Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Forest Scene and Props Part 1

so I just gather longer things like about that long or so that's about a foot and a half ah and I like him all you know do a little clump of those start um maybe about something like that so it's sturdy and it doesn't have to look perfect this is gonna be a hot mass in a minute anyway so this is the twine and I like this kind because it has some tooth to it and it'll hold so just an art store yeah I got it a hobby lobby hot blob so I don't care if it shows really and I can always trim this later just a little time okay so that's a good foundation then I would take another bundle like this say these for instance and tie them onto the end of this section so it was somewhere around here not overly concerned it's going to get nice and fluffy here in a minute so fine okay so now it's it's got and I would do that maybe one more time and I'm just kind of breaking after cem in it so it'll bend and if I had one more length would take those ends and connected together this would be like a one fo...

r a child just kind of pretty and then I would just tie it right there after that I can start adding in fact let's just try it he's a really easy to make and I also I mean I really do think that there is and maybe this would be a question to ask the model you know just be interesting to hear what their perspective was but I think it's kind of ah and offering or sent there is some labor involved in it it's handmade for them yeah that's one of a kind and they always take him home and I like that idea whether it translates to them or not I actually don't know because I've never heard anyone say it but it's funny because as long as it works for me and that's part of my process so and then I could just take a little extras let's say where's my and I would just start adding volume to this it's got a nice base and I could just tie on extra yeah yeah okay so the next section of my life we're going to take what we did before and kind of guys are way back there so I talked to you I'll talk to you um we're gonna take what we did before and build on that so the first thing we did was kind of like you know the white box for your study but just like when someone said earlier do you always see a white box I pretty much always see a white box so even if I'm working on location I'll find a spot that works like a blank canvas is what I'm looking for so I came out here yesterday to kind of scout and I was like okay a little bit a little bit freaked out because while I'm into this whole idea of nature and things like that um I'm not used to working in a confined area first of all I can pick from one of one hundred places now while I'll pick one place and stay there forever I picked the one perfect place right so here when I'm looking for is and what I'm seeing like I see a lot of vertical lines with the trees right there growing upward so one of the places I most attracted to is this because I don't have that it's really full and solid and there's no vertical lines going through it it's just kind of a mass so that would work better for me than like for instance photographing directly into that tree ahead of us so if I put a girl in the middle of the path right here and photograph that direction it would drive me absolutely nuts that vertical line would drive me crazy I can't stand it I can turn this way and photograph into just a blank canvas this is a plane campus overhears a plane campus overhears a plane campus and even there there's a really cool log over here we're going to play with in a minute I'm I've been searching that area trying to figure out a way to use because there's so much going on in the background we were just in colorado and there was this gorgeous area with aspen trees everywhere everybody's like photographing the aspens photographing the essence I'm like I can't do it it's just not me they're white with the black on him and there's so many graphic vertical lines beautiful just not me and that's where I can near the focus and say no stop slow down think about what's going to translate and have your language somebody else been photographing aspens it's just not my pittance my deal so while we're looking around that's what I'm looking for is just kind of backgrounds that don't do anything you don't look at him you don't notice them they're just playing canvases some of my work you'll see I really use a background like a certain element of it a rock somebody leaning on something something like that but for the most part I just want a blank canvas um okay if you guys would come over for a minute we'll talk about what you're wearing um these dresses are from the nineteen tens this one's from the nineteen twenties which I love everybody watches downtown abbey obsessed s o I think of lady mary when I see that dress there's a waste time for it somewhere too it's up there okay we'll go get a minute uh anyway so I find the one that c I mentioned that earlier and I like what happens when they get worn again and again and again this kind of stuff because it shows I think of that you know I was talking earlier when I was talking about how I felt like the chair that was kind of weathered and you know falling apart at the seams even the garments are falling apart at the seams and I think there's something in that so I like it that weathering and the re use and reused reused kind of baptism thing I just got this one so it's it's not whether one you're the first one to wear it so okay so what we're gonna do is start with this little blank campus area speaking about lighting I really talked about it earlier how I like life it's just behaving and it's not forced or or super directional I wouldn't bring elektronik light out here because I'm not really interested in a rembrandt pattern or you know and they don't care about that I just want the light to be pleasing and I wanted to be unnoticed so just like the background being totally a blank canvas the light is a plain campus too so when somebody looks at photograph photograph they don't go wow I really love the lighting in