Lessons

Lesson Info

5 Steps to Design

mama's megan where's megan there's megan hi meghan welcome thank you and uh this is baby girl marion wright hi sweet thing oh my gosh she's cute and she is held ten days ten days and this is dan nice to meet you what's your name chad julian nice to meet you so chatty marrying so she's sorry eight days susan ten days excuse me remember me here sorry amanda she full term and um full term and how much does she weigh seven ten when she was born is seven fourteen the other day okay well that's awesome do you know how long she has I think nineteen nineteen nineteen inch okay I asked these questions on purpose the full term babies tend to sleep a little bit better I'm not always given take I'm sure if you've worked with a lot of babies you know kind of it's just random sometimes so whether or not they sleep I just don't think she's doing amazing she's lit fairly little she's kind of average size nineteen inches is good it's it's on the low end of of short but sometimes it's helpful if you hav...

e a really long maybe like we've had like what twenty and a half twenty one inch babies before and they don't fit in every bucket so there's a times when we have to pull out our largest bucket in order to get baby to fit so it's helpful to know on def you have a pre me you can start putting them really really short babies eighteen inchers I think we found seventeen or eighteen inches before then you can really put him in the small small space which is kind of fun if you have a bucket that you like but don't don't get to use that often okay all right so you guys because design image you ready I was like yeah let's do it so what should we start with let me pull everything out here I'm gonna kind of let you guys do this exercise a little bit pretty stuff you know it's so fun to look at everyone else's props teo it's matter of fact I believe all of this except for that there is from jd vintage props so is my little nest here and we'll probably work with this nesta's well I'm not sure yet it can be a little messy so um sorry you want todo tiffany goes don't take it don't take it because it's too messy and like you know people are gonna love to see this so I get to say I told you way after I know that's coming okay so why don't we do the nest kind of last because it is a little bit messy with all the stuff in there but jd vintage props is uh I only recommend vendors who I know have stuff in stock and whom you khun get stuff reliably okay I there's a lot of mom's bless their hearts and I'm so for them there are a lot of moms out there who make custom stuff but they open their shops like once a month and if you don't grab it right away you don't get it and I really have a hard time recommending those to my students even though they make beautiful things because you can't get stuff readily and I want you guys to all be able to find especially when we're talking such a large audience I wanted to be able to find stuff easily yeah steven the crops were out looking for him is there any certain size eighteen inches and or any safety concerns that make sure you don't get this because it could be over in a very very good question steven thank you but I need to address that so thank you for asking I tend to look for low and rounded notices they're all round I am big on round why because I can't shake the car exactly comics and patty's learning I love it yeah it's all about the comma shaped and I could put the baby and in there any way I want and if it's not right I just rotate him and there's a it's all symmetrical so it makes my life a little easier so square props are beautiful and there's wonderful ways to pose on square props but they're not quick for me at least for other doctors they may be really quick to pose on but for me I want to get through my sessions fast and efficiently under two hours is my goal okay hour and a half is ideal and we do a lot of sessions in an hour and a half on our many sessions are like forty five minutes to an hour sometimes when we do just baby so we want to move things quickly and so to do that efficiently I buy props and things that work for that purpose so low wide and round and notice how they all have very similar wits okay we're going to do two types of poses today we're going to teo straight in the bucket from above and then we're going to do what we call taco in the bucket where they're kind of folded in half and looking at you like this from above there really deep in the bucket and this is being more flat from the bucket but all the time I'm gonna be shooting from above okay it's a very simple easy thing to do and it's quick okay we could get into complex stuff today if we wanted it would take a lot of time and I'm you know I can show you that but I want you to run a business is profitable and moves and still artistic so if I don't touch on those more advanced things that's why but I'm also the mindset that making it easy and simple is sometimes the most advanced thing you can do because if you can produce results consistently every single client every single baby who comes through your door that makes you a pro a true pro is someone who could do it every time every baby consistently so every client is getting the same thing you know I'm saying if it's risky or something you haven't done before or something that oh you're not sure you can get that's not doing work in my paint my opinion only that's truly professional if you can't get it the same way every time that my sense of safety wise sam back especially for props that are tall like this you top the sandbagging