Lessons

Lesson Info

Live Shoot: Engaging Children in Fun Activities

(mumbles) has a question that had come in earlier from Rochelle, which reads, just how much of moving furniture do you do? Can you some other examples, I mean you showed us in this one. But maybe some other examples of when you have had to move furniture, and why or what other things... is it based on the light that you're looking for? Its normally, typically 100 percent based on the light. Or in this situation, the boats, right? So if you see anything and you're like, gosh I wish that couch wasn't there, move the couch! Right? Who cares. I mean, if the client's okay with it. We talk about this before, in our planning purposes. If there's one room, if the client says, "Our house doesn't have a lot of light." And you've scoped it out, seen pictures, just say, "hey would you be okay if we moved some of your furniture around? And we're gonna kinda shoot in there." Its very light dependent, or cool object dependent. So now we're going to see me shooting, we are going to be shooting in, I...

think in the first one, I believe, is the bedroom scene. When we're all playing up there with the family. And you're going to see how we do it. All right guys, just one sec, I'm going to get my camera all set up. And my color... oh, that's amazing! You're really good at jumping. That's pretty amazing. We'll do that again in a minute. Save that energy, kiddo, 'kay? (camera clicks) Amazing. Alright, is that how we're starting? Are we gonna run and jump? You don't like jumping either, do you? Hold on. Lets turn this around, we'll put... Whose is this one? Mine. I love the anchor, that's really cool. These are really cute. I haven't seen these before. Lets turn the zippers around. Alright. Alright, you guys want to run and jump? Since that's what you seem to like to do. Right, go! (camera clicks) That was pretty amazing! Actually, alright. Hey stay there, stay there. Uh uh uh uh uh ... Ready? One, two, three... oh, tickle tickle. You're not usually ticklish? You're not? No. Do you like pink? Do you like pink? Nuhuh. No, you're the serious one. Alright, we need to tickle one, come here. Ready? We're going to fly, ready? Here we go. Alright, one, two, three... Which one's yours, pink or green? Pink. Ahhh... and down we go, don't move, don't move don't move, stay right there, stay right there. Ready? Tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle. (camera clicks) Ah, you want to see how cute you are? Ready... ahhh ... tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle Look how cute you are. Super cute. Super cute. Okay, lets get the tent out. You guys like the tent, you said, right? Yeah, alright, lets pull this over here. (mumbles) You what? (mumbles) We're going to crawl in here, okay? In this place for a second. Alright, you want to head in there? Want to go in there with your sister? Okay. Lets get the shoot in this way. You guys want to peek out? Oh. Peek-a-boo! (laughs) Ready? Ah... peek-a-boo! (camera clicks) You guys pile on top of each other? And then do peek-a-boo? Oh, that's cute. Look at you guys doing that on your own. Peek-a-boo! (camera clicks) Look how cute you guys are! Oh. Hi puppy. (laughs) That's alright. Oh, he's cute. Okay. You want to go in the picture, okay. I know. Alright, super snuggle your brother. Get him. Tackle him. Get him. Get him. Tickle him. Oh, you guys are too gentle Okay. (laughs) Oh, they're really too... Alright you guys, hop out we got that cute shot in there, okay? We're gonna all hop on the beanbags, and sit for a minute, okay? (mumbles) ... they're so well behaved. (laughs) You know what? Lets all go on your brother's beanbag together, okay? Everybody snuggle on that one. Hop up, hop up, hop up. Hop up! On this one. Everybody on this one. Same one. Alright you guys, snuggle and tickle. Tickle your brother. Get him! He doesn't really want to be tickled right now. Get him! Big hugs, big hugs, super squeeze, super squeeze. (camera clicks) Alright. I think we need to do some bouncing. To get you guys crazy again, what do you think? Everybody grab a donkey. Well, there's two. Okay. Let me... hold on one second. Let me move this one out of the way. (child mumbles) Oh, there we go, perfect. Okay, we're going to have a race. Okay? Lets start back here. Wait, wait. Oh oh... okay. (camera clicks) You guys wanna race? (camera clicks) Okay, head back that direction We're gonna race, we're gonna have donkey races. Okay? I'm gonna throw this up over here, so that we have a little bit more room. Alright, you guys start right here, okay? And I'm gonna say on your mark, get set, go. That's pretty amazing, you guys can do that by the way. Alright, on your marks, get set, go! (camera clicks) (laughs) Ka-boom. Alright, you go around the room in circles. Okay, kiddo? Hey, what's on my head? Whats on my nose? (camera clicks) Hah hah (camera clicks) (laughs) (child mumbles) That's okay. Hey, oh. Okay? What's on my head? (camera clicks) Cute. Oh, so cute. Lets put the blue one away. That's a cute one, I like the blue one. Alright, bounce towards me, okay. Can you guys... you two cuddle up on the couch, and just snuggle and tell each other secrets. Okay. Or you could do that too, that works. Alright bounce towards me. Go! (camera clicks) Oh, you're being adorable. (camera clicks) Are you being sweet? Do you want to snuggle your sister? You want to snuggle, Shan? No? Okay. Okay. Alright, who wants bubbles? Me! Really? Alright, lets get the