Full transcript
0:00[Music]
0:06so
0:07[Music]
0:20all right
0:22then there were six it's getting thin
0:24now
0:25so uh the challenges are gonna get
0:26tougher you're gonna have to push
0:28yourselves a little more so let's get
0:29started here today's challenge is
0:32composition
0:34the rules think outside the box
0:36challenge yourself think about leading
0:38lines
0:39you can use any light you want but don't
0:41ignore the details shadows highlights
0:44expressions all matter the judges are
0:46going to be paying attention to this now
0:48you will again have up to 10 minutes to
0:50set up and create your image as you know
0:53today's challenge one of you will go
0:55home
0:56for equipment today we have cameras and
0:58lenses from canon and we have lighting
1:01supplies from westcott you've got access
1:03to the fj80 fj200 and fj400 lighting
1:07system along with a plethora of lighting
1:09accessories once your 10 minutes is up
1:11you must hand over your memory card and
1:13return to the waiting room where you
1:14will not be able to view or edit your
1:17images until everyone has completed the
1:19challenge but before we get started each
1:21of you will select a card to determine
1:23the order you're going to shoot it good
1:25luck
1:26[Music]
1:35i'm thinking about putting a
1:37spotlight up on the background and kind
1:39of
1:40uh positioning
1:42her
1:43in the middle of that
1:45and
1:46then just work on the the posing would
1:48be
1:49again just to get that old
1:51hollywood glamour fell to it
1:55[Music]
1:56[Applause]
1:57[Music]
2:03[Applause]
2:03[Music]
2:14[Music]
2:19i am
2:24[Music]
2:37i had old hollywood in my head and so i
2:40wanted that backlight
2:42to kind of just come in behind her and
2:45and work compositionally
2:48to really highlight her
2:50um i used a smaller reflector so there
2:54is a lot of fall off which
2:56i'm okay with i don't necessarily love
2:58feet
3:00um so i really just kind of again wanted
3:03that gorgeous old hollywood and she
3:05really she's got the look she gave me
3:08the feel
3:09um so we'll we'll see i'm excited
3:13[Music]
3:16[Applause]
3:20i want to go kind of old hollywood with
3:22it um but kind of a newer punchier
3:24colors
3:25i'm going to set up some gels in the
3:27background
3:28and you know see what we get
3:34[Music]
3:47[Music]
3:53[Music]
3:56so
4:01i think i did all right i'm not as
4:02confident as i was last time but i think
4:04i got like a good basis i want to get it
4:06in photoshop see what i got
4:09[Music]
4:12all right who's number three
4:15hey i'm just talking about it all right
4:17let's do it i have a diaper on
4:22uh what a plan i'm doing it's
4:24composition challenge so obviously the
4:26lean lines little thirds
4:29little uh you know all that kind of fun
4:31stuff triangles and
4:33let's see how it goes
4:35[Music]
4:45that's a lot
4:47[Applause]
4:53[Music]
5:06me
5:07[Music]
5:13uh i mean a lot of pressure it's a
5:16simple idea composition but just
5:18everybody's getting um a lot better the
5:21competition is getting smaller and so
5:22i'm gonna bring your a game so
5:24we'll find out soon i like the first
5:26shot we did where we're using the
5:28doorways to kind of frame her
5:30and the lights coming from above that
5:31one's good i kind of like the airplane
5:33shot i did too
5:35so let's see how it looks in post
5:39hey so my plan here is to try to fit in
5:43a couple of different shots
5:44i want to do something here with uh from
5:47above i'm gonna shoot something high
5:49and i think we're gonna move and do one
5:50other shot on the back of the location
5:53and see if we can fit that in and
5:55make it work
5:57[Music]
6:11[Applause]
6:14[Music]
6:15[Applause]
6:17[Music]
6:18[Applause]
6:21yeah so i was really happy with um the
6:25first shot we did
6:26i felt like it was exactly what i was
6:28originally going for i wanted to try and
6:30fit some other stuff in uh now like like
6:33usual it's time to get to work and make
6:34that edit happen and i'm going to be uh
6:36creating something really cool with that
6:37so all right all right
6:40it's going to time
6:44what i'm envisioning for this shot today
6:45is i'm going to go straight down the
6:47hall two doors halfway closed butterfly
6:50light and just knock out the park so
6:52excited for this
7:11oh let's see
7:12stabilizer's off that's not good
7:31time okay so i feel like me and haley
7:33just knocked this one out of the park we
7:35started in the hallway got some really
7:37really cool shots
7:39and then in an all named fashion we hit
7:41a bathroom for the last shot of course
7:46all right bethany let's go
7:49how many 200s
7:54i have a plan it's kind of risky but i
7:57feel like it's the time in the
7:59competition to take risks so
8:01we're going to go with a really
8:03interesting composition that i thought
8:05of i'm hoping the lighting works out
