Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Groom and Groomsmen

I really haven't planned a darn thing. We're gonna pretend this is exactly walk into with the real wedding. We don't know the circumstances. We don't know the conditions of our subject. At that point, we don't know anything. Okay? And that's actually creative enhancing. By not pre planning, you actually are allowing opportunity to open up. But no matter where we are, no matter what we walk into, we're always gonna find opportunities. And I see so many in this environment right now, which I'd like to share with you before we get started. Okay, notice. We have shades here. We have mixed light is can we pan up and show the overhead lighting above and what we've had? When I first walked in, we had fluorescent lighting and we had some incandescent cans throwing tungsten light in the scenery. The first thing I always do when I come into a scenario like this is figure out how could control the light and find where the light is. I use my hand to find that light and t show exactly where I need ...

the face of my subjects to be. I love walls. Remember? We're gonna get shooting themes I see two opportunities here that will have side light coming in through the windows. Now we entered this room. This is like a typical grooms Hang out location. We got our groups moves up, brother. How are we ready for some fun? So I entered the room and add usually I would be friends with my green. My groom is blue over here. Say hi, Blue And we'd be friends by then. We've had some connection. We have engagement shoot together. I would walk in and be with my friend. What's up? How are you Ready for some fun today? You look great. I saw your bride a minute ago. She's gorgeous, setting the tone for the energy. Okay, this is a total mock up, so just bear with me. All right? Be like ham. Jim. I understand it. Aims show right. And it's a Hans Pollens. Pleasure. And Travis, Nice to meet you guys. So, guys, instead of taking a bunch of pictures state, let's just consider this and experiences Have some fun. Can I get you got some champagne or anything while we're waiting? Does that sound good? Okay. Whatever. So I'm service space. I'm considering their experience, all right? And so I would actually say, Hey, Carol, do you mind? Bring it in a bottle of champagne for these guys or whatever or I might say, Hey, guys, instead of taking a bunch of pictures right here, you're all ready to go. Let's go down to the bar, and that's where we take photos together and to be around the bar. That would be our next scene. That's what I would naturally do if Environment was not photographed herbal or it was just kind of ugly dressing room. Usually the guys get stuck with those locations, don't they? All right, so we move them to a new location. By the way, how why would I be in a scenario where there's a bar in the lobby? Because I encouraged through my work by visually showing in my work scenarios where we're getting ready in hotel rooms, etcetera. That encourages the couple because they see it in the weddings before them. How wonderful I should get. Get ready in a hotel as well. And if I give the client the time to get from the hotel to the venue by giving that time free to them through the experiential style. They say, Yes, we'll do that at the time it takes to get from here to venues. My competence, my gift to you Plus will be downtown. Seattle will be able to walk the streets, hit a couple locations all before the ceremony reception. Okay, it'll be a ton of fun. So that's why in a lot of the work we have that opportunity to go and shoot at this fund locations. So let's break this down. Here we are. We've entered the room. I see light coming in. It's a bright, sunny day outside. I'd be very difficult to shoot, but it's perfect right here, right now. All right. First thing I do is I find the light switch. Goodbye. Overheads totally changed completely. Now it's controllable light. There's one source of light, and that's the window light. Okay, let me show you. I'm gonna scoot over here and show you how wonderful this particular wall could be for the guys. It's brick. It's old warehouse brick. It's masculine. This is going to be a perfect opportunity for me. The light is sidelight. We talk a lot about light, and I think we do a little light lesson right now Before we get shooting, there's there's three areas of light that we we love. We love directional sidelight Just to show you how easy it is to use. All I have to do has opened the window, pull the shades back. So say to care ahead we're gonna use that wall. Do you mind preparing that for me? And it's gonna be this one here, and what I'm doing is picking the perfect shade to add that light. So it's