Oh, Sean. You have no idea how much I appreciate your videos. I’ve been watching for years and learned so much. The last one from this series I was definitely there commenting on how much I appreciated it and wanted more. Thank you one more time for a second video on this series!
Fantastic video! I think with this reference it might have been interesting to mention hair and makeup - imo some of the choices made in those areas really make O'Neill's photo stand out
Hi Sean. When I was a photographers assistant, in the early eighties, one of the last jobs of the day would be to do lighting diagrams that were then attached to the job sheet with the polaroids. For this shoot we would of copylit a white scoop for the background and had a diffusing brolly attached to the front of the keylight. Also, the model would of been seated at a table top with a white scoop covering the width of the table leading back to the camera that was a Mamyia 6x7. I also loved working on car shoots. Large cove studios, floating ceilings, tungsten film lighting on big crank-up stands, black out curtains along the side of the car to hide the crew and equipment; 10 x 8 Sinar. The best kept secret was being on location with little portable flash units made by Norman, great piece of kit.
Excellent! Hey, hold option while resizing that reference pic and you won't have to go corner by corner. Center the reference, cmd-T, then hold option while you drag ONE corner and it will resize from the center out. Fast!
Spot on analysis of the lighting. The light behind is a large rectangular strip light place behind the model and facing upwards giving that soft gradual gradient. I think, he shot this portrait with a Hasselblad 500 CM and probably an 60mm or 80mm Zeiss lens.
@@NickStreeter There is no equivalent of an 80mm on medium format for 35, simply due to the fact that the aspect ratios are so different. A 45mm lens would have the same horizotal FOV as the 80mm on 6X6, but if you want to get the same aspect ration as the original, then you'd have to use a 35mm lens and use the central square of 24X24mm on the 35mm format. If you have one these dangled fangled mirroless cameras, it might allow you to crop square in camera or even in the EVF.
Beautifully done, Sean. A quick note on Michelle’s pupils/iris size; the lighting may have been strobes too, I’m able to achieve her look with the modeling lamps constricting pupils too
This is a great look! I’ve found that a close silver beauty dish with a fine grid accentuates the light drop-off and really carves out the cheeks without the black boards on each side.
Simplicity… you have this gift, my friend, and it’s definitely easy for me to understand what it is indeed complicated. Thanks for your time, love this contents.
Thanks for the great video! My gut feeling is that the Michelle Pfeiffer picture was done with an even wider lens, something in the 24mm to 28 mm range. Michelle doesn´t have an unusually narrow face, if you look at other pictures of her. Everything else you did was magic! You got everything right! Well done. Additional information: Terry O´Neill states that his favorite lens was a 50 mm distagon lens on his Hasselblad camera. That would be 28mm in full frame.
Great video one of the best channels for learning photography on RUclips appreciate so much that you are one of the few photographers that actually give us real information to let us grow instead of just doing self advertisement like so many others do here. I would really love to see more of that how to series ❤
When I hit ▶️ on this I was hopeing to watch a good video on lighting, I didn’t, I actually watched a FANTASTIC insight to lighting via one of the very best YT’ers on the platform. Thx Sean, this has been the elixir that I needed for my photography.
In regard to your comment about the large pupils - a more powerful modeling light will also allow the pupils to close if you are using a strobe that has that feature. Or you can use another light source, like a flashlight or a room light that is bright enough to get the eyes to react, but is overpowered by the strobe burst. There are options that do not require constant lights.
Excellent job your an ACE Photographer. Im going to replicate this with my girlfriend the weekend, I’m a complete beginner when it comes to Portraits, thanks for the advice and great tutorial.
Thanks so much for another one of these Sean. I don’t even really shoot portrait photography but these videos are so interesting and fun both for the rationale and deduction of the lighting techniques and then the processes of taking and editing. So enjoyable and informative.
Really Great... I am so pleased that your thought process was so familiar to mine in reverse engineer photos.... going to have to look up "Guess the Lighting". Thanks!
Always great videos. For me I like less editing. We all have imperfection and I think thats what makes all of us unique. I like the two week fix but the rest I would have left. She's a beautiful woman as is and your an awesome photographer and teacher. Keep the lessons coming. I am still on the struggle bus with my flash/lighting.
