Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: The Surprise Challenge

So I've just been over here giggling like a little girl for, like, the last twenty minutes because because this has just been so much fun, we're doing basically a live shoot segment with people who didn't know that we were going to do that, so I surprised them today and let them know for the first time that they would be shooting live having to come up with their own concept figuring out the location, the props, the meaning behind the picture of the pose, every little thing before they took the picture, so we split him into two groups and this is our first group here, so they have come up with with everything with as you can see what background they're using, what props they're using the wardrobe, the color that they're inspired by all of these little things that go into creating an image, they have basically just done that in about fifteen minutes it was really incredible to watch we split them up, they hustled, we all started screaming and running around and stuff on dh then all of a...

sudden it was quiet on set and now we're going so aiden, would you like to introduce the concept and your team members? I'm sure my team is stacy and victoria and our lovely model alana our concept is is that our model alone is going to be a bride who after getting married has come to find that she's in a like a loveless marriage and she can't figure out how to find herself and she wants to break out of it awesome so tell me a little bit about your background props, wardrobe all this fun stuff so we wanted something that said like clean but it didn't really come off in a way that was like two clean and so we had a dirty canvas which naturally is clean but since it's dirty it kind of like like the marriage it's just something that's pierre that's been just tainted and our prop is the rope to symbolize the bondage and the entrapment that the wet the bride feels and our wardrobe was the vintage wedding dress which kind of has an obvious appeal for the bride and our collar was a gray because we didn't want anything that would pop too strongly and give off a sense of happiness or anything like that because it's going to be a very sad image in a very solemn image and so that's what we wanted to convey oh my gosh, I love you know it was so awesome I can't like you guys don't you know they literally just had fifteen minutes to come up with this and I'm blown away by this concept and I cannot wait to see it come to life I'm so excited right now wow, I didn't even know that we had rope so this is awesome so do we want to switch it up and get the other team too announced their concept awesome let me just put this board over we'll let the magic happen quite the challenge brooke really? Yeah okay, so what part of that got you the most exciting like well like the words that you know what I I knew just for meeting these people within the first five minutes that they would be able to come up with something amazing and it's just so inspirational because they are just so open teo creativity and just putting themselves out there and that is just the most exciting thing for me and I mean not just right now but in teaching workshops in general is you know, seeing people who want to be creative want to be inspired and then they just take it you know, they go for it they find inspiration and they create something amazing out of it. So I just love the fact that we can create a story right here right now in fifteen minutes and they're going to come out with an image is meaning awful and not just you know they're not just clicking their cameras they're taking a picture that means something to them and that will mean something to other people I think it's really incredible so great team number and we're ready to go all rights. So, julie, would you like to introduce your team? Yes, I am julie, this is julie. Patricia and tara are model um fifteen minutes is not enough time for three women to get together and come up with a creative idea, but we, uh I went through the props, so when you think we came up with some pretty cool awesome so let's do a little introduction, you could talk about your background props, wardrobe color. Yes, our background is going to be the brick wall because for for me personally the creative life brick walls this infamous and I just love it. We've chose the bread. If I wings as our profits, you can see she's wearing them behind her to symbolize rebirth, regeneration of life. The war drove we chose was an antique dress because we wanted something very neutral because the butterfly wings are very colorful and our color is purple awesome. So what's the meaning behind it. What did you what is the story that you guys were thinking of? The story behind it is that she's a girl who is has had a long struggle in life and she is now coming into a new she doesn't know what her future's going to hold, but she's going to be looking forward to it and with wonder and question that satya is awesome oh my god wait okay, so we have just heard two amazing amazing concepts which I'm still blown away but I can't believe that this is happening and I can't believe that I get to like tell somebody you do this then they do it it's amazing so but they're going to the same thing to me when they're finished shooting oh yeah we're and I'm going to have a very, very limited time to do the same thing that they're doing except that I don't get that fifteen minutes to plan so so we'll see how it goes but let's get our first team back out here so you guys can switch and we're going to start setting up the chute okay okay steam can stay all right but I'm just gonna wheel this bored out I've been taught how to wheel it okay? You're the professional yeah I'm a professional wheeler you know? Okay, so let's start getting the background set up first so it's often easiest to start with the location thank you so much. All right. Okay. And so julie, if you want to talk through what you're doing a little bit and I'll help you out too we're going to try and I didn't have much time to get the background down, so but we don't really like the wood floor, so what we're going to do is use this little piece of material and then hopefully later because this is what we're working with, right? So hopefully later photo shop we can expand that absolutely because we learned how to expand today exactly we're going to add the flowers for a pop of color and then we're gonna have her kneeling down. This is a really beautiful pose I'm you know when when they're describing the image, I wasn't really envisioning what the post was going to be and that's the interesting thing about photography is that you could do so many different things to convey a single emotion so having her crouch down and having her face hidden like that that's something that's really incredible we want to see a little she's very beautiful by the way, I don't know if you can zoom in on that it is very beautiful, so we do want to see a little bit of her face because we wanna have that question in her eyes we want to see that question, so you're just going to turn your head just a little bit this way put towards the