directional on the subjects care. I've got that. I got it right here. So care is going to set that up for a future shot. So 1st 1 I've controlled a lot of turned off the overheads. We no longer have mixed lighting. It's all one source of light. It is natural lighting. And by the way, that is coming. All that light is coming from bouncing off of the buildings across the street. Lets you see his industrial area. It's bouncing everywhere. It's not coming straight in the windows. If it's coming straight in, it would hit and make those shades glow. We are on the north side of the building. The sun is that direction. It's bouncing back. This is the best light ever bouncing light. And now we have this aperture that we've created with the window shades and boys is gonna be a great place. And it's ready to go when I'm ready to photograph Blue and the first few shots with his boys. Okay, so let's ground camera and then. But we'll talk to you about entering the room, and it's more often than not. I come in with the guys and all the guys already to go. Sometimes they're not. I could tell story about them not in their clothing, but more often than not. Blue is ready in this case, and I want to tell the story of his details. I'll take the BX to pro shooter and the camera will start with the lens bag. Actually, yeah, I'll just do this. He's ready to go when I need to Still need to match the details. I know in the future I'm gonna be photographing all the brides are beautiful, broad all of her details before she puts them on. I ask the bride to, since I'm a guy, don't necessarily want to be in the room when she's you know, putting on a dress. Some brides don't mind. Part of me. One second care. I need you to hold the camera. Then I'll grab the camera after the bag. Thank you so often. And we're doing it from the wrong side so often. So And I'm gonna explain to you what lenses I have to One second it's in my bag. I have two sets of lenses, my fast lenses and my versatile lenses as well. Here, you're ready to go. What I'm gonna shoot with today is the 24 1 forces a little bit lower life. So I want that 14 I want narrow depth of field 85 millimeter. And I have the 72 for that long shot compressing against this wall and the 24 to 70 on the camera. I'll take it for me now. Uh, we're ready to go. We're gonna have some fun chaos talk settings before even to get the room. I'm gonna go to manual mode and I just fired a test shot. Didn t look through it at the wall. They might show you that picture. Didn't even look through. Just fired his shot. I'm right now at eso 1602 100th of a second to a narrow depth of field. Just perfect. What about to do detail shots of our groom? So blue crab. Are you my brother? So he has got a beautiful watch on. Look at that. He's got a cufflinks on. He's got a bow tie. He's got a boot in here at all, and everything is ready to go. And you look very sharp, my friend. Looking very good. Okay, So what I'm gonna do is give him a reason for showing me all this thing. Hey, can I borrow you? The school gets this wall. Look at this light the way it falls off him. Okay, So what? Any time you pose, there's a couple types of light. Let me get into that. Before we go deep into shooting, there's flat light and there's directional light. This is a perfect example of directional light from where I'm standing now, if I were to put blue right here and look towards me now, this is flat light. Let's show you the difference with two quick shots. Looking good, brother lied it up. Okay? Because I did that test shot. Earliest perfect exposure now, directional. Okay, so I'm gonna face your feet this direction. So notice I'm giving him a direction to go by moving my feet, moving my positioning toe where I need his feet to go to. Otherwise, he would just turn his whole body. So I say you direct opposed from the feet, and then you you direct the body from that position. So if I stand here and say, Hey, turn your feet towards me, he knows exactly what to do. And now, Okay, face your feet right towards me. Stay right there. Good. And I look out towards the light. Fantastic. Okay, so I took one shot there. He's a little close to the light. It was a little bit bright. And so I would take my finger and I'm a closed down the shutter. Two clicks. Let's do it again on 3 20th of a second, and they're perfect exposure. Okay, now I'm ready to go. I'm in manual. We are easily able to photograph multiple images now, all in the same exposure. And what I know I need to do is get is tell a story of our groom getting ready. Okay. We can evolve it just him alone. Or could bring in his brothers, His friends shoot them all together. It doesn't matter, but we need to tell a story against this background. So first of all, he's