Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Natural Light Nude Maisie

the segment is more about body work I feel like the portrait is something that a lot of people achieved very well in natural in student like or getting better it but I feel like this next segment I've asked our models to be in less clothing so we can work with their bodies I'm so interestingly enough I considered that I would be moving them around the window and felix would move the light around the model so it's a different he moves lights I moved people so interestingly enough though he weaves bent just as much time bouncing you know so now that I understand that he's creating the same window light with strobes and then my setup is staying almost exactly the same uh it's really interesting to see it go over to I'm studio lighting when it's felix shooting when it's felix has turned to light it so I'm really interested to see this next segment this is probably my favorite way to shoot what I'm doing next it is a go to in my studio I have a role that if my client's take their clothes of...

f in any way shape or form they spend more money they only take their clothes off when they feel fear comfortable when they're being photographed and I always give people the option regardless off their age or side I always say to them would you like to do something in lingerie and if they say no which is fifty fifty I say bring it anyway so many people get to my studio and connect with me and then they'll look at me halfway through the shoot and say I want you to take photo in my underwear now the reason you would say no to being photographed in your underwear is that you would think you'd be embarrassed of your body in some way or you wouldn't think I would be out of make it look good and once they learn that I'm putting them I'm in control off the post the light and how they feel and how safe they feel once they're surrounded by v flats and reflectors they feel very safe and I would say a hundred percent of my clients to some degree take their clothes off for me um I also in my career have never photographed a woman in lingerie and not sold it to her um I feel like that is one of the coolest things we can do all I'm looking for in this segment to shoot is the least light possible to sculpt a body so I'm going teo use exactly the same set up I'm not using and by the way big shoutout toe ali fendt who paint these magnificent backgrounds as a young photographer I used to look at any leap of its his work and I know that she had oliver backdrops and I was like one day when I'm grown up I'm going to buy an olive and backdrop these hand painted backdrops I like fifteen hundred dollars every twelve hundred dollars there they're not even out off your league you khun say for it and the day I got mine I cried I did I cried the coast it was like my dream to have something that beautiful then I could create beautiful portrait with um but we're going to go back to the black leaflet the reason we're going to do that is because most of us don't have fifteen hundred dollars yet and you can do this with this in these air fifty five dollars so you know what there's another option actually olive farm rents out as well they just won't we're under four and you know what the person who referred me to lafont said watch out because you're by one and you end up with one hundred it's like it's never gonna happen never gonna happen I need one that's much I have four yeah we're here for four I have three I'm getting a new one that's who's keeping score here okay so the one thing I will say is I just in a shoot last week and I took that gold all event that you saw side lit and I tuned it right there smith thing right there three meters from the light source which was behind me big windows all way long I put my client in front of it in a gold top and it was very light and flat and I defuse the light with curtains with um share curtains and you put the subject here yeah so light was coming from the backdrop is right there I'd do it but neither the cameron or you guys would see it but I need you to try this because I've always shot so close to the window with lots of light so I just tuned it straight on I was the only thing standing between her and the light source she's wearing a gold top I will show you an example and she's kind of golden highlights then I put the black tunnel in to just give me a minute on the background and to block the mental like going to her side in the images I got off there were just I've never taken anything so beautiful in terms of light so please try it don't always shoot side onto the window and try and bounce it back uh direct light for me is something I don't get to do very often I would just happen to be in a studio that had ah hi stud and big windows and I just turned the back drop off to the side to keep shooting and when I looked back at the light on the backdrop so just stood here in front of it put the black tunnel up and it was amazing study means ceiling right yes I'm from england I don't know e could start high ceiling high stat why's that stud well it's the study of the building like maybe my brother's a builder so okay yeah cool so that's something I want you to try is the high study okay so I have both macy's macy's in large ray so come on over you can bring your own robe actually you can take your shoes off mate because I don't need you in high heels I do shoot mostly and be a feat no I also make my client's gonna