Portrait Photography Trick- Fake Sunset & Moonlight with One LED Light

This video is sponsored by Juin. Hey guys, Irene here. Welcome back to my YouTube channel. Today, I got a really fun and easy photo shoot setup to share with you. I'll be using just one LED light mixed with natural light to create fake sunset effect and then switching it up to fake moonlight. This is something literally anyone can do in their home. All you need is a window and one light. And the light that I'm using today is Juin Mollis X100 RGB, which was created in collaboration with the super talented Cam Mackey. Cam is a friend and a fellow YouTuber, so when I found out about this collab, I just had to try it out myself and show you what cool things you can do with it. What I really love about this set is how much it reflects Cam's style. It's rugged, outdoorsy. It has that Western flair to it. It just looks really cool. And inside the case, you've got your light, of course, a mini lens reflector that is stackable with some barn doors, a battery so you can take it on location, and even a small soft box. It's honestly still wild to me how compact and lightweight this light is, and yet it still delivers a really powerful output. I also love how easy it is to connect to the Juin app and control everything right from your phone. I think Cam really nailed it with this one. This idea came to me after I found this picture on Pinterest. I loved it, and I thought, I can totally recreate this, especially since I have a really nice window in my living room. The only problem is that it's east-facing, so I don't get that sunset light shining through it, but that's when I remembered. I don't actually need natural light. I can fake it with an LED, especially if it's an RGB, so I can make it super warm, almost orange, to really mimic that golden hour glow. So I wanted to also add some visual interest and put up the lace curtains like in the inspo photo, so I went to Value Village and found some really inexpensive ones. I think I paid around $25 in total for these curtains. Then I started clearing out my living room and taped the curtains to the window with some strong tape. They did unstick a couple of times, and I had to retape them during the photo shoot, but honestly, this was the most non-permanent and easy solution for this photo shoot. I also put up a backdrop to cover the TV, but in the end, I didn't really need it. I didn't shoot any angles where TV was visible, but I wanted to show you that there's always a way to use your space and transform it. Sometimes it just takes a little bit extra effort. My model, Paige, did very simple makeup. She's perfect, she doesn't really need much, and we did some soft curls in her hair and started off with this lace dress that matched the curtains and fits that vintage vibe I was going for. All right, so I have my light, and I'm gonna put it outside now. Let's hope no one's gonna steal my light. Okay, we're gonna change. I'm gonna have it full blast. I'm just gonna change the hue to a yellow light, make it very almost like orangey, orangey yellow, to make it look like it's sunset. Let's see. Okay, now let's see what it looks like. Oh, that's cool. No, it looks nice here, actually. On camera, it's coming up very sunset. Oh, oh yes. It's crazy how different it looks in real life than it does on camera. On camera, it's coming up very much like sunsetty. So this is what the straight out of the camera pictures look like, just using natural light versus adding the LED to create that fake sunset look. And I think it looks very convincing, but let me know what you think. I have the LED light at 100% in RGB mode, and I set it to a fairly orange tone to mimic the late golden hour. And I'll quickly add that the natural light will affect the outcome quite a lot. So I'd recommend shooting later in the day when the sun is already pretty low, but not totally gone. And you wanna make sure that your LED is strong enough to compete with the natural light. The brighter it is outside, the less noticeable the LED will be. You can see how, as the photo shoot progresses, we're gonna be getting a slightly different look. And that's because the LED and the natural light outside are mixing and shifting as the light changes. Do you want hair like on face or down? Over here is kinda nice, kinda like almost, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's really cool. Love that, love that. Oh yeah, that's beautiful. Yeah, gorgeous. So don't be afraid to move, yeah. You can definitely just kinda give me, yeah, yes, yeah. Even like a little bit, you know, with your face, you can just move to the side, or like, yes, yes. Yeah, or move your hair, yes. Sometimes when you just kind of move, I'll see one pose, yes, yes, exactly, exactly. And now grab the book and again, like, put it right here. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yes. So I wanna take some more close-ups right here. Oh yeah, that's beautiful, that's gorgeous. I like actually you looking down, too, yeah. Mm-hmm, yes. Oh, that's gorgeous, love, love, love, love. Oh, these are beautiful. Mm-hmm, beauty, love. Yeah, that's really, oh, that's really nice. You might have noticed that I usually shoot a bit underexposed, especially when the images are really backlit, and that's because I'm trying to preserve the highlights. It's way easier to recover the shadows later than it is to fix blown-up highlights. In Capture One, I just create a layer mask, and for this shoot, I used the radial gradient mask, and I made that area brighter using the exposure and the shadow slider. I could place another light in front of the model to fill things in, but honestly, I just feel like it's much easier to make these small adjustments in post rather than messing around with another light setup. And you can do the exact same thing in Lightroom. Just, again, create a layer mask, use the radial gradient, and brighten it up. Easy peasy. Mm-hmm, yeah, that's really nice. Oh, that's beautiful right there. And eyes on me here. You know what? Let's do both a book and the flowers. Hold them kind of like this. And also, I kind of want to do the hat as well. Just everything. I liked this hat. It's like it doesn't make sense, because you're indoors. And you're wearing a hat and reading a book and everything. There's something about this camera that I really love. Just the way the pictures come out, almost gritty. I don't know how to explain it, but I just