light yep cover that up and then we would shoot we don't have a camera we've got around, we're going to so I am going to give them my camera so they can take some pictures okay? I'll get this all set for them of course they can do their own camera settings and whatnot, but I will go ahead and just see what the settings are right now and make some adjustments for them just staring they're going to see how dirty my camera is which is really embarrassing there's a giant black dot when I looked through my lens that I should probably fix at some point but have not yet okay so who wants to take the actual picture there you are now these three lovely ladies also have the same cameras that I do so that's really awesome because they can just grab my camera and start shooting okay so we're still working on posing and she is just perfecting it which I love because when you're doing a picture like this you know if you don't work on those details and you just haphazardly throw somebody on the ground it could look like you just threw somebody on the ground julie number one likes it way have to julie's they're recalling them julie number one and julie number two at least that's what I've been calling you guys okay look what looks good to me okay so let's start taking these shots so what are we seeing wait for it to pop up oh that's looking nice oh man and everyone is just directing her now the amazing thing about this is that when she puts her head down you can see the vertebrae and her back that's an amazing detail that I just noticed just from watching it live and that's the kind of thing that sometimes you just have to do it to know exactly what's going to happen and exactly the pose that you want because you know if you're thinking about this you might not be thinking about the detail of the vertebrae showing or the back muscles showing but when you actually go to do it you know when you're actually sitting there posing her you have that effect of having the muscles show and the vertebrae show and things like that that are great detail and that's why practicing is so amazing I mean I will often set up a photo shoot that I don't know what's going to happen and then just try to post people into different places to see what their body type is like and what looks best so what are you guys thinking? Can I try something and I want to because that's cannon and I'll tell you when tio wei have the loan nikon girl over again from the lone knight congre what I want you to do is just put your right hand up front a little bit but I want you left shoulder to pop this way because I really want this extension in your head right? But bring that arm all the way out front and then have your face facing the light and look out through the window and then contort your top not that way the other opposite way perfect wonderful direction and then can you stretch your right leg all the way out as if you're crawling? I'm sorry if that hurts if you're in the lunging position and then lean forward I'm trying to stay out of the word perfect perfect she's shaking here several clicks I don't want to talk over your creative process, but I'm probably going to keep talking because I can't stop myself from talking so they got the hair flips going and you know what if I could give you guys some guidance and doing some hair flips here so you had you were counting down, you know and then she would do it it's a lot easier if the person working the camera just watches and waits for it and then when you see this happen, just catch it so if I stand here that I'm just going to keep doing this and then you catch it whenever you can yes, so you're just watching for it and then grabbing also I think you got your shot just wait fantastic so they think they got their shots and you see how fast that was. I mean, we have been doing this for what like ten minutes and that's it and that it's so incredible to me I am so excited, yes, we've got clapping awesome, so now we're going to get a team to in here and we're going to set up the second shot, and here we have our ropes, are ropes and are sad bride and can you give us a little bit more of your thought process of our critique of what you just went? Definitely so when they were when they picked out the wings, I got a little nervous because I saw the wings and I thought that could go one of two ways, you know, that could be really, really childish looking, or it could be really, really elegant looking. So, you know, let's say that they had her with thes wings in particular, that are very, very brightly colored with glitter let's say they had her go like this and jump and look really happy that's when you can get into something that's, more of a cliche image and that's not to say that it's a bad image, but just to say that it doesn't fit the mood of what they were going for. So, you know, I was just going to add because I understand the color of the wings, but I was also thinking in terms of post that I would change the colors and photo shot definitely I like, wait, make it a monotone or do a tone color image so that's, why I wasn't concerned with the wings, I love that so yes, so I was watching them and I was really glad that they sort of hunched down and were able to get her in a pose that was very evocative because if they hadn't, then it could have been a little bit more cliche like I was saying and so I love knowing that they're going they're thinking about post there, not just thinking about what's happening right now in the camera because again, you know, a lot of post processing is thinking and planning and knowing what you're going to do with it so that's really awesome and I really like this thing see, I wish that I had known about this nobody tells me anything around here just kidding everybody tells me something's well, I just wanted to say to the first team that the internet thinks that you did a really great job there rooting for you e know, we're gonna have, like, what a teammate and team julie oh yeah, good hair flip I'm just saying that now so it looks like they're tying her up in a really, really weird position, which is what I like to see personally oh man, they're teasing the hair I'm getting increasingly nervous for my time to come uh, julie says I should be this looks awesome, okay, I really like that they chose this particular rope because this rope is contracting with the dress and so that's going to create a lot more natural drama. So if you are for example, doing an image like this that you don't plan on post processing and it's a fantastic idea to think about things like this not having to enhance something in a photo shop. So by using this rope against that dress, you're creating that natural contrast, okay? It looks like she's moving in with some help. Yes. Can we read you something from the internet? Bruce searle said I feel like brooke and take nothing at all. Take a couple random pictures of it, pull it into photo shop and in ten minutes make a masterpiece out of it, you know? And I have to go find a helicopter, flagged your guns, light smoke machines and shoot for two hours putting a photo shop and edit for eight to make something that is cute. She is