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Day 22: Marketing & Shooting - 50 & Fabulous Demographic

Today's challenge is about shooting the 50 plus demographic. In terms of marketing, this is the wealthiest demographic in the world and as you know, one of my favorites to shoot. These women love being photographed. They're a easy, easy demographic to attract and market to and I'm gonna show you how to do that today. I need you to master this demographic. Too many of us are showing young, hot girls in our advertising and not attracting this incredible demographic into our studio. If I only had one choice, it would be to shoot these women. So jump on board and master this challenge please. You will not regret learning this. Hi everyone, how are you? How are you out there all my little challengers? Today I'm going to talk to you about my favorite demographic. 50 plus, 50 and fabulous. Yes, you know it. It's my favorite. Now I did two wonderful shoots for elegant portraits. That's what I call 50 plus. 50 fabulous, elegant portraits. I pose them a little bit differently. It's definitely a ...

little bit more conservative in terms of lying on the floor and although I do lie them both on the ottoman. During both shoots. So I want you to enjoy both shoots today and both posing shoots. But I just wanna talk to you very quickly about why I hit this demographic, how I hit this demographic and why they are the best demographic to shoot. So what we did with the first marketing challenge we did with the family first demographic. This is the second marketing, shooting and marketing to 50 plus. Now, very similar to family first but they have a few, a few tiny differences so let's talk about what they are. For starters, let's go and get four pieces of paper and today, the challenges are, 50 and plus, 50 and fabulous, the mother and daughter shoot. Then we're going to write on the second piece of paper, three generations, sometimes with 50 plus we even get four generations. Elegant portraits which is marketed just to the woman and then because you're worth it, coming into your own, you know, girls day out. So the three strongest marketing pulls I have with this demographic is this. Firstly I market this demographic a lot as the mother and daughter 'cause she is the mother and often she is paying. Then I market this to three generations. Often this generation here is looking after her elderly mother and she either has a daughter who potentially has a baby or she has a younger daughter. So the opportunity to get this woman who is the matriarch of the family to organize a generational shot of three and four is perfect. I'm gonna talk a little bit about why this demographic is so powerful but first, let's look at those three sort of, marketing pulls. The third one is I noticed a lot of women, 50 plus these days, or even 40 plus but I know that this is a special demographic, are pretty much calling for their own portrait shoots and the 50 plus women is definitely more inclined to come in on her own then she is bringing her group of girlfriends. Now the 30 to 50 demographic is more likely to bring their group of girlfriends if they are single and even if they're not single they're still more likely to have a girls day out. The younger girls, the 18 to 30, which we're also going to do four challenges on marketing and shooting, they are more likely to bring in their boyfriend than they are to bring in their group of girlfriends. So the 30 to 50 are definitely about girls day out and the 50 plus is definitely all about her. So because you're worth it, because we wanna celebrate you, because you're a gorgeous woman, because you know, there are a million ways to market elegant portraits. But the best way to do it is to photograph them and put them on your websites, especially using before and afters. Right, so we're gonna write down those three bits of paper, I said four but really there is three strong ones. Let's quickly just look at this slide here. Girl power. Girl power is the demographic we're going to be doing next. Girl power is 18 to 30. Now she's one of the biggest shopping demographics in the world but not as big as 50 and fabulous. Because 50 and fabulous is often her mother. So these demographics are very closely tied in with each other but it's very important that we speak to the 50 year old, not the 20 year old. So when we market to the 20 year old and then we say would you like to bring in your boyfriend or your mom, she usually has both. So we could possibly get two shoots from her. When we market to the 50 year old women we say would you like to do this on your own, would you like to bring in your daughter, would you like to bring in your mom and your daughter and you granddaughter, then there's three possible genres there. So every one of them have there own little marketing pull and we're gonna try to create marketing in shooting for those specific demographics because we know they spend money. Now, the 50 and fabulous demographic, this slide here, is all about, well let's talk about her demographic. She is usually independent, she's quite often retired and if not she's working part-time or in her own business. She definitely controls the world's wealth right now. She has more money in the bank collectively this demographic than any other demographic in the world. She's often inheriting from her parents and inheriting also from her ex-husband maybe. They often can do both. The demographic for these women is quite incredible. They are the biggest spenders of luxury lingerie in the world and they're the biggest spenders of international travel. They are also the second highest internet researcher, family first being the first highest and 50 plus being the second highest. So interestingly enough this woman, even though she doesn't have to stay home because of children, is more likely to get online after family first, then the other two demographics being the 18 to 30 and the 30 to 50 year olds. So the 30 to 50 year olds probably still calling and word of mouth and the 50 plus definitely going online. So you can market to this woman online. Now I think the biggest problem most photographers are doing is they're photographing the young hot ones and staying away from 50 plus. Now when I did my two day launch of 28 days in Vegas, one of the cool things I said to you was, learn that your greatest weakness is also your greatest strength, and a woman wrote in then in the chatroom and she said I am 50 plus and I always thought that was my weakness and I said well actually it's your strength because you can now photograph your own demographic and I got multiple letters and emails from women over 50, over 60, who are photographers that said I thought I was done, I thought I was a has-been, I didn't realize I belong to the strongest and the greatest demographic in the world. You not only belong to is sister, you can market to your own age group really easily and a tip for younger photographers, I've been shooting for 23 years and I am now 41, so when I was 21, 22 and 23, right up I think until I was 30, I struggled to photograph this 50 plus demographic. I didn't realize two things in hindsight that I didn't understand, one of them was that I wasn't very confident as a photographer or a director back then and these women tended to walk all over me or