Lessons

Lesson Info

Group Posing

We're going to be photo nothing a bride and a groom together, we're going to bride alone and groom alone, and then we're also going to show you some tips on posing bridal parties and groups of people, whether they be a bridal party, whether they be family groups or whatever. The first thing I always do, whenever I'm going to do any kind of imagery is I find my chosen locations and I've identified three spots that we're going to use today. This is going to be our first spot. I love random pieces, I love chairs, I love simple towns like the wall and the chairs and then my subject because this is a way to take a photograph that is a bit more interesting. It looks a little bit artsy fartsy and but in a really clean, simple way, so we're going to and we have a bride here, who's wearing a fabulous dress, that's a bit more fashionable, she's traditional but she's not. And you know, I know that sure gown is a bit traditional, but look it's fashionable it's got this others these feathers on and...

then a boat or the sash that's on it is a darker tone, so that tells me that it's not like your normal traditional look it's, not all white but that is just got this little bit of an edge to it. And she's a very tiny girl. So we can do a lot of posing with her that we may not be able to do with somebody who is a larger framed person than her. Um so this would be one of my spots. Look at the way the light falls across her face right here. If you look at the catch lights in her eyes there in about the sea this side would be loving o'clock position, I think. Yeah. Eleven o'clock position in the eye right over here. We have a nice highlight in shadow side. The background is not dark. You see how the background has a little bit of a highlight on it. So it's got a little bit of dimensionality to it. So it's, quite nice weave a beautiful, sunny day. So if I were working on a day like today, this could be this would just be absolutely where I might work my location that I might choose if I wanted to take pictures where I want a neutral background. This background might be a little bit too hard or too busy for doing groups, and it may be a little bit if I were doing a current or mom and said it may be a limit to two hard not soft enough for me so in that case we might move over to my location which would be this spot over here and brad right kitty couldn't stand right about there forming darling, turn your feet this way towards me ok look at the light on brad's face so we have a nice highlight and shadow side of his face I'm going to move him a far enough away from the wall where the wall goes it's not real bright the walls not brighter than his face but we have a neutral tone ality to work with so if I were doing close up pictures like bride and mom or dad or the groom and his mom this is absolutely the spot that I might use hey brad, turn your feet a little more this way excellent don't you separate your feet for me about a shoulders like and now I want you to lean towards me right here on this hip in the shoulder just lean towards me right there love it look at me a second tilt your head that way just a little tiny bit look at how much more relaxed he looks now see how I shifted his weight this direction I don't ever use the term left or right and I don't say shift your weight to this leg, because people tend to do that in a very hard way. So by saying with this shoulder and with this hip lean towards me, then it puts it makes his body fall in the way that's going to be the nicest for me. So if I were his mom being alive, I'll tell you right now, this is going to be where mom is going to be. Look at how soft that light is on my face. I could be our faces could be on the same plane right up in here and by dropping my putting my hand on his shoulder right here. Sorry, I know my breast bad, right? But putting my hand right here, I can hide my chin, see how I can lean towards him, and I'm giving myself a really nice look right there on dh, so it could be a very, very flattering way to photograph him in his mom. So there's a variety of images that we could do in this locations, but we're going to start with our little q t over there, and I'm going to show you a couple of things that I might do with her. Emily first of all, are you a professional model? Okay, and yeah, there you go, have you played one on tv that's, right? So we're going to try a couple of different scenes with her. I just want to see what happens with her body when I move or certain ways. So the next thing I want you to do is I'm gonna have you take this hip right here and have a seat on the edge of this chair with your hip. Good job. Turn your hips towards me. This way with your shoulders. Crossed that leg over this one. Beautiful. And not put your hand on the edge of the seat. Right here. Beautiful. And with your chest. Lean towards me. Stunning. Now, what is beautiful about this? I want you to notice what happens to her waist when she leans forward. You notice how that works for her? Isn't that lovely? It works really, really nice. Now, let's. Have brad come your q. T. I might take brad and bring behind a real rule soft. You see how my hand is right here? I want him to lean towards her a little bit with your chest. Emily, turn your shoulders this way a little bit with your chester gonna lean towards me. Beautiful. See how he could hold her hand right here. And it becomes very believable. This pose doesn't work for all people. If you have some of those super super tall in a really short person, then it may look a bit more awkward. But this actually will work very nice with them because they're they're both compatible. They've got a very compatible head high thin, such. Okay, so let's. See how that looks? And I love it when you see how that works. Oh, look atyou. So this might. This might be what I might do, too, to satisfy my bit of tradition with them. Emily, take this hand right here and bring it across with your shoulders right here and told, hold his hand with your other hand. Lean into him with your chest more. Whole bunch with his shoulder. Emily, lean towards him. This way. Lovely. And look in the m tilt your head this way. And now look at him. Do you see what happened when she tilted the top of her head a bit, see how it just takes into straight ahead of him. Good job. Very nice. And not just children had a whole bunch more towards me. Beautiful ex. And you're not going to really look at him in the eyes you're going look about right here. Okay and my camera position if I were right over here I'd see too much of the whites of her eyes it would look