Cinematic Lighting
Learn how to sculpt your photos with light
Lighting is the quintessential skill that every photographer must master. Whether you hold camera for the first time in your life, or wish to delve into movie making, light is going to be your best tool in your arsenal, and this tutorial will grow your skill by leaps and bounds. Dive into the most comprehensive guide to light yet.
Over 2 hours of content | 26 Chapters | Digital DeliveryWhat will you learn?
The series starts with the basic building blocks: working in enclosed studio and thorough introduction to the key concepts. Once you learn the essentials in the controlled environment, you will move to the real world. You will learn how to make the best use of light in both exteriors and interiors, both spacious and tight, dim and bright. You will find that ideas are unlimited by budget, only know-how.
Note for Czech speaking customers: Pokud stojíte o tuto výukovou sérii v českém jazyce, naleznete ji zde. Jedná se o totožnou sérii, pouze s odlišným názvem.
What will you learn?
Essentials
The series starts with the basic building blocks: working in enclosed studio and thorough introduction to the key concepts. Once you learn the essentials in the controlled environment, you will move to the real world. You will learn how to make the best use of light in both exteriors and interiors, both spacious and tight, dim and bright. You will find that ideas are unlimited by budget, only know-how.
Colour
Colours and use of filters are often unjustly forgotten by many photographers, yet they can make a huge difference. Whether you are going for the atmosphere of sunny orchard, dark alley, or dramatic cyberpunk scenery, you need to look no further. You will find out that adding a filter is a subtle and powerful tool that can change mood and make your picture whole lot immersive.
Permanent lights
Flashlights are the traditional staples of most shootings you might do, but they are not the answer to every situation. Permanent lights are better suited to situations when you want to set the tone and have perfect control over it. In this chapter you will learn to use and combine all sorts of static lights, be it LED panels, Fresnel, HMI, halogens, or even simple lightbulbs.
Lighting the entire scenes
The third chapter is the pinnacle of photography skills. Illuminating the whole scene, no matter how large, is a daunting task. You will apply all you have learned this far, step by step putting all the puzzle pieces together. The result will be astounding, your pictures will look as captions from a blockbuster movie.
Learn from one of the world’s best retouchers.
Perfect workflow
Stanislav is well known for his robust, structured and theory-based approach to compositing. He will guide you through his entire workflow from start to finish and make sure that you know every tool and technique you need, as well as all the underlying theory. This is perhaps the most advanced compositing tutorial on the market, because it will give you not only the answers to HOW, but more importantly to WHY. At the end of your magnificent journey you’ll have all the necessary tools, techniques and skill to push your images way beyond what you thought was possible.
Note for Czech speaking customers: Pokud stojíte o tuto výukovou sérii v českém jazyce, naleznete ji zde. Jedná se o totožnou sérii, pouze s odlišným názvem.
Workflow & Techniques
Workflow is perhaps the most important thing when it comes to high-end compositing. Just as a house is built from ground up, same applies for compositing. There are rock solid foundations (of masking, blending images and working with perspective). Only when these are perfect, you can start working with the light and shadow. And only at the very end there’s time to add depth, drama and mood with color grading, particle effects or atmospheric perspective.
Theory
As compositors we’re basically builders of new worlds. But in order for them to look real, we need to have solid understanding of how does our world works. We need to be aware of theory behind light and shadow, we need to understand perspective and we also need to know at least basic art theory. As boring as this might seem, Stanislav will explain all the theory in very down-to-earth manner and you’ll be surprised, how helpful these chapters really are.
Dirty little tricks
There are few somewhat magic tricks Stanislav uses that will greatly improve your work. He’ll teach you how to blend different parts of your image seamlessly, how to create depth, drama as well as sense of reality. He’ll also show you, that it doesn’t really matter if you’re working with low-res sources or even no sources at all. These little tools are the product of Stanislav’s long and rich history in advertising industry and working on literally hundreds of composites.
Advanced techniques
There are techniques that everyone knows. And then there is the entire world of really advanced techniques that only very few select professionals know and use. Stanislav will teach you new ways of masking, working with elements, such as fire and water or advanced color grading. All of these techniques have their exact place in the workflow and complement the others.
World building
Once you get accustomed to the compositing workflow and learn the techniques, you are ready to start building your own worlds. Compositing Masterclass is designed to make you accomplished professional retoucher, ready to deal with even the most creative visions of photographers, art directors or clients.
Learn to craft complex worlds & stories.
Feedback from our students
“The best course I can recommend for editing in Photoshop. Stanislav is a photographer who has dedicated himself to taking photos with a special cinematographic style and what stands out in a great way is his extraordinary way of editing and color.”
— Hector Reyes Photography
I can confirm that your Masterclass is by far the best course I’ve followed, which means a lot when you know that I’ve followed the Retouching Academy courses, as well as those from the The Gnomon Workshop.
Bravo first, for the great pedagogy you demonstrated throughout each and every lesson, making advanced techniques easy to understand, learn, and replicate, while demystifying most of the preconceptions of photography post processing. Bravo too for the energy and the efforts you put into making these incredibly rich courses. Great artistic and personal vibes radiate from your Masterclass, making it as much inspiring as pleasant to watch and learn from.