they were quite assertive and I wasn't so I was definitely took the younger role instead of the I know you're older than me and with respect but now you're going to do what I'm told role that I would take now. Also, I found back then that this demographic, when they were self-conscious tried to control the situation so a younger client tends to laugh nervously or be stupid or even talk in a baby voice when they're self-conscious. The older women tend to just control the situation when they feel awkward about being photographed and I didn't understand that as a woman so that took me many years. Consider the age of the person that you're photographing. Also consider that I had a very funky studio with 21-year old makeup artist, but I chose girls that had really great relationships with their mom that could speak to any age group. They could make a 60-year old woman who's never had her hair and makeup done feel really comfortable and really gorgeous so just consider that demographic for one moment. Also consider that I do age appropriate posing but not just because I think they should be posed in a non-sexy way, that's not what I mean, I mean that as we start to age through our 40s, 50s and 60s there are certain posing we don't do comfortably because, you know, we lose flexibility and a lot of that demographic is curvier so be age appropriate, watch the posing today. Look at the posing map and just see how easy it is to create beautiful, elegant portraits of this age group. Right, my next slide is mother and daughter shoot. Okay. This is a good one. This is my motto with all women. We don't gossip, we network. And the greatest net workers are family first and 50 and fabulous. So these two groups here that will pass you on so quickly. What I love about his demographic is you can not only photograph them and they have an incredible makeover and experience, they really enjoy being pampered. They are so comfortable in their own skin and they will buy you a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of wine for selling them such gorgeous portraits and I really really love, love, love shooting this demographic. Who is your target market? This slide is about, I need you to answer who is your target market out of the four demographics are you going for the 18 to 30 year old, are you going for the 30 to 50 year old with no children, are you going for the family first, which is any age bracket with children, and or are you going for this 50 plus? Now my market is all four so I need to create marketing in my website, on my blog, on my Facebook social media, that target all four of these women. So all four of these women are international shopping demographics. You need to decide what your brand currently sees 'cause if it's currently speaking to 20 year olds and you wanna attract 50 year olds, you know what you have to do to make that happen. So have a look at your website now, reappraise it so that you know what your shopping demographics are. Remember this is sold in the consultation. What you show is what you sell. It is that simple. So if you're showing newborns, you're going to attract newborns. If you just show toddlers, you're going to attract toddlers. If you're going to show just young girls in lingerie, that's all you're going to attract. That's not a problem until you want to open up to a bigger demographic. This demographic here, 50 plus, is the highest spending demographic of them all. She's amazing to shoot and I challenge you to create as many plus 50 shoots as you can for your blog website over this next six months. Build this part of your business. Market to them as mothers and daughters and really make this demographic happen. So there it is, marketing and shooting to 50 and fabulous. Remember you've got three avenues. She can come in with her daughter, she can come in by herself, she can come in and have beautiful photographs of her daughter and her mother. You can make it generational. The two shoots we're showing today is Arlene and Robin. Both of them are gorgeous women and they let me take them through their poses and you can watch these shoots now and enjoy watching elegant poses. Now posing elegant portraits. Both women today were shot on their own. I would have loved to have been able to produce a three or four generation shoot for you. Although I would have posed it no differently then posing twos, threes, and fours and posing families. So you've been doing a lot of group posing. We've also got the 30 to 50 girls which I've shot in a group shot together. So there's lots of group posing over these challenges to really get you into basically posing more than two and three and four people. But all I can say with these genres is this, I really want you to consider how you're going to photograph them so if I'm going to come back to this slide here, and this slide is the 50 and fabulous, mother and daughter shoot, three generation, elegant portraits, today you're gonna watch elegant portraits. Three generations, I would break it down exactly the same way. I would do the older mother and the 50 year old, I would do the 50 year old and her younger daughter. I would do the three girls together and if there's a baby then the four. I would do, invite the family in at the end for a multiple family portrait shoot so you're going from girls day out, you're doing hair and makeup, individual shots of everybody, the twos, the twos, and then a gorgeous shot maybe of grandma and baby and then invite granddad, husbands, kids, younger husbands, boyfriend, remember every time you add on to a shoot you create the opportunity to sell and create more portraits and you also create an opportunity to build more of a network and then also you become a family photographer that's marketing in a very modern and contemporary way. Please hit this demographic. She's amazing. She will arrange everything for you. She will get the whole family going. She'll get them arrived or their clothes sorted. It's a great demographic to pursue. Please put her on your vouchers, on your marketing, on your website and on your blog as soon as you can and tell stories around this age group because these women relate to other women. You know, tell a story about weight-loss, tell a story about menopause and make it funny. I had this gorgeous client on here, the top right client, there on that black-and-white shoot in lingerie, she came to me for a photo shoot because she was celebrating her menopause. She was having a menopause party. Back then I didn't have a blog. I know she would have let me blog it. And she invited me to the party. So there's a million ways to speak to this demographic of women and get them online and get them booked in and good luck with this challenge and enjoy and we'll see your results online. I will be calling for images of 50 to 60, 70, whatever, women from here on in. This will be something that I will happily blog and shout out to the world. So please enjoy doing this. Photograph your moms and make them do it. They must exist in photographs. One day, they become priceless and there is nothing in this world that will ever replace them. Enjoy. I've always called my 40 and 50 plus portraits, elegant portraits. I think you photograph 40, 50, 60 and 70 year old women in a very different way that you photograph 20 year old women. I always talk about this