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Styled Shoot: Steampunk

Okay so let's talk about doing a stylized shoot um and where I pulled things from so I told you you can get things from etc there's another so let's I'm just kind of not specifically for him we could talk about pulling props and whatnot for me props could make an entire shoot so for example um I told you I got the parasol on um have parasol on ebay for thirty dollars give somebody something to work with I use parasols all the time. Um this okay it was a twenty thirty something and forget about have a dash we shop and so it is a ribbon with feathers sewn into it look great there that's all it is it's literally just a piece of ribbon with feathers to make a shot like that so sometimes a prop makes the entire picture and so just you know how that was done came and make a fool out of myself but I had somebody stand behind her and just hold it it wasn't like anything special it was not a head piece I had my assistant crouched behind her and hold it so it made a headpiece so this is habit as...

her shop that was amazon I get things from ebay I get things from deviant are I get things from all over in this instant I reached out to a guy on deviant art that makes steampunk glasses and so steampunk is steampunk is basically a style of dressing wild, wild west you seen wild west that steampunk it's taking new things and making them look old so maybe glasses and making them look kind of cogsa and, um, different pieces like that. So you see, ok, that's, steampunk um and so I reached out to this individual and the first time I used his piece what I said to him as I found him on dvr and I search under blick, prop makers and steampunk, and it had a picture, and he had those glasses sitting on a piece of great fabric, which I think was like a couch cushion. I sent a message said, I really like your work, I'm a photographer, I'm building my portfolio and I would really love to borrow those pieces, and in exchange he'd be happy to give you a great image you can use to promote your work. Um and so the deal was I paid for shipping both ways, and I was able to use his peace now not everyone so trusting, but once you have, if you have a real established website in good work, it's a little bit easier and again it's all remembering the biggest hip for success biggest cities for success, I could give any photographer who starting off is don't be afraid to ask don't be afraid ask don't be for destined for anything don't be afraid to ask hey do you need a photographer to shoot that event? May I shoot in your restaurant? May I borrow that prop wouldyou liketo collaborate with me? I ask because that's what happened to me in the beginning as I didn't ask and I was afraid of being rejected and I was afraid that it wasn't going to work out and as soon as I started asking people for anything is when I had all these opportunities and so I think the opportunity is purely because I accepted that I could be rejected and was okay with that um so that is my huge tip I can give to anybody don't be afraid to ask so that relates to this this these steampunk glasses I've probably sent out um asking for props I would say my response rate or for props and clothing in the beginning was maybe one two fifty emails are requested sent out now it's probably closer to like one in ten which I think is awesome and that's really good and so I send out those request and get things back so I'm going to shoot steampunk because I'm going to show you later in post on day three how to turn this into that kind of phone hdr look on that's grunge and it's cool I kept these glasses this is back before his fashion photographer I did this for my studio I kept these glasses for about two months and I did tons of male portrait's in them because everybody loved them and that's okay and you can use it repeatedly I probably did eight or ten different male portrait's with these and retouch them of course the ones you saw were my favorites. I'm gonna have you move this light I'm going to a similar light where I have the two room lights on the face but I want to make this a little more dramatic off to the side yeah or it doesn't really matter it could go that side um yes that's fine okay um what I was looking out I'm looking at to is I'm gonna put a little bit more shadow on one side of his face but sorry the fashion photographer I'm looking which side of the face is more interesting for the glasses things like that um okay robin, may I borrow you for a little reflecting uh because I'm going to try to make this an hd our image I can't have something go completely to black because any detail in my shadows so I'm going to fill it in a little bit, okay all right and then I'm gonna have you can put it this way just a bit so I have those two strip lights or strip banks or barn doors it could be any from the back er and usually my ratio of power for something like this it's let's say that um my front light let's say that it's maybe f sixteen or maybe it's a half eleven my back lights would be like f sixteens like a stop brighter to give me that highlight and give me that definitions with something like that so I'm going teo switch I'm gonna put on a longer lens so I'm gonna do this as a close up perfect okay game a little bit of phil and when I have for doing that reflection I just don't want to back out block out that light to the back so let's test this and I'm gonna shoot you son carried out again. Okay, good. So, um if you see this shot I'll tell you why it won't work as is but it could work for normal portrait okay could be very cool and dramatic and I could add um a little bit of what you call it a kind of a sea peotone effect to it and add a grunge texture it would look really cool, but since that side of his face falls the shadow and I want to pull some detail out of it I can't have that light so far from the backs has got to come like a little more from the side yes and I was gonna have you do that um, the other thing that robin's noticing is that little thing that sticks out its again, I will flow to shop for a creative effect. I don't want a photo shop if I could just tuck that in. So the different uses a photo shop, not because I'm lazy because I can do creative effect. Okay, so all right, so now we're angling it so it's not so far from the one side of his face that we don't have as much shadow someone have you switch to silver for phil. All right, let's, take a look here. Perfect. Much better. Um, I'm gonna have you turn your head just a little bit this way. Yeah, toward the camera. Perfect or towards the life. Good. And so what? I had in turn his head for it since I don't really require a straight on pose. If I haven't turned his head towards the light a little bit more it catches on the shadow side so I'm going to one more pose. Turning outside was just a little bit with your body just a little bit good. Lean towards me with your torso. Perfect just like that right there makes you a few of these to work with and I'm gonna do one more close up, get a little closer with the reflector um so what john's having her do right now what he had her modify is when she was coming from the back it wasn't catching the light and it was reflecting on the wrong side of the face when you brought her to the front it's catching the light better and actually filling in the shadow more than kind of the back of his head so like right