Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Alley

All right, so if you look back into this alley, we see lots of dumpsters, um, hard light here on the left, and then we've got some shadows and shade on the right here, and so we're gonna work this right wall, and if we zoom down, if we come this angle here and look down, we can actually see down there a chain link fence, and I'm gonna use that chain link fence to add a little bit more of an urban texture to the shot notice we're still shooting open shade. Just a reflektor. We don't have to get crazy with off camera flash here. Uh, we're gonna use available light. So this will be where we set up for the next shot. So let's, go on down here. Got my camera perfectly alright, we'll tether out the other door. So let's, come on down here. All right, I gotta bunk. I got a bunch of strong men with me. Can we move this dumpster? So, let's, look at this. Because this is I think, gonna tell the true story here as we look at what I see here, I've got a honey bucket, uh, also known as a porta potty...

I've never heard of a honey bucket in my life, but we've got one of those chain link fence a wall and so you might look at something like this and like this is complete junk complete garbage how are we ever going to make a shot but I love this so let me ask this can we open this I think we talked yesterday ross that this would open now so let's talk to my mindset here what I'm ultimately thinking about here is um something er being something gritty something that I can sell to the client okay so we'll see what it looks like on camera verse what you're seeing here which is this full open scene so I'm gonna shoot this a two eight I'm gonna use the reflector uh I'm gonna I'm gonna use some depth of field to kind of turn her sideways to get these chainlink fence going blurry by shooting it at an angle uh we're shooting it's straight on on and I think we're gonna do some cool stuff here so let's get set up we're waiting for we're waiting for our model and my tether all right so we see on camera what this is looking like right all right so let's have some fun with it I'm gonna take for argument's sake let's take a few pictures just real flat you so we can see the uh the overall scene way got more questions yeah, of course we do. Um dream state would like to know what words or phrases are your go to phrases um as a male to interact with a female subject and maker's still feel comfortable go to phrases I don't know that I have go to freeman said uh you keep saying are you looking at your boyfriend? Oh ok well yeah then I guess I got I got to go to phrase um I don't really have go to phrases I'm pretty unscripted and I've been very good on creative live I have a very bad potty mouth being from the northeast I way drop f bombs like it's nobody's business and it's all in good luck so I've been very, very good with that but I just try and get a read on the senior uh if I say something that's not funny I won't keep saying it to him right? If it wasn't funny the first time it's not gonna be funny the fifth time you're not gonna wear him down so just try and be yourself be true to yourself uh don't try and be something you're not what I see a lot of people do photographers, business people everybody is they have this quest uh you want to be funny and they're just not funny, you know? So don't say things just for the sake of being funny don't say things just for the sake of being funny say things that that you know read your senior that's what you want, teo and another question was do you wear any particular colors in your outfit when you're shooting for reflecting on her off? No no, I I will typically just wear you know whats comfortable if I'm shooting especially if I'm shooting and it's one hundred fifteen degrees out I'm usually in cargo shorts a t shirt and I am dripping you know front from the heat so it's all about being comfortable now if it's a wedding day or something a little bit more ah upscale then of course you gotta dress appropriately but for a high school senior shoot uh more just is like a libyan jeans and a shirt like this as I am to be in cargo shorts. Okay, I have a question for mr bill from norman oklahoma do you ever use andy filters to achieve the two point eight and bright light? No, I've never used a nd filters at all. I don't even have attachments for my camera so sorry running gun in man gotta move quick uh let's see anything? More questions here we have our model. You ready? I like her new outfit. All right, let's, come on in here. Tell her where you at? I lose my wife all right, so what we're gonna do is I'm gonna have you hear what I want you to do is I'm probably gonna shoot back this way okay, so what I want to do is I want you to see how I'm rotating my hips just a little bit. Uh, maybe you're maybe you're like this. Maybe you're like this. Okay, maybe you're maybe like this. So experiment will see what looks good. You go straight back. Yeah. Then let's, get this leg just like that. A lot of good. How about thumbs are in the pocket. Good. Bring your chin to me like that. How about this? We pull all that here around. I really like that. Good. Bring it to me. Just a little too much, baby. Right there. A little morning. Sorry. Finding that little one good arms look. Good face looks good. Everything's good. Let's, get this reflector. So for this, I might just come in here, see how we're just going. A little speck in a ride. It's all started here. You put that right on there with good. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna start off here, okay? Chin to me. Just a little and down and I might start off with just a tie kind of shot. I'm gonna get a text off first. Notice I'm announcing that test shot. I'm letting her know what I'm doing. Why I'm doing it changes a little bit more here. Good. Let's, start off sassy for their beautiful soften your two. Uh, you two smiling for me? I want let's. Get that little harder. Cocky look. Yeah, bring it here, that's where I want you just sweep that hair for me is getting stuck in your lips. There you go, that's what I'm looking for beautiful. Now soften it up a little bit that's it now going to a regular smile in this one. There you go. Good. Okay, so now I've gotten in this new outfit. I've gotten a tight shot from her. And so from what I can see so far, I'm happy with what I'm getting. And if you want to put up on the screen for me guys in the control room eighty three, twenty seven, eighty three, twenty eight I really like the way that, uh way that's looking let's put you right here. That same boats hotel. I'm sorry I lied now because I can't get a little further back to stick with my seventy two hundred and I can get a full body here, so let's, get this set out. Bring that hair all the way to this sign beautiful. Okay, lean back. Break that link a little bit for me more. Okay, good. I like that. Good, good. Let those hands hang naturally beautiful. Bring your chin to me a little bit more turtle for me and down with your chin beautiful that's where I want you now I'm doing again is I'm using my seventy two hundred cam using a reflector I'm a two point eight s o two hundred and I'm gonna take a test shot and we're full body here and I really like the way that looks can I move you down this way just a little bit right there perfect good got legs look good hands look good I'm obsessing I worked my way up there you go that's the look I want from beautiful come on, john, not win can't beat you in this way just a little bit what you're doing for me kendra is you're going like this now I want your head to stay straight ten down that's where I need you beautiful. All right, you guys are blocking me locking me. Here you go, kendra I love the way this is looking beautiful and I'm moving in and out here tied middle wiseguys now I'm going now I'm going to I'm coming in tighter. I'm going horizontal beautiful give me a smile, chin down looking away for me now I'll go the other way look to your left. There you go now, kendra, I want to tell you something what's happening look at me when you look away you see how much white of the eyes you see that's because you're looking too far away. So I want you to bring your focus point back a little bit so I don't see exactly that's where I want you to look but go down the alley good right there. Chin down that's where I want you to look beautiful there you go. Great smile good giggle I'm gonna go to my go to line guys is your boyfriend down there? Good. Stay there. Okay. I don't know how to go to line but now I do. Awesome. Kendra, what I want to do is look at me with that smile. Can you do me a favor? What I want to do is I want to try something new. I want you to look at me with that sassy look just like you're looking at me now, but sweep that hair the other hand there you go, just keep sweeping it over your ear yeah but don't let it really come over here it's all it's kind of for pretend right no let that here I don't want your ear popping out just gently on the front your hair yet do it for me good big giggle while you're doing it you love brushing your hair yes keep moving that hand don't let that hand freeze on you it looks weird so I want you to keep doing this yeah keep doing it don't stop keep going keep going keep believing it you love it there you go look down the alley while you're doing it that's what I want beautiful right there awesome alright so very quickly now how long are we to break ok good so very quickly now I was able to get a bunch of new looks in there with her outfit full body tight middle wide okay I picked an angle to work some depth of field and not allowed me to get again yet again another set of looks so we've been tight middle wide different expressions it's a repeatable pattern rhythm that I'm going through to evoke and get the look I need out of out of this for my client so now I've got my safety shots as I would say right so I think I'm set now now what I want to do is I want experiment a little let's do something different let's have her sit on the ground so let's have you said go straight down good and what I want you to do is maybe pull one leg up that police pull the other leg up is well, good there yeah, but staggering I don't want them to be perfect here you go good and maybe you're right hands coming over that knee let's let this collapsible but here's the thing see how your feet look funny? Okay? Because you're like this I want you to try and get them up as much as you can yes, there you go. Good. Now you do have