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What’s In My Camera Bag: Boudoir Edition

Hello internet and welcome to creative live my name is ken klosterman. I am your host today this is the beautiful jen rosa mom and this is the last live day of our boudoir boot camp it's weird because we've been doing this for many, many days on dh it has been a quite an incredible incredible boot camp so far so let me just fill you in on how this works we were alive yesterday for a ninety minute segment. We're going to be live again today for a ninety minute segment we are going to see all about what is in jen's bag and then we are going to critique ik images so excited if for those of you who might be out there whose images are going to be critiqued which is always something that people love about that when we all learn from whether it's our image or not and so then at the end of that ninety minutes that will be the last live event here for the bootcamp but when you go to the course page, you can see the full schedule because truly the boot camp has just begun. So click on the link t...

hat is our click on the name of the course up above the video that you are watching go to the class page you can see the full schedule everyday segment will play for about thirty to sixty minutes and then it will replay throughout the day. For those of you who can't catch it at nine a m you can catch it at three pm, whatever time it is, and then the next segment will start the following day, but better yet, if you know you want to invest in this course, you can go ahead and own the course. We'll talk about some of the bit bonus materials and bonus videos that come along with that, but that is how you can go and watch whatever, saying what you want to watch at whatever time of the boot camp, so we would love to see you in the chat rooms. There is a chat icon right up above we've got rust in the chat room he's, my co host today, and we're looking forward to hearing again from those of you who might be being pretty all right. Jen, how are you doing this morning? Good is a res. They call it boot camp. I'm tired then. Good. And you have been working your booty so let's do it. All right. Turnabout. Let's. Forget about it. All right, thanks, everyone. Good morning, everybody. S so we're gonna talk a little bit about gear today, um, you guys know already I'm I'm not really a geared junkie I'm not super technical photographer however there are definitely certain things that you need to make a photo shoot work of course we're gonna talk a little bit about that um what's in my bag so we're going to break all this stuff down uh lenses cameras straps gum is really important especially when you're I mean I know you're laughing but it really is important when you're like up in the face of your client you want to smell good, you know, important uh emergency we were just talking about that that's super important to keep those germs away notebook lip balm silly little girl things but the truth is that I want to make sure I always have like anything that you need in your camera bag that you might need on a shoot that might mean double stick tape that might mean, you know, some things your client lotion some you know, sometimes they get dry skin and they want to feel good. I've even heard of some male boudoir photographers that used sort of like a certain cologne or something because they not maybe super masculine, maybe a little more feminine, even something like fresh or clean because they want their clients to smell that like, smells a really big really but what what is it like it's zbig sense right? So they could what if they smell something, makes him maybe feel more comfortable um, if you wear like, a super masculine cologne, maybe it'll make them feel like, oh, my god, this is a guy guy like, so if you wear something or you have something in the studio it's like lavender scented or something that's, you know, nice and calming, just think about those things. So I keep some of that kind of stuff in my camera bag, but let's, talk about the real gear, okay? Because you need to have gear to actually shoot. So I started six years ago with a nikon d eighty it's a crop sensor camera. I'm not going to necessarily explain the difference between a crop sensor and a full frame incompleteness, because it will get a really ridiculous explanation for me. However, there is a lot of information out there actually looks it up today on the internet about the difference between the two, and we'll talk a little bit about that once we get more until lenses, but I did start with the crop sensor and there's nothing wrong with having a prop sensor camera. They work great it's not a problem. It's really a matter of your lens choices, so we'll talk about it a little more when we get into the lenses. Um, and then I upgraded teo a d seven hundred, which was a full frame camera shortly after I started getting into photography more of a full time basis and now I shoot with the d three ass in my backup is the g seven hundred, and I'm hoping to add another camera to the lineup this year, mostly because I love the g three assets my baby and I and I will never get rid of my d seven hundred. I don't know they're like my little children, my camera, but I need something maybe a little smaller to travel with now, so I'll probably add another camera to the lineup and it's always good to have a backup. You know, this is a controversial topic. I see a lot of times people will say, you know, you don't have a backup, then you're not a real photographer and I kind of go both ways on it. Cameras are expensive, so it's hard to always have a backup camera that's as good as your main camera, but the truth is, it isn't courtney. I mean, maybe if that has important for us because we're portrait photographers, we could reschedule a portrait session versus a wedding, but it is professional tohave a backup camera, just in case it. So you don't want to be in the middle of a shoot and have your camera fail. It's happened to me before s o I always make sure that I have a backup there. Um, but, you know, for those who don't or can't afford it, you'll get there. It's okay, once up a time lenses are really what I want to talk most about because there's a lot of questions about lenses, I get questions all time what's your favorite lens? What lens to use the most what lenses used for this picture? And I think sometimes people think that these air recipes and gonna hand them all if you take a picture with this camera and this lens of thes settings, my pictures will look like your pictures it's not really true there's so many different decisions that go into what lens you're going to use. So I'm just going to go through the lenses that I use and talk about when I use them, why I used them and maybe why you should use them, but I can't make those lens decisions for you. You have to make them based on where you're shooting, what you're shooting at the time of day they look, you're going for its based on so many different variables. Um, sorry. Let me go back when I do use all sigma lenses, all my lenses or sigma, I'm very happy with them. I love them. I'm gonna show you some of the images I take with them, um, signals a fantastic company, they support boudoir. They support me and many other photographers that do nudes and fashion and landscape and everything. So they're good across the bored, they run the gamut as far as what they could be used for. There's really no limitations. So I have the thirty five art you're gonna hear a lot