demographic being my all time favorite demographic. If there was one demographic that I would love to shoot it is women who are 40, 45, 50 plus. They are my favorite demographic and I love to photograph them. I love the transformation, I love the experience that they have and I simply love taking beautiful portraits of women. So today's shoot is about taking what I call elegant portraits and today we're starting off on the white loveseat. The white loveseat for me has always been a go-to prop in my studio. I love to shoot it on the white background. I love the simplicity of it. For me, the basis of the white loveseat comes from Mario Testino's shoot of Lady Diana. It's one of my all time favorite shoots. It was shot mostly in natural light so today we are going to show you elegant portraits and let's get started. What I would like you to do, Robin, is I would like you to keep this hand here. I would just like you to stand up and sit up on this foot. That's it. And I want you to push away. Yeah so sit over there. Yeah, that's it. That's exactly right. So that when you recline forward that where you are. Now at the moment, your whole body is facing towards the camera so what I want you to do is turn your body away from the camera. So keep this here and turn everything away. Now bring your face back. That's it, exactly right. The hand on your thigh and I want you to create as much space here because the more you push away the better that looks for you. And I just want you to bring this hand away from the camera so instead of being here to the camera, back of the hand forward, we're just gonna bring it here. Okay. And the idea from the front is that we're turning your shoulders 45 degrees away from the camera but we're always trying to create this space here and lift up through here. It's really easy for people to fall down into this pose instead of up. And then once you're there and you're nice and comfortable, your shoulder goes away from the camera but your face goes back. So Robin just did something that a lot of people do. When you turned your body away from the camera their face goes with it. And what you wanna do is always make sure that they're turning their body 45 degrees from the camera and then bringing their face back to you this way and then they can connect to this front shoulder and it looks beautiful. So the back hand goes across there and slides back. And that creates a beautiful hourglass in her waist and a beautiful shape in her body. The chin comes around the front here. A little bit more. And down. And you can shoot this vertically and you can shoot this horizontally as well. So let's take a shot and show you. I want you to lift your chin up to me this way. Come around a little wee bit more. Love that. Okay. Give me a slight tip. Good girl. Down this way. Hands are beautiful and relaxed. Love that. And just a tiny gorgeous little wee smile through your eyes. (camera clicking) You've got it. That's amazing. Okay, as you can see by the image that I just took I made one fundamental error. You can see the back hand is not quite engaged in this image so I'm just gonna bring it forward and the reason I don't wanna lose that hand is I want to enhance her hourglass, not make it look like half her body is turned away from the camera so I'll take another one. Chin up to me. Sitting up nice and tall through your back and shoulders. Long chin towards me. Good girl. Turn this way a little touch, you got it. (camera clicking) Absolutely beautiful. (laughing) You can go home now. No (laughing) Okay, from here, with this shot here I'm just gonna bring the elbow just to the edge of this chair. And then I'm gonna get her to work her shoulder just a little wee bit more to the front camera. I'm gonna bring your chin forward and down here and this time I'm gonna shoot this one a little lower. Now, what I don't want, in fact this is a perfect example what I don't want to do is have Robin's head directly over her shoulder. Pull the shoulder back a little and then bring your chin down forward. Sometimes when people have a really good flexibility in their neck, if they bring their chin too far it just looks like it's popping out of the top of the shoulder. And I wanna show the shape and the decolletage. So stay there. This time I'm gonna shoot it down here. From here, long chin, beautiful, good girl. (camera clicking) Little bit more of a smile. (camera clicking) So from here now I am just on her eye line. I'm shooting this directly where her eyes are so my lens is right there. Can you see that length? And it's really important, bring your shoulder around to me this way, a little bit more, keep coming, keep coming and this time I'm gonna include a little bit more at top and bottom and I'm going to create some space above her head and catch the bottom of her arm and this here. Now I've got the shot three times and we don't wanna thrash shots. We wanna change her now. So I did one lower, one higher, one closer and one further away. I'm really happy with that so let's change. So what I would do now is I would get you to walk this hand back and I would get you to turn towards me and bring this hand, stay here on there, and bring this hand over here so you actually have to move your shoulders, good girl, in order to do that. Now, I'm always looking for asymmetry. So I'm going to go there. I wanna cross this arm here because I love that line and then a long chin towards me and I'm gonna come back to the same front position. Now because she just rotated her body around to me here, just gonna tuck you in there, I've got this beautiful shape and now I'm gonna pull back and take a shot here. Just bring your chin to me here. And also open up, just gonna do that, open up the hair around here. Okay. From here I want you to tip this way. Long chin towards me. And forward and down, now just work that front shoulder up towards your chest up, perfect. Long chin down. Good girl, give me a little smile here. (camera clicking) As you can see I'm right on her eye line and slightly above. I'm gonna shoot this vertically and then I'm gonna show you the horizontal version 'cause I really love both. And I love to include this hand across here. So right there, beautiful big smile, Robin. That a girl, perfect. Now, what I love about this here, very similar to the lying down shot, we can bring this hand out, this one, mirror me. And put your fingertips behind your head. Long chin towards me and down. Stop. (camera clicking) Beautiful big smile here. (camera clicking) Good girl. (camera clicking) Work that should in a little bit more. Lips together. Love that. Wow. All right, from there, now let's mix it up one more time. So we want to do one more change so we've gotta keep the sequence flowing. And I would easily drop her straight down on to her tummy. So you can stand up and then lay on your tummy with your head at this end. No different than any ottoman shot that we do. I'm just gonna bring her down to here. And I'm going to be her hands this side. So that's it, away from the camera. Not too far. Lifting up nice and tall, in fact you can scooch back just a little wee bit and just put your feet up onto the arm. Not gonna see them, cross your ankles. That's it. And maybe bring your feet on the diagonal. Perfect. Now, lifting up nice and tall through your neck and shoulders