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Engagement Critique Part 2

I think it's kind of ah a cool concept and I love the tone and the cornfields and looking out there and it's like, you know, the future's together type of shot and um of course I do those two everybody does them the one thing if if they were kind of going for I would somehow I think if I saw a little bit more connection between them, I could buy into it a little bit more so maybe even simply if they were looking at each other um it's seems that there's a little bit of kind of ah stiffness or I don't sense that a truce and sear connection between them may be the the chairs are too far apart or something like that, but I understand with the with the artist is trying to do and I think from a compositional point of view I like how it's lower in the frame he had sky and then you hit in the middle he had the crops there and then you had the tree and so that's all good, but I would just like to see a little bit I don't know some sort of ah more sincere connection I'm not sure, but that's what...

I kind of feel a little bit missing with this photo see and I am again, I mean, I'm a little over, I'm completely opposite I love this picture and I think that they're static pose is very much in keeping with the feel of the photograph and here's why? Because in my mind I'm thinking, ok, this is kind of reminiscent of something of, like some of the old masters that we've seen, you know, I think of the the farmers you know, that are just very stoic in front of their farmhouse, and so in my mind I'm thinking ok, in that kind of that stoic nous of that farm kind of that community, they would not be the kind that are going to be huggy kissy or anything they would be very quiet and the on ly part about that couple that would want tio touch in public might be just their hands, so I think that it was actually I think I suppose is is right on point with the style and with the theo environment that they selected I love the fact that that there is this beautiful the clouds look very believable. I love the contrast, you have those the golden clouds and then you have that contrast of the blue sky and then you have more golden and then they took and tied all of them together by putting that the gentleman in the red shirt and then the young lady in the blue and it ties those elements together I could absolutely seeing this see this being a portrait in somebody's home as a piece of fine art and not just as a picture that hangs on the wall and I think that's a really it takes a lot of skill to be able to do that correctly and I think the maker did a really nice job come in them for this really good ok okay scotty scott well I can see with the photographers trying to do he's trying to catch on and when we do wedding photography we wantto kind of catch the background and the environment of uh where this photo was taken place and obviously it was in a very, very beautiful area and you want to showcase that which is great however the opposing and what they're doing I'm not buying into I don't see any type of romantic connection or any of that they're both looking off to the side there kind of disinterested so maybe if they had them walking but they are looking at each other instead that would have more of a feel to it the post processing possibly to bring them out of it maybe make a dark the ground a little bit darker that green is it's kind of very distracting to me s o perhaps just the shot in black and white would have been a lot better with different posing where there there's a more of a connection between them ok so let's talk about the pose of this couple because that to me is one of the weak links in this picture I love the fact that they're taking this bride and groom out to showcase the environment because obviously if a couple picks on environment like this it's important to them but the problem with this photograph is that they're both looking off she's she's like she's not even interested in him I need a volunteer leslie, come here, stephen okay, so first I'll have to ask you stephen, are you a professional model? Yes, I am today I could tell you dig and I tried my best to find the one person who was a non professional. Okay, okay, so now if you look like me and stephen right here, okay, so we're you know, we can there's a couple of things that we condone, we put you on the other side so they kind of mimic this kind of the scene. So imagine this house behind us now as it is, we're kind of like she's walking away like this and he's kind of just looking down so she's like, ok, I'm not really interested in what's going on, so what could change that? So how about if you did this so I want you to back up just a little bit and you're going to back up that way just a tad and this time which in turn your feet this way just a tad and now I want you to kind of pull pull me this way towards you see how if I were to turn to bring this like this way and then I kind of pull see now we could get playful with one another bring my arm down like this and we could get cozy and we can start you can see that coziness between the two of them but it all starts with the feet you see how like hey could go he could pull her like this and bring her in close and then bring her back but you notice like even if my foot is this way I could even look back so even though I'm old enough to be your mom, I'm sure of it but you kind of get the point so instead of having your couple just walk away like ok, like, come on, honey, we need to get that interaction between the two of them and one of the thing that really does help us instead of having people walk just like this like that how don't do this so in other words, instead of walking just straight with your feet, you're going to go like this with your feet and