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Shoot: Couple In Bright Sun

Lesson 23 from: From Images to Art: Storytelling in Wedding Photography

Jim Garner

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Lesson Info

23. Shoot: Couple In Bright Sun

Lesson Info

Shoot: Couple In Bright Sun

Let's take a look at what we're dealing with right now we have a ton of light coming in we've had this wonderful indoor window light look for the last two shooting sessions but now we're forced to go outside I've switched my lenses into my daylight shooting lenses and normally carol would have these in her bx to pro shooter I would have the lenses I was using in lower light conditions we're mostly prime actually the last portion we were shooting seventy two hundred a lot which is always like I'm telling you it's got to be one of the first investments you guys make that I asked seventy two hundred it's really good in low light and in daylight as well if you create that s o up sixteen hundred unless I'm always comfortable with even thirty two hundred with the new technology the new york cameras they just have this wonderful grand reducing and noise reduction settings that the film could never even approach so it's very exciting we do have to always consider thie how much exposure are the...

latitudes excuse me that our chip on our cameras can can handle right now we have full blown son and full blown shade it's never ideal but we as wedding for tarver's was you practice we must practice what we do and so that we could get good day using even the bryce of lights okay think reflection think the opposite side of the of the building where the light is bouncing off in this case wait till you see this building it is blue, green and red so it bounces blue light right on your subject it's hilarious or green light right on your subject we might need to turn some of these black and white probably not we're just gonna let it go I'm going to let the light guide us I have nothing planned once again except that I know I'm supposed to start in this hallway right here so let's take a look and speak over to that hallway and there's my lovely bride and groom hi guys, how are you? Thanks for hanging out for me so I love I love this scene and I plan on shooting here, but I don't want to be too crazy, but even though I have bright light coming through, we can utilize the light through her veil. I'm just seeing an opportunity right now and this is going to be storytelling moment. Guys, forget about me for a second, okay, I took my first shot and I noticed it's bright now I'm going to set my exposure. I'm now eyes oh, eight hundred okay, I like eight hundred, four hundred I can okay, here we go and I'm going to test it I s oh eight hundred perfect now that'll balance I get a little bit more highlights so I am going to close it down to eye so eight hundred eight hundredth of a second to eight sound good all right and I have a plenty of details I looked at my history graham I would see detail throughout I think this could work perfectly so let's have a moment here we found the light the subject of the light let's give a reason for being there maybe they're having a loving moment may be your kissing that hand mr groom kiss that him love each other I am using a long lens and I'm compressing them into the city park sign because this is going to be a story about this now normally I get down there we just keep walking keep continue but for the camera here I'm gonna have a walk down and come back I never would do that I would say I'm one chance to shoot them walking away and then I will have one chance I'm gonna get in front of him shooting down the way but for the camera today we're locked in this position let's just happened go both directions so you see how that looks hey guys hold hands walk right under the sign when you get under the sun do something natural looking that wait a second I just saw a moment coming in with seventy two hundred look at how pretty that light is on a broad I could take a quick shots you can see it now going to kiss her cheek mister to said cheek gorgeous arms around his neck grab him I'm gonna turn open up my exposure and here we go beautiful love it forget about me hey guys baby step this way blues got too much light on and now hi guys so nice and I'm gonna blur sotto park away with the depth of field because I'm in the seventy one all the way out at two eight let's see for how my settings right ay dio and guys look towards me big small perfect good good okay so there's the shade version of this let me show you full sun guys go right into that sun ok this is less than ideal okay it's blasting we have a huge highlights they're in horrible locations however I see on blues handsome chiseled face that has a rim light around him okay green light so that means I wantto it's good on the groom not so great on our bride let's switch you two were going to sacrifice the groom for the bride yep. Okay and look at that I'm gonna turn her face away from the light there actually go four heads together see if that yep okay so foreheads together look what happened the light is bouncing off of what was beautiful actually it's bouncing off of heidi and onto blue let's take a look at that she's rimmed he's let his well really pretty so now I see an opportunity I'm with I'm good with the tether here let's pass light through the veil here put that over your head what the heck you can't uh beautiful noxious jim here you'll love it lovey lovey I'm gonna leave that right there second photograph given freddy now you had a background that's beautiful