really ugly but from about right here I don't really see so much of the front of her face so I could easily have her do that very, very nice see how he's leaning into her that's important see how his shoulder is leaning towards her? It could be very beautiful. Okay, stand it for a second and now I'm gonna move you on the back side and this time I'm gonna have you sit right here on this thigh in this chair oh, I know this would work for you. I want your arm all the way your elbow across and with your chest you're gonna lean right into the back of the arm of the chair right here beautiful holds the chair this waiver this hand right here beautiful and then just turn your face this way lean towards oh, I love this already. I like this stay right there for that could come your q t you guys got to see how beautiful this looks from but back here it's stunning so we're going to also shoot it the other way so you don't have to come over here now what I might do is let me have you this would be I might do something where I'm gonna photograph body parts because I love this part of her but I might want to soften that background a little bit so I might have him coming right here and to me this photograph might be just this part of his hand just like that or I might have him bring his hand right here like that on her cheek okay so let me have you put your hand right on her cheek right there very nice just like that beautiful come in closer here with your feet see that's really nice and you're going to not give him a hug with his hand a hug with your cheek oh my god that's gorgeous look atyou I'm telling you right now are they just too dogen cute for words or what beautiful love it beautiful emily bring your chin down a little bit and with your eyes just look down love it like look at me emily and you know what hey brad this film are here just tuck it down towards your behaviour part of your hand down and now take your hand right there emily and just touch his hand right there and then look down with your eyes love it but I need a little bit more of a smile and that's a fake a smile I ever saw holy cow I am telling you they are cute and this is also a great way if you have an ugly groom and you want to hide him their government they are really cute just adorable ok so now I mean that might work let me say I don't like her hand you wouldn't I do wrong her hands to big see how it's too big emily do this with your hand or switch it like this and not touch his hand beautiful very you know what lucy and bring your let me move your hand just moved down all the way I just hold the chair with it and now this time brad just touch her shoulder like that oh, I like that way better beautiful lovette chin down a little bit emily love it maybe would you prefer he doesn't hide her collarbone because it's kind of nice she's got a beautiful collarbone yeah and brad put your thumb together with your other part your hand lovett a bride do this with your hand just kind of like that on her shoulder look at me a second like that no hang on a second I got you all messed up here I want you to take your hand just kind of stroke or shoulder I feel like like this there you go just like that love it love it love it love it love it just going to struck there you gotta love it gorgeous beautiful very, very nice ok, so now let's go forward a little bit and let me have brad come right over here honey and I want to just see what it looks like to me have you stand up scooter? I'm going to switch these chairs around cause I want her dress I don't want her dress facing it come over missing let me show what I don't want why would I not want her sitting here with her dress facing that direction? Getting from here shooting from here well, in any way why would I not want that to be like that? What is closer to the light? You see how her dress is closer to the light in her face so I would want to bring I'm gonna switch these chairs around we switch this this way and then let's go this way. Okay, now missing I mean have you sit on this side with your dress that direction good. Cross this leg over this way and I want to lean over the back of the chair this way. Good. Roll your shoulders towards me here. Beautiful ex and bring this elbow back this way a little bit. See now because the lights crossing across her dress it looks a little bit prettier, doesn't it? I will tell you they look at her face come over here and look at how pretty that light is on her face this way, turn your face that way a little bit oh higher camera angle would be absolutely beautiful here can I have a step ladder are just my little a little tiny letter be fine emily let me have you turn your face that way a little bit look at me a second missing put your other hand this hand on top of that one and roll your shoulders that way and then turn your face back towards me but you're not gonna look at me I actually boy have you got a beautiful neck stretched with your shoulders that way a little bit honey beautiful and now bring your chin forward a little bit and then looked out look at me look look right over there. Beautiful. Very nice. Oh, my stunning darling wow that's beautiful really nice emily bring your chin up a little bit right about there and with your eyes look right at me with your eyes nice don't look at me look at this ugly dude right over here. Camera guy beautiful chin up a little bit more and I want you look right over here. Look, writer those people right there gorgeous turn your face that way a little bit more other way more, more, more, more, more and a look straight ahead and one of the reasons I'm moving her around it turn your shoulders a little bit more, I'm gonna move myself I'm thinking I've got a messed up there she has a great profile and a really really really like the way that looks for her there that's beautiful very nice stunning okay, let me have you stand up a second emily and now let's take advantage of this we're going to show off this gown a little bit in a bit more of an editorial way so I'm going to have you step back I want you to come right back here for me and we're going to do a couple of pictures where you're turned a little bit more this direction but I want your face that way and we're going to make this a bit more fun and a bit more editorial hey turn your feet let's have you turn your feet this way this time hang on a minute will scribe address yes, because she's so small would you like ivan care it's not a big deal if you shot from oh, you can do this is one of the few people that you have total freedom with. Okay, now what I'm gonna have you do emily is I want you to push