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1950s Alley Shoot: Lens Flare Tools and Q&A

Okay, so do you guys want to come pick up some lens flare tools come pick one, pick whatever you want but your assessor he could be one definitely all right and so I have you kind of show the camera what you're what you've got to talk to each other get to know each other a little. Ok, ok. All right, so I'm gonna grab the orange one real quick, okay? All right. And I'm gonna take the bubble so I can show people with shot looks like alright, so and then can I have the one daisy just I condemn it with the daisy. All right, so these are not specially ordered specially made lens flare tools. Um, these are the tools that I use and what ideo shoot a eighty five millimeter or longer put it right in front of the lens. Backlit works better use one of these tools so I'm going to give you a demonstration. I'm going to shoot one in the shade and one back let in the sun and you could get an idea um, of the effect so let's do that alright, I'm sure I'm gonna pass, you see, but have you passed me? Whi...

ch one's okay, all right, let's, take this first, all right, so I'm just gonna photograph her so you can step out for a second like okay, so here's an example of what it does in the shade um turn a little bit sideways that way good drop your front shoulder good tilt your hand nice. Okay, so here's a plane shot I see this is his one shot good and look a little happier. All right, so there is a shot without lens. Flor ok, I'm shooting at two point eight here's a shot with the tool in front I focus first they put the lens or two in front and then shoot second so you can see and we'll put it up in a second kind of gives you a little bit of a nice hayes uh you might not like it, but right now I think that aa lot of female clients of mine really like the low contrast look and they like that soft look and I know particularly samantha your style I know that I even saw you putting stuff in front of the lens because that's how you do it you're either putting something in front of the lens to kick someone's floor back or you're just obscuring it so it's a little bit blurred um okay and I'm gonna bring you out and put you in the sun I was having backlit for a second so go stand on that side of me for sick thank you ok right there perfect I'ma shoot one without okay there's one without okay the quality light isn't good I'm just demonstrating something um and take a look at that ok so they'd put the the flower this tool the same amount in front of the lens but between the two shots one it's a nice hayes and this one it's a lot more of a haze I also will use my lens for two if there's an ugly background so in this instance if I have that fence right behind her I'm gonna have you put your hand on your face and right now I'm looking and it's kind of the good shadow on one side so have you kind of turn and look up that way with your face perfect chin down just a little bit all right so I'm going to kind of try to get rid of that fence behind her here's with defense and then focus on her eye and so there's without the fence we do one more look up again and turn down just a tiny bit just eyes at me for you had backup just look your eyes over here good and look happy good okay so I think that's a perfect example of I wish I could show you guys um but basically what it did is it put a really nice kind of light colored hes so before it was the really distracting lines of the fence behind her and the next it's kind of a glowy hayes so hee I use it a lot for setting the mood and for eliminating a background hopes that there is glass not not that I care you could very soon you step on it ok, cool um all right, so those air lens for tools I want to give you guys a second to try and I'm going to see if canada and them have any questions. So if you guys wanna come over here and try your different tools um and see if you can kind of try eliminating the background, posed her differently, give it a try and let me know if you have any problems or questions. You don't want to put it entirely in front of the lens if you're backlit because if you're back late that basically turned in just a giant white ball. Okay, so I'm gonna call you guys if you have any questions, start to see the, uh, ipad right, son, you know, um there's a question from fashion tv in singapore, do you do you ever use tilt in a composition? Personally, I don't, um that doesn't mean I can't be used crackly I just don't usually use it. It's simple okay and, um a question from ashley donuts photography did you cover what depth of field to look for when you're looking for those lens flare tools? Yeah, um so okay, let me go I'll just do a quick glance fair summary lens eighty five millimeters or longer works best aperture two point eight or wider works best um backlit works better and if it's backlit, you don't want to put the tool entirely in front of the lens because it will just create a really bright highlight, but you're more putting on kind of the edge of the lens and you're not holding out in front because you actually see the edges of the tool but you bring it back so that it's just kind of creates a little bit of a glow. Okay, we have a question from jesse braxton, who asked um suggestions for larger groups of three or more people in the harsh sun, but the suggestion is like to their back or get him out of the sun it's really hard to do a group of three or more to reflect it evenly I have the four by six um california sun bounce reflector that I used to kind of fill in the light you can do that. So if you need thio it would be a large reflector like a four by six um white or silver gold but typically it's still not going to be totally even so if you can get them in the shade that's