Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Bride and Groom in a Nest

We're building a bird's nest, you guys and then we're going to lay them in the bird's nest and have them sort of be I told you, we we've got like a bird theme going on as I do in my whole life, of course, but but yes, so they're going to be the new little birds who are emerging from the nest in starting their new life together. So thank you e keep putting my camera on the floor that's frowned upon so we're going to get the sticks over here to start building a nest were going to do it all together to make sure that this goes smoothly. Now they're a couple of things to remember first I'm gonna have you guys move out first that way we don't build it directly around them when I am building a bird's nest it's really funny that I'm teaching how to build a bird's nest, but I'm doing it so the first thing that I want to do is start with the big sticks and just create a circular motion here with all of the sticks yet perfect create a circle now they're kind of we've got tall people here, so we'...

ve got to make this a little bigger than anticipated they are, but they're going to grow up as much as they can so that's perfect just perfect we're just getting all the sticks in here okay, so now we're creating a circular motion here with e six to suggest a bird's nest just like that and I'm going to play some of these sticks a little bit better later once we get them all in here perfect I love it I'm just going to grab some more of these, okay? This burden this is looking very nice already perfect great we got a bird's nest I'm going to build the rest around them so I'm not going to worry about putting little details in here yet I'm just going to get them in here and start placing them so I'm going to shoot this two ways just like I shot the bed yet you guys can just step on it they're so just like I shot the bed I'm going to shoot it straight on and then I'm also going to shoot it from above so first we're just going to have you guys sitting inside there don't hurt yourself don't worry about getting the dress dirty now obviously you know if you're doing this practically if you're actually shooting a bride she might not want to get her dress dirty and that's okay, you can always get a piece of brown fabric to look like the dirt lay it underneath and she'll be just fine you're not going to hurt the dress this my okay, you can sit back on your butts great and now I'm going to grab my camera, and I'm just going to see how we're looking here. Thank you. You look very pretty, guys okay, now I'm going to take a test, I'm actually going to shoot this portrait style get in a little bit closer, good, and this is just to see what things were looking like that was a little bit on the dark side, so I might brighten it up just a bit. I haven't shouted out my settings recently, so right now on that, uh, three hundred twenty for my shutter speed, I am at twelve fifty for my s o and three point two for my f stop so I could really stand to take that shutter speed down a little bit to brighten it up if I need to. So I'm going to go ahead and just take that down to two hundred and then lower my eyes so is well, two, eight hundred, like I said, I don't really like to go up above eight hundred for my s oh, so I am trying to keep that down to eight hundred or lower, so I really like how this is looking I like the front of the bird's nest looking really nice, hopefully when we shoot from above will see a little bit more birds nest and the reason why I'm framing it like I am, you know, instead of having the whole birds nissen view is because we have this backdrop, which really I'm not getting the whole backdrop on either side, so instead of pulling back and shooting it from back here, which I very well could dio you wouldn't get the whole backdrop in place we it is okay in a sense, so if you're willing to go the extra mile to photoshopped this, we could pretty easily extend that backdrop out. So it's good to have this shot either way, just in case um, what I would do is fix some of the details though, so aidan with your foot could you just cover up the white back there with the dirt just sort of moved the dirt around? Yeah, thank you. So I'm just making sure that I have, you know, little details like that covered then I don't have to worry about it later because it only takes a second to move some dirt around that looks perfect. You guys, thank you. Yeah, that be great. We're opening another window um and that way we're going to get more light in front of them, which will be really, really helpful for this particular scene that way we can get some more light on the front of their faces you guys look so great. I love it. Okay, so I am going to have you face her with your whole body so you can put one leg behind her good and now you can actually turn as well to face the window and sit in his lap a little bit. Yeah, there you go and then lean back into him. Good. Perfect. Okay, so now I want to make sure that I can see both of their faces in the picture while still getting really nice light on both of them. So I'm going to have you. You guys were in a great position just gonna have you put your hand on hers and then put your head against hers. Yeah, just like that on gonna cheat