Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Bride Getting Ready

We're going to start this is your wedding pretend what's the first thing you could possibly think of doing before she puts on her dress could we do something fun with her like kind of create a bridge create a beginning instead of just starting with pulling out address one on you create some fun shots before maybe she could just be putting on her sweater or whatever and the dress is kind of in the background like that person said we're going to play with the aperture to kind of see if we can create multiple stories one party could be the dress that other one could be her on the frame on but you keep playing like that so let's not worry about nervousness is just kind of shoot away and see what we can do. Okay. All right. Um leone coming out, my friend well, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna coach you through this a little bit just gonna teach you a some teaching I'm gonna try to share with the people online, okay? From the perspective where I'm standing I see a beautiful curtain right there I se...

e a mirror right there on where she's standing I can actually see the dress on her reflection from the mirror sense yes, now the lighting is hitting her from the side you see how it's kind of the light's coming from that window yeah, and it was going from that window so it's actually let beautifully in the ring in the reflection, this is all good stuff. Okay? If you wanted to do something interesting, you could put the dress on the right side of the frame and you could put her on the left side of the freight off the frame, doing something for a journalistic and you just have to create stories this way. All right, all right, so let me see what you have. You have a bracelet and stuff, right? Okay, let's, take it off and then put it back on. But when you do that, can you sit here? Okay. First thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna make her body look really nice. Okay? So let's, go ahead and cross your legs. Good let's, go ahead and keep your spinal cord super straight. Beautiful. Actually, you know what? Drop your spinal cord. Okay, what does that look? Super slouchy, right? It's not a good situation. So pick up your spinal cord again really picked up now the light sources in this direction. So we don't know when I tell her to turn her face towards the dark side you want to turn your face towards the bright side, right, so go ahead and turn towards the window to the left and as you do that put on these bracelets on I won't do that now just explaining so you're going to put it on uh no yet no you're gonna put it on she is going to be you see she's about four feet from the window where is the dress is two feet from the window so I'm gonna put I'm gonna put the dress lit by the window and I'm gonna put her on silhouette like we lived downstairs okay so let's try this real quick yeah there was so I'm turning the dresses so the light hits the dress better okay let me see something here it's too much in the side I'm gonna I'm gonna put a little remorse it's facing the bride a little bit they like that right now I'm gonna remove one thing if people are watching make sure you'll remove everything is gonna be on your frame because we take a picture we forget that we put something on that you know so okay then let's try this very slowly you are a distant silhouette situations that we have and we're going to get those hands to really show then we turned this around give me a second I'm gonna put my apertura two point oh I'm goingto overexpose by a stop on a third do you know why I'm going because I don't want her in full silhouette I cannot wanted to still show so I'm going to open up a little light on her, okay? Okay with your with your hand will keep one hand higher than the other and put on the bracelet and bring your chin down towards it and keep you keep your eye on the hand second make quick psych I'm going to turn this into black and white stay right there stopped in the hand's really soft bring your hand down just a ten. Separate your hands a little bit so the window can show between heading back to base it again higher, higher good. Turn your head slightly towards me. Look at keep. Keep putting on that bracelet slowly. Okay? Okay, guys. So I took that one picture, right? Thank you. Thank you. I kept I don't know if you guys noticed that I kept adjusting things as I started posting problems started happening you start adjusting. I didn't take more than one picture. Not not that it matters if you take more than one. Well, you get better at it, right? I started adjusting the elbows. Her levels were too high looked awkward, her chin was a little bass two straight on it didn't look quite right. Here is the photo that came out of that what do you think about like if would you pay big bucks for that kind of thing? I mean that looks totally nice right let's go ahead and mess it up let's not think about anything we did okay why don't we try to let me see I'm gonna take another picture of the dress I wanna put a flash on my camera go and stand right here please right in front of me good and take a step to the right toe you'll have sorry a little less okay this is the bad photograph right this is what we didn't think about anything you see that it's just her dress barely shows up her hands look nervous that makes sense there's no creativity there's no use of aperture for creativity basically everything looks exactly the same there's nothing exciting about it I turned on the flash and the flash's flatten delight so instead of creating shape you're actually flattening all the shapes that are possibly there you're going from my three dimensional beautiful image tow a flat off for looking thing okay let me try let me pull someone