that if somebody says that I feel like I've done something wrong because you're not seeing the woman you're seeing the light on her face it's like looking at a person and say wow I love your makeup rather than just saying while you're really beautiful there's a big difference there right so I want to get past that surface level technical stuff and into something that might be a little bit more meaningful so that's just sending it up a little bit and let's see what happens all right we're gonna start over here if you want to start with me start with you by yourself and we can make you barefoot I think you guys can move around right so I feel like I'm talking to your bag's way found this which is pretty cool I don't know I'm gonna do with it yet but we found it pretty good okay just laying this back for a minute and let it do its thing you look perfect um let me start with you standing and we're all this away for a minute okay if you could just stand right with your back into those trees a little bit and hold that for me you may see there she is hey girl were good friends ok so just before I start photographing I'm still in effort your priority still it to eight I don't really change lens is hardly ever in fact only owned two um this one and um eighty five at home I'm going to be using her eighty five today that's it those are the two I like on dh one of the reasons is I don't like changing lenses too often because it's distracting and secondly I like for the camera to kind of see what I'm seeing so if I use too many lens tricks if that makes any sense it again I think they're becomes the sea skin on the images like oh I like that school long lens shot or it's great lighting or you know I don't want to be about that I'm trying to make it look as easily easy to perceive as possible so the only energies in the model not in the camera work okay let's put both hands on that leaf just right over your heart yeah um so the hands what if yeah that's if we flip him let's keep one just like it is and turn the other one the opposite direction yeah and just let the fingers kind of intertwine a little bit yes perfect and let the leafy right on your chest there so right now I'm just working with her face it's already really really beautiful and she doesn't do anything except stay in there and be beautiful can I see a monitor somewhere so I could see where max but oh there it is it went away taking a picture does seem to be showing up I just would like people to see what I'm doing at least for a minute um part of what's making this work to is the form of that dress is pulling her off the background a little bit yeah I don't think it was plugged in or something um let's bring the leaf down just the tiniest little bit even a little bit more so it seems silly but if you bring it back up for a minute uh even where a little more where was um interrupts the line of the collar of the dress so we can complete that shape yeah okay thank you good okay let's bring chin up just a little bit and really press the shoulders down kind of awkwardly far there we go and eyes closed for me what happens if we take the leaf between your hands like that yeah yeah that's beautiful if you're looking at me I think bring the chin out and then down so what that does from over there it looks really crazy from here I get a much more defined jawline so it creates more of a shadow under her face and there's more energy if you look at her collarbone that lengthen the neck is she's more present then she wass if you come back to really natural or your face is just naturally about your yeah that's really pretty but if she you know project chin down even more right there she's like intense at this point yeah gorgeous one more and just let the leaf all against you eyes closed what happens now if we take that and bring it up to half your face somehow we might change the arms a little bit so you're kind of peering through it we could even bring the arm out this way see what happens with that tell you what though because you have so much mass on the reef what it should be yeah maybe the arm yeah it could be kind of overdone in a sense what about that yeah and then just swing the elbow out toward me you know you're kind of p peeking through there the other hand what if it comes up to the other side so you're kind of balance let's bring that leap all the way begins to face you're really peeking through it yeah that's cool just let those fingertips fold in over there you could bring the leaf all the way in front of your face just right there and the close the eyes for me now if you let your whole body fall that way and that arm khun just rest up there doing great so pretty way bring you totally centered again if you bring the leaf here and turn it the other way and just put it right in front of your face all the way kind of in an awkward way so it's just I'm only seen your eyes if it goes right centered tip belief yeah and put that big part over your nose there it comes this way just to touch just bring the leaf right there right there and let's bring the other hand down with it bring relief a little bit higher yeah and then I closed cool the hand this hand your left if we just rotated a little bear and keep believe where itwas that's beautiful what happens if we just bring it all the way up told like you're hiding yeah cool love that too okay let's get rid of that we can just toss it somewhere but it beats yeah pretty little self okay I'm still gonna work in your face a little bit more so try lining up your elbows all the way for me um I was thinking maybe crossing him yeah and then the hands could come up on either side of your face let's turn them towards your face and kind of smushed him up against you yeah let the mouth relax and you'll have it yeah now just press the hands into your face it's beautiful if the hands come back just a touch shall we see a little more of you that's so cool try this hand just let it come around just right there and I thought I was gonna go in with everybody else just tuck it some they're they're beautiful and you're head of it just just right there