got looking his hands right now. I'm not even gonna move. That's a beautiful watch. I'm gonna come down here, fire a couple shots off. You need to be fair. Just hold it like that. Fantastic. Good. And your bow tie? It's a little bit crooked for me. Even though it wasn't, he grabs it. Naturally. He's making it easy on me. Are you wearing cufflinks today? Yeah. Three. See, brother? So notice he pulled him out. He just naturally did that. I'm not saying Let's take a picture of your cufflinks. I'm giving him a reason to pull his cufflinks out. Okay, good. Look that way for the life fan test. All right, where's the real smile? Your working at this is there we go. So perfect. I'm not gonna shoot too many, but that would be a rapid fire moment. I want you to see what the's looked like, and then I'm gonna go all the way back for the closing image. I'm going to switch lenses, Okay, Quickly into a longer lens. And I'm gonna compress it right against the wall. So his body's turned away from the light and his head back into it. Are can my friends steal your feet? That way? Hands in pockets or whatever's comfortable. Look out towards the Let good get up, Megafon. Perfect. And so what if he was a stale groom? Yeah, Be the stale Graham. Here. Let's take a picture like, yeah, be irritated with me. Do take The picture is perfect for me is a real pro. Here's what I do I grab Joe who's cracking up right now? Okay, Joes cracking up right now. He instantly think Joe's gonna be You guys were all cracking up, but Joe is really laughing. His whole body is Ah, he's gonna be my guy to bring the energy into the group. Okay, so go get him. Actually, beat him up a little. Go wreck that guy. Come on. Not come around. Good, good. Good. Hug your brother. Come on. Come on. Good. Alright, guys. Let's see that. Get together. Route close. Could you call my view the fantastic see. That's it. And see Blue could not help but start smiling because his friend came in and game some jazz, right? Beat him up. Kick him in the stomach or something. Get it, Get it, get it! All right. Hug and make it really hard. Come up, Come up. Good. That is totally motion posing guys dot every bit of that. Every bit of that is motion Posey. Okay? It's micro movements to work. Okay, Just let's pretend lose the smiles just for second. Pretend your leg. I'm posing you. I'm like, you know, energy is low. Yeah, it started well, right here. Like bruises. Guitar for What's he about? Hey, guys, get a little closer together. Do arm around. Okay. Squeezing bar. Gotta get out. Perfect. Every time. Every time it's micro movements create emotion. Expression. Okay, you don't have to do typical motion, Posey, which, if we're outside right now, would be an aperture priority mode. And we just be like, Hey, guys, let's go for a walk. Come follow me. Click, click, click, click, click. Perfect. I love it. Looks so good. Okay, arms around that. We could do that with all the guys. Okay. All the guys together. Let's get you all you guys together. How about it, Grupa? Group hug. Get in there. Okay. What's the first thing people that usually do when you're taking a picture of him against the wall? They usually just usually kind of Okay, here we go. Here we go. Right, Which they're doing. So right now, blue your jackets kind of wide. So what I want you to do is take your arm out from behind Joe Angle and Torque thons, right? Yeah, I got it right. I'm working. Yeah, Girl just met these guys, love. All right. And then you're gonna go right behind Hans a little bit. Okay, Add guys, just get together. Just get together. Feared has good. Good, good. On the count of three screens, go. What? I think so. Good. Perfect. All right, so I got the tight shot, and normally I would instantly, and as quickly as I can switch my lenses kill wide angle and do something intentionally different. Okay, Good guys. Look each other laugh hysterically. Didn't work and you give feedback. Thank you, boys. Thank you. Love it. Today we're gonna have so much fun. This is beautiful. Okay, So we just told a quick story of our groomsmen with his boys. What if we want to also say, Hey, you know what? I guarantee they're gonna want to spread of each one of the guys photographed separately as well, right? So let's do that. Who wants to be first? Wait, Joe's air. Funny guy. Just always start with the guy that that leads the energy. I'm not saying you guys weren't. I'm just picking on him, right? All right. But I'm thinking about these things. I'm going. He's the guy that had that laughter and playfulness. He's the guy that's going to set the tone for everybody else. We shoot right now. All right? So, Joe, why don't you stand right there in the middle? And you, you guys, I would love for you to stand