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Art of the Wrap: Basic Wrap with Twins

we are starting with twins his second it's gonna be a little bit different because we're gonna be rotating between two different babies we're also going to be doing studio lighting now you heard me say before that I believe for myself I want to be comfortable shooting anywhere back in the day I only knew how to do natural lighting because I didn't have a studio I didn't have studio lights there was no reason to learn studio lighting so for years I was a natural light shooter and it seems really easy I got to know my lighting really really really well and I was very intimidated by studio lighting and in college I am practiced with hot lights and the first time I brought lice I bought it off of ebay I didn't even know what they were exceeding what they were and I was told we will don't buy new right away by used I bought used for years and two spots amuse lights and just experimented and just try it and just figured it out I did take a six week intensive lighting course years ago gosh it...

's been so long maybe ten years ago and I remember sitting in that classroom going of a rembrandt lighting and butterfly and split and like oh my god she was in college I want to do this again but what the course was good for was it anymore of course was purely lighting outside with flash inside with studio lighting what it was good for was it gave me confidence and I feel like sometimes that's all you need just a little bit of confidence to go out and get your own lights and with the workshop we have to partner with someone be in the studio space with our lights this is how you do high key this is how you do loki that time was invaluable to me because it was just on a subject so if you don't know studio lighting don't practice on a newborn because it's going to be very similar lighting for person you know an adult versus a newborn just get a person and a person her and I worked back and forth we we tested with each other and when it was time for me to buy lights it was much easier for me I love alien bees and I you know don't really use any other lighting but alien be with that being said I have taught in studios all over the world and if I'm visiting a state or somewhere else a studio I will use their life so I don't feel like I have to use these lights and again it goes back to if I've used lights once I know how to use them again they don't have to be an alien be brand you know I'm saying I went to the studio in new york and they had completely different lights it's no big deal now with that being said we have eight hundred here and a four hundred I do have eight hundred my studio and four hundred to be honest if you were buying lights the four hundred is fine we're not going to keep it at full power right now it's probably even a little higher than I normally use it probably about this one sixteenth which is fine I'm I'm pretty low and I like to rap light around the subject it's very easy to put two lights than turn one off you know faded out the great thing about studio lighting is you're in control and lately I see a lot of very dark newborn photos read to see a little bit of light while it is beautiful at the end of the day most nurseries are brighter in color most babies air soft and light so I actually like nice even lighting do like a little darker I do like a little more moody a little bit more romantic but I'll only maybe do one or two of those because again you have to talk with your client if they have a beautiful bright pink and white nursery or silver and you've got dark moody newborn images it's not gonna look so good so you do I really think it's important ask your client do you like well it photos or do you like more moody dramatic photos it's the same we're involving the parents if they're wearing dark clothing is it are we going for naked black and white that type or are we going for brighter so we're gonna go over different rapping now I have esther here and the baby boy is miles is over there they're both passed out fully fed so what I'm going to do is we're going to go over some different raps oh yeah my studio lighting peritus my lights were hung from the ceiling on scissors and I pulled him down as low as possible since we don't have that they're on light stands angle down I do use pocket wizards um I have the older one and I always have a sim card is a backup because they always die soft boxes and studio when I'm on location I packed one light an umbrella because remember I said I'd like to use natural light at home but you never know what you're going to get so I do pack a bee and an umbrella because I'm not going to love my boxes and an umbrella is totally fine so we're going to go over rapping we're going to try and get through these raps but we also have a prop to this will see how the baby's dio and I still do transitions and wrappings so a lot of the times I could do three different raps in one little set up it's going into a little bit differently so we're going to see how this goes today we're going to do a basic newborn rap right now and because we have twins we're going to do it twice so I'm gonna wrap baby esther and then I'm gonna hand her over and then we're going to wrap miles and hand him over and we're going teo actually we'll probably do it properly rap esther a photograph for real quick right miles photograph him put him together photographed them one two three then put him in a basket together keep perhaps then we're going to bring in another little baby mckinley I'll fast forward we'll go back and we're going to talk about the egg wrap here we're going to see if we could do a little middle twist which no twists for the same and we're gonna try and do the side sleep bum rap so easy these were so easy just play around have fun don't stress out about the rat I'm going to show you some key elements that you could do with the rap no two reps I never wrap a baby the same