impress those hands and against your face there we go there we go beautiful the one that's higher up we just go ahead and cover them half of your face with it so the heel of your hand is up by your eye yeah that's really beautiful and just write their eyes closed no let's just show your face it would bring the hands all the way back around yeah they can come up the hands up here still and trying to keep the elbows low so it's kind of a struggle between yeah so the length of the arm the fingertips command even go in the hair a little bit and then try to let your head fall one direction yeah if the shoulders a press down and then you let your head fall over so try not to let your body move isjust ahead this hand just let it be real tender against your face the other hand pressing in its so beautiful eyes right here what happens if we do something and let one arm drop and the other one is under it somehow let's rotate the hand around so it's facing him maybe to the side a little bit yeah and let your body kind of and then your head this way I think tipping opposite direction there we go falling that direction is there any way to see a little bit of that hand creep around yeah so it just kind of awkward and that hand is dead weight just let him follow as much as it will kind of broken over and right at the waist yeah yeah uh huh I like it beautiful so another thing I didn't mention is there is a little I'm sure you can see in the images dark area where she's kind of framed right there and I'm playing with that a lot can I stop you into the into the while just a little bit maybe it can kind of come around your shoulders a little bit if you get in there going to make it extra you know extra painful that's what we do let's come this way a little so you don't have that deal with and then you can step in there yeah um okay what about bringing the hands up over your head and grabbing on to something up there and we bring them together yeah can that hand swing this way we can look through you yeah that's great just reach up a little higher if it's possible on the hand maybe goes the other way yeah good I had this one beautiful present shoulder down can you come up on your tippy toes and do that really press the shoulder down and kind of arch your back a little bit there there so pretty be gluing together if you can try letting your head really fall over that way good eyes closed good beautiful the hand that's here let's bring it may be up in the front one too so they're really really reaching it's almost like you've got your weight on those branches and you're just dangling from them and this elbow a little closer to your bought there we go pressing those shoulders down there there the front arm if it could just be straighter the left one uh both arms almost totally straight yeah just falling back is heavy as it will be almost as close together as we can get him there we go and pressing the shoulder down beautiful okay fall apart from it so a couple of things I'm looking was looking for during that it's hard for me to break the pose to talk about us or just break it down now can you reach your arms out just for a moment we could talk about just in a similar position to where you were okay so what was happening a lot was this front elbow was coming out toward me like that yeah so the gesture is pretty much the same but you know and now I have lengthen her arm so if that comes toward the camera and any time a limb is coming at the camera elbow arm hand foot you're gonna lose length so that's what I was trying to get was a long long line and a feeling of like kind of falling okay let's try you yeah the question is from nikki in miami do you always keep the instruction to the models positive to them are you ever seen a negative comment to them or trying to correct them but yeah so I do try to always keep it positive so I feel like if something's not right it's my fault you know I'm not communicating well so rather than say no not that or no that's not right or a negative comment or something I'll just rephrase it and I'll rephrase it ten times if I need teo and sometimes you'll see like if I'm working with the arms and getting it yet I work with a foot for a minute and come back to it so they don't feel like oh my gosh I'm never gonna get this right you know we just kind of address different things at different times sometimes it's like a circle effect try to address this and then addressed this and that but I do try not to ever say anything negative room I noticed when you were trying to have the model show the side of her hand on the back and you were just so patient and persistent and patient yeah cool to watch if you if you even I think get the tiniest bit agitated they're going to see that and they might feel like it's their fault or they're going to start to get at you know so patients is extremely important and how much of that do you think is that energetic connection that you're kind of creating a lot you're talking through and I'm looking right into her eyes so we've got eye contact and where I was you looking off camera something she knows I'm watching you know and I'm trying to be his cognisant of her feeling her physical feelings that possibly can and she knows there's a level of respect there and I'm trying to build energy I can't ever say no that's not right it's going to crash and burn thank you okay can I bring you forward a little bit maybe even a little bit more yeah okay beautiful was gonna work oh yeah thanks I keep doing that sorry see where we're at here stressing exposure before I keep going so yeah okay let's try one more kind of bird like so if we have hands may be on opposite shoulders yeah oh you had it right on there yeah try to press shoulders down as far as you can and arms like little wings yeah let's let one hand curling a little more than the other right and so there's a little bit of with speeds in the lighting happening right there if you kind of basque your face in that or just gorgeous what happens if you let your head fall all the way that way just ahead and not the body can I step you back and just