right here, so I'm putting them the direction. The light iss. If this was flat light, it would be circular. Okay, flat light is the flat. Like Kate's directional here and directional here. I don't want you to see what that as can you zoom in right here. Directional light with the hand, you see? Highlight shadow highlight shadow highlight shot of highlights. That's exactly what we want. For the ultimate lighting, we call that Rembrandt lining. This is broad, limp Rembrandt lighting and that when you photograph it, it pops off the page and brings more life to your injury. More depth to the images once you produce them. But that is the ideal life. And we're using right now against this wall. Also fairly good light. Really good. Life is flat light, and I want to be able to show you this what this looks like in comparison with my hand. Not gonna do that right now. So here, flat light, Is it directional? There's no shadows and highlights, but it's perfect for deer photographing, perhaps people with more age eso elderly couples, perhaps. And it be right. I'd be like that for you. Elderly couples, perhaps. Ah, whole bridal party. It's okay to use flat light. You can't go wrong with flat light. It's more skill and more tech to use sidelight, but we really, really, really want to take advantage of both on a wedding day as fast as we possibly can. There's also back light right now. These guys are totally back, like they're totally silhouetted and Why don't we do that? And I'm demonstrated as well. But first, let's have some fun with Joe Joe's our man. Joe. Turn your feet towards me. All right. I steered his pose. Usually you, too. For the right type of posting, you steer the feet away from the light, and then you curve them back into the light with their body language. So now he could put his hands in his pockets. He could put his cross his arms. Just try that he could working. There we go. But you see that? It made us all laugh and play. Okay? Working baby. Like this. Okay, Just kidding. Let's go. Hands in pockets just for this particular one. What? I wanted your personality. I want you to be your feet towards me, though. I want angle feet towards me. All right, guys, cracking up, please. Crag. Good. Perfect. I just saw I just created expression and his friends did it. Groups energy. Remember the technique his friends created? That it for him? I didn't have to, All right. And sometimes I'll just say, Just crack him up. Will you make him laugh? But anyways, you're going to see those images he drops his head, he moved off Baja. Perfect. He sets the tone for the next. You want to go? Perfect. Same thing. We're not going to directions. And I would in a flat like environment, I'd steer half the people that way have to people that way. And you would have you put them all together. It's kind of looks like the Brady Bunch. People are looking at each other in the day. I'm dating myself. Feed over here. Run! All right. And I want to see a person. Guys, level up. Come on. Do you still go? Beat him up. Get him! Get him right. Just just like college again. Did you see that motion post? I'm just seeing how fast these images coming through to try to shoot a slow as I can. And so the images come through and you could see him. But that motion and movement to him and he kind of That's the expression we're looking for. You see how easy it is to get Okay? I want to get each and every one of you here. It's do one more. One more. Face your feet. This way on Blue steel baby blue Steel, all right? He made himself laughed by doing the blue Steel. All right, And let's do just eo all of you. Actually, we're gonna do your next. You guys come over here. I need you individually, and they're gonna put them together on a spread. Okay, Okay. Feet this way. A little bit more. You're gonna cross your arms over. We need variety. And then, yeah, we're kid shows the personality. Light it up. Light it up. Fantastic. Look over there. Crack up hysterically. Fantastic. Good. So we got everybody easy, good. And one shot all you guys, How fast can you hug each other right against that wall. Go, go, go! That is so awesome. Okay for the camera. Guys, Look over here. Look at me. Look at me. Everybody due to get good ago Switching lenses. No way. That is awesome. And get together. Gonna go such a great example of motion posing and different angle. Look at each other. Love, love, love. Got it. Perfect. Simple, right. Not difficult. Let's see the shots. I got those air. Funny. All right? They did what they were going to dio. That's how we are. Style encourages personalities to come out all right. Instead of directing, we just let him play. And these guys are already playing with the camera. The pros, Obviously. You guys are pros, right?