be a feat because I never shoot feet so um do you find that you kind of makes you would move around and be more fluid yeah differently without having to balance on shoes or anything like that okay so in order to shoot this I need to turn off those damn lights so we go into darkness again but it's so with it what you're seeing in how we're doing it and how I'm going to scott light so what I'm gonna do is I'm going to do some good wear looks now I treat shooting may see in front of everybody in her underwear no differently than being alone in her studio in my studio with her she keeps her roban until we start shooting and I literally get him to drop it to the floor so it at her feet and when it's time for her to get back into her ro I woke up pick it up in just drape it over her body so I'm conscious of the fact that not everyone wants to walk around some people quite come to our late look at the and other people I just keep it very personal and you know I'm always aware of it so the one thing I want right now is I'm going to not bring a reflector into her face I'm going to pose her towards the light because the difference is when you pose towards the camera you're taking a portrait when you pose face away from the camera you're taking a form okay when it's a picture of her face it's may see a picture of macy when she's looking down and they hear sweet differently it's a picture off a woman so the difference between fine art in a portrait that would sell see portrait's don't sell because why would you buy a picture of macy if you didn't know her so if she was going to be a body model I tend to put the hearing a bum so that there non descript you can't really identify who she is she's just a woman and then I'm photographing her form so if you're going to do notes I suggest you try and keep the here and make up to an absolute minimum most people don't consider this they get a hero makeup artist the best news I've ever shot had no here and make up they they can do mascara and they can do their own foundation and they can well it plus if they want it doesn't matter but they hear should go back or in a band or if the here is a feature like if you want to do a beautiful nude you know with long here or they have here that is part of the shop keeping out and back but don't give it a distinct style like this this is glamour here and make up and it doesn't belong and find out nude photography so you'll see fine out nerds and you'll see a lot of them have more of a natural beautiful look and that's what makes it an image off our woman instead of a photo of macy right however today we're not going to do find out note because we can't do their life so we're just going to do some lingerie I'm going to show you my small sliver of light and how I work it and then I'm going to bring away from the window and do a little bit of film noir shoot it underexposed take the highlight offered on natural light and then bring that highlight back and photo shop and it looks so painted lee people think it's a drawing ok so all I have to do is I have to trick your eye and the way I do that is if I take a photograph of her close to the window there's going to be a highlight and a shadow in your I understand that then what they do is they take her away from the light source as much as I can and I just bouncing a little bit of light so it's really low and flat and then I dropped my exposure so underexposed and then I ed the contrast in the light in photo shop as a painting technique using the dodge tool and it bounces the highlights up in a way that her whole body looks kind of airbrushed but it's not soft and sleazy airbrushing it's just really painted lee and really gorgeous you're gonna show that tonight yeah okay that will be a bonus yeah so it I've done it I've done a little bit of it before I call it film you are but I've never been in a position where I can do something really beautiful that I can show a finished really good finished product and I've got that time today because we're just focusing on this sliver of light so I suggest is portrait photographers I suggest that you have beautiful a beautiful bed were shot on your wall one that goes towards more finance than bidwell ah lot of girls asked me for to be photographed in their underwear but not nearly as many as asked me for fine at nudes um I never shoot with no underwear on because I feel like the girl is easier to pose if she's wearing a g string and I just removed the g string on finish up that's my personal choice I will do more for you she will she'll lion more positions she'll feel more comfortable when she stands up she can cover her own boobs and just walk around the studio and they move freely they move easier and it's just the best way but I'm telling you right now if you show a beautiful image so I've got this old image on my website I shot it in thirty five mil film maybe fifteen eighteen years ago of a girl sitting in a gold cheer it's c peotone you can't really see her face she's gotta rise down his knees are up on the chair we can do that post today it's so painted lee and it looks so gorgeous I put that up on my wall and most video and I've head I would easily say five hundred girls go I want that there what that I want that there so if you're not selling a style of work you maybe not showing it and if you're not selling a style of work um you you need to consider this I am older shorter and wider than macy if you show me a victoria secret shot of