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Recap: The 5 Poses

Our goal was to understand lighting quality um our rule is to keep the baby in the zone we talked about those strip lights and really the zone is mom and baby's face light always goes in the eyes the catch lights that you hear that saying the eyes are the window to the soul they need to be vibrant and that's really important I am going fast don't panic we just did this I want to get to the part that is important lighting is our friend it hide it shapes and it creates and truly that is our goal now we showed you the strip light in the soft box that we're the strip strip light and the south bucks that we use today um those are the tools study those are some of the tools that I use I work with those strip lights because they creates give me more controls and they create shadows this woman right here although beautiful if I were the lighter with the soft box she would look like a giant balloon so this shadow along her body even though I have that kicker light because in this case she had a...

thinner body and I could create that separation many women carrying babies I would not want to have light on the caboose because they would not want tohave that accentuated so you can see the strip light gives us what wonderful detail images like this are created with those tiny narrow strip lights you can't like you can't do use natural light for this unless you have a very very small thin window so I should say can't you could always do what you want but to create an image like this you definitely have to have control and these are the showstoppers understanding light and shadow and that transition is again the difference between a consumer and a professional photographer and that's where our goal is always to get you to go see this siri's real quick because this will help you understand tomorrow because we won't be talking about this working with lights this image here is one of the foremost beautiful children in the world but she's only photographed with the main light which is that three by four light now if you look at this if the average parent looked at this they would think it was beautiful they would say well that's a pretty little girl it was their daughter they would buy it for sure now here is just the kicker light that separator we're separating her off the background you can see that I typically don't have that much light on the cheek but I needed to make sure you understand where it was coming from we're separating the hands the dress and creating a natural hair light people always ask me if I use a hair light I do not that strip light gives me the exact same effect, but I also can use it down the body so very rarely used a hair light unless they have twenty or thirty people that I have to get light on now here's the background light next or tomorrow we may use a background light so background light also creates separation if you're working in a small space, people always say I don't have room for that you don't have you don't have a choice but not to do this because the only way you can create depth we've all learned about foreground mid ground and background will awaken do that is through lighting if you don't light your backgrounds than you flatten everything and you start to compress and everything looks cheap or fake or you know plastic so this is your background light you can see that that is that photogenic light that been yet so it creates a natural venue this actually before photo shot back when you actually had to light properly to get a vignette that's how we did it now this is all four lights bringing them together we have the three by four we have the kicker, we have the separator and the fourth light I should I should remind you is the reflector that I'm using I consider it a fourth fourth light source so here is that image with all of the components now you might be searching your memory going well, that kind of looks like the first one, but if you put them side by side, there is a substantial difference in those images. And again, your client is never gonna walk up to your portrait and say, is that four light scenario never gonna happen. But I'm telling you, when you create work like this, they're not going to know what it is that draws them into your work what it is that makes them feel so emotionally connected. But I can tell you, it's the light it's, the capturing and the creation of the shaping of the body and that's really important. All right, the rules. If I could get the doll again, brandon, um, when a client comes in before we actually do a session, we actually sit them down and have a conversation with them and before they even pick up the baby it's okay? I just need one of those dolls if somebody wants to grab what? It's. No big deal. Thank you. Thanks. So, um, we have a conversation with them because we want just either one that work you could hold the other one. Um, there are a couple things that we want to go through, and so mom will sit down, and if we had had this conversation first, karen I would have said a couple things I want to remember before we start number one posture is everything I'm gonna constantly be telling you to sit up now when I say sit up straight it's because when you sit up straight you elongate the body it's very natural when holding that usually I'll have a doll when I'm saving this it's very natural you know it's comfortable to relax but when you do that you actually create heavy line through here and we want to make sure you're nice and tall and thin so when I say sit up straight it's for your benefit I just want you to feel nice and tall now I learned that a long time ago because they used to say ok, sit up straight, okay sit up straight and my clients would be like I'm frying when I started saying you create a weight line across your checked newark chest you know what, mom here's you're