and bringing your chin around to the front this way, stop, I'm just going to clear the hair from here. And this elbow can come towards me a tickle. And I want you to cross that hand over, other side, that's the one. Nice and tall, chin this way, good girl. Don't move. And right here. (camera clicking) Now. Bring you chin towards your shoulder. Work your shoulder forward just a little wee bit more. Chin down just a touch. Good girl. And just give me a nice little easy smile right here. Take this hand out. Elbow, bring the fingertips up into the hair. Elbow down, so stretch out just a little wee bit more. With your elbow, stretch out. And that one too, good girl, stop. And then just bring your chin down here. Don't move, chin towards me. Stay there. (camera clicking) Little wee smile there. Good girl. Beautiful. Beautiful big grin now. Love that. Perfect, thank you. Okay, one more. (camera clicking) Drop your eyebrows. Oh I love that smile right there. Good girl. Done. So just like that, that's my sequence. Nice three flow. Start with the recline, 45 away, hourglass to side, hand here, lifting away from that pose it's both slimming and very elegant. Get them to rotate their hips and shoulders towards you. Slide this hand in, left hand goes across. And then from there, we lay down. Ottoman shot. We're done. Perfect. Right, now what we're gonna do is shoot this beautiful fuchsia top on this black background so let's go on this wall and what I want you to do is stay exactly there. You are 45 degrees to the wall right now. So what I want you to do is turn this foot out to me, take your weight on this foot, put this hand here behind you just touching the outside of your hip, here. And I want you to lean back, like you're leaning on the wall so I'm just gonna step in front of that camera there and it's like a little dip, good girl, that's exactly right. So from here your chin goes that way to the camera. All the way around And I'm gonna bring your hair forward. We've put this hand here and then we shape the elbow around the body that way. So we don't pin this shoulder back. Really really important. The idea from the front is that we have lots of shape coming out on this hip. So the weight's coming on to this foot and pushing it away from the front foot. And from the front, I'm just gonna come around and take a shot and show you, looks like this. Absolutely perfect. Now bring your chin around to me, a little wee bit more. Good girl. Oh I love this color on you, Robin. Bring your chin, keep coming with me. That's it, all the way, don't move. Now I just need that beautiful little smile in your eyes. Good girl. Now have a look where my angle is right now. I am right again on Robin's eye line. Now I do not need to go higher to slim her down because see her shoulders? They tipped like that. She's already tilted towards the camera. If I wanted to slim her down more I would just tilt my camera forward a little bit more. But I'm still right on her eye line so from here, I've taken a beautiful shot there. Now what I'm gonna get her to do is I'm gonna get her to just pull her shoulder back a little wee bit more, keep going, stop. Now from here, chin down, now I'm going to come a little bit lower this time around the side. And I'm gonna make sure I've got lots of space to the back of the shot because this shot looks really beautiful. Slanted face with lots of openness here in the composition. So have a look at the still I just took. And you can see a lot of people make a mistake of doing this, and I'm going to show you. They shoot with all the space to the front side like this. This is not how this shot is meant to look. So what I wanna do is put her right in the center there, a little bit asymmetrically. I'm following that back arm. Now let's stand you up for one so that you're not tilted and let's still put your weight onto your back foot so your hip still goes that way but we just... Is this my back foot? No, that one. That's it girl. So we're not going to drop your shoulder forward but we're still putting the weight on the back foot. Now we've got this beautiful curve here. Now let's bring the chin all the way around. Not too far. Let's go back to the wall, everything. Good girl, now long chin towards me. Stop. That's it, that's it, stay there. From here, right on the eye line again. And I just want a beautiful smile for this. Perfect, don't move. Okay, I just need to up my ISO, once again 'cause I just heard my shutter went very very slow then. I'm down to 25 on my shutter speed which is way too slow so what I'm going to do is just drop it down so I can hand hold it. Chin forward and down just a touch. You got it. There it is. Okay, perfect. Now let's go elbows underneath the boobs. So holding your elbows, so don't squish boobs. So go lower than your boobs, not on top. That's it. And from there I want you to replace the weight on your front foot, that's it, other way, that's it and I want you to lean back there. Good girl. That's a beautiful shape. So from there I want a long chin. Now just watch this pose from the front. In fact, do it again, swap feet again. Swap the weight on your feet. Put your hands back down. Now I just wanna show this camera. Put your elbows together again, there it is. Now put the weight on your right foot. Because see, as soon as she put her weight on her right foot see this hip jump out the back here. Which gives me a beautiful shape in the front. Now what's really important with this pose is that we don't squash this arm against the boobs so it's just very gently away from it and it makes such a beautiful shape. Then it's more of a side arm pose. Pushing back to that wall. That's it. And then long chin towards and down. And see how beautiful that looks for the shape of her body. Let's take a shot of that and have a look. I'm just below her eye line. I've got lots of beautiful shape here. Little wee smile. Chin this way just an inch, good girl, beautiful. Don't move. Oh I love that. Okay from here, also something that I do is I drop the hands straight down here like that, both sides so I can still see through here. Just drop that back, that's it and I'm gonna do that again. Chin around to me. Around, keep coming, chin round, keep going, good girl. Stay there. (camera clicking) And there it is. All right. I love all of those wall shots. Remember if she was being photographed with her daughter or a couple shot you would just add on to the shot. So then I'm going to do a cover girl style so exactly the same, straight to the back wall. And what I want you to do is put your hands up onto your waist, okay? And then bring your hands in, a little bit further but not your elbows, good girl. That's absolutely perfect. Long chin towards the camera and down. So I do two things when I do cover girl. One is I shoot it like a cover. Long chin forward and down. Down, chin down, stop, good girl. That's beautiful. All right, there. Little bit asymmetrical here. (camera clicking) Chin down a little bit more. And that little smirk. Good girl, that's gorgeous, wow. Okay, from here I wanna make sure when I do the cover girl shot I don't always like the hands so let's put the hands down and like we always do flatten them out and then push your elbows back. Not your shoulders, just your elbows. So it's about taking them slightly back out of frame so that