you back just like that. Good. And I just wanna make sure that I can see her face from the angle that I am at, so I'm just going to get down on the floor with them and I'm going to get as far back as possible to wear the backdrop doesn't go off, so I want to make sure you can see the whole backdrop. This is a really good spot, so I'm getting focused on the bride's face right now under four and I really like how that's looking the light is nice and even on her face, which is what I'm looking for I have been saying the groom is engaged with her I like that I like the foreground the background it's boring I might get another smoke bomb in there to make it more interesting can I do it okay, I'm doing it okay, we need another smoke bomb yep and they worked really well before having it on the ground so we're going to do that directly behind them and then if I couldn't get two people to use your lungs and blow it then uh yeah I'm ready and you guys were perfect so just as you were and you can look right over here oh, perfect yep, just directly behind them you can just set it down all right oh yeah good. All right wave that around as much as you can with your lungs and arms and flap and flail and that looks great. Oh yeah there we go. Way perfect. Okay, we got it. You guys were looking fantastic. Thank you. Okay, proof okay, we're really not doing that again. I promise it's too much it's too. Not you guys okay? Okay, good. All right so I really like about this picture is looking like I said before we have we've got the foreground how we want it I love the sticks in the foreground in this picture it's nice and dark and it does draw some attention but it doesn't draw too much attention and that's I don't want to be distracting with this picture the thing that I'm looking at it's straight to their faces which is really great the lights hitting really evenly smoke in the back makes it not look so much like a studio which is fantastic but I don't want anything to look too much like a studio oh my gosh okay and I want to do something where they're laying down but I still want to shoot it from this angle so I don't want the sticks to mess me up it all I don't want to have that block their faces so let me get you guys and proposed that is laying down or at least laying down ish so I'm gonna have you just sort of fall over onto your side here leaning on your elbow yeah not on his leg I guess yep just like that I think it looks ok yeah ok great and so now I'm just gonna have you come up behind her and lean in the same direction yep wonderful so now I'm working them down thank you so much um I'm just I'm just working them down because I'm going to move to shooting them from above where they're goingto have to be laying down anyways so I might as well continually move down and get the shot so then I have that at least is back up and in case the overhead shot doesn't go so well thank you okay, so I'm going to get this picture see how it looks all right so now obviously I can't see the groom at all so let's fix that so can you move down a little bit it's okay if your leg goes outside the nest not a big deal cramped quarters I know okay, so can you push yourself up any higher? Great. Okay, good. Now I'm just going to come position you a little bit so if you can lean in over her shoulder a little bit more yep and put your right arm over her hip yep just like that that's perfect. Okay and I'm going to see how the bride looks from the front. Oh, careful. Okay, so I'm gonna have you have you hold your head up right? Great. And then you can take this arm your right arm and just drop it down in front of you. Yep, just like that and I'll have you both look at me this time. Why not? Because we haven't done that. Okay, now I can actually probably get in here and shoot this a little bit more intimately. Okay? I'm just getting my focus on the bride good, okay, so now I'm still seeing that she's struggling a little not struggling but you can definitely see the lines in her neck so I'm going to try to avoid that two ways that we can do that we can of course repose her reposition herson or here's covering a little bit I don't really want have to cover her there though so instead I'm going to have you bring your hand around to touch her chin yep just like that and then you can look back towards him exactly just like that and it looks really nice and natural and then you can look directly at her yeah school clothes okay no could you cheat your face back towards me just a bit there we go perfect right? And that looks really beautiful so I really like how that one looks they are making a really nice connection which is good the lines are really nice which is very lovely and you can still see that they're in a nest which is what I'm going for now obviously I'm not shooting these how I normally would for my finer portrait if I were doing something personal I would be shooting a square so I would not be framing like this, but if I'm shooting a wedding I'm not worried about my personal opinion of loving square images I'm worried about framing it really, really nicely that way I can get them an image that looks really elegant while still having the concept involved so I am going teo switch lenses again for the last time hopefully and I will shoot from above