gonna look fat if you don't sit up straight so she then when I say okay, sit up straight she's like, oh, thank you like you can see in her face like, oh yeah, I forgot oh yeah, I forgot because it's tow her benefits so that's important the next thing I'm going to tell them is when you're holding a baby it's very natural everybody does that you're gonna separate your thumbs from your fingers because it's the way we hold the baby but when you do that it tends to look more masculine like you're gripping the baby so I'm going to constantly be saying tuck yourselves in I don't want to hide them we don't want you to miss a thumb we just want you to just put them near your hands and again when you tell a woman that it looks more masculine I mean what she's hearing is you're gonna have dude hand is if you don't do that so she wants soft feminine hands the next one we tell them when they sit down I say you know what? There's a ninety nine percent chance you're going to get wet today we typically work with nude babies all naked babies and there is a ninety nine percent chance you're going to get wet and honestly you hope that's all you get because with newborns you could get a whole lot more than what so what we tell them is if she goes just lift her off of you and let her go on the floor um we have wood floors just like you see here so it's not going to hurt anything a tip that I didn't show you over there is we never put backgrounds under what we're doing this remember we're only shooting up here never going to see the floor don't put the floor out just tuck it behind the stool. That way, when the baby goes, you don't get to wash your background as well. So we tell mom you know what? Do me a favor. I know it's crazy, but just lift her off letter, go on the floor because if she goes all over you, you're now wet and she's never going to be comfortable against your skin again, so just let her go. We can clean it up so mom's usually are like, are you serious? And and once we tell them that I the reason I started doing that is I found that in the beginning when I didn't tell them that and their baby would go it's kind of funny because they were horrified, they were like, oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry. I am so sorry. I'll clean it up, you don't have my head. I'm thinking he's, seriously kidding me. Of course that's gonna happen? You know, I usually say something like, well, you know, I am a little disappointed she is three weeks old. I mean, I'm surprised you don't have that under control yet. So then I smile every, always follow this one I just getting, but but anyway, we just tell them, don't worry about it we clean up it's not a problem and we do we get on her hands and knees and we clean it up we never have our clients can clean themselves up but we clean up the floors on the next one is chicken neck. I know that sounds funny, but mom was just had a baby is carrying weight, so I tell her I say okay, now before it started, I usually say you look fantastic however, everybody's concern is usually around here, so when I'm shooting, this is just a quick way for us to be on the same page I'm going to say chicken neck now I know it sounds silly, but I kind of want you to stick your neck out like a chicken just like that. So if I say chicken neck, I want you to stick your neck out what that's gonna do is along get your neck. Otherwise when we hold babies this close, especially when I say look down in there, you're going to pull back like that and you're gonna have a couple extra chance. So if I say chicken neck, just go like this and then when I say look down, you're almost faking looking down so that it just looks like you are, and then the last one I will tell them if you're going to if I said kiss the baby I do not want youto pucker your lips that's going to create wrinkles and lines you're just going to put your lips near the baby but don't kiss does that make sense perfect now I've done that now if we were to do a real session you would hear me a hundred miles an hour they can go ahead and sit up straight talking something that's perfect chicken neck right there. Go ahead one one time sit up straight right there. Go ahead. Lead forward tuck it's great. Okay, right there got okay lips on the baby's perfect right there got it. That is how fast I speak because I've had this conversation she understands everything I'm saying I've never here at what? What? What she's like okay, okay, but she gets it and that speeds up the process remember, I got twenty minutes to prove this do you guys so that's what we do? So these are the rules and we don't call them rules it's a discussion we have with clients before we ever let them pick up their baby remember, we don't want the baby here while we're having this conversation right? Because otherwise we're fueling that tummy and we're sending them right into into food more mode okay, we've shown you these poses but I want to quickly go through this and tell you why post number one the reason we did that is it hides the baby parts especially you got a little boy here this is going to cover that issue it also keeps mommy mom are the baby facing out away from aunt so that is where pose number one comes from gonna show you some versions of it um these air just like what we did only with real babies that actually pose and move and bend these are some of the variations every mom that comes in and says she doesn't want to be in a picture buys that image right there she does want to be in the picture she just doesn't know it all of these poses were created and designed to be with mom's dad, mom or dad or mom and dad every single one of them I have a variation that you could have both or individuals in pose number two was the cradle so we went from here to here this is the most popular post that sells it has everything to do with the eye contact that emotional connection there. So