amazing. Hey, cute isn't bad. I can't take a cute picture. Really. I try it just ends up looking creepy that you know something. Yeah, you know, I photographed kids and no, your cats. Oh, my cats take creepy photos of your cat yeah, see, oh, my god, why do you think I got my cats to putting creepy pictures? Of course. Okay, so what are you guys thinking over here? She looks amazing by the way, the way you've wrapped her well, what I'm wanting to do is actually put the top of her head on the wall and then arch your back okay, like she's trying to pull arms sarah was a great oh I didn't realize you were able to just make sure she can even do that this is going to be a really stunning shot it's going to be great because they have leased may seem like a backdrop which won't be distracting at all and that's the kind of thing that you could really easily distress even more if he wanted teo whereas a blank white wall or this brick wall isn't going to be as easy to do that with so this is something a really, really amazing set up that I'm loving we need some gas, so I'm thinking about my image already and I've picked up a very special model along the way one of the creative life staff who I'm going to force into my picture even though I have no idea what I'm shooting so all I know right now is that I'm shooting a man and that is that oh my gosh, I see my man peeking in the door right now, okay? So let's start shooting in the next a few seconds so we'll just leave all right you know the saying we'll fix it in a photo shop just kidding I'm just kidding all right so let's start taking some shots so brooke as we watched them work could you tell us about your tattoo yes my tattoo we haven't talked about this yet I have a tattoo that says fear is the mind killer and this is from one of my favorite favorite books called dune it's by frank herbert and it's also a movie but you can't watch the movie it's terrible nobody has yet to do it justice so that is one of my tattoos and I also have a little infinity sign on my wrist just for personal reasons but I love my husband but it's also part of our logo the infinite it is I love the symbol so I really love this pose that they're getting her into its really contorted it's actually reminding me a little bit of high fashion if she weren't wearing a super vintage really disgusting wedding dress I'm not saying that I don't wash my wardrobe but I d'oh smear it in mud very often hey so by contorting her and so they just told hurted teo stick out her bone in her back and that was a perfect direction lovely I don't know if you guys can see from this side but it's looking really good from their angle good okay so let's finish up the shots in the next minute or so I'm a stickler and making them rush a lot ok look um there's a quick question that I want to ask you and it um kind of goes back to what we talked about yesterday and a lot of people actually asked it so people are curious to know how you photograph yourself when it's from above yes so in that case I have a tripod I have a wide angle lens and I just tilt it down and I sit right underneath it and then I edit those tripod legs out so it's actually a fairly simple process as long as the legs aren't interfering with what you're trying to photograph too much andi oftentimes I won't get an angle exactly where it's directly above because if I did that I'd have to sit underneath my tripod animals so I shooed it just ever so slightly out and then I fix it later on in photo shop with the perspective can you also tell us the brand of trigger that use I know you said you put the trigger in your mouth yeah where do I I think I have it right here I'm just going to grab it for you guys I think this is the op tech a trigger um yes I've used a few different brands I don't I don't have any leg brand loyalty when it comes to remote so I just get whatever's cheapest on amazon so this is op tecca um and it's really inexpensive I think it's fifteen dollars or something like that on amazon and it's really tiny and it works really well I think it's up to thirty feet or so that you can trigger your camera with this kind of remote so I love this little thing but I have one that smaller so like this one I can't like I totally get it but yeah, but I couldn't put it elsewhere I mean like if I'm using I'll dio to second timer and then and then that which breaks that every single time but I keep having apartment battery back in um but yeah, so so I tend to just drop it, throw it, do whatever I can and sometimes I get really panicked and I don't know why but I feel like oh my god, the camera's going to go off and I still have everything in my hand and then I throw it really hard and then lose a remote I think actually here's another really great question brooke, if you're open to that yeah um somebody is asking, uh who your favorite photographers are? Yeah, so I talked a little bit about this about gregory crewdson all time favorite I think I just adore him I think that his process is so unique and so special escort love gregory crewdson I love julia fullerton baton absolutely incredible again um gosh I truly don't look att to many other photographers for inspiration so I'm not really you know, searching the internet for that kind of thing but I still think it's amazing to follow other photographers so I do follow a ton of different photographers and gosh I'm trying to think of specific names I'll come up with the list and have it ready tomorrow some well prepared thank you thank you all right team number two done I know and it was so incredible I keep watching the pictures pop up on the monitors and they look amazing and I cannot wait to do the post processing so I think now they're going to challenge me and they have to discuss for a couple minutes here what they're challenging me with because they didn't even have a spare ten seconds to even consider that before so it's just us and let me introduce our model real quick so can I have you come out here this bret and I'm wondering something if we have scissors lying around not going to cut your hair or anything so brett works a creative live I've been watching him over the last day and a half that sounds really creepy doesn't it but but I really wanted to photograph it was I thought he had a fantastic look and even though he was supposed to be gone already I convinced him to stay and have his picture taken esso I still I don't know what I'm shooting, but what I know is that I don't want this shirt to look so clean, so I'm going teo massacre it with the scissors and we're gonna have some fun, so I'm just going to start cutting you up don't worry, I won't hurt you there we go just little rips and then we'll start ripping them myself. There we go. So this is the kind of thing that I do to my wardrobe on a regular basis. I'm goingto put that down. I love distressing items and making it look really worn and torn because I don't want anything to look too perfect and since I don't know from what angle I'm shooting him at, I am just going to distress the full thing and yeah, we might need to do so it looks like, oh my gosh, everybody is walking towards me with like, the's grins like they're going to