Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Modern Masquerade Ball

So today we're working with less and making more and the end I think when you look at all the images we created all have similar impact but as I said in the beginning when you're note when you know light on and how to use it it's always great to know when to use a little or a lot what's going to make the best impact with the outfit so feeling confident in what you know how to pull out with your creativity is going to really help you expand we're working with another background from denny manufacturing uh isn't this stunning and it's kind of amazing how it photographs like it goes on truly back there further it's one of my favorite color combinations to almost anything that I like to shoot match with that so in the beginning I told you you're going to buy a background you want to start out with something you know you could match with a lot of different things I look for grey's, brown's, blacks and the muted tones I like and so the whole outfit with it we have selected to put together fo...

r this outfit was to match that purple door so I'm going to work today were the real simple set up we're going to use one bowen's head in this eighty four inch umbrella from westcott and I'm just gonna really quickly just turn this around so you can see it when you put an umbrella on a light, you want to make sure that the reflector is pulled and head is pulled back from the reflector enough that all of the light can extend almost to the corner if it's too far it's going toe waste half the light that you're putting out there. If it's too far and you're not going to get the beauty on the opportunities of this beautiful, shiny reflector, this is one of my favorite simple little modifiers to use, and I've got again, I've got the power set at two point to hear um easy, very easy to adjust right here on head itself by the power dial here, and if I chose to raise or lower intensive stop, I just simply adjust this button powering the flash with the pulse our transmitter from owens. So I'm going to face this like a forty five degree angle right there toward the table, and we have a vanity set here it's all covered in mirrors, and the first thing you're going to do is have reflections everywhere you can either we touch those out and you can be creative with what you put in the shot. We've have a black piece of paper over their position that's going to read directly into my line of sight through what's reflected otherwise, if I sit there, I'm going to see myself well I took a photograph of it had a black mirror there so I ran another stroke to put a spotlight on the mirror so there's going to be a blue glow in the mirror that will kind of connect the set to her so the outfit is entering now it's a fairy princess how pretty you look so awesome she's having a great time today I don't think she wants to leave it's been really awesome to see you blossom a za model as well you just really spring out and stepped up to what we needed I want to thank you for that I can't imagine I can imagine you know sometimes when modelling goes on for catalogs and things I feel bad cause we're shooting pajamas and robes and not getting to do that all the things that we dream about shooting for fans forfeit you know what they want to see you in this type of photography so I'm gonna have you position right over near the mirror but you're really going to face me over this way I think standing awesome you're gonna have to position this right here are you ok with that scene all right wonderful so I'm going to sit right here again let's turn you into this like we're going to use some shadow here so let's position on the mask and kind of see where we would want that bullet just to the side of your face great so I'm going to want to see it so keep it rotated toward the camera and then can you put two fingers up on the things that have really delicate beautiful fingers on I would stand in a really strong pose if you will put your hand forward close back but you're him and you're hip great and then keep your face always up to this light you want to keep your mouth closed again teo as well awesome let's see I want to see a little bit of that purple door can somebody help me with pushing the stool and underneath the table a little bit and the clip this on the back of the boot can you turn it can you position it so it's up or down so when I clamp instead of having it stand out like little wings I want to tip it down or up a little bit of absolutely standing thank you guys let's do a little test shot and see what we get are gonna have to have you move sweetie you're in the reflection in the mirror beautiful awesome to hear the pop of the that's the sound of a stroke going off when it's closed on the end I was waiting to see that all right I think you need to keep your face a little more directly into the light actually can we bring this around a little more in front? Just a touch I love the colors so just don't put it right in front of your face and keep it close to your body awesome that's great shift your hips to the other side for me great beautiful pull this away beautiful and you pull your head back around this way straight on maybe good can you rest the mask back on your shoulder just a little bit beautiful how tell you about the costume and how we made everything beautiful drop your fingers together if you can um can you close your fingers together on the little stick there great beautiful that's great awesome beautiful alright theo the actual headpiece is christmas ornament on a borrowed the top on the course it that had the hose already borrowed the boot made the mask from the costumes etcetera so come came together that quickly so it's about what you want to see I wanted to do something vivid like a masquerade ball for this shot but I wanted it to feel modern it originally started out looking r feeling like something that might come from roman times so we went into the background and then this outfit appeared and then we were able to manipulate we were able given the top and then the whole concept changed so when you start asking for people for help because what you get a response all right let's see what we have here can we see several of those in a row so weaken look at their actual situation beautiful awesome corrupting a little close on the bottom I'm going to back up from her just a tiny little bit and shoot a few more the angle of your face toward the light is perfect we've got some nice shadows under her chin I don't think we need to worry about putting any phil on the side I like the drama following too dark in the background all right let's do some stronger poses with your feet out and apart great and shift your hips again like so great beautiful awesome bring your eyes