this is a popular shots also won the baby hates the most. So be prepared that when you're going to squeeze that baby and like that you've got one two, three say I'm gonna go back to my camera and and then on a count of three you're gonna bring her in one two three letter ago okay, now we've ticked her off so this is posed number two the cradle shot you can see the separation lights between baby and mom that's why that kickers so important? If you had your main light coming on baby mom would be darkest dark she would be just out in shadows so that's kicker is important same thing I'm dad and baby I told you there were variations with all of these dad and baby this is natural light here with the blue background so you can see the difference in the detail. Dad was very thin and trim and I love natural light but with natural light I can't put a light on the baby's face and a light on dad's face so yes, it can be done and they could be just equally is beautiful ah here's mom, dad! A baby again both mom and dad were carrying a little more weight. Dark is wonderful. Dark is perfect because now the baby becomes the biggest priority here. Close number three is the football pose which we showed you, um football pose brings the baby closer to mom but the baby's still not facing into mom um, so that gives us that ability to catch that last shot and really and truly when you put a baby in there, tell me after the and they're never really happy with it so of course at that point that's why we quickly end up getting deposed number four but let's go through soon samples of posing with this is actually technically pose number five because I could tell him on a ladder here because the the perspective but the same idea um that's kind of halfway point there this one's closer to pose number three you can see do you see the elongation in the neck though that is really important because again mom's carrying weight for sure having a baby so that's stretching motion is what's gonna really create that nice soft feel there and still keep the baby is the priority we do all kinds of versions dads, dads and fireman I mean, you know you name it we can do it it's just a matter of getting that pose right pose number four I told you it was all about the nice number for baby uh is really about mom and her strength she's just gone through a very painful process a very emotional process it's not a one day event it's a nine month cement so other than the initial contact the whole rest of the nine months aren't it's fun so so just keep in mind this is about her this is about her beauty, her strength and we're celebrating her and it's a very popular shot as well, so we're showing relationship also gives us a chance to show that little bottom. I get mom's because we have so many hospital displays. They come in every day and say, I saw a shot at the hospital where the baby was, like, honest little tommy and his little butt was sticking up but that's awesome, but that's also a miracle shot. You know, that's, one of those like to get a baby asleep in this position takes some effort. Mom said she likes the little bottom she's like he's got the cutest little bottom. So now this pose, I could show the bottom. I still show how tiny it is, but I'm not trying to struggle yet to do things that are more difficult. Those miracle shots. So here's some examples where you could see the little bottom. You can see. Mom, I always love the shite. I don't know why, but I just I love the mom shot so much because I think they really to me showcase. You know how really, how much mom's actually go through to get into this position. So, uh, you can see these are all just different variations lighting different lighting variations, different color versus black and wide, you can choose your favorite there, but, um now pose number five. It's just that we call this a bonus posed because sometimes we don't even do it because it's kind of like close number three if a mom's carrying a lot of weight, we absolutely do it because number three is not going to sell because she's carrying weight so I'm sorry it elongates her neck and it's kind of a unique, clever angle. So it certainly works with dad's. Um, and then the higher you get, the more it eliminates the neckline, which is important as well. Um, so again, this is way up on a ladder so that we're really mom disappears and the baby's face becomes prominent, which is important, and this is way straight up on top so you can see perspective wise, it's, a completely different, unique perspective, but again, this is creating variety and seconds if I were to take all those images and put them in a slideshow that's forty to fifty strong images that are completely and totally sellable, so keep that in mind. Um, when a parent comes in, we have to assess the three ages. What do you do if this happens all the time? You get a mom that comes and she's so excited, mom and dad walk in. And mom's like I saw this picture of the hospital, there was this guidance holding this baby anyone muscles, and he was like, awesome, and I wanted to know if my husband and you literally looking over him and you see, like, hair coming out of it and you know that you don't want him to take, I'm sure now please do not take offense out there because I have a husband and he's very harry and he's, not a fan of there on his body, so understand, I'm not being rude or trying to offend somebody, but I understand that if I take that dad shirt off and literally he's covered in hair and I put that baby on there now, I bring them in for a cell session and sheldon mints seventy inches wide on a big scene on a big projection screen he's horrified, he does not want to see it anyway and making it as big as a house doesn't help sell at all. So when dad comes in, I when they come in and they don't say anything, I literally look at them and make a decision. If I see that they're very