8:06it's going to be really difficult
8:08lighting
8:09as well as composite or composition on
8:12top of that so
8:13i'm really hoping this pays off
8:16[Music]
8:30light number two is the light with the
8:31red gel
8:32i need it up and high and pointing
8:35through the windshield almost i'm not
8:36specific on a direction
8:39[Music]
8:55[Applause]
8:56[Music]
9:03time
9:05that was a hard concept and i knew that
9:07i had a very 50 50 shot of panicking
9:09when the lighting didn't work out
9:10exactly how i wanted and just having to
9:12go by the seat of my pants but in this
9:14case haley was incredible the lighting
9:16was incredible my assistant really you
9:19know i mean can we talk about that
9:20assistants are underrated and really we
9:22bring the whole shoot together yeah and
9:24uh you know i appreciate your
9:25appreciation yeah for me you know it's
9:27mutual appreciation yeah so i feel
9:30really good
9:31all right ladies and gentlemen how are
9:32we feeling
9:34good good yeah all right well this is a
9:36tough challenge for you guys and uh you
9:38guys definitely had to put a lot more
9:40thought and effort into it so
9:42remember what how it goes got 30 minutes
9:44to cull and edit your images the
9:47challenge today was composition so
9:49select your images be smart about what
9:51you're selecting and be smart about how
9:53you're editing it every detail matters
9:55the journey begins
10:07today was uh in a word interesting
10:11one of the things that really irks me is
10:13that these guys are not checking the
10:15back of their camera look back in the
10:16days of film you had to get your
10:18exposure perfect and you didn't know
10:19what you had in the can so to speak
10:21until you've got that film developed
10:23well now we've got this incredible
10:24opportunity to check the back of the
10:26camera and so many of the competitors
10:29just kept shooting without checking the
10:31back of their camera so they had no idea
10:32if exposure was uh correct or not where
10:35the lighting patterns were correct or
10:37not so it's just one of those things
10:38that gives me uh anxiety so we'll see
10:40how they did something else that
10:42again just mind-boggling is how they got
10:45stuck in a shop right so as a creative
10:47uh you start panicking you got 10
10:49minutes you think it's it's not enough
10:50time and so they get locked into a shot
10:53and they stay with that shot and there
10:54were probably eight other shots around
10:56them and it was really interesting to
10:58watch their inability
11:00to get up move and move to another shop
11:03so it's going to be really interesting
11:05to see what they got today and it's
11:07going to be really interesting to see if
11:09they got what they were hoping to get
11:11out of it so we'll see time
11:17[Music]
11:21all right my ladies here we are
11:23challenge number three
11:24the challenge was
11:26composition uh so it's pretty much open
11:29to interpretation hopefully they've made
11:32it clear on uh on what the composition
11:35is i will be honest with you i was
11:36watching them work i was like do they
11:38know the challenge is composition
11:40because i felt like maybe it wasn't
11:42clicking for them
11:44stunning yes
11:46is there any that like are jumping out
11:47at you oh those the last the this one
11:50and that one that one's beautiful
11:52yeah i don't like this one her arm's
11:54driving me crazy if i'm looking at
11:56composition that straight arm well let's
11:57get let's get to our
11:59three like top three yeah maybe what's
12:01your
12:02do we all agree on this is enough as a
12:04top one okay do we and then i like this
12:07one from a composition perspective one
12:09two and was there another one you felt
12:12or you felt i know you felt this one
12:14these two these two
12:16okay
12:18i'm gravitating towards
12:21these two
12:23this one feels really strong to me
12:25all the way around like yes the
12:27challenge was composition but we can't
12:29lose sight of everything else that
12:30matters uh so this is good composition
12:34right yeah it's good composition i mean
12:36it's a frame within a frame
12:38lighting's good rule of thirds i mean
12:41they they really did it creativity very
12:43creative very very creative
12:45this one
12:47um it's a neck is killing me yeah i love
12:50this right yes yeah but and i'm being
12:53hyper critical here because the
12:54challenge is composition
12:56this is just a general portrait and then
12:58when it came to details the neck
13:01uh and the feet being cut off right at
13:03the ankle
13:05that that's a struggle for me and i'm
13:07still struggling on composition for this
13:08particular one that that's just me i
13:10don't know if you guys agree
13:12now we start coming back to this group
13:14of three let's start on the left one
13:16loretta kind of what are your thoughts
13:18here i know you like this image a lot i
