do soft
boxes it can still do other stuff but it's just physics it can never bounce
out if it's if it's coming from a flat surface it can only go that angle out
and that angle out if it's coming from a protruding surface it can come that
angle out that angle on that angle and there's also to do with the size of the
light source some of those big lamp pads now they've got like a big disc so it's
a big disc with a diffuser on it and that isn't really like a point light
source anymore okay a point light source the smaller the point the crisper the
light can be and the more effective it can be especially in modifiers like
flutters friends you know the things that have to throw the light a long way
the physics of it speak for themselves okay Lackey ants hello car what kind of
material do you prefer to print on art paper inkjet art paper I'm I saw some
Tim flak and his studio their days some amazing acrylic printed died bond
acrylic I think it was and then there's these Dai bond aluminium stuff you can
get there's I also as different services I don't
print a huge amount of work but I would check out someone like Genesis Digital
which is in London big print lab have a look at some of the services they offer
Joe Daugherty I just got sony a7 – I'm new to it I'm
getting lots of grain shots with it any hints I'm using Lightroom – fixed on
stuff coming up with grain well you've got the ISO set – hi okay so lower the
ISO settings don't put the ISO on auto Hugo Bert Bertrand hello from Mexico
Karl how did you get inspired to shoot and
what are the main things that you take care and shootings thanks I think
you mean what do I I I always look for a motion I look for light and I look for a
motion and then you build that with composition color you know working with
say the narrative we were speaking about earlier all of these things combine them
thinking about all the time but most often Hugo I've already thought of the
shot that I want before I even go there so quite often our rec the location look
at what's on opportunity look at where the lights gonna be and I'll have it all
figured out before I even turn up with the model or whatever it is so it's
designing the shot in your mind and sketching it pre visualizing it and
planning it and then making it happen Gregory Sargent if you add a grid to a
150 softbox does it produce the same amount of light as a 120 because the
grid reduces the angle well it depends I mean I don't know the exact angle the
grid and it depends on the depth of the grid what a grid does obviously a
softbox disperses light right out from as far as wide a softbox can go as soon
as you put a grid on it some of that light is funneled only forwards because
light can't get out an angle so you get less light spill into your studio and
sort of more of a focus light but the light actually gets harder okay because
certain light that was coming out of certain angle can't now reach certain
areas if you start at me whether it becomes like a 120 or not I don't know I
don't think so because the 120 is still dispersing light out at an angle even
though it's a narrower softbox so from the physics side of things no I don't
think it would this the way the light is dispersed okay if you think
you're putting a grid on your trapping and funneling the light in a more strict
direction just cuz it's a narrower softbox doesn't mean it's not going out
the angle and angle it still is J Kubek can you please explain the difference
between soft white and diffuse light I can be a long shot process to do it J
I'm not going to do it here because I can tell you what right here
chapter one of the portrait section introduction to understanding light this
has got all of the lighting physics and the explanation of everything to do with
soft light hard light reflected light refracted light look how many comments
there are in this this is probably the the module that most people are most
grateful for and have the best comments to say about because they learnt so much
about light go and check it out over there razor says doing product
photography on a white background for use on shopping website what is the best
way to improve micro contrast when dealing with so much lighting micro
contrast I have no idea I've never come across that phrase before and if you
need to use the word micro contrast then you've completely misunderstood the
process of how to do the photographs again we've just done a whole live show
on packshot photography on white backgrounds for e-commerce go and watch
that episode on Carl Taylor education comm our last question Vicki Smith says
what is the best way to watermark multiple images at once on a MacBook Pro
please Karl well you can write a script I think I've got a little mini tutorial
in the equipment section about how to create watermarks but you can write a
script if all your images are the same size you'd need to batch all the
portrait ones and all the landscape one's probably separately and then you
can write a script for the watermark to appear a particular place in each image
and you can write scripts quite easily in Photoshop we teach you how to do it
on the platform and then once you've done the script you can fire all those
images often it should put it all in there for you sometimes you need to
adjust the opacity level depending on the type of photo that you're putting on
right let's talk photo competitions we got the big one canon 5d mark 4 up for
great in December we're giving away a canon 5d
mark for competition theme is red if you've got amazing images that you think
could be applicable to the themed red then you could win that Canon 5d Mark 4
we're already given away one of those this year and we've given away bron
color source lighting kits because we're very generous here at Carl Taylor
education so if you think you've got what it takes head over to our
competitions page and check that out now one more thing just before I finally go
another thanks to Squarespace for this but I really really would like it you
guys head over to the Hasselblad channel on youtube watch my new short film where
I took a Hasselblad h6 camera underwater to film a professional scallop diver I'd
love to hear your opinions in the comments and then you can watch the
making of it the behind the scenes me underwater with this camera over on the
Carl Taylor youtube channel as well thank you very much for tuning in today
I'm Carl Taylor we'll see you next time you

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