Lessons

Lesson Info

In-Home Shoot: Mom with Newborn

So you're going to see in the home us, you know me, photographing mom This is a very important one because we decided for the show to go ahead and show you extremely low light, okay? When you hear my ISO and you hear what we did, you will be shocked, okay? And you're gonna see how to edit this I shot in raw, which I never typically do unless it's a very low light situation or I have color cast issues it's just the way I prefer to shoot I don't tend to edit a ton I use my presets that I've created for how I shoot and I'm gonna show you that in the editing portion coming up So, this is a very low light situation that we chose to teach on so let's head into that now for mom shots! Alright, we're gonna just loosely snuggle her because I don't want her to completely be asleep because I want her to interact with you a little bit (rubs hands together) There I'll warm my hands back up Oh, you are just so sweet! (baby cries) Oh, I know, I know, my hands are a little bit cold I'm sorry, I'm sorr...

y, I'm sorry I'm sorry. Okay, I'm just going to put you down here a little bit okay Alright lovey (baby cries) Okay, oh you just ate, do you need to burp again? Hmm, hi, oh you're so sweet Okay, I'm just going to have her loosely swaddled in there We may tighten her up a little bit You're just wide awake. Do you want to say hi to your brother? Hiccup Hiccup? You know she's got a little she has a little gas bubble in there. You need to burp a little bit. Did she get a good burp after she ate? She didn't I can feel it in there. We'll do that first and then we'll get in there. (pounds on baby's back) (baby burps) Oh, there it goes. Okay, let's head into your room. Alright Okay, so, we're gonna close the door cause we've got some light coming in over there Right now we've got really good directional lighting in here So, do you see where this spot is where there's some light? Look at her, she's looking at the light She's a love bug, I love her Alright, we're going to prop you up a little bit cause it's a little bit better angle for you even though you're super tiny (mom giggles) Alright, you look amazing Alright we're going to kinda turn your hip little bits for sexy hip, yep This way? Yep, you've got it my dear And I want you to take her for me and naturally snuggle however just kind of looks natural to you and I'm gonna head over that direction. Okay, I want her arm out cause it's just kind of a little bit more connective She's kind of come out of it a little bit Okay, so I am going to pull this down cause I want to see her face There we go. Oh my gosh, look at her blonde hair! I know Okay, so I'm gonna come over here in this corner (cameral clicks) Good job, just keep interacting with her you can just snuggle, kiss her, just do whatever feels natural, okay (camera clicks) Oh, I got lipstick on you! (giggles) Sorry! (camera clicks) Okay, do me a favor and move a little bit of your hair back just a tiny bit so I don't like to tuck but put one little piece on your left side Okay One little piece tucked and then pull the rest forward There we go, perfect, yep! Then we can see your face a little bit Are you fine with me getting up on your bed? Oh yeah Okay Whatever you want to do (camera clicks) Oh a smile! Oh my goodness Of course she's smiling, they always smile when I'm far away It was her first one! It was? Yeah, at me They always do it when I'm in the wrong spot! (laughs) Are we gonna do it again? Okay can you turn a little bit towards me? The light is not hitting that side of her face well enough There we go, perfect (camera clicks) Oh my gosh, what a love bug she is She really is, she's so good Okay, so what I want to do We're kind of creating yourself to have a hunchback and I don't want that, so sit up for me a little bit I'm just gonna give you a little support There, does that feel better? Yeah! Okay, so when you're looking at her I'm going to be shooting down this way okay Okay so just keep your head like that It feels like you're not totally looking down at her but you are it's just a good flattering angle Like that? let me fix your hair, mm-huh, sorry No that's okay Alright my dear okay, oh she's looking at, look at her looking at you! There's a fan? No. (giggles) Oh, I always check for fans Okay, don't, try not to talk cause then you'll have weird faces Okay, oh yeah that makes sense (camera clicks) Okay, you can bring her up and snuggle her and smooch her and just do whatever feels natural (camera clicks) Yep, hold her head there for me So just, yep, just like that How you had her (camera clicks) She's so sweet! And now mommy gets to buy girl stuff too. I have two boys so my studio is full of like pink sparkly things cause I can buy them at home [Yeah, my neighbor has two boys (crosstalk) I