now so are there any questions while I am switching ones is real quick. Yeah, so joel rob robinson joel oh, you know that percy huh? All right. Hello? Uh hey says I've noticed you include birds and a lot of your work. So is there a deeper meaning behind using them so often? Yeah birds to me it's all about the idea of light the idea that you can sort of take off and start something new in your life and I love that concept I mean, I think that it's something that everybody feels at some point that they would just love to have wings and be able to go anywhere and do anything so it plays back to the idea of dreams and fantasy and living the life that you love and I mean that that's why I love using it in a situation like this in the situation with the senior portrait because it's all about starting fresh doing something amazing and new with your life awesome. Yeah. Okay, so you guys like and just have you guys lay your heads down so you can sort of curl up together don't hurt yourself. You don't lay on the sticks either. Make sure you get your head all crawled into the dirt now I'm going to the same thing as before go around to this side and I'm gonna need that step stool good so if you want to take your right leg and just put it over hers yeah, that way we can get you in there a little bit more yet perfect just like that okay, so let's have it right here and if we can actually position that store to be facing this way yeah that way we don't have the the worry of the legs jutting out into the scene at all perfect all right, here I come to fall on your heads hopefully not yeah you move that nest if you need teo sorry okay? I'm always too scared to go to the third step. Okay? All right, now I'm actually going to do this just like this so I can see what's happening here and I'm gonna need the legs to be brought in even more is that possible? Yep yep just curl it the knee perfect oh that's great that's perfect. Just where I need it. Okay. Oh, I know it's okay it's very not recovered at the romans thinks the okay great. So now I'm going to just take a test holding the camera as it is okay? And now I'm going to try to jump the camera out again and take another shot once that pops up ok? So it's looking really beautiful we have this nice circular movement which is always gorgeous and a picture because you have this this circle which is encasing the subject so your eyes naturally going to just be sucked right into the center not to mention there the brightest thing in the image so here we go all right over my shoulder all right, so I'm don't know ok not quite centered I'll try another one to get it centered okay that's looking much better so I think that when we finally got it centered a little bit better on that last try now what I notice here also with the light is the fact that it's coming from underneath their chins so I want to try to position them in a way where it's not coming from underneath their chins so they're going to absolutely hate me but I'm actually going to rotate them ninety degrees so if I could have you guys move your heads to that side I'm good going at them but it's not because I I enjoy torturing people just like that you're good if you guys laid down on your side you're perfect yeah you're right thank you for we're just waiting to see what would happen terrible great okay and just a cz you were before you okay? You guys are much better this direction I think it's a little bit longer and now I do want to see her feet because his legs were not blocking it it them anymore thank you oh I like the dirty look, it's great. Okay, so you guys are perfect, and I love that your head is on that branch to the groom's head is lifted a little bit naturally, which is good cause and the white is hitting his face. You guys are perfect. Okay, let's, just take a test shot here, okay? So that was a pretty good test shot. We've got them in the shot, which is good. And I think that the light is hitting them a lot a lot nicer than it was before there, so you can see delights more even. We've got everything that we need in the shot, and I could actually very nicely crop this into a square ish image on get rid of all that that we're seeing that sort of off the tarp that we don't want to be seeing. So I'm just going to make a couple more adjustments here to them to make this and more pleasing image. And I'm going to first one wrinkle her dress a little bit. So if I could get one of you guys to just pull that over the bird's nest a bit, just a little just that other little yeah, that one great. Yeah, that looks really nice good and then I am going teo just adjust our groom a little bit so if you can lift your head and look down at her a little bit more yep just like that you're going to see what that looks like from directly above. Okay, good. So I like that he's looking at her in this picture now I did cut off some of the dress just because I couldn't get my framing quite exact on that one, but I like that he's looking with her and engaging with her a little bit so if I were going to make any more changes probably just change up there pose a little bit so what I'm going to dio is oh my gosh, they're gonna hate me again but okay, who is more mad at me right now? I won't have you move. Okay? You're both okay. Okay, okay. So I'm gonna