of your one of you out and so we can get something creative fusing those technique crystal very simple I want you to have her sit on that couch on dh I want you to give her soft shadows in her face on dh I don't want her face toby split too much in light I want it to be sort of even on the light now before you do that pre visualize where why's that couch there because the windows close with the couch we can photograph there's a curtain could be part of the background you could put the bright here that curtain could be on the right side and he could basically balance out the photograph so you want to give you the camera here there's really no wrong way all we're doing is taking photos before we actually have a put on the dress and so forth make sense so here's this not one of the flash alan let's just start with a photograph wrong ok go in and take a seat there linda totally phase this way. Okay why is this? This is very important people online this is what separates a good photo from a bad one I'm sorry a good photo from a great one see what I mean what am I going to do? Why is this not a good choice? This violates one of the five things we talked about the five sacred known hose is that the face should never be darker than the background unless it's a silhouette right um what else is happening behind her head curtain which is not completely my oh sorry are you talking more about the background or about the light? Sure. Okay because people wrote me a list of problems when it comes to a bridal portrait and so forth they said how do you make something clean looking well you make something clean looking by if you cannot remove that curtain you can make it clean by balancing it you put the girl on the left and the current in the right now it's balanced let me tell you for people on the internet I distraction like a distracting curtain or something can be an asset can be turned into an asset if you use it to balance your main subject with it okay so let's say you have ah ah house and you have your subject and you can't remove the house if the house is behind your subject it will dominate your subject but if the houses on the right and you put yourself on the left now the house balances the subject okay this fixes a lot of issues that people wrote me about keeping the background clean you don't have to rape the curtains out of the rooms you can actually keep the curtain of the current is what I consider the current distraction that can be turned into something beautiful by simply balancing it so let's start fixing this I would say she's way too close to the light for her to look beautiful and feminine so if I was to make a mistake and I was to put her here come and sit down here for me on this armrest elena have to remember you have a beautiful bride beautiful face this works if you're shooting a fashion shoot too now bring your face, let's. See? Right. No, no, no, we're going right there. This is probably the worst possible way we could photograph for. Okay, it's making this out of her face look huge because of the light. And then he makes it worse when you can't even see the other side. Because then you think that this big side is the same as this side on the right or on her left, right? So let's, start to fix this problem. Spinal cord goes up now if we want to make the light last contrast you in the face what would you do, chris? Tell bingo what else could you do? What else could you do? Wait. So so the flashes and become its own identity, right? You're gonna want to help you. You could also turn her head towards the window and change your angle that will solve a little problems. So come over here, photograph it the wrong way first, let's go the wrong way. So okay, get right that you want to change your settings so you need to change the settings for you. Let me see. So you're a two point oh, five hundred let me change the stool color, okay, try it, just focus their focus and point in the middle, you see, okay so the broad light is paragliding and others that is very contrasting right doesn't look quite nice now let's go ahead and turn your face towards the light to fix to face that so let me see something now is too much what you have to change your angle okay and what do you have in the background and you and me so that's not a good thing so here's another problem you've built his photograph I asked you starting to visualize it you start to build problems right but we can fix this by moving the furniture I consider part of our job is photographers to be like professional moving company or something you have to continue to move stuff so I saw that thing I don't get up get up for me for a second I put it here for people on the internet to realize that now she can be here and she can be on the left and the curtain is going to be more on the right okay I'm removing the meters that creates another problem this is what the problem solving class this happens a lot in reality is what happens going and take a seat again put your arm up against that arm the armrest cross your legs so that that leg closest of the cameras of one curving remember that the lake was no the other one if this is the leg if you're photographing from this angle this is the leg that should be crossed over because if you're wearing a dress it gives her body more of a cunt more off you can see the whole career for the value and everything will make sense look very glamorous if you're photographing from this angle on you cross the wrong leg go ahead and crust this let this way that is like an x on the legs and that does not look good. This is a good angle before griffin from there but because we're for aggression from here we know that's the closest like to the camera we cross it over just relax it spinal cord okay, arm. We try to avoid ninety degree