about these art lenses, you guys, they're like the most amazing things ever. I have the fifty, the standard fifty on the fifty are the eighty five twenty four seven day twenty four one oh five r and the seventy two hundred this's a lot hey, understand that not everybody has a line up like this. So this is why we need to talk about what? What you're going to use when you don't have to have all of this stuff to be a good photographer for me. I feel that if I carry all of these in my bag at any given moment, just like I have, we've talked about the virtual toolbox when we talk about posing and working with our clients is toolbox, we can't see that helps us through shoots this is my tool box you can see so I know no matter what I walk into, I will be covered with these lenses that's my comfort zone, okay, but it took time to get there. I didn't just go out and buy all these lenses one day, it's time I started with the fifty and then I got a twenty four seventy and then I moved up eighty five and then I had a situation where I was in a really tight spot and I went, oh my god, I really need a thirty five okay, so you'll see like as you go, you'll know when you have a need for them, so we'll start with the thirty five and I do want to say one thing about you know I'm not gonna go over pricing or anything that's not my my job here today. My job is just to tell you, you know what I used, but I will tell you this some of the equipment is on the more affordable side. Some of it is on the more expensive side. I really believe in buying good equipment, okay, I believe that if you see a light that you really, really want and you know, it's going to help you in your photography don't bias the second best light save up and buy the good light, even if you have to rent it a couple times before you buy it, because then you'll only have to buy it once. This is sort of my theory in life, you know, if you want something that's really great, you come by that once, or you could buy the crappy thing, and then by the really good thing and spend twice as much anyway, right? So I do spend money on my gear, but I'm not a gear junkie. Like I said, I do not overload, I don't have fifty eight lenses. I don't have fourteen cameras or, you know, this is just my style. Everything is very minimal and keeping it simple. So let's, start with a thirty five millimetre. I love the thirty five. It is an art lens there, art siri's. We're going to get into it a little bit more describing what the art siri's is when we talk about the fifty, because it's, the question I get the most about the fifty art. Um, but they're really, really wonderful to work with. Um, this is an example of a picture that I took with the thirty five it's, incredibly sharp it's a one point four, which is wonderful! I really shoot wide open. Ah lot. So because I do it so much daylight work in my studio so this is really beneficial for me to have the one point four. This is great for somebody who is on a crop sensor camera because it's really more of like a what are we looking at? Like a fifty ish? I'm not so good at math millimeter it's really more like that so it's one and a half times whatever the len says it is really what it is in a crop sensor. So if you were looking for about that fifty millimeter, this is great for our crops. Answer for those who are on full frame, this is fantastic! This is a teeny tiny little area that I'm shooting and so I need to be able to have you no the space and this is this thirty five gives it to me so let's talk I'm going talk quite a bit about the fifty standard in the fifty art. This is what I use the most often I think in my first three years of photography I took every single picture with the fifty millimeter it was it's just my comfort zone I happen to really like prime lenses it's a personal everybody's always like zoomer prime it's like republican or democrat everyone's sort of on opposite ends I really like crimes I like to move around a lot since I bet you like to use primes because you're very active in your shooting I like to move around a lot I like to get up close, I like tio see it from a different way it forces me not to be lazy and just stand there and go in and out, so I like to use prime, so the fifty is definitely one of my favorite I also love the fifty because I shoot in such a small space remember you guys so how tiny my studio was, so the fifty gives me that flexibility that I have a little wiggle room, but I'm still getting what I want without having to be so far away from her. Um, you know, the other thing is that I really like to be up close I'd like to talk to my clients and be in that space with them, I can't do that with like, a seventy two, two hundred okay, so this is the standard and then this is the art, the arts a little bit bigger, it's the most. It is the most amazing lens I've ever shot with I really love it, I'm going to just say that it is it is amazing and this is our example, something I shot fairly recently with the art thie sharpness on this lines is the most incredible thing I have to tell you I shoot probably you know, if I shot five hundred pictures of a girl and I get three blurry pictures, all three or my fault, I had no trigger finger or I move the camera when I shouldn't have I just liked the picture evidently the first time I used this lines I just could not believe how sharp it was and the detail and it's amazing and it's like just enough detail for boudoir that you're not getting to detach hold because we don't want to too much right? But it's just the clarity and their eyes I just I really feel that it's helped me become a better photographer by using this lens, so we're going to talk a little bit about the difference between the two so both are definitely capable professional results. I used to use the standard before I used the art so I can vouch for that I've used it but um let's just say that so I wrote all this down so I wouldn't forget to say any of it, so I really do need to read it s so the the original lens provides good, sharp images um comparable to eat what you would get from other lenses, but the truth is that the art hold on the original is smaller it is smaller that is true that the new art is a little bit heavier it's bigger and the standard fifties a little bit less expensive okay, the art is more expense and I swear to you it's worth every single penny um so but it's good like so the original art let's talk about like students where people just getting a photography like super super newbies if you really don't have the money and you want to fifty go with the standard but if you could save up just a little bit more I would go for the art lens for sure because you'll never buy another fifty again it's that's how amazing it is so again if you're looking for unmatched optical performance this is the art is is unbelievable and this is and I'm not the only one saying it you guys I'm not just standing up here I think I'm saying it because I mean it that's the other thing I want you to know I guess I do work with these companies but I do not ever promote anything that I don't believe in or use myself it's super important for may you guys saw every time we shot here I went straight for the fifty it's like all right my fifty it's like my pacifier I love it it's because I know it's gonna be you know what like it it takes that that um that question mark out of it, like, is my lens gonna work? Am I gonna get sharp pictures? Like you compose a girl and you can light a girl and she could look beautiful. And then