Can I Recreate this Famous Portrait? (George Clooney by Martin Schoeller)
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In this video I attempt to break down the lighting in this famous portrait of George Clooney by Martin Schoeller, as part of his 'up-close' portrait series, and then to recreate the same look in my garage studio to see what I can learn in the process.
#portraitphotography #martinschoeller #closeupportraits - Jak na to + styl
Thanks to all of you who've been adding information about what Schoeller shoots with in terms of cameras and lighting etc. I would challenge you though (and it's obviously the point of this series) that if you attempt this sort of challenge for yourself with the work of another photography, push yourself to try and replicate the look by reverse engineering the image by eye, and then using the gear you already have to get as close as you can. You'll get way more value trying to work things out for yourself, training your eye to recognise the lighting, and using your ingenuity to recreate it, than you will by researching and then just copying another photographers techniques and gear choices directly. Good luck.
Such smart thoughts. Thanks for that and i totally agree to what you think about reverse engineering. Greetings :)
Really cool! (But i think he uses a different focal length - in my opinion there is distortion on the faces. I think it has a 50 mm look.)
I even think a 35
@@Stesalti yes could be even a 35 👌🏻. But definetly not more then 50
50mm for sure.
50mm f4
I also thought about a wider lens from the start (50 or 35mm) but Sean's result was pretty accurate with his 85mm. Indeed his photo blended very well among the originals 👌
Great video! About a dozen years ago, one of my college Photoshop instructors was one of Schoeller’s editors. I really wish I remembered what he had said he did to the images, especially since he was talking specifically about the Clooney portrait. He even brought in a large mounted print of it to show us the finished product
Please keep doing more of these videos. It's amazing hearing your thoughts on this topic. Love it!
Great video! Thank you for sharing your learning journey. Now I have to try this!
Outstanding video. I appreciate the time you take to work through the process & explain your thinking. Such a great series of videos that you produce. Thank you.
Love this series - thanks for sharing Sean!
Really great. Very informative - keep them coming. Thank you.
Thank you for this Sean, I really love these videos.
Nice video. I've always loved Schoeller's portraits. Just a few things that I think could be tweaked. Positioning the Strip boxes slightly higher (just a couple of inches) than the subject and pointing down will give both the directionality of the light (where the under chin and lower cheeks are a little darker) and the gradation on the background you were going for. I also think Schoeller's tones are a little cooler or more desaturated than the shot you took - which still has some pink in the skin. Third point and this might be guessing, but I think the interior of the softboxes on Schoeller's work are possibly silver, which give a little more crispness to the images by emphasising the specular highlights. All in all though, a really good explanation.
I also think Schoeller also adds more contrast
Very informative! Great video. I'll have to look for the rest!
Outstanding tutorial Sean. Thank you!
Fantastic video Sean you absolutely got the lighting right 100%
Nice video! I had a go at this myself a few years ago. Didn't have any grids on my strip boxes then, and I also put them a bit too far to the sides. You got really close though 👍
Thank you, Sean. Very inspiring and easy to follow.
Very good Sean. Love Schoeller's look and this is very close. As a matter of interest I recently did a workshop with Craig Fleming and he created a 'Schoeller' lighting look with a pair of Nanlite Pavotubes positioned in front of the subject, but a bit more spaced apart than your stripboxes.
It's a really interesting style of portrait.
Amazing recreation. Excellent work to you, and your model.
Great stuff Sean (as usuall), keep it going!
There is a video on YT where Martin Schoeller shows and explains how to do it. This is the gear he used: Mamiya RZ67 Pro II with a 140mm lens.
Since you edited yours, I'll edit mine. The 140mm macro is roughly 74mm equivalent in 35mm for those who are guessing.
The crop factor of the RZ is 0,52 so you would end up at 74mm on a full frame digital camera.
@@guy-heylens RZ67 is a 6x7 camera. I think you are thinking 645.
@@ollitumelius4608 correct I have 2 of those, the crop factor is 0,53, so you would end up at 74mm for full frame body. And the 140 is the macro version.
I love the thinking process behind the recreations.