do something horrible to me and to you apparently because I see some finger paints you guys oh, my gosh! Okay, what's going on. So who is going to speak for the team? Okay, so over here with that stuff would be awesome. We have ah, your backdrop, brooke okay, police thank you, way have a tarp in case you and your prop okay, your pop, our finger paints and what colors are there? Red and blue? Awesome. I can do this. And your theme aidan is going to explain that to you. All right? So they're telling me my theme now her theme is memories, memories. Okay, I've got it. Okay, um all right. So the theme that I hear that they just told me his memories and that was perfect because when they told me about the paint, I was already thinking about handprints so instantly when I heard memories, I thought, okay, this is awesome because I can use that backdrop. Um, I have to use this backdrop. Don't I darn you guys okay, I'm going to use this backdrop instead. Not that one even though I really like that one and I think somebody should have some pity on me, but whatever. Um, so I'm going to use this backdrop and I'm going teo put two of my own hand prints on this backdrop, and then I'm going to have our model with red hands sort of doing this as though he's mourning the loss of somebody whoever's handprints are behind him. So I am going to tape this to the tarp or whatever it is that we have back here thank you want to grab that side, thank you so much so I want to describe a little bit about my thought process what I was just thinking in in creating this image how tall are you you're pretty okay and my thought process was that I really want to create something that has emotion to it but also that really utilizes our model and that I'm really glad that I do have a male model for this because it's sort of interesting to me this the idea of memories is very soft and very feminine sort of um theme to me when I think of it I think about women I would think about you know, a girl with her dress blowing in the wind and she's very wistful and sad and things like that so I'm really excited to use brett here because I think it's going to make for a more dynamic image actually in a way so I'm going to get ready with the paint I will go first and can somebody grabbed my ring from me when I don't paint it out thank you so much okay so I'm just sticking this paint in my hands rubbing it together and going for it okay there we go oh okay thank you so now it is your turn not with that one read again so I'm using red for both of the handprints you don't have very big hands darn okay so if that's all right we'll make my handprints look smaller so I want to use red and I plan on dis ach aerating the ones in the background quite a bit and that way it's almost like a faded memory so the handprints in the background will not be as red and post but his will be because it's a fresh memory of fresh wound I love using the color red red reminds me of blood and in this case it reminds me of an open wound. Thank you. Okay. Oh, god. Okay. Okay, awesome. All right, so I am just going to wipe us often not damage my camera and then I'm going to step back and start shooting so as usual, I do tend to shoot things straight on to the subject so I'm going to be thinking about a center composition uh there we go. Thank you so much. I think dry and I'm going to have you standing right here, right? Centered in between those handprints I'm not going to get your face dirty and take the centimetres perfect. You're awesome. And khun oui untucked your shirt. I am talk. You're okay, okay. That's better just like that. That looks fantastic. Okay, so I want to see your hands so I'm gonna have you do this with um yes, just like that and now I'm going to grab my camera thank you so much and I'm not going to get the floor because I don't like this tarp, so I'm not doing it. You guys all right? So I'm gonna come in a little bit closer here and I'm just going to get my center focus now I don't want to block the white on his face too much so I'm gonna have you turn cheat your head this direction yeah, great. Now I'm not tall enough to see the handprints behind him, so I'm just gonna be bring your elbows and yeah, that's good, too perfect. Good. Now look off this direction. Fantastic. Okay, great. So now I'm looking at this image and, you know, I'm not obviously shooting us to take a masterpiece of an image, you know, obviously that's not gonna happen right now, but I'm working with what I have, and to me, the most important thing is a story and trying to convey that as best I can. So I'm gonna have you sit down on the floor. I like those handprints being above him and in this case, just to try something a little bit different, I'm gonna have you scooch against the wall as much as you can without tearing the backdrops down and then arms above your head and then hands with the backs to the wall yep, just like that exactly. And now I'm going to reposition him a little bit, so I'm going to have him almost reaching for the handprints above him as though he's trying to grab on to the memories so this hand will be up high, reaching as much as you can and then the other one down a little bit lower perfect yep creating a little bit of a cemetery just for interest here and now I am going to photograph the floor, which hopefully I can make a lot darker later so I don't have to worry about that being an issue here we go, so I'm just getting my focal point and I'm shooting a little bit wider than I need to just because I can always crop in a little, so I don't like him sitting indian style, so I'm going to change that, so if you could just swing your legs either direction, it doesn't matter for effective and then bend that knee up perfect, you've got it and then yep, I like you looking up like you just did, so I was just inspired by the model you know, instead of thinking of it beforehand, I just saw him lift his head thought it looked amazing the fact that he's looking towards the handprint, so if you can look towards that handprint yep, fantastic, great ok and I like that I think that there's a lot that I could do to this picture I'm gonna have you spread your fingers out a little bit more yep great. I just want to see the handprints mimicked in his hands so a little bit more with spread fingers uh mostly the pinkie on your right hand there you go great all right and I think that's just about where I would stop so that is exactly what I would be doing to this image if I had to do something to an image thank you. S so I really like that challenge because it was something that you know I could immediately latch onto because they gave me a theme and it's like I've been talking about I mean once I have a theme I've got the image because I can then take that personally and say what would I do to this if I could do anything and the fact is that we're here it creative life I can do anything because everybody has been so nice and so tolerant of my shenanigans way just been awesome s so let's play a little bit more throw something else out of me mmm oh, question yes, I have a question um you could have let him put the hand prints on there without yourself getting dirty