What That Change Did To My Photography

10 years ago my photography went through a massive shift. Here's why
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[@realestatephotovideoshawns1177]

Your channel is really one of a kind! You have taste and class - you know what’s good and you share it with us.

[@KevinRusso]

I find that when getting started people try to find technical proficiency. They are not aware of "feeling" the image. The correct exposure is not read on a light meter or histogram but in how the "heart" feels the image.

[@jack002tuber]

He described it as painting. It is almost painting

[@Daniel_Ilyich]

Lordy, lordy. The image that greets you when you visit Mrs. Speers website is phenomenal! What vision! What elegance!

[@iainkennedy2130]

Thanks again for making me think and introducing different photographers it all helps my journey of creativity .

[@debranemecek3668]

You are so knowledgeable and kind. Thank you for what you do. 📷

[@Emilaria]

I'm a massive fan of natural light photography. It's so much more intimate and soothing.

[@seaeagles6025]

Hi Alex, really nice to see other photographers like Elizabeth Messina, very natural looking and not over edited. I also liked the Portraits of Sue Bryce. Thanks for sharing this video. 😊

[@davidskinner274]

Organic feel of light... A good way to describe it

[@GeorgeKremer-sp2uw]

Great discussion about the battle between studio lights and natural light! Thank you for giving us all the encouragement to go back to the basics of the tried and true north garret studio light and to trust that light.

[@jack002tuber]

My main struggle with flash is I don't see what I'm going to get as I do with natural light. Is that a thing for most people?

[@stephenphillips4609]

Really interesting video. I see what you mean when you say your early work was over lit, it has a heavy, 'lumbering' quality missing in your later work, which is elegant, spontaneous, airy with a beautiful human delicacy about it. Elizabeth Messina and Sue Bryce's work looks fresh and vital. I can see how much they have revivified your work. But we part company with Vee Speers. I wanted to like her shots, but found them unhealthily, anaemically sinister. I always look forward to your videos, cos I find them inspiring and thought provoking. Keep going!!

[@alangardner8596]

You have inspired me to take a good look at all my location portrait/nude etc photos and have a real good think about the natural light I used. Lots of thought about my next shoot too.

[@jack002tuber]

Any creative photographer who is wanting to make real art, after talking about the equipment and lenses and filters and settings, etc etc (it never ends most times) should be talking about light! I think we think of and talk about light far too little. The more we think of light, the better our skill becomes. I can't get enough. (And this is about all photography, not just portraits) Love the video and the channel. Inspirational

[@AK-hk2pd]

It’s LIGHT…LIGHT…LIGHT; thanks Alex, have a great day. Come to South Australia at the moment, light is harsh and flat.

[@alexanderpons9246]

Great topic Alex Kilbee, Mother Nature is the original Light Creator of Modifiers bouncing around and reflecting of surfaces for sure! As you were showing images of your studio with the large frosted window I asked myself if you ever did shoot at night and placed your Strobes outside in front of that window and tried to recreate that Light? Thank you Sir for all the great content you make and share so generously with us all!

[@fingereze7202]

Another great vid. Thank you for sharing this. Liked and saved.

[@paullanoue5228]

If you like natural light I recommend a visit to Santa Fe, New Mexico. No wonder it attracts painters and photographers. The light there is a beautiful thing to behold. If only I could have found a way to bring it home with me.

[@elliebrooks3611]

Thank you for teaching!

[@StephenBridgett]

Beautiful shift in your style Alex

[@peterlieberzeit3138]

Interesting point. Some heavier thoughts on light light or so ;-) Indeed, your newer portraits are very enjoyable. They are realistic, but have something dreamy about them. For the lack of a better word.

[@user-ne9sc5pd6q]

Hi, Alex! I've been watching at your work for 2 years now. I listened to the thoughts, was wathing at the pictures, was trying to realize the consept. There you have shared a really strong thought about the light in portreture, I have found it close to me taste and vision. I will think a little bit more about the thought. If you are reading this lines, I want to say Thank You for your passion! P.S Greatings from Ukraine!)

[@b.h.9490]

I really adore your videos' contents, everytime.

[@ddsdss256]

I can't recall the last time I used artificial light (well, I rarely shoot indoors). I've just never liked the unnatural look, especially when multiple sources/reflectors/diffusers are used. It reminds me of the early days of TV and cinema, when they way overdid the lighting to the point where you noticed the lighting rather than the subject. I'm so often thankful for "nature's softbox" and when I want harsh lighting, nothing beats the sun.

[@kennethnielsen3864]

Thanks for sharing.

[@kekolber868]

Thoughtful vid. For the longest time I favored the soft "wash" of bounced, available light. Only lately have I gone back to using harder light to shape my subjects and create depth in the frame. The former sometimes feels too 2-dimensional to me, even if it is more flattering for skin.

[@davidskinner274]

Hi Alex.This episode relates for me as to audio work doesn't appeal so much as to "getting it wrong" with the light. Anything indoors for me is looking to work the natural light.