Been waiting for this ❤
Had fun trying this out today after watching yesterday,
😭😭😭😭 I’ve been shooting for more than 10 years and I can’t tell you have nice it is to hear the way you describe this process, particularly the way you describe the way that not having the grids would result light flooding in, thanks for your great work!
Thanks Sean...These "forensic lighting" tutorials are filled with great information along with the tidbits of post-processing information.
Love this series Sean!
Really well done, thanks for sharing
Cheers
So excited!
really inspirational series. Thanks!
Amazing job!
really interesting exercise, well executed and informative, thanks
Fabulously done, and lovely insights on how it is done. Perhaps, the old-Hollywood portraits could be included in future series...
Thank you for sharing what you were doing and why. I found the whole video amazing and I don't shoot portraits. Your ability to figure out the lighting as you did from the pictures and then replicate the look and feel was magical. I know I need to understand the capabilities of Photoshop better. Your editing of the picture reinforced that need as it was a slap in the face to work on this now. You are an artist and you prove it with every video. Wow!
Hi Sean. Love this series! I loved the Michelle Pfeiffer one and same with this one! I learn a lot with this videos and I consider them a great exercise!. Although I mostly like your "other" videos (more intimate thinking) I really enjoy when you get back to your tutorial/learning photography videos. Thanks for this one!! Cheers from Spain
Very interesting, Sean! Terrific result! Thank you. Even your technique to enhance the details was very good... although I'd use a blender highpass layer to give a more HDR-like effect of extra details. Thank you again!
Great work Sean!
I did this style once years ago. I used bounce boards in front of the subject in place of where you put the strip lights. And I fired my strobes from behind the subject over their shoulders. I used flags to control the light spill on the sides of the their heads and shoulders. I played around a lot with different sizes of bounce boards to give a different look in the subjects eyes.
It's cool to see how you analyzed and reverse engineered the shot and even noticed the slightly different angle at the end. Seeing that minor difference really made me realize what a big effect that has on the feel of the image. That slightly lower angle seems to add that subtle sense of gravitas.
This is really great and insightful; especially the Photoshop retouching (which I always struggle with).
A similar look can be achieved with a technique called parallel lighting. You take two strip boxes (with continuous lights) and place them facing each other. The subject is then lit by the light that is spilling out of the very edges of the strip boxes. This set-up gives great, dramatic light fall-off and the vertical double catchlights.
Fascinating. This is why this is such an incredibly valuable channel. Sean you don't think maybe he's using a shorter equivalent focal length? To my eyes, your version looks more compressed where I see the references do seem to really emphasise the centre of the face and are not so flattering. I'm thinking like a 56mm or something.
This was great. Thanks!
You're correct about the camera placement. He gives his subjects just a little bit of an angle to look down on the camera for a subconscious warm authority from them.
This series is brilliant!!!!
Great job!
Very interesting! Will try this too!
It looks like there is an extra light or white surface that lights the whole face from just slightly higher than the forehead and creates a very soft shadow on the neck, on the original. I love this series of videos, help me a lot to be more conscious with light and also camera positioning. Little changes can make a great difference !
Sending this video to my cousin, he used to assist for Martin. I’ll give an update on his thoughts.
any news?
I did this same experiment myself a year or two ago.There’s a great video online somewhere of him shooting race car drivers just as they’re coming off the track. He has a small box tent set up that they sit in for about 1 minute and he shoots them. The set up was strobes, in two thin (like 8inch) strip banks either side (no grids although I also heard he used kinoflows for these at some point) with just enough for them to see him between them and the lens. The tent itself is black so a natural negative fill on the sides and overhead, really close like inches away. He uses a Mamiya RZ67 with a slightly long lens (150 or 180 I think so like 75mm or 90mm equivalent). No backlight that I could see but they were right up against it so I’m guessing the strips were slightly angled maybe in this Clooney shot. He talked about not shooting wide open but just enough so it fell off just past the ears.
So yeah man good work, very very very close. Tough to recreate a 6x7 look on a smaller sensor.
Great video Sean
Great analysis. But I think he uses 65 mm or 75 mm lens. 85 makes faces too flat in surface.
You're the few photographers that actually I watch till the end of video and for sure I learn a lot from your contents. Keep going Sean!
Awesome…love to recreate that as well…I was only thinking maybe a little bit more contrast overall…but other than that…awesome work!
