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Lou Freeman's Creative Team

I'm samantha gun I am owner of gun glamour hair makeup in bridal were based out of atlanta georgia um I have been doing here and make up for about twelve years now and I have had the pleasure of working with some really really amazing photographers such as the wonderful new freeman um we actually just got done shooting a educational dvd discussing communication and bridging the gap between hair and makeup and photographers there seems to frequently be kind of ah ah lost their where, um communication yeah basically yes. So moving along so you know, frequently people ask me, why should I hire hair and makeup on? The answer to that for me is really simple and that is quality um on ly professional hair and makeup artists are going to understand the products and the techniques that are needed to be able to produce a flawless product that's going to transfer into the camera? Um so many clients think you know that they can do their own hair and makeup and that may be true like on an everyday ...

basis, but a lot of times they don't even really understand the difference until they actually have a professional do it themselves um, you know, I can't even tell you how many times I've had a client sit in my chair and literally cry from being so you know, excited and feeling beautiful and just confident within themselves and to me that's an element that, you know, it's kind of irreplaceable on set. Um, you know, not only are we there, tio produce, you know, beautiful hair and makeup, but we kind of acted like a stress reliever to the client and make him feel comfortable and feel beautiful. Also, you know, when it comes to retouching, that's obviously can become very pricey, you know, when you have professional hair and makeup were there to make sure that even on set, you know, all of that hair is there in place and the makeup's not smudging, and to me, you know, when you wonder, you know, you think about the cost that you may spend for hair and makeup, you know, just like lou said it's going to triple when you, uh, when you go into retouching instead for me, when I'm working with hair and makeup, if I have to get up from my position and go when in touch the subject and duty here and are moved the hair that's really not my job, I don't know how to do those things. I surround myself with people who do, and I would prefer that they sit right beside me and do all of that monitoring, and they know when something shifts or moves, you know, if there's a hole in the hair or something's not quite laying the way it was intended? Ah lot of the younger makeup artists that I have worked with over the years have a tendency to put the face on, and then they go outside and talk on the phone and the next thing you know, the subject's put on the scarf or change their shirt and their eyebrows and brushed down, and if you're not educated enough to see that you're so excited by the photo, you might shoot the pictures and get back and look at the picture blown up on your computer and go, wow, I didn't see that I'm not going to fix that eyebrow or lip line's been moved, you rebuilt your correcting for mistakes, a cz well, as the they don't even normal people don't understand how to sculpt their face, change the quality of what they look like. So when we're working together and when most the markham ours I work with, they make it so flawless. The makeup for me carries down to here, I'm usually cleaning up the whites of the eyes and moving any textural things, and my work for retouching goes down to twenty minutes, fifteen, twenty minutes, so it's way, work way worth it next so as far as here and makeup it's really, really important have a very clear concept you know, your team who comes together who is going to bring your vision to life uh you know, creating a vision board nowadays it's so cool because you can use pinterest where you could just pull images off and put them in a board and share that with your team or the old fashioned way where you actually take you know, pages out of a magazine and put them on a board t you know, show visually your to your team what you have in mind you know, it's going to kind of uh it's going to kind of keep you on track on set as well, you know it's so easy when you get into a group of get with a group of creative people and you get on set and everyone has all these ideas and themes and thoughts and before you know it you totally like going off track of what you even wanted to do in the first place try teo creatively when we have a great project even after we've gotten I'm absolutely positive sure everybody's on same page with me and we see we're seeing the same thing and each person goes out and gets their props or whatever it is we need them to do they get it together, I've tried to bring those things to the photo shoot if I can print him out and hang him on the wall then there's no mistaking that were at least moving in the direction that we intended a call sheet was something that we had talked about at one point too if you get on a bigger job and you have a call sheet when you want people they're the most important thing is communication and anything that we're going to show you and share with you today but it's very important that you're good with communication check double check triple check that people are on time and then they know exactly what to bring or bringing options so lou asked me two words that came to mind when I thought about working with a photographer namely her so the two words that came to mind for me were collaboration and communication collaborating is the sum of the whole of individuals working together to a thai obtain a higher goal or business benefit on the cool thing about collaborating with people is you know really could elevate your your chute to the next level you know you create a concept on your own but once you start bouncing those ideas off of other creatives it is just incredible the kind of things that you can come up with not only that but you start kind of building building new clients off of their you know their group of fans or you know people that follow their business you know kind of save you a lot of money and budget as well if you you know decide to collaborate together