but you instantly went tio okay, I'm gonna put my hand prints in there like as if you were going to be like introduction part of yourself into the image itself yeah that's definitely. So I love two reasons why I love details like that because that is something that say I took this image to a gallery and somebody's looking at it to buy it instantly I can say oh yeah those are my hand prints to the handprints of the artist and that's on super pretentious and I don't mean it to but it's just a little detail that could sell an image you know, if if it came down to that but the other thing is just that I wanted smaller hands up there because I wanted it to be maybe a lover that he was thinking about or something like that so I thought I have the tiniest hands in the world which is nearly effect so I thought I'd use my hands and and create that that story with it any questions? Um any other questions awesome from the internet. Any questions? I think everybody is just kind of amazed that you came up with that in no time flat it was really fun to do so okay, so let's play some more though we have time to play so anything that all right you guys want to shoot this scene good in here, okay? Somebody who does know how to use a cannon no yeah get in here all right where is my camera trying to follow the wires you could do something different okay take his shirt off he takes his shirt off they might saudi oh I see oh you can get some paint on you then you wash it off so I took it okay okay yeah uh so it wouldn't be a fun evening without a little nudity, right? Gary that she loves the fact that you came up with that thirty seconds or less on a story about what the story was and how you're going to shoot it it's pretty amazing to people I think you hadn't planned this out six months. Okay, well, I mean it's not the kind of picture that I would actually want to keep in my portfolio or anything but it is the sort of thing that is just such a great exercise to dio you know, to get your friends together and say ok, challenge me right now right here and what can I do with this in ten minutes or less and chances are you're going to think of something because when somebody else says you have to do this, you're going to do it you know? And so I've got all these people sitting here who I know absolutely love and they're saying to me, you know, you have to do this so I'm saying okay, I'm going to do it well and you had to add to that too I mean the budget for these shots is what what do you think ten dollars yet definitely yeah really really cheap you really I mean paint is what two bucks of a piece of fabric like that another two bucks so I guess four dollars or so just add some friends yeah exactly it's the most amazing thing can I grab my ring back from you? I know I get a little paranoid thank you okay so it looks like we've bloodied him up or something like that so patricia do you want to oh, she has a my commitment I'm just talking with me yeah so the scene I'm looking for it is something really dramatic and like his in pains I want a painful and here we have to keep this back around we're going to do whatever I want that's the beauty of thank you cleaning up okay I would darken up the backgrounds later on imposed just let you guys know we're all going to be doing some editing tonight I have a hotel bar okay so kind of scratching okay now I want your eyes look up to the light and I really like you're in pain like your fingers are digging your those are digging in your face and your chest okay I'm not liking that so he's really good at that I'm no love and try to close your eyes and just like let's crunch dagos. I'll just take a second look, look, see how it comes, ok, I don't I don't have the feeling that you're in pain. So let's, try ideo. Okay, so let's turn you towards like your a way to take into the wall like your skeleton. You're trying to escape? Yes, both both hands on the wall. Okay, during your party throwing your body towards your wall. But one suggestion yes, of course. So if you're shooting from this angle, we're not going to be able to see his right hand. And also, if you switch your arms and do a kind of way than the ones your shoulder out put, put your left shoulder out towards light and then your face looking up like you're trying to climb, mr so in doing a pose like this, she was saying that she didn't really feel the emotion in the first one. So opposed like this, it's awesome because he has something to play against. So if you can haven't actually pushing his body into that wall, you're going to get a really natural sort of body movement that you would see in the issue so much with photography is that you tell somebody teo, do a movement, but not actually do the movement so you have them sort of in the pose of the motion but not actually doing the motion. So as much as you can get somebody actually doing the movement, then you're going to have a much more powerful image. Okay, I just want to swap your hand one more time, okay? I would like your had turned. I won't see your hind little bit more so, right? Yes. Okay, scratching. They're gonna he's a great actor. Okay, okay, turn around. You can turn that on that's fine. Okay? Try to rip like you're ripping it apart like your glitter. No isometric one up, one down here trying to come out that's right? Like that? Yeah, one hundred one hundred down lower. You write one lower a bit. Handsy s lo. What about excuse me like you here? Good school. Okay, look up this running into a very dark picture, you know, we'll make it back there. Anyone better? I well, I think that the issue with this last image that you're shot is the fact that he's just sort of leaning on his leg, but he's not actually doing here is I'm pushing through so he's sort of sitting back here on his other leg, okay, instead of pushing forward, so we haven't been that posing that he pushes his chest out that would be a much more believable motion. Okay, of going through the steps. So why don't you shoot that one in the air? We're going to get another one in shooting. Sure. After that. Is that what that plan is right to do with me jumping on my time most ever had. And if you if you are cheer back a little bit more, get way shall see way. Definitely. All right. Thank you. Okay, so who else is going to shoot? Okay, I just want to say that it's it's probably really not easy to be put on the spot like that. So everybody's doing a great job? They are doing a great job. I love it. And I mean it's just it's just so awesome to see creativity blooming like that. And I don't know, I'm just having the best time watching everybody struggle and I ask the question this is from jam photo who would like to know if you could demonstrate poses poses that you would use for males? Yeah, definitely. Um so when I shoot a guy, if you look back through my portfolio, you're going to see men standing like this a lot just standing there. And it sounds really strange but I love it when guys just stand in pictures so if I'm going to pose him you know if I'm using this backdrop and this is exactly what I have to work with I don't have anything else then I'm going to try to think of emotions first like