Lessons

Lesson Info

Capture Splashing in a Lake

All right, so this is the lake. This is moving into a lake. What I want to say about this next scene is this is the perfect example of something I think can really make a difference in your portrait sessions, not just in terms of what you are able to deliver, but also the way your client's perceived the feel of the images once they're received, and in this case, we're next to a lake. We do some sections where we pose the family in front of lake and it's really beautiful will show that later this afternoon, but if we're there, we've got two boys and their fidgety and they don't want to stay put anyways, why wouldn't I throw them into like like that just seems like a natural thing to dio on all the beach sessions I do, we tend to move into the water at some point during the shoot if I have the opportunity anywhere there's access to anything that can really change the game and make it more playful, more silly whether it's splashing or throwing or tossing leaves or throwing snow, I'm going...

to make sure that we bring that in and what I see that iss is basically a component of directing the feel of the energy, the feel and energy of the shoot. So when I'm trying to do is take a director role in saying yes I wantto have organic images as it relates to him to set up the pose I'm not letting kids move into it and let them adjust to something that's even more nationally them and that will be the better shot that's the build but if I can create a situation that will will enable me to deliver images to my clients that when they see them they say yeah that's my boys that's what I want to do I want creating a situation like let's go into the water isn't the same as I'm manufacturing a situation it's like this's how these boys are anyway let's show it off so that's how we're gonna do when we say let's throw ourselves into the water splash party and I'm gonna get a situation where you grab it using some on camera flash off cara fashion I put on camera in this beautiful light but I won't be able to boost up the shutter speed and have more sculpting to the light have many soft box on here and we're gonna see what we do so you got to be five feet apart you know five feet is it's not this all right, so get closer look at him chef I measure things for a living wait not yet I heard a rumor that you can't actually swim get the kids what I'm hearing no from the background all right, so I'm going to go from about this level so I can go a little high but not have the rise in line be jetted by that trade back there you're gonna face each other and when I say it s so you're gonna slash did you hear what I just said about the horizon line? It was delivered in kid voice so I don't know if that's actually translatable the horizon line one of things I'm thinking about member when we had were posing lily on the stairs we want to be careful to shoot separator and then shoot him different levels it wasn't like this strong jabbing horizon line through the head same thing if we're goingto go ahead and extend the field of focus and have a large narrower aperture which is the higher f stop number in this case we're going to make sure that that backgrounds not going to be as soft it's going to be a little more prominent in the image and so I want to make sure it's not cutting through so I'm adjusting the angle and where they are teo be able to manage a little bit better wait come back come up a little bit closer there okay one to go wait you guys okay, wait wow you have a turn around he's just flashing your bottom wait right there why did I take out the lead? Good ay dio you didn't get me get me no you didn't linda thank you e e oh my my job my own great you're crashing in what an idea idea idea idea way it does not involve splashing ready here's they're going to show you from that scene um the uh and then I'm to show you bringing the flash really close to the face and pulling it back. But where are they? Oh, there in the thing we back up a little bit. Um, I think that was here. The questions isn't searching for this. Yes. Oh, robyn, go ahead and chat question. I was here there are using teo again. Yes, amusing tio these yeah, that was fast little question. Okay, okay, this is a great one that several people have been voting on this question. This is from chad's mom, I have had parents tell the kids to not get dirty and sweaty. How do you handle the discussion with the parents that you're going to have them run around? Ah ha that's an excellent question I in specifically in this situation I am going tio what I did here was I said, wouldn't it be great if we could get them in the water? Do you guys have any things room of that and so I'm pretty much pushing the answer with that it's a very different question then saying who did be okay? Would you mind terribly if we get him a little way like I'm basically saying we're going to do this, let me know there's any major issues with it often especially if we know a near water I will bring a towel or ask them to bring a towel saying you never know sort of thing, so we get some buy in advance and we do it at the end this is the last thing we're doing that's just the last thing we're doing that's great because we had some folks asking about grass stains or the clothing being not exactly how they walked in and is that something that they're going to be interesting having those images if the kids or sweaty or yeah and you know it's funny that