with a wardrobe stylist or a prop stylist you know the things that you would typically be spending money on now you say because you all are creatively coming together and doing something awesome you know communication is the absolute most essential key for any photo shoot period what you communicate to your team is what you're going to receive so the better that you are communicating with them the better you know outcome you're going tohave uh set etiquette so these are basically the underlying rules of working on set that you know, basically the what to do and what not to do you know it's far as I'm concerned, it kind of varies per photographer so you'll develop your own set of rules that you want to apply on, you know, to your team but it's really important to communicate there's a swell for me you know? Showing up on time is essential obviously to me fifteen minutes you know before set is basically on time you don't ever want your crew to get there after your client um, paying attention to the client needs it's always really important teo be really attentive to your client make them feel like the superstar of the photo shoot um always staying on set and doting over the client as the photographer shoots your client could arrive and they're all stressed out they've had an argument with somebody of flat tire, whatever, never engaged in that conversation. I'm really sorry. Let's get you in here. Let's, push you right over into that chair. Let's start the process of making them fabulous. Don't get into that conversation. Move into positivity and gum. Alcohol cell phones are not allowed on my set. The reason we have wine a day and if you want and if you've got your phone and you've got to call somebody disappear with it. The worst makeup artists a situation for me is somebody walks away from me and my my subject after they paint the face. I wanted him beside me watching me shoot, and we'd like to move things around while we're on the set. I don't want to move that around really key that were on point with that clean and sanitary. Yeah, that's a huge factor for me. I have seen some of the most terrifying out comes from not being sanitary on set. People breaking out really gross eye infections that is just not a road you want to walk down. So it's really important to make sure that your team is always using, you know, a different new makeup sponge for different clients and wands and things like that and s o just to go into a little bit of what lou and I have been working on together we have done like I said before an educational dvd where basically I go through all of the everything that you need to know on how to communicate with your hair and makeup from the vision board teo set etiquette all of those details kind of a little more in depth and what kind of makeup this required for commercial theatrical glamour headshot and have to ask for what you want absolute and I don't mean to call men out but most men don't understand the differences and all the different curling irons or the style of curl are no the terminology and we we were like how can we make this easy for everybody? And it was something that just kind of birth out of the process of us working together because she was like, you know you could you tell me what I want no our need to know and I go right out and I do it is so important that you have some sort of handle on that you don't have to be able to do a wig like mere marie antoinette but if you need to make one you need to have somebody that you know that could do that for you or find someone and tell them what you're looking for that's what kind of carl's? What color is the hair what kind of eye shadow do you want to see? So knowing what you want is really essential thank you so much you're welcome thank you think this's amazing person that I found that makes the crown and susan is multi talented in so many ways and I would have never had the opportunity of meat this amazing talent if I hadn't come to san diego thank thank you lou thank you creative life for having me today I'm honored to be here hello photographers I well, let me tell you fiori couture is the name of my business I'm the designer creator fiori means flower in italian uh to me the most original the most beautiful work of art that god has ever created it's new it's always it's life it's life um let me tell you a little bit about myself I come from a family of very creative uh wonderful artist musicians um actors my mom is from sicily she's a grandmaster couturier my father is an artist from argentina I say we had a our young lady in the audience from argentina tao bella my parents are both immigrants and they came to america tio start their dream we didn't grow up with much money my parents exposed all three of us children teo the beauty in life they would take us out to gardens we had great rose bushes in our in our backyards museums, the arts, music so is constantly exposed to the creative world. So was in my blood it was destiny. I was meant to have some form of a creative outlet running through my veins. Um, that I would say the number one reason I'd decided to become a fashion designer is at a young age I have a sketching pad I feeling on the floor watching ed sullivan and seeing elizabeth taylor come out with these gorgeous gowns and I thought, wow, I mean, I was four years old. Wow, I love that so I would draw those little drawings and I give it to my mom and said, can you make me this dress? And she would and they weren't so fancy, but I love them. There was times that I'd have my bill barbies and my dolls. I wanted to dress them up a certain way. What I would do is my mom gave me pieces of cloth and I'd wrap it around and I used tape and I change it up and I do this and I do that that's where that designer and that stylist I became who I am today. Um, I gave away who I am my age by saying at sullivan, so if you guys can already guess how old I am, um I love what I d'oh now I get to do it and get paid for it. It's amazing! I love it. Um so where would you go? I am a creator. I am a nilou je n'est I'd say I bring tto life the character that you guys were gonna be shooting that's my job my job is to create that queen that steampunk look that princess that goddess on fat I give the magic to the set that's my job. So, uh so