13:20do it's a play of light she's smiling
13:23it's just a whole vibe for me um it
13:26doesn't really kind of it does the
13:29composition but it's not as strong as
13:30the other two right from a composition
13:33perspective perspective but it is a
13:36great picture so and as we get into
13:38critique on this i definitely don't
13:40think this is our worst image no it's
13:43not um but as we get into to critique on
13:45this
13:47really my eye cannot stop staring right
13:50here i love negative space you do too
13:52okay the only thing i don't like about
13:54that photo is the total straight arm
13:56like just give me a little bend that
13:57would have been happy interesting
13:59the rest of it i love yeah i'm strong
14:01i'm back to struggling and we'll we'll
14:03we'll you and i are very negative space
14:05people on the field because we know that
14:06when it's an ad that's where that that's
14:08really the copy goes fair enough fair
14:11enough uh but i still get stuck because
14:13all the lines are driving me to here
14:16it's encompassing it she should be here
14:19i'm not thinking from an advertising
14:21where poppy is going that way and right
14:23and then and then the branch is cutting
14:25through her head like so that's kind of
14:27where i'm getting stuck i don't disagree
14:28with you copy goes there and then maybe
14:30it's a moot point but the challenge was
14:33composition
14:35so we agree right not not the leading
14:37image right
14:39then there were two then they're two
14:42i don't think we have to say much here i
14:43think we just do we have a do we have a
14:45vote where where's your where's your
14:47pick the right
14:49yeah
14:50i mean in addition to composition
14:56i feel like the this image is on the
14:59left is is really strong compositionally
15:01right
15:02right i mean it is driving you right to
15:04the subject but you you level the
15:06playing field now both are great
15:07compositionally however the maker of
15:10this particular image has taken
15:13everything they've been learning in the
15:14challenges and i feel like really
15:16brought it to fruition yeah i think this
15:18is the one that actually
15:20is more creative yeah the challenges
15:23totally agree all right so we feel like
15:25we got a winner yes let's send it to
15:28print woohoo
15:31[Music]
15:43[Music]
15:46creators
15:47today was an interesting day to say the
15:48least every one of you worked hard to
15:50stand out however one of you will be
15:52going home today
15:54our judges today are fellow canon
15:56explorers of light vanessa joy and
15:58loretta houston
15:59vanessa is a wedding and portrait
16:00photographer based in austin texas and
16:03loretta is a fashion editorial and
16:05commercial photographer based in la when
16:08your image is shown please step forward
16:09so we can critique your results from
16:10today guys i'm going to give you some
16:12feedback before we start looking at it
16:13the bar is going to be set higher and
16:15higher each day as the pressure is put
16:18on you guys and today i really did watch
16:20what felt like for me as an outsider
16:22internal panic
16:24as you were working maybe i'm wrong
16:26maybe uh maybe we'll see what the images
16:28look like and what they yield
16:30but you got stuck in a shot almost every
16:32single one of you got stuck in a shot
16:34and seemed like you were unable to move
16:36past it and move forward and i think as
16:38photographers as creatives we have to be
16:41careful of that tunnel vision when we're
16:43making great images all right so just
16:45take that feedback uh and let's make
16:47sure we're improving as creatives okay
16:50first image up
16:52lisa jones
16:54all right vanessa you want to start on
16:56this one
16:57we all agreed that we were going to
16:58start being a little bit more tough on
17:01all of these critiques because it's like
17:03sal said just going to get more
17:05challenging
17:06so we want to help you do your best this
17:09image is first second i saw it it
17:10grabbed me
17:11but there were some posing problems i
17:14loved her arm
17:15but her shoulder is way up and her neck
17:18looks really stiff something that could
17:20have been fixed by just giving her that
17:21light tap to go down
17:23and bringing her head back so her
17:24muscles weren't creating that tension
17:28i'm going to be a little tougher on this
17:30image honestly lisa i felt like this was
17:32one of the weakest images uh out there
17:34today
17:35my thought was this is supposed to be
17:37about composition and that composition
17:39was lost on me and then as i started
17:41looking closer and closer at the image
17:42the beautiful portrait
17:44some of the issues that vanessa has
17:45raised i think are valid uh but then we
17:47just cropped off at our ankles
17:49and so cutting off that joint that just
17:51to me drove me bonkers either crop in
