Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Simple Engagement Shoot

I'm going to start of shooting with my I'm shooting with the default I like to start off shooting with e eighty five one four specifically because it's very much of a fashion type of lens, the properties that that this lanes possession and the images that they produce are very much off a fashion type of field I don't shoot with the fifty mil won eight tow one four because that's more of a wider angle lens and I think that that elaine's is very much for photojournalist because it is quite wide if I had a fifty millions and I wanted to get a full frame shot off your face right now and I came up to you and I was like, we haven't even started shooting is the first shot of the day and I come right up here, I'm like freaking out, so with that with eighty five, I can shoot from about here and the eighty five one four I'm getting great depth of field and it's a great tip to feel I'm saying shallow depth of field so it's going to make my images look expensive, so I'm gonna start off shooting wi...

th the eighty five one four and if you've got a fast lens, shoot it on one four there's no point in having I don't know how much these are in dollars here, I'm going to get like sixteen hundred seventeen hundred dollars is that about right? What's the point in spending that that amount of money on the lanes and you're not using it at one four so we know shoot a couple of images at one four I'm gonna talk you through what? Why I'm doing what I'm doing and you're going to see the images that that I've produced so if we could just get these thes windows the blinds up please and I'm just gonna move over to this very uh three clean area over here way to start off by shooting some individual portrait's off about our bride so I shown my assistant over there please alright that's fantastic. Thank you you're not gonna do any breaking in the corner there alright this's sean hoyt he is ah friend of mine that I met the w p p ay so it's great to go to events and conferences you meet and interact with a lot of different people he's, a seattle based photographer award winning seattle based photographer and he's very kindly offered teo help me out today so thank you for being here. It's very cool to have you here all right? And just in terms of our bride and groom way have maya over here, so if you could just come through please and another sean so sean sean admire over here this is our are a couple for the next two days and already you can see it's not gonna be that difficult to photograph them right? So it's so important to get the right client I mean, we've spoken about that obviously for for the first segment and gone into it a little bit more in depth but yeah it's so important to get the right to get the right client so we're going to start off by by shooting a couple of very safe, easy images because remember, we have to please mom, we have to make sure that that those expectations are fulfilled because I can't have mum get me the client and then I just go off and do my own thing and you know it's just not cool. So what usually happens? And when I say usually I do understand that culturally around the world things are a little different I know in the states in general the people are a lot more confident and the guys are not as shy or reserved as, say, your target market in england or in south africa. So what I generally find is that the bride is super excited about this and the groom is like I have to go for an engagement session she's making me go for an engagement session so he's not usually that enthusiastic about it so what I need to do psychologically is make him feel comfortable so um when when they would arrive on the engagement shoot obviously a sean how you doing you see the game last night to see the patriots against the jets there that was that was incredible hey went into overtime and art is amazing so already have built up a report with him with with with my relationship goes way back already because she's being the one dealing with me and we've got this report she's been going on and on about how fantastic how fantastic I am to him which may may make him feel threatened because she's going on and on about me and then he meets me is like oh so you're the guy because she's been going on about all right so what are you gonna do now you know that kind of thing and we need to break that down psychologically so what's gonna happen is she's she's over here she's all excited about the shoot convoyed for the shoot and he's like okay what's going on so I will start off if I see that he's super I was out of it I will see if he's super shy I might say to him ok we're going to shoot the couple together or I will say to make a short I was going to shoot a couple of shots of maya by herself first and uh then we'll get on onto you okay so so you can just hang out in this area over here I'm gonna take a couple shots of my first so let's just move into this area over here very easy lighting shawn you could come over here for me please just open up that reflector this is the last delight try grip reflector on dh it's you know it's really just to manipulate ambient light and it's it's you know it's very easy to use and it's really not difficult so we've got this amazing window light coming through here and I'm going to start off by shooting really nice safe shots off my um my camera settings under these lighting conditions