we've been talking about thinking of the emotion than choosing the pose so if I can do that then maybe I'll say okay, I want a really sad pose so maybe I'll have him crouched down like this so why don't you go ahead and do that facing that direct or this direction sorry spinning in a circle yeah okay so then lean forward and then this arm up on your upon your head good so this would be one pose that I would love to put a guy into because it's a very strong pose this isn't opposed that a girl would necessarily be put into so I really like this pose in particular and if I was going to keep tweaking it I would tell him to go up on his tip toe on the front leg there we go like that so there's a lot more emotion in that because we're seeing the tendons in his foot and little details like that that make it even stronger so that's one thing that I might do I might have him standing like I mentioned so you can relax here for face you've got paint everywhere, so yeah so I might have him standing, I might have him sitting I'm trying to think back through images that I've done that I could probably show you tomorrow that include men in them where they aren't standing stoically, although that is my go to pose, but little things to remember about shooting a guy is that you can shoot them in much the same way that you should a woman. So for example, I do a lot of pictures with a flowing dress and that's not to say that you can't make a man's clothing flow in the wind, so I have an image that I did of a man where he's falling over and so he's in the process, he's leaning he's falling down and to make that image believable, I had to make his shirt, russell so if you stand up for a second, I would just I would be very inclined to just take a shirt on, do this with it and just a little flick of the shirt because that's creating movement and believability in the image. So that's, what I'm looking for when I'm shooting a guy, every little thing that I would do to a girl to make an image believable, I'm going to do the same thing to brett here, okay? All right, so we're going tio let you shoot lasers out of his pocket been bloodied for you like you have kind of like just pressed up against the wall and you were like thrown against the wall you're gonna have your whole body's gonna be up against the wall though yeah, he has gonna be back till it and you're gonna close your eyes I love this post it's really strong and I love the fingers against the backdrop too how they're spread and how you can really see the detail in it good ok and can you press your back flat up against the wall now okay good and have your shoulders back like this and down to your sides drop your hands down like this but open palm good feet strong and farther apart has your back against walls your butt against the wall yeah, and look directly at me and then put your chin down to your chest you don't have to have your shoulders up against the wall just your butt and put your your chin down more good and look down to the ground. So what are you going for here? Uh I'm kind of going for the, uh up against a wall and you have no way out kind of I kind of feel okay um then I'm going to get you to come down off the wall and kind of just dropped down onto your knees like this put your elbows on your knees and have your hands up on your head like this but so that we can kind of see it'll be kind of behind your head but your your fingers will kind of show up with the red and you can have your thumbs in your hair but your feet are going to be more and more underneath your knees to come forward a little bit like that okay not you get a perfect look directly at me very serious face he's doing yoga way didn't go right and look uh look down and look your eyes to the floor he looks very much like a mental patient okay uh all right now if you want to sit down um on your butt with your legs stretched out completely in front of you and then if you want to again have you yeah and just like this during your chin like this good now I know it's okay as far as you go sorry okay and just hold it hold your chin yeah and just let your eyes to the ground point your toes oppa's much as we can up yeah I kind of like to do more kind of poses that thing okay good and now you're legs around the other side yeah okay and do it one of these good all right and I look over at me but actually I want you to have your face facing this way good channel the way down and I have books it's gonna cut your hair like that and tilt your head as far down skin perfect the head looks perfect so it seems like he's going into more childlike poses which is really interesting okay and he stand up again okay, I'm gonna kind of get you to wrap your arms around me like this okay, good and you can tilt your head to one side yeah, perfect and you know it you're gonna be very sullen and very angry but your your hands need to be more not so soft more harder like this one very angry face that was fantastic. Thank you. Okay, so let's just review a couple of those pictures let's go through and figure out what we could have done differently. Um so let me just snag you guys over here real quick and you can just sit with me here I just want to be able to like stare atyou wasn't talking so um do I have the ability to flip through pictures? Oh, thank you being done for me. Okay, so let's just start at the beginning here and go through some of these images so we have this picture the first one that we started with and I thought that that was a really, really nice idea so we have the image of the girl with the butterfly wings she is hunched over and what I really liked about this image just from the get go, was the fact that they had flowers in the shot that was mimicking the wings, and that was a really nice detail, because if they had picked flowers that had, I don't know yellow and orange, along with the purple and blue wings, that could have been extremely overwhelming for the image, so I'm really glad that they did it this way. I also really like that the model it's hunched like that, as I keep saying, because I think it's really powerful suppose so, the more powerful you can make a pose, the more interesting it's going to be now that's not always true, I shouldn't say definite like that, but in general, for me, I love opposed that has a lot of power in it. Um, so let's, scroll through these a little bit. So what I am seeing with the poses that were obviously were changed, changing the camera angle, I am more partial to this camera angle because we are seeing the light coming from a different side, so because the light is hitting her left side, but we're seeing the right with the shadow, we're getting that variation of light and shadow, and it looks a little bit moodier, so when you're creating an image that obviously is intended to be moody, you know, you're creating something that is not happy despite the colorful wings than seeing that shadow and seeing that darkness can be really powerful because it's furthering the concept. So you're not seeing something bright and happy now, this image that we're seeing here where the model is looking up to the light and we see the light hitting or evenly that's