now look at me, see how how even though our legs were going moving in this is it this direction our faces and our body energy more importantly is facing one another see how my body energy flows towards him so that it's not just like you see I'm not like turning this way okay that see that that doesn't work so thank you stephen how do you do that how do you keep that movement based on that's what I do is I sold well I just think that way with you so here we go so I just say ok so instead of just walking like this you know I tell it like ok you're gonna walk kind of like a crab and as even for the groom I always say you have the hard job because you get to direct this is the one time because you know that woman will be boss him around along another story here so but it's dead just for having like this and then you and then get him to flirt with one another baby you soothe thing too by the way is if you do have some what if you have two people who are similar in head heights getting them getting her to even like to dip down a bit you see how my I can change the perspective the way that I am the head heights or perceived by just just a little bit just something like this crossing michael's like this leaning into him see how now it's kind of changing the and my head height said that I'm not quite at the same head height because headlights a static head height can be a bit on the boring side makes sense okay all right let's go forward I mean, just simply having the subject's face the camera instead of just their backs to them would have made a huge difference. Yes, it still seems like building star in this shot yes, it is, but part of the reason this building is the star in the photograph is because of the processing that was involved that the that the maker did that's a really good point I'm glad you brought that up because the reason we noticed that building so strong is because they used it looks like they used a bit of hdr to make that building even stand out more than it then we would want it to so what I would probably do if it were me this is the one kind of image I would not want it because I don't want the building's already there it's already five times or twenty five times bigger than the subject is so we don't need to make it look more prominent than it isthe so I would probably want tio dark in that building maybe create a layer mask and then bring it down about you know, a couple of stops so that the building is not so predominant, the other thing that I think is also important in this just speaking about the building is the placement of the subject in relation to that building you look at those strong vertical lines there just above his head you see how they kind of like there they're sitting right on top of his head so you want to think about maybe lowering your camera angle down to the ground may be laying on your tummy if you could or shooting from a higher camera angle and then moving them over I think I would have moved them over in the scene so that the doorframe uh you know, framed them. So if you shot from a low camera angle by the way the green grass would be minimized that starkness of the green grass as well nothing you can do is you khun bring your camera closer to the subjects or have in this particular case if you wanted to keep that frame of where that background was in the building and you wanted to show all of that, just bring your subjects closer to the camera all right? And then they would be feature and sometimes you don't have to shoot the entire body of your subjects. A lot of times I just shoot half of it because I want that emotion I want the connection there and then just shooting waste and then with that background behind or taking and taking a slightly different angle to it, giving them more of a hero feel too. I think that would have worked a lot better. We're going to throw out a few comments from the people from the internet and we have one comment from d c c p who says that was such an honor to have my photo critique by such amazing photographers I big, puffy red heart creative life s o thanks, you guys and we do have some audience members in the chat rooms that are having their photos critique so we are going to, you know, look over those comments and deliver him as they become appropriate. So which one? Which image was dcs picture? We're not sure what decent, but we're going to start curated that to make sure that we do we know exactly whose photo is attached to what? So we can chat a little bit about them. Great. That's. Awesome. Very good. Okay, let's, move forward. Okay. I assume you mentioned before we I know I actually think you can't by expression it's just so important in a photograph and this look so believable with this young lady, I think. And the grim he looks like he just really does love her and the kiss, even though he's very much kind of like that doing the fish face kind of thing with the richest plant in one it looks like it's very real I think that that is a very very good thing you want to be careful of your camera angle if you look at her the photographer has turned her so that her shoulder is straight into the camera now if you look at her face and then compare it to her shoulder they're both about actually her arm is her spirit her another shoulder with her arm her form is about the same size as her face and so it competes for attention and so that is really what's drawing me away and it makes her arm of big it's and she's doesn't look what she's got large arms so there's a couple of things that you can do tio to minimize that I need a volunteer let's see community karen right. Okay, so a scott could you might be in a group to karen. Oh, ok, so so all right, so I want you to just come in nice and close right here and we know that you're not a real couple. So it's all