have you guys, uh, face each other and then one of you flip over. So when your head's at the other end, who wants to do it? Oh, you'll just have to flip your head down there and your feet going on there oh, it's okay, we'll brush him off yeah, yeah, you're good there good and then our bride can just flip over rolled over on this side there you go. Some creating this nice sort of yearning shape which is something that I really like especially for a shot like this it's the whole synergy thing the two of them being made for each other I'm creating that shape that's very reminiscent of that good and then movement as close together as you guys can good and I like what? You guys have your arms really close together so let's bring your hands all together and they hold each other's hands there in the center. Perfect. Good. Now for a bride, of course we're gonna want light on her face so we're gonna have her just tilt her head up towards the white? Yep, just like that. That's wonderful. Now, if you could actually move your whole upper body in towards his legs more? Yep, there we go and then drop that, uh, left shoulder back good and then pull your elbow a little bit up away from yep, perfect. So we're creating those straight lines and then your head tilted back towards the white. Perfect. Okay, okay, now I think that looks really nice. And I don't know if I would change too much from that. Let me see how it looks on the monitor though we'll see how everything is going so I really like the way that they're facing opposite directions I might move her feet a little bit so it doesn't look like he's like sniffing her foot or something weird although some people like that I don't know so so yeah let's just move your feet back just crawl out the knees a little bit more and then separate your legs a little bit more so than one foot you're perfect and could somebody just pull that dress up for her a little I want to see a little bit more like than that great yep that looks fantastic okay and we'll do one more and if her groom could just could you lift your head a little bit so then yeah and then turn that way again yep just like that so we're cheating it a little soon his head isn't so some sunken down okay, good. Okay, that looks a lot nicer I think for for the groom especially all right good. So do we have any questions about that? Yes. How many pictures would you normally get from each scene coming to french? One maybe two. So when I'm that's a really great question because you know, even when I'm shooting something like this for a bride and groom I'm still not looking to get twenty shots of the same thing so I'm good thank you so instead I'm looking to get that one shot that they're going to love if you guys are uncomfortable, you can move okay um so yeah so I'm looking to get the one shot if I get too that's great if they're a little bit different I can give them something to choose from but I'm not going to snap twenty shots and you know give them twenty of the same picture so I'll have them change it up a little bit you know, like I might give them one where their heads are at the same end one where their heads are at different ends and then call it a day with that setup I actually do have a question from the chat room yes um it's about your focusing point especially when you're shooting from above when you might not be looking at the live you yep so can you talk? Can you give them some tips yeah how to get that rights and what we're looking for okay, I have ah kind of a terrible answer for this but only kind of now my terrible answer is that I'm not a stickler for focus now if the focus like lands on the floor and not on them of course I'm going to notice that and fix it but in general I'm looking to see where there are where they are in the frame and then I'm adjusting my focal point in my camera and I really don't have much of a problem with focusing in that situation you know if I do this and the focal point lands anywhere on there the sides of their bodies then they're going to be in focus there on the same plane it's not like you know I'm shooting from down here so they're foot could be in focus but their head won't be you know they're all in the same plane so I don't usually have too much of an issue with that no if I were to do a shot of them sitting in fact let's just do that and see how it goes we'll have you guys sit up and face that direction the window in fact you can just turn your body and open up your legs and let her sit in between your legs and make sure that you're as much in the centre of the bird's nest is possible yep I'm gonna need that stool again sorry yep exactly good great. So you could just give her a big hug and you can lean back into him and then both of you can tell your heads back a little bit good because I will need to see your head's so in this kind of a situation I am going to want to focus on their faces you know and not on what's below them so that is when I would try to get them at a center point in the image I'm just checking my focus and I am switching that to the center point that way when I start to focus on them hopefully I'll have them in the center of the image and if not that's when I would have to play without a little bit more so could both of you guys till your head's back even