a much happier picture to me. In fact, I don't actually see any despair in these images. I see happiness because she looks so beautiful on the lightest, so even on her face, in fact, they're great beauty shots we like, zoomed right in there and got it on the face let's keep moving through some of these c I like the hair flips, although eyes rolled back in the head. I really like the hair flips because that is adding motion to it, and that adds some believability and interest to the shot. I think that is our picture. I don't know if you guys agree, but I think that's a really, really great one for the hair flips s o if I were going to be editing that shot, I would definitely want to darken down some of the surroundings a little bit just to make the subject pop her face is the same color as the wall which could be fine it just depends on what you're going for, but if you're going for moody, it might be a good idea to darken it a little bit, so let's move on to the ropes and the binding and I didn't actually get to see these images pop up while they were happening, so I'm very excited about it now I'm excited to see the progression because they really had her contorting in these poses see they're her shoulder blade is just popping right out and I really like that because that is adding attention it's making the scene believable if she is really struggling, then we need to see some muscle intention in her back happening, so because we concede that it makes a lot of sense, it makes the whole picture work. This picture works as well, and I think this picture really works as a whole instead of looking at the little details because we're pulled back and we get to see where she's sitting and that it's such a beautiful color palette that I just love what I'm seeing I love that you can only see half her face I like that her hair is kind of messed up and all over the place love the rope and I really think this is a striking image in camera it's the kind that I would not know what to do with it if I got into photo shop because I like it so much as it is and then this one the interaction we're seeing the model interact with her hair interact with the rope as much as I can get the model to interact with what they are, what they have around them the scene, the props I think that makes it so much more tangible and real because if she were really laying there should either be you know, laying there cause she's passed out laying there or laying there because she is struggling and some way so I like that we can actually see the struggle here's my picture which really really fails in comparison to the other pictures so we skipped through ahead I'm not I'm really not going to critique myself but but my thought process was that I wanted his hands to be opened a little bit wider I wanted him to be reaching and I wanted him to be looking up as I explained while shooting all right, so these images first we had him climbing the wall and I really liked that he moved in for a closer shot here because legs could be a little bit awkward in this situation when you're reaching because the legs aren't really doing as much so I like that this is a closer shot and I also like that he's actually grabbing the fabric of the material that was on the wall and I liked the first one's better so you see here the legs are just awkward in this picture, so I would definitely pull that in and then we had him pulling on his chest what was next? Yes, so moving in closer, so I think that these were a little bit less successful than the ones right before it because the ones before were much more intimate he was facing the wall so it had that real sense of entrapment, whereas thes air sort of opened up and you sort of see the surroundings which aren't as pleasing as being up close against the wall. And then I really like these poses, and for this set I wasn't getting as much of the emotion from it as I was from the others, but I loved the poses and I feel like pushing these poses a little bit further and getting something really powerful would have been fantastic to dio, so I would have been really, really tempted with this picture tohave him just swing his arms back in his head and scream and it's really awkward to do that. So I usually ask that everybody in the room screams at the same time with whoever is having to scream because that could be very helpful, but it does help when the model is actually emitting aura moting I'm sorry, so I have a definitely sort of stay away from the crouched pictures in comparison to the one at the very very end I thought that that was a more believable emotion so I'm looking at the other images and they're more experimental to me they're the sort of things that I would see that are just over the top awesome but I don't necessarily get the emotion from it. Where is the very last image where he's crouched down to the profile? This image to me is a very believable pose aiken see somebody actually getting into this position so I really like that about this picture I think we just got through all of them, did we not? We did. Well, I think we should give the students a huge round of yeah, great. Great job. Very inspiring. All right, so do you want to finish up with some q and a today on the day let's do it let's do that. Okay, um you have a question? Yeah. Um, this one is from adrian far um in england and adrian is asking, has there ever been a situation where you just couldn't get your idea to work for a shoot brook and what did you do to get around it? We all experienced that, so definitely, you know, I'm in the situation all the time where I don't know how to execute something it happens on a weekly basis and I force it to happen on a weekly basis because if I am not being challenged in that way, then I'm not moving forward, so I want to make absolutely sure that I'm doing something that challenges me, that I don't know how to do it. So I come up against this a lot and it could be really nerve racking, you know, even if I don't have clients on a regular basis, I have models that I'm photographing, so I have to please them in some way, you know? I have to get them an image, so I do come across this and I can't think of anything in particular I'm trying to think of a specific image that I can show you sow again, I'll try to think of something overnight and show it tomorrow, but it happens all the time, so what I try to do is think on my feet and that's why exercises like this are amazing because if something just isn't working and I know there is just no way to get that shot that I had planned, I am going to come up with a different shot no matter what, just so I can give something to the model and so sometimes I mean, I might say let's, just do some beauty shots and I'll give you some beauty shots and as simple as that and it's not what I hope happens obviously, but it's still a good solution to the problem having a model something doesn't go right you still have to give them something, but aside from that, I try to train myself to be able to get inspired really, really quickly and I think that's important, especially if you have clients, because if somebody calls you up and says, can we do a session