if I just I'm not going to take a shot just and also articulating to your client what you're doing is also very important so I'm going to say to her look don't waste your best poses just yet I'm just I'm just gonna take a look at what the ambient light is like I'm going to be shooting on aperture priority because I want to be shooting on one point for so I'm just having a look at my lighting you don't have to worry too much about that just having a look through here I'm not I don't even have to press the shutter I'm just looking and right now if I want a thousand isa my shutter speed of six forty which means I don't need to be that high I can go I can go down on the ice or and jim are remind you interrupting me if you have any questions, eh? So I'm going to go down to two hundred isa and have a look again, and I'm on one hundred shutter speed. I need to go up on that a little bit. So before even taking the first shot, I kind of know what my settings need to be. I'm going to be on six. Forty isa and I wanna be comfortable with that. Now I'm gonna put it on teo, I'm on matrix metering because my has got a great top on it's going to much of an influence in the lighting and don't need to be on spot spot metering. I'm gonna shoot on matrix metering now, in terms of the window light coming through here, I'm not too sure if you guys are fate with a narrow side lighting and broadside lighting, you know you know about that, okay, so for the people who don't know about narrow side lighting or broadside lighting, if you look at my right now, if you turn your body in towards the light. If you look a tte ifyou've got her with her body in towards the light and the light is shining on the outside of her face over here, if you just bring the shoulder iran in for me this way, little bit and then keep your shoulder there ten you're facing towards me this way a little more, and then chin down a little, okay? So no manipulation whatsoever if I look at that, I'm on a high speed mode here. I'm just going to get that down to single short if I look at the lighting on her face over there, I'm actually photo. I'm fun graphing that the narrow side off her face is on to me right now, so I'm photographing the shadowy side of your face if I had to turn it the other way around. So you're facing that way and now ten you're facing towards me this way. Okay, eyes to me. I'm not shooting the side where it is a little weird. Her face is more illuminated from the mirror over there. She looks bigger over there because that's that's more broadside lighting. So can you see how in the one image she looks, her face looks a little bigger than in the other side, so narrow side lighting is you're going to get her to turn her body in towards the light so that you have photographing the shadowy side because if he's photographing the shadow shadowy side she's going to look she looks and I mean she's gorgeous as she is but we're here to make people look you know as best as we can so sean if you can please just bring in the reflector over here okay my ass is going to start off this shot is for mom it's going to be next you know on the mantelpiece in your in your mom's house and so it's really nice easy shot turn your body in towards the light for me there please keep your shoulder then that's great lighting there shawn thank you and just like that hold it right there for me it's perfect lovely that's great their ego and a nice being happy smile for me that's it beautiful that's gorgeous hit over that way a little bit that's it's stunning okay there we go last one like this chin up a little bit here we go hold it and three two one that's beautiful okay sorry once I've got my shot if I know that I've got my shot I don't need to carry on shooting and shooting and shooting it's about confidence you also see I looked at the first shot I made sure that my lighting was correct I looked at my first shot and I knew that my lighting was correct I just keep on shooting don't keep looking at your screen all the time because that's gonna make your client think that you don't really know what you're doing and you need constant reassurance so also another thing if you've got your lighting completely messed up if you're on the wrong I sorry if you're in the wrong mode and and you take a shot and and you look at it and it's like super blown out over exposed that's really, really bad and you know, you know it's a really bad shot don't don't go like mmm mmm mmm. What is she thinking? She thinks she looks terrible it's not she doesn't think that it's me that that's making the mistake she thinks that she looks terrible, right? So I want to take a shot even if it's if it's bad, I'm going to go like, ah that's beautiful that's amazing keep it like that. All right, let me just change a little sitting here so that so that she feels the whole time like she's doing everything right and that I'm doing everything right as well. Okay, so I'm just gonna get a couple more shots over here because the shots that we've got our perfect for month but I want to start moving into a little bit more shoulder chin into the shoulder keeping facing this way that's good beautiful that's lovely just work the shoulder up like that for me chin up a little bit that's great also when you're shooting remember that we're not dealing remember that we're not dealing with models I mean right now we're dealing with models but we're not dealing with models so if they try something