a couple inches right they're perfect really let the head falls far as it'll go try to keep the shoulders down it's hard that's beautiful beautiful eyes right here just kind of stare me down good and one breath in through the mouth good good good okay one more just swear arms for me try to let the head fall again yeah um step you brat or for maybe let's just see what's happening with lighting come toward me a little more right there back myself up okay so the hand underneath just let it kind of curl this way the other one there we go that this one maybe you could come up to the tri city a little bit just kind of cradled the arms together so they're kind of tight yeah there's no spice but strolls try to keep those shoulders love beautiful now I'll see if the head unfold that way almost like you're pressing your ear to your shoulder throw a heavy weight on the head try rolling or face up toward the sun a little bit and then the head is falling still you might even need to use the hip a little bit too kind of curve yourself that he would actually go this way there we go eyes closed one more that's so pretty so pretty fantastic okay breathe a minute okay I'm just right now even though I already photographed her doing what I would normally do if I'd never photographed her before and actually we're still getting to know each other so this is all helpful um before we go into anything seated or start working with props so I like to use a lot of found objects and stuff somewhere there's a big stick no it's just like what we can play with this why not I'm sorry at crown now we'll use this one taking out cameramen okay let's see what happens in the back you up a little bit I think so I'm just sharing my thought process um I'm like I love the line of that that branch um I'm going to photograph her here and to sew a totally different thing will happen here than if I over there which we will in a minute this it becomes almost camouflage which is kind of cool um but I have to be aware of that so I'm going to try to mimic the shape of it a little bit okay so what if you're able to put a little bit of weight onto that thing um what about you see how there's ah if you turn it around turn it with it yeah there's a crook in it yeah so we can have you look through there something can that arm come all the way up here your other one I'm sorry I always say that and assume you know what I mean you know I just let it fold into the little creek right there there we go and the other arm in the forearm go yeah right there bring it up even a little bit more for me yes it's touching beautiful you poke your head through just a little bit and then lay your face on the branch that's cool all I'm doing and I'll experiment with this thing a lot it's just trying to mimic the shape of this thing and in kind of an odd way she looks a little bit trapped and I'm kind of digging that if the head can go this way even war chin up just a little bit beautiful I love the eyes right here I think can this hand curve around and touch almost touch your face and ideally we get your face right in that little uh huh yeah it's really strange I love it no if you could put your chin almost down into that valley and we can let the arms rest a minute let's just get the face see what happens with that I think we bring the bottom of the stick this way a little bit you'll get a little or hide from it yeah so I wonder what it would look like if you're kind of hate your face kind of hanging in there yeah hands what if hands go on either side of it yeah really delicate impress those four hours right yeah beautiful killer looks like antlers eyes closed cool if you can just tip the head the tiniest bit the other way actually right not even that far right a tiny bit more that direction right there eyes right here cool now let your head fall along that line and the chin can go way down into that very cool eyes closed for me okay yeah the forums you turn your nose this way just to touch and let your head fall over there we go beautiful uh so pretty okay let's give this stick and I want to tell you what does it look like if you put that thing across your shoulders back there don't make any sense you know you're going to bear the weight of it back there get rest yeah if you rotate it can rest even more I think I'll rotate the other way so that uh yeah right so we can just thread your arms through it somehow this hand it can it flip over or yes we kind of over really using the length the hands almost like you're playing piano there yeah barely touch good let's keep the feet totally together trying to get your following the wicked cool chin up just a little bit really kind of luber present stare me down chin up even more kindly you're looking up into those trees and eyes closed cool okay here's the crazy thing if you can keep your arms there and lean that stick either this way or that way so you're putting pressure on it so it might break that way I don't know what can we go the other way it shorter but you were doing it earlier can you do that with your feet together yeah just let your head fall that's a really crazy looking okay so here's the deal if we could bring the stick closer to your feet yeah I didn't want your head completely yeah that's so great eyes closed you're doing it hang in there so pretty beautiful okay relax a minute really cool okay one last thing well done will give it a rest if we do that again put the stick down there is it possible to bring your feet over here so I don't know how much weight you can put on that so you're gonna have to tell me if it's not working not a lot yeah so what if your feet come over here and you use your arms first for strength so you're almost singing in the rain angle at an angle you're getting it you're getting there if you would have to be together yeah not nikkan bend up a little bit and over so the feeder in line with one another and then let your head fall away that's so cool eyes closed we can push the angle anymore it would be amazing yes good eyes close guys beautiful all right so cool thank you ok take a breather beautiful beautiful