further yep there we go and we're going to see if that's in focus now I don't know if it is at all so I'm going to have to sort of zoom in here check that myself and that does look in focus to me but I can't completely tell apparently have bad eyesight I learnt this yesterday and it's really freaking me out okay, so that's what I would do I would just pick my focal point and then try to place the camera in the right spot and it's great if you have them in the centre um now obviously I don't have that framed correctly so I would have to move around a little bit um and their heads actually would not be in the center of the frame so I would have to adjust for that okay, any other questions we um I know you mentioned you don't like to go over eight hundred s oh, we've had so many questions okay, so um why do you shoot such high I s so I know that you like to add you know you have a lot of dimension to your photo so maybe that sharpness isn't as important to you yeah it's not that's the fact of it but at the same time we're working in a pretty low light situations one pushing it a little but eight hundred s o on this camera is not really going to be noticeable I mean it's the cannon five demark too it's just not really going to make too much of a difference on this camera, so I push it there, andi I would even go to twelve fifty I probably would try not to go any higher than that, but I have certainly I mean, I've done image is in my bedroom where there's almost no light coming in and I've used so two thousand and I mean it's not like anybody noticed before there's a little bit of grain, but I do a lot of image softening in post and that sounds really fun because most people do even sharpening, but I do a lot of denoix zing not just because there's grain because there might not be, but I use it also for a painterly look so it's just part of my work flow where I know that I'm going to denies anyways so I'm not too worried about that I love that you're you liketo add the grain people are people are really just focused, their very conscious of it yeah yeah, thank you for answers, no problems, any other questions um, yeah, I have kind of a general one, and I'm not quite sure who asked that, but, um, it's uh, somebody's paying attention to your composition, and they're saying that you, um well, why do you center your subjects so often in photos? Because a lot of photographers, you know, try toe, put them in or use the rule of thirds, please, so kind of off to one side or the other, yeah, you want to talk about that? Yeah, absolutely. So it's very funny, because I never really noticed that I did that until last here when somebody said, why your subjects always in the dead center of your frame? And I thought, oh, my gosh, I didn't even realize it just what I naturally thought looked good, but, you know, I didn't go to school for photography, so I've never had anybody say this is what you should do, so I just did what I thought looked nice and I love a center composition there's something about it makes the subject pop and, you know, and it's, not that I don't like the rule of thirds I use it in the sense that I do want their heads to be in the top third and things like that on I want the frame to be very balanced. But I think it's just a personal thing. I mean, I don't really have any technical, you know, reason why it looks better or worse or anything. It's, just sort of what what I like as an artist, I'm going back to your the shooting the square can you kind of dwell on that a little bit? I don't know why. Why you shooting square? Why can't you do that in post? Okay, let me demo for you exactly why I do that. So let me just pull back here first like you guys could just stay there. I'm just showing them why I do something. So all right, so now let me give an example. This will be fine. Oh, my gosh, what a wide lens. I'm not usedto wide lenses. I got to get in their faces. Okay, so if I'm taking a shot close up, I'm gonna get really close just like that. Well, then right now, if I do that he's already out of focus in the background. So if I have that set up and that's what I want, then if I were to pull back and shoot this from back here, they're both going to be in focus because of where I am of my f stop. So because of that, if I wanted to really throw the background out of focus, I would want to be a ce closest possible. So if I miss closest possible that's the point where I would get in real close take my shot lock my focus down to manual and then I would take extra pictures of the scene all around just like this if I wanted to add on to the scene so that's the biggest reason thie other reason is because you can make a larger frame so if you could make a larger frame you can print really, really large. Um I just did a picture recently where my issue was actually that I didn't have a wide angle lens that worked and I was shooting just like I was then I was shooting from above with my fifty millimeter lens so needless to say I could only get a little bit of the model in the shot and he was laid out in water so I had to do whatever I could to get his whole body in there and it took a lot of different pictures to put it together but because I did that because I had to build that frame out so much my picture is naturally a sixty