don't go on that's not working ok that's beautiful yes that's nice maybe chin in this way so let them do what they want to do and then bring them back so that they constantly feel confident in your ability okay, so a little bit more shoulder sean come in please chin up a little bit there that's it gorgeous okay and hit over that way other way that's its stunning chin up a little bit more beautiful keep it just like that for me and one without smiling just looking at me no smiling this morning that said beautiful head over that way a little bit okay and then just straight faces just looking at me like that's it maybe even just opening up your mouth breathing through your mouth a little bit that's stunning that's beautiful makeup that's really cool hold it there and more shoulder for me again that's nice, lovely, gorgeous and cool thank you okay, so I've got one I need mom is going to be really happy and in my mind I've already got a double page spread off my engagement book that I was about to you know that that that I'm producing any questions about what we've just done right now, ok, we're all good. Yes, internet would like to know do you always work with an assistant? Always great always the reason I always work with an assistant is because it looks professional and the client feels like they're on a on a really photographic shoot. I will then also not carry my own bags, which makes me look like I'm more important, it doesn't mean I am more important just makes me it's a perception it's brand perception you'll see a little later when we elevate the lighting situation, how important it is to have a new assistant working with the lights and setting up the lights. This also takes me to another point. We're because a lot of people are second shooters and assistance and all that kind of thing, and then people were there's a lot of talk on the forums about exploitation and people shoot second shooting or assisting not any much money and things like that, you don't have to have somebody assisting you that is interested in photography, whoever said that you need to do that it's a job? Why, if you're paying them few, paying them more than double minimum wage uh you can go and get somebody who is brand representative because they need to make you need to make sure that they are representative of your brand on you could go and get somebody who would ordinarily be a wayto during during the weekend and you I can have them also have them work for you you know shooting my first assistant worked for me for two years had no inclination towards photography great thank you so much I just want to let these guys know that what I love about you is that you carry your own bags when the clients aren't looking I mean it's just perception thing so I just want to point that at all right? So now I've got what I need from my right now I don't need to carry on shooting because then you're gonna lose confidence in me right? So my thank you very much that's cool you can go and just hang out over here for a sec whatever I'd be doing a ll this time all this time you can't see him off he's just off camera but the whole time shawn's been standing there watching what's going on he's been checking out what's going on and he's looked at this and his thought it's not that bad hey didn't make he didn't make her do things that were, you know, ridiculous posers and very technical with the lighting so already he's like I could do that cool it stood so shawn over here right over there for me and you guys can see in terms of where we shooting it is there's nothing to this beautiful window lighting coming through and I can shoot this you know with with the plain white background and it it's a great shot there's no real issues over here so I want to start off doing pretty much the same thing with with sean it's important that his parents also give me money for the pictures that I've taken off him so so here we go so it shouldn't just turn your body a little bit more in towards the light there as well and this sean is going to come in with the reflector over here if you're just going to the other side it's a bit more yeah, there we go. Okay, so really nice lighting coming in and just looking straight into the lens that's fantastic. Thank you that's cool. And if you could just turn your head over that way for me a little bit more and all right that's it nice and happy they're okay you know the shock mummy once there it is what I got a good guy that there we go but I wouldn't melt in his mouth there it is there is cool it's fantastic hold a day, okay I already got the sense from him and this is about the chemistry that you have I already got the stains from him the feeling that he's thinking you've got the shot don't carry on we know both of us know that you've got the shot so that's when I stopped okay, if I look at the lighting now on shawn great lighting very easy, very simple lighting and mom is going to love that with the guys you can increase the contrast instead of having that reflector in you could go and elevate that a little bit in terms of the contrast and not shoot with the reflector so back to here we here sean don't worry about the reflective for me and remember that we had maya with she was like a little bit open to us smiling couple of syria shots and then she worked the shoulder in so there was essentially two looks within one look and what I'm going to do here now as well is a similar thing here we've