there is great I'm going to have real close for if it greatly open up just a little okay, take a look so it's kind of a cool steampunk shot um okay want to try guys wanna shot? All right, cool. So I think that's a cool steampunk shot I'm going to show you how to make that beef oh, hdr on sunday how to add that grit in that green to it? Um okay, so you can just just push halfway to focus, put that back in and it's a one fifty macro so you can get really close if you want. Um I want you to make like, popeye kind of thing, popeye the sailor like around you have the mouth on side that hasn't you like more than one side that looks like he's growling good uh and for something like that too, if I'm having some guy doing funny faith, I would like having a whole bunch so it's like so it doesn't feel like you're like oh don't offices feel stupid or not let's book okay growl at me so you're thinking about it is that one particularly stupid how can you think of it I just think it's really where the girl had to scream and so I just had her like make a whole bunch of different faces and pick one he's having secret thing out okay now the same thing but like holding the hat with the one hand um but the other hand because this is going to catch this funny okay now I want uh something more like funny yes yeah feel free you can go horizontal you wanna catch it in thank you all right cool I'm anyone that shot hold on to your hat real quick good and hold it a little like less dainty look a little like with a bigger kind of more fist son good okay awesome all right so I have plenty of shots to work with you guys have any questions on this what I'm going to do in photo shop is pull out the detail on the highlights pull out the detail in the shadows at a grunge and make it look kind of like a hdr portrait so that's where we're going with this that I have used probably okay I don't want to call it a gimmick okay? I'm not I've used that kind of light and felicia are effect more than anything else for my high school, senior portrait and photos of men, because it makes it get a little bit of runs, you can have the grunge texture, it pulls out that detail, that light is really often flattering, if anybody has even slightly defined jawline and cheekbones, so I've used that more than really any other fact, if you check my facebook page, I did a shot of rapper fuji be, um, and we ended up post crossing it like that. I did, ah band gators two ended up post crossing it like that, so I've done that time and time again were added textures and made it look like a fool each day. Our picture? Yes, I called fohr what's the difference between actual hdr and the surest? Yeah, ok, good question, really hd are what you're doing is you're actually capturing a minimum, usually a minimum of three frames, so you're capturing one where you'd be like under exposed to stops, so that gets you detail in the highlights. You get one that's correctly exposed, and then you'd have one that's two subs overexposed to get details in the shadows, and you combine them together in photo shop, either usually hdr pro or nick has each dare express, I think. That's the one I'd recommend by the way if anyone's considering doing hdr um but it's really hard to do with portrait because if somebody moves you can't really take three frames in order to get all of that dynamic range in there so I'm pulling out of a single raw file instead of actually combining multiple files together so it really does it really actually is high dynamic range but not how we all think of it of actually combining three or more images together yes with capabilities of light report can you achieve something? They don't because you see that's what I'm going to show you you can do it in light room um and get it basically you could get that affect ninety percent of the way there within lighter or adobe camera raw if you don't have light room you can pull all that detail out all right? Well, there someone there are so many questions we've kind of run out of time so folks, if we don't answer your question today please keep asking we will get what we have lindsey to answer it um tcp photography had asked for high school seniors I have moms that want to see smiles how do you shoot a fashionable shop with a smiling subject? I know the focus is fashion and absolutely could that edge but how do you do that with charles and I did it all the time um and I would shoot both and so I would pick a subject matter that you could have a smile that went too far feel to fort so if it's a guy and I'm having jumping like smile or like making cool faces excited since more of excitement smile so he's happy about it too, but like I said, I always shot the safe shot first and then my crazy shot so everybody's happy so I still always did the portrait on you know I would have my brown muslin salt large soft box here was an octa box with my rim light kind of hair light on the back guy turned kind of head you know, whatever leaning and get that shot um but for girls I mean for girls it was easier because you can add a smile to anything really you know them, you know, kind of soft outdoors kind of flowing lens flare serious and then add a smile, but for guys, I would just try to make it kind of an action smile or guess what if mom's paying just you get a smile than mom could buy that one that's what I would do that's that's usually do it was very interesting I definitely would have clients where do I would explain like if mom didn't want that, I'd say to him, I know if you want to buy that one, no, make mom happy, then you can purchase them that you're on your own. I actually did have a lot of kids that would do that, um, and then their parents that kind of usually just given because the kids show that they were willing to pay for themselves what I found cool, so I'm not sure if you had anything more before we wrap up to talk about or I guess I would just do a thirty second summary. Fantastic. My thirty second summary. I would be again telling everybody that for me, if I shoot portrait's like everybody else it's really hard to stand out from the competition. There are so many good photographers and the barrier to entry is very, very low it's very, very easy for people to get a camera in their hands and to start shooting. So in order to stand out from my competition, eh, I have to be good with people and interact with people, but I need something more to my ideas into my production, and that doesn't mean that every shoot that I do needs to be a big production, but I need to get a buzz going, people excited and see that there's something different about me, so what I did is I took the concept of fashion photography locations and props and lighting and posing in concept. And then implemented them into my portrait wedding work so that I could stand out and either really just gather people's attention. Or I could charge more because I was offering a premium service. So that's, how I treated fashion flair for portrait in wedding photography and that's what I'm wanting you to take away, not how to become a fashion photographer. That's not what this workshop's about, but to take each one of these lighting setups, or how use props, or where I got the feathers and how I might use in a chute and figure out how you can use it for whether it be bridal or families or dancers, or boudoir or maternity or senior portrait. Um, in order to stand out from the competition.