hand can go back just a touch. And what that does is it rolls the arms back. Now what we don't want to do is, push your shoulders back, we don't want to do that. So leave your shoulders forward and let's just take a nice simple cover girl and push hands down there. Now, push your chin towards me and down. So just, not your neck, just your chin. So bring it towards me and down. That's it, 'cause we want to keep the length of your neck. That's perfect. All right, there. And chin down now. Chin down, keep coming, stop. Good girl, that's beautiful. Okay, I need a real smile in those eyes. Chin down now, just down a little inch more. That's the one, you got it. That's beautiful, good girl. Stay there. And from here, oh I love this. All right. I want you to bring your chin square to me a little wee bit more, stop, stay there. Now I'm gonna shoot this nice cover, low, right here. (camera clicking) (camera clicking) Oh sorry, blink, gotcha. Okay from here, let's just do one, relax your arms. And I just want you to turn your body towards me this way, yeah, keep coming, keep coming, stop there. Put this hand on to your thigh so that there's a little bend in your elbow. Now look over you shoulder back this way. All the way, keep going. Now work the shoulder forward for me. That's the one, eyes to me, that way. That's it. Perfect. Chin down, forward and down to the edge of your shoulder. Good girl, stay there. Now a little smirk for me. (camera clicking) Now very gently turn away, stop. Don't move. (camera clicking) Beautiful. Good girl. Now go back to the wall. Turn around, face me. I'm just gonna do one last shot. Exactly right, beautiful. And from there I just want you to pin your elbows back again that's the one, and long chin towards me and just let your hands go in. Right, long chin stop. And I just want one long shot here. Okay, from here let's just bring your hands together in the front, like that, just your hands not your wrists. So just on the outside of your hand, that's the one. Now elbows pinned into your body. Not shoulders. Long chin towards me. And push out and forward and down. Now just kick back with your booty this way. That's the one. Stay there, long chin down. Down, stop. (camera beeping) Beautiful nice easy grin. Good girl, that's lovely, I love that. Perfect. Excellent. And we're done. So that's my series. On the wall, using the body, using the arms, using the hands back, same cover girl, cover girl hands down, exactly the same. What I do also with elegant portraits is I just try and make them a little bit more traditional in a sense and a little bit less modelly. So a little bit less sort of popping out the sides and a little bit less hands up and just a little bit cleaner in all of my lines and making sure I got nice long extended chin and beautiful soft expressions. You're gorgeous. Thank you, so are you. What we're going to do now is exactly the same. We're on the bar stool and we're using the apple box And I idea here is that I'm going to do what I normally do but instead of doing that Fashion Quarterly pose I'm just gonna make it a little bit more traditional. So I'm gonna start by moving her body 45 degrees towards me and as soon as I go 45 degrees towards the camera I'll just keep one foot up and one down. One foot up onto the back, there you go. And these tight together, good girl. I'm just gonna pull that down. And then hands in the lap, so very traditional sitting nice and upright and then chin all the way back to the front so I'm just gonna take a really beautiful traditional portrait, exactly like this. Perfect, okay. So sitting up nice and tall, working the shoulder towards me ever so slightly, good girl. Take that there. There, and just working this shoulder forward. Nice. Elbows go in tight to the body. Shoulders don't go back. That long chin towards me, Robin, and down. Down, down, keep going, stop. (camera clicking) Beautiful. Just a tiny tickle more of a smile. I love that. Good girl. Now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take this toe and put it up here. That's it, and just stretch that knee out. I'm just gonna pull your shirt down so with this one you can hold that there and I just want you to come forward on there with this elbow that's the one, now this hand can just go straight down here and I just want that elbow tucked in nice and tight. Chin this way, lifting up nice and tall and just keep a bend here. Now I just want you to pull back through here, good girl. That's perfect and long chin forward and down ever so slightly, don't move. I love this. Chin down now. I like bringing the hands forward. And chin to the shoulder. In fact give me more shoulder. There you go. Lovely, I like that, stay there. (camera clicking) So come back, open up towards me a little bit more and let's bring this elbow to the edge of that knee more. Let's bring this hand through so can it come through here comfortably? Don't squeeze boobs too much though. Maybe just here and elbow down and nice and tall, lifting up, chin forward and down. Stay there. Okay, I just need to keep a bend here so as you can see that doesn't work for me this little hand here. So what I'm going to do is take it straight back down to here again and just extend it down through there. So I want you to keep that bend and keep the shoulder forward. A lot of people make the mistake of rolling the whole upper arm forward and I do just wanna keep this, what I'm trying to do remember is to keep the elbow line inside the hourglass line so coming down, I'm cropping this shot just to the top of her head to the bottom of her black dress so I just want it to look like a really nice traditional portrait, it's not too cover girl, it's not too tightly cropped. It's actually quite traditional and pulled back so I'll show you what I like. But I can see this beautiful line on the back. Lift up nice and tall with your neck and shoulders. Bring your chin forward and drop it down now. Chin down only. Good girl, stay there. A little bit more of a smile. (camera clicking) Perfect, chin down a little bit more. Gotcha. (camera clicking) I love that. Now I'll do something that I always traditionally do. Just pop your foot off there and I want you to turn that way on the bar stool. That's it. And sit back down. And I'm going to put this over here, this little apple box so that you can put your feet on there so pop your feet on there 'cause that makes it easier to move, I want your hands just flat there on your waist, sit forward, and I just want you to lean your body forward and then look back this way. Chin all the way around to that camera in the front there. That's it. And elbow tucked in nice and tight. Give me lots of shoulder there. And just cross hands. Okay I'm not too worried about feet or knees or leg position here. I'm just trying to get this really beautiful over the shoulder position so stay there and we'll have a look from the front. Okay, from here I want you to turn your whole body away from me, keep going, stop. Long chin, lift up nice and tall and chin to the edge of your shoulder and down. (camera clicking) Okay. So this shot doesn't work for everybody but when it does work it works really really well so what I'm gonna do is that her arm out of play here so as you can see, I'm just gonna take a shot here. Leaning forwards again, Robin. Leaning