This is brilliant, really interesting to see how you study & break down the original picture to then rebuild to create a similar one, which looks amazing. Thank you.
amazing video. it came the right time for me. to have a photographer explain how a picture was taken by another photographer is most helpful. especially when it comes to studio lighting. i m going to try and recreat this photographe. and i m hoping that you ll make some more videos like that. thank you very much.
Hi seanjust came across you Chanel a few weeks ago . Love your videos and how you give an honest opinion on things and the pace you do your videos, thanks
I just wanted to thank you for creating such an informative and inspiring video on portrait photography. Your demonstration on how to recreate the iconic Michelle Pfeiffer portrait by Terry O'Neill was truly impressive, and your insights on light and shadow usage were incredibly helpful for me as a hobbyist landscape photographer who is also interested in portrait photography. Your practical approach to teaching and sharing your knowledge is truly admirable, and I appreciate the effort you put into creating such high-quality content. Your video has not only helped me in improving my lighting techniques, but it has also served as a great source of inspiration for my future photography endeavors. Once again, thank you for sharing your expertise, and I look forward to learning more from you.
This is fantastic. Would love to see more. Maybe a Platon recreation of his Bill Clinton shot where you see the distortion in the hands and knees compared to face.
I think this shot was taken with a medium format camera. That's where the perspective distortion from the lens comes from, it's close enough but distorted. And the square format can also be like that from the beginning. Thanks for the video!
Excellent video, and a beautiful result. Very effective use of simple techniques. Suggestion for another one: Irving Penn's portrait of Jessye Norman (1983).
Great video. Very insightful. If I may add my .02, I’m thinking more of a focal length around 50mm, if not longer. The reasoning - at a 1x1 crop, at 35mm, you’d really only see the distortion 3/4 to the outer rim of the 35mm 2x3 ratio, not really in the center. Maybe shooting at 21/24 mm would you see noticeable barrel. When comparing the two images, the original has a more flattened appearance where your final image has a more roundish look. I do lots of wide-angle portraiture work and am used to having to setup keystones in order to artificially flatten and straighten images, so…it’s easy to spot wide angle lenses used in other images. And I agree with the silver vs. white beauty dish. The original appears to have a very strong and crisp look to it, where your image shows a flatter look across the face. I feel like the beauty dish could be lowered ever so slightly. Also the black flags need to come in closer to her face. And if this was done commercially, instead of in some studio, chances are she’s have a white sweep, which would would need to be evenly lit from both sides or a single light behind her. But either way, she’s most likely pulled out further away the background as the background is not stark white, but more of a cream look, which you’d may not get from a scrim. The bottom reflector from the clam shell appears to have a more roundish look in the original instead of your teardrop…plus it has a soft reflect, which indicates a white reflector instead of silver. Not sure about the 2.8 aperture…I’m thinking f4/F5.6. 5.6 is a common studio setting. It would be easier to create the softening effect from the eyes to the hair using a longer focal length then using a 35mm up close. For anyone reading this, this is not a dig at the photographer. This was an excellent tutorial and I wish more photographers tried recreate images as it’s a masterclass in learning how to recreate images everytime. One last thing…your white balance is off. It’s too warm. I’m thinking the original is around 5400-5600k where yours looks like 5800-6000k. I too shoot with godox ad200’s for on the go shoots and find they shoot a bit warmer then I like.
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
Oh, Sean. You have no idea how much I appreciate your videos. I’ve been watching for years and learned so much. The last one from this series I was definitely there commenting on how much I appreciated it and wanted more. Thank you one more time for a second video on this series!
Love your profile picture!
In my humble opinion, your pic is better than the original one. Thank you for your master class.
Fantastic video! I think with this reference it might have been interesting to mention hair and makeup - imo some of the choices made in those areas really make O'Neill's photo stand out
Yeah the hair styling makes such a huge difference
Your enthusiasm is infectious 👍👍
Hi Sean.
When I was a photographers assistant, in the early eighties, one of the last jobs of the day would be to do lighting diagrams that were then attached to the job sheet with the polaroids.