inch print so you know if I were to print that as it is without re sizing it it's going to be as tall as I am which is great for me, because that means that I could probably print that double or triple that size and make it a giant giant print. So that's really exciting to me, because that means that I can exhibit that and have it be huge in the gallery. So it's it's, great for me exhibiting my prince when you go further and tell us why that is what you only shoot or you only do. Is that basically the same reason instead of cropping or yeah, parents have having variety instead of shooting some always shooting square. Oh, wait, yes, absolutely. I didn't even talk about that. Did I? Um, yeah. So squares for me. Am I okay? Sitting here just going lay back in the dirt so I tend to shoot squares. Why always shoot squares for the simple reason that it takes you out of looking at a photograph and it puts you into the world. So if I can do what you know, whatever I can do to sort of make you think that you're not looking at a picture that's what I want. Because if you look at a painting let's say, you're looking at that painting and you're not the first thing that you think is usually not how they do that. Right the first thing that you think is oh cool painting with the concept with this with that you're not saying what kind of painted that use or you know, something like that so to me it's an easier way to get lost in the image where you can sort of you know take take your concept and let that be the first thing that people see so when I shoot squares it's taking you out of that standard two to three ratio where you see a photograph and you know it's a photograph so by making it a square you're seeing into the world of the image instead of seeing the photograph first yeah, my pleasure you're not holding a tripod and you're taking the shots up and down how do you know you've got the right kind of english if you don't go to continue your frame to join yeah he's used to join them together afterwards I always use a tripod so if I were really going to shoot that like I just did I would stick it on a tripod just to make sure that I'm not shifting everything and it's still probably going to work that's the fact of it you know if I am staring at them with this and I accidentally turn it like this and then like that you know that's not great for editing but it's still certainly fixable and it's just going to require more work the thing that you really don't want to do is move this way, so then things are going in and out of focus, so as long as I'm really sort of stuck here and just sort of taking extra pictures like this, then I'm really okay. But the interesting thing that you're going to have when you are panning and tilting the camera is you're going to have what's called a parallax shift and that's when the lines in your image go crooked because you're shooting straight lines, but you're moving the camera so it's sort of going to do this as you tilt up and down, um and that's, something also that I can show you how to fix in photo shop, um, and it's a pretty simple fix, but it could be a little tedious, so those are the things you have to watch out for when you are expanding your frame one more. One more technical question for you this actually, we had, like three or four people asked this, um, I'll ask from photo andrea, how do you handle distortion and misalignment from stitching? Yeah, so that does happen all the time and it's kind of like what I was just saying with the parallax shift, I handle that in photo shop with the work tool, so I will just rip lines right back in a place where they should be um that's pretty much my my singular method that I used for fixing that kind of thing and I can definitely go over that tomorrow okay, so let's try teo deconstruct this bird's nest just a little bit you guys can stay there though I'm gonna torture you some more and I'm just going to get a couple of the lovely students to come in here grab a couple sticks and I just want to hold them up like we were doing before so this is sort of combining both shots together okay so what we're going to do here is create that forest effect uh yeah let's do that let's go back to the fifty okay, so I'm trying to get the most out of this scene as I possibly can you know, I am trying to create a scene here where I can get a lot of different images from it but still have it be really, really interesting so I'm actually gonna have you guys sit again but you don't do anything we're just sit on your bottoms and I'm gonna have you come in front of him a little bit more yeah, there we go good and you can just sit on your bum and then I will have our groom just pull forward here a little bit good and then you'll just lean in over her shoulder there good all right, so I'm gonna have the sticks really heavy in the back, so if you guys can have it coming up behind them fantastic oh, my gosh, you guys are great. Not all of you? Yes, you can stay in the front good. And I'm going to grab my camera back. Yep. Thank you. And I am back to my fifty millimeter lens now, just getting down here to see what we have going and I'm liking it. Oh, that looks very mystical. What's the word that somebody used before that I'm trying to use more of celestial. I don't know if