way twice it never comes out the same way twice I liketo layer this little baby in the fields so yummy I just photograph to me a week ago he's wearing a wrap underneath that rap um and whether the legs are in the legs were out it kind of depends on the baby okay we don't know what they're gonna do with their legs so let's find out so here we go so we have esther where she get that name from because because it's an older name it's an older generation name and it's beautiful and not many people have those kinds of games so I always want to know so this we're going to need the shorter on one side because we're doing that lou mama so we'll do it out here so you can see a little bit so she's gonna go down here now when you have the basic rap the majority is on one side whatever side it's on that really doesn't matter now see her legs I'm watching what is him big spread what are what are we doing with our legs here she's like oh I'm so happy so we're going to see she's kind of got tucked in here so yeah let's get this over her shoulder and a basic rap is we just take one side of course we have the tags side and we gonna rap over her shoulder yeah we're gonna wrap over her shoulder and took over the other shoulder right now this is what we want to dio another way sh there is another way we can do this by going up on the feet maybe I'll do that with him but so for her we're gonna bring the arms in we're going to take this one piece bring it all the way over to the shoulder and tuck it right back in she's like I was so sleepy so closing you woke me up she just put her hands over the rap I love it keep it just how she's doing it she's got her own little perfect little pose again keeping in mind to go with what their bodies doing how are they curling up she curled her feet right up she put her hands where she wanted if you go with the baby's energy the rhythm the re movements you won't have to force them to do anything with rapping people tell me they struggle all the time tiffany just told me this which I find shocking but I think that sometimes you've to go really fast when they're crying you kind of have to go really fast but if they're calm like she is you don't need to go really fast but what you need to do is you need to pull and keep it keep it snug ceo I'm pulling and keeping it snug I feel like most of the issue is people's wraps or too loose and notice how we're holding again if you don't have an assistant have mom holds or dad or a partner somebody somebody with clean hands so you just come in here and we're just going to keep layering and this doesn't it doesn't have to be a pacific specific material so this is a stretch rap we sell these in her shop ty open and it's I love it because it's stretchy but we also have other raps that aren't so stretchy that ill layer over these raps I always feel like the stretchy wraps they're great for the main purpose but I don't always love photographing them so that's where I'll add a lace over top or at a texture she is cozy cozy cozy rosie see how easy beautiful yes so she is leaning what's flattens beanbag and since we have are all perfectly wrapped why don't we just take a quick shot put a little hat on her so we can just shoot it on wait here will you let me shoot it and see if I don't like it we'll throw something under it you wanna have her have been um me er hat I like those hats perfect oh I pulled him out different changing table will sorry any questions while we're doing this we do indeed quite a few people are asking where you get the wraps and I just want again let everyone know that in the resource guide which is in the bonus materials I believe on the course pain you can see all of the locations and everywhere where she buys the raps and buys these garments so you ones are from our own the type in store the shop they confined those on your website yes okay and do you happen to know what type of type of fabric that is this is so this is a nit stretch wrap good so in our website on our website if you go to shop ty open and you go somewhere on there there's knit stretch wraps that's what this is yes just another quick question about the rap carla wanted to know about the length of the minimum length that you need in order to wrap a baby well whatever um I mean I would say I use all different size raps but you want probably have a double arm length it's a good measurement I don't want to give an exact measurement because I really have so many different types of wrapped I'll pull out some of the ones to show you how many different sizes I have because I don't know if you saw in me in that basket I had laid that rap on top of a rap so I feel like the stretch traps are actually a little too long scarves we use a lot of scarves two's farms are a little too long to so I usually say you know like double double the side two two three sizes of the length of any burn baby ah let's test it out here it's pretty but we've got this shadowy thinking so let's put such lets just put something under to absorb it and we'll be good I only need just a minute to get this shot so well no something neutral to go with baby since you're going in the basket let's just lay this this beautiful blanket over it okay so we're gonna just do this real quick maybe the bigger one so we're going teo just do a quick shot of her then we're going to take her out and we're going to do that one more time with her brother but maybe I'll wrap the feast feet first so you can show the same rap with the feet first but this is come on now look at this she's perfect now keep in mind this transition we're doing I do this all the time sometimes I'll be doing a session and I'll pull something out and let's say they're so perfect why did here all the time from photographers is like oh it took me like twenty minutes to get the shot and get the baby all set up and now I got the shot now what do I do you know what we were all over again and go through it all over again so that's why sometimes