to stagger home so let's go here. Okay, now I'm coming in here in a manhandling her because this poses a little bit more difficult to get out of her uh at least the way I wanted to look its very difficult to communicate so I'm moving her feet where I want them now let's get your hand over your name what? I want you to come all the way out here and let that hand just hang naturally. What about this hand? Can we get that over that mia's well, maybe cross you go clear clear those hands um I want to make sure I see see both hands I don't like the crisscross maybe we do put that left hand here good. I think I like that so let's see what that looks like from my angle I'ma shoot underneath you guys lock that left elbow form that's right there you go good I like it awesome. How about turning that hand forward your left hand uh put point your fingers towards me I don't like what's happening you're locking your army making it look heavy yeah how'bout relax it just a little how about reaching out further and now lock just a little bit good. Okay for those of you who are watching and don't quite understand what I was doing she's locking her arm and she's making this look super super heavy so all I'm doing is I'm like ok moving a little bit to the left move it a little bit to the right turn your fingers towards me I'm trying to obsess over those little details to make her look the best possible way she can that is our job I can't stress that enough okay, yeah I was coming in here to mess with you here. Okay, so right in here saying good good good broad shop showing here solomon do is grab up here good cover that up right? I don't want I don't fix it in photo shop just cause you can don't mean you should all right let that left knee collapse a little bit there you go all right so here we go test shot I love the way this is looking guys beautiful shots so I'm shooting at two point eight s o two hundred and I am plus one third on my exposure hold that for me kenji you're gonna love these beautiful go for a real smile love it have fun with it looking down the alley again good look down there sassy cute keep that face like that and look at me give me your eyes love it stay there with it and I'm getting in a little tighter oh I love that wind so I'm gonna get in your little tighter good drop that right hand for me now just drop it yeah I want it out of frame yeah beautiful make sure that still looks good awesome kendra you're gonna love these good big smile for me keep that chin down there you go good how about putting both hands over your knees notice how quickly I'm moving I'm only getting one or two frames in here because now I'm back to experimenting a little I'm getting one or two frames and I'm moving okay how about holding your fingers now you guys got some split light so let's rotate a little bit always make sure whoever's working the reflector is rotating with you you want them to be with you okay it's often that up beautiful lobby kendra perfect go sassy for me one more time good big giggle now for me have fun with it awesome! I love that great job good job. Alright, way, this one's looking. Wow. Well, so, uh, do they have new miked up, okay, so I don't know if you guys could hear right, so I came in. I thought I had a real good shot, uh, over that's, the one I chose to show her, and she loves it, right. So that's, very important that you're getting buying from her so that she sees what you're seeing. So I'm gonna show her a few more. That is one I like a lot of those. They look good. Yeah, not bad for an alley. Yeah, I like this kind of show you. Some things. I want to show you. Some of the street won't show your sassy look. You see this? Yeah, I like this. Look out. You see, that looks very natural. So what you're doing is um when you start making your mouth look too like you may get smart, alec, it doesn't look natural that one looks really natural to me. So I like this look out of you. So when I'm calling for sassy or uncalled for, like, you know, uh, you're let's just call it sassy when I'm looking for that that's a little come looking for me so that one's perfect. All right, then let me show you some that we got in the chair because I thought those were fun to digging those. Yeah, those were fun. My gosh. That's a fun shot. So doing great, I think. It's good. All right, so I'm gonna take some. We'll take some q and a what about my crew here? You guys got got questions. How you doing? Can you hear what we've been saying? Okay, good ladies. I'm ready. Let's, see here. Um, captured by shell from kansas, I would like to know if you strain your images and post process processing or do you keep some tilted angles? I do not straighten from that perspective. I'm shooting the way. I expect it to look in camera what I'm hoping you're seeing on the screen as I'm shooting eyes that some are straight on some are in fact tilted and I'm doing that for a reason because mom may not like the tilt mom's goingto want straight up but those trends air changing I have parents that come in shots I think they would never like in a million years they love they love the tilt in fact I have parents tell me he's like oh, I love the way you tell the camera so it's really weird how parents now we're starting to come more mohr