her in lingerie I'm going to go I don't look like that but if you show me a silhouette of a woman lying down and it looks really beautiful I would go oh well I would love to do something like that but do you think I could and you like course you can no because the silhouette hide a multitude of sins because most of your body is in shadow so I feel like this is a huge big up sell for me and my studio is to get people see me naked I know when I should couples if I can get their shirts off and take really beautiful skin shots and get his arms around hers and hers between and his you know wrapped around her arms in their faces together I can make their body language more intimate and it makes sense that I've got not just the nice gorgeous I'm sort of couple pose but they can be more like we're naked and now it's sexy without being too sleepy you know without being too sleazy and without being sort of you know they tell you make more money and this is something you don't get too into your about fifty forty five minutes into a shoot when you look at them and you go do you want to do a shot with no shirt on do you have the same thirty to forty five minutes is always fine that's right about when people are like I'm so into this I will pretty much do anything you say you know my clients it's always the one to say don't make me take my clothes off that end up with their clothes off I s o I was photographing a woman and she said I want you to take and choose my age same ages may at the time maybe thirty eight and she was like I want you to take a photo of me with no clothes on and I had been photographing her for about forty minutes and I said okay and she's dropped her clothes like completely naked I wasn't ready for it you know I've got to get ready to see naked people it's kind of like oh gosh on and she just stood there and she gets why I know what you can do this and this is how god made me so take a beautiful photograph of me and I just looked at her and I think wow you're really naked on I don't see a lot of complete the naked people but I lay her down and did a beautiful shot and I'm going to show you how to do that and also what I did was I dropped in a background a grungy brick background around her nude body and did the painted lee film no r and she bought it as a thirty forty in her bedroom and it is a magnificent pace and it really just happened so quickly but you show stuff like that people buy it so to me it's a little bit more than boudoir it's a little bit moreland lingerie and it's a little bit more than it's just more fine at okay so today we have to do it in lingerie because we can't do it no I would prefer to do it note but let's have a look at nude with a little g string oh yeah yeah no over the noh jay string so all you have to do macey is drop your robe at your feet I don't know how much of this I need right now but I'm going to bring it in and all I have to look at first is how much light is hitting her now she's in quite strong like to take a step away from me that's it so now she's a really good directional light it's quite strong like those so I can defuse it with this grim up here I can put this grand back out right john and because right now you're seeing bright light and so what I'm gonna do is I'm going home is here shoulders forty five degrees from my light source so your shoulders go along that way okay so always forty five degrees hips and shoulders don't let people turn their hips in the shoulders and other directions and listened to mail like gilles don't tune the hips and shoulders and opposite directions because it makes you look they got in your upper body so we'll do that with laquan we're going to get his hips forty five in turn his arms back this way to open the triangle of his upper body with macy what we're going to do is keep her two forty five and then shape this like that's dope like diagonal across here to there so instead of the scrim will go to the four dollar light reflectors that we clamp onto the window because let's face it um this is how I built my first studio ka board and no hair clips right we might need to double let up john because it's too there's a lot of light coming in I've never seen seattle so bright it's like what's happening sun is shining and we're just using clothing pigs I just drop mine don't be afraid of doing this people and on the end of the blinds works really well and then you can control it by lifting your fly's up uh look at the soft light on here now here's a tip when you're photographing anybody in their underwear always look I always look eye there's no need for you to look at her body and this it through the camera and I tell you why if you're talking to somebody in the straight you not like this and people who do do that freaked me out because I kind of think sometimes I look away and think okay we'll have a quick look then I'll come back now you still there oh my god and that it's not just men women body take their body check there'll be like and then you know it's just it's so funny even making me uncomfortable okay there's my sliver I've defused my slipper I've got a nice black bounce there this is not about reflecting light back to her face this is about capturing a silhouette of her body you're gonna black out this side yeah so the first thing I'm going to do is shape it so I'm going to bring her front foot up right up onto her toe that's it I'm going to get you to bring both of your hands up under your heart that's