I'm like okay I love this what can we do it like a tire change on a race track right okay let's like blister up bring another blanket in and then move on so you remember I talked about before about planning the next shot while you're doing that first shot could be angle this light down I'm pulling a lot of shadow I think that if you plan the next shot and be like oh yeah okay this is what I'm going to do next we lost it get perfect now we can do a hand variation what I could do here I'll try it because she's going to go umm you khun take the hands can you see what I'm doing and we can try going on each cheek and a creative photography had asked if the flash ever wakes the baby I have not had that issue she needs something under her head um these soft boxes the light is very simple very gentle I will usually especially if they have a pacifier do it like a test shot with the pacifier in their mouth to see if they're going to react she is not even flinching with the light not even flinching some babies are more sensitive than others I did a research a long time ago on how light effects babies and the actual power of the light once it's diffused in coming through here has such a little effect and so I felt comfortable that it was all okay and you just gotta watch the baby some babies air supersensitive some babies you just touch him and they just jump and some babies you could you know put him anywhere in their fine look at her look oh I love it testing good this is so simple we could probably get a little more cheek out heaven rank and then we go in a little closer and then there was one more no I did one more after that look come on now sweet very sweet on okay so she's gonna come out for a minute although she's so perfect right now of ascending like wank elias don't wake her but I do want to photograph him just on here so why don't we do this we're going to give her to mom in this because we're gonna bring this whole thing back okay so fun good girl okay so let's do a quick wrap on brother we're going to try and do this pretty quickly because we want to wrap them and we have another baby to photograph and wrap e d'oh I'm in there don't let go there we go hi guys so are you sleeping or what's happening no twenty four seven little bit little maps here and there congratulations on your twins I always wanted twins till I started photographing them and then I decided it's a full time job less than some okay so we're gonna let's mamie so we'll do a similar similar thing but this time I'm going to start with his feet and I'm gonna put it up under the feet this way and then we're gonna do the same thing but we're going to wrap this way question for you are these wraps that you developed throughout your career and in your early days did you have a sack of flour that you practice wraps with when you're first getting started okay so one of my very first newborn sessions I had no idea what it put baby in I found a laundry basket michaels and I went to a hair salon and bought a big box of the cotton that you wrap around your head when you die your hair I'll never forget this shot and I fill the basket with the entire box of this cotton material and the baby was naked in this material cause I could cover all of the baby parts with this cotton and I remember my clank going oh it's like the most angelic baby ever and I'm like I know and that was my high key look for like a year and then I've always been into fabrics and textures and I would buy things everywhere I would you name the store I've bought a material clothing that's how the gowns got started I just started buying material and trying to find sources and I if I look back over my work over the years I've used some pretty interesting things and now these raps are very popular and these air not even sold for newborn thiss the maker of this nit stretch does not sell them for newborns because of the popularity of them they're now sold um two newborns but these air really scarves is what they are so now that you know that when you're out shopping I will show you an adorable little scarf that I just bought it walgreens the other day it's here I brought it with me it's like my favorite color and the mom was like I love this unlike walgreens for ninety nine I'm obsessed my kids one word target they're like is this for the studio is this for home and whenever I'm like whenever we're targeting like we're not buying one more thing and they're like really mommy what if you see something for the studio okay fine I'm always shopping I'm always buying things always looking for different textures I don't want anyone to be limited you're only limited by your imagination let's get something under that same one used well let's let's see let's shoot this and see how it does I do want to tuck that under okay so see how it's a very similar rap all we did was what all we did was do the feet first that's it same thing so anna I have a question I'm a lot of people seem to be talking about the lighting set up and I know we have maybe john can even speak to this if you get a mike john but we have two alien bees and we have two about fifty inch soft boxes so we just kind of want people people are asking a lot of questions about the lighting setup okay how our of the lights ok if you want to answer if you can use smaller soft box yes you can theo soft lights going to be the closer the soft boxes to get rid of shadows softer it's going to be s o by using the larger boxes we can be a little further away ah the power on this I think or down this one's at about between the sixteenth and an eighth of power and the other one's about the same this is an eight hundred that's a four hundred so we're going to we're shooting what five six one hundred one hundred you don't need a high I s so when you're using studio lights right one hundred one hundred money twenty four to seventy shooting at a seventy I'm not on the fifty because I'd have to be in a lot of shooting down and I just hardly