educated to the everybody's of tiger so now mom kind of understands I mean when you have mom telling you about depth of field that scared that's a scary day and more more they are telling us about uh, depth of field and angles and it's just amazing to see them how the times are changing for us oh god john, I just want to say you know what? Run the reflector right near you and you talk about aperture priority let the camera do the work you haven't even changed just just the till to the reflector I saw the shutter speed eight hundred six forty I mean, it was just bouncing just a little bit of that wind caused that shuttered isto fluctuate which didn't throw you off your game at all so I could see the top of the camera in your shooting yeah, we really emphasize that shutter are that app your priority that's exactly why I'm shooting aperture priority because when you're in manual mode, those lighting conditions can fluctuate on you constantly so I don't think because you're not in manual mode you're not a professional photographer I mean, you know, back in the day when I first started on photography are seventeen or eighteen, there was really you had to be in manual mode and so you have to understand manual mode you have to understand what apertures doing, what shutter speeds doing but again it's about understanding the rules and then how you break them is up to you so to your point I am a running gun style shooter, so here I am I spent more time notice I hope everybody's noticing this I spent more time communicating with her more time posing with her more time on details with her than I did fussing with my camera that's the key man you do not want to let technology get in the way of a great shot technology should not get in the way of a great shot. That should be a quote for everybody as far as I'm concerned, so technology should enhance your ability to create a great image, not hinder it. So thanks for noticing that so folks have been asking this kind of throughout the day but when you're talking about three hours for a location shoot does that include the drive time that does that includes drive time. So, uh, we might now it's up to three hours. So you guys were talking about the sessions from yesterday it's up to three hours. And so when we say up to three hours, that means I could be done in two hours. I could be done in two and a half hours is just really allowing me time to drive all travel from location to location. Yeah, okay. You're shooting with the seventy two hundred, which is a heavy lens and ah, heavy camera. Is there a shutter speed that you like to be above or you know are are you worried about your shutter dropping to low? And I'm getting camera shake. I just like to be above to hundreds of a second but I'm not worried about camera shake I mean that's actually a great question. So hopefully this camera's on I want to show you guys some just techniques I've learned over the year you will see my senior picture and in my senior picture you will notice I went teo military school and rotc so one of the things we learned when shooting a rifle was proper technique, so if you can hold the rifle, you know and be a marksman, you khun definitely learn how to hold a camera so my camera technique on a seventy two hundred is my hand is underneath the lens for support and then my right hand is here, but noticed my elbows aren't out here. Okay, I'm sideways with my camera and my elbows are typically in so when I get into a very slow shooting speed okay, let's, do it for argument's sake. Let's, let's, prove my point here I'm gonna go I s o fifty. I'm a dial this up to thirty two. I'm not a half a second, so in the in the control room zoom in on that let's see if that thing is sharp. That's pretty damn sharp it a half a second, so I'm pretty impressed with myself that comes down to holding your, um your technique let's goto have twenty two let's do this again, so notice my arms or talked in at the side. I am at one fourth of a second and that's gonna be a pretty tack sharp image. And so it comes down to your technique, so I'm not really worried about camera shake. But if your elbows get out here and you're holding that camera away from your body and you're and you've got a weird stance that you're going, you're going to be moving all over the place, so you've got to get sideways pull that camera and here it is not uncommon to see me hand hold in a church uh a fortieth of a second and get this great shot of a bride coming down the aisle so if we're in a church or some like that I'm shooting at sixteen hundred thirty two hundred eso handheld two point eight and getting these great shot so work on your technique I didn't see that image but hopefully it's tack sharp inside or people could be like no sorry not not sure alright question from c valdez seventy four from tampa um they ask we've seen many variations in shooting each pose how many poses do you typically aimed for in a typical location shoot um I don't work by the number of poses I work by the number of outfit so I will continue I would say being tethered here has hindered me a little bit from moving at my normal pace for so far you know this perspective right now we're working more on educational so you can see what we're doing but I definitely don't