your bottom backwards and then you're gonna lean towards us on your shoulders beautiful turn your face this way lovely. Look at me a second emily right there I want to and let me have you take those arms down rollem in front of you like this beautiful very, very nice, lovely bring that arm down just a little tiny bit can have you push your hip this way beautiful and now look of lovely see how that's really working for her bring your eyes downwards right there. Lovely very, very nice switch your arms to the other side very nice turn your feet towards me this way a little bit missing give me a second more keep going a whole bunch all away right about this way good and you're on your dress. Excellent. Good job. Bring this arm arms behind you now. Oh, yeah see, that could work really nice, but turn your shoulders a little bit this way look at me a second that is a really pretty pretty angle on her now you noticed I've got her dress. Her dress is closer to the light source but why? I mean what is like the caviar if you if you're going to shoot in that direction it depends on which is closer to the land. So I would want to shoot from a higher camera angle maybe or in this kate with her because her face because she's leaning in that direction it brings her face back towards the light so we're still going to get a nice light source under stay right there let's add this cute guy of yours I also like how her head being leaning that way kind of makes that nice exactly see how it gives her and I always start by posing my bride first because now since I've already got her fixed up do I even have to touch the bottom of her skirt so now I could bring the groom in and do a couple of photographs of them in this area right here for you are so small holy cow what do you like a negative fi come right over here. Q t stand right in front of her and brad turn your feet this way I want to see your backside this way but this hand right on her waist line right here with that shoulder right there you know leaning toward your wife very very nice love it this foot right here brad just stretch it out towards me. This one right here good job, lovett excellent. And now lean with this hip right here in this shoulder into your wife are here hey, emily take this hand put it right on the back of his neck on the other hand, why didn't wouldn't I use this arm? Why do I want to draw her in that way? But I do want to connect the two of them so I want this hand right upon his chest somewhere in this realm right here. Excellent. Emily put your hand white right in his hair, right? They're beautiful and emily look at me a second bring him towards you lovely more and give her a hug with your forget your before it's right there love it emily turn your face this way beautiful more relax a hand right there turn your face this way a whole bunch he's going to hug you right about their family tilt your head this way and just give her a hug right there with your forehead right there's over there all love it but a real hug I want to be like it's the last time you're ever going to hug click, click click click click click click look how beautiful that is for the two of them really lean back this way emily make him come to you love don like like like like like I want some laugh and going on vegas life I ever saw in my life but you're way up in his hair right there love a dog so beautiful this awesome see how pretty this looking right there okay relax for a second you guys are doing great I'm telling you if you didn't do this before I would be I just can't believe it. Okay now let's do something just a bit more editorial to push your hip this way beautiful and you gonna put this hand on your hip right here love it brad come a little closer to her, you know and I'm going to switch you up let me have you switch places and turn your feet this way. Okay. Good very, very nice and brad, let me have you turned your feet this way. Come towards me just a little bit, honey right there. And you're gonna lean towards me with this arm right here. Excellent. Hey em all I got an idea that he really cute. Ok, emily, you're going to do this. I want you to put your arm through his arm right here, see how my legs are crossed this one over like this and I want you so lean into his shoulder like that. So does this look good? Look okay, good. And you're gonna put this hand? Listen well, it's like have you put in your pocket your pants? Good job. Don't lean towards her, let her come towards you. Straighten up just a little bit. Just relax. Straighten up just a little bit. Relaxes shoulder good job issued. You're too bad you don't even care. Okay? You're like, you know, come on, girl, but that other hand in your pants pocket for me right there love it, scoot a little closer. You too far from him. Good job, love and not just lean your head right here lovely look at me, emily beautiful, turn your face this way just a little bit stunning you're not going to look into and don't put too much pressure on that right there. Just very soft right there. Look right here with your eyes and this hand that's down there bring it up his muscle of his are not that hand. This right here is like that. Love it. Seeing my photograph I have to tell you would be right in here would be of worry one of the places you could go stand up tall m and we should turn towards him now a whole bunch and let's see the back of your dress turned more this way. Good job. And now, emily, with this shoulder we're going to push your hip away from me this way and now leaning towards him with your shoulder right here. Very nice. See without with very little movement we're not making a ton of movement on the two of them. Very, very nice. I move yourself around the sub, return your feet towards her bread. Ah, whole bunch all the way. Beautiful. In fact now I want to see you. Stay right about there for me. Emily, turn your feet a little bit more this way just the opposite this way a little more this way push this ship towards him right here, beautiful love it right in here very very nice and I like let's put that hand right on her hip right there oh I like that a whole bunch very nice and this let me just pull your dress out a little bit this way and now let me see where we could go with us right there is awesome are you seeing that hey brad lean towards her a little bit and emily lean away from him don't let him kiss you okay there you don't even let him get close so you know your birth it's really bad today right here is amazing you should see how pretty the lightest from this side right here hey emily put your arm behind him on the back not that side the