17:54and make it tighter and commit to it
17:56being a portrait or give us the feet you
17:58know so i was kind of stuck there
17:59loretta some of the rules that we have
18:02as a campaign photographer is never cut
18:06it off at the joints
18:08so you know you need to really pay
18:10attention to how you crop your images
18:13lisa congratulations your journey
18:15continues
18:16[Applause]
18:20[Music]
18:22next up jess
18:25loretta you want to start with this one
18:26this was one you actually love this
18:28image i did
18:30um it's just the use of the gels or
18:33colors that you use on this image it's
18:35just
18:36i i feel her happiness in this you know
18:38what i'm saying i do like the negative
18:40space on the right of the picture
18:43you know they disagreed but hey i like i
18:46love it not they him oh him okay him for
18:49me
18:50this to me is again a compositional
18:52issue great use of mixing gels uh but
18:55again compositionally i felt like this
18:58really did fall short that was the
19:00challenge you were being tasked with and
19:02i cannot stop staring at that blank spot
19:05on the right and i've got a tree a
19:06branch right a plant branch cutting
19:09through the top of her head so again if
19:11we are looking at this through the eyes
19:14of composition i truly feel like we
19:16could have had this incredible shot if
19:18we just shifted her over right
19:20maybe gotten her down lower and put her
19:24and enveloped her in the tree branches
19:26you know what i'm saying with that and
19:27so that's where i got kind of stuck on
19:29this image
19:30or in post taking out that tree branch
19:32entirely because then that really does
19:33change the composition of it all but for
19:35me it was the pose
19:37that one arm straight
19:40that's all i saw was a straight arm and
19:42this is a happy pose this is fun and
19:44carefree and that showed me tension
19:47jess congratulations your journey
19:49continues
19:54next up
19:54[Music]
20:03brody hi brody this was a really tough
20:06image for me uh lighting you did a
20:08really good job on lighting but that was
20:10not the challenge uh the challenge was
20:12composition and this
20:14this is like schizophrenia of of
20:17composition right what was the
20:18composition did she fall from the
20:20ceiling did she break a leg
20:22so i didn't quite know what the message
20:24was you were going for here
20:26but the thing that saved you here is
20:28very very good lighting
20:30on her it's very nice beauty soft
20:32lighting nice and controlled the spill
20:34was controlled so that's the plus of the
20:36image loretta this is one of my least
20:39favorites from this challenge is because
20:42the posing
20:44it just wasn't flattering whatsoever and
20:48so that was main part of why i didn't
20:51really choose this image
20:53so i'm sorry
20:56the thing that saved this image from the
20:59chopping block was the unique angle so
21:02definitely keep that with you as you go
21:04into this next challenge keep the
21:07uniqueness fine tune the rest
21:09brody congratulations your journey
21:11continues
21:13[Applause]
21:19all right next image leroy step forward
21:22you want to start on this
21:24i do although i think you should because
21:26this is one of your favorites this was a
21:27favorite image of mine where i will be
21:29honest with you i felt like you did a
21:31really good job
21:32of embracing
21:34composition right so we had this
21:36credible run you were actually one of
21:37the only creators to use a 7200 lens uh
21:41to introduce some compression so for me
21:43there was a little bit of bonus points
21:45with that and you used the entire run of
21:47the hallway which i thought was very
21:49creative and then of course we've got
21:50these beautiful uh
21:52lighting setup on her
21:54and then the doors framing her perfectly
21:56so i really did enjoy this image
21:58i think you stepped it up this challenge
22:01i enjoyed the image it just one of those
22:03images that it catches my eye
22:06especially with the green in the
22:07background and the closed doors a bit so
22:10yes i love this image
22:12the one weird thing for me about this
22:14image was her front foot i would love
22:16for that front foot to have been either
22:19like on her tiptoe
22:21to the back or pointed towards the
22:23camera it was just in a slightly awkward
22:26position for me but the rest of her body
22:27looked fantastic so and i think just to
22:29add to that this is one of those things
22:31that quite frankly this goes for all the
22:33creators
22:34it's the attention to detail
22:36you guys are getting to a point in this
22:38competition where the details matter and
22:41we can't just get so caught up in the
22:43scene so caught up in the light that we
22:45forget we are photographing a person and
22:48their body lines matter the wardrobe