the spits that but it's what? I'm thinking cool. So I'm seeing a little bit of a gap here with the sticks. Sophie, we can let me just throw another stick over here. Here you go, take that one and use the mossy end to stick in the in the shot. Yeah, just trying to create some texture. Um, what the heck we've got vines throw the vines in to thank you. Okay, not too many vines. I don't want to clutter this picture. One of the things that I noticed more than anything is that people go a little bit prop overboard and I don't want to do that I don't want to just throw stuff in the picture because I have it I want to put stuff in because it's meaningful so I'm just going to get one more vine and put it in the background maybe drape it over a shoulder so I'm just gonna go around everybody nobody has to move okay thank you for moving way go get it right around you okay? So I really like that it's just a little pop of color in an otherwise completely devoid shot of color so we're going to add that in all right I like how this is looking good and now I'm going to start to fix the lighting which does indeed seem to be fixed a little bit so yeah, I'm just going to be your perfect that was exactly what I wanted you to do the groom just move back a little bits in the lights hitting a space and I'm just going to tuck your hair again but you could probably do yourself but I keep doing it for you anything good? Okay, I'm gonna have you both turn your heads towards the light fantastic good that was the shot that I want it I do believe what I'm making sure of is that I don't have any sticks poking into their heads or out of their heads or anything too weird they definitely don't want that I want to make sure that the sticks are nicely placed and there's one stick that maybe could go and that is this one yeah, we're going to pull it from your hand for effective way dropped it? Yeah, that looks a lot nicer to me. Oh, wait now, there's a stick going in the groom's neck so I'm going to move that a little bit. Can you just drop your left hand a little? Yep. Perfect. Good. Now there's some room around their heads and I'm going to grab this shot. So now I have to choose which face to focus on because there is a shift in focus and I'm choosing the bride. There we go. So I do really like that image and I am goingto go ahead and stick with that one as my final shot for this segment and of course, I would set off another smoke bomb. I'm not doing it because we will choke and die. Pretty sure. Okay, you guys can drop your six, but not on the models. Okay? All right. So let's, take a few more questions than awesome. Well, I just wanted to say as a side note, thanks for giving wedding photographers an idea what to do with an unruly wedding party. Just give them a bunch of sticks, the whole totally become a part of your shot, you know, I love making people do stuff you hate that, um so pie in the chat rooms p y e um says that they're curious to hear brooke speak about how her shooting approach and technique has evolved since she started with fine art photography. Wow, it's it's interesting because not much has changed really from day one I started constructing my image is the same way that I do now thinking about it first, setting it up didn't take much time to shoot and then practicing and editing and I mean, now I think the only thing that's really changed a lot is the fact that I know a little bit more of what's going to work in what's not going to work that's, of course, very helpful, but at the same time, I'm still doing a lot of things that challenge me on a regular basis, so I still am going into edit, not knowing if something's going to work out sometimes and, um, but, you know, my technique hasn't really changed my process have hasn't really changed I'm just trying to do more with it, I suppose question that came in earlier from by chance, do you ever get burned out and just need a break from photography? I don't, um I I think that's because I'm shooting what I love honestly, I think that I mean certainly there are times when I feel tired and I don't feel like taking a picture but I'm not obligated to take a picture and that's really important to remember is that nobody is forcing you to take a picture, and when you kind of step back and remember that that nobody is forcing you to do this, then it becomes fun again to realize you can take a picture of whatever you want to take a picture of and really so many things are possible that it's just incredible, you know, when people say, well, there are no more ideas to create. I think that is just crazy to me to think that there wouldn't be any other ideas out there to create. So I remember that I remember that there are limitless opportunities that nobody's forcing me to do this, and then it just becomes fun again. So arena from new york is asking if you know what you'll be doing with these images in post processing already if you have an idea. Ideo I do have an idea. So a lot of these images I'm probably going to darken down the background a little bit just a little because, you know it's a nice, neutral grey but it's still bright enough that it's a little bit distracting for me. So when I see that I know already that I am to darken it I also know that I want to add texture to the background because