tomorrow, you have to know what you're doing in that short period of time, so I try to do stuff like this, I try to challenge myself and by being inspired by everything essentially, you know, I can look at a grain of sand, of body, of water, a tree, and and then it just it evokes so many emotions in me that hopefully I can translate that to an image. So even if I create something that I'm not personally proud of that's just on the fly really, really quick, at least I'll give them something that they can take home with. Um, great question from joshua finegar who's from san jose, california. What are the areas within your style that you stay away from? Oh, I know you said the cliche when things are, too yeah, so there are I tend to walk this line a little bit between creating an image it's happy and creating an image. That's hopeful so that's one area that I tried to differentiate. So I'm not trying to create happy images, but I am trying to create very hopeful images and there's a big difference in how I pose the subjects and what kind of props amusing and what treatment I give it. So I like to say that, you know, even if I am creating an image that is sexually happy, I want the image to look dark in some way, even if it's just the physical surroundings or what I do to it and post. And that goes back to the idea that I want to be creating images that are creating beauty and darkness and that's my sort of tagline for my photography. So if I'm not doing that, then I need to reconsider what my style is so that's sort of where I walk that line and I don't know if I totally answered that question or if I totally understood it, but I think you did okay, that was a great answer. So, um, someone's wondering if someone were to ask you to shoot a conceptual fashion shoot, how would you approach it using your own style that without wrecking the clothes, yeah, I have done this so let's talk about that. I did a photo shoot for bullet magazine um, a year and a half ago or something like that now, and they had a mix of vintage clothing that I could get dirty and stuff that I could not absolutely not get dirty, and it was a little bit tricky because I'm I'm the kind of person that will not budge if I have an idea, and if I have to compromise that, I'm just going to come up with a different idea that works because I never want to create something where I have to sort of pull back and make it less than what it could be. So I did the shoot for bullet and, you know, there were producers on set, and it was this whole thing, and so I've got, like, three different people saying, don't you get that dress? What? And stuff like that? So we had one particular situation where they could not get the dress, but it all, so we just had to lay down a blanket on the sand and then have the model sit down on the beach where the water was sort of coming in pretty close. We had plastic underneath her, everything to protect this dress, and then I took a plate, a blank shot, and I got around it in editing where I could actually add different sanden. Make it look like she was sitting in the sand and the water, so I try to do things like that that's why compositing is so handy because if you know the little tricks to get around certain things like that and there's a lot you can do in editing to sort of get your idea across without compromising great. Well, we'll take a few more minutes and ask some questions that went back through the whole day if it's fine with you. Okay, um, I have another question here from joshua feniger. Do you find that you make multiple edits to your photos to take the creative vision in different directions? Very rarely and that's a great question because I think that it's so valuable to dio, so let yourself be creative with it. I find myself getting stuck sometimes in my style where I know what a picture should look like, but there shouldn't really be that should that I'm thinking about constantly should let yourself be open to creativity. So the one thing that I do quite often is I sort of pushed myself to go in a different direction with editing, and I'll try a bunch of different things, so instead of, you know, creating an image just because I think it should look like that, I try to create a couple different edits. To just sort of see if my style might be able to branch out a little bit, but in general I have one specific idea and I go for that idea, so I'm thinking of a question that I lost somewhere in our sea of questions, but it was from earlier and it's kind of basic, but a lot of people wanted to know about just white balancing oh yeah, people are also saying that your images just fresh out of the camera were kind of creamy and nice, so how did how did you do that? Awesome auto white balance all the way? Yeah, it's the industry tip no, I'm just kidding, it's really not, but yeah, I use auto white balance ninety percent of the time maybe ninety five percent of the time and that's just because I know that I'm going to be changing color so drastically later that it really it doesn't matter what I do in camera because I'm still going to enhance it so that's just a personal thing though I mean, I like setting my white balance in certain situations, so if I have a situation where I am in an indoor space and I have fluorescent lights or something like that in that case I will probably set my white balance and try to fix it, but what I really want to do is just fix it I don't want to go overboard in trying to cast a certain hue on the image I want to do that later on when I have more specific detailed control okay uh, quite a few people had asked about sharpening and I know we talked about sharpening yesterday that you're kind of the anti sharpened yeah, but nina and arnold schwarzenegger and I think suzanne all ass you know about sharpening do you sharpen them and raw or do you do it after you've finished editing your image? So can we talk about that again? Yes, I think I've only ever sharpened like two images from my whole portfolio, so it's really not something that I do if I do do it, then I'm doing it specifically to the area and that's it and I do it in photoshopped directly I didn't even know you could two sharpening outside of that that's how much I know so I'm not if I'm editing it is in photo shop and the only thing that I will do outside of that is in camera raw and that is to bring down the highlights or bring up the shadows so maybe just one or two more here suzanne from vancouver b c asks does brooke of return her images to black and white and then paint color back in? Yeah, well that's a great question I do that a lot I don't usually go the whole way to a full black and white conversion. But I will go very, very close to that, to where I could just see little hints of color. And then I sort of manually go in with my last so tool, like I was using earlier section off those little bits, feather as needed and an add color into those areas. So, yes, I love doing that. I think it's really, really effective to create, especially an antique image. And so that's. What I do that pretty much at some varying degree in all of my images, I dis saturate to some point and then add color back in.