other side beautiful put it right in his hair oh my goodness you guys got to see how beautiful this looks right here put this hand right upon his chest right here actually and bring it like right up in here and we now lean towards him a little bit more and bring your forehead down and let him just use your lips and kiss your kiss her forehead shut his eyes emily beautiful chin forward a little bit and like really feeling emily gorgeous really pretty so us stay right there can I have a camera man I want you to teo videotape this so I want them to see what we're seeing a bride put your hand on her hip right there so where is another angle? You have got to see this emily do not move. Oh, this is beautiful. Can I have my camera over there? I don't know. I think I might be too close to get this. I might have to back up. Where did I set my camera down my camera somewhere here. What am I seeing? You see? Just it's really, really tight. You see what? Look at the light on her face right there with her hand. You're going to use him? He's going to be he is we're not going to see him at all in this. In fact, I'm not going to show her hands stunning. Really? Just a beautiful hug, missy. Just really hug him. Chin down a little bit. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome right there. Oh, yeah, that is really, really pretty. In fact, I'm gonna change my angle just a little bit because I need to see that back. I stunning absolutely stunning. Wow, I think that's really nice. Okay, so so by moving yourself around your subject, you can create beautiful, beautiful environmental pieces and without having to move them, you see by me moving me, it takes a lot less work and it's a lot faster for me to move myself than it is for me to move the two of them so now we did a couple of pictures like that I just want to get playful with him because these guys have been dying to get playful all day. Can you tell? I mean can you tell they just got married in september so yeah so they just got married september you know can I have my ladder stay right there guys and just wrap your arms right each other like that I love it dynamite the only thing that I need right here is I want the two of you love it awesome both of you lean towards me right here la met excellent but I need some laughing where your head's about to laugh a lot as you can also you're just loving it awesome. This is great beautiful and now give him a hug with that cheek right over there, missy lovely, gorgeous and don't look at me this time just look right up there with chin up a little bit and look straight ahead with your eyes not up just straight ahead now give her a hug like it's the last time you're ever going to vote beautiful. Very nice. Can I have the two? You just lean towards me on a count of three one two two and a half three but love it okay, now you emily put your arms around his neck this time both arms and emily just stretch them out like this stretch them out love and dot oh that's gorgeous now see I'll tell you right now this isn't this is something that should be shot from high above let me back over here right here is just gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous or even behind them let me see it looks like from here right here now you know the great thing about this kind of a local and with the exception of michael that's I mean yeah that's a lord that's in the back I really don't have to do too much to get you guys out of my picture right here lovely lovely lovely actually oh that's beautiful that's really pretty stunning stunning I have all I need to have is you have a couple of folks right on the background love it man if they were a cute couple this would be just really adorable stunning very nice may miss he just wrap your hands in his hair right there you find now lean back as well but I won't have you lean back and make him work for it stunning right about there is looking oh that's nice that's a really pretty still at love it gorgeous bring this front arm down a little bit that missy right there excellent and then chin up a little bit and turn your face towards me now tilt your head back this way love and go and kiss her right there. Perfect. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Okay, so gosh, it looks great for you, okay? Let's do a couple of things now that are just a bit more let's. Go over here and I need to have can I have our other model and, well, let's, just I want to show you just real quickly how you might photograph a couple of different people. So I need my model and my I need to have both of our girls come out of your kitty. Okay, this bright, obviously this is she would they were not thinking that they were going to be matching here today. Er yeah, there you go. Okay, so when I'm photographing to people, there are a couple of things I'm going to keep in mind for sold flowers never showed up, so we have to think about that when it comes to the pictures that we're going to take so I'm going to have you darlin back up just a little bit. Love remind me of your first name again trend coming a little closer right here and train, you're gonna turn your feet this way more keep going beautiful I want to separate your feet and push your hip away from me beautiful very, very nice but now the girls have been best friends since elementary school right about here, dynamo excellent and now with emily seat trend look at me a second and you turn your shoulders this way a little bit more put your back arm behind her it would that back shoulder lean towards her beautiful and now emily I want to step away from her just a little bit and then you're gonna lean into her with your shoulder right here love it dolling excellent look right here girls click click click click like tilt your head this way trend and I want you to come in really close with your chest come closer to her beautiful very very nice right there might work turn your feet this way missing a whole bunch of stand boom to boot girls and hold hands right here because that's what you do because you're best friends very very good wrap your arms around each other's backs right there and on a count of three I want both of you to lean towards me and give each other hug I want to see your faces but you can hug ready guys one two, three go love it tell me that does not look good don't lean too much come up a little bit right about there well then you turn your feet this way a little bit more love and done very few click click click ok switch places there's a reason I would want to switch by some have you back up a little bit back up about a foot I want to make sure that I have