just bought a dusty rose bed spread and Kenny about had a heart attack (giggles) Okay, I'm gonna come behind you now and get what's happening over there you know one pull back real quick keep looking I'm shooting these primarily for black and white with this really strong directional light You can pull her up do nose to nose for me there we go (camera clicks) oh, I heard that one (laughs) she's on a roll today Alright, just like that (camera clicks) look at her looking at you She makes really good eye contact Yeah, how old is she exactly today? She is twelve days old Which is good for being that young Yeah Okay, I'm going to scootch your bottom towards the middle a little bit right there. Okay are you okay? Yeah, I'm good Okay, same thing I just needed a little bit more light on this side of her face. We had kind of a drastic shadow. Okay, pull your elbow up a little bit for me Right there, oh my gosh, look at her cubby arms! Are you kidding me? (giggles) Sometimes I'm like, is this my job? I get to like snuggle chunky babies. It's fun when you get chunky babies. Oh yeah Sorry, just fixing your hair She was eight pounds, four ounces She's looking at you just smile at her (camera clicks) What, oh my god, she is looking, can you pull your elbow up a little so you guys are a little bit more connected so you're a litle bit closer. (camera clicks) There we go. We got her looking. Look at this Aw, that's so cute. I'm like cry It's adorable Having issues Okay, let's do one more close up Can you lean forward for me so I'm gonna get some light on her face. I'm gonna turn her a little bit so I'm gonna get some light in her eyes There we go, tip your head back for me I'm just going to get her Okay, I'm going to come over you right now and get my 35mm on (camera clicks) I'm going to see if we got her looking, which we did So, I don't always like to get the eye open shots when we have a dark room like this but we do have some, see the sparklies in her eyes? Lean forward for me, right there I want to get the light in her eyes Oh my gosh, you are just the sweetest little thing! (camera clicks) There we go, got her Oh my gosh, that's adorable (giggles) Let's just do one more because (camera clicks) Got her. Okay, one more from this angle Look down at her for me. Oh, sounds like you have a two year old crashing through the wall Superman Lift your elbow up for me a little more there we go okay, we're good. We're good in here She's a lovey (giggles) You know what, actually, you know what, while we're in here let's lie her down right here for me So a shot that I like to do is you up on your elbow I'll position you how we need her. So let's um. Alright I'm about to put my hair back. (giggles) Things are getting real It's getting serious Things are getting real Okay, so what we're going to do I'm going to pull her You are just so sweet, I know Oh, you're gonna stretch We already got the stretchy pictures Can you lie on your right arm, so on your side okay, scootch your bottom this way You might have to hang off a little bit just because we've got to find her in the light Okay, so I want her to be kind of in the same spot where your shoulder is, so right there, yep Okay, just keep her, you can even put your hand on your, yep just like that and just kind of snuggle down on her okay, and I'm going to actually because of the darker light I don't necessarily want light in here eyes because it's gonna look like dark holes you know? Yeah So these are going to be more black and white dramaticy images I'm going to try to pull that down a little bit (camera clicks) Oh my gosh, what a sweet pea I'm in my own light, that's the problem with this one window here You know what we're gonna do? I'm gonna swing you around a little bit so I can get you a little bit more illuminated. We have one light up here, one tiny little window and it's up really high So I just want to talk about that because I want people to know you can do a lot in one room, but you a really have to move everybody around. Oh, he's still crashing through the walls (giggles) Something, they may have gone outside Okay, you have the hiccups Same thing, just kind of lean up against her Perfect, just like that And I'm only going to have this top half of you so I'm not worried about what's going on down here Are you okay? Yeah, no I'm fine Typically we'd have you on the bed but it's too dark in that corner Alright, look up at your mama Hi! Oh, she's so cute. There we go, perfect. If you can, just turn your head, so she's looking at you and I'm trying to get some connection There we go. You can hold her hand (camera clicks) Perfect (camera clicks) She's got the hiccups You can put your nose down on her (camera clicks) Okay, try to hold her hand for me in one and then we'll be done with this one (cameral