22:50matters the hair matters we got to start
22:52paying attention to those details
22:54but leroy congratulations your journey
22:56continues
22:58[Applause]
23:03all right two of you stepped forward
23:06[Music]
23:08i'm going to start with this image
23:09bethany i was there with you i watched
23:12you suffer literally
23:14writer's block right on this particular
23:16image you got so stuck on nailing this
23:20shot
23:21that you might be missing other
23:23opportunities and i think everybody has
23:24to learn from that that there's more
23:26than one shot on any given scene
23:29so
23:30i really like the story in this image
23:33there's some
23:34i'm going to assume editing issues i
23:36always hate
23:37saying or assuming what's been done to
23:39an image but i was there in the top part
23:41of this image coming off the hood line
23:43of the car it's completely black
23:46i don't believe that that's what it
23:47looked like in camera
23:49and so
23:50obviously we're doing things to edit but
23:52it looks it's a distraction because
23:54there's so much red
23:56there's just no red in that black how
23:58could there be all that red in the image
23:59and then there's no red over there right
24:01so it becomes unrealistic
24:02to believe that part of the image
24:05vanessa
24:06and then when it comes to post too
24:07there's like a red dot on her nose that
24:10i just wanted to do this to the monitor
24:12like just just wipe it off real quick
24:13and something like that is just so super
24:15distracting in addition to the backlight
24:18being slightly strong because it's
24:20poking that highlight behind her and
24:22dragging my eye that way
24:25and as a photographer this is funny
24:27because i shoot those type of pictures
24:30really well um i for me
24:33i would have used the 2470 on this one
24:36to get the detail of the car and i
24:38actually would have her like maybe put
24:40lipstick on like get creative with it
24:43you know it's just not her in the mirror
24:45what is she doing in the mirror you know
24:47is she is she driving is she doing
24:49lipstick i think it gives that extra
24:51little push into
24:53this picture
24:55right next image
24:56[Music]
24:58loretta you want to start on this one
25:00um
25:02so the block kills me the brown block
25:05that's right next to her
25:07that's my eye just completely went to
25:08that it didn't go straight into the
25:10model so it just kind of distracted me
25:12from this picture
25:15ning i i love what you were trying to do
25:18in this picture i see it i see the
25:19leading lines i see the perspective in
25:21the hallway i love what you were trying
25:23to do i just don't think you were able
25:25to execute it on it the best of your
25:27abilities one of the things that really
25:29jumped out at me uh was the
25:32fact that we've now made her look
25:34heavier
25:35her stomach is sticking out
25:37her arm is flush against that wall
25:39making it look heavier than she is we've
25:40taken this fit teenager and we've made
25:43her look a little heavy so i don't think
25:44we did her uh the best job we could have
25:47done as creatives
25:49and finally the
25:51leading lines and the composition that i
25:53see you were going for was not
25:55complemented by the lighting that you
25:57chose instead the lighting became
25:59distracting if you had chosen to take
26:01the light and maybe put it further
26:03behind her short light her create shadow
26:05on that wall maybe even lighting it up
26:08right
26:10the mood of that image exactly yeah
26:13lighting lighting is everything
26:15all right so unfortunately there can
26:17only be one of you that the journey
26:19continues forward on uh in front of me
26:21i'm holding the final printed image from
26:23today's challenge winner
26:27congratulations bethany
26:28[Music]
26:29[Applause]
26:35bethany you did an incredible job today
26:37uh you did get stuck but in the end you
26:41created an incredible image but you've
26:42got to learn from that because if you
26:44had not gotten this shot
26:46you were going home today
26:48and you you got it and you did a great
26:50job ning you're an incredible
26:52photographer i've enjoyed watching you
26:54work i've enjoyed watching you push
26:56boundaries and experiment and at the end
26:58of the day that's what being a creative
27:00is all about so while your journey
27:01doesn't continue today okay good luck in
27:04the future thank you for being part of
27:06this congratulations
27:09you know i'm excited because i got to be
27:11part of this thing
27:13um but the competition got super
27:15competitive in a great way
27:18we're all friends um and it's a
27:20wonderful experience i can't imagine
27:22being part of anything better and
27:23honestly thank you for letting me be
27:25here i appreciate it
27:26[Music]
27:30three out of three
27:31the girls are still here
27:49[Music]
28:08you