relied properly and your face is both of you scoot over this way just a little bit and then turn towards each other right in their excellent and I'm have you turn your feet trends is a little bit this way and then push that hip this way beautiful bring this but towards me perfect pushed this hip right here towards her lovely very very nice trend with this shoulder lean towards me a little bit beautiful and just take in turn your shoulders this way just put your hand right on her waist right there but turning towards her more more more of love this this is not actually train is a very tiny girl but we could do something to make her if she were a bigger girl to make her look absolutely gorgeous a trend push your hip away for me a little bit more excellent now with the shoulder lean towards me right here with your cheap come towards more more oh yeah beautiful take this hand just put it right on her arm right there love it girls both of you lean towards me a little bit right here god at gorgeous and on the count of three I want you both to just look at each other and bust out laughing ok ready guys the road between you ready one two three beautiful you guys do that really well can you guys give each other hugs right there? But I want to see your faces. One, two, three. Beautiful. Very, very nice. Excellent. Okay, so now this is your mom who's going to be with you and I'm gonna be imam for right now step away a little bit. We're going to put our bride in the middle let's see? But I let's hear some of between the middle and I'll stand on this. I can hear miss, you're gonna stand right there. These are my two girls right about here. I'm gonna stand right about here now usually I would put the bride in the center but I'm going to put the mom in the middle because I want that because the mom's going to be the bigger girl and I want to have her with her two daughters. So trend what I want you to do is you're gonna push your hip towards my hand. Beautiful, actually push it the other way with this shoulder lean towards me right here. Beautiful. Turn your feet a little bit more beautiful, beautiful. Stretch out that foot right there. Good job and now lean towards me right in here. Excellent. I might take my hands like this and bring him right in close girls leaned towards me with your shoulders see how now I'm writing between my girls or turn your feet this way whole bunch both of you turn this way a little bit and this time I'm going to step between my girls let me have this hand she turn turn your feet this way more terrain is going to hide me and she's going to block a portion of my shape with this shoulder you know lean towards me see how now both of us or all three of us are leaning into each other it does it hides anything if I'm wearing like a you know it is what is it about the heavier girls and they were the strapless dresses you know it's like I mean I would want to hide my arms so this is a perfect way for me to hide my shape girls on the count of three we're going to lean this direction because I want me some grandchildren ok ready guys grand kids love it so I know but this is waiting to see how we can do this but we want the girls leaning towards the camera with what body part with our chest okay ready this could be three bridesmaids okay so okay with that now let's I want to show you a group let's do several groups so let's walk over to our couch right over here can we turn the light on dad? We're going to use this light right here honey so move it over this way we're going flat light it almost okay right about there is perfect okay so now we're going to do a couple of different things I will probably have if it's again if it's a bride and her family I'm going to use my students and I need to have our kind of some extra people for bodies can I have you guys come over be family members of stuff okay so miss hmm let's see let me have the two of you first of all let's say I'm going to get you to sit down so here you go, pal you're going to sit this way but I don't want you're not going to sit flat on your but you're going to sit on your thigh I want to scoot back on the couch but then you're just gonna kind of lean forward like that okay so just like that and you could unbutton your jacket for this because when you're sitting down you can sew on but your jacket beautiful love it love it love it there in your perfect right there okay miss em, you're going to sit down right here I want to have your body language facing him so you're going to roll your hips towards him he's your honey and this is your man right here you're going to sit here nice and close like that see how my legs were turned I want to keep it very, very clean and slick in here so we don't have any way since straight into the camera. Okay, good job with your chest. Lean towards me. Gosh, this so work for you guys. Actually, we could do click click, click click click of the two of them right here unlike in that. Okay, now, let's, get the rest of our family members situated. We have ant and terry coming up terror, you're going to come right here and on anti terry there you go onto you're going, I want you to sit here, but you're not going to face the kids I want you to face almost away from them. It just keeps things from looking so boring and static I don't want everybody all facing the same way. So you're going to just kind of lean into your kids right here. Okay, let me see how that works. Oh, I'm gonna like this already. Oh, I love this and this is also a really see how nice that light looks like on her face right there. I want to lean towards your your daughter right here because this is your daughter lovely, beautiful right there, okay, I don't need to have my need to have more family members come on, kids and I need bodies okay, q t you're going to come, michael, I want you to go behind him right there and I'm gonna put you right back here in the back. Mike, I'm here. Your precious isn't right. Can I gonna put you this is your son okay? This's your boy, right? You're going to sit up on the wrong arm right here and it's important to me that you just lean towards him a little bit. Don't get you don't we don't want a crowd people. I want to keep it just nice and cash right there. I would say I'm liking that already. That's looking good. Beautiful. You don't come to sit down on the bottom there, I think that's a little too far away from your son. Come towards me. You want to sit on your thighs so you're going to sit towards me and turn your feet towards your son. Turn your feet. Your shoulders. This way. The job and down to tuck your arm through his arm right there. Love