you mentioned grass stains, I have no problem if I am the one who is making sure that I'm getting a situation, I'm creating a grass stain that is something that's a common issue is kids are running and they fall and then and that could be one second out of the car certainly that was for my kids forever still on dh then so in that exact situation I will just if and I'm telling parents to bring two to three outfits anyway and so hopefully if we need to change clothes we can but for the most part grass stains air really simple patch fix and photo shop that is not a major issue if I needed if everything's perfect and we've got a dark stain or us a spill or a slobber or lake splash those air actually not very difficult to clean up okay um so these are kind of the images I'm getting here can you see this? Okay, these were just all the cliques here we're about a half stops under here this is, you know, easy fixes in terms of just a boost in post and you suddenly have these kind of lovely images this would be a great example we're talking about some pulling it this the raw image if I just click the auto open up the shadows of hints maybe pop the exposure up a little bit, but but the clarity a little bit open it in photo shop when it's on this display it does this thing makes it really small of you knows that if I could do this all right, there we go. So this would be the image that I'm looking at if I can get this display to work right on dh, then what I'm delivering to my client I mean you could just easily make this super simple and put on the grid option I have I'm shooting with the d for s I'm coming out with a twenty meg file I will be delivering an image that I could easily make a thirty by forty canvas with no problem and this is mohr without even doing anything more than just the pops and post this is pretty close to what I'm going to deliver I'll do a little bit more in the way of isolating some brightness on him and uh maybe cleaning up the leaves for two seconds but that's not hard to do and that's what I deliver from that kind of splash section um so we've got that we've got this I love this shot I feel like there's a town I could do with this and black and white can you see where you can go with that just splash about to hit him I love these two uh this is when I was calling him when I was saying mouse miles miles miles miles miles when he turns around so again this is another great example of being able to pull this in do a couple quick changes crop I would go ahead and brighten up the surrounding so he's not lit and we've got more of the ambient light corrected same thing I like this um all right so we're gonna go back teo that that that shot I think is where we just left right before we get there and yeah, that was okay. So that's like him doing hello said, popping the flash really sharp on him. It was too late wasn't well explained. And I said, it's too bright, jump back. Okay, say remember, you really want to do the silliness? And then this I see in black and white delivering that in black and white and soft, black and white. I did not know that was coming. Wait, we're under no splash, splash break, blast break! Oh, you guys want to do that same shot again? Look atyou, it's a wrap this's a perfect example that shot that we just saw. The two boys together obviously is raw and out of camera. Ideally, I'm having a reflector underneath it, so I don't have those little shadows under the eyes. I still have cash light because of the water and the light colored eyes and that even leading into some gravel. But I have those kind of darker circles which is so so common when you're lit from above and you don't have a fill light bouncing in. I'm not going to stop and not get this shot because I don't have the reflector on and it's a really simple fix in photo shop two it's just simply brightening up that a little bit to stimulate the same look and those sort of things I have the full expectation that that's what I'm supposed to dio I told my clients I would pose them and like them well, that's what they're paying me to do if I'm going for one thing and not getting the other, I'm absolutely make sure I have go to the effort to deliver it in a way that is just like there was a reflector underneath his eyes um okay, we're out of the lake now we're out of the water I think we cut the part where I get soaked just fine look it's, you all right, sir? Right here and then we bring the other kids in the water there sitting there watching on the shore saying, I want to go in, I'll let you make the noise for me close it out, give me the knife beautiful. All right, now the same thing I don't have I mean, this shot I love this shot, I love his look because again, what were battling with him and we're going to see that later in the family image, what I'm battling with him is he kept giving me the the cheesy grin, and I wanted his really smile where reaches to his eyes and he's actually having a lot of fun and when I deliver this image I will do the same thing all brighten up under the eyes real subtle very natural look but some of you if I pulled a reflector in which is how I prefer to shoot all the time anyway and I'm going I can easily patch out those water stains every known anybody patch out going into photo shop using the patch tool selecting it dragging over and it automatically goes away I could do that this whole image is going to be produced in about thirty five seconds on get will be a proof finish that