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Shoot: Snow Scene

Lesson 28 from: Fine Art Photography

Brooke Shaden

Shoot: Snow Scene

Lesson 28 from: Fine Art Photography

Brooke Shaden

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Lesson Info

28. Shoot: Snow Scene

Move into the final live shoot of the course as Brooke brings the outdoors in. In this start-to-finish shoot, work on the story and vision for the scene, then learn how to create (and photograph) a snowstorm indoors.

Lesson Info

Shoot: Snow Scene

so everybody's clearing his fast as they can so don't mind the chaos I know that it's a lot but I'm going to talk about the next scene which is our snow scene so I was really excited to do a snow scene because I have this amazing indoor space and I want to bring nature in so that's kind of the theme of what I'm doing is making sure that I could bring nature into this indoor space it looked so beautiful in that room which you could already see it's very very blue inside there it has this amazing tone to it and all of that coolness said to me that I should do something with snow that was my initial inspiration I want to bring nature inside and then the color of this room specifically inspired me to take that further so I am going to just turn this over here a little bit and I'm going to draw my frame again my square frame now I'm shooting this one a lot differently than however normally shoot this so yes we are shooting into a room therefore I want to see the doorframe so we're going to ...

see this will be the doorframe just like that so imagine that that's a doorframe weaken see into the room I might be failing here of this that's the room in there this this makes some visit terrible drawing but it's all right so we're gonna is going to be a snowstorm there's gonna be snow coming from in here out that way and then there's going to be somebody behind this wall throwing snow in this way so we're going to create the snow scene what we have done is in this room we have let a whole bunch of flower go all over the floor and we're using that flower to be able to make it look like they're snow inside we also have some fake snow to throw around in there so that it looks like an actual snow storm so I'm going to have our model in this space probably facing maybe away from the light actually maybe towards it I'm not sure yet so let's say that this is our model she's going to have a big flowing cape part and then she's going to be standing here with this cape and a little dress and she is going to be holding a lantern I don't know how to draw lantern I just realized this pencil intern who was holding a lantern her hair is going to be moving in the snowstorm everything's going to be blowing her back and then we have this lantern that she'll be holding the guide her way so the lantern is not going to be lit but we're going to make it look like it's lit later on in photo shop so that's something that we're going to be playing with in post processing now we of course have to have a story so the story here is very simple the story is that we have a girl who is trapped in her imagination so whereas before we had a story with the girl in her imagination and the butterflies and it was kind of a happy thing this time we don't have that this is not a happy thing this is her trapped in her little room her little imagination mind room and inside this room there's a snowstorm something is happening that's bad in her life and she's trying to fight it so this could be anybody this could be anybody who has something terrible going on something that they're fighting in their minds and then they're trying to fight against that storm so that's what the idea is behind this shot I wanted it to be very voyeuristic so we're shooting through the door frame where you can see the door frame in the shot and we're doing that because I want to be able to see that you know what we're not part of this this is somebody else's reality and we're standing outside of that reality so I'm going to grab my camera and we're going to go see what this set up is like inside I'll just move this aside grab my camera okay and I don't know yet exactly how will shoot this I know that I want to shoot this raised up a little bit so I want my tripod to be a little bit taller so I'm going to go ahead and do that and I do want it on a tripod especially because we're going to be expanding the frame like we've been talking about so we're expanding the frame but I have all these straight lines in my shot and so instead of doing it hand held where I could sort of move my camera around and then fix it later I would rather not have to fix it leader so I'm going to keep it on a tripod that way all the lines in my shot stay straight and I don't have wobbly lines going on when I get into post so I'm just going to continue to take this down and then we're going to go set the scene so the scene is not fully set yet we have a bag of flour poured in there but we have two more ready to go so we're going to play with that when somebody like help me play with flour oh yeah come on in here why you can't take that off you look like you belong look at her it's great okay come on in so inside this room we have these bags of flour which I can't even lift thank you and we're going to be taking this flower and pouring it all over the floor in here so you take it and just start sifting out all over the place very good good and so I'm just trying to cover the entire floor the more the better and we have a lot more flour so I'm going to be putting that everywhere we have two kinds of fake snow which I'm going to come out here while you do that and talk about this for just a second sorry we just bumped but all right so we've got this fake snow this is the actual fake snow that we're going to try out so you can see how it flurries really really nicely and then we have paper so let's say that you're on a budget and you can't afford fake snow where you can't find fake snow that's me all the time this is a very rare circumstance so I count up paper this in the little strips and then that also flurries pretty darn nicely so I'm using paper don't judge me for killing trees it was