it and that creates a triangle and then I'm going to get you to bring your chin law okay they don't open your shoulder back up to me you you went like that that's it now bring your chin to your shoulder that's ago I'm tuning her face away from me and what I'm going to do is I'm going to expose for here okay stay looking exactly there macy I met six forty eyesight no stay looking down sorry dealing all right and I'm two stops under exposed abia okay now what I'm going to slowly do so obviously the screen looks quite high contrast but I've got light I'm going to move her around in this light the case so the one thing I cannot do is tune her face this way so let's try it to exactly the same pose just what knees so you come around the side yet come up onto me hold your heart and they looked down this way this is not gonna work as well because I'm posing her into their light now what you can't see on the screen is here here detail that doesn't work okay always towards their light now another thing I could do is bring your body around here so turn your back to the wall let's it and come back to the wall you were talking about forty five degrees and that's her body yes kind of like so her shoulders were forty five degrees from the light source there and that's how I pose everybody forty five degrees now the reason we do that is because when the body has fled you have to put some shape into it some movement from the front when the body is side on it doesn't work but at forty five degrees you get both shoulders both boobs both hips both knees both movement and the but at the same time lots of show yeah you get more shape now obviously makes his tall and lean so I'm gonna have to give her shape because we need to kick out her booty and so what we're going to do now is I'm going to swap her feet to the back foot that's it right up onto your toe and what that's going to allow this for her too push her booty back the cake is that's going to give me lots of beautiful shape there and what I'm going to get you to do is to put your hands back so this one comes back now what we do is we keep that shape and her back it is really important that we keep that shape and we push your chin ford and down sorry this way that's it stay there stay there and this is where I wanna bait now I am I'm going to bring this up I'm going to turn this into a white stadia because I'm going to show you something now if she was naked I feel like this light is going to be really good you could do some beautiful naked stuff but because she's an launch right I wanted somewhere in between this like that is too dark for me looks good on my screen but I've lost her here so if I bring the white reflector around I'm going to take the same shot and just say when I get here and then I'm going to go up a stock chin down just a touch made me beautiful now I'm getting a little bit of light have a look at this leak coming in there's a really neat little late coming in the top left okay I'm making her look too narrow in the hips I'm gonna tune her body towards me that's it stop stay there but just keep that foot out knee right up onto toe and just bring it in the end that's a girl soto back and knee across that's it now bring that hand back up now kick that beauty out okay so what I've done is I've turned her hips towards me to make her hips wider and I've got the white reflected in and so what I'm creating now is that you want to turn and her hips open up okay but I didn't tune it face into the light so face into the light okay too far halfway there took ten down and look down that girl eyes down that way perfect in fact I want you to stay in this position and just walk away from the wall good girl now she's coming into the light let me take one more now wiggle away again stop nash is going towards the reflector perfect so can we do a reference shot off her which in that position which is against the wall let's do it now so can I just I want to say one other thing about this it's just a christmas decoration alright people were asking like what is it and I think some people missed the beginning it's just a christmas decoration that's black simple as that cost two dollars and I have to give credit to my friend yuria cause he is the one of the top stop photographers on earth he kind of turned me on to this and more on that later but could you just hold that like this in front of your face just when you were over there and I have sushi reference because you're catching some of that you were catching some of this light that was coming in the window as a flare so yeah I am I'm catching yeah that's a tiny little light sources in that yeah I'm catching a good flare cool so obviously the more I defused the light and between the softer it's going to get on here the more I opened up the brighter it's going to get and sara I want you to play with the silhouette they look incredible with pregnant women incredible when you do that demi moore types shot you know the most famous I call it the demi moore shot but it's the any shot which I've done a million times with pregnant woman when they are naked and they're holding their belly in the front and they've got their other belly oh hand on their belly this way and they've got the beautiful bellion and that's just in that silhouetted light it's perfect for finance nudes it's perfect for um lingerie you know it's my style of good work because I don't do details on board were like I don't photograph the bum in the