harrier, they have a lot of of here, I may suggest turtlenecks, and we have them in stock turtleneck star of one of those shorter crew, next, whatever they are we have every size and stock it alls and typically my clients come dressed, they know what to wear, but if for some reason they didn't get the memo we have clothing there for them, so if they come in and I assess that the body is heavy or that there's a lot of hair, I will suggest black clothing and I will I will talk to them about how artistic it is and how it makes the baby the focus if a guy walks in and he's like six foot eight and I could see he's completely rocked out, I'm certainly going to ask who wouldn't come on and usually have like four employees it'll be like I'd be happy to hold the reflector so we have battles over fireman in the in the lobbies usually when we see a fireman coming world like all assist if you want me but now again this is not being mean but understand a guy like that is usually attack it's a woman that looks just like that she's beautiful they put a ton of time into their body they work out their healthy they want to show their bodies off so mom's brock doubt got great arms we're gonna get her in a tube top mom's carrying a lot of weight I'm gonna get her in a turtleneck or keep her in a long sleeve um that doesn't mean I'm always right every once in a while, I get a mom who comes in and dad, what has to take his shirt off? And I know he's not gonna be comfortable with it. I'll do it. I certainly am not going to say sorry. Your past the hera meter it's not way. Check you out meter. I'm sorry too much. If I know that it's going to be an issue, I'll say, you know what? That is a great idea. I love that shot. Let's. Go ahead and do this let's make half of the images about the baby and then half of the images about you and the baby. So we're gonna have shirt on for half in shirt, off for half and I make that decision because ultimately, dad thanks me later because half the time they go directly to the ones that I knew they would in the first place. So it's ok. Now, what about heavy? I'm carrying weight after babies. You know what? Dad's typically carry a little extra weight after having a baby too. That's. Why you asked what backgrounds darkest dreaming. Anything you put a heavy person on it's dark when they're in dark clothing is going to separate our drop them back and focus more on the face. Again, that does not mean I only photograph babies on black backgrounds. Absolutely not. I will take you know, if a woman comes in and she's very shapely after having a baby, I'm not even touched the black backdrop because I want to show her curves, but usually I'll start with something traditional like that and eventually evolved into we always do about three different styles of photography, starting with the one that I know is most likely to sell and last but not least, it has to be warm in the room. That is a huge priority real quickly. What do we have? Oh, good. I'm gonna finish this up, though, because the question is multiples and this is literally five slides I think five or six lives, all of these poses were designed to work with multiples at you as well. I could show you real quick, but everything we do working with moat multiples. The truth is, you just have to be more patient and allow more time now in my world. I don't get more time. I have exactly the same amount of time every session, if you know you're new at this, when you're struggling or you're starting out, you want to make sure that you allow yourself a little more time because two is harder than one period they are definitely usually there's a screamer and then a sleeper and then a sleeper and then a screamer and that's just the way it goes but allow yourself more time but you know what the biggest thing is three more stress you babies literally feed off of you and they feed off their parents and mom comes in and she's neurotic and freaking out or you're freaking out and neurotic that baby is gonna go right down the tube as well so just relaxing is really important um the key is having techniques that work you know, things like this if you can't get them looking at you don't get them to look at you I mean, mom and dad really want them doing something you want to know what the big secret and this shot is with triplets I threw a cheerio right here so mom wanted all the baby's looking to be smiling I know that's not gonna happen these air three, six and seven are seven months old, so I literally gave them each a cheerio let them eat it and then I was like, all right, all right who's ready and I threw it at that shoe and that's the shot. Now this was sold as a wall portrait because this is actually the obama dad want to see getting three babies looking at human smiling is not that easy and you know I don't tryto walk into rooms going heads wops I know I could do that but it's my last resort if I if I have to uh these babies I'm gonna show you more about these uh these are the thompson quads and I've been photographing them since they were brand new um and same thing the secret to the shut eye through material right here so getting them engaged in fact john wanted nothing to do with this session he screamed and cried is very upset um eventually when we got him engaged in an activity we were able to do this now this cell it turns out mom and dad always come in with the vision of a beautiful wall portrait of everybody smiling I walk into multiple sessions with the vision of okay the first thing I'm gonna do is create a storybook image this is my wall portrait I want your don't tell this to the parents I want the children doing something engaging that children would do at that age this works now I'm gonna photograph every child individually because I could get a smile out of every child individually and now guess what my goal is to sell a wall collect ction and I tell mom when they