ever used my fifty so um like john sand I mean we want soft light so it's nice and close but there's still about four feet you know if you add to the baby is probably about six feet here you know testing its a little harsh that one I think it's cause your hands in there and try it again think we need to come a little closer to me just do one more in a match to match sister and they were going to get the bait them together it's just slide the whole thing now keep in mind you could do the same setup with umbrellas and have the same effect sure you know we don't have the right my dear you know I just was under a changing table are you guys doing you have any questions you okay how are you when you're rapping uh what's what's the biggest challenge I think the biggest challenge when I started rapping babies wass army babies but now that I've was what square me babies but now that I've learned to wait for the baby to be calm it's a lot easier to rep got it just have to learn to take your time exactly exactly let's bring um tiffany do you want a lift him exactly okay so we're going to finish with these two loves going on their mind and I'll just say for all of you people online you can also tell us what your difficulties and wrapping are and then we can relate those toe and I would love it kambara remember anybody student girl person assistant you're now a member of our staff he just spread this out yeah I would love to hear because to me I don't know I just feel like once you get it you've got it so I'd love to know the challenges I'd love to hear it it could help okay thank you okay spring him over amanda brown says that beat feet are always difficult as faras the posing okay so we're that second the second wrap that I did on miles will come in handy because I took his feet first so if you took the feet first and then you have an assistant hold those feet under the head then you're okay and when the feeder calm the baby the baby will calm down so it is important if you have squirmy baby feet that yeah you should um you should wrap the feet first so chrissy said my problems are the raps aren't stretchy enough that I have and I usually uh they're too loose and the baby moves a lot and I can't get it tight enough well try the wraps me cells yeah I mean you may just in all seriousness you just try try try again just if it's not working move on and try something else I'm a big believer in change you guys I am one of those people it doesn't matter what it is if it's not working you change it it's just that simple it's just that simple even if you don't know what the changes it's not working you change it that could go into any area of your life life is sure we gotta make the most event we have no time to just sit on the sidelines you gotta just make it work yeah his fingers his hands kind of eye but we'll fix it we'll get the shot and perfect it um you know we don't know if it's all gonna go out the window his hands are kind of interesting so she looks like she has one hand so let's let's shoot it and we'll just give mom to exposures and then let's perfect it so with him her her I'm going to take her other hand out just so she we have two years here so she's good and in him you watch her wrapping his practice I mean it's just practice you need practice if you're having troubles get a baby model and practice spent all day wrapping so you cannot wrap anymore so I have a question from bonnie ashy yeah who asked do you wrapped the baby when they are unsettled my problem might be that I'm wrapping it fussy baby and they're stretching to the sky and won't go into a cozy little ball and then she says you make this look so easy is that true do you need a sleeping baby no oh my gosh if you had a workshop with me with your model rapidly to cry I had a workshop in jersey and I was gonna tell all the girls that I was gonna get them and t shirt that said rap through the cry because like every baby screamed bloody murder through the rap and the students were getting all nervous and I'm like just press on just press on rap is just rap rap diligently rap quickly wrap wrapped firmly and that baby will stop crying by the time you're done and they stop crying every time every time I don't think I've ever had a baby that's that stayed crying after we usually went the wrappings down there so anna you've mentioned model babies several times yes what do you offer your client because obviously it's a whole lot of work to get them to come into the studio for us to practice on so what do you typically offer your model about twenty to twenty five images from the session and no reshoots it's an experiment they may not be perfect they may not be great they may not be award winning but I will give you twenty to twenty five images there isn't a mother around that wouldn't wouldn't welcome free digital images of their baby okay let's just get one more and then they're gonna take a break and we're gonna bring in another baby and show you oh you're good I could play with you two all day all day you know I know one of the concerns with doing this is if we get like really good babies everyone is gonna be like what do I do if it's a crying baby and obviously you know we want good babies because I can show you more but are you crying babies every day oh my gosh last week I had nine straight hours of newborns girls and every single one of them cried I mean it was crying babies for like eight hours my studio it was intense we just work through it and we got great shots and I told the parents at the end of the day when you're looking at the pictures no one will ever know they were crying sometimes they're just fussy every parent must have eaten broccoli beautiful come on now this is why I want twins we've had two hundred and fifty seven requests for you to say what what blanket you're using there the furry hugh hundreds I am happy to tell you a blanket I'm using and so will the vendor this blanket is from custom photo props I have one