it with your shoulder on this side. Lean towards your boy. There's. Your baby son. That's where? He's the one right? That girl took him away from me. Okay, good, so now we have four people, but you see, this could be pretty static. If I were doing for people only I would not do this configuration just don't make myself clear this is on ly if you're going to do a big group of people so now we have room we could start filling in the back of the background so I'm going to have I would have the person who's the tallest is going to be back here and then I want to get some I need to create some I want to have it close enough so hey kids I want you guys to scoot back with your feet a little bit let's get back just a tiny bit ready one two three beautiful that's better actually I want to keep I don't want too much space and I don't want these guys hunching down I wanted just to look very natural about like I'm saying I'm standing right here just like that that's looking good okay come right here kitty you can that's exactly where that's another way to do it to let me show show them with that monkey park your butt up there right here so you know that works actually very nice see how nice that looks can you turn your body this way a little bit and I want no no I want your do cheeks that yet but but I just need you you were a little bit too far so skewed towards me a little bit right there good job excellent let's have another body you need somebody else come on, girls now this this is this is his sister so we're not going to want their head heights the same so I'm gonna have her stand she's going to stand right about here let me have you stand right there, missy you did but you know that's your mother long she's always trying to do the matching matching thank always come towards me, darling. Beautiful coming a little closer to your brother right there. Very nice except you guys you're looking good right there and then I might have a sassy oh, here that here's the sister hey, good. I'm gonna have you come right here, darling, and I think I'm gonna have you just can't come like this because I want her up a little taller. I don't want her the same head heights is these folks right here? But I'm playing towards that light source right in there. Okay, okay, this is actually this is starting to look ok, now we're starting to come together you see it's not looking so super matchy matchy and we'll move things around turn your shoulders were trying a little bit with your feet you know and now lean towards your mother this way a little bit perfect, right there's fun and I need a couple more bodies, yes I'm looking that's exactly what I'm looking for I'm looking for triangle triangular shaped compositions see, we have a triangle here we have another triangle right here there's another triangle here and then I would want another triangle here so the whole idea is to keep filling in and having other people like I'd have somebody like this leading into this side right here again I don't want the head heights all the same. This could be a bridal party could easily be a bridal party on dh then I would put in another person right over here on the top so let me do one more person back here. Come here, mike. I mean, um lloyd sorry, lloyd. Yeah, there you go. And lloyd right about there. Can you support your butt right there? Excellent. Turn your feet towards me just a little bit, though, right about their excellent right there. And then here is our lean with your chest toward your sister right there. Excellent. Excellent. Right about there and there's, maybe with my other person goes so we have nice triangular shaped compass additions working here. Okay, but let's do something a little bit different. Okay, so now, on account of three, though, I want all of you that are in the back row, like including tran right there on a count of three, all I want you to do is you're going to just lean forward, and I want everybody just to give these guys a big group hug. You ready, guys, one, two, three go. So the whole idea and that's not supposed to be perfect it supposed to be just playful and fun loving. And now let me just show you a couple of ideas that are just alternatives. This let's move the couch and I need a chair. I'm gonna be shooting with the twenty five two, seventy millimeter lens. Andi, I would probably about be about five point six, so I could make sure I get everybody. But how, you know, we don't always have a couch to work with. Let me show you. Sometimes I prefer to have just a simple chair, thank you guys for being such great sports. Okay, so here's, let me do emily and her bridesmaids. So we have a single chair right here and ambling, you're not going to be that you're not going to sit, I'm going to have you stand. Because I really want to show this dress often on top of that she so did not want to have and she doesn't want to get to sit down with her dress because it'll get wrinkled so emily I mean have you come first and you're going to stand about right here for me okay, I need some made a bridesmaid's I have a couple bridesmaids like six five girls get emily and you're going to stand tall but what your pressure tummy towards the chair good job. Very nice come this way a little bit that I want to hide you beautiful okay, so let's get our maid of honor our maid of honor you're going to sit you know you're gonna parker but barely on the edge of this seat just like this you're going to turn your hips this way just a little bit and I want this leg bent and you're just going to kind of lean this because you girls have been best friends since absolutely forever okay just about like that across this leg over this one let's see outlooks girl style beautiful with your chest lean towards me this way beautiful very very nice turn your piece that we just a little bit can you take her hand right there beautiful bend your elbow the little bit the honey beautiful very, very nice and you can put this hand right about here for me all roll your hips this way like I want you actually cross your legs yeah flip your weight this way a little bit let's see how they like it better the way we had it okay, now move this hand a little bit because you're gonna have I'm gonna have oh here you go q t park your butt right there and turn your feet towards me this way I'm going to stretch out this leg right here beautiful and you're gonna lean into your sister right here nice excellent let me get our beautiful brides made right here mister you're going to stand right between these two girls right here. Come towards me right as much as you can right here and you're gonna push your