you get a fuzzy picture and it not your fault. It's the lenses fall in your leg off their ago, I'd have to worry about that. It took that element of concern straight out of my photography. Um, not that I do have it with the other lines is either, but this one is, like, guaranteed. I know the image is gonna be super sharp. Um, especially wide open some of these pictures you seen including this one. I mean, I shot this probably around a one eight I love how her hair is blurry, but her eyes and focus and that she's I laid a little blurry back here. So, like the boca you're going to get with, these is insane. It's just you can't compare it. And, you know, I don't do a ton of work with crazy backgrounds are outside and stuff like that, so I need to make sure, like, for her face, I could get exactly what I'm looking for. And I love that about this any questions about the fifty cause I get so many of them online, anybody have any yeah, first of all, just say that I have definitely been hearing a lot about the fifty art lands from sigma. So just to clarify for people in chat rooms that art part of this lens that's just what they call it, see your eyes, it's, an art cereal, you have a siri's of lenses. The thirty five is an art also twenty four one oh five is an art as well, and hopefully they're gonna be coming out with even more because they've been so amazing about that. I don't know. I get that question all time what's next, I'm like, I don't work for sigma, I don't know, but yeah, so they have a nart, siri's and it's really meant to teo to compete with the higher and lens companies, but they're giving it to you for a fraction of the cost. You can't even I mean that's. Amazing question, the regular fifty millimeter, didn't you say that gives like some sort of distortion cells, it's. Not that the sigma fifty gives distortion the fifty millimeter. Can distort the face a little bit you have to be really careful about that so I wouldn't shoot like super duper up close with somebody I'd be really careful about that eighty five which we're going to talk about is a is a better portrait lens for distortion reasons you will not get us much distortion however I don't have room to shoot within eighty five in my studio all the time so I have to do what I have to do which means you have to be even better opposing and even better at lighting to make sure that your client looks good I've never had a picture I'm not saying I've never experienced distortion ever on a fifty millimeter but I'm really careful about it my angles that I shoot at and the way that I should help with that um he's gonna say something else I just flew out of my mind but yeah, you have to be careful with it a little bit, you know, like I said, the eighty five is much better for that, but if you don't have the space for it, which most of us don't because we're shooting in small studios and hotel rooms and tiny little corners that creative lives I mean you don't have a choice so you have to make you know, make what's make lemons out of lemonade out of lemons yeah, something like that? Yes so I know that you and I have talked about this a little bit, andi, I know you just said you can't make this decision for somebody, but you should buy it. Yeah, eso I shoot with a nikon d seven thousand and it is crop censor, and I just use a fifty right now and I was going to go for the thirty five art, but now you've made the fifty art sounds so incredible. I'm wondering what you think. Yes, so here's, that is a great question. I'll tell you why if you are on a crop sensor which you are, the fifty millimeter is closer to a seventy five millimeter, which is going to give you even less distortion similar to an eighty five so if you have room to shoot with the fifty, and you khun, do sort of that seventy five millimeter range, then do it if you can't and go to the thirty five because then you'll get more of a fifty does that make sense? I know this is a photographer math it's confusing their questions. Are you ok? I just wanted teo let everybody know that when you do our svp for this class there's actually a gear list that jen has put together as a pdf that you get teo just download for free so the way to do that is to click again on the name of the class up above that, I'll take you link, visit class page, go there, make sure your signed in our teepee and that'll be an easy way to not have to take notes through right through this segment. Just go ahead and do that just yet. Yeah, also, lauren, if you end up buying the fifty for your cross center and then you change to a full frame at some point you can still use it, and it will be a fifty true fifty and you'll still use it. So I always try to see and where am I gonna get the most bang for my buck? Um, fifty is probably where is that? Like I said, if you have room to shoot with it and do it, okay, the eighty five, so again, I will reiterate that the eighty five is a fantastic portrait lens eighty five sigma is one of their best lenses, for sure. I wish I could use it, maura. I do use it whenever I can whenever I'm in a different studio or if I'm in a different area of my studio like my hallway or what not, in fact, I think that we show me shooting with the eighty five. In the hidden gems segment I think I used that in the hallway and part of the reason why using in the hallway is because it's so dark so I want to drop that lens so like one eight you know I want to make sure it's all way down excuse me this way I can allow more lightning ok, you can't do that with a seventy two, two hundred you can only go out two to eight so I want to make sure I can go below that so for me that's also where prime lenses come into play for may okay and again I'm taking close up nice beautiful portrait and I'm stepping back and I'm taking full leg same lens okay, just making sure twenty four to seventy there was one year in photography all I used was the twenty four seventy because it's a workhorse it is like you it can just in out move it all around but I don't use it as much now I really find myself gravitating towards the crimes but it changes next year I'll be like I love the twenty first seventy but you know what? The art lenses really have spoiled may I can't lie to you like any time I can use the art lens I do that but it's a great lens it's especially great for me in my hallway in the like walking up to my um studio where I have all those stairs and I had this is in the hallway there because it's such a tight space I really need that twenty four seventy to be able to get in there but again it's a two eight, which is great, but sometimes I need a little bit a bit more light so I'll drop to a prime lands I'll goto a prime lens at that point so I could drop the aperture okay, but the twenty four seventy's a workhorse and I think if you shoot weddings twenty four seventy most people probably have one but it's a fantastic lines my newest addition to my family is the twenty four one oh five and it's an f four okay, so at first when I was talking to stigma about it, I would say, but what do I do with enough for my camera doesn't go up that high you're talking about, but here's the thing what I realize is I love to use this lens with strobes it's my absolute favorite lens and it's fantastic as I get such a big range and even though I say I don't like to be lazy and I like to use my prime lenses it's exactly the opposite the second I use strobes I want to be totally lazy with my lens because I'm moving those lights around like crazy and that's where my effort goes into