Several weeks ago, Fstoppers writer, Rebecca Britt reviewed the first volume of a fresh, captivating tutorial called Mastering Lighting. It's creator, Nick Saglimbeni, has an extensive background in both photography and cinematography and a great understanding of how to artistically light a scene.
Due to the great response he received from our global Fstoppers community, Nick and the SlickforceStudio team announced today that the Mastering Lighting tutorial is now available both Spanish and German. To get a preview of what the tutorial covers in all three of these languages, he's also given us the first chapter for free exclusively on Fstoppers. Check them out below! The introduction gives you a look into Nick's own story as an artist and features work from talented, up-and-coming photographers that he taught from countries around the world as distant as Kuwait and Nigeria.
Chapter One in English:
Chapter One in German:
Chapter One in Spanish:
The SlickforceSystem website has also been updated in both German and Spanish to offer many international photographers the same content in their native language.
Nick's work is beautifully created and the tutorial is just as engaging. Throughout the tutorial, Nick walks you through some of his most award-winning shoots and how he built up the lighting in each of his images. The tutorial really breaks the mold by reverse-engineering using 3D virtual recreations. Nick goes in depth to show this by scouting the location, previsualizing and composing the shot, preparing his gear with specific lighting, and finally, building up the light in the scene. This allows viewers to fully visualize the extent of each scene he worked in.
Check out the full review: Fstoppers Mastering Lighting Review.
SlickforceStudio is also offering the Fstoppers community $20 off any SlickforceSystem tutorial product. Use promo code FSJUN15 if you want to take advantage of the deal for any of their learning series found here:
Mastering Lighting: vol. 1 Digital Download- $149
Mastering Lighting: vol. 1 DVD and SoftLight- $149
Mastering Lighting: vol. 1 Digital Download, DVD and SoftLight- $169
Mastering Lighting: vol. 1 Limited Edition VIP Black Box Set- $219
You can see more of Nick Saglimbeni's work at the following:
Thanks for the free... trailer.
The Lighting is great, but I'd love to see how much work is the post processing is added to most of the images shown above and from Nick. From what I saw in his work its fantastic but its more digital art, which does require a very good photography foundation. I'd love to know what can I get from watching the video as a photographer not heading into the digital art direction. I do not like investing hours into a photograph, I do not want to be known as the digital artist or super photoshop user.
Looking at the sample intro image above, it looks like to be a master you have to be very ready for a lot of equipment and staff. If I watch this video will I learn techniques I can apply a solo crew without spending thousands of dollars to get the master lighting technique done?
Hi Chris, thank you for your question. I welcome anyone else who's seen the series to chime in so you'll have a fully unbiased answer, but I'll do my best in the meantime.
You are absolutely right, I do enjoy using big equipment and a larger-than-average crew. However, this is only because my own personal visions warrant that particular scale. The lighting concepts I teach can most certainly be applied to much smaller shoots. For example, I shoot at 100 ISO indoors so I need a lot of light, but you can achieve the same ratios at 400 ISO using 1/4 of the strobe output and by increasing your shutter 2 stops.
I made a point in Mastering Lighting to cover lighting techniques that range from the free (directing sun with mirrors and glass) to the ambitious (multiple strobes through fog worked into existing natural light setups). Since this is our first volume, I felt it was important to cover a wide spectrum, and let the viewers tell me what they'd like to see more of in the future.
I will absolutely keep your comments in mind during the development of the second volume, and put additional emphasis on micro-budget setups with small or no crew. That said, I do believe in working towards building a team—which can even be a sibling or a friend holding a bounce card—that helps you achieve your ultimate vision as an artist.
I hope that helps. Let me know if I can answer any other questions.
Thanks Nick. I now understand. I will def buy the DVD because I truly do see the power of lighting to helping the image look and feel professional and high quality. When I light I spend more time in lighting to intentionally save me time in post, at least for me since I am NOT a digital artist. I thought about hiring or working with a retoucher for my team but I've been told it should be my editing and retouching strictly which I agree with from an artist standpoint, as for business not sure if making a profitable business or having more pride in being an artist is the question and problem I'd need to figure out. But hopefully the DVD will add on some skills I did not know even though that is what I focus primarily on every single shoot, lighting.
Geez, what is that? a Michael Bay movie production? All that set-up for a single picture? I'd rather watch a Joe McNally tutorial...