when I'm when I came out to san diego can I tell the story? Yes. So this is this is very funny. I finally found her. I'm like I found the ground. We go to san diego, I am applying to san diego. The makeup artist and I had worked together before and I got in the car and I said the's, ladies, they're so busy they're building a studio oh, they're doing workshop she's working with emily soto and she's distracted and she's telling me she's got two crowns and I might be on a construction set. I looked at the makeup artist and I said, I'm not sure what I'm walking into here and I got to this location to work with these ladies and I was so blown away that I was drawn to tears because she so many things that she's great at so in the inn in what I'm trying to say to you is if you can't create it yourself, you have to find a way to make it for yourself or someone who can I walked into the studio with heather young she's over here on the side she's going to come up and speak and I saw these locations and I was just blown away at the mill said she had created in her studio and I wanted to shoot there and susan was so open to make something and create something and some of the things that I was stumbling away with she whipped together with very little effort so opening your mind to creativity and allowing things to happen other simplicity or not so earlier I said a night don't like the word no if someone says no, I'm sorry I can't get any clothes for that shoot there's something wrong? You can make something happen if you wish to do so do you want to try to maybe pull out the american and maybe absolutely so in the beginning for me I had no money I was waitressing on saturday and sunday shooting during the week and I worked at the camera store at night I was changing my stockings and my panty hose from one job to the next so I could become a photographer I've never said that out loud so you do what you gotta do to get the job done right I let go of one thing after another then I was shooting and then I got a bigger studio and then I started flying and then playboy and then it just kept happening so don't be intimidated by the creativity vastness you can start simple and build up ok there should never be a reason for not coming up with a great shoot if you don't have it ask someone um let me go back to my notes I guess right stylist I am a stylist I bring to you what it is that you want to shoot you was the photographer need to come to me with your concept but tell me what your concept is your mood board so then it's my responsibility to go and find that look for you I bring the styles of clothing the person that that that you want to be is going to be in in front of your lens so you have to give her sizes style the look the feel look at the person you're going to shoot are they six foot tall and have really short legs are they kirby are they straight you know in their build you want to be able to give her much information in photos as possible if I'm really busy I connect them directly to the person I'm going to shoot and let them work together q I would say communication is key I have to talk to my photographer if she wants something done and I don't know exactly what it is that shoots about that I'm failing when I show up on set I've done everything from movies I've styles brides of styled celebrities housewives that want to have that glamorous look let me show you here this is one piece of fabric okay? I went to the fabric store to look and see how much this fabric was gonna cost me be about twenty five dollars a yard I said no, I'm on a budget so I went to the goodwill great place to go toppers if you don't want to hire me, go to the goodwill okay? Nothing but pens and clips this fabric cost me less than three dollars okay, I'm seeing a backdrop from it to later that's right? Use it as a backdrop you got that ugly sofa at home. Take this black piece of fabric, drape it over it and I have a storage garage and it's filled with plastic men's they're all clear and see through and I store all my props so I I have a photo shoot open that door and I'm like where's the leopard scan where's the ruffle too to where's the whip where's the crown you know what I'm saying? You have to be organized and you don't want to keep this stuff cluttering up your house but it's, good to start collecting stuff. Let me tell you, I just recently went on a trip to london. Paris, this last summer with family. Soto I got to do a fashion shoot on the streets of paris. My ultimate dream. I have this three dollars. Okay, I wanted to pay homage to three of my favorite fashion designers, coco chanel, song laurent and christian dior. Let's. Figure out who this is very simple. Fiori flower with snow button on it, ladies. Who is this coco chanel number one take the flour off, take the pros off. So now she goes from being coco chanel. Now, suddenly, you're queen. If song laurent I skipped one gold lam a fabric twenty five to thirty five dollars a yard, I got it at the goodwill for less than ten dollars. Wrap it around to be a skirt or a queen. You put the crown back on it. Okay, you got you got the idea. This is evil on east song run so you can make drama with simple things, but the trophy pieces it's what I call that and sometimes, when I'm shooting people, when I don't have the budget, all these amazing props she has sometimes I will say, you bring me the basic black, white, the ivory the long skirt the evening's got the shoes bring me all of your shoes all of your stockings most people will go get things for you if you need them then you go find trophy things you know if you can't have her here you can probably by one of these for rent ok bax back to where we were sitting on what is this latest anybody know a tu tio exactly all right wait I can hear the murmurs of joy and appreciation ah fiori could tour pen you could find it on laugh your couture pin it onto the too too okay, I created this for under twenty five dollars that was three looks shot on the streets of paris it went to editorial fam ifs on laurent thank you cooper now and now so well she's wrapping up I thought they would close in introduce she has five points of things that if you're going to be styling what you need to focus on and basically it's being a warrior of fashion and that's