clicks) Perfect! Okay, we're good Let's put you back right here I want to have some shadows behind you and some fall off light in front of you right there. Don't move (camera clicks) Okay, can you step a little bit back for me it's a little bit too bright there we go (baby coos) Oh, she's looking at you (camera clicks) (baby coos) Oh my gosh, so good So what I'm doing right now It's dark back there, this is called fall off light step back a little bit for me I just want a little bit of light on your face okay right there (baby coos) (camera clicks) Okay, we're good. Perfect! Alright, well that was good. Okay, so I want you guys a couple things a couple of things I want you to realize. You could see that the master bedroom was pretty dark, okay. Eventually what ended up happening was the film crew had to pull their own ISO up in order to see me, okay so it's giving you guys the illusion that it was a little brighter than it actually was so it really wasn't as bright as it was Here's some images from that session. There's the one where the baby was looking up. When I edit photos that are that dark, they need some oomph, otherwise they're gonna be flat and boring and there's nothing you can do about that. So it needs to have some fun. Couple things I want to talk about there is the one I that back corner, I was shooting pretty wide open because I needed to be able to get enough light in so I had to keep the baby on the same focal plane. I chose this one because there was connection. You could see the baby looking at mom, you could see the mom looking at baby. Down below, see how bright that room looks? I was not that bright, okay. It looks brighter on our screen than it really does to everybody else The reason I wanted to do this, it's a pull back and I wanted to show some things. They didn't have a lot of stuff on their walls in the master bedroom. And I wanted some thing to show more lifestyley. You know, we talked about having things that were important So with that image at the bottom, they had welcome baby the baby card and a lot of times people will move those things from the home, you know from the room, thinking it's clutter I loved that those were still there because it gave it some interest and it lets us know that that's a new baby at home, right? This was a very little baby. Typically 12 days old is the youngest that I shoot in my lifestyle sessions. We got really lucky because she was awake, right? so we were able to get those connection shots. That's pretty rare for a 12-day-old baby. It will happen, but it doesn't really happen for the whole session, like it did for our session here. This is the falloff light. Remember, we talked about falloff light earlier in the class Okay, let me give you another low down on falloff light I was searching for shadows, but I was searching for a shadow that had light in front of it. I didn't want a big pocket of shadow, I didn't want a big room of shadow I wanted shadow with light in front of it. So what I did, was I kept the majority of her body in the shadow and had her step right into where that light fell off, okay. Because we were far enough from the window, which is over here, on her left-hand side, because we were far enough from that window, it wasn't too harsh of lighting right there. But that brings visual interest and brings shadows and highlights and midtones into pictures, okay. If we were to convert this to black and white, it would look great, too because we have everything exposed correctly and we have some variation within your shadows and your highlights, okay. So when you see a situation like this, don't feel like, and this is a newer photographer tip, don't feel like you have to step all the way into the shadows, or all the way into the light. If you're trying to take your photography to the next level, you need to take your highlights and you need to utilize your shadows in a way that brings visual interest, but don't completely forget the rules of photography either. I didn't blow the highlighta, I didn't brighten this image enough to brighten the shadows. Because if I would have brightened this baby, if I would have brightened mom's face any more than it was; she was already pretty shiny, right from it was pretty warm in here, that was about as far as I could go before those highlights were blown, okay. If I would have brightened that up even more for instance, we talked about metering, with evaluated metering, or partial, you know or whatever the Cannon's version of evaluated metering, matrix metering. Evaluated is Cannon, matrix is Nikon, excuse me. If we would use that type of metering, the camera would say, "Oh, there's shadows. Oh, there's highlights," and they would take, you know, the shadows, and brighten, and brighten it up, you know, you wouldn't have that definition. This