so we have horrible lighting here yet we can isolate it into something special right? So and this is the moment that they gave us and it's guys how about road towards me? I'm gonna put the sun almost behind you so rotate this shoulder that there we go let's do one more here we go gorgeous george is a kiss and I know you want to be beautiful lovely guys gorgeous moment and I want to get close with this blue theme here we go forget about me guys there is also its going to such a nice photo let me oh my exposure's jacked one more keep doing that like the tether keeps crossing my ex jacked my exposure okay I'm gonna get my exposure back I'm schooling to the right it was eight hundred eight hundred I said eight hundred remember my rule is have twice your focal length when you're moving quickly your shutter speech to be twice rick folk alike to assure you're not getting too much motion blur so that's why I had it it's at least two stops brought are faster so two hundred millimeters all the way out that four hundred seconds eight hundred pretty safe for really jamming and doing some fast retire if you so let's get this shot off normally be really quickly be continue moving let's take a look all right one two three beautiful beautiful beautiful and I've got the blues part of this and now guys go for what cold hands you gonna pull that off you yeah over the top of that there's a moment it's it's happening naturally kiss the gallo dipper straight back beautiful that happened naturally go for walk right down the hall hey heidi pete cook here beautiful guys beautiful kiss little fast fast lovely jump in his arms were jumped up tio so cute and can you spare not enough to just could make it to spends around georges oh that's horrible light when the light's on her dress but when she speaks right good dipper right towards me pretty guys and then I'm going to shoot a long lead shot of that gorgeous so cue lovely ok go right under that sign will you? I'm having fun and you guys okay right there that's what I love oh my gosh it's not the moment that they made with that that the firing the shot did you guys see that on are you looking at images to it was cool they gave the they gave me the gun side and then afterwards they built chuckle they both laughed and that became the shot that I really love that's had the most expression ever if you if you get this son slightly off your shoulder I've got a really good natural right there perfect beautiful guys and I'm gonna show you how depth crunches things and makes a beautiful and makes it a beautiful boca with this lens I'm at seventy two two hundred to eight s o now is six forty okay and I'm at all the way out two hundred millimeters I'm going to I've got my camera shot the shot's ready the subjects in the focus point and now we're gonna get him to do something that makes him smile grab arms legs just a little depth perfect guy go so cute there it is now they're playing with the camera this is exactly what we want them to do we want them to be encouraged to play out look oh my gosh dig it okay so here I am down the hall here they are way down the hall this is such an opportunity to motion pose them but guys I'm gonna have you walk towards me but make it special make fun sassy cool work it yes so funny blue there's a moment sovereign okay huh give me a turning hug I want to see your back towards me ke exact looked beautiful and looked back towards me both of you beautiful coming closer in the shade just a little further sorry that didn't work so it's there right the bright light I didn't time it right but here we go in the shade now again and then she's gonna look back towards me so cute kiss kiss her right on the forehead get beautiful gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous you guys are low thie kids very beautiful I'll tell you that yes they will there's no chance they won't be o uh I got a busy signal the tethers stop shooting too much give me a second and one two three there's a show that last shot was hilarious so happy ok so how we doing? Good tether coming through killer cool all right, how about we take it out towards really difficult we're going to go in the full sun you guys up for ready team yeah, all of you let's do it so what we got here it was particularly this scenario I mean a real slow because I got a leash on me hey, look at that I already see a good shot beautiful hey guys so I get a camera pan I want to show I won't show this blue wall. I want to show this red wall. It was black over there. More blue. We gotta be careful though. The light is bouncing off this and I don't know if you could see on me. I look at my hand and it's turn it's kind of blue cast that's some we're gonna have to fix later. You don't want a bride skin look blue. All right. But I'll tell you what, there's. Nothing better than putting a beautiful dress and a beautiful broad against a blue background when the light is fantastic. Okay, so we're gonna definitely do that. Let me see. I've got ability to go about fifteen, twenty feet that way. Um, not ideal, but let's work with it with the heck challenge. We'll call it a challenge. So full sun, full shade. Never idea work with shade if you have it, use it. I've got this wonderful space I could photograph the bridal party with. And I love that if I had built blue and and this red color in the shade, I could photograph the groomsmen against this blue and the bride's maid against this red, and then put it together in one of those spreads that has alternating blue and red it could be really cool should we do that, actually? What the heck let's