of the little postcards this is the most gorgeous blanket I have laid my hands on in a very long time and if I could tell you exactly which one is this one so custom photo props if you're listening jumping the chairman tell everybody will point get visitors are posted on the facebook page I don't know exactly which one it is it'll be in the resource list but it is as soft and dreamy as it looks it's gorgeous and she gave me to pieces because this is what we love to dio I when I'm buying a really big blanket I'll buy a big one and cut off a piece she gave us a piece because we're gonna put baby baby and lay this whole setup on this as a rug and if you could feel how soft this blanket is it is really beautiful and I feel like she's giving a prize of some sort two hundred fifty requests and you were talking earlier about saying well if something doesn't work you try something new and you go on to you trying to perfect that or change that how are you judging whether something's working or not is it because of is it your eye or you sometimes judging by whether something sells or not it's um no my eye mckinley um katie I believe it's my eye because okay with a rap whoever was that road and was saying is her issues the rap they're not stretching enough so she knows she knows she's having a hard time she's trying to rap and it's just not stretching she's having a hard time boom changing me same thing I was sometimes I'm going to take mckinley while we're talking we just shocked you okay um I will sometimes buy blankets that look great in the shop in a store online and then I get it and like not really me I think that so much we see other photographers of work and we want that and then we buy everything the other photographer doesn't we get in like oh that's not me so I definitely don't you agree I definitely think it has to be personal you've gotta feel it love it and after you take a picture if you like it's not me get rid of it maybe somebody else looked pretty cute just get action out she's there you just burped sure your problem became the senate why don't we just slide that in here with the negus bring the beanbag out I can wrap her out here shall we how to wrap out here take a picture of them but he needs a pillow yeah but he needs but but john I'm gonna wrap over here and he needs a pillow under his head and we're going up that one let's do the other ones okay so while we're moving around very girls feeling it's easy right come on it is yes it is mrs we sell yourself in this it's a baby it's a wrap climbing mount everest that's hard wrapping a baby it's not hard you just need to practise that's all you need look before I had kids I knew nothing I thought I knew everything I knew nothing with each child I got a little more confident a little more confident but even if I didn't have children because I'm so type a I think that I would have like had a baby model like once a month just once a month I need to practice you need to try something I need to just bring a baby in and perfect it and perfect it and perfect it you know I remember I'm clean move his feet bang out I'll tell you a quick story I remember years ago is trying to make baby had bands right now I'm a crafter I will make anything I keep saying we need to have a creative live show on making baby had been because I'll do it all day so I love to make them but before I knew how to do it I remember being in my kitchen in new york my mom going what are you trying to dio trying to make maybe headbands I'm not lying like three hours later she's like honey I think you should give that up she's like I don't think you were born teo make baby headbands like I mean I just have to know and I had bought like twenty ripped him apart survey them like was obsessed baby here means I probably spent more money that day than I could've bought like a year's worth of supply and I remember her cooking dinner looking at me because she was a craft or two and she's like oh I want to do that and she was all excited we go to the fabric store by wear ribbons and I did not leave new york until I had perfected it and I was just so obsessed with myself no one was paying me to do it but I was like I have tio I like from the core of my meat like if someone said anna you can never photograph another new born again I would cry forever you've got to feel that what is it that you have to do from the core of your being I know some people that are like really like maybe so a lot of work I sweat there a lot of work polly shouldn't be photographing newborn babies uh children I've got a wrangle their dad polly should pick another profession no one says you have to photograph newborn babies but if someone said tomorrow you will this is your last baby how would you feel right right that's how you know thank you spend your life perfecting it it's just that simple I have to do this I have I was born to do this I have to so that means I have to spend the rest of my life educating myself and perfecting myself until I can't anymore it's just that okay tiffany I'm gonna hand this one to you if you could just lay her on the bean bag so I could get a ready with a wrap and um well I don't want to you students come to sit next to the baby's whoever actually just come sit next to the babies make sure they don't go jumping out anywhere come sit over there by that um shoot baby contraption that we're gonna be using and then tiff if you want to grab what's the color mama do you want to pick up a rap for baby yeah okay hold on okay she's these babies whenever we gave him yeah whatever we and we can also layer whenever it was in the milk in the other room is working quite well were you you were easy no yeah there's all those worried ok one two three see how simple we could even do a yin and yang if we wanted teo oh easy breezy when two three honey I think I might want to take the head and ashley and the boy but let's just see love it love it love it love it temple has had a a little bit good