forward away from me. Good girl, stay there, chin long, chin down to the edge of your shoulder there and looking back, when I take this image I actually love what's happening with her hair and her shape but I don't like this arm so what I'm gonna do it take it to here. I'm just gonna take it down, I want a nice shape in the front of her arm but I want that arm to go. I also want the wrist line from the front and then I'm gonna take this arm right out of play as well and what I'm going to do now is to lengthen her body through the trunk, I'm going to take the apple box away. Step down. And I'm gonna get you just to scooch to the edge. Now see that's gonna lengthen her torso so now lean forward. So now I've opened up this whole area here and now I'm gonna go long chin all the way around to the front and then down, so just a little bit more length here. Good girl, stay there. Let's try that. And that I like a lot more. What I want you to do is tip in to the shot and come around this way, stop. Stay there, I love that. (camera clicking) Good girl, and one more, let's just try the arm back here and see if we can get a better arm shape. Work the shoulder away, stay there. Turn. Your, tip down, no no no no, just with your head. Tip, sorry, now turn your shoulder away from me. Stop, there it is, keep going. Turn your shoulder away from me. Keep going, stop. Now look back. Look back at me. That's it, good girl, I love that. Oops sorry, I got you blinking. Fast little blink there. Turn around. And little wee smile, keep it going. Good girl. All right, let's try, oh that's beautiful. Let's try this. I want you to open your shoulders up to me now. That's it. I want you to scooch your bum to the back of that thing and up on this cheek here, that's the one. And I just want you to, you can put your foot on the apple box, that's it. I just want you to let's see, we need to do something with this front arm. Can you go to the edge a little wee bit more? That's it. So I just want you to lean under here. Now, I just want you to bring your chin around. This hand goes down onto your thigh. And slides back, that's it. Bring your shoulder around a bit more. Just bring your chin around now. So all I'm doing is putting her on a tilt forward to the camera, a tilt forward to the camera with a long chin just to get a nice close upper body shot. So now I want you to just pull back with your shoulders a little wee bit, both shoulders pull back. That's it and bring your chin forward, down, stop, stay there. (camera clicking) Okay, that's beautiful, I love that little smile. Good girl, slightly tip this way. Now you can see here I'm still quite traditional. I'm cropping just above the head. Just down to the hip line. And let's work the shoulder in just a little wee bit more and I'm gonna go lower than her eye line and push your chin towards me. Long chin, push it forward. Good girl, that's the one. And now I need that gorgeous little smile. Chin up just a bit, long chin. Okay so give me a tip this way, long chin out. There, there it is. Relax your eyes, little wee smirk there. Love that. Big smile girl. (camera clicking) Gorgeous. Beautiful. I love all of those. Thank you so much. Learning to move people around on a chair is not easy. I want you to consider, will you hold this for me. (laughing) I want you to consider one thing. Particularly when you're working with anybody short or curvy as soon as you sit people down their posture changes everything. Arms are rolled forward, shoulders roll forward, I need you to be up in this chair in the best posture possible and then work the posture from the front to make sure that you're pushing the booty out, working the shoulder, that you're not flattening the arm too much, you can be traditional. You can do traditional hand poses and as long as you're lifting up through and dropping down with the chin always connecting the chin and the shoulder. I do not want you to shoot down on the shot. It does not need to be shot down. If your client is lifting up and leaning forward with their chin forward and down but not too far down that they're looking up through the eyebrows. Learn to move people around on a chair and see what looks good. If you don't like the looking back position just change it and come back, do this one, go to the back of the bar stool, lean forward and use and shape the body all the way around. Just keep your crop quite traditional. Right on the eye line, pushing forward, lifting up, chin down. I want you to uncross your legs, Arlene. And I want you to sit around this way, to that side. Perfect, and just hands exactly right. You just did it perfectly. Sitting up nice and tall and all you have to do towards me is push your chin out, just your chin and then slightly down this way. Okay. And I just want you to work that shoulder forward just a touch, now push your chin towards me and down a little wee bit more. So all you have to do when I pull out the camera is a tiny little smile on your mouth and just soft eyes, you got it. You're already there. Okay, follow my lead and I'm just gonna talk you through the sequencing. No smile at first so don't hold it, that's it, and I'm just gonna take a very traditional sitting up in the chair portrait which by the way I love. And it's right here and I love it. It's beautiful, okay, from here I want you to bring your chin forward, (laughing) just laughing about how beautiful. Okay come on forward, that's it, that's it stay there, I love this. Now I know it's difficult to do but just a nice easy smile. Good girl, perfect. I want to take you straight out of the traditional now. So can you stand up and just rotate the chair around to me so just turn it, yup exactly, keep going, stop. Not away from me though, keep it towards me just around, that's it, now when you sit back down can you sit on one of your feet, like can you sit on your right foot. That's exactly right and I want your right hand to come up here so pull away from the back of the chair just a little, your bum as well, slide away. Yup, and just so your elbow touches the back of the chair and then hangs down, okay. I'm just gonna adjust your wrap. So, because you're going that side, I'm gonna bring you around here. Just so that you can wear that up there. Down this side. There. And what I want you to do is slide this hand back to here, is bring your knees around to me a little bit more and just bring your knees together there. So I can't see the bottom of the knees so I wanna make sure I don't cut her knee off. I've gotta make sure that this hand goes back on to the camera there. And wow that's a gorgeous ring. And just relax this hand, there, good girl. So from here in the front, if this elbow is too high I have two choices. So I can bring your elbow down into the chair, sort of go down a little wee bit and let this hand hang down here. All right, now, I need you to tip towards me. But, I need it like you're leaning there. So my option would be to give you a boost. So let me get you a little boost. So I'm just gonna boost this up underneath you, that's it, so you sit up on there, a little bit more. I don't wanna see it from the front so just have to make sure I tuck it right up and under and just under a little wee bit more. That's it, that's perfect. Okay, from the front, can I see that there? No I can't. And then you can