done that with that kind of lighting now we can increase this bomb maybe sean just biting down on your door a little bit stronger with the jaw line that's cool hold it just like that that's very cool, good and then looking down at the floor here again that's brilliant keep it just like that for me and from may eyes to me that's it in a little bit more attitude a little bit more arrogance that's it you know you're good looking right there it is and perfect I've got it I'm happy I can move on two pages done in my engagement album right now we're gonna bring maya back in because she's been watching she's thinking he's doing so well and so proud of him let me come in and we can we can, you know, do this together now, right? So, um again, depending on the personalities of your clients, what I could have done if he was, like, super nervous instead of going from the from the bride, too, the groom and then to the couple I could've gone from the bride to the couple and then him by himself just so you feel safe so that he doesn't feel like isolated right here in front of the whole internet audience and all these production people okay, so now we're going to start off with a couple of shots, just the two of you together. Um very nice, simple posers looking straight into the camera and I I will direct you with their so in terms of the lighting, I want her to have the most flattering light because it's all about the bride right, and I can have a bit more contrast on on sean so what I'm gonna do here is I want havemeyer with her body facing in towards the ambient light and I'm gonna have shawn turning in towards maya and embrace each other nice and close together and just hold on to each other just you know like yeah that's cool. All right, so what I did there was I asked him just to hold hold on to each other and get together now ordinarily, in terms of body language, you will start to notice how what the dynamic in their relationship is the shots that I want now very much for mom as I spoke about so they need to be reassuring with regards to wedding photography and the fact that the mom and dad are losing their daughter they need to know that their daughter is going to be taken care off. So if I say to them, get your body's nice and close together what I'm going to do is I'm going to have maya's hand underneath shortens arm holding on to his waist and then he's going to hold on to her. So if you look at the body language here right now he's protecting her and his arms are over her if it was the other way around, if it was the other way around it's more about her personality being the dominant one which it might be the case but the body language perception that I want to give to the mum is that your daughter is going to be okay everything is going to be fine so what I'm going to do there is I want to put put it like that over the heads nice and close together I can't shoot on one for anymore okay you'll understand why I need more depth of field because I'm shooting one for I'm not going to get that depth so I'm going to go up tio three and a half three point five and by doing that I'm going to have to increase my eyes are a cz well which with the d four is no issue whatsoever someone huh sixteen hundred eyes I'm one hundred shutter speed it might be a little slow so I go up to two thousand sean if you could come in with the nice flattering light over there please nice and close together okay guys his nice and close together that's beautiful maya just turn your face towards me a little bit more that's great ok so all I need to do here there it is that's beautiful and it's good but if you're nice and happy there it is big laughs they're shown that's it that's cute that's what grand once that's what grandson I love gorgeous more shoulder there please maya stunning there we go and I've got that shot I've got the shot that is going tio fulfill mom's expectations. Okay, so what I need to do now is get some variation. Not only have I got that shot, I need to get a little bit of variation. So let's, go back to where you were over there. Okay? So instead of instead of bodies and towards each other short, I'm gonna ask you to go behind my over here because I'm still having her facing in towards the ambien line. So that she's got nice, flattering light on her. And then you're going to come in over here, hold on to her, get this albert in nice and close and then hits nice and close together. That's beautiful. Okay, let me just have a little look over here. All right? That's. Cool. Okay, shawn, can I have some nice light there, please? You're a little tight there. Come out a little bit. There we go. That's beautiful. That's gorgeous. There we go. Nice and happy. Both of you that's. Cool. And all right. Just one shot in terms of what I'm what I thought about before I made that transition, I could have got a shot in where I'm seeing the ring over here because this is a monster ring. Sure, if you could just turn your body in over here and I'm going to talk about collaboration a little bit later and your relationship with suppliers so I need to see this engagement ring so turn your tune your body in towards short this time I know that it's changing the light but I heard engagement rings on their left hand. I can't do too much about that. So what I need you to do is this elbow is going to go up onto shawn's uh, shoulder, then your hand's gonna come down in this way so I just that's cool and just hold