feet and the shoes and the details of boudoir because I don't like that and I've never had a client want that so I don't do it I shoot mohr I kind of think try and get more victoria's secret like I try and get her onto a box and bring her legs up I'll do that if you want me to do that and then I'm going to lie her down and then we're going to shoot laquan so how about we get some posing boxes in and I'll show you a couple of a couple of little tricks now do you want to have any more of those yeah another half would be really good well actually you're john you could give me that cheer it's a white here and it doesn't really work but at least I can show the posing hold this single shot so if you think about it a five hundred people have asked me to do the shot and that would easily be five hundred I'm not I'm not joking I want you to sit on there with your heel your right heel up on the cheer as well so towards may yeah that's exactly right stay comfortable there when I say it five hundred women have asked for a shot I'm recreating something that I've already created I know how to do it it's instant money clients don't ask for a particular look unless they're gonna buy it and if you don't tell us because you didn't achieve the look but when a client tends to me and says I want that that it's sold in their mind I'm creating that for them and they've already bought it it's instant sale it changes the way they view their portrait because instead of being surprised by the photographs they like oh my god you did it it looks incredible the shot that I did of amy I turned her bum towards may so skip she bum to the side and I pushed her bum out like that out that way so that you can lean and I turned the apple box this apple box here because I just wanted teo all sorry point this toe okay I just wanted to bring her knees up but I didn't know how to bring her knees up so just put them on an apple box and she has got this arm over the back of the chair which is not ideal in this ham is in here that's it so now it's on the inside of your knee yep that's ago now this hand just hangs over it doesn't elect it's got to be comfortable and then what I did was I lay her down like that so that here head is resting on there but you have to get into position were you actually doing that so you bump has to go back and over there yeah so and also made she's got really long legs so and then she was like that and so that there was a shot that I took with her legs or called out but they were more pointing this way in this way so point toes now when we point toes are legs look longer okay if we're like club feet like their legs is shorter when we point how toast down our legs look longer and get more length everybody I photograph I say in pointed toes and point your toes and pointed toes nobody pointed toes you've gotta teach it now you watch her flattened both feet up and you watch how long macy's legs get now when you point both toes right on to the tip that to go on bring your knees together and I always say that you know needs together knees together so that you get that beautiful shape and right here asl ong as I can get her comfortable because I've got her legs right and her upper body is still awkward so I need you to just shift into a position that you feel you can move your upper body and even if you come forward onto this knee that to go perfect cake needs together keep those knees together but that doesn't make sense so you need it either drop the knees down more that's it that's it more I can't now that makes sense because now I can see her body and let's just bring this handler and then chin ford and relaxes hand over so I can always tell how relaxed hands are okay by how they just sitting naturally that's it all right now I'm not squashing her boobs all right now just ten ford and let's just go down this way because we've not too far forty five so we get a face forty five eyes down good girl all right I'm going to take it there are so many cool sitting pose is keep your eyes down forty five I just need you to really work those knees macy bring them together that's it so maybe this one can drop down a little bit it's too high and this one can come up on the way opposite close again that's a girl that's the one eye's down that's it and so what I'm going to do now is I'm shooting this in a silhouette can you lean forward or scratch your bum bag at all and come in to this hand that it that it what you just did and now I want you to bring your eyes down like you're sleeping don't look at me cause this is form not portrait so I want to just photographed this informed now there's not enough light on her face I'm going to just tweak it go towards it but don't lie all the way down the halfway that's it but more cake guy that's it stay there all right it's like millimetre precision yeah okay I've just got to be careful I don't get this elbow so what I can do is put this behind you here so and again lane so that you're leaning like on that hand that to go I don't want to give her a stump off hit albert so I'm going to bring the albert back into the shop all right now regardless of what I create here this is a silhouette now I'm going to keep her there and move her away from the window in order to do that I have to move there both faith let's and I need to move you and I need to move this not that yep get back into that position for me but to keep it interesting let's get an apple box instead of a tear because I'm not