work on the number of poses shoot to the number of shots so normally forgiven outfit I will photograph about uh eighty to one hundred twenty five shots per outfit and I go from my standard poses my go to poses and then start mixing things up making them sit down lean on a wall sit on a chair sit on you know lean against the wall a cz much as possible so shoot aim for seventy five to one hundred five shots per often alright, so sal we're wondering if you want to take a break early and spend more time up on the roof or what would you like to do it? I say we go to break unless there's any more questions let's do this let's summarize for a second so the whole the whole thing here is we're shooting in very questionable locations here, right? So we're in an alley and that just goes to show you uh you've got to have the vision as the artist, so we shot against a um, uh, garage door. We're in an alley shooting against a chain link fence but it's all about the rhythm tight, middle wide, vertical, horizontal, smiling, sassy. If you get into that rhythm, your portfolio, your work that you will be able to show the client will grow exponentially and you will have an amazing set of shots to show the client then from there experiment have them sit down, have them lean on a car, have them changed their pose, have them lay on their back, hold their hair up I mean theres go to fashion magazines and figure that stuff out, what are some other things we covered here? We're shooting at two point eight that's my shooting style that's the way I like it I'm using a reflector to bring in some light in some cases I wasn't even using a reflector I was just using the open shade to create a great image so as the artist you've gotta have the vision how do you turn it? You know a cruddy alley into a shooting space for your studio well this is how so we did some cool stuff here on then tomorrow you'll see how I'm editing these things to really give you the full vision on how I saw this from capture all the way to delivery to the client if I just handed that over to the client is a raw image cd uh they wouldn't have the vision of this alley and what I'm seeing it looked like so why don't we go to break when we come back for those of you who need help with off camera flash uh here's what I want you to do once you get your cameras get your flash and stand by because I'm going to start off walking you through step by step how to get that flash off your camera what might go to settings are before I ever start working with her so what's really important to me is that you understand this technique it's the same technique I teach my students uh my workshops it's the same technique I used to teach my own staff so I want a dark blue sky we're gonna put kendra in hard light on the roof okay? We're gonna backlight her but I want a blue sky so we need to get her exposed with a dark blue sky if you've seen those pictures and you're dying to know how we do it tune in right after this break because we're gonna do it that's fantastic the moment people have been waiting for they don't think I can overpower I can get the look I'm looking for so it's uh it's game time taking bets and the charity I don't know I'm making that thing sal just wanted to read off a couple more things that people are saying um I love this one from dd dd nine sixty seven I just texted a girl that I want to have a date to take on a date tomorrow and she wants to hang out now I'm tourney between her and south don't leave man let's I'll win on that one guy or a girl saying that he was a good guy I don't care I'm comfortable and then captain snappy says I'm totally not getting any processing done today I kept switching to the program thanks sal you want rach, I'm buying the program to watch it again and sells people there just eating it up south thank god this is this is definitely it yes certain parts here that might seem overly basic but I think that's kind of the point is we don't have to make it complicated to create a great image so you know shooting aperture priority uh very simply stick you know and it gets us the type of images we want I can't wait to uh edit these in post production so we can really see what these look like okay folks I'm gonna read one more here I can't this is from julie perez photo I can't afford to buy this right now but I can't afford not to I stayed up till three a m trying to watch and every time stiles said make sure to write this down I jumped to my note pad very cool I like what you said about coming back and giving us step by step off camera flash everything about this course is very step by step and that's what's awesome about it purchasing the course because when you re watch it let's say seniors a seasonal right so you need that refresher to come back and watch this step by step so that you know exactly what to do when you have been doing it for a while or maybe only photograph seniors once a month or that would be about the lighting the lighting tip honestly that we're about to cover next I think the lighting works for seniors, families, babies, weddings doesn't matter if you're going into ah, hard lighting scenario outdoors. Uh, and you want to create that deep blue sky and get this gorgeous shot of, uh, your subject is the way to do it.