the backgrounds really smooth and the foreground and everything in here is such amazing texture that I want to add texture to that and I want to make sure that I you know everything matches the background matches the foreground and so on I definitely want to skew the color's a little bit so I'm already thinking about that the fact that I would love to make the light look really nice and rich and warm add some yellow and red to the highlights and things like that oh and just a follow up to that um can you just stress again how much you do plan these images earlier you showed me something sketches even yes where's my book yeah, maybe we can show it sometime maybe in the morning yeah, we'll show in the morning but could you just describe it that a little bit absolutely so you know, my process of planning is I sit and think as we all know I stare at things for a long time inanimate objects and whatnot so I'm thinking a lot about that aside from that I do a little sketch I always create a sketch it's a sketch that nobody can understand except for me but at least I haven't sketched out so it's a little stick figure yeah books coming so it's a little stick figure I have some text written out and when I say some text in my book I usually write little notes to myself like red dress for setting things like that thank you thanks. Um and aside from that though I write I typically you know, will create a document on my computer right out a page or so of every little thing that I think can help the story so I'm going to be writing things like what the character is like you know what, what she did earlier that day the whole story behind her and how that's going to come across? So when I'm thinking about that, you know, I'm thinking who is she? Why is she there? How is she interacting with the scene? How can we create movement drama excitement in this picture and I'm writing all of that out so I'm writing down she's going to be wearing a red dress the red dress is going to be blowing in the wind to the right, her hair's going to be moving she's going to be looking to the left things like that I'm trying to write very space civically some when I get there I remember exactly the pose that I had intended so I do have this little sketchbook here um so I have a bunch of sketches in here that I will be showing later during some of my slides on the third day, I believe and so you'll get to see, you know you'll get to read it and see what the sketches air like, but basically this book for me is just a reminder of what was in my my mind when I thought about that image, so I love to keep books like this, um, this one in particular, I really love it's a really nice little book, and I did that because I'm going to be exhibiting the pages from this book when I have an exhibition with the pictures that I created from it. So, um, I'm trying to think about all those little things about presentation and all of that not just of what the picture is, but how it's going to be presented, um, thank you. All right, this is from suzanne gi, who is from vancouver. Um, brooke, how did you learn shooting and editing your editing techniques? Are you mostly self taught or completely self taught? And are there any other artists and or books that you consider essential to how you learned your techniques? Uh um, I am self taught, but I do give credit to my husband, who was very patient with me and, you know, would try to help me out with technical things and photoshopped things like, you know, what what does canvas size mean and stuff like that? I'm not a very technical person, so he helps me sometimes but um ninety nine percent self taught um and what else? Um, the questions were there other other artists are full right that you so I've never read a photography book, but I have I can't think of titles right now either, but books that I love our storytelling books so anything that has to do with the heart of the story and how tio build a story from the ground up I love books like that, so I wish that I could throw out a title I don't know of any, but I read a few in college when I was in film school and I actually found those books to be extremely helpful they're things that I read when I was learning screenwriting, how to write a screenplay, how to construct a story and I find that to be the most useful thing that I can ever imagine. And as faras artist, when I started, I didn't I didn't really have anybody that I looked up to in the sense that I was, you know, trying teo, you know, copy their style or that really inspired me to see start photography, but there I guess, a couple of sources of inspiration I love gregory crewdson do you guys know gregory crewdson oh, my gosh, she is amazing. So you gotta look him up because he does the most amazing cinematic works of art. He spends weeks constructing the sets and shutting down towns and it's his big thing, and now he doesn't even push the shutter. He says, okay, go! And then they push the shutter and it's like amazing to me, because it's, so not about the camera. I love julia fullerton, baton she's, another incredible artists that I love. Um, I love the pre raphaelite painters. I was just having a little love session in here yesterday with somebody about that. So I love looking to painting its inspiration as well.