so I want to be able to stand in one place if I have an assistant it's even better because I can say, can you move this? Can you move that and I'm just there and I'm ready to go I'm ready to shoot those strobes where with natural light I like to use the primes a little bit more but the second I break out my strobes this is the lens I put on my and it is amazing and I just I love it I love this line so this is my second favorite if I have to play favorites it's like children I don't want to play favorites but this is my second favorite seventy two two hundred of course is a fantastic lens thie compression on this lens is amazing. If I shot with this lens in my studio I'd be shooting the girl across the street so it's hard for me to use in mice studio but any time I can use it ideo this is scenario where I was down a really long hallway so I was able to use a seventy two, two hundred I also use it on the pictures where I go on the roof of my building a and I have somebody standing up in the like the two door away from the stairwell and I come all the way back on the roof I like to use it the seventy two hundred this is where I like to use it and if you have the room for it use it it's a fantastic portrait lens um it's just beautiful and you're not going to get that any of the distortion you know when to using it a little bit higher up also. So I love this one's questions on the lenses. Yes, just a quick question because you're talking about these lenses and small spaces when you're talking about small spaces how big is your studio studio is ten feet wide by twenty feet long when my studio mate is not there I'm able to pretty much use the whole space. However, I have it divided pretty much in half. So half is a bedroom scene with a bed in a window and the other half is a more of a studio set up where I have my lights and I have a backdrop that's removable or changeable and I so I have all my strobes my constant lights there and that's more of like storage slash studio so my studio is really split into like ten by ten sections now that my my studio it's gonna be moving back it's going to be even smaller than that and when she was in there she had about half the studio and I had about half the studio so really we're talking about like a ten by ten space to really, really small, and the biggest problem for me is that even though I have this twenty foot length in the studio, I can't really shoot that way because I have so much stuff, so if I have on this wall like a backdrop in lights and I have a girl here, I can't shoot her this way because I get all that stuff in the background, and I can't really step back here because I have tables and I have equipment, and I can't really get back that far here, so and it's only ten foot wide, so I'm really like if she if I'm shooting and she's on the bed and the bed ends here, I really only have maybe this much space to back up. I mean, there are times where I'm literally pressed up against the wall, and I'm like, I wish I could move this wall back um, so really tight space. Yeah, well, get context around, yeah, what you're and you know, I've become really comfortable in tight spaces, like I noticed that now, even when I go to a hotel, I we'll find myself like in the corner, shooting her like I take a small space and I make it even smaller, but I think that that speaks to the intimacy that I'm looking for with the client, and I'm really? I don't want to be over here and be like, you know cata, can you do me a favor just raise your chin you know, you look beautiful if I could see you you know? S o I really like to be able to give them that instruction and be really close to them and I think it makes them feel more comfortable I mean, I was that a wedding recently where the photographer and I realized with portrait is different with wedding torches they have to sometimes be really far away but she was so far away shooting with the seventy two, two hundred and going you know, okay dad, can you just put your arm around your daughter? You know, whatever it was and I was like, I can't even hear you, you know? So I want to make sure that I'm really nice and close with my client, so I guess a small spaces my comforts on, but I have to make one's decisions based on that and again, you guys, you're making lens decisions based on what you see because if you're shooting with a certain lens and it not looking like you see it with your eyeballs, maybe you don't have the right lens, the twenty four to seven he's a really good example of that there's a lot of pictures I see that have so serious distortion that I will write to somebody. Did you shoot this with a twenty four seventy at twenty four? And they go? Yeah, how'd you know that I can tell because her far head is this big and her legs are this big, you know, there's serious distortion there. Sometimes the distortion could be used to our favour. Sometimes we can make a girl's legs look longer or sometimes we can emphasize what we want to emphasize and hide what we don't want to hide, what we don't want to see. But the truth is that you have these ones is our all decisions that I'm making it's not just like oh, I feel like shooting with my fifty today I'm making a decision based on everything around me and what I'm trying to show you shoot on nikon and these aren't nikon lenses could I also use, like the signal for canon cameras? Sigma makes matt's right? Great question. I forget that other people shoot other things. Yes, they make mounts for canon sony, maybe some pentax. I'm not sure don't hold me to that. But, um, definitely cannon an icon for sure and certain lenses also coma stony amounts as well, you just have to specify which mount you want when you get it. Great question. And I just wanted teo give a plug. That tomorrow's segment that will air tomorrow is actually the studio tour. Yes, that is of gen studio. So you can see everything that she was just talking about inaction and that'll start playing at nine a m tomorrow. Pacific time. It's a five minute tour? Yes, such a studio. No, it's what's. Great about the tour is that I show you how such a small space like I use every little crevice. So that was kind of fun to do because we're like, all right, let's, go to the next. But and here I thought, this is what we do. And here it was really buddy eso. Yeah, you have to check that out tomorrow. So any more questions on the lenses before I get into my lighting that I use? Good. Okay, um, so I'm gonna start with the westcott lighting. Now, these air, all of the artificial light that I use. I do have a huge window in my studio that I will use whenever I feel like I want teo but there's often days as you will see in the hidden gems. Video it was so dark that I think was the darkest day in new york has ever experienced and I was like great creative lives here to shoot natural light stuff and it's the darkest day ever so what do I do? What do you do when a client comes and it's a stormy dark day you have to break out some lights you have to know how to use them the other day when we were shooting in the hotel everybody was kind of like I'm a natural light photographer okay well there's no real light in here. So now what are you going to dio? This is how you have to learn lights are the biggest hurdle I think photographers but it's the most important thing you could not have photography without late this takes a lot of practice this's just like posing it's just like communication it's just like anything else let's take a lot of practice I am still practicing I'm