For this shoot we would of copylit a white scoop for the background and had a diffusing brolly attached to the front of the keylight. Also, the model would of been seated at a table top with a white scoop covering the width of the table leading back to the camera that was a Mamyia 6x7.
I also loved working on car shoots. Large cove studios, floating ceilings, tungsten film lighting on big crank-up stands, black out curtains along the side of the car to hide the crew and equipment; 10 x 8 Sinar.
The best kept secret was being on location with little portable flash units made by Norman, great piece of kit.
Excellent! Hey, hold option while resizing that reference pic and you won't have to go corner by corner. Center the reference, cmd-T, then hold option while you drag ONE corner and it will resize from the center out. Fast!
Love this kind of videos...!In this photo of Michelle, can be appreciated the perfect symmetry of her face...the perfect face
Wonderfully done mate. I prefer your shot to be honest. Ailona is stunning. Can’t wait till the next one.
Spot on analysis of the lighting. The light behind is a large rectangular strip light place behind the model and facing upwards giving that soft gradual gradient. I think, he shot this portrait with a Hasselblad 500 CM and probably an 60mm or 80mm Zeiss lens.
35mm equivalent?
@@NickStreeter There is no equivalent of an 80mm on medium format for 35, simply due to the fact that the aspect ratios are so different. A 45mm lens would have the same horizotal FOV as the 80mm on 6X6, but if you want to get the same aspect ration as the original, then you'd have to use a 35mm lens and use the central square of 24X24mm on the 35mm format. If you have one these dangled fangled mirroless cameras, it might allow you to crop square in camera or even in the EVF.
Thanks for sharing this tutorial. I like your version over the original. Knowing exactly how far to push the image without spoiling it. Superb !
Beautifully done, Sean. A quick note on Michelle’s pupils/iris size; the lighting may have been strobes too, I’m able to achieve her look with the modeling lamps constricting pupils too
That was my thinking.
This video was fantastic! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do this again! Doing Platon image next would be very interested!!!
Thanks! I really enjoy your message and your content!
Thoroughly enjoyed this video. Everything is communicated well. Thank you.
I love that in your tutorials you always drop tips and tricks which are just simple and quick. No need to overcomplicate or watch an in depth tutorial
This is a great look! I’ve found that a close silver beauty dish with a fine grid accentuates the light drop-off and really carves out the cheeks without the black boards on each side.
Simplicity… you have this gift, my friend, and it’s definitely easy for me to understand what it is indeed complicated. Thanks for your time, love this contents.
Thanks for the great video! My gut feeling is that the Michelle Pfeiffer picture was done with an even wider lens, something in the 24mm to 28 mm range. Michelle doesn´t have an unusually narrow face, if you look at other pictures of her. Everything else you did was magic! You got everything right! Well done. Additional information: Terry O´Neill states that his favorite lens was a 50 mm distagon lens on his Hasselblad camera. That would be 28mm in full frame.
Excellent video, Sean 👍
Beautiful portraits, both. And great tutorial! Thank you!
Clearly one of the best tutorials I have seen. Clear, explicit and really seeking to educate and share your knowledge. Thank you.
It is really very instructive, and following you destructuring and analysing is a real pleasure. Please continue.
Great video one of the best channels for learning photography on RUclips appreciate so much that you are one of the few photographers that actually give us real information to let us grow instead of just doing self advertisement like so many others do here. I would really love to see more of that how to series ❤
Really like how you explain things.
I miss seeing your videos more often and honestly I love your portrait videos! Please more!
When I hit ▶️ on this I was hopeing to watch a good video on lighting, I didn’t, I actually watched a FANTASTIC insight to lighting via one of the very best YT’ers on the platform.
Thx Sean, this has been the elixir that I needed for my photography.
Love this, more of these please! Long time viewer, first time commenter.
absolutely love these kind of videos. please do continue to post such tutorials.
Wonderful portrait! The break down from light setups to editing is excellent. Thank you!
Thanks, Sean. I really like the way you explain the lighting.
Beautiful
Great tutorial. Thank you very much!