right? We're going toe said that it was karen seen let's kind of many but you have your arm under him right here in their cozy right here and you don't have to like kiss but you get the feeling see how for two reasons number one because her arm is pressed against her chest here I'm sorry you're making anybody's arms look bigger than me so let's not do that it's just not a good thing but there's a couple of things that you can do first thing is always think camera angle also where is the main light coming from? Not in the photograph that you see here where's the main light it's flat lighting right you see there's the lights coming on that arm so we would need to turn that the bodies a bit away from the light source is just going to give us a nice shadow on that arm and it's going to make that arm appear more slender if you can't do that let's say that you can't change you can't move around because there's distracting elements there are some things that you can do okay so let's get back in the position what if we took his arm right here and brought it up here now karen with this shoulder right here I want you to take that shoulder first of all and always starts with the feet there you go. But let me have you do this let me have you stand flatfooted for a second and now I want you to take this foot that's on this side where here stretch out separate your feet about shoulder's like for me the job and I want to push your hip away from me other way beautiful now let me have you I'm gonna have you scott I want you to come towards me a little bit this way keep coming good and now see how by turning his position a little bit now we don't see that big part of her arm do we now we only see this part of her arm and so she could take now with your chest I want you to lean towards me this way beautiful coming closer and scott can I have that I want to see the best side of your face which is the back side okay I want you to give her a hug with your cheek right there like oh baby love beautiful with your shoulder that lean into him beautiful chin up oh, darling love and then one of the thing I might do to refine this is let's take this arm and I wouldn't want to bring it up behind his bring it right in the hairline because I mean when you think about it you who of us if you really love somebody you're not gonna get all miss perfect on me you know you want your hand all in that here so does that give you some sort of help on that such a good sport there you scott you know that this is a very typical situation when you're shooting a wedding one you don't have a lot of time. I know this is engagement session, but you know, you kind of find a decent background and you have some decent lighting and then you gotta work with it on. This is very, very typical of what happens in engagement sessions and weddings, but that's, why it's so important to understand posing and knowing what to do? Because this situation is going to run up across all, you're not gonna have the perfect lighting such but what's going to make it is how you pose the subjects. And so that's. Why it's very, very important to understand posing. You know, one of the thing about this that could make this photograph a little bit better is that you notice how the backgrounds nice is soft because and that's great, because it doesn't compete for attention with the couple yet there's the strong leaves on the right hand side and they start competing because there's so tax sharp, they're so tax truck, they compete with the bribing rooms with her face specifically so they start they're not really important, they don't need to be there. So think about where you were, what your camera position is and how much of a scene that you're going to actually show, do you need to show? That much I tried to crop my photographs in camera the way that I think is going to tell the best story and that way. First of all, when I do any editing it's less work because it's easier for me to do it in the camera when should re fall definitely just get it done in the here and then it's like you don't have to worry about it later and then when you show your client's photographs, if you choose to show them unedited work first that's one less thing you're apologizing for, you don't have to go well, you know, this is gonna look great when I crop it because it's already been cropped I mean, sometimes of course you can, but for those ties and you can I think just as a general rule is to I think we kind of hit it on that is when you cross arms, he kind of cut off the body, see how their arms their kind of crossed there and you're kind of cutting off the energy. Um and so I don't like to have arms crossed it's when I'm imposing a couple all the time and another thing that you can do just from a general point if you don't know what to do right, you've got this couple one thing is is shift that weight on their legs because they're both opposed equal weight on both legs and that's going to give it a static field so once you break because what bambi took told her toe mover hip off to the side is the break that weight so they're always leaning on one leg and it's going to give it more of a feel another very easy thing to do is instead of pressing them up close like this is you can have them poles where it's a little bit more perpendicular so you see this kind of feel so you could have the bride or the female kind of pose more this way and the gentlemen more this way and I think that's what we kind of did right here but it was more in a v so you breaking up this kind of static feel of two people just pressed together you kind of angle them a bit you have to create an angle and then shift the weight so that's one thing that you can think of this like ok I got to get the weight shifted I gotto angle them a bit you know create break up that