is why I spot meter, is for times like this and this was from earlier in the session. I just have a quick question on like, so mom's in a dark room, so it's a little bit darker, a little bit moodier. But, when we did like sibling shots, or just the baby it was very light and airy. So, whenever you're doing your final gallery or album for them, is there ever, do clients ever have a a well, why mom is in darkness and the kids are in light lighter airier type of picture. Do you every have that issue? That's a good question. We did this specifically for this class. Typically, the mom shots, I would have done in both locations. So, I always try to get bright and light first, shadow and all these, I try to get as well, but those are bonus shots, those are like moodier and fun. Parents tend to be drawn towards the light and bright. Photographers, a lot of us are drawn towards shadows. Right, because it's cool and they're gorgeous The big thing is, you don't want to take a light and bright area and create mood that's not there, okay. Just because you don't have that spectrum between highlights and shadows. And we're gonna talk about this in a little bit With black and white imagery. You can't just take an image that's light and bright and airy and create a really dark, moody, black and white image; that's bad photography. You need to do it correctly in camera. This is kind of an advanced technique, you know, that's a whole nother class black and white. But I want to touch on it because it's important because I see a lot of new photographers taking these light, and bright, airy images and I have different preset set that I use I have my lifestyle preset that I use for situations like this that's dark that need some pizzaz. You know every photo, you can shoot a really good photo in a camera, of course you can. But to bring it, to elevate it, to make it moodier, to make it just bring on some feeling of like warmth and, even the film look, there's some wonderful film presets that you guys can look into. I've just created my own presents that work best for me, on how I shoot. So, I've got one set of presets that are called the clean set and that's my most popular set that I sell because it's light and bright and airy and it's clean and I use it on anything that's clean. Anything that's this dark, moody, imagery, if I try and make that light and bright in photo shop, that's gonna look weird right? It's not gonna look right. And the same goes for if you take a light and bright, airy image and you try to bring too much mood to it, it's not going to look right. It's because of the difference in the spectrum of between highlights and shadows, okay? But, to go back to that question, I always, I would have brought mom back into that room to get some mom shots in the lighter, brighter room. So here's more from that room. I just want to show you how I walked around that room and I got the same, she was holding the baby. Four different shots, same pose, okay? You guys saw how dark that, my ISO, guess what my ISO was? 32,0000, okay? Wow! Now, I want to say something about this. Most cameras cannot go that high. The reason I brought it that high because that's when my personal camera starts to get grain. That's how amazing my camera is and I wanted to get grain to teach on and it was painful for me. Because, my shutter speed was at like at 8,000. It didn't need to be that high. I could have taken my camera down, in a regular situation if I wasn't teaching this course, I would have brought my ISO down to probably around 8,000, which is still really high. That's as high as most cameras can go, okay? That would have brought my shutter speed down, you know, significantly. The only reason I had it that high is because I was trying to get my camera to mimmick a more entry level DSLR for teaching purposes, okay, so I want you to keep this in mind if you see a shutter speed of 8,000, you don't need an 8,000 shutter speed, okay. You know, that's like shooting a hummingbird. Children don't move that fast and this is a baby. But I had to compensate for that ISO, I had to make that shutter go faster and this was just for teaching purposes, so I want you to remember that when you see these settings. So, don't pay attention to these settings when you're shooting, okay, and I'll keep telling you that. Cause, it was painful for me to do it, but I wanted to teach grain, because this is the biggest, most frequently asked question that I get when I teach any of my workshops, "How in the world do you shoot in low light?" And this is what we are going to show you how to edit this. It's grainy, and you can see the grain! Right? It's color noise and there's, it's high, it's okay. Okay, I pull a lot of it out in light room and I'm gonna to show you how to do that because I shot in raw.