This channel is such a gem. Hard to believe that all this amazing content is available for free.
Hj j
In regard to your comment about the large pupils - a more powerful modeling light will also allow the pupils to close if you are using a strobe that has that feature. Or you can use another light source, like a flashlight or a room light that is bright enough to get the eyes to react, but is overpowered by the strobe burst. There are options that do not require constant lights.
Excellent Sean. Great job and beautiful model!!! Ailona is so beautiful as Michelle is!!! Congratulations👏👏👏
Awesome recreation!!! I love your thoughts and attention to the size of your model’s pupils at 18:48. Love you videos, Sean!
Brilliant work, really interesting seeing how to replicate a lightning set-up 👍🏻 great work, thanks very much. Ryan.
Great analyses of the light settings, Sean!!! I learned so much from these details, thanks a lot. Cheers, Dirk
Another fantastic reference video. Thank you Sean.
Thanks Sean, this is my style of shooting and you've brought to my attention some techniques I'll be implementing in the future.
Your lighting abservation is great, and I liked the final result. Thankyou sean.
Excellent video. I really appreciate the simple techniques and restraint in the retouching. Thanks.
I really liked this style of video. I thought your depth of explanation was pitched perfectly.
Great video! I’m going to start analyzing some portraits and see what i can come up with.
Thank you sir for all your videos. Finally someone i can understand when it comes to editing in Photoshop.
Excellent job your an ACE Photographer. Im going to replicate this with my girlfriend the weekend, I’m a complete beginner when it comes to Portraits, thanks for the advice and great tutorial.
Sure do more of these videos, i always learn a lot of it for myself and my own photography journay. Thank you for your work.
Very very interesting video. Thank you!
Yes, I found this very informative and presented is a very clear and precise manner. Thank you.
Excellent.. thank you always learn something from you.
Seeing how you work these is certainly something I would appreciate
Wonderful, good job, well explained.
Nice to see you again on here Sean
Thanks so much for another one of these Sean. I don’t even really shoot portrait photography but these videos are so interesting and fun both for the rationale and deduction of the lighting techniques and then the processes of taking and editing. So enjoyable and informative.
Many thanks Sean for your great tutorial. I would love to see some Hurrell type lighting for b&w.
Really Great... I am so pleased that your thought process was so familiar to mine in reverse engineer photos.... going to have to look up "Guess the Lighting". Thanks!
Always great videos. For me I like less editing. We all have imperfection and I think thats what makes all of us unique. I like the two week fix but the rest I would have left. She's a beautiful woman as is and your an awesome photographer and teacher. Keep the lessons coming. I am still on the struggle bus with my flash/lighting.
Excellent work. Definitely enjoying the series.
Fantastic example, thanks for step by step with explanations!
This is brilliant, really interesting to see how you study & break down the original picture to then rebuild to create a similar one, which looks amazing. Thank you.
Very nice. I do like the breakdown of where the lights are positioned and the lighting levels. I look forward to more like this. thank you.
Wonderful work and demonstration!
Thank you Sean for this fantastic tutorial! Love your style of teaching and your creativity!
Love the mention of the positioning of lighting
amazing video. it came the right time for me. to have a photographer explain how a picture was taken by another photographer is most helpful. especially when it comes to studio lighting. i m going to try and recreat this photographe. and i m hoping that you ll make some more videos like that. thank you very much.
Fantastic man, I think you nailed it. Really impressed, cheers!
Thank you!! Wonderful video!
Keep it up this helped me so much with seeing the light in portraits
Love these lighting videos! FYI: The blog, "Guess the Lighting," that Sean mentions can be found on the Internet Archive.
Sean, this is very, very, very good video. Great job!
Phenomenal Sean.
Hi seanjust came across you Chanel a few weeks ago . Love your videos and how you give an honest opinion on things and the pace you do your videos, thanks
I just wanted to thank you for creating such an informative and inspiring video on portrait photography. Your demonstration on how to recreate the iconic Michelle Pfeiffer portrait by Terry O'Neill was truly impressive, and your insights on light and shadow usage were incredibly helpful for me as a hobbyist landscape photographer who is also interested in portrait photography.