the thing weighs fifteen pounds baby's not going anywhere okay so get one my orange one of the black ones are better just so you know because see how the orange can show through the bucket occasionally I have that issue so I have to put that I'm just too lazy to go and get a new one yeah sandbags work ten pounds minimum ten to fifteen is ideal and put it in the bottom of buckets like this this bucket it was originally around on the bottom okay so I just cut out the grapevine and ever it's very lightweight so every time I use that one we're putting the sand back in the bottom of it to really make it secure so baby's not going anywhere okay so that's something definitely you have to take into consideration with safety the sandbag works great and when mom sees you put that sandbag in there makes her feel a whole lot better right any hardware store will carry them and then usually have to buy the bag and stand on philip I was kind of pain but it works it's their chief less than twenty dollars you could get one of these okay all right so let's start with we're definitely going to do one of these the tall ones and then I want to do something flat so should we start off with this is my life favorite bucket ever so let's see oh I thought I think that was like a hundred bucks from jade even the props but I use it with almost every baby who comes through my studio it's so versatile it goes with almost anything it has this beautiful edge on it you can shoot it from the side or from the top so it has a lot of flexibility and versatility and the tones and here are neutral but you khun sway them yellow or red or brown um based on what you pair it with okay all right so it's like a floor so we're going a little bit backwards in case we're gonna take our bucket first and then we're gonna do our our floor so what kind of florida you think would would go well with that I was going to attack this thing on the outside that should be good alright keeps following always put it back on stop it when you see something you like wei have a girl keep that in mind kind of thinking that we go the other direction I saw when I liked who pretty pretty what do you think you like it would you pick it up okay wey also have yeah we'll do it we'll do some color max brady too it's a little more boyish though isn't it yeah okay let's do this one and we'll make it girlie thank you she's so happy in there yeah something's gonna see today night sorry about that yesterday that was kind of rough okay notice another reason I love these backdrops they usually have two sides to them this side's a little darker and has more of the yellow tones that are in the bucket and this side's a little bit lighter which allows you to have some fun with one backdrop okay so what I'm gonna dio show you a little trick of the trade this what do you think this is ah door stopper like the draft thing that stops the draft get one of these they're brilliant mom what's your favorite come with the colors the nursery hell tio okay well we're gonna do till later so maybe we will start with a difficult are there any other colors that you love in your home when words what's your living room like it's like a great blue green gray blue so soft graze and a light I'm sorry go ahead I'll just yeah light light light tones okay so maybe we I'm thinking since the floor that might be a little too blue keeping it we're gonna start off pretty neutral and then we'll bring in a grey on top okay so the only reason picking this not letting you guys do this is because I kind of know this is a specialty thing again jd vintage props love joanna she's amazing and this is another little trick of the trade where's my toe my toe thank you my door just stopper thing is not quite long enough for this bucket I want to make a perfect circle okay so I'm just going to add to it with my little washcloth here okay this is pretty much like a cowl scarf ok I start with it inside out put it in the middle and then fold it around the outside oh no it was like a brilliant that's how we get that severe look huh and it takes a little finessing so keep that in mind and because my little door stopper so get along one or get several lengths they have I should probably go and see if they have several lengths but isn't that look and smooth and pretty now there's texture in here but it's not messy it's neat okay you all know we're a little baby sweet baby girl's going don't you okay now what maybe or what are the layered ingredient theory there ingredient three what we have for next stuff that is our supper sorry this sorry ali I should've said that this is our stuff for she's like I'm thinking you know normally I totally do nikki but I kind of feel her out I have a daughter yet so I want to feel how her personal is going because if she's a real flicker and you know we have to be conservative here on crete of life and not show her private parts so way got to make sure we take care of her okay so what color way could do anything here couldn't wait because we have a really neutral base let's look at our colors we have green tones we have golden tones right a little bit of orange in there do you see the colors so let's start playing around teo pulled out some stuff already tonight and made a mess of myself I'm just talking to myself talking out loud I want to show a few things as to why I wouldn't use them way could you gray mama likes gray who okay I hope you're learning I think I think you are we have this we could do the little ball graft yeah that we do this one's light and pretty it's a little blue do you see the blue and there and