By the way, regarding the incredible amount of precious informations you’re sharing, your Masterclass is also a great bargain.
— Emilien Delgery
“Stanislav is a master storyteller, so it was awesome watching him go through his process from start to finish. What makes this tutorial special is theory. Stanislav talks about underlying theory needed to create compelling stories and it's amazing seeing him carve out spectacular works from quite rough files. There are also really cool techniques he uses I've never seen before.”
— Radovan Bartek Photography
Stanislav provides amazing instruction, great insights to his work and in depth analysis of the how's and why's of his style choices for the provided images! This course is amazing, I would say it is a must for the beginner as well as advanced photographers and retouchers who are wanting to create EPIC Images!
By listening and applying Stanislav’s techniques, you will save tonnes of time. Simply follow his process for designing and mapping your thoughts for both shooting and retouching, for getting the desired outcome saving you time, frustration and money!
One of the BEST tutorials I have had the pleasure to learn from!!!
— Don Quincy Photo
The Retouching Masterclass was the best course I have ever seen! In the past I completed couple of courses but I still felt like I din't get any groundbreaking skills. Of course I got great knowledge about the tools but I feel in your course you’re providing us not only with the knowledge, but with many years of experience as well.
The skills that pop up as unique after this course are masking (that really blew my mind), and beauty retouching techniques. Before I just heard about the loudest ways (dodge & burn), but your way is simply superior to everything I’ve seen. I'm recommending your course to all my friends, even though I'm a little bit scared that they can take more from it and become almost too good :))
— Magdalena Kosztyła Photo
“I like to learn from the best artists and Stanislav is definitely one of them. He taught me how to look at an image comprehensively. Story, planning, composition, lighting, colors...absolute precision. I can’t be more grateful”
— Michal Barok, DoP
Add drama and motion with SFX.
What’s included?
We made sure that you have everything you need to become a compositing professional. We have included every PSD file and even added two bonus chapters. See for yourself.
26 chapters, more than 2 hours of video
Compositing Masterclass is comprised of 26 separate chapters, totalling more than 8 hours of video. Tutorial videos are shot at our professional studio in FullHD resolution, ready for playback on both your computer as well as any tablet device.
Full PSD sources
You’ll get the same final PSD files as your instructor. This means that you’ll be able to follow along and never get lost in the process.
Bonus materials
We have included over 50 hi-res files form our Elements package. Shot in uncompromising quality, Elements will allow you to work with the same breathtaking effects that we’re using in our work. Fire, water, light, fog or particle effects, we have something for any occasion.
Learn WHY, along with HOW.
Meet your instructor
Stanislav Petera quickly rose through the ranks of fashion and advertising photographers in Czech Republic, establishing a reputation for his passion and creativity. Having published in glossy fashion magazines (Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Marianne etc.) in his early twenties he felt he was missing key elements of the craft and moved to Paris.
After several years of a successful commercial career he decided to focus solely on his personal projects. He now spends most of his time shooting cinematic narrative images all around the world.
With more than fifteen years in the photography and retouching business at a professional level, Stanislav is one of the most sought-after retouching teachers. Over the past ten years he’s trained literally thousands of photographers and retouchers, who are now able to pursue professional careers.
Focus on story. Not the tools.
Frequently asked questions
How is this tutorial different?
This is perhaps the most complex compositing tutorial available on the market. There are three main differences. First is the workflow, which is structured, robust and universal. Second is extensive theory, which gives you rock-solid foundation for anything the world throws at you. Last are the advanced techniques, such as working with particle effects, re-lighting the scene or working with perspective. There’s simply no other compositing tutorial that covers all of these in systematic way.
What do I need to know?
Let’s be honest. This is tutorial is fairly advanced and you need to have solid understanding of Photoshop, as well as retouching techniques. In order to get the most out of Compositing Masterclass, we highly recommend for you to watch Retouching Masterclass first. Compositing starts right where Retouching ends. Even if you’re seasoned professional, there are techniques and theoretical foundations that you’ll find new and extremely useful. So please. Watch Retouching Masterclass first.
Why not learn from YouTube?
There are many great free tutorials available on YouTube, that’s for sure. But as with any other craft, retouching is best learned in a systematic way from a great teacher. Teacher who would explain not only the tools and techniques, but also the thinking behind them, underlying theory and context. That’s where YouTube fails and our guide really shines.
How fast would I get my videos?
Right away. Once your payment is processed, you’ll get a download link in your mailbox. Compositing Masterclass has about 11.8 GB and is divided into several parts so that your download is easier.
What Photoshop version?
Stanislav uses Photoshop CC 2015 in his workflow for several good reasons (main one being that it’s the most stable version available), but you’ll be fine with any version from CC 2014 all the way up to CC 2020. It’s also possible to work in Photoshop CS6 with a few small workarounds.
Would this work in Affinity Photo?
Yes! Since Affinity Photo is very similar to Photoshop, 99% of techniques will work there as well. We have many students who use Affinity with our guides.