angles on the arm so bring your shoulder and bring your shoulder closest with courses. The camera good spinal cord keep straight. Beautiful fingers drop and soft chain goes ever so slightly this way good. Let me see something. Okay, go ahead and photograph her from here on a photograph for horizontally. So the left side shows the curtain on the right size shows her face. No it's good it's. Good. Okay, let me try that chin down a little bit. Okay. If people can see this online, I did something on purpose you're good and hold that for me you see how the wall is actually coming out of her head on you see how those paintings are still in the background and that's not helping your case so we want to basically go ahead and get up again go ahead and take a seat again. Change the angle and get rid of that line that's basically, all you need to do is think about it. Take your time. Changed the angle, right? Yeah. So you can get rid of that line. Beautiful. You can also think of vertical try that. Maybe get closer more and close up now she could be doing something for the journalistic so let's add to it she could be adjusting her hearing the other in exactly. Yeah. Now, go ahead. Good. If we had bright mates here, you could put the bridesmaids all across the room and that little gap in between the bridesmaids could be her on the present will be kind of framing her. Does that make sense? Let's, go ahead and put on the dress and all of that. Okay, this photos that I showed this is the way I would have built the photos. This is how we problem solve issues. Okay, you keep moving things around. Don't worry about it. Um messing up just a just okay, so let's go in and put on the wedding dress. Now we see if you're photographing this happening you have to properly tell her how to pick up the dress you don't just tell her put on your dress okay so this glamorized the whole thing so uh let's see when you pick up the dress even though you can reach it pick it up with your tippy toes like going your tip it does put one leg in front of the other and then go on your tippy toes pick up get your spinal cord super straight and pick up the dress and look at the higher look at the hangar so you're ching goes up okay and when you do that pick it up with your hands super soft like don't worry just soft okay and do it in slow motion too okay give me a sec well then a second just slowly and give me a sec okay go ahead and reach for it slowly stop stop right there give me a second give me a quick sex there right there good game you sack one more second reach for it and give you a slight smile torso okay could stop right there let me show these guys what I'm doing I put the dress and the left she's in the middle on the reflection of hers on the right well that makes sense she's smiling you can barely tell the smile because her smile sort of focus because it's the reflection okay all right go ahead and pick it up slowly he's smiling at the dress good good bring that elbow down on your right side so it doesn't block your face keep looking at it good you see what I just did her elbow was right here when she picked it up so when you could take a picture I don't know if I show that machine yeah when you think a picture you can see her arm crossing right through her face okay this is where one of the problems of somebody asked me wes how do you how do you get good at reading the entire frame when you're taking photographs on there isn't there isn't how you do it is you take your time your chill you relax and then I told her to bring her arm down and look what happened to the photograph now you see that now there's no no arm crossing through her face in the reflection it's clear okay thank you grab the dress get clothes put in front of your own quick like you're sizing it up and bring your body bring your face towards the light so your body's just like that will bring your face towards the window good and put the dress close to you just like you're hugging it okay good clogging the dress and smile at the window quickly I'll get hugged the whole thing look at the window good okay beautiful just gonna show these guys real quick you see, it looks like she's just ready to put it on her lights beautiful on her face is towards the light not against the light okay all right go ahead and grab it you can put it over here now let's say we have someone we need someone helping her mmm mmm mmm go and stand right in the middle here stop right a little more right there. Okay, okay. Another problem that we have here is this curtain it's actually blocking part of her face when I'm shooting it from here so I actually have to put her head riding between this white column on this curtain so her face is not distracted by something coming out of it or some incense so we're going toe I'm going to actually pull this a little bit this way if I can now that have less of a problem upriver is it's like a moving company you just have to keep moving. Okay? That's good that you seem more space. We're going to stand right there where you see ok, can anybody tell me why am I not putting her in the middle of the window? Ex exactly right it's the expected thing to do so we're not doing that okay? I'm going to move this couch to the back on we're gonna go ahead and do that I'm gonna change my lands to a thirty five millimetre now, if I was actually shooting a wedding, I would actually do this with two cameras one with my thirty five one with my eighty five property because we're tethered I'm just gonna have to switch lance's okay? There is a way and switching to the thirty five iss to answer some more of the questions that people ask me about creating that glamour romantic look, how do you do that? How do you know? Flatten the image thirty five millimetre to appoint. Oh, keeps you that three