let's pretend we have the space to pull it off. What do you say I might just do with the two of you just because we don't have a lot of time and then I'll pretend we've got one of each bridal brought a party member uh shot as well. How's that sound okay? I'm gonna actually switch to the twenty four. Seventy. I'm instantly like, do you notice while I'm even talking, my mind goes to the lens automatic I didn't think I'm thinking I have that much distance so I need to change my lands I just went ahead and changed automatically that started happening about five years ago and now I don't even think I always naturally have the lens the right lens on it's automatic be kind of fun process okay, my friend. You ready? You want to go first against the blue? I'm gonna I'm gonna have you step right over there. Okay, here, block that. That thing there we go. Pretty good light too. Okay? And look that way. Wait for me, this's. Just hilarious. All right? I'm not change my shade bounds at all. Not even a bit. Why not let's just play with this a little I'm gonna get down low, I'm just seeing things as I go, you okay? Okay I'm not even looking through the camera chin down towards here look like they care what we get it right carrie uh cool cool cool cool I just used the lens distortion just cause I had a thought about moving the subject in using this line to kind of make a cool composition and up into the rest of this texture blue because I can't necessarily I can't I can't get low like this let's do one more that's the problem isn't manual focus what the heck let's use the distortion to do some funny like this should the rain I hear real big using distortion wide angle distortion you can really play here hold it like that now what the heck? Just making the best of it okay bright gnarly light on our bride right let's go down here and try to make use of it full sun ok here's a moment so I'm gonna change my settings quick I'm still in manual I should goto aperture priorities which I'm going to do now quickly aperture priority and they're going down now it could shoot freely it's hard because it's hard light yeah okay so gnarly light like this it's the same concept using exactly the same way sound we got sound issues because we got trains going by but you really use it the same way if the direction of light you steer the body away from that direction and push and move the face steer the body back in towards the lights so let's move your feet this way face me all right here we go shoulder against their on then turned on him oh you know it all right all right I'ma switch lands I'm gonna compressor into that background utilized the shadow and now this is hard light so we're gonna have to do work usually hard light really makes any skin blemishes we have a beautiful russians have any blemishes but this is not something you want to use with an elderly person or whatever we're gonna fix this on the show you how to do it in post production tomorrow but let's take a look chin up down that way ok and then shut up okay let me get the city's I'm gonna bring down everything he's getting all right mister you want to be in there get in there his energy is so wonderful and you know what we'd always get great energy like this way don't often get great energy like this but if it's there you gotta utilize it or you got to help create it motion and movement use the energy rationing techniques we talked about all right good had this a little bit more do one spread style shop okay that's just the setup now he could go hands down a little for dairy got perfect perfect and look that way chin down and up up teo studio and do it now mr go get her and keep her head just like that kiss her shoulder love that girl you to go behind her armor behind her and shoulder ride against back here perfect perfect and then you're gonna come out for the life head out this way yeah you got there you leaned forward and perfect okay hard light shot here it is so let me get a position is just about changing hands out or whatever here's what I want you to do if you're going out under grab a shoulder that's another one and then turn in your fear your chin up perfect on the count three screens one two three squeeze squeeze so cute god so cute there you have anyone more and I want you to grab around stomach sweets so beautiful all right turning hug him now back with this posing stuff I always try to end this way even if I'm not really after shot shit a pro hi goods are she's up like that lights our kid he is all right less than ideal I know I know we're just pulling it out you know? We're just getting it done but we're going to continue we've got we've got fantastic light right here I want to start with a difficult now I'm gonna move to the easy let's to foreground background work care or something like that let's tell a little story all right first the groom's gonna set the energy are you ready so blue since he's got it going on there's no excuse but to repeat the same energy when we bring in a writing this is how you do it so he's first for a reason all right so go right about there so I put on my sixteen two thirty five my settings are the following I did a test shot at I mean after priority right now I'm gonna go to manual just so each exposure is exactly the same and I'm predicting two thousandth of a second so eight hundred is not enough we're going to go to and I should be so four hundred outside here right now so let's do that alright so four hundred and then I bet you it's about three twenty to eight okay I'm gonna go to f for now so I have a lot of death the field teo play around with