necessary for the art so I'm going to be using both of those and we're going to see which one works better which one weep refer now that looks like you've done an amazing job and what I want to do is make sure to not get the snow or the flower outside of the room because if we do that then it's going to break the story of all the entire storm being inside that room so I'm going to go back in with the fake snow and I'm going to just set them on either side so then we have it all set I think I'm going to put some over here oh it's already over there we're gonna put them over here and I'll show you the lantern so we have a lantern out here and it's got some snow on it which is actually kind of cool so I'm going to be using this lantern they actually aged it for me it didn't look anything like this when I saw it last time and so shall be holding it out like this trying to fight the storm her cloak is going to be flowing behind her her dress will be flowing behind her and in fact I think that we're ready for her so is she ready to come on in and in the meantime I'm going to get my camera set so let's take this see what we can do I'm gonna shoot this portrait style and I'm doing that because of the door frame I want to be able to see as much of her as possible oh you look beautiful come in and you can just head right into that room there hundred ful okay now let me get my camera settings you're barefoot right yep hopefully the flowers a little warmer than the floor oh good she agrees it is warmer than the floor all right now I'm just going to adjust my tripod slightly to get all the lines perfectly straight so I'm matching the edge of my frame with the door frame of the door and I'm just going to pull back a little bit here just a teensy little bit and that looks really good now I don't want to see so much of the ceiling so I'm just going to tilt down and now jane if you could face the window for me perfect that looks really beautiful so I'm going to make sure that my lens is on auto focus which it was not because I was doing a self portrait I'm just going to reset my tripod here lock it down into place and see how you do it okay slipped a little bit so I'm just going to go ahead and let some out making sure were straight now another thing to note with this doorway is that because I'm raised up a little bit I actually have some wobbly lines on the door so I'm just going to let my tripod down a little bit more and try to get it set so that everything is straight and my frame because that's the kind of thing that I don't wanna have to deal with later okay take it down on this side a little bit I think that's going to be pretty good yes I'm gonna tilt up ever so slightly because I've just changed my frame I actually just noticed that the whole entire top of the ceiling and there is completely falling down so I do like that detail and now I'm going to get focused on my subject so jean could you take a step forward see ok I'm gonna reset my focal point and take my first shot I forgot it was on the timer I knew I was going to do that okay I'm resetting it so now it's not on the timer great we've taken our first shot and the exposure is actually really nice I think we've got the exposure set the same as it was before I do want my shutter speed to be fast enough because I want my shutter speed to catch the motion of the clock so we're going to need a couple of assistance so yep get on in here and you're already in there you're good yeah you're staying way need three assistance for this shot oh I'm coming yes thank you let's set jane before you guys head in now I'm going to make sure that I am putting this string around jane's waste because I want her toe look like she has a waist I know I'm sure you appreciate that you yes models tend to do that appreciate when they have awaits that looks very nice okay wonderful so you can head on in there I'm going to bring you your lantern ok so shall we be on standby and you guys can come in with me in tow are magical space here's your lantern and I need you to crouch down right in there and I need you to crouch down right over there we're having a bit of a tight space in here and it's going to be all right ok now first things first we're going to take our test shot by simply having one of you guys hold that and you're just gonna wave it around so on the floor go out and crouch I know you're you don't want to get dirty but I love you so okay good so you're going to be doing that in the space as far against the wall as you possibly can be you can stand if you need teo good I like the peeling paint is good and so you're going to be doing that you're on your own cloak patrol I guess is that they were going to call it you've got some fake snow in there I believe you've got some fake snow let's do the actual snow first okay and you can crouch down and then I want you to just throw it up in the air towards her okay you're going to be doing the same thing real snow well really fake snow and you're going to be throwing it at her as well now here's the thing the snow has to be coming from somewhere so I want you to start throwing up and have it come down on her whereas the other snow is going to be coming up with her okay so I'm going to count you guys down for the first shot I just want you to take this hand hold it up hold that out in front of you and we'll see how I can see you because you might be a little bit cut off with the doorframe good now I'm going to move all your hair back because we are going to get a hair shot separately toe have that hair moving and I'm going to come out here and see what this all looks like this is perfect I can't see anybody in that room but jane who was just very very good you're perfect ade why don't you in fact hold that lantern if you look at me for a second hole that we in turn like this yep just like that they're now bring your elbow in again yep just like that great okay now I'm going tohave d'oh going up andrea in there I would like you to start flopping that thing like crazy like this is a crazy storm yes just like that okay so I took my first shot is not crazy enough we're going I know she's like hum being crazy ah there we go let's do two hands so I'm gonna