hip one way or the other this way right here away from the light source excellent right there with this show what? You lean towards me this way beautiful see what I'm what I'm looking for what I don't want is I don't want this her head I don't want terri's head on top of tran said right there I want to keep them some separation so I either want terri to lean this direction a little bit more or even more this way turn your addiction like it better this way though and then I want to turn your feet towards me a little bit emily and take her hand with your other hand beautiful pushed this hand on your hip right there and lean towards me with the shoulder a little bit much better excellent very very nice that could that could work right there and then if you have a next tour another bridesmaid we could put one right here in this area this is own right here or we could even have someone sit down we had in this case we had a bride's groom me no groom but you know the bridesmaids if the guy come here kitty kitty brad can I have you sit down here on your bum and I'm but your jacket in front okay good what I want you as you're gonna roll onto your thigh right here but talk this like underneath that one right there this like right here to tuck it underneath but roll onto your thigh then that need back there we go hold on a second ago and now bring this like this way and stretch it out just a little bit good job excellent and just kind of bring that your hand like this lean and your leg right there love scoot your butt back a little bit here you go, pal. Excellent this is by the way also another way to do a family grouping this could be let me switch people around a little bit come up here train for second great question except where you focus I generally focused on whoever the the person is in the center of the picture. A missy, have a seat right there on the edge of the chair I want, like, this weekend beautiful, your lean towards scoot towards me with your but you're going to sit on that fi on that side screwed over this way with moving stacked three deep would you shoot that? Anything less than like eleven? No, I we shouldn't a five point six easy. Yeah, because you have everything for between five and ten feet will be in focus. Great question. So just remember that if you're a five point six, if you look at the dial on the back of your camera, it'll tell you how many feet that your focus would be on. So between I think it's a five and ten feet everything at five point six should be easily and focused, so you know you don't the thing that you don't want to do is you don't want to get right up on top of your people give them a little breathing room because the farther you are away from your subject, the more focus you have from, you know, back to front of that of that group of people I would not get don't get far like I would if it were me shooting this, I'm going to be about right here. Actually I really like this terry come towards me a little bit right there and I want to push your hand on your hip right there love it very, very nice emily let me have you scoot this way as much as you can without falling off that chair good job and let me have you take this and put it on the chair right there. Good job and now tall with your back and then the role in this direction right here. Beautiful very not a lot just a little bit excellent right about there and then if I had that sassy brides maid you know, because this is the girl who's always in trouble she was come right about here for me and I'm gonna have you turn your feet this way I don't like people being all facing the same way I think it's a really bit boring so then I might turn your feet even a little bit more step back behind your sister just a little bit here excellent and then push your hip this way towards my hand beautiful with that shoulder I'm gonna have you lean toward your sister just a little bit not a lot just little tiny movements is all I want and then emily I'm going to sit back a little bit I think I want to get I need to fill you in this way towards me good job. Good job. A little more lean towards me right here. Excellent. Very tall. You put both your hands on your lap. Very nice. So this might be another type of grouping that I would do. Ideally, I would not want that much of a head height difference. So let me just see what it looks like if I bring in another chair, maybe with the key to this because, you know, it takes a little time to get everyone in the position and then do you try to get them to loosen up a little bit? Because they might just be a little bit still writing. Yes, well, I mean, I have to tell you, I'm taking my time right now if I were doing this in a real event, I could I would put this into high gear, and I've had I've been done by now, and so I'm finessing a lot more than I typically would. I know very much where I want to go, but for the sake of the instructional aspect, I'm slowing down and telling you why I'm doing it, because usually I'm done like this in about thirty seconds. Come over this way, side john, and move her second look, look, bring it right there and I'm gonna have you that's exactly what I wanted turn it this way, john a little bit no the other way keep going keep going right there and now scooter closer to emily beautiful let me just bring it around cause I need to have her face on the same plane okay. Park your dukes right there, missy and you're going to sit on that by beautiful coming close to sister right there. Beautiful. Put your elbow over the back of that chair. This one right here and then just drop that shoulder down. You gonna lean right there and kind of you to cross this like over this one turn your feet towards me. This now there you go. Good. Actually, that likes it. Looks that's better. So then if I had more turn your shoulders this by a little bit if I had one more person to put in the picture, this actually works really beautifully or creating a really fun group hugs my girls and I could hug o sweet hugs. Oh, yeah, excellent, very nice. So there's a variety of different things that you could do and the cool thing is is that we've used chairs and a very simple way without having to do a lot of monkey business. Ideally, I'd probably have my bride stan, because she's a tiny girl and I want to give her a little more space standard for second missy yes um do you usually try toe be symmetrical or because what I saw was kind of before she got in the picture trend there was this swish going this way almost like a person where you're trying elongate a person's great great great question michael no I don't always want to