we're just gonna screw around I just want to be able to spray and pray we go come on brother you are so funny all right work the camera work the camera on it good, good, good, good good so telling a story swing around like it's spin it, spin it, spin it, spin it okay brian, we need you in here come on, heidi, get him smashing against the wall motion posing right into the shot smashy smashy lovely beautiful okay heidi what I want you to do all you guys are so cute can you swing hit me with that veil throat right over the top of me and just to spend go back and hug your man ready so ok yeah arrives I want you to hit me that so cute, huh? Beautiful and I see a moment with the veil wide angle lens beautiful ok, forget about the camera love the man okay tether hold one second beautiful, beautiful, beautiful and I could use a care out here yeah, just a quick moment with the failed closed that shot that goofy fun shot first actually you know what theo hugus fast you can go go go here go there kind of let it dip in front of it like that and that okay, so I'm gonna get the two of them and then she's going to stay for some playful shots we're gonna put it all together at the end but since they're together right now get up love it how you want to see mostly your back okay there you go yeah I pulled that way look towards me how do you pick over so cugat? Okay, here we go it's good that I'm onto three too hot I'm exposing down care on three one two three beautiful guys and then I'm gonna stay take a different angle of it to close the store because this will be an album spread beautiful guys one for me and one more okay let's bring that veil around it would be my foreground elements is nick shop guy's hands all over each other's faces ah you know it's great because I was just saying hands off of each other's faces to crack him up there first like we're like the kiss plunges and then it went tio laughter and that's the money shot that's the stuff that we want here it is okay you're gonna see foreground element being the ville you're not shot okay now we're gonna finish up this spread this story with heidi playing with the camera because we started with blue so how do you ready okay let's get that deal on the side of the shoulders is so I'm switching back to the sixteen and a vertical orientation and dismember it stretches people out so actually let me demonstrate okay there's horizontal all do better here is vertical show those too all right ready play hold that camera looking chicken chicken chicken could get good working for you oh my gosh you're so yeah so cute I want that I want out of the different let's do that again don't move one more time do that again oh my gosh put this veil all there let's just make it let's just make a cocoon for let me see okay hold it right there could cook your shoulders here blue cracker out hey don't drop your head slightly such even beautiful so nice oh my gosh and when we're talking ok play with they'll play with bill so pretty beautiful okay sorry got distracted let's finish up with a wide angle shot where you just and turn around come back like that here you go you're gonna throw the veil on me okay work it work it we're going to be with you oh, I stalled out over the best shot that was circle all right no problem we're going to do to get it. What happened was you threw it over the camera I saw really good image throw it over the top of me again we're gonna get in here together actually blue coming into what that get in here let's build a tent for more snuggle up I'm in here with you guys look towards me k e o photographer missed I'm not even looking through we're just gonna play forget about it here's all day I don't need to be in there with you how about heads together clothes looked like they're right there close your eyes and just forget about me for one second I'm gonna close up with a single image spread there's gonna be on and heidi grab face well okay I'm leaving a little negative space to stretch over later and waiting for my camera and tether. Good pulling a little kiss, snuggle up good, go all the way to his hair, back to back of his head, pullman from the good, gorgeous guy. Yeah, like a baby cheeks together. Close call this the last lot. Yeah, take it off, take it off, let's. See you guys, one for the camera, one last shop. Just throw it on the ground, doesn't matter where we go so good, and one, two and three, you guys, I'm just love you. Thank you so much for the fine. Gosh, what a great time!

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Ratings and Reviews

Ester Knowlen Photography
 

LOVE LOVE LOVE all the bits on how to create a wow shot without stressing about getting it/catching it by chance. So SPOT on!! A little bit of planning, a little bit of vision, and great ideas/recipe for amazing "wow" shots that are prompted and genuine (unique just like the people we shoot), rather than stressed over and chased. :) Amazing video!! :) Thanks Jim Garner!!

222 N 43rd Pl
 

This is such an amazing course. It is my first purchase that I have made with Creative Live and I couldn't be more pleased. Jim shared so much information and so many insights. It's great to be able to watch the segments over, picking up something new every time. Taking volumes of notes! I am starting to implement Jim's approach to photography—storytelling. I am just starting out in wedding photography and am so excited to have found this gem tutorial! I would highly recommend this to any photographer who wants to take their work from photographs to art.

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