what I talked about in the beginning you have to know what's going on around you women that come to you for boudoir shits are goingto one and love it if you're paying attention to what's going on around them or if you come in so I saw these purple shoes that are going to be the cool thing for this year go ahead and be prepared no your style know what you want to see? You know how to ask for it the stylist responsibilities to deliver exactly what you asked for if you do not tell them they're going to bring you a mixed bag of tricks and you're gonna try to be still standing in your studio turned for what background shoot it on, where you going to go and making it up as you go along and that's how you like to roll that's fine, but if you want to control quality and make every photo shoot fabulous, you have to participate in your own immersion of that process. So more is more if you ask someone to bring a couple of red our red dress and some shoes if you send us dallas out asked him to bring some variety. How many times has somebody told you they were a size ten and they were fourteen and they get there? You bought that one red dress and it doesn't stretch, so I always tell us that the person I saw photographs I haven't seen the person, she says she's a size a can you bring me options in case there's something we have to consider? I usually have all subjects own underwear, own shoes because shoes you can't return styling is equally important to the photography as the hair and the makeup and the model in the subject you're shooting so you could just saw from susan you khun make great things simply or you can go to a lot of trouble you can also pull clothes but it's not as easy to pull closes it used to be you have to be somebody famous now to pull things unless you have a big credit card and can go shopping eso next I wanted to introduce heather leary feather come along other young leary I own forever young parties and events and san diego's largest theme photography studio this is my dollhouse awesome thank you just to know back for that amazing video all right to be a set designer I have to make a picture perfect setting for the photographer to take an idea and bring it to life something new something exciting something fun to be creative you heard lou talk a little while ago about how so many people say I'm just not creative what does creative mean to create creative relating or involving the imagination or original ideas especially in the development of artistic works or art in other words to use your imagination to create something new don't think your creative I disagree all it takes is for you to think in a different way to change your point of view and here's how I'm going to show you to do that think about things in a different way your lovely husband decided to do laundry for you but he washed his red hockey jersey with your white four hundred thread count sheets egyptian cotton which actually turned out quite lovely but he's not gonna want to sleep on pink sheets so what do you do you throw him away no you can make a couple of snips a couple of rips couple of ties and he just created this beautiful photo backdrop or as we say at the jailhouse fragged drop okay time for this yet I'm assuming a few of you in the audience like a couple of glasses of this so you probably have a lot of these at home what is it wine bottle new little spray paint and you've just created a fabulous table numbers for any event party or in this case photo props for circus shoot change up the label when you have an alice in wonderland shoot and finally oh no your toddler scribbled all over your fifty shades agree book you're gonna teo you talked it out we could or you could rough it out the pages make a couple of accordion folds back and forth a little bit of hot blue you've created this beautiful rosettes five or six of these on the back wall makes for beautiful photo backdrops and if you ask me christian grey never looked better so creative it doesn't cost a lot of money look at things in a different way everything is a prop you have a house you have an apartment every single thing in your house is a photo prop. You just have to visualize it that way. It also doesn't have to be just pretty things. I like dark, rusty things and torn up things. Distress thinks there's a way to be creative with anything that you probably have out in your storage bin. Look around. Inspiration comes in many shapes and sizes. My biggest inspiration came in the form of a live doll. My daughter estella. When she was born, I started creating these celebrations in her honor once a year, otherwise known as birthday parties. But it wasn't your everyday birthday party. They were over the top theme parties. And finally, after her seventh birthday party, he dubbed estella in wonderland. I had a quiet well one hundred fifty people, mostly in costume and so many props it took up too off site storage bins. Um, my garage, my guest room. My they were all over my house. So I decided it was time to manifest my dream into a reality, to make it real and to manifest it what I did and what I want you all to. You should be writing this down. This is homework. You're going to need a vision board, go to your local office supply store, buy a great big bulletin board. Painted decorated whatever you need to do to make it yours but most importantly put it where you can see it every day because their magic and this is what's gonna happen you're gonna wake up you're gonna see all of these amazing ideas on your board and you're gonna think about him and achieve them yeah, I didn't know anything better let him checking it off is I've done that idea I had that I kept talking about never executed exactly the more you think about them where you talk about him when you talk about him, the more real they become, your dream becomes a reality. My favorite one is number five we'll finally creativity is not expensive, I just showed you that in yes, this is most important to me don't send emails about how you've made all of these fabulous props your husband can't drive his new sports car park it in the garage anymore because you've taken up all the room with problems because it's going to happen. So when I came to san diego to get the crowns, we ended up at the dollhouse studio and