come into the cells room and they see this beautiful image and then they're looking at those individual images that they might not thought have thought they wanted I'll turn to them I'll say you know what's so amazing about this is you have this beautiful wall portrait for you of you know, for your house I said but the great thing about having these individual shots is someday when these babies grow up they're going to want to have their own picture and they're gonna want tohave an image they can keep now I've just sold for twenty by twenties or four thirty by thirty images one for each child in the future so now I've got my forty inch portrait or my fifty inch portrait I have four twenty inch portrait now that last shot of that of the four of them smiling that's really the variable do we get it? Yes, dewey every once in a while have to move ahead yes do we tell the client absolutely not ever usually when we're shooting you know, we had this little tag team thing when I'm working with an assistant and ah and usually once I know if I have three out of four that are doing great and this was just not doing it I happen to catch a smile I know will work alternate I said say it, I'll turn to my assistant I'll say we got it and you go okay, we're gonna wrap it and mom will literally look at me and say, I don't think you got anything and I'll turn to her and I'll say I guarantee you I got it and if she says can I see it? I'll say nope you got away but I guarantee I got it I will then go in I will move that baby's head not she comes in she's watching a beautiful slide show all the set in that beautiful finished image of four kids looking at the camera smiles she literally looks at me and goes, oh my gosh, you are amazing and I say thank you for never telling we move head's never say you're going to move ahead never tell them they know we they know you could do that but you don't need to tell them you're an artist for heaven's sakes you don't you know artists, painters don't talk about their paintbrushes they talk about the art of what they do so don't talk about your digital tools and what you can do just do it and blow their minds now I think that brings us to the end we're going to finish up and I think turned back over to your ladies and, uh thank you guys for so much this was a lot of fun thank you. Um a couple of questions from the internet uh one is raised from eastern iowa how do you price point baby plan with multiples do offer discount for the second baby or do you double that that's twice as much? That's a great question thank you with baby plans they do have to pay for their in each individual child gets their own uh they have to buy their own package, but they're already so discounted we don't give them an extra discount uh associate session was ninety nine dollars it was about nine hundred dollars worth of work, so if they have twins, they paid to ninety nine dollars sessions, but they can book a full hour each technically they if they wanted to hold us to it, they could say I paid for these sessions. I've never had anyone do that, we usually booked them for the same hour and we do individuals and together and so that at the end of the year they have their own individual panels and so that's that's how we do it, see if you guys have any questions, you're tired, maybe a little just out of curiosity. Um, if you don't have a studio that you can work in, um and baby peas what you sell them on that meaning like when it hits the floor I would the floor that were on it don't tell anybody but it's, not a real wood floor, so if you have a small these these floors can be purchased and we use silver like backgrounds they were going to use some tomorrow, but I would have something like this that I mean you can buy these smallest four by five is what we're gonna be using tomorrow so by a small full floor space and have it there if I didn't have that when I started out thank you actually for bringing up the way way past, you know, plastic table class I would put those under my stool, so I spent a long time since I've even remember that, but I would buy a cheap plastic tablecloth put it under my stool and that way when the baby went, they didn't go on my carpet, so it's a whole lot easier than cleaning carpets that work and some folks online, we're kind of asking something similar about if you're going to shoot in a client's home with that be I would take the plastic tablecloth absolutely I would bring something to protect the floor and fabrics not going to do it so that plastic table but if you wanted it to be pretty, you could always do plastic tablecloth and then your background or something over that as long as it's not something they're going to be up said that it's wet but you're just trying to protect protect the surface underneath so obviously that's an option, but I think most parents pretty much expect to get wet you know, I mean, they know they're going to get wet and they know their house is going to get wet if they're doing making shots. So and, uh, from christine p photo. Is there a time of day that works best to photograph newborns? You know what? All babies are better in the mornings, period, but usually it's five o'clock in the morning, most of you aren't. We're willing to work at that time, but babies, you know, parents tell you all kinds of things. Her base she's best three o'clock in the afternoon. But we always find that the early morn that eight and nine a m are the best sessions of the day with babies. It is. Every baby is different. There's no right answer on that. We try to work on around there napping schedule, but that changes weekly sometimes. So we always tell moms even though she might be on a napping schedule. Honestly, I guarantee the mornings are gonna work best and we once those air gone, we tell them I guarantee the afternoons are best and once those air gun. And we just put away ever again so