dimensional round, beautiful field. So let's. See, give me a second. I'm just gonna do a test. Very nice. Okay, now she's going to go in and change. So let me see how do you want to do this? Because you have to, uh, do what I can get started all the way through while you do that will point the camera stores the audience and we can ask questions so we don't have toe point the cameras at her right now while she puts it on. Can you put it and you put just the legs first and okay, go ahead and come in here for a second. Ok, let's point the cameras at her actually for a split second, okay, let me show you something, don't grab the dress and have her put it on we arms have to be opened up so you have to create open is like a bird like it flies right so open up the dress her spinal cord stay straight she's going to slip one leg first on when she slips it she's going to cross the legs over so she's going to go like this and in the leg will cross when you think the picture that whole sai will show up because this is the leg closest to the camera okay, so very carefully actually you need to take off your shoes so you can do it with his shoes on that's okay, go ahead. This is the most people watching you ever taken off your shoes. Yeah, like that's quite the audience like another shoes you see how picky picky you have to be? You see how a no you have to be like every little thing I started with multiple using the whole frame so tell the stories that I talked about how to get the face a little beautiful and with the light now now we're talking about how to do how to put on the dress and so forth if you don't tell people this is just going to look flat if I was to photograph her from here actually stand over there for me for a second if I was a photograph of from here this is gonna look flat, isn't it because the lights was hitting her right flat on the face. So I'm actually going to take a quick picture to show you how flat that looks and why having the window in front of the subject. It's? Not exactly the best. Sorry. Okay, just let me just show you something. Okay? You're boring. This is to go out and look them. Look how that just looks. Okay, just the lights hitting her flat. Okay, let's, try it this way. Now your hand has to be exactly between the white pole and the curtain. So right. Take a step forward, okay? They have to stay back. Good. Now put the right leg first. And then when you put it in cross hold on a second. Give me a quick sec. Bring your chain slightly to the right. What will you do that and down. Okay, go ahead and keep continue stuff. Oh, beautiful. Stay right there. Stop, alan, when squeaks there. Quick second. Go ahead, take off a step forward right there. Right there is too much to watch, right? They're going to put it on. Cross the leg. Continue. You can actually put it on now. Soon as I said that she curbed her back right, and she hunts their back towards it. Okay good and turn your body towards the window so you don't have to show the world everything um turned go to the left a little so your head is not in between in the curtain no in between the window right there right a little more right there cross your legs or when likes in front of the other and drop your body weight good while you do that now you can take off your sweater slowly and turn your face to the right as you do stop right there stop right there stop the car don't move don't move! Stop actually don't even know how to keep that for a sec take a look at this guy's had I know told her to turn her face it would have looked her face would look at the way her arm looks. Look how parallel the top of the window is with the top of the frame you see how beautiful that looks look at her head is in between the curtain and the white pole nothing's coming out of her head but people sometimes say roberta, you you take great figures because your your people are beautiful, right? But now I think people online have to see how much detail I have to say for this to come out how much detail attention to detail um let's see if I wouldn't have had to turn her head let's see how good I would have looked would have looked pretty boring actually look straight out the window okay if you're watching online this picture that just came out it's not exactly as interesting as the previous photo where everybody where you can see part of her face it's much more beautiful look at that's boring compared to this one just little details ok ok continue stop look at your shoulder again damn good there just like that give me a sec stop stop right there freeze freeze freeze freeze show you this one more time I went I went vertical for a reason uh she was too much to the left for me to get for me to get straight so when we do have the straight so I went vertical toe continue their beautiful you see how the light hits her and then you kind of get dark that is happening because I'm positioning her at the right distance from the light would I not do that would I have her get further away that would have looked completely flat again okay okay continue and as soon as that dress starts to come off I'm going to stop you okay can somebody help me with this couch one more thing can you just pull it that way I'm gonna do this quickly because I need to make sure that we understand online how we can utilize the room okay yeah let's remove that thank you can't take a step to the left you can more one more step on dh er enjoy could you could you guys down there on that side of the room? Could you guys move to this side of the room? Just just you and david just you and david you're okay? You can sit back down. Stay right there. Give me a second. He pulled in the shoes like then bring your face slyly towards the window and look at that red car outside in front of you chained down. Bring