Lessons

Lesson Info

Live Shoot: Newborn With Props Stool

While we're getting set up for hank do you many questions? Well, I love that name hank yes, yes, absolutely wonderful you're going to like this one. This is from playtime photog how do you prevent that overwhelming or overpowering grandma wanting to have too much input in the chute or creating the wrong atmosphere mother in law okay, at the end of the day I'm being paid to do a job right? So pissing off everybody in the room is not a good idea um take their suggestions and then just keep working because they're just trying to help. And if you look at what people's intentions are, their intention is not to screw up your life or to piss you off. Their intention is they really want to help and maybe it's also they really want something specific and they're afraid you're not going to give it to them, right? If someone being overbearing and pushy, what does that mean? They want something and they're afraid you're not going to give it to them, so find out what they want and give it to them. ...

I'm fine I've people hover over me I have people calling the shots, I go in my zone and I just say okay, okay? Or I'll say, you know what? We have two sofas in our studio so my studio we have one so far that if I was shooting here and my lights air here I have a sofa here and then I was over by the changing table so when someone comes in they're over by the changing table there feeding and all that stuff and then all invite them come on over and just sit by the session and just watch or if you want to go in the cool room and get out of here there's a cool room in the front and we have snacks and drinks and you can go cool off and usually the men and the grandparent's well leave and go cool off and then the women will just hang out um and then every once in a while there's someone overbearing but it doesn't bother me it doesn't bother me it takes a lot to get me I'm not an easily stressed out person takes a lot to get me riled up. Mike, please and yes, quick question how much time do you allow for a photo shoot in? It doesn't very when you add in the sibling component yeah, so we leave two hours with an hour buffer. Okay, so I'm pretty good at my time and making sure that I'm fluid and with children it's still the same, maybe two and a half hours, but when I say an hour buffer, that means that I will do the next I'll try not to do the next shot while I'm in the next shot the next session for another hour after that, but we're getting into going to do a shot. I always do a shot with our baby when it's a prop like this there's a lot going on here, you've got the wood floors. This is from photo prop floors and backdrops, so I always do a pure shot set up without the baby, and I may or may not use the baseboard because a couple of things tiffany is going to be here spotting, and then when I send it to retouch up, I will send the plane one as a reference photo because you've got textures and greens, right and patterns and even if you're retouching in yourself, it's a lot easier. If you have a reference photo, so do it with and then you contest the lighting if the lighting's all wrong, if the baby's already on there now you've gotta worry about baby no babies last you get your life set up, you get everything set up, then baby comes in and babies on and off, okay, so underneath there, people always say what's under the beanbag underneath that blanket is a little beanbag, yeah, I don't, I don't like the bass ford because it's cutting in and so here's what's with the end result will be is we'll take the baseboard of waste away but now they'll be a seam line I'll blend the line and faded out and there's a couple of ways you can do that you can obviously just like paint down in here you could even take the patch tool and just take that line out or I could send it to retouch up say blended very easy it's not that big of a deal that blended and I don't like harsh lines going between I'm also going to get pretty low on here I'm going to do one more shot and then I'm going to put baby in here knowing that I'm not spending a lot of time in a shot like this this is one of those will ask mom to go through pops pick things that she likes and sugar oh I like the bed the moon that whatever well it's usually like one that's more challenging I wouldn't do three challenging props to nothing I would say maybe in a bit maybe maybe in a basket maybe over a bucket on a beanbag and that would be it back to my three in on over so this would be like okay, well, we'll wait and save it and sea and then for toddlers this is a great shot I did this in new york and I know I posted on my facebook page of the tile pan page and the toddler was sitting right there and it's such a great shop because this height is great for babies okay, so I'm doing the shot four point oh, it looks great I'm gonna bring baby in hank been anxiously waiting his debut debut debut and the hair you're killing me with the hair does hank take a pacifier tank take a pacifier okay and he's eleven days and no pacifier this is not the type of thing that you put the baby on and you walk away I cannot stress that enough said safety safety, safety, safety, safety there I will never ever do this by myself and with nobody sitting right there it's just not worth it babies will jerk they can lift up they can roll off two seconds two seconds oh, my god, I didn't know you were just you know, have a thiss bench is made by a newborn prop company. Um think about it, uh people. Yeah uh so when when you're when you are buying something from a proper company that's specializing in newborns here you should be pretty sure that it's safe but you still have to check it you know, I always check it when it comes out of the box you know where these legs sturdy you