goes the client and I love it all right, how about this let's have max over here? Will you come with me here, buddy? I want to know what each one individually okay are you chilly? You look great. Are you cold? You needed like this it kind of looks like you're freezing a little bit cried okay? You want to splash out you you get splashed towards me around see if you could make make it wait wait. All right that's another example of one that's that'd be a big stand out to me I mean, we're clicking and clicking but there's some standouts to me uh and I can go back and get it I think I was past it did you see it uh let's go back to bridge in town there we are. So this whole siri's with with him, he's going wide on the splashing he's going up? Do you see that there? I mean, this is a whole series that, like, a trip tick or something. Do you mean? I see this is something that could be a really fun, like a spread an album? When I do my sales session, I'm gonna have this is a spread, show them a less album, show them the spread in the sales thing, and just already have this set up as a really cool trip. Tik, I'm not goingto try to expect that my clients know what I see when I'm shooting it. Yes. Can I thank you for that tomorrow? Because gently had asked on a number of votes, are you pulling these in for the album for a print? What do clients typically request or want from these types of shoots? Okay, so I'm really glad that I don't know if I live that that's. That's a great question. What? What I'm showing you is if you've been out there tethered, watching me shoot, tethered, so I'm showing you everything that comes out good, bad and ugly, right? Mostly. What I want you to take away from this is that if the shoot is joyful, you are naturally going to get those expressions that sometimes we work so hard for if you are building in playful situations where these air not optimal shots, I'm not optimally lighting this, I'm not bouncing for the ambient light and adding the flash and this and that because of this point that's not what this is about, I'm going to grab some that I'm going to put on my client and I want to sell and I'm going to love but there's different times for different things in the urban shoot I may have set up when I was a little boy in the chair and I've got a nice background I'm backing up with eighty five I'm setting up a shot that's going to be pretty much out of camera what I want to deliver in terms of to the client in this it's it's controlled chaos on purpose, we want to be able to create environment where the energy is free and flowing and you just keep hearing laughter. That is one of the commonalities in my images there's a lot of laughter and joy because that's how I get lost in it that's how I shoot better and that's not just about me I'm saying every single person when you were out there shooting if you can set up a situation that naturally reflects where you emotionally are the least self conscious where you are genuinely enjoying yourself however that is for me it's splashing around the water maybe for somebody else it's in a quiet cafe doing quite window light portrait's with somebody whatever it is that matches you but if you could do that and make sure most of your sessions have a component of that were so natural and so effortless that the output you're gonna have the technical rules in place and you're going to set it all up but when you're all said and done you're gonna have so many images to choose from and they're going to call it down and then you can present it to the client from a shoot like this with these two boys I'm probably only gonna grab three images three or four images tops I'll have shot fifteen eighteen everything I'm showing you here is not everything I'm going to present I'm going to present probably about a fifth a tenth of them ongoing present those in the best manner possible oh this is great yeah I told her across his arms and this is also you see this a lot with kids can you see how he's crossing his arms you see that? Okay he's doing this just cross your arms okay? So that's what he's doing and then I'm a say let me help you out a little out there but he did this let me help you way that's a cross on her but that's how we got to r u called next time your whole name again I didn't see it getting cold he's eating cold we're shifting expressions I've gotta bring him back and did you notice my way this is really important did you notice the second I sat him down and tried to pose him did you see what happened his energy this is a little boy that I couldn't even get to run in one direction right? So totally cute sweet boy I love how he shouts out his whole name I'm going to get amazing images of him but I have to do it his way if I try to sit him down and force him into something we're all going to be miserable and that's the opposite of what we want out of this so I'm like all right that gave that to seconds maybe one shot and I said this is clearly not gonna work I'm not gonna force you into something let's go back to doing what he wants to deal we'll get a portrait out of that okay tell me to get one but look right in my eyes and say it he's saying his whole name by the way max are you dry it this is the day you get the raft bythe where did you get this idea? Great you just made a habit can you even see get teo so in these all right, that we're going for twenty seven images, not him with his hands, arms cross, because that's, not who he is, anyway.