comfortable lean there. As long as this hand's pointing down at a so as long as this arm's here, if it's up here, so go right up to the top, your elbow, that's just too high, it just doesn't make sense. We wanna be here, we wanna make it look like you're reclining on to there and relaxed doing it so if it's not then we have to change it. This one slides back, shape the waist, turn the hand side-on to the camera and down nice and low. Long neck up and chin towards me this way. So that's it, lifting up here. So I've just got your hand like that. So just turn it that way, that's the one, let it go down, relax those fingers. (light whistling) That's it, and turn away from the camera. That's it, perfect, so nice and low. I can still see it, nice and stiff. Lift up nice and tall. Long chin towards me and just slide this hand up and back a little wee bit more and then long chin down this way. Slowly, that's it, stay there. Perfect. Okay I just need a tickle of a smile in your eyes. You got it. So easy. (camera clicking) Here, chin down just a touch. Really easy smile, let's just let it go. Okay now I wanna see a real smile. (camera clicking) All right, from there go half way, so just a nice, that's it. Awesome, stay there. All right, I'm gonna bring this chair around a little bit further now. So stay there, I should be able to just move you. I'm just gonna bring this around like that. Okay (laughing) Just gonna scooch you around now. What I want you to do is bring your knees around to me. All the way around, so on the chair, just rotate around. That's it, and I want you to stay up onto your pillow so lift up and I'll put you back up onto your booster seat. That's it. I'm not too worried if I see it in the front as long as it's doing what I need it to do. I now what you to lean over there, and there. So, that's perfect right there. There. Perfect, good girl. So if this pokes out here, I just wanna try and tuck it back that's her booster. Give her a bit of height. We shouldn't see it from the front. Now I can't. Okay, this hand just don't bring it to the camera, bring it on the inside of the chair, so this one here, so turn it inwards, so it's, yeah, not like that, just in towards you. So that way. So nope, so you look at your ring, that's it. This hand goes on top of it, and then on the inside as well. So away from me, closer to you. That's it, so nope, closer to you. Just bring this hand here, like this, away from me. There it is, perfect. All right now sit up nice and tall through your neck and shoulders and then push your chin towards me and down. Don't move. You've got such a good extension and flexibility. All I need now is a tiny little wee smile. No less than that. So start from scratch and just give me just a little wee tickle of a smile. Just so gentle, little bit more in the eyes. Little, that's a girl, perfect. Okay, lean towards me just a little wee bit. Now scooch your bum away from me a little bit. So push back. Yeah, and then bring your chin forward. That's the one, not so far over your hand. Push back with your body and just your chin. Now bring it down. That's it. As soon as I see that relaxed shoulder. I can see it. So chin forward just a touch and down now. Forward and down, that's it, nice, easy smile. Just a tiny, you got it, stay there. I'm gonna pull back. (camera clicking) Now turn your shoulders back again but keep your lower body there. So you just come inside this chair. So bring that arm back down. That's it, put this hand back here. Let this hand go down, straight down. Maybe cross hands here. Perhaps go that one over this one. Now, bring this elbow into your body a little bit more. In here, that's it, now lean back. So when you lean back you turn your shoulder to me. Yup, mirror me, that's exactly right. Now I want you to pull this up. I want you to drop this elbow into here. That's it, stay there. Just lean inside onto that chair. Good girl, away from me, that's it. Now drop that elbow down. This one and bring your chin around to me this way. Stop, now chin forward and down. Don't move, you're such an elegant woman. You look so beautiful and very French by the way. Right now. Okay. That's all I'm going to do sitting. I'm gonna stop and stand you up. I feel like with the chair, um, okay so I can talk to this camera here. I feel like with this chair scenario, so what I would normally do with that sort of mid-demographic is bring the knees up and get the elbows forward, get the hands up around the face I find most women 50 plus don't wanna bring their hands up. If they can do it, I love elegant hands but I want people to like their hands in the shot. I also think to myself, this is about having a portrait of a lady, it's not about creating a sexy beauty image or body shape, it's about just having the most elegant shot that you can create with body line and just that sort of, I don't know, feminine elegance. I always call all of my 50 plus portraits elegant portraits because I think that's the best way to describe them. So now what I'm going to do is instead of changing anymore seated positions, I'm gonna stand you stand up in this background and change the wrap around her shoulders. Let's do that now. So take your weight onto your back foot. Lean back ever so slightly. And just keep your hands in a traditional portrait position and now push your chin towards me a little bit more and then down, that's perfect, don't move. I love that, now all I need now is just a tiny little soft expression through your eyes. Push your chin towards me a little bit more. Arlene, down a touch. Now just soften those eyes and a little smile for me. That's it. (camera clicking) Beautiful, I love that. Okay from here hold your elbows. That's right. Now if you can just bring this elbow back a little wee bit in the front and bring this one across a little bit more. So this hand, that's it, really hold your elbows right across. So sitting nice and tall through your neck and shoulders, push your chin towards me. That's it, and just work the shoulder a little bit more. I'm gonna come in just a little bit closer and shoot this here. Okay so what I wanna do is I'm now gonna put this hand underneath, under here so I don't see it. That's the one. And then work the shoulder forward a little bit more. Don't tip your head back and then just bring your chin down. That's it, don't move, good girl. And I just want this hand, there to be soft up here so I can see your ring. That's the one. And work that little shoulder forward a little bit more. Push your chin towards me and down. And then a tiny tickle of a smile in your eyes, there. I've got you, beautiful. I love that. Maybe that with a gorgeous smile, go. Okay from here turn your body back to me and just stay in this position. I'm just gonna put your wrap back and what I want is I want you just to kick out your hip this way, so which ever side you feel more comfortable on. That's it. And now bring your chin towards me. That's it, and straighten your head up to me there. And this hand can just go to the bottom of your elbow. Okay, so straighten your head up. This way, half way. And now come towards me with you chin and down, stop, stay there, okay, I need this here. Relax those eyes for me. Good girl. That's perfect. Wow. Eyes down a little bit, Arlene, they're still wide open to me, just a tiny smile in those