know, I've bought things from professors that have fallen apart when I take him out of the box. So, you know, check, watch out for the sharp edges is what we're worried about is we don't want anything sharp on the baby's face. I do wish that this was a little softer enough that the baby's head whatever be their butt and the minute you think it's not gonna work in a proper, just stop, don't force it. Sometimes it works and sometimes it just pops it's just not gonna work. I just give it a couple of minutes and if it works, it works and if it doesn't, I say, move on to something else. Go slow, don't be in a rush, take your time, it's, going to take you two minutes to get this shot may take you ten or fifteen minutes, oppose it, but there's, no time at all to shoot this, we're going to shoot a bear and then I'll add a little crown. The crown overhears buy handcrafted crowns that was a sponsor. The last time I did a work in the workshop that creative life has and I forgot to use the crown it was actually a girl crown that I completely forgot to use that kind of keep that would be coloring is like perfect to his pants so I brought in to say thank you to them for the last time. Ok, so what's gonna happen is tiffany is going to keep her hands just like that and then she's going to slightly move them touch factor? Yeah, exactly. This is what he's laying on is actually from abba baby props in they did not send me anything for creative live I, which is why we don't have a discount code where the other vendors did. I just love them and I've bought a lot of things from them and I have to just bring it with me. Handmade by lulu and devoted nets and photo pop for the backdrops on little ireland, they all sent me things just for you guys, which was fun. Okay, how much of these props will you bring if you do a home shoot only two or three thank you only like three cool and like I said before, when I'm packing, I'm packing in the things that I'm bringing, they say that, right? I'm packing the things that I'm going to use inside the props so I would later a couple of blankets on here I think we need some light okay all right I think it's your body too I think your body vanish they say you have to be nice and flexible good he's read but he's ready when he's ready nothing we could do about that right now. Okay like got it okay so I think you should put your hand in the back of it see how he's moving so put your and you can tell when she starts to move he's starting to move so by moving slowly you'll automatically feel where is that baby going he's starting a lift up so I think that hand yeah should be on his back back and head right there yeah now put your hand on the side of him oh right hand like this his side yeah huh yeah hold back their way go now holding the back of his head and take away the front hand good lets out his crown he's falling forward show so I think your hand so I would he were here I get it going again and you're right you're right you're right so yeah just keep your hands on this temple right there, you know well dio is we'll do a shot we're holding here and I should just this that's what we're talking about is if she's here the whole time she can't let go but for the retouching sake I want that part of his face because you khun send three or four photos to retouch up or if you're re touching yourself you know you can use different photos and move things around most of the time not a composite it's just them removing her but if I have to add in body parts then I need I need other shots I think he's leaning forward hold on there we go okay he's still I'm gonna hold this face for second pull away your this hand okay so I think that's what needs to happen that the last shot is you just holding here and I'll just shoot this part but you have to stay there okay now usually do horizontal and vertical skin on one of the little sharper so let me get my balance okay got it yeah you know the term uncle bob no wedding photography now so bob oh yes he's like the one in there taking pictures yeah do you ever get uncle bombs and huh yes okay so we have a sign in our studio got it. We have a sign in our studio that says you know what it is exactly but it's a sticky wall sticky that says we thank you for trusting our time and talent thank you for trusting the time and talent to the photographer we ask that you something refrain from taking photos or something so that is on the wall in our studio so many times people will come out and go he's doing something under here and go they'll take out oh sorry and I'll put it away I have a new sign that I made that has not gone up yet it is going up this week warnings all my clients about cell phones because we got people to stop using the cameras now with cell phones and so apology to all my clients that are watching but they whip out their cell phones like this and I go oh excuse you and I put my hand up in front of the south phone and keys no cell phone photos I'd be happy to send you a free iphone album and we give them free iphone albums and they go okay and I said my quality will be ten times better than yours and it's of no cost and that's how we do that can you talk about where the other arm is exactly how did you have that tops the other one the other the other one is just like this okay it was just I can put him and I'll show you real quick how he waas was abandoned in and he was like this it was just like that thank you you're welcome okay so there we go good yeah wonderful and it's high off the ground so you know it's important that I mean that's kind of time you want. You have to be careful. You have to be careful, there's it's. Not even a question it's, not even if you don't have help and you can't, then then then don't do it. Thank you, john. Then just don't do it, it's, just that simple.