[@user-es3op2yu3w]

Love your channel and the beautiful images you share. Lighting is so important and it’s something you learn to use and shape with time and experience. That aside, there are common elements to the great images you’ve shown. A photogenic subject, hair, make-up (or just young skin), and clothing. We are bombarded with ‘how to’ courses, e.g. Joel Grimes with the promise of making us great photographers, but the images they use to sell their package has all those elements. Documentary and street photography aside, we’re not going to get his results without those elements. With a beautiful model, etc., of course you still need to be a good photographer and bring along a knowledge of lighting,pose, backdrop, etc.. Sorry for rabbiting on. Love the channel and the sharing of beautiful images, the insights and the learning.

[@filmic1]

Thanks for your insight. Notwithstanding content and subject matter, your work/studio process feels more like David Hamilton's. Lovely.

[@veivoli]

@filmic1 Let me start by saying I have no problem with bare bodies. However David Hamilton's photos showing barely pubescent girls in sexualised poses are wildly inappropriate, no matter their technical merit. Note that three, or so, of his models accused him of r*pe (mangled to avoid KZbin's ridiculous censorship) and he committed suicide. Of course there may be no link. I made s similar response to a similar comment in one of Tatiana Hopper's videos and she agreed with my comment.

[@filmic1]

I never liked David Hamilton's genre, I wasn't condoning his motive, it's p'*doph^lia in my opinion. I don't even like Helmut Newton's. I just love diffused light.@@veivoli why I commented about yours'. Refreshing.

[@Daniel_Ilyich]

This is wonderful kind of light to highlight feminine beauty.

[@alunrees3056]

I’ve stepped away from using strobes and invested in faster lenses. Sadly I missed your natural light work shop, would have loved to have attended.

[@johnclay7644]

informative content

[@ashleyhoff7561]

I'm glad that you picked up the strobes again. While I am just a hack, I think the natural light thing gets a bit over done. I like what can be done with studio. I like that we can be over dramatic.

[@jpdj2715]

"Over here in the UK the light is different" (AK). Latitude. London-Amsterdam-Berlin are around 52 degrees North. Las Vegas and Gibraltar are 36N. Los Angeles, CA, USA, is at 34N. Tunisia in North-Africa goes as far North as 37.4N. That's a huge difference with the UK, Manchester at 53.5N. The Tropic of Cancer (latitude where the sun seems to turn around in its annual apparent up/down place above the horizon - related to the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere) is at 23.4N. In the Southern Hemisphere, Bluff, NZ, would be at 46.6S or Ushuaia at 54.8S (Manchester..Copenhagen are in that latitude ballpark but North). In Antarctica, Teniente R. Marsh Airport is at 62.2S and Base Marambio at 64.2S. Compare that to Etah, Greenland or the middle of Svalbard and you are at about 78.5N. Huge differences, at the same time of day/year, in the angle of the sunlight and its intensity, with or without clouds, and both impact the perceived quality of neutral images shot in flat light. The angle of incidence of sunlight through the atmosphere paired with moisture content and pollution in the air determine white balance and tint of direct sunlight as well as shade. 400 km to the South of me, say in Paris (48.9N), the light is significantly different than here. Pollution and moisture in the air make a big difference that will be comparable everywhere on earth, relatively. Generally, the morning air has less moisture and less pollution than later in the day and peaking in the evening. On an icy cold winter's day, you have the clearest air because it cannot hold moisture. In absence of thermals there will be little pollution in the air too. And sunset is much more red or warm than sunrise. While sunset in direct light may be very red, the shade t the same time is way too blue for our perception. The red wavelengths travel in a straight line while the blue light is refracted in the atmosphere. So in the shade, in absence of direct red light, there's an abundance of blue light. You can - mutatis mutandis - adapt this reasoning to a daylight/ambient light studio. In a "scientific" approach to the quality of light, we could shoot colour reference/calibration targets (assuming identical cameras, lenses, exposure, raw processing) to see what the impact is of latitude in such a studio, as well as time of year/day, on the WB & tint of the light. Convert EV to LV. We could make ICC profiles between the latitudes/locations and date/times. 1 degree difference in latitude is about 111km or 69 miles.

[@flightographist]

I am enamored with your humble, truly artistic turning of the page method of describing the evolution of your art. These period images are beyond beautiful, they are exquisite...except for that last one, sorry.

[@RogerHyam]

Great episode Alex. Thanks. All three photographers who influenced you here were women. I think that is worth noting. Not sure about the luminous nature of an overcast sky though. Especially in the winter months. It's more like wading through porridge. But then I'm still in Edinburgh!