love it. Or you know what? Is it possible just for you to scooch this whole situation a little bit more this way? Oh, yeah. Yeah, well, but it looks really good. Looks really cool. Are you getting this leg in it? No, no. Yeah, yeah, that's really nice, actually, yeah. Just like that, mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, that's beautiful. That's really nice. There's this specific spot where it hits you. Yes, and your hair and everything. Oh, that's really nice, actually. Yes, oh, that's gorgeous. That's gorgeous. Yeah, these are really nice. Yeah, oh, I love that, yeah. With eyes closed, it's really cool. Mm-hmm. Yes, that's beautiful. Yes, yeah, mm-hmm. It's kind of cool, because it's giving the blue and orange. Oh, that's really nice right here. That's a cool shot, yeah. Mm-hmm. Oh, that's really nice. Oh, I love, love, love these. Oh, that's so nice. I want to shoot on this one, but this one doesn't give me as much. Oh, that's really nice. Love. Oh, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. Oh, you're so cool. Oh, so pretty. Maybe here, you can just kind of pretend you're just kind of like doing something with your hair. Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it, that's it. And eyes at me here. Oh, that's beautiful, that's beautiful. Oh, love these. Oh. To switch it up a bit, we got rid of the bench and also switched up the outfit for this beautiful vintage nightgown. What if you're here again, kind of like go, yes, kind of like that. Mm-hmm. Yes, yes, oh, that's beautiful. Oh, gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. Do not move, do not move. That's absolutely beautiful. Wow. Yeah, yeah, like this, yeah. Mm-hmm. I wanna put it higher and like angle it just a little bit more. Ooh. I think that's cool. It can actually go even higher. Ooh. That is so cool. Stay where you are. I'm gonna grab my 85 1.2. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Shoot at 1.2, oh, yes. Get some more light in. Whoa. That's so pretty. What if you're with your back, so with your back towards me, yes, and then your hand like on the window or like, yeah, kind of like that. Yeah, if you put like both, yeah, actually looking to the side like, oh, that's beautiful, yes. Actually, yeah, that's perfect, that's perfect. Do you like? What it looks like without it, yeah. Take it off. Just because there's, it's so like, yes, yes, yes, I agree, I agree. And give me that same like both hands. Oh, yes. Oh my God. Oh, wow. Oh, that's gorgeous. The lens is like going nuts. Oh, that's super pretty. Yeah, yeah. Maybe like here, you had it kind of like, just like, like this. Yes. Mm-hmm. What if you kind of try to sit here on the, yeah, I know it's kind of not. Yeah, you have to go even more this way so that you cover like the pole with you, yes. Yes, yes, yes. Oh, yeah, that's gorgeous. I might have to, oh, oh my God. That's so good, that's so good. I need to bring it down just a smidge in the light, but that looks insane. Oh my, okay, I just gotta show you. That looks crazy, right? Oh my God, that looks so cool. Oh, that was beautiful. Mm-hmm, oh, that's gorgeous, yeah. Hold them a little bit closer, actually. Yeah, yeah, that's really nice. Like it's like almost half, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Like that. Oh, look, the other way, the other way, yes. And this hand, this hand down on your, yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Just like that, uh-huh. Oh, that's absolutely beautiful, wow. You know what, let's see what it looks like with that flower in there as well. Oh no, oh no. Oh, that's pretty with the flower. Yep, hold it with both of your hands and just let that be on top. Just let that go like over. Yes, yes, yes, just like that, uh-huh. Oh, so beautiful. Oh, that's really nice. Oh, oh my God, do not move. I'm so dramatic to, just a tiny bit this way. Yes, yes, so I can see the light. Oh my God. No, a little bit more this way. I'll just show you because if you move just a tiny bit, you see it goes from like this to like this. So I'll just tell you when, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yes, just hold it like that, uh-huh. Wow, whoa, these are crazy. All right, so the fake sunset look was really cool, but now that it's getting darker outside, I decided to try mimicking moonlight. I was really inspired by the movie Nosferatu. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly, highly recommend it. It's such a beautiful film, like visually it's amazing. So I changed my light to a blue color. It's still on the RGB setting. It gave it that really moody, cool moonlight feel. And honestly, I think it ended up looking super cool. So I've been trying to shoot this setup like in multiple ways. And this is the one that works really, really well when we have that one light. So this light is kind of hitting this curtain right here. And then that curtain is almost like reflecting that light back onto her. So it's giving that like soft light, but then still giving the backlight. So that's why it works so well. Yes, and look at me here. Oh, yes, like this, like this, like this, like this. You know what I wanna do? I wanna actually put it slightly further and more up high. Okay, let's see. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Yeah. Yes, I think, yes. I think this is, because it's kind of backlighting here. Yes. It's shooting this way. Oh my God, yes, this is so pretty. You know what would be cool here? Like a candle. She's like holding a candle. Getting a little haunted, yeah. No, you do it. So we decided to add a little candle here. Everything is so blue and it looks really, really cool, but I thought it would be so nice to add just a little warmth to the picture. It's gonna really, really stand out. Oh my God. That looks insane. Yeah. That looks so good. Very haunting. Yes, yes, like that. What kind of, do it more kind of like this. Yeah, kind of like, mm-hmm. Just kind of so I can see like your hand. Yes, yes, yes, you got it. Yes, exactly, exactly. Oh, that's really cool, actually. Oh, that's a beautiful shot. Whoa. Let's go. Yeah, let's do a few more like that. It's very cool. Love. All right, so this is it for today's video. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know which look was your favorite. Did you like the sunset setup or the moonlight one better? And don't forget to give this video a like, subscribe to my channel, and I'll see you guys in my next one. Bye.