down little lower good something shifted here obviously tried again beautiful for your elbows toward me great beautiful chin up a little bit you can shift either side with your hips beautiful forehead toward mansion down awesome beautiful. All right, can you bring that cake pan in let's? Just rest it right on your shoulder here don't worry about your hands. I'm going to shoot just a couple beauty shots of you with the crazier come breast that right around your tummy you may still want to stand on this side so you're not in front of umbrella e had her stand on the other side so she wasn't blocking the opportunities from the umbrella great beautiful self pretty eyes they're good close your mouth completely then I would drop your left hand beautiful. Sometime you head straight on towards me. Beautiful, smiling eyes a little bit. Good. A little bit of us. Squint. Take a hand. Beautiful. Drop your chin down a little lower and then look out to the light like you're looking for. Someone kind of squinting. Like your trouble seeing them beautiful chin down a little bit. Me, the purple showing up so much more than you can see it. Even in reality, in her hair. It's really beautiful. So I just thought about what I asked for from hair, the makeup, the lip color, everything and resonated that with the make up artist in advance, all we had to do was just put the shot together. So think about that when you're planning your costumes and your set light. Very simple. If you only have one light, you can still make things awesome. We could be using this with our speed light as well. If that's your only light source you have. You've told me today you had speed lights. We could totally knock out something like this would have to get one more speed like that to make the light on the background for the mirror if you were working in a spare bedroom or in your garage and you had ten by twelve space you could just worry about painting that one wall black or painting a grey or hanging a piece of paper there and you could totally pull this off in a really small space okay um let's do some now let's lose the mask and perhaps maybe we sit you down give you this guy so if she's sitting down the light has to come down awesome so what I think I'll do here is talk to you about pose is just a little bit when you're shooting really quickly if you want my before will you just talk about lowering that umbrella where are you pointing it thunder pole right here like if I draw a line from the centre of it right to her head and chest right in there it's shooting the light out like this eliminating the whole set and her this one of the cool things about this when I the first time I ever put one a speed line inside but I was amazed at the quality of light it can be moved around to the inside of a part of this is that shine in the vastness of it is just simply redirecting that light making it soft and shiny but it still has an edge to it because it's silver on the inside the glamour shots have showed you this week of the girl that's not actually on the advertisement for the program with the red top the only light I used was this toe like that it's crispy and has a little bit of an edge you can still have a little soft shadow under the chin if you want a definition line there you're clamshell lonnie's gonna cancel that out a little bit if you want to send someone down use one source lovett's thank you. All right, why don't you lane forward? I'm just going to talk about posing for a minute. Can you put turn yourself toward me a little bit more? Put your knees together and your feet apart great! Bring your feet forward like this like I'm sitting here and put your elbows out on this needs you pull your knees together and then lean your upper body, straighten out through the long get your body and then lean forward like that beautiful touch your knees together so when I'm shooting people that have curves on the bottom this is a great pose. You cannot quite see it because of the slaves maybe pull your hand back so they can see how your body's position if somebody thick in the center wider in the middle, maybe they're just had a baby and they're working out that they're not perfectly tone there, you can put a course it there and then positioned and forward like that it puts all of the emphasis on the upper body their cleavage area in the legs themselves that she had on high heels with hose you haven't totally different effect with her legs being the dramatic part of the shot nobody knows that you're correcting that in deposing and you never want to say that out loud but you do say let's try a new pose you just say what you want to see and not with flaw you never say big tight um thick wide those things that we don't want to hear one of those words will kill her entire uh, self esteem and she'll be about to cry you know and that's not what we want, right? So I always try my best to communicate exactly what I want so her tells air turned then and that shows in security soto's out needs together even if it's one here turned this foot directly toward me now lane forward with a straight back, pull your hand out maybe grab your ankle so now we're getting a little softer with our body pose beautiful awesome beautiful let's bring both hands up let me shoot a couple of beauty shots were just in this life keep your fingers just soft and your fingers together loosely but like that's great just barely touch beautiful you look off across the room to the light beautiful makeup is so pretty and her cheeks awesome that they're back up to the feet so when you're positioning feet and hands the feet like I said, they're defeat and your fingertips of the seal on the pose right before the eyes come about so it's the feeder turned and she's doing the post it's like she's, not totally aware of her whole body when I'm talking to models, I tell them to kind of be aware of everything that's going on it's like you have to feel from the inside out so they know where their toes or going in the point of their toes and the finish of that if she had on high heels. Some people want to rock back on the hill, but you really should stay forward because that keeps everything flexed engaged muscles look better and more sexy to me than relaxed hanging muscles. All right, let's see if we can take a peek at all of those and see if there's something else that comes to mind, we would want to do it looks like we have light on the background. I think the group I'm not sure if I said that loud enough for them to hear wow, just yummy a lot. It looks even more interesting than I'd imagined composition on the beauty shots, I love it with her head sitting to the side like that and the design filling the rest with all the texture and fabric on the clothes I think my favorite full links are the ones to the