hold onto your ring like that you just keep it nice and soft hits nice and close together now this pose I saw in a tiffany's edvard I thought, you know all of these type of things I talked myself and I looked in magazines it's a perfect way to showcase the ring. Otherwise I wouldn't have been in a tiffany's on and I sorta tiffany that just go a little bit further away from me. Please. I'm a little type of space over here. Okay? Now body language down here is not working out too much for me because there we go right nice and close together hits close together again that's beautiful that's it that's very cool keep it like that chin up a little bit that's nice and then if both of you can just look over there for a sec it's nice and close together okay and lovely do I need to shoot much more than that? You know I've got him I've got her and I've got the couple together mom is mama's ecstatic mom is really happy about what we've got over there and he doesn't feel like he's too much out of his depth about what we're doing and she's loving it because she's cuddling with her with her fiance and everybody goes home happy now what we can do maya if you could just quickly gone hang out over there and change for us please into your into your next uh into your next outfit that would be called just the sweater yeah. No no, just the sweater. Yeah. Okay, so sean, I'm also done with you for the moment just hang out over here because I might bring you back in it it might be quite beneficial for you as well. All right, so so what I've done now is I've allocated a certain amount oftime to each shoot, so if I end up shooting like that something ok, well, I've got the shot I can now play a little more and this comes from working in the commercial photography aspect of things where you allocated a certain amount of time to a shot and you get to a point where it's time to move on to the next or even if you've got it or not so right now have probably got about five or ten minutes that I can carry on shooting in terms of the time allocation that I've allocated to this so what I want to do now in the same type of lighting environment I want to create some images that have some sort of punch some sort of story because right now you've seen stuff that is expected which is on purpose so now what we're gonna do is we're gonna create a little bit off a story where meyer and this is where this is where my fantasies come into things where meyer had slipped over at shawn's house and she woke up in the morning and she didn't have anything to wear and she just slipped on his oversized sweater or his his shirt you know that kind of imagery that we're talking about where in your mind she's got those really nice little white panties on underneath and it's like all cute it's like every guy's dream to wake up to a woman like that still in your in your house okay, so what we're gonna do this is my is she coming back other way alright so whilst we're just waiting for her to go and get the sweater I can tell you a couple questions from from internet with regards to what we've just done now but if you guys got any any questions how do you put your white mounds and to use picture styles do I use picture picture styles any like the portrait neutral what do you shoot I shoot on kelvin so my white balances on kelvin and right now it is sit two fifty five hundred killed in which is kind of daylight balanced but under these conditions it worked out pretty nicely if it's really off with the white balance all although up and down with the calvin but I'm shooting raw so the pictures started it doesn't have an influence in that whatsoever you see you have typically three three different styles you said simple storyline and like a little play and risky in the end yes how long is all those recessions and tired as long as that okay, yeah that was that was cool now we're just gonna move on to because I've got a little bit of time yeah that's cool just just with your sweater and yeah barefoot that's like every guy's dream so come on in so what I'm going to look for now as I see that in this area over here this is really cool light that we've got going on over here so I'm gonna just sorry I didn't answer your question or did I did answer okay, basically, in terms of the timing that I've allocated, it'll it'll that really took me what tim, not even ten minutes and I was training at the same time I was telling you what I was doing all of the same time and I've got what I need have got the shots that I want, so in terms of the whole event three hours, I don't want to go more than that because if I'm targeting affluent people, they don't really have three hours time tio going, you gonna shoot for the whole day unless unless you're going and this this will come into my pricing plan as well, because one of my pricing plans is on engagement shoot anywhere in the world, you know, it's part of part of the structure that I've put in place, so if you're going to go and shoot in venice or, you know mexico or wherever, you know, like, okay, we're done, you know, you're gonna enjoy that experience going to make it okay? So what we've got here, my work up at shawn's apartment and, you know, her clothes were lying all over the floor and she just went into the closet and picked out a sweater, and now we're getting some shots that he's going to enjoy as well, so sean, just in the meantime, if you could just take your boots off and just barefoot that