your chin to the left. Now tilt your head towards your right shoulder. Left shoulder right there. Stop him a second. Ten down a bit. Take a step forward right there. Good. Give me a sec when I change the aperture to two point eight, two three point two so I can get her reflection in more in focus. Keep the shoes there. Bring the shoes closer to your body and dropping down a tad right there. Stop, stay, stay, stay another one more picture here, give me a second when your face to the left right there, more to the left, chin down, take a step back right there one more and then I'm done here a second, okay, would you guys mind coming over to this side of the room real quick? Because this is an online course I want to make sure that I'm teaching what I'm actually showing what I'm doing so just doing it okay take a look at what do you see here? You see this mirror here but do you see the other mere high reflects where's the other mary reflects on that one. Do you see that? So when I walked to this angle again it's about creating problems and making them into opportunities remember we said before that mirror was a problem because you could see my reflection but these mirror is pointed towards that mirror so you can create a double reflection right now if something that distraction and your balance if you fix the problems well, take a look at this image is here you see how she's on their side of the frame I don't know if this is online but I hope so look at the reflection and they look at the secondary reflection you see that that is good use now I actually asked her to move closer to the left so this would be coming out of her head, but if I did that she would get out of the frame and I don't want her to get out of the reflection so I decided to sacrifice that coming out in exchange for her having an equal distance between the two also the other channels and I look at this one this is a straight vertical when did you see her there? And then you see her reflection on the vertical picture that you see okay, um look at this one where you can see her face on the window lights illuminating her beautifully on even though there's a bunch of problems in this room were actually living in the because we're making it so clear that she's the most important person on because we're about in reflections were given the brain the little poke of interest that little pokey poke like oh, I didn't realize that that was there and that makes it really more interesting than just a flat photo so what? I mean, so people had asked including montage easyphoto um questions about why you're shooting black and white and camera if that's an artistic choice or choice or if there's some other reason white you're sitting like that's a good question on I should have mentioned that some glad they're asking the reason why I was shooting black and white is because black and white this takes away any kind of color distractions to my eye there is no way I'm doing that I already know there's nothing in the room that's that's a big color distraction anyway so I can take that concern away there is why I'm sitting in black and white is because black and white only shows the luminosity of the photograph it only shows the light it shows whatever's dark is your stark and whatever's bright it's bright if nothing was red and it was in color that would become red on that red is distracting to me and I don't want to see it right now I just want to see how the lights behaving on her something sense so I'm just like I just want to know what the light zone in her face I want to know how when I turned her face towards the window how much power is in her face in comparison to the other parts of the photograph so I turn it in black and white so I don't worry about color distractions and the camera only shows me the luminosity of the photograph of neck and concentrate on the lighting okay, I'm also shooting in the raw so if I went to turn the camp in the photo later and turn it into, uh into color, I totally can so it's not a problem is just a visual thing while you're shooting okay, so a number of people roberto have asked about they were confused from the first section about number four of your life five and about the face being exposed correctly or being darker or not dark earth in the background, right? So in this scenario can you just talk about that as a rule a little bit more because people were not quite getting that the number four one wass the face should be writers in the background or at least just as bright as the background. But I also said unless it's a silhouette type of photograph were obviously the background will be brighter otherwise it's not a silhouette. What we're doing here is kind of a partial silhouette. Okay, that window it's just going to be a joke geometrical element in the background but she separated enough that she becomes a little bit darker and the white becomes the background that the contrast in background if you look at the photographs that I was taking so if you look at this for only see this right here you take a look at this photo. The background is clearly brighter in this horizontal picture fifty one ninety three the pictures actually horizontal. The background is brighter, but you see in between and she's dark and she's just as dark as the curtains so she actually becomes a made a major element of the photograph. So it's not a distracting distraction it's more when you have a non window situation where you're doing like a partial silhouette and I take a picture of you on the background is just completely brighter than you like there's no feel light on you, so I hope that answers that question okay, yeah let's, take a couple more roberto several people are asking about, like, the time sensitivity of this situation and everyone at home, you