static field to the image excellent so I have some comments I want to share in the chat room be photo says in all caps I love bambi worries gotta have some love you teo villainy from austria said I love bambi she has so much classical knowledge I don't know how to describe it better so because I'm the oldest person I have only been doing in a million years or so I think that I don't think that's true and bambi comments keep coming in gwen says she's my favorite and stars says bambi's great with poses I've seen no one like her and scott is amazing what light so great to know that's nice that's really nice you know it's got me a really good point and I think probably one of the most important element we're learning to pose people always start with their feet and just the first question you want to learn to ask yourself every time if you're doing a posed picture is what's going on with their feet are they standing on both feet if they are you got to change that so before we go on I thought maybe we should do maybe a demonstration on imposing men and in women so let's say I need let's start with maybe a guy so let's see your name again mark mark that's I thought so more come on appear darling so mark are you a professional model no, I am not okay well I just wanna make sure about that so scott would you like tio depose him okay uh let's see how we're going to do that this way right let's say we're standing with the guy now we're always told when we're little kids so what does your mom say stand up straight that's not what we want when you're posing a guy guys need to look relaxed right yet confident okay and so when you're standing up straight what we're told we end up going like this right? And that ends up with the equal weight on each leg and it has a static feel to it right? And they were standing up like this it just doesn't work that way imagine a guy when you see pictures of guys and magazines there always have kind of this split a call like a lazy confidence to them ok? And so uh one thing that you can do it if you have to get the weight like he's naturally posing right where she's resting it on one leg right? But on the camera you need to exaggerate it even more because you're not going to pick it up because what happens is your subject let's say ok, can you just have to put all your weight on one leg? They literally do this may it isthe, but on camera you're not really seeing it so you have to exaggerate it even mohr and you had to feel that pop is a popping of the hip, which makes it a little bit more natural so what if I'm have getting a guy here, right? First of all what I try to do with the guy because guys air it's harder for a guy to pose so I try to get them to lean on something like a like a column where a wall here will be the columns, right? And so if I was supposing somebody on a column right and he's leaning against the wall here can you just sit down? I'm going to do I'm going to be a bad example you're too good okay and so let's say this is the column ok? And you tell your subject lean against the column this is what a lot of times what they'll do is they'll just do this okay how you correct that right what's bad about that you told me believe against a column the key is the opposite hip to the column you have to flip out you have the you know, pocket right? So if if so, if the columnists here this opposite it has to be hopped and it looks natural if they just go on and lead against like that it's gonna look very slip stiff so if one put that hip off to the side he's leaning on the count then the second thing for confidence so lean that subject forward a little bit ok, especially if we're have a little bit right here that kind of takes that away too and so you got the hip hop and then you lean a little bit forward, right? And then you've got a nice confident relaxed look right so let's let's get mark up and let's see if he can do it without the well we could do the column ok, so if he's leaning on here right right what's wrong with that correct yeah ok so you you know his weight is well his weight is on that leg right all the way to this like sees a certain coordination some people are always usedto leaning on that leg and you want them to do the other leg it's hard for them right? Okay, so pop that hip out this way see? Yeah, move. Step back a little bit. Okay then you're kind of leading on this camera this column here and then you're leading a little bit full work lean a little bit more mohr more okay now what's going to do with this head turn your head slightly to the side right and then he's leading forward and then maybe you can cross your arms to this also takes away from some of this is when you cross the arms because you have this and that distracts doesn't he look natural there? It's just a simple thing that can use with any guy it works ok, one of the thing you know I'm sorry, you know, go ahead and get one of the other things that I try to do when I'm working with guys is I think that visual if you can get them teo I need visual connection between them and I want to get it done very very quickly I don't want to have to over oppose it and I want them to actually forget about posing I don't want them to think that I'm trying to like manipulate them so the first thing I tried to do is I would say hey mark, I want you just to just do what I'm doing can you mimic what I'm doing see ok now very good seat by having him mimic what I'm doing right here I'm basically shifting his way to the hip that I wanted to go to and so I want you so you're going to just lean into this like right here like that now I want you lift that foot off the ground and you're gonna you're going to set it down but you're going to set it down like you're going to step on a butterfly and you don't want to squish it. So what happens when he