There is something going on optically with George’s portrait. Medium format maybe? The proportions are very heroic, bold, definitely not a standard 35mm look. Eyes seem bigger also. Anyway, loved the video, you nailed the lighting! Thanks!
Funny, I was just messing with a lighting set up just a randomly, I should have flagged it like ya did here on the sides. Always loved your vids! 😎
Excellent video
Very cool, the whole video and to see your process. I definitely think you’re right about the angle, Schoeller’s being slightly lower. I think he’s more level with the lips and looking up into the eyes. Also, he seems to be tweaking saturation and colors a bit as George looks more silver in skin tones overall but still keeps a red glow in the lips. When looking at all 6 photos at the end, there is definitely some coloring differences between yours and his. Great video as always.
❤❤thank you for this
I really enjoy this type of videos.
Hi Sean, as soon as I saw the portraits I immediately thought that the focal length was 35mm. I see a lot of distortion. I have a 40mm. The rest seems perfect to me
I agree, the ears in Martin's photos are recessed, very typical of a 50 or less focal lenght.
I would also say it is a 50mm equiv. in full frame rather than an 85. And this is the main point of the look IMO, more than lighting. @@pacoedw
no, that's wrong...schoeller uses a 140mm on 6x7 which is roughly equivalent to 74mm
Having seen your lighting with the grids makes me wonder if Schoeller uses barn doors or flags the lights off. Great tutorial. Thank you for sharing. I learned a lot.
Excellent!
thanks always good videos.
this is so great, thanks a lot!!
any chance you can do one in the style of Platon?
He's on the list:)
Hint: You can tell if the lights are continuous or flashes based on the pupil dilation. If the pupils are big, it means a flash was used because a flash does not give time for the pupils to contract. If the pupils are small, it means bright continuous lights were most likely used to keep the pupils small.
In this case, the pupils seems not to be widely dilated so it suggests continuous lights of something not too bright like average daytime light in terms of lumens.
Nice video! One thing I would reconsider is the focal length... as it seems to that original is more like 50mm-ish. But I could be wrong.
I think you're right. There is definitely a minimum level of distortion in the original shots that is reminiscent of the distortion you get at 50mm when working at a relatively short distance from the subject.
It’s been stated a 6x7 with a 140mm macro, about a 73mm on a FF. What no one is mentioning is that the closer you focus (distance to subject) the greater the distortion with any lens.
Hello Sean, I hope you are well. In addition to greeting you, I would like to tell you that today I made my first portraits with the technique that you show in this video and the truth is that I was very satisfied, I think I achieved the effect by 90%, it is a technique that I had never developed and today because of me work I took on the task of applying the technique to a recognized writer from my country. The truth is that I like them even more since I have gone through the editing process following your steps little by little and slowly so as not to make mistakes and I have been happy, the same with the model who is an older lady with wrinkles that give her A special touch. I took my photos with iso 100, f1.8 and 400 speed with a Nikon 750 and an 85mm 1.8. I appreciate your time and teaching. Greetings from Mexicali, Baja California. México.
Very illuminating.
Litteraly.
Really good challenge. Good work 📷
Great video! another thing which is important and can always been seen on the other portraits from Martin Schneller is that the faces are shot a little bit from the bottom (or the people raise their faces a little) to get that "heroic feeling" and not in the center of the face. But I think in this case its more about the lighting and not posing but it would bring it even closer ...
Fun video! I try to recreate lighting too as a learning exercise. One I had fun with, and you might like to try, is Dan Winters' work, specifically the portraits like Brian Cranston or Keanu Reeves.
I'd love to see an updated video of your personal current portrait style to get the most artistic look you like as close to sooc as you can...
Most of the times he’s using Kino Flo 4 foot 2 banks with eggcrates, but sometimes you can see him using chimera’s medium strips with grids. Profoto with standard reflector for the background. There are some videos on CZcams.
You did a really great job on this!
I have done this before but sometimes you have someone wearing glasses, which complicates things. My attempt is to ask the model to take off the glasses for some shots to get the eyes/glasses clear for retouching them in photoshop. I once forgot this and it’s really pita to retouch the grid reflection.