Your practical approach to teaching and sharing your knowledge is truly admirable, and I appreciate the effort you put into creating such high-quality content. Your video has not only helped me in improving my lighting techniques, but it has also served as a great source of inspiration for my future photography endeavors.
Once again, thank you for sharing your expertise, and I look forward to learning more from you.
I absolutely love this type of content as I am always trying new lighting styles. Thank you so much for the tips on not doing too much retouching.
Excellent work! Thank you!
This is EXCELLENT!! Wow, a lot of practical learning in there! Thank you so much….
Very nice idea Sean. Lot to learn with this approach. Many thanks.
Very well done..Congrats Sean.
Enjoyed very much. Lovely work, well presented!
Excellent excellent walk through! Really makes me want to try it myself.
I like your version more to be honest. both are great. Just my preference is all. Great video.
I think the background is lit by an umbrella positioned behind her so the light spread well but not flat as pointing a octabox like you did.
Great work Sean! When you were making some adjustments, you converted her image to black & white and that image was amazing! She is beautiful!
Now that you pointed out the pupils I really do like the results you got better.
Sean enjoyed this vidio you make it look so simple and stress free, keep up the great work.
This is fantastic. Would love to see more. Maybe a Platon recreation of his Bill Clinton shot where you see the distortion in the hands and knees compared to face.
Platon is on the list for sure.
Thank you for a very educative video! Would be cool to see your approach on Plato style.
He's on my list:)
Sean this series idea is effing brilliant! After the Ernest Hemmingway episode I've been itching for more.
I think this shot was taken with a medium format camera. That's where the perspective distortion from the lens comes from, it's close enough but distorted.
And the square format can also be like that from the beginning.
Thanks for the video!
Excellent video, and a beautiful result. Very effective use of simple techniques. Suggestion for another one: Irving Penn's portrait of Jessye Norman (1983).
This format is just amazing. Please more!
Great video, thank you
Very helpfull Sean, thanks! Hope you will continue this series..
Wow, so awesome! Thank you for the tutorial and the inspiration
Great one!
Great video. Very insightful. If I may add my .02, I’m thinking more of a focal length around 50mm, if not longer. The reasoning - at a 1x1 crop, at 35mm, you’d really only see the distortion 3/4 to the outer rim of the 35mm 2x3 ratio, not really in the center. Maybe shooting at 21/24 mm would you see noticeable barrel. When comparing the two images, the original has a more flattened appearance where your final image has a more roundish look. I do lots of wide-angle portraiture work and am used to having to setup keystones in order to artificially flatten and straighten images, so…it’s easy to spot wide angle lenses used in other images. And I agree with the silver vs. white beauty dish. The original appears to have a very strong and crisp look to it, where your image shows a flatter look across the face. I feel like the beauty dish could be lowered ever so slightly. Also the black flags need to come in closer to her face. And if this was done commercially, instead of in some studio, chances are she’s have a white sweep, which would would need to be evenly lit from both sides or a single light behind her. But either way, she’s most likely pulled out further away the background as the background is not stark white, but more of a cream look, which you’d may not get from a scrim. The bottom reflector from the clam shell appears to have a more roundish look in the original instead of your teardrop…plus it has a soft reflect, which indicates a white reflector instead of silver. Not sure about the 2.8 aperture…I’m thinking f4/F5.6. 5.6 is a common studio setting. It would be easier to create the softening effect from the eyes to the hair using a longer focal length then using a 35mm up close. For anyone reading this, this is not a dig at the photographer. This was an excellent tutorial and I wish more photographers tried recreate images as it’s a masterclass in learning how to recreate images everytime. One last thing…your white balance is off. It’s too warm. I’m thinking the original is around 5400-5600k where yours looks like 5800-6000k. I too shoot with godox ad200’s for on the go shoots and find they shoot a bit warmer then I like.
Fantastic tutorial, learned alot. Please keep doing these!
Fantastic tutorial…bravo!!!!!
Nice idea and work! Thanks for the tipps! 🙏
I want to see more, I love the concept
I really loved this video. It makes me want to try more portraiture 👍
Love this series of videos.