bubbles. Where'd we set the bubbles? Aha... okay. Okay, don't laugh at the bubbles, the bubbles make noise. (child mumbles) You what? I want bubbles. (camera clicks) You did? Alright. Lets move this and we're going to do bubbles. Here we go. Are these beanbags jump-able? Can they jump on them? No. (mumbles) Will they pop? (mumbles) Okay. Not yet. Well, I don't want to be the... (laughs) I don't want to be the one to break your beanbags. I was going to see if you guys could all jump onto the beanbags, jump off the couch, try to get bubbles and land on your beanbags. Okay. Hold on. Let me get ready. Is that okay? Mom? Dad? What? We're going to have them jump off the couch and land on the beanbags? Yes, absolutely fine. Okay, let me get the bubbles going, don't go yet, I'm going to tell you when. Okay? Hold on. Getting my light ready. No, no, no. We're not racing, silly goose, we're gonna jump up, grab the bubbles and land on the beanbags. Cool? Alright. Don't laugh. This is really funny. Ready? (bubble machine quacks) Its gonna start getting bubbles everywhere. 'kay don't go yet. No, not yet! Not yet! Back up, up, up, up. Alright. On your marks, get set, go! Wow! (camera clicks) Whoa! Lots of bubbles! (laughs) Alright. Lets do it again. One more time. That was awesome you guys, that was so fun. Lets do it one more time. Lets get you guys closer together, okay? Pretend you guys are jumping in the pool and you're gonna land on your behind. Okay? (child mumbles) You'll be fine. I promise. Okay, okay. Ready? (bubble machine quacks) Hold on, not yet. Alright. One, two, three... go! (camera clicks) (laughs) Awesome! Oh, that is so cute! Lets come over here and we're just going to play with bubbles on the ground. Okay? And where's the puppy? Okay, don't charge... (kids calling puppy) Come here Emma! (bubble machine quacks) Go get 'em, go get 'em! (kids mumble) Go get 'em! (camera clicks) Ah ha, she does. Okay, you guys don't look at me, don't look at the bubbles, just play in them now, okay? Play in the bubbles, go! (bubble machine quacks) (camera clicks) (children laugh) Okay, here's the rules guys. Just run around in the bubbles, don't smash the bubbles, don't look at the floor with the bubbles, just run in the bubbles. Okay? Cool? Theo, its snowing bubbles, that is right. Okay, ready? And go. (bubble machine quacks) (children laugh) (laughs) Awesome super cute guys, alright, last thing I want you to do, go sit on the ground over there for me. You okay? (child calls puppy) Come here Emma (child mumbles) Your puppy loves you, its really cute. Come here puppy, come here. Okay, you guys ready? (bubble machine quacks) Alright, everybody get 'em. (camera clicks) Keep your legs closed. Close your knees sweetie. (camera clicks) There you go. Oh, one more! (laughs) You guys snuggle, the three of you. I'm gonna send the dog with Dad. I want to (mumbles) We will. We're going to blow more. Okay. She's kind of... she loves the camera apparently. Bye Daddy, bye Alright you guys, super snuggle, arms around each other. Okay, look at me. One big smile, we're got to get a shot for mom real quick. Okay, put your head up so we can see you, there we go. Okay, one more bubbles, go! (bubble machine quacks) Okay, we're good. Nice job guys. I'm gonna have Dad or Mom, somebody just get over here to kinda spot. No jumping off the couch. Okay? We're just going to jump on the couch. You guys are old enough to be alright, but spotting is always good. Okay? We're just going to put bubbles in you and you're gonna jump on the couch. And, go! Don't jump off! (bubble machine quacks) There we go. Cute. Look up, look at me! Look at me! Look at me! (camera clicks) Look at me! One more time! Alright! Awesome. Perfect. That was so cute. So cute. Okay, so as you can see it was a little crazy, over there in the playroom and I want to show you some reasons we did some things. We were trying to get, obviously, little brother was a little less animated at the beginning. We were trying to get him to get going. So that's when I'm like, okay lets start jumping. Lets start moving, lets do an activity that requires some engagement. And so that's how we were talking about those... Do you remember about how long that whole part was with the kids in the playroom, about how much time you actually spent? Probably about 15 minutes. Cleared some other rooms to get to. Normally we'd spend a little bit more time, but I wanted to make sure we had some more examples. We were having kind of a harder time in there, with the bubbles and such, I noticed right away... This is when, as a photographer, you need to be observant of your children that you're shooting. That they wanted to engage with things that I brought versus with each other. So we needed to kind of to step away from the game plan and figure out, okay, lets take away the things that I thought were going to work according to what we were gonna work on. You know, teach or whatever, they wanted to do. And lets choose something where you guys actually have to engage with each other versus an object. Okay? 