Lighten Up and Snoot : The Envigado Shoot, Bar La Sierra

Alright people it's time to learn a thing or two. So Mikey and I head out to what we think is the coolest bar in all of Envigado, La Sierra which is owned by our good friend Carlos Mario. It's a tiny and I mean tiny bar with some of the coolest atmosphere you can ever imagine. It is true what they say, good things come in small packages.

We went out with Gaby as our model and we wanted to play with a snoot technique we wanted to share with you. We love snoots! Unbelievable creativity in something so simple!

More info, photos, and brand spankin new Lightroom Presets after the break

Ok, so first thing is first, The Snoot. We forgot our Honl Snoots (which are NOT on our recommended list) so we had to make our own. No worries though, we found some cardboard and off we went. A little bit of MacGyverness and gaffer's tape goes a long way. What you want to do is create a funnel with the cardboard. The smaller the opening, the more concentrated the light will be...and vice versa. Once your funnel is created just cut the larger side so that it is straight and can fit over the speedlight easily. A little bit of tape and you are ready to go.

The main focus of a snoot is to bring out detail, and you do this by simply firing the snoot with more power than your fill or main light source. We usually shoot anywhere between 1 and 2 stops above the fill light power. So for example, if my fill light is set to 1/8 power then we will set the snoot to 1/4 or maybe even 1/2 power depending on the effect we want.

Check out the example:

This is straight out of the camera! The fill although dark, gives the photo the mood we want! Here we had the 28" Westcott softbox above Gaby and feathered away from the wall as our fill light and the snoot pointed directly at her face. You can see the glow the snoot gave her face. It's just cool stuf! Think of the possibilities when you are using more than one!

Alright and here is the post processed image:

Going for that Sepia look. The bar was old, so this is the look we want for these shots! Granted nothing is set in stone. We are very happy with this feel!!

Oh and guess what....here's a video on how we did it! We are going to start sharing our post process with all of our images and the Lightroom Presets! Just know that this might not work with your image perfectly, might require a little tweaking. In any case enjoy and let us know what you think:



Alright and here is the preset you can download

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD SEPIA OLD BAR LIGHTROOM PRESET

To install go to your Lightroom Develop Presets Folders and just put it in there. Restart lightroom and it should show up! Let us know if you have any problems!

Like always!!! Now that you know....GET OUT AND SHOOT!!!! Tell everyone about lightenupandshoot.com, show everyone what you've learned and make sure you tell us about it!

Andy & Mikey