gonna be a lot better for you okay, so a question from new york brian is have you ever used your lens flare tools in a rainy situation to create effects and doesn't work in cloudy situation? It will work and so it just like the overcast caesar not the overcast the shade when I did it in the shade it create just a little bit of a blur so it still works as dreaming it's just not the same effect so just picture shade as being rainy it's going to do the same thing okay, we have ah, question from christian james photography from philadelphia who would like to know if you have any suggestions for shooting engagement shoots and cold weather because of red noses and cheeks? Hi christian, I know christian um okay, so tips for that usually, um a couple of things that I've done in the past is okay, you literally pick something like that like a doorway we'll have them stand inside and step outdoors, okay? So if you don't have outdoors, what do you do? Not too much there's really not too much you can do in photo shop, I'll go in and I'll go to the hue saturation adjustment layer go into red and pull out saturation on and then you can just apply that to the nose, so what that will do is it will be able to pull out I read in the nose or in photo shop what you can do is you can select the nose um and then also maybe add a little bit of blue and yellow and that tends to count, contradicted as well or counteracted as well. Okay, and a question from shasta, I'm not sure if you actually stood this. Do you show your poses to your clients at each session to help them pose if they aren't model? Uh, so if I have a pose that's more than like put your arms around him and look at him, I will show them so they get an idea also, if it's something that's like seems like it might be a little risque, like I'm like, okay, put your lips together and wrap your arms around him. Okay, now kiss her neck something like that. I'll show them that they know where I'm going, so if they could be like, okay, no, that looks nice or let's skip that and then that's fine, but I never have anybody say no after I show them I say, ok, this is what we're going for just to have an idea of what the poses way have a couple more weather related questions um, mo hana as god I had asked, what about hot weather with people sweating you do you just down there sweating it's usually dabbing sweat but there's actually special makeup artist sweat divers so I don't know what they're called but they actually there they're like really thin sheets of paper um and they're used to dab sweat vs like a tissue it's like it's like paper toilets she okay so she said toilet covers you remember toilet cover on your okay there you go on and you say it's clay paper yeah and it's not like it's not usually a tissue toilet paper it's actually that thin sex it up one more question just from eduardo cassis from rio de janeiro do you ever shoot outdoors at night? I know him as well hi there not like personally there's just facebook and twitter friends do I shoot outdoors at night? Yes but not often um what I like to do when I shoot outdoors at night is shoot outdoors at night in the city so when I have the streetlights behind them I'll drag the shutter meaning what I'll do is I'll have them um have it so I kind of made me move my camera and then have a flash at the end or beginning of the exposure so I get blurred lights and that was my idea before of introducing motion so if I have the lights moving it makes it look like there's energy in motion in the scene so that's the only time I usually stewed outdoors I've probably done it a total of for sessions with clients a dozen times I used you just try to shoot daylight and doing a couple more fun doing ok you guys let me check you guys doing okay what kind of questions you have anything they working out okay, I called to check in on them so guys at home if you try and have questions, let me know maybe tomorrow I don't know if it's sunny where you are but I mean well, so a question from uh a jay fisher think sure uh what is this lois shutter speed that you shoot with the lens flare tools and here she is concerned about camera shake I mean the lens for tool doesn't affect it it doesn't really matter if it's uh if you're shooting with lens flair for shooting, whatever the rule that I was taught um is this must be won over the focal length of your lens so if you're shooting a fifty, you're supposed to shoot slowest one fiftieth of a second um I know that I can hand hold slower than that on I'm aware of this, but I'm not on location I I'd like to be shooting over a sixtieth most of time with, you know kind of like my eighty five that's kind of his faras will push it but now there's no specific rules, okay there is one more question from photo one, two three what's the best way to learn hand poses for elegant learning hand poses I look at cosmetic campaigns, I look at a lot of how they're posing, so I pulled those actual photos out. Um, and you can see it's generally it's kind of soft, um, continuous joints so you never have kind of lines in the joints and you're usually not looking for either side of the hand. You're looking for this nice curve on kind of the pinky side of the hand, but I usually just remember that, okay? I don't want the hand towards the camera either way, I want the side and I don't want any tension or any sharp angles beyond that. Look, uh, cosmetic ads and tip I mentioned yesterday that you want to do is if you're having somebody placed their hand near their face or in their hair, I don't say stick your hand in your hair because people go like this, and then you just get this weird, I say, okay, you kind of brush your hair away from your face and you actually get, um, a more realistic and more elegant, um, hand gesture.