'Cause you could tell, they were just game face, trying to get these bubbles. And that doesn't always make for the best picture when they're completely disengaged with each other and with the photographer. So you need to be able to, kind of, okay, lets finish up with the bubbles. Lets move on to a different activity, and you saw me do that in there. Things weren't working as well as we wanted to, and that happens. Lets move on to the donkey races, you know. Why did I do that? Sibling rivalry. Right? It got them engaged with each other. Okay? So, everything I'm doing is all because of those things we talked about earlier. Okay? And Mia says, "How can she toggle, shoot and blow bubbles at the same time? (laughs) But, once again, for people who haven't been watching the whole time. When they're jumping like that, where are you trying to focus? On the middle one, at that point, I just cross my fingers they're in the same focal plain. And if I see somebody going forward or backwards, I say something. And if I can, if I have the capability, I'll put it at like, 3.5 so I have a little bit of wriggle room with my focus. And I'll throw out a third of my, half my images, or more than that. Because, you know, we're going to have out of focus ones. But it was so worth it to get crazy, to get that one amazing shot that we wouldn't have gotten right out of the gate. And were you using your 35 on this? I had my 24 on. Twenty-four. Yeah. Thank you. We didn't have enough room to back up so I used my 24. Alright, here are some of the pictures that we did. So the ones when they were jumping on the couch, you know, just like that. So you can see in a series like this, we're shooting the same direction. I could add like sixty photos, one click. Bam! Okay? And I'll show you how to do that later. In the segments, okay? They were cute. Back lighting right there. Yeah. But, they had another window on this side, so we were getting some fill light. So it was okay. Are these straight out of the camera, or have you already touched these up? They all came straight out of the camera. We're going to edit them live. We're going to edit all of these images live in Lightroom, and in Photoshop. I don't know about Nikon, but on like Sony, we have a picture profile. Where it shows standard or clarity, do you deal with that at all 'cause you shoot in JPEG? I have mine just in standard, I know some people will go to neutral in Canon for skintone purposes, its completely up to you. Each camera models different, but, I just leave it for Nikon. Nikons actually, Canon's color is known for their color, Nikons known for their focusing. A little side tip. Pick your favorite. Okay, here's some more of those random ones. Okay, you can see I decided to choose that, because it was hilarious. Right? Isn't that funny? Its like flying dog, all we need is a cape. (audience laughs) Seriously. So funny. And then there were some of the rowdy donkey races. Okay? So just some cute shots. Clutter. Now, clearly they don't have clutter in this house, so I needed to show some images of my house? 'Cause we have clutter? So, lets talk a little bit about clutter, 'cause it happens, there is good vs. bad clutter. Right? We talked about that. Fun clutter, toys and colorful things vs. boring clutter, plates and dirty dishes and stuff like that. Pretty vs. ugly, kind of self explanatory. Purposeful vs. Non, okay? Take control of the situation, if you are seeing the picture, this happens to me all of the time. I will be shooting somewhere and I left everything up in their background. Because it was Halloween, we could see the pumpkins. This was a family shoot. If you're shooting something and there is something out there right behind the family, say the family's on the couch, and there's this thing sticking up and its just awful. Say, "Hold your horses, I have to move this thing." Move it. It is going to be so much easier than trying to take it out in Photoshop, I promise you. Take control, if you see something you don't like. Don't be like, I wish that thing wasn't there, I'm shooting these scenes looks so cute. Stop. Okay? Slow down. I tell myself that all the time. Go remove the piece of clutter, then re-engage. Okay? So, that's my clutter. That's my children's clutter. Those are phone pictures, they were playing and I thought they were being really cute together. So I was coming up the stairs, its like upstairs, we have this little area where the kids can play. 'Cause we don't know what else to do with it. So, its a hot mess. I'm like, but I love this, because that's what they do, they sit up there and they play together. And that's fun, colorful clutter. Purposeful. Right? They're playing. So then I'm like, okay. 'Cause this is how my brain works, kids keep playing, I have to go and stand above you to get another composition. Photographer's children. So, I end up getting another composition. But then we can see what they're doing. We can not see what they were doing down here, that bottom picture. Right? But we can see what they're doing up there. So we got the behind the scenes shot, and we get to see what they were actually doing. Okay, shoot up. Now, I wanted to show you a bad example. That is a bad example, because do you see the ceiling and the thing cutting her head in that direction? See right there? The color change. To me, that drives me crazy. So when this happens, if you black and white the image out, it blurs that a lot. So that can turn into a black and white image. Black and white can save a lot of things sometimes. Or open your lense blur it out, if you have background clutter, just blur out that clutter. Okay? Shoot at 1.4, blur it out, make it colorful. Okay? Expose for highlight. Right? Bring those highlights out, so its going to be a little bit different type of image, but let the shadows in the background take care of the clutter. You won't see it anymore. Right? Shoot it. Clutter's colorful and fun. Right there.