still learning um there's a ton of stuff out there that you can learn from learn from each other shoot with somebody else. I have a good friend who's amazing it lighting and we'll shoot together sometimes because I want to see how he operates I want to see how it works I'm going to see things I'm not thinking of so this is this is the area for tired of that photography that I think hurts people's brains the most like I have to think about late because with this sun and a window it's just so easy to go I know what I see but the truth is if you're using a light like with these westcott lights that I use like a td six we use that during the male versus female and I use it during the posing segments you see what you get there's really no different than the sun except you get to actually move the window but I can't move the window my studio you can manipulate it you just have to learn how okay sometimes people say used the expression light is light oh don't what is the big deal if it's a window if it's a soft box light is like that is not true, okay in my experience I don't think it's true you shouldn't be afraid of it because yes, light is light, but at the same token there are different types of lights and you have to know when to use what kind of light to get the look that you're going for. So the the expression ladies light in my opinion is not true, okay, so this is this is the west cause this is what I have to ice lights uh I have a sky locks with a rapid box td six spider lights, one with a strip box and one with a soft box. I'm going to show you what those look like. Um, this is right here. This is the sky locks that I believe this is what we're lighting her with right here. Um, I don't have a soft box on it when you don't have the soft box on it. It creates nice hard shadows, shadows or something that I've learned a lot of you are afraid of. So we're trying to embrace the shadows a little bit here. Uh uh. This is what that looks like. And I love that. This is why I love the sky. Looks. Even though I have a rapid box for it and I could make it a little bit softer. I like to use it with hard shadows. This was also shot. Same thing. Sky looks was nothing on it. Uh, I slights you guys familiar with the eyesight. So it's like the light saber. I really like them because they are portable. Um, they're easy to use. You can put them on the stand or they could be handheld. They are. Chargeable so you can unplug them and just used them you don't have to plug them in while you're using them, so they're really nice for hotel shoes or anywhere if you're not really sure what kind of light you're going tohave especially because it's so portable I just stick it on the side of my camera bag and I know that I have it and we used it actually in our hotel shoot, we brought some other life. We forgot light stands. It happens so but thank god I had my slate with me and I was able to pop it up and say, hey, can you just hold this for me? Um and this is what it looks like with two ice lights I love this she's really simple, like kind of clam shell waiting almost no editing on this picture because she's lit so beautifully um and you can use it a multiple different ways. Sometimes I take the isolate and I actually put it against a reflector just to give me a little bit of more soft phil late versus just, you know, shining it right on her. Um you can buy barn doors for it, you can control the light and kind of make it more dramatic, like hollywood style effect on it, they have all sorts of accessories now you can they have gels for that now, so it's a really, really grateful and they're not terribly expensive either they're the same price is pretty much a flash would be so you know, if you're going to buy a flash or you're going to something like this, if you're more comfortable with constant light, the eyesight is a great way to go. Uh, this is the td six with the soft box and this is also westcott this is called the highlighter and it gives a really nice room light on the bottom of the eyes it really like brightens up that part of their face so again less editing and this is what that looks like you could see in her, I hear has a good catch light that it goes on the bottom of prizes is also great for really light eyes. It really makes the eyes pop out, so I love that this was for my no makeup project and again td six with one saw fox that's it one light I'm really I oversimplify everything very, very rarely shoot with two lights you very rarely see that I'm not saying there's not a time or place for it, but for me I'm like, all right, let me get one light down before I started adding two legs okay, let me really figures that and also I don't have that much room for it in my studio. If I have to pop a light behind a client and a light in front of her, I'm like me. Shoot with my five millimeter. This is crazy, abner room. So what I do is I really tried to perfect it with one light. Try to get the look. I'm going for with one light. This is different. It's the td six. Same light, but with a strip box. And with this it's kind of just putting white right over her it's join me the definition in her body it's not lighting everything on her face. This is great for girls that are like into fitness and they want to show off their abs. It's not something I would necessarily use on somebody that was concerned about wrinkles or bad skin. I would do it more of a flat light on them. But this is really nice to kind of show some definition in the body and create something a little more dramatic. And, greg, this is what you used during the male female shoes so you can create a lot more drama questions on any of the west correlating before I move on. These air all daylight balanced by the way thie td six has the option to be tungsten but I use it with daylight bulbs what's nice about that is if you are a natural light shooter like I am on those gray cloudy days but you still want to use the window but you need a papa phil or you need just a little bit of actually you can use these in conjunction with your window and you won't have temperature problems in your images it's one of the other things that I love about it any questions? Did you have a couple of questions at this the oneness from j while photography and design do you find your focus to be soft when using the td six continuous lights as compared teo flash or strobes? No. Um does she did you say oh, hey, uh no, I I do not and that might be an equipment issue other than you know, maybe so sometimes when somebody needs to use constantly say my bump down there aperture too low so maybe they're shooting it like, one a day or two. And if the client is just move your head a tiny little bit that back I will be out of focus sometimes that happens, eh? So what I would do in a case like that if you find that that's happening bump up your I s so most of the cameras at this point can handle in ia so that's pretty high with the tt sixes I find I shoot between a four hundred and eight hundred s typically on that so I could keep it around at least two, eight try not to go below that unless I'm doing something on purpose, and if I am below that, then I will have her face straight to the cameras that this way, I'm not losing that back. I, um also the other thing I want to mention about westcott is they have a new kit that I have not personally used. However, I've seen it, and it looks really cool. It's called the d five d, stands for daylight balance and it's five bulbs and it's. They saw these kids, and they're really affordable there's