would be cool because I will bring you in in a second okay so let's just move up to this area over here I know right up the stairs and sean can you help me out with the tethered cord there and then if you could just bring the reflector up here as well right side this kind of beautiful window lighting that we're dealing with over here this this look over here we could have we could have my up against the wall there which allows her you can come up here shawn which allows her tio to use the war she cannot use the wall as as a prop and she could become a lot more essential in him in her movements and she could really work work this little look that we're going for so yeah that's that's beautiful just in terms of the sensuality of it lots of shoulder lots of body shape and just give me what I need here all right so I'm still on the eighty five one four okay that's beautiful keep it just like I'm just having a look at my lighting because I've got I've got a white wall and I've got a dark jersey sorry sweeter and yeah that looks pretty cool in terms of my lighting keep that look that you've got there I'm just going to come back a little bit because I think I like this this full length look and I can go back to a wider aperture. So instead of being on on three and a half, I'm gonna go down to two. I don't want to go to shallow because I might from here, I might just get a shoulder that's in focus and her her face might be being be a little soft. I'm just going to go down to two there. Okay, beautiful. Hold it just like that. Okay. Stunning, that's. Lovely. Keep it there. Turn your back to the window and then just you know your back to the wall. Three, turn your body in towards me more. Turn your feet towards me. That's called. Put both put both feet down on the ground and then work that one leg across the other. That's. It's. There we go. Beautiful. Keep it just like that for a sec. I'm getting a nice reflection in the window as well. And my allocated time for this shot here is probably about another five minutes. So I want to get to quite a few nice essential shots that I've got going on here. That's. Beautiful, stunning stuff. Keep it there. Work your body a little more, so, yeah, that's it very cool tune up a little bit. Okay and nice just like that okay, terms of the construction off the album I've already got a couple of pictures for the one side of the page and now I'm thinking about images for the other side of the page I've got what I need from her I could even push her a little further by getting you to sit down on the floor so come a little closer to me please okay, sit down on the floor and you're gonna be facing me legs crossed so cross your legs uh e I just just like this I need you to sit down just like this so you just gonna be sitting out like that bring you body into the middle of the night across this way a little bit more okay, so what? I'm going to shoot from over here so I'm not going to see anything it's not you know it's not we're not shooting risky images here we're just shooting images that are flattering and beautiful shot so I need her to know that so we're going to start off with just something like this when you just kind of leaning forward and lots of short perfect shawn, can you come in here with that? Okay, so got a couple more minutes with this year that needs to come up a little bit for me no, that one yeah that's cool, beautiful just like that stunning there it is okay well that's nice there we go that's it okay and I think it would be unfair if we didn't bring sean in here because he's watching this and he's thinking I need a piece of that okay so you're sure this gets you in over here keep your keep your legs crossed for me like what I need you to do is you were in the kitchen making pancakes and scramble eggs you brought them back through to the kitchen to the bedroom you've just left them on the side there and we're coming up to cuddle with her from behind so you're gonna kneel down behind her with your knees around and you just going to make you feel like warm and fuzzy and just really beautiful cuddly okay again I've got to move up from uh if two I'm probably going to go there for now that's it but your knees down on the floor they sean and you look great there maya that's cool come in right in close next to her that's called put your head next to her on this side sean if you could come a little closer to me yeah that's cool beautiful in terms of your hands get the one hand a little lower and I need to see the engagement ring so your hand can come up to hold on to him over here holland to shawn's yeah that's cool there we go, that's it beautiful, that's, nice that's, lovely stuff. Keep it just like that. Here we go and then a little bit more interaction with each other. That's cute and a little bit more like so a little bit of giggles. That's, beautiful. There we go ashore looking down at her that's it that's nice. Okay, and then just turn your body in towards him and go up a ziff you're about to kiss in there. That's, cute that's, a good that's, a beautiful and in part of you one last one big happy laughs. I had mice and spontaneous. There we go, that's it beautiful, perfect. I'm happy I've got what I need from that shoot. I've got to her by herself. I've got him coming to love her and make her feel safe and secure and a little warm and fuzzy. And in terms of my album, I've got great choice to do at least five or six double page spreads.