eyes. That's a girl. Beautiful. Wow, that's good. (camera clicking) Love this, beautiful big smile, go. Okay, now give me a half, chin forward. Okay, and chin down a little touch, that's good. I like that a lot. Okay so there we go, traditional portrait. Elegant portraits, beautiful body lines, shaping the shoulders, always using the posture, lifting back, chin forward always, tiny little smile in the eyes. Absolutely beautiful portrait of a beautiful woman. Thank you. (giggling) I want you to stand up and sit on your right foot if that's okay, and then take your body away from the couch that way a little wee bit. So I'll put that little box for you so that you're not right hard up against the couch but your whole body shifts that way, that's it. Knees together, just bring that foot there, that's it. Now I want this elbow here and with your left hand I want around your thigh. And then just slide back slowly, stop, not too far. And the reason we don't go too far is so it doesn't hid around, that's perfect. Now nice and tall through your neck and shoulders. Bring this shoulder towards me, just that shoulder and then your chin goes that way and down. From this angle I'm going to take a portrait and I can pretty much go straight up and down so give me more chin towards me, this way, that's perfect. All right, don't move, tiny soft little eyes. (camera clicking) As you can see I'm just about the eye line. Now I want you do hold exactly that elbow and take your bum away from me now so that you've got more of a recline. Don't turn away from me though. Just scooch that way. Scoochy scooch, that's it. Bring your foot back on the box and just turn it back where it was so your toe was up. No, here, that's it, 'cause it makes you lean so good. Now have a look with just a bit more space. What I've done when I pushed her away was I created more space here. So just bring your chin around to me a little wee bit more and down, that's perfect, and I love that there tiny little smile. (camera clicking) So now I'm going to just come down on my angle and show you a few more choices that we've got. Chin towards me, follow me down. Chin down. That's it, nice soft little eyes there. And then I'm going to come around a little bit more and I'm gonna get you to scooch away even more. So that way, that's it. And just your tip of your elbow is touching the top of that chair and then hanging down lower. This hand goes onto your thigh. Elbow back, now long chin towards me now and down. I love that. Now as you can see from front camera, I'm cutting her knee off which is a big no no but I'm not getting that in my shot. So I'm not worried by that. If her legs were in the shot then I would have to bring that leg back around because otherwise we create, you know, cut off limbs and amputee limbs when they're around there so now I can go back up in this angle and I absolutely love it. One of the cool things that I have with Arlene is she's nice and lean so I can pull her to the front of the camera so I'm just going to, don't move, just gonna push you back like this. I'm gonna bring that across so that you can put your knee on it. And I'm going to just get you to turn your body, the shoulder around to me a little bit more. So keep this hand onto your thigh. Elbow down and keep this hand inside on to the camera, I love that. And from here I want your chin to come back to the front. Long and forward here. Now down, not quite so far this way. That's it, not bring your chin down to me now. Now little soft, oh love that. Absolutely gorgeous. Good girl, chin down just a touch. Tiny little smile in your eyes. Love that. Now that to me is a beautiful portrait of a woman. I just, doesn't get better than that. Now I want you to bring this hand up and over here so in order to do that you'll have to put both feet up and I want you to bring them around to me, your knees. And just so that you can bring your knees around to me so that you can lean forward. Now lean off the back of the chair and I want your hands up in here. Now this one goes on the inside and that one goes over. So in order to go over, that's it, you have to come towards me so just pull your boobs back a little bit, that's it, and lean forward on to this hand. Now bring your chin towards me now and chin down just a touch, don't move. I love this. (camera clicking) Nice easy half smile, that's a girl, and now give me little teeth smile, just a gentle one, that's beautiful. Wow, Arlene, that's amazing. This hand can come out, no, mirror me, and I want this one to go behind your fingertips. That's it, stay there, no, just touching, just your fingertips, don't move. (camera clicking) Now I want you to come towards me a little bit more and put this right behind your hair, so there, that's it, lean on to it. Now just fingertips, I don't want the hand flat on head, long chin towards me now, chin this way. So just your fingertips. So you've gone back to heel palm so just touch down here now bring your chin towards me. Lean on to it, so maybe put your fingertips behind your head that's it, chin comes back this way. And down here now. Very gently work this shoulder forward. That's it, stay there. Now that with a beautiful big smile. (camera clicking) Gotcha. (camera clicking) Doesn't get any better than that my friend. I want you to lay down on your tummy. So you can stand up and I want you to come down here and just lay down straight down on your tummy. Elbows here, that's exactly right. Don't move, and from here I want you to take that hand that's over in the front on the inside. Lift up nice and tall through your neck and shoulders. Cross your ankles. And then bring your chin down this way, stop. And very gently work the shoulder forward. Chin down, stop, don't move. Okay I need exactly that with nice soft little eyes. Chin down ever so slightly, you've got it. Right there. Wow. Now what I want you to do is slide back, that's it. I want your hands to come forward but over that way so it's a very very natural response for most people to put there hand towards me, I don't know why, so I was you to swap over and go that way. That's right. I want you to sit up nice and tall. Bring your chin down and engage this shoulder. Don't move, there, that's perfect. Good girl. (camera clicking) Chin down now. (camera clicking) And now I want this elbow out here and I want your fingertips behind your head again. And I want you to just turn your chin this way and chin down now, that's it. Bring your elbow towards me a little bit. That back elbow, good girl, perfect. And from here I want you just to give me a gorgeous easy smile there. Now a little bit more teeth. (camera clicking) Chin down. (camera clicking) God, you're a beautiful woman. Beautiful. (laughing) (clapping) Too easy. Absolutely too easy. Stay right where you are now. Bring this hand on the inside. No, on the inside of your, no, stay exactly as you were 'cause you did that so naturally and just bring this hand, now, now keep that one down, bring your chin down here. Down and I just want that huge big smile that you just gave me then. Okay, pull back so it's not your neck and it's just your chin. Chin down that way. Gorgeous. (camera clicking) Could I take more people. Yes I could. Do I need to, no, 'cause oh my god, they're just perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you.