have one hand come over here to hold this side because we need this moving more than anything else so there you go perfect all right now that we've got that going oh yeah that's much better and in fact just flop it up and down yeah good wow we got the hair moving teo oh my gosh that was so great all right a couple of changes that I'm going to make before I have them start throwing the snow now with posing here I need to get a little bit more of an elaborate pose I need her to spring into action like we've been talking about so I want you up on your tiptoes for this yet one leg behind perfect and now your chest is naturally coming up good and then I want you to really project your chin out towards the v up eh exactly like that now when I had to do that she naturally opened her mouth that was good I want your mouth open just like that I want this held a little bit higher good perfect and then you're just going to be flapping like a crazy person and then I'm going to count down to three okay so I'm gonna say one two three and then you guys can throw the snow and it should hang in the air a little bit so we don't have to worry too much about it about the timings I think it will be a good good toss all right one two three good wonderful so I'm just going to take a look at those images and we got a really good one in there now I want to make sure that we can get a few different shots of this that way we have snow actually filling the room so right now we have it in a few different spaces but I need to make sure that what we have is the snow going everywhere so I'm gonna take a couple more shots like this with that really fake snow and see how many different spaces weaken fill in the frame so let me make some adjustments I'm going to have you do the same thing that you were doing just hold two handfuls of it and throw them separately like that all around her and you're good just throw it up a little bit higher here and then I think we'll be golden ok so one more shot of this and we'll see how it goes they'll start the flapping good ok and one two three good now I am shooting this is what I call rapid fire her shooting even though I only took three shots but I'm making sure to get that snow in multiple different places and then I can fill it into the room I really like how these air looking I'm not sure if I got a great dress on that one oh I did I got a really nice dress on that one and I got hair moving so that looks really nice to me so I'm going to come in here and I'm going to just make sure that we do one more thing with the hair I want to get a really good hair throw so you can drop that and now you're on hair patrol so come on up here oh you're nervous for hair patrol yeah here grab underneath and when I say I'll say one two three again and you could just toss it okay and you just zip your hands out of there as fast as you can no snow on this one we're just going to get a hair shot and one two three good we've got some hair moving now I'm going to do it one more time this time we're not going to toss it we're just gonna pull the hair out and then drop it so hold it up pretty high good perfect and then I'll count down again one two three good wonderful we got some hair movement so between all those shots to be a lot of hair movement going on you look wonderful so perfect job there and now we're just going to try with the paper so let's get the paper looks like there are feathers all over the room now you've got your paper you've got your paper euro back on cloak patrol good and jane you're you're doing perfect I wouldn't change a thing okay you got it now andrea you've got that cloak going I like it okay so I'm gonna count down again and we're going to see how this paperwork's so one two three you know what I really like my little paper trick because that was just like the other ones in my opinion e I think that looks really nice and I could how you doing in there I could probably use either of those shots so I could probably use the real smell makes with the fake snow and it wouldn't really make a difference now one more thing that I want to do is I want to focus on the lantern so I'm looking at this lantern in here and in the shots that I have taken their against a really bright wall if I would have liked this later on a photo shop it's going to be easier if everything's a little bit darker so I'm actually going to have her move just a little bit to get the way a turn in a slightly different spot now I have the option of either moving her back a little bit so that if she's moved back then we have her in more of a shadow but we also cut her off a little bit so I'm gonna have her reach it really far forward into the shadow in front of her so go ahead and do that I'm going to see what this looks like in my camera yes right there now let's do this all one's more we could do with the paper again we've got our flapper in there which is great good and are you guys ready with the paper herbal confirmations everybody's like paper paper e already got paper okay great all right on my count one two three good okay great so now we've got that lantern pushed a little bit further out into the shadow so we're going to do one more and we're going to do one more with the left hand this time with that lantern because she has to raise it so high I don't want her to block her face so go ahead raise it really high and out straight forward exactly like that yes take a small step forward for me okay one more small step forward there perfect okay and I'm going to change my focal point just a little bit make sure I'm still focused on her and with paper again you guys ready oh do they do the real snow we'll do a mixture because we ran out of paper so we're going to do really snow really fake snow and paper okay you guys ready one two three great that was a really pretty one okay I love it one more I keep lying I keep saying one more and I really mean it this time okay one more and this time let's have this arm showing so we'll have that out and pushed back great just like that I don't want so much curve though I want you to really push forward yes exactly like that good oh I really love that okay once more everybody you've got your snow okay