somewhere between maybe five, six hundred dollars and you could get like two or three lights with different soft box is it? Similar to the tt six but it's not as powerful, you think you can change the bulbs on them to be a little bit stronger, but it has different banks. So in other words, it's only five lights. So maybe I think on that when you can control each bulb individually, we're on the td six it goes by groups of two, but for somebody that's starting out and that's new and photography and is trying to set up a studio, the d five is an incredible, incredible value for the money and that's it really great way. So if you can't afford the tt sixes but you want something like that, the d five is definitely the way to go. That's great that's, great to know what he would like starting out. What would you do? Yeah, you know, like I said, if you could afford just a little more and you could push yourself to the td six, then do it, because then you won't have to buy anything ever again. But I have to say, I saw the d five like I said, I haven't used it, but I saw it and it looks really amazing, so that might be something that you could just buy and be done with it great and so overall again, for folks, do you prefer for your style using continuous lighting versus strokes, we're going to talk about drugs next, so I'm the answer to that? I'm gonna answer it, though. The answer to that is there is no preferring so yes, in my early years, I was there, I prefer natural light because I have it and it's easy and I don't have to pay for it. I prefer this for that now, as I'm going through photography and, um, in my sixth year, I say this is what I want to create, and this is what I need to use to create that so it's not a matter of preferring it's the same thing with my lenses, I might have my favorite, but maybe my fifty won't work for what I'm trying to do. Maybe I need my seventy two, two hundred, so I have to not play favorites and go what tools do I need to create the image that I want to create? So we're going to talk about strobes now right there. Great way to look at it. Thank you. You're welcome. So I recently when I say recently, I mean, like, within the past two months, but some strobes. Okay, strobes, I mean, this is like confessions of a boudoir photographer strobe, scare the hell out of me they really dio that I used to use them a long time ago before I knew what I was doing I don't know how I use them because I didn't know what I was doing when I realized I didn't know what I was doing, I stopped using them and I went more towards a natural light and constantly and now I'm finally at that point where I said, you know what? This is crazy I need to start learning struggle because I've gotta go faras I can go from in my own mind there are images I want to create that I cannot do with natural light or constantly and I have to learn strokes I have tio so you know, we talk through this whole boot camp about confidence and we talk about learning and being able to be open and honest when you don't know how to do something I didn't really know how to shoot strobe so I'm teaching myself how to do that as we speak, so I started with the pro photo be one kid, which I did everyone's probably like okay, we'll go to the most expensive strobe I doubt you, but the thing is that again I saved up my pennies and I bought the best thing that I could find because that was important to me I didn't want to have to buy it twice I wanted to buy it once learn it once and be happy with it for a very long time. I take really good care of my equipment, so I will have them for a very long time. And I know that they will serve me well. So this is one of my first shoots with it. It was his with strip box. I love strip boxes. And I think part of why I love them so much is because they're so different than natural light there, so different than the regular constant light that with the big soft box it is not a window on. I could be so much more creative. And I had this vision for this image and I challenged myself. Can I go and create this image that I want using these tools that I have never used before? Let's see what happens. And this is the shot that I got with that. And now, hally, we were talking about this the other day about using strokes to create a black wall, right? And to change the look of your studio. This is a white wall. This is my white wall. This is straight out of camera. By the way, you guys, I haven't edited this, um, this is now a grey wall, and I did that on purpose. I was very excited about it. I was like, yeah, you know why? Because now I don't have to paint my wall, I don't have to put up a backdrop. I figured out a different a way to make an image work that was in my head, I wanted darker images. How do you do that in a studio that has four white walls and a huge window? I basically work in a big soft than a big light box every day. So how am I going to create something different? So this is how I worked with that, and I was really pleased I have a whole series of these that I was really pleased with that. I was like, wow, I've never created anything like this before. This opens up a new world to me now, so for that image did you somehow have, like, curtains to block off the natural light, or did you do it at night? I did put something in front of the window, but all of the natural light was not completely blocked off. You can control that in your settings so that this, but you're not letting as much ambient light in, and you're just letting the strobe light in this is part of the education that I've had to learn because it's complete it's a completely different way of thinking so, yeah, I did do something to block the window enough that it took out most of the light, but not all of it. And you could see. Well, I guess you can't really see that in that shop. It I'll see if I could take up another picture somewhere and show you I just kind of put, like, a v flat in the window just locked out as much as I could on their, um but you could use it with natural light. Also. Thank you for the lead in. Um this was also really it was it was. Well, I'm not gonna say it was really dark day because I see the sun coming in through the windows here, but I just wanted to try wanted to see what it would be like if I gave a little bit of phil. Usually I put a reflector here to reflect the light on the window. But what if I didn't want to use a reflector, right? What if I just wanted a little pop of light and I have to tell you it made a huge difference. This is unedited. You could see she has bruises on my gosh, poor girl, I don't even edit her. But this is straight out of camera and for me it's not giving me any of those crazy shadows or you know I could take her now away from the window and I can pop her and everything can be lit beautifully and evenly even with a strobe and natural light so here I'm making sure I do have some ami alight in the picture and I'm filling it with the stroke yeah, I got to play the beauty dish also. So um this is what that looks like and again you see I'm just using really basic areas of my studio but it's creating different looks for may okay, this is the same um be one with the strip but now I have a turn more towards the wall and I have her more up against the wall at least remember we're talking about this and now the wall is going to end up being white that's what that looks like these air totally unedited. This is one of the things that made me like I was like, wow, these look good, you know, like I was even impressing