[@jpdj2715]

Interwebs: "Elizabeth Messina was named one of the 10 Best Photographers in the World by American Photo 2010". Her very soft lighting style has become sort of the de facto standard feminine photography style and way of lighting. Her horizontally put clamshell and very soft light, low contrast, slightly desaturated or toned down, masks signs of ageing and skin's imperfections. The side of the sitters we look at is almost in the shade and shadows are extremely soft, if any. And the softness is so "sweet". I don't know that she was the first to light this way, though. Maybe, maybe not. Because this is Northern light in a painter's ambient light studio, maybe with a reflection panel to fill the darker side of the sitter. Which we can mimic artificially in the studio. Note that reflection panels and flags already would be applied by painter Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) where his subjects posed for his portraits - and he may not have been the first inventor of that. The style of lighting has been applied by many lifestyle and female fashion photographers and magazines. The creativity in her compositions and viewpoint angles and crops is really great. All according to People Like Us (PLU), or Our Kind Of People (OKOP).

[@teacherdude]

I was shooting this weekend here in Greece and the light was fantastic, but extremely difficult as it was harsh Mediterranean sun which makes every colour so vibrant and the shadows so deep. However, it is so hard to trick the camera into capturing this rather than reverting to a dull, preset norm.

[@leet7489]

I practice doing both because I had access to strobe lights at home. It kind of got repetative so I ventured into more natural light. I feel like natural light photography gets a bad rep because people dont take advantage of the light. Just shooting outside is considered natural light to some people but they dont take advantage of it and its rather boring and the sky looks washed out. They have to use presets to make it look good. If you do natural light good it can be really beautiful

[@creatancremanova7097]

I think it mostly comes down to what message you wanna convey. Sometimes an overlit picture might be the perfect choice. We shouldn´t limit ourselves in that regard :)

[@philipu150]

I'll take a somewhat contrarian view here. The essence of good work, in my view, is unity -- unity of effect and purpose, of style and technique with these. As you said, this is not original. Light may be characterized by quality, direction, and ratio, within which three concepts a universe of potentials awaits to be employed. I think it useful to look back before the time that artificial lighting was possible; back to photographers who avoided it even when it became possible, from photojournalists to portraitists and documentarians. But, as many of us discover along our journey, one technique or approach used by someone else, as appealing as it may be, is never the answer in itself. Unity, as in writing, composing music, painting, and so on, is the key. Thus, the means must fit the end.

[@rakov1]

Wonderful insight as always, thank you. At 13.02 you display a photograph of a redhead, double exposure or long exposure type shot. What is this method called and/or how does one do this?

[@waynethorn7218]

Great portraits you took 11.30 onwards 👍 you make it look easy but we all know it isn’t Alex. Dedication pays off in the end. Why do I always end up going back to your videos? Because you learn a lot about photography

[@juanofrbucketliz4176]

just follow what you love the most (photography style)

[@earlfenwick]

I worked as a gaffer for many years and developed a fear of strobes. They always felt foreign and artificial. Did you ever use continuous lighting? I like the ability to eyeball the look. Maybe a good compromise, though it does require more electricity.

[@AR-vf7vg]

Did you envisage the light in Brighton though too?

[@zigatretjak75]

Agree, your early wedding photos were saturated with light. The later work is decisively better. One thing I would like to learn is how to keep the details of yellow or white blooms against white dress, so that the bouquet is not a bokah

[@TheHamNinja]

I think you meant to show a link to your "Vee Speers" video but it didn't come up.

[@SteveKershaw]

Did weddings in Spain for a few years, you think it would be great, but it was much more challenging than the uk

[@ActualCounterfactual]

I have 2 addictions.... window lights or cloudy/overcast days... this might make me boring & predictable in some eyes, but it's a sure winner and its hard to fail 😅

[@Daniel_Ilyich]

N.B. At 18:44, Alex, the link doesn't appear!

[@lesberkley3821]

After all, the Quaint Victorians® used huge north-facing skylights in their studios. Elizabeth Messina is my favorite wedding photographer.

[@vancouverbluesea]

May I ask - how do you find quality pictures and good photographers that inspire you and you learn from them? Excluding the photo books (unless they can be found in the library) and aimless searching the internet.

[@ThePhotographicEye]

I'm answering that for you today :D

[@miraadi97]

If you follow one it's just un-raw/a cult if you mark many you are raw indeed a researcher. ❤

[@chriscard6544]

Our task as photographers is to turn poop into beauty

[@dergelenkspreizer5272]

Best light is a 45 degree window in the roof.

[@cuffarophoto]

Coffee or tea?

[@Daniel_Ilyich]

1:52 Is that Jessica Simpson?

[@huwpenson2678]

leave the UK for better light basically

[@namberak]

At the risk of being labeled "that guy," if you're discussing 'natural' light, what is 'unnatural' light? Wouldn't a better way of naming it be 'available' light?

[@michaelhall2709]

‘Natural’ light, as opposed to ‘artificial’ light. Since light may at once both be artificial and available, no; it’s not a better description.

[@earlfenwick]

DPs would sometimes use available light working on movies. As in 'every light available'! 😮.

[@donnaallison5497]

'Promo SM' 😇