know, we all realize that you're instructing us and so it's taking longer than it would normally, but l b had asked, I want to know when you have a bride who was rush and they always seem to be rushed. How do you get them to slow down to take photos like this? Um, and then ripped to sixty eight from baltimore also would like to know how much when you are usually giving bride's this much direction? Or is this a very quick pace situation normally? Ok, that's actually a huge question, because people have this main concern about timing and all of this. This is an instructional environment, so I am spending quite a bit of time talking about the little details here there. If this wasn't an instructional environment, my second shooter's actually tell me they don't even know what happens it's like lightning, you know? I mean, like, I'm sitting with my bride and I'm like, sort of a hero to the left move to the right move the finger pulled the boom, sit over there in the blue cats on your faces, the window, bend your leg, take a picture quickly, like one too. All right when I took the picture from the bed stand over here just hold a hold uh hold your bracelet when she was sitting in the chair hold your presley I'm gonna put the dress like a picture done okay, all of these stuff can happen very quickly but I have to still make quick adjustments I just become because I do visualize so much I tried to get rid ofthe elements are distracting before I tell her to go there okay? It doesn't take long to take great pictures if you know how the light behaves that's really the key I know I know what a boarding picture is going to be in this room I know what distracting elements are going to be in this room I think a picture of you right now there's a thing a white think crossing right over your head and you're totally dark if I want to take a picture with you and I include his window this when will become the focus of attention and you wouldn't be at all so you can come in the room like this and completely ruin it anyway um so yeah, I don't give bright a lot of direction susan on because they want it I feel like they need it if you don't give them direction if I think did I said just put on the dress and what happened to her back? She just she's a slouched I said go ahead go ahead and just put on the dress and her about your slouches on there just goingto kind of just power through it when you're taking photographs he has to look like a dance like a valet or something so you just say go ahead dictate the main shots I do instruct where to put the chain because of the light I do instruct howto hold address I do instruct cross relationship puts her or her leg over but they appreciate that the final product was going to look amazing I know brad is going to be like can you please stop making me look beautiful? Can you please stop I want to look really bad you know so we can save two minutes so now you do quite a bit of direction all right maybe time for one last question which is just building upon that and that is from arial how long do you normally take for the getting ready segment? So is the bride and her brides brides woman rights made all getting ready in addition, teo the time that you're there or you there the whole time when I'm on the third day we're going to discuss timeline strategies and what and that I'll discuss a little bit now uh remember I said at the beginning ofthe today how you you can separate yourself through the breading sort through the bride and groom getting ready when somebody opens up a wedding album, the first thing they see is the getting ready section on if he looks like poetry if he looks just gorgeous light like we've been doing today they're going to be captivated right away if the first thing they see is kind of crappy looking or average they will even though your other photos might be quite nice they will practically mentally shut off. Okay, you have to give him a great first impression when they opened up that book and they say this glorious photo of her with this beautiful windows and just kind of turned and everything looks like angelique you're going to capture that you're gonna captivate them right away. Um I spend about forty five minutes to an hour with the groom and that's all part of the timeline strategies that we will discuss on with the bride I spent about an hour and a half prior to the wedding okay, I need an hour and a half I can capture her putting on her dress. I can capture all the details. You have to know where to put your second shooter so they can capture other stuff. Um I captured photos of her and her bright mates in different angles, like sitting on the chairs she could be sitting the bridesmaids could be kind of around the chair should they could be laying on the bed that could be on then. Also portrait with a bride should be sitting on the blue couch. She couldn't even sit on this carpet, and I could put a flash behind her and I could take a picture from a cool angle. Even the carpet will be interesting. Okay, on dh. That takes me a total of about an hour to an hour and half like I like susan said, this is an instructional setting. If I was shooting a wedding on my own and they were very a taping, it will be it will be very quick and people would be like, what's going on. Um, one of my second shooter's asked me like I blinked. I think I missed and for us, you know, and I did well, you did that's why you're fired. Um, so I'm kidding. So, yeah, it's important to keep track of the time line, but I also feel like I have a pretty good handle of the light. That stuff we started with today with the light source and the closest to the light and all that might have been just another sentence, but it's crucial to your success, crucial to the success ofthe becoming a fast photographer.