good and one two three that really was rapid fired okay I'm going to do one more here with you sitting so I'm going to take advantage of this space again and I'm going to try to do something a little bit different so go ahead and take a seat wonderful look at our she just sat there so perfect all right great yes more snow very good now I'm going to just start to set her cloak we're going to see what we can do here try to get it all spread out really nice and beautiful as though she's just sat down like a princess in the snow oh dear there's a lot of rubble in here don't hurt yourself you got e guess most people in here are wearing shoes okay perfect that looks spectacular I'm so excited now before I go on to take this shot I want to remember the other shots that I need before I reset my camera so I'm going to go ahead and lock down to manual focus because I want to take my extra shots of the room so now I'm going to go ahead and pan over and just taken extra shot and an extra shot and now we've got our extra shots so then we can add them in later to create that full square frame now I am able to move my camera so I'm going to do that I'm going to go horizontal ongoing landscape style on this one and I am going teo try this one hand held and do everything in one shot instead of expanding my frame so let's just move that tripod I'm going to get down to your level here you know what you're doing jane's like I got the shot I like it okay now let me just come in here and position you so that we see light on your face so stay body exactly as it is turned this way wonderful this week is killing me today though here we go we've got it there we go light on the face that's going to come in really beautifully I love everything I don't even know what the dio because I really like it okay so let's fold that wasn't your hand was it ok oh I just killed you now we just need the hair to be moving so one way that we can do this is again with a hair talks just a little bit of a fluff like that but then somebody is going to be standing right behind so we definitely don't want that so instead I'm going to have you take just a piece of the hair off to the side and I'm gonna have you throw it in like this if that's possible so go ahead and grab it good and I was just doing a little test just throw it over yep good just like that and separated as much as you can you can throw it like in two handfuls okay I'm going to have a seat here and take this last shot and see how it goes and not get thea the window in the shop but everything else is what I want in here and one two three and that one was just to see how this scene was being set I really like this picture because of the implied emotion in it we have the dress circling all around her which has that great circular feeling she is very regal I'm going to have actually come up a little bit higher so this time sort of push up on your knees not yeah completely go ahead push completely good and then arer that way good now I want to see actually some separation in her body so I'm going to have you just move your knees over slightly good I'm gonna have you go up completely on your knees there you go yep just like that I'm gonna move this off of this shoulder so we can see your arm and yet we could just have that back just like that wonderful so we're creating the separation here right in between her the small of her back in her arm which I think will look really beautiful I just want to shoot like in there it looks really pretty really like that I love the flow of this still that looks really nice then I have this going here and maybe you'll just hold onto that just gently yep just so that it's tilting back even yep there we go perfect okay and then we'll have you looking out the window again now let's do a shot of just her cell and we don't see you in the shot not that I don't like you but you know what I mean I will do some snow on this one so is the snow ready great all right all right snow people one two three great oh so beautiful though that was way too much no ok till we do one more just a little bit less snow so then it's not covering her face so much so each of you just a bit less in the hands thank you katarina okay back into positions um andrea I can see you a lot there we go that's great okay now um let's see jane can you drop that right shoulder a little bit more uh back there we go yep just like that okay now snow people at the ready one two three great okay we've got some good shots there of just a little bit of snow instead of the whole entire thing is there now we can see her a little bit better I think we've got some other shots of the snow going everywhere so we have that filler and I think that that is where I will end this snow scene thank you guys so much for doing that

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Brookes Posing Guide
Self Portraiture
The Art of Self Critique

Ratings and Reviews

renee Akana
 

I love Brooke and the wonderful way that she teaches. She is a gift to us all. Jane, her model, was lovely - a beautiful girl, a wonderful attitude and a real professional.. I could not do what Jane did to help Brooke convey her story.

user-a81eeb
 

Brooke is amazing! I love this course. Brooke is easy to listen to. She has a beautiful insight into creative fine art . Love it! I have learned so much. I especially love that she is so candid about everything.

Kirsteen
 

Brooke says she wants to be inspirational - she has achieved this and so much more during this course. I am so inspired to follow my dream of becoming a fine art photographer and step out of a life as an academic and stop finding excuses. Watching other photographers shoot and edit is always a great way to learn, everyone does things slightly differently and I enjoy Brooke's no fuss techniques. Seeing so many of Brooke's beautiful images through the course has been great and seeing shots from the shoot through to editing really makes them come alive. If you are looking for inspiration or you want to learn techniques or new skills then this course provides all of these things with a big dose of positive thinking thrown in.

Student Work

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