Sean Tucker. You are quite amazing. Once my nemesis and now my Hero. :-)
Superb!
Very helpful thanks! I feel the focal is a 50mm
Interesting project for sure. You did well grasshopper.
Constant lights also help in closing down the subjects pupil. So you don't have big black holes in the subject eyes as you get with strobes, and the catch lights are more prominent.
Most strobes have modeling lamps, so that's not an issue.
Welcome back. You had us worried about your absence from your channel.
Love you!
Enjoyed this Sean. Would love to see you recreate an Andy Gotts style portrait. I think his simple black and white / monochromatic would blend with your style. Be good to see how you capture the personality of the subject as Andy does
That would be amazing
amazing
in a Pop Photo interview, Schoeller said he used Mamiya RZ67 with 140mm, which is an equivalent of about 65mm in 35mm. with close/tight framing this shows a bit of perspective distortion in his portraits which is IMO not captured in your attempt. maybe a Sigma 65mm or a Voigtlander 65mm would aid to that, although you will likely lose the DoF effect.
I'm sure I once saw somebody doing something similar to this, but with a single large softbox that they would stand in front of, wearing black obviously, to create two lights out of the one.
Working out lighting for an image is one of my favorite spontaneous pass times. Haven't watched your full video as I begin guessing so I'm probably way wrong. :).
Can't enlarge the original image close enough to see if the boxes were gridded (it usually shows in the catch light). Maybe boxes are highly feathered?
Agree the boxes are just wide enough to shoot between (Hurley-like). First guess on lense is 2.8 on a 100 at 15 feet.
The highlights for center of the original image, to me, suggest the key lights are passing in front of the subject as opposed to feathered toward the subject.
... And now that the video has played out; I feel I was pretty close. Thank you. I'll go dig out the first two videos and give them likes as well.
Wow! After a few years, someone finally managed to get VERY close to the result. I always looked and even tried to reproduce these portraits of him, but I never managed to.
The sensation it creates is as if the person were inside a house, at the window, looking out onto the street. The side blockers help a lot to create this sensation.
Thank you so much for this, Sean. Congratulations and greetings from Brazil (Rio de Janeiro)
Loved this! Fascinating. Why didn't you take out the slight redness in the corners of his eyes?
In one of the events I attended he was shooting some portraits and noticed for background he uses a white background and a profoto and yes 2 strip boxes with grids and sometimes no grids. Camera he had 2 medium format including a Phase One with the 120mm macro.
great content, good show
I prefer your portrait. Well done!
I saw a BTS of one of his shot. He use two very close kino flo with grids.
It seems to me the focal length should be max 50mm and lights closer
Yes, definitely closer to 50mm than 85 mm.
Agreed, first thing I thought when I saw the references was that my 45mm lens would be great for this.
I love how you were able to replicate it .
Not to be too particular Sean, but if people looking at the catchlights think that the two strips of light are quite far apart because they HAVEN'T considered the shape of the eye, then once they have taken that into consideration, then the lights would be EVEN FURTHER apart than they initially thought.
but this is an excellent video and one that I greatly enjoying as someone with no familiarity with portrait photography!
This is very cool, educational…
Thank you. 🙏🏻
You can see the grid in the catchlights on Schoeller’s, at least recent ones. Agree with other comments that maybe your focal length is a bit long.
Great vid always enjoy your content and perspective
gotta say, i dont do an studio based stuff, couldnt even if i wanted to at this juncture, nonetheless, what an enjoyable video and a good lesson in analysing lighting. yeah, nice job.
These are no flash but constant lighting fresh new led panels for every shoot
It looks like the light fall off summitry is very strict in Martin's shots especially in the graduation of the fall off. I wonder if vertical shutters would give you the control you need in the catch light.
Great breakdown Sean. To my eye I feel the depth of field is still a little shallow and perhaps f/2.4 ish would have been spot on. And are the cheeks a little hot? Personal preference I guess. Cheers
I like this series. My first reaction to Schoeller's work is twofold: His camera height is lower OR he has them move their chin forward because every shot seems to have a wider or exaggerated/prominent jawline. I would also not be surprised to learn he uses a 50mm or something else a little wider than the 85 ... Clooney's ears are "set back."