myself like these air just the way that the light falls on her and the softness of it I love the quality of light and that is something I think as you go on in photography you learn that there is different quality of light for sure so for me that's why I saved up my pennies and I bought the beat one because I just felt the quality of light was where I wanted to be in it really does make a difference in the images it does change my editing a little bit it doesn't really change my posing so much, but I do find when you edit with strobes, it's different editing than it is for natural light, so it broke up that like that's, the one area where I'm like, oh, this is a little harder than I'm used to, but I'm learning I'm learning it, I'm just gonna keep going and keep figuring it out again I'm not saying, oh, I only shoot natural or only shoot constant, I shoot what I need to use it the moment to get the look that I'm going for it that's how I'm making a decision so I'm taking the light taking the lens I'm taking the camera, I'm taking the pose a and all of those decisions are going into what I'm putting into a picture I'm going to repeat myself in something that I said in the posing segment that you know, our goal is to make women look as good as they look in real life if not better, right? We're always aiming for the if not better on we are our cameras, brains without us, the camera cannot make these decisions. So if you are seeing something different than the camera, you need to change one of these things are all of these things or two of these things to make sure that it's jiving with what we see? So this is these are all I'm telling you what I'm using, but these are also not just the gears, the decisions I'm making about the deer that make the images. Yeah, and I just I think that's so much more important is, what is your thought process than the specific pieces of gear? That's, right. And we saw that in the male versus female, to be honest, because cindy and greg shot with exactly the same equipment and their images look completely different. So you can see that there were two different brains behind the gear. So, you know, you have to make sure that you were really controlling the gear. You're making the decisions you're saying, the gear is your army and you're saying to your army, listen, guys, this is what we're doing today. I want you to come with me because you're an expert of that I want you to come with me and you got you and your gear and your little army are going to go and tackle this woman and say okay, this is what I wanted to look like and if anyone of them doesn't make the proper decision you have to say you know what fifty you're not working for me right now I'm going to get the eighty five maybe that will see what I see okay and that's another reason why you need to slow down because you need to make sure that everybody is making the right decision everybody's all on the same page all of your gear you do have a couple of questions that are coming in now so thanks for your questions everyone if you are traveling say, what would you bring with you say you know you're going to go to a hotel room or what air sort of your go to travel with lighting here so I'm gonna answer that a little broader spectrum I have a think tank bag that I absolutely love that is off camera that's fine, but it's the airport serious so I love it for traveling and I always keep it at my own at least one body on four five different lenses so I know no matter what if I walk into a hotel room I'm good if I'm going to a hotel, always bringing a nice light, and I typically try to see the room before I go, so I know what else I need to bring. Um, usually I will bring the tt sixes with either a strip and or a soft box for me that's my comfort zone right now, the only time I would bring a strobe is if I knew that there was something specific that I wanted to do with the strobe, but for me, for travel purposes, I'm a small person, I travel on my own. I don't have a lot of asses since with me, it's just me, I try to really pare it down and on, lee, take what I think I'm going to need, so that would be my first instinct to say, you know what? I'm going to go with the tt sixes and just in case is not enough window lay, and I'm going to go with my camera gear and that's it, I can hold it like this in my isolate, I stick on the side and I'm good if I knew I was trying to do something specific, I would bring the sky looks or a stroll based on that, but that would be my first instinct to say if you haven't seen the room, at least bring that are the somebody is asking about what I'd be okay just having the ice light what are the scenarios that you used the ice light for? I think that the ice light is a very good edition if you're looking for some interesting lighting if you're looking for a little bit of fill light but if you're looking to just become a nice light photographer, I don't I think that that's the best scenario I don't think that it's varied enough I mean with something like the td six you could put different soft boxes on it you can, you know, shut off four lights keep to ahn you can change the bulb in there there's a lot more variation with the light like that than a nice light and eyesight is not just a final answer, it doesn't replace the other lights it's in addition to that is my personal opinion it's great for detail shots it's great for portrait it's not great for full body faraway type thing is because it's not that big it's about this long and you want to keep it up pretty close to somebody's face. So if you're looking to be all the way back here and shooting a full body, the eyesight is probably not the best scenario unless you only want her lit in a certain part of her body so that's my personal opinion is it it's ah if you have five hundred dollars and you looking to buy lights if you don't have lights the eyesight wouldn't be my first choice the d five be the first choice we're putting it towards a td six would be my first choice the eye slightest sort of more fun on top of having the great good equipment that you need to get a lot of different barry job's great okay, one little random question that had a couple votes on it do you use lens hood's ever? Yes are you putting those on there when I do especially when I should strobes I don't always when I shoot daylight but I should because I'm very klutzy so uh yeah and I don't put filters on my lenses I know there's two different cancel that I you know should you shouldn't you? I don't know, but one day I read something that said, why are you buying a thousand dollar lens and putting a forty dollars piece of glass on top of it? I went, you know what? You're right, I'm taking it off, so if you're not shooting with e with those I would definitely recommend lens was at least to protect your lens but with the strobes definitely I don't want to get the flare there, so I make sure I shoot with the hoods with the flat with the strobes have some votes on just turn again in boudoir what are some of your must have props that's a good question we talk about that right now you're so good at this kinda uh so let's talk about some miscellaneous tools that I use my suit and then we'll talk about some props um, I actually just got a cam ranger and just hooked up a whole tether tool set up to shoot tethered in my studio uh, not with clients let me just put it that way, although I might shoot tether with clients if they don't see it like maybe I'll just turn the computer around, not let them know that I'm