that gray every great tone is different so sometimes it can be a little challenging to figure out what you want to dio I'm just what connects I'm just looking round thinking as I look how this one's cute this is great this is devoted nets as well okay is and warm oh this is already d'oh okay so I'm just kind of thinking and I will do this with my client obviously taking a little time here because I want you guys to get some things but I will literally do this on the floor with my clients do I let them decide they think they decide okay what I'll do is if they really want to decide what I'll do is give them two options that I would be happy with do you like this or this oh I like that great we'll use that I would be happy with either one ok but if mom starts loving oh let's put hot pink in there okay even this pink is a little too much for me right now that's your style and that's okay you could totally go for that it would be a beautiful image I'm not saying it's a bad image don't don't don't go there at all don't let george gitta but what I am trying to get it is just this is right now all this comes down to his personal aesthetic what do you love okay you guys know me I'm a texture in neutral girl okay so I make images that have that rich tones to them but I want you to see how you look at those different grays that we have holly lucia that works nice doesn't it okay this great could work to this graze a little bit blue isn't it for the setup we have this gray is two this is getting a little bit better but against the bucket it's looking not quite right right okay so I want what I'm trying and we could what about this what about something light like that you could totally do that it's it is high contrast though so keep that in mind you will see when you put baby in there that it's going to be right especially we get the light on it now there's techniques to kind of mitigate that if you're going to tie the scarf you want the scarf away from the light so it's not the focus of the image that's the falloff is on that part okay same with this one beautiful but hot start to get hot could work though okay I'm gonna keep this first one really neutral I think I'm gonna go with that gray over there keep it feminine we used it yesterday but that's all right um another reason to hire an assistant would put away I drive for e z sometime okay I'm changing my mind do you see why too much what happened yes I am changing my mind and it would work but the minute I put it against that sweater blanket it's bugging me because there's too much texture the textures air competing with each other do you see that okay so we're going to switch it up this is why I pull out a thousand things that would actually be pretty it's the lines are the same do you see that way have the lines in the sweater and then they have the lines here and it works so let's go ahead and try that yeah it's gonna be a little hot but we're gonna compensate for that I think it's good for you guys to see how I do that when they're pretty the other thing we could do it I'm going to do the classic rap but the other thing that we could do is kind of wrap her like a little burrito like this real tight in there like that which could be really pretty as well so what do you think if you decide alistair traditional first day shooting first gave me two options tio okay yeah good question of course fire away this question came in from photo twenty five and I know we just we did touch on this yesterday but they'd like to know what are you looking at colors to match skin tones when you're in this process thinking about the baby skin tones maybe and can you talk a little bit about yeah not always I live in a town that's not very diverse so I get a lot of caucasian babies coming through my area which is really unfortunate but it is the case um so most of my babies who come through have caucasian skin s o I've come to the point where I don't but if if I have a you know deeper skinned baby I will definitely take that into consideration this baby is just she has a little bit of a mixture her skin but she still kind of has that most babies were like amount of really pink really you have to correct that a lot of photo shop so her skin is not so different that I would worry about color tone and I only worry about color tone with skin when I'm on the beanbag because it's more obvious because the baby skin is right next to the background here when she's in the bucket it's not quite as obvious now baby had african american skin this would still work beautifully but I would be cognizant of how the camera sees the dark skin versus the light skin I probably wouldn't be using this light rap with a dark dark baby okay I would use a deeper toned rap so that baby's skin popped out and this wasn't the focus because when you're when you're using light against dark this is all you see just be very careful about that okay okay let's bring in little sweet girl oh yes we will definitely bring those in okay so let's see my light where we're gonna put the light today we're gonna put the light over here sir but it can see so that means I need to be over here trying to be cognizant of the cameras today so we're gonna go ahead and tie this direction okay okay so what I'm telling tiffany right now I'm slowing down today because people complain that I talk to you sorry um I'm thinking about the length of this because I'm going to tie a knot around the baby and the knot's going to be over here so I need to make sure I have enough room on this side to get around that makes sense that's why I'm telling you these things