second row full on the left yeah, they're really strong all right, all right, let's, try something, can you? Is it too short for you? Lane on the stool? Maybe prop on the stool with your leg won't you scoot back to it? Yes. Get back to it. Yes, let's turn you sideways this way toward the light. All right, so the front leg turning position it toward us, leave it up on your heel and then I'll kick your hip out. All right? So this is your perfect s curve and she probably doesn't want to hold that, you know, it's just not fair, so I'll say ok that's what we want and you can rest for just a second check out the outfit, make sure everything's going along nicely we get all framed up turn your toe towards me in the front beautiful. Can you swish your knee over like that? Keep your foot facing put perfect, all right, and then kick your hip put your head back around the hand on the desk. Picture it soft. When did you take both hands pushes ship that's. Awesome! Bring your head forward and your chin down beautiful possum stew a few more gorgeous, lift your chin out like a home turtle down and out beautiful maybe take one hand and put it in your hair that's beautiful as stopping that motion with your fingertips together could look right at me good have some emotion in your eyes beautiful good chin down well awesome chin down even further beautiful great relax can I see several of them in a row so I can see the eyes let's do a few more for some reason because I'm sitting so low it feels like your head is pulled back so once you try to really go a little bit over exaggerated forward one note lose someone did catch in the chat room that when she stood up we didn't raise the umbrella very good there's never a that's a good point can you tighten that screw down there beautiful thank you perfect great great beautiful keep your chin down and look right at me beautiful awesome tip your head this way for me chin down a little further great no sit down again on the edge there perhaps how about if you come all the way down on your knees can you bring this all the way down we'll be resting on your knees there turn this way can you kind of do a little bit of a squat on your knees like you did on the bed over here yesterday that's great can you scoot this way those I can have everything behind you great push the chair underneath a bench a little bit beautiful might want to bring the cake pan over and just lay it here in front awesome do you want to pull that little clamp off your boot right there so you don't stab yourself is it all right if I sit all the way on the floor so as she came down I wanted to as well all right great beautiful stunning when you turn like a barbie from the waste around to me just leave your hips great no pushback on one side so I can see your outfit tip your head back this way for me amazing today it's really pretty so and you can't even sit back down like spread your knees out just to touch but when I go toe shoot just barely held yourself up all right turn it the ways toward me you can leave your hands right there that's absolutely beautiful clean the top of your head for me this way opposite opposite great forehead toward me and down beautiful good so look at me now with a little bit of ah up to something grand but still serious and not going maybe he was squinting at me but start to smile like you're getting away with something okay beautiful awesome stunning through your chest and shoulders toward me a bit chin down low and to shoulder beautiful awesome that was really stunning yeah great expression then that pretty your arms are amazing when you were holding the arm out earlier in the last shot you could see all this definition in your arms that's really pretty so that's along the lines of a playboy shot to me but don't with artistic edge I think done only with one light so the rules are a little less strenuous so I wanted you to be able to see how to go to the max with the lighting or come all the way back I feel really great about this is there really good awesome all right so I guess we can you guys help her up wonderful you are so welcome that was really pretty loved to ask the question teo you're that's great way have jail ex photography who's wondering so we're using gels for this shoot other than on the backdrop actually could you just go over the light instead of no problem and it's simple too lights one main light or key light we had the power it's a boa in five hundred what jim and I had was one west got eighty four inch silver and black umbrella um we're power directly into a wall I have a mirror reflection so I baste it so there would be something interesting in the background but I didn't want to see any real reflection maybe could've put her back into the reflection but because of the lighting scenario I decided to put a little highlight on the black paper and eliminated with a blue jail. So this is firing full power to make it from the black paper teo so I can see it there and actually havoc lo do have a question do notice last three days? You know, the lightest open you've shot is that for this was which is initially kind of counterintuitive, but I would have thought you would be doing is it that the backdrop allows you if you were shooting on location, would you have to be a little more wide open to get that background? If you want to see it, then you're going to wantto tighten up your f stop if you want it to fade away, because where I don't top of it, I choose to shoot a little more wide open, so it kind of falls away a little bit. Otherwise it looks like a set too much to me if it's if you shoot too hi like f eleven of sixteen things like that, but most of your between I would have thought before it got in here today that you know you'd be nailing that focus. Start right on I two point eight no, all the way through all the way through varies with the biggest surprise I've seen what is happening, or what has happened to me over the years is my clients want every single shot sharp, crispy claim, which is the opposite of what you would think I can't risk shooting like in any five millimeter, said it one two and shoot all day long with that and worry about throwing half two shots away because the model move decided spit. I use it for effect on occasion, but I've never stay at that wide open setting. I will shoot it two point eight, but it's really hard to hold the focus, so I'd rather have the shot and come in about four. I know I can get the shot and not worry so much. Most of my headshots for between four and five, six fashion round face just kind of always starts and ends there my sos around one sixty when I'm in natural light, I love three twenty. I don't know why that's, just where I go with that and I usually don't go over a thousand with the I s o even from low light situation.