instead of being scared to death of the unknown of the I all I heard was a construction zone and I have two two outfits I walked into this amazing process of opportunity and I was so overwhelmed with options I could not decide what to do you think this is lou freeman coming to my studio and I was just gonna hate it. She's gonna hate it just gonna hate it's going ahead. It's connected. And finally she walked around for about two hours, and then I heard her say fabulous what was so amazing to me? And I don't know when the video allows you this overview of it, but she has sixteen shooting babies inside this space, so you could have a set in every slot if you want it. But the point is she did it. It was very small segments space so that you can create a world of fantasy and a small area. You can come to her space and shoot there if you want, but she constantly changes it from the florida, the ceiling. She built all these amazing props, and I was just completely blown away with your her sense of perspective because it was set up exactly like a photo shoot on the scale. I would have set it up for myself. I was like, oh, no, we're in trouble, this's just beginning, but we're in trouble. One of the most important things to me was the attention to mass detail that she had of all the elements that you could possibly want and the right elements. You know it's always set a process you said things that I wish I had this or that it was just really well thought out and you have she has so many things that you can use interchangeably this is just one wall of pillows you know, it's kind of like walking into neiman's and saying, oh, I'd like the pink bedroom please in a perfect world I mean that's what you really want to think like on my world sometimes I find myself having to go to people's homes other people's home so I have more variety was spending less money but if you have the opportunity to come to see the space that worked there it's just absolutely astounding and we've brought a couple to show you wait we're going to do three live sets and we collaborated uh as a group to put these together and after the break we're going to go right into showing you how to do that thank you so captivating people sometimes it takes an army and sometimes you can do it on your own in the beginning surround yourself with excellence as I said in the beginning greatness plus greatness equals greatness you want everybody saying how did you do that? Have you seen those photos that he or she created? You want people beveling on an on forfeit a few photos put him in front of people get it on the internet show it you are you're on your website is your storefront it doesn't matter to me if you work in enough over the garage apartment nobody knows that, but they see your website your website must be rockstar capacity with new photos people like I said earlier my agent said don't show me pictures twice I want to see new pictures always see something you're excited about if you're excited about it I'm excited about it so I learned to be creative learn to be captivating and spend time on that process nurture yourself you're going to feel so much better about yourself when you start talking to people about ideas I mean, how great would that be instead of going? Ho gosh, what am I going to do? All right, so ideas for growth isa last what I'm going to close with with you is to try to make every shoot that ugo don't take one picture one set up shoot a beauty shot of three quarter in a full length on every shot as you're photographing she'd face first the makeup won't if the makeup fails let's say it's really hot outside and hair starts to fall if you shoot the head shot first you'll never miss that opportunity it also was less for you to worry about with posing breaks the ice by working in just this close proximity freeze everybody up let you relax what's them relax I have several ideas in mind before you shoot that one shot you're going to do. I'm not going to shoot him standing, sitting, leaning, lying down for playboy, I would shoot twenty rolls of thirty six exposure and every photo shoot that would be head shot three quarter fulling standing, sitting, reclining, lying down, lying down this way or this way, shooting down, never lying down, shooting across the body. So up, down standing three quarter seated head shot first plan a fantasy around every story change out your props, you come up with something better, you're gonna wanna zoom right back and shoot more headshots shoot more than you need because you have places to go after your back and you looking like I really wish I'd shot closer up story. I've shot many people, too, and said wish I hadn't shot the full length of shoes didn't work cropping and go ahead and shoot it in the camera. If you plan every stories and editorial store, shoot with a couple of different outfits, guess what you could make for yourself on your blogger on your website. Your own editorial if you're not being published, you have to make work looked like it had. Came from that bilk so visualized before you shoot and make the most of every shoot that's my message to you living a creative lifestyle is something that has sort of come all through my life I can't decorate the table anymore for dinner without it looking pretty, you know, stacking things in the drawer now looks pretty much like heather I felt like I had met my equal in the way that I think you know, after thirty years of doing this you want to become his efficient and creative as you possibly can without wasting anything I don't want to waste any of my personal time away from my family doing endless hours of retouching unnecessarily I want that part of the life to be very thought out and not a mystery of what I'm going to dio I'm going to go in when I'm finished you know we touched that's can tidy it up, then someone down and be done with it so I could go out to dinner and have fun with my friends and enjoy my life on garden or whatever it is I want so anyone could be creative as long as you change your point of view. I learned that from heather and it's so easy to think like that if you allow yourself to instead of saying I can't or I want or I don't know how you would be best suited to try to under a little bit more. And this is it. Thank you guys so much.