shooting tethered that way. Um, because I think that would be really nerve racking, but I have to tell you, I recently paid a model quite a bit of money to work with me and she was like a great mover and she's moving and shaking and I'm taking pictures of her and I thought it was amazing and I got home and you know, I'm looking at the back of the camera, they look good, but they're small, but they look pretty good and I get home and like she is like this in every picture she just looked like drugged out like eyes would not open I don't know what it was about, but I I took probably eight hundred pictures of her and I got eight usable pictures because her eyes were still worked out and you know who I could blame for that myself because I wasn't looking closely enough of the biden zoom in. I never really had that issue before lesson learned those lessons are always expensive tto learn but less and learn, so I called tether tools. Okay, what do I need to for this? Never happen again, so I'm fairly new to the tethering in the studio, although I've done it before we've done it here, I do do it when I teach I think that it's something to think about depending on what you're doing, and so I use that in the camera and dry use because you can control your camera from your ipad or your phone. I think that's kind of rad, and it was just kind of a fun toy to buy into use when I teach, but I think it's pretty cool, and it would be nice to even have it go to my ipad and show the client. Okay, look, this is what you look like bigger than just the back of the camera might be fun, so that's, something I'm going to experiment with, I do have an awesome man photo. Tripod that I use sometimes it's rare for me to put something on a tripod because I like to move around so much but it's one of those things when you need it you have to have it so man photo has been great with that I love that tripod um what else do I have my reflectors in my stands so obviously you need light stands you'd reflector stands you need all sorts of things so I have a whole bunch of that in my studio as well those were just kind of piles in the corner for when I need them but it turns out there really important so when you show up in a hotel without them it's like the one piece of equipment you need the most by the way lesson learned on that I do use westcott reflectors but in addition I have a really large sheet of insulation from home depot that has silver on one side that I use as my reflector most of the time because it's really a full body reflector it's easy to move around it's very light so I use that quite a bit and in addition I have you see when we do the studio tour tomorrow I have some fabric hanging from the walls I have some backdrops that I use sometimes just to give a little variation in the wall color ondas faras props I mean in my studio I have a bed and I have two chairs and I have a couch that I'm getting rid of if anybody wants to buy it and cause it's just taking up too much room and that's really it I don't have a ton of props my for me boudoir is about simplicity most of my pictures as you've seen are just taken on a white wall so I don't need a lot of props but if you have room and you have, you know, sets and you have multiple couches and you have different headboards and things like that, I think that that's awesome I just don't have the room for that so here's the answer to the question can a is that if you don't have props it's okay, you could still be a boudoir photographer if you do have perhaps it's okay, you could still be a boudoir photographer everybody's different to do what you like to do and don't be looking at what everybody else does if everybody else has props and you don't it's okay, you can still make it work that's kind of a theme that I've seen throughout this boot camp yeah, you don't have to be like everybody else use what you have and make it work so that's basically my gear that's what I used to make all these pictures and to make all my decisions and you'll see I don't have, you know there I don't have tons and tons and tons of stuff really very limited and I do use the same things over and over and over again, I know we're tempted to just buy everything we see and, you know, like I said this backdrop and this this and this I mean, I've sold so many things or even thrown things out, I just threw out a bunch of backdrops that I paid a ton of money for back in the day because I don't want to use them anymore and I probably used him twice, you know? And I say to myself, what was I thinking buying that hold true to what you are as a photographer and really be honest with what you need a seventy two, two hundred lens is impressive and it's big and it's beautiful, but it's not going to make you a real photographer, you know, only buy it if you need it, you know, get the fifty that's my lesson allright, I love that fifty uh but, you know, just be really treat yourself and watch your budget, you guys, especially if you're not making that much money right now don't go out there and buy tons of equipment make a list just like we talked about setting goals and prioritising prioritize what you need, gear wise and go towards it that way versus just saying, I'm gonna go out and buy everything, and then I'm going to be a photographer there's a learning curve with a lot of this stuff so you can't go on by three different sets of lights and be an expert at it in three months by one work on that, get comfortable with that and then buy something else. I mean, I like I said, I'm six years into it, I just bought a set of strobes just now, so and it's because I needed to push myself. I was bored, I'm like, I need more. What can I do now? So now I'm ready to work on it because I'm in that place where everything else I'm pretty comfortable with. Well, we have some classes for you, jen here, right? Exactly. Don't laugh. I will be checking them out. I could recommend a few e I just wanted the another thing that we talked a lot about is that you can rent here. So that's. Another way to try out a lens before investing in it. See if it works for you. See if it works for your space. And another thing is just if you find other photographers who are in your area where you live borrow each other's gear before you invest yeah, one hundred percent. I actually did rent the the ones before I bought them because it was a big investment. Exactly like I want to make sure that I'm going to want to use these and I'm going to be comfortable and they're not super overwhelming. And the problem was I rented them and then I fell in love and I was like, well, now you must be mine. So that happened to be careful, but yeah, that was a really that was one of the first times I really said, you know what? Let me really stop before I make this investment let me see it's gonna be worth it, and I'm really gonna be happy and then it's like christmas day, you can't wait to get it and you open it and you're excited to try it versus oh, strobes, you know that I felt the past few years. So it's a good point, it's a good mental hurdle to get over. Yeah, and you know what? They're actually not that hard. We're just kind of cool. I was like, wow, I could do this, you know, I have a ton to learn. But I really like the images that I'm creating with them, and they're different than everything else I've done, which is nice. Like I said, I'm pushing myself and that's. How I'm going to grow is a photographer. I'm never gonna get better if I don't push myself. So, yeah, very out of the comfort zone.