going to recreate the same shot I'm going to do something different because it's all about light this's a very common thing for me to heaven my studio other apple boxes of course but the most common pad is getting people to pose on them is very different than sitting on the floor so what I want you to do macy and she's got long legs is I want you to be on this knee and have this foot up okay so sit on there that's it and she's a little bit forty five now what I'm going to get hit a day is round off your back yes oh here plus just not so great and then bring your hands and say you can do two things that's it what can you come up with your backhand and all the way across no backhand sorry mirror me that's it perfect and then give chin this way towards a life now what I want to dio is in lots of arching your back is she's away from the light source now and I can add more white so can I just make an observation that's what fascinates me is like if she was three inches forward or three inches back it's completely different you're just so on that edge it's fascinating too fast yeah well the thing is this look att here I'm saying and even light on her body now I'm seeing an even light that may I know is going to photograph evenly when you just move that black b flat if you could see the shadow just moving down her back you know it's like really pretty precise enough it comes across in the camera but it's like the shadow is just that that can you bring the deflect closer to her without notes yes I couldn't see the floor stop okay you just opened up a way too much off this guy's can you shut that down like so yeah perfect okay so let's just try this all right nice and soft nice low exposure it's a really dark on the back of my camera so I've always been on your website wondering how you did this all right so bring this hand back up are you all right yeah okay bring this hand back up yeah they got and I just want you to kill in that's the one and just kill oppa look they're beautiful close your eyes like you're sleeping so effectively I could do sort of a film no our look and then I can with the same in the same sentence use this front shoulder open this up pull back this so she's got more life bringing more reflected life should we do a reference for the previous yeah I'll go back to it okay I can just open up a little bit more like bringing a reflector and that stay eyes to me and I can shoot that there so straight up with your chin and then chin forward and down a little bit more good girl stay there and it's much brighter I always think of this I'm going to create something I can work as a fine out print then I'm going to take a shot I'm really not shot of hearing underwear because they'll print differently and she might want both and all they have to do is a little little bit more lighten but the idea with the film noir is that we flatten it down as much as we can so that I can then bring up those highlights and finish our I'm shooting two stops underexposed okay I'm making sure there's no hot light on here so I pulled her away took my light source down included my reflector just to soften and make it more general I'm selects to a lighting reference so feeling so quick question yes from lola selina's are you not at risk to shoot with a low speed of one fortieth as far as your shutter are there no vibrations are can you talk a little bit about I'll go down to forty but no lower as soon as I hear that clunk clunk I look at my shutter speed and I met siri I can always hear thirty shutter speed if I hit thirty my eyesight goes out um I it is not unusual for me to shoot at a shutter speed of fifty most of my shoot six forty two point eight the shutter speed is automatically firing because I'm on manual so I can adjust the shutter speed based on the meter and my camera I'm meeting to the face in the eye and then I'm adjusting to the back of the lcd based on what I'm saying you also know that bother the sharpness now okay we need a can you get the stick one it might be easy for them to hold like this one I know you like your christmas bubble you know what having the hand and actually gives a good size reference yep that'll do yeah so now we do one for the the other look you just after that okay so I opened it up to here and I pulled this back and I bought in more white light on one more time thank you never thought you'd be holding christmas decorations but a closer to your face if you can not regret he say one day I did a modeling I had to hold all these christmas decorations over my face it's a good conversation with models what's the most ridiculous job we've ever done that's felix can you hold this ok what I'm going to do now is something most people don't think off and it's kind of if you just pull it back john like yep is everything stand up macy and stand over there just for one second and you can stretch your legs sorry about that I don't stay in a position where I'm talking if I'm talking because I never realized it hurts is I one day went to shoot something and I was like oh I need I need a black floor dad tom and I think there's my black for I'm going to shoot it stay there I'm going to shoot it forty five degrees from the window the reason I'm going to do that is I'm going to put her face into the window light okay so just occurred to me that the camera's on this side so if I put your face out there and then we'll be looking up your behind so let's go hit down the meanwhile I'm sweating bullets