does that? So by lifting this foot he doesn't have any of the place for it to go to right? Because otherwise you're gonna fall down so if you just say don't you sit down that foot like you're going to step on a butterfly and you don't want to squish it you see how it keeps the weight on that foot from being really hard said that in other words he's not going like this I was I was trained by by a lot of classical photographers and in the olden days they would use terms like put your weight on your back foot mark which is your back foot and this is what they would do they would go and they don't smoke on her way to track what really student okay and they would get this ridiculous look that's one of the weight recent I learned to get people to mirror you because if they just kind of if you have the mirror what you're doing first of all you're facing your subject so I can tell by looking at his eyes and mark you probably noticed what I was talking to you that I was looking you directly in the eye to see if you understood why I would never do this mark do what I'm doing right here steve wrong that would be because you lose complete connection with your subject and we don't want that we want to really make sure that they understand what we want them to do where the other things that I try to do is mark full trump's across your chest okay now what is mark saying right now? What is his body language saying to you right now? Yeah exactly his body language is telling you back off jack notice what happens if he does one thing hey, mark, I want you just now just like stretch out that like that way a little bit like just get just like that now all I want you to do is just slightly with your chest you're gonna lean towards me chin down a little bit excellent now what is he saying to you? I'm just I'm interested in what you have to say so the moral of the story that leading forward is really important but you'll notice I mean I try to use terms that are body parts specific so that if I want mark to lean towards me on this shoulder I'll say mark lean towards me with that shoulder more can't turn your face towards me right here I'll have a turn his face or it with your chest lean towards me not just leave our because we tend to roll our shoulders if we just if we're not specific on things is that make it easier you got any questions about that? Okay let's go forward thank you. Thank you, darling. Thanks, mark. Good job, mark john martin. Ok. Scott scott I like this picture has a nice feel to it has an authentic feel to it. Like how they integrate what everything is in uh important to them in this photo that photographer does have a connection with them it isn't a super super super bright on a day in the time on dso you know the backgrounds getting blown out a little bit which is fine um you know, maybe I wouldn't have uh the gentleman straddling the dog like that um and you know there's some you know technical things you know the hand and so forth but the general feel of it I love I'm sure that this this client loved that photo um and I think it's a good picture there are a couple of things that I probably would have done a little differently I too for so I'm nuts about incorporating your pets into a photograph. I think that's really important effect with our clients we do in a new interview with all of our clients before we do a session to find out who they are and if they have pets we want him to bring their pets in for the session or we want that well we will definitely would want to have the dog and the horses such because that's who that client is and it's a really great way for us to start building a a relationship with a client and sometimes it's not all that easy I mean let's face it you got two dogs on a horse there so you have a bit of the unpredictable elements that could be a complete can of warrants one time I had a client who brought to box turtles a cat and a dog. Tio, can I just tell you ever since box charles don't know how to run fast, they totally lied because the boxers were going this way. And guess what? The cat hated the dog, and so they I mean, there was a bloody mess at the time I finish it was crazy. But, you know, anyway, I digress e I think that what I probably would have done in this is I think I would have had them neil by their dog. I would have had him definitely the two of them kneel down with their pits and then bring the horses face towards them so that because as it is, we're not seeing a ton of the horses body anyway, so I don't think it would have been a problem for them to just t kneel down on the ground and put the dog in front of the bigger dog of to hold the other dog and then have the the young lady, maybe even leaner, head into the horse. I think the maker did a really good job considering all of the elements that go into making a portrait like this. One of the other things I think that would have been great is maybe not making this particular segment with those dogs in the horse be a hi mom picture if you're if you are a little bit awkward about the way you're gonna pose somebody rather than opposed them in a way that is a bit sloppy looking, make it more interactive. In other words, have them walking on and have the dogs following and, you know, looking and laughing at one another. And that might be a nice way to incorporate all of your you're elements that are important to you in a photograph. And then, if that, if they changed their camera position to a higher camera position, you could be able to see, even if you have tall grasses and such, you'd still be able to see the dogs, you know, maybe running in the field and playing and making it a beautiful landscape image rather than something that's, just a particular hi mom shot of all of them together. I think that would probably help the photograph a bit.