make it symmetrical I think it's gonna give me a bit boring it make its too symmetrical there are times when I would want it to be symmetrical is if I have a very traditional group of people if you have a very traditional old southern family on dh there in your and she's wearing this beautiful ball gown and it's a very traditional environment then yes I'm gonna want it to be a traditional symmetrical portrait whereas if they're a bit there's a bit more edge than you could have been you khun you can kind of finesse it a bit too to have a little bit more fashionable side so now actually I can even this actually looks really beautiful for her to even stand there so but let me have you back up for a second darling and terry let me have you come right here in front and have a seat there good job can I have you crossed turn this way right here and stretch this leg out towards me right here beautiful and let me have you stand it missy and let's move this chair out of the way emily let me have you come by your mom right here let me have this hand I know you're way too young to be her mom okay right about here on the other hand we have this hand right here I would probably I would love to put her right here because now terry is such a tall girl that was living those bugging me about that scene is that she's such a tall lady I'd really like to have their head heights a little closer so come right here and I'm gonna have you just come about like that with your mom oh that that actually look at how nice that flows that works really really nice a a brad leaning with your to your mom right here just a little bit very very nice excellent right about there then that elbow just a little bit this way pal I love that you're doing great with your chest lean toward your daughter a little tiny bit not a lot just a little bit and then turn your faces with ms teri good job can I have all of you lean towards me a little bit perfect see how much better that's looking like that and now here you go a career scooter and also I might move her if she had a really super bright dress on that was a little bit distracting then I might want to place her back here to minimize that dress and not make it to be such an overwhelming feature oh actually this is where I wanted to go to begin with with that shoulder once you lean towards me a little bit this way and put your hand on your sister's shoulder right there back right there and lean towards me on that shoulder lovett word this direction perfect good job excellent. So now this is this is very, very very much what I might do with a grouping of people on and the nice thing about this is ok on the count of three you girls in the back just hugs forward ready guys and brad you're gonna hug your mom right here with your with your head right there. Just come in nice and close to her right there on account three ready guys one, two, three go! That was a fake kiss hug I've ever seen emily yeah, I'm sorry. This so you need to really get in there and give mom a big hug. It's okay. Um yes. When you're doing it like this with family are you already thinking you want to get a cropped in shock? Well, excellent. Excellent question. Now in this kind of a scenario in this shot right here I would absolutely do it as a full length photograph why? Because a brad because he's down on the floor bread stand of seconds q t so I want you guys to stay right there for just a second and this time I'm going to switch to people you two kids switch places and brad come right here by your beautiful bride scoot your booty this way a little bit, missy and turn this way just a tad I wouldn't want to hide you back there in fact, that may have you take this arm can you put it behind between you and your mom right here beautiful love it turn your shoulders this way a little bit more with your feet beautiful now she's a tiny girl she has beautiful arms but look what happens if she were a heavier girl I could easily hide her arm right in this spot see how I could hide that your role is ciena her arm is it lit but the lens of the camera than her face so now my way now this this is actually not gonna work. Why does that not work? Yeah, well, it's not picture too short it's a you're too tiny you're you're such a tiny girl. So brad, let me have you come right here by your bride she's? No, her frame and she's a short but she's also framed very tiny she's a very small girl and because of that because we have bigger girls in the front that air taller and bigger in general then she's she's too small to be back there but so brad I'm gonna have you come this way and turn your feet towards your wife right here beautiful come and you're going to lean towards her towards me right here excellent right there you look adorable right there I'll tell you right now and so let me have you come here q tips falling apart here okay that's alright coming in precious I'm gonna put you right here by your sister this is your this is your big your baby sister and I would probably place her somewhere in here okay I would want her to have her own little space I don't mind I'm not sure where I'd go with the hands yet I have seen how that looks you turn your feet towards me this way, missy and uncross your legs right here people back up a tiny bit behind your sister right there. Excellent. And I'm gonna have you push your hip this way you now just actually pushing it the other way because you could do that right even here just having right like that looks really good. Can you just take your sister's hand on this side right here that go mom's hand right there? Oh, I like that way better so there we go so we have now we have everybody we have had heights happening we've got one person than if we needed to put in an extra person right here there's a room if we need to fill in okay relax folks. Okay, now I need um let's see michael you're very very comfortable and relax kids michael I want you to pose me a group of four people so and terry you can hop out of the chute you don't have to be in the picture so there's four of us I need you to give me a pose here you go, here's your oh that's what's on your dress um well I don't think he's going to shoot it well, just with this but I just want to see what she's going to ok um and you guys have them feel we're just people okay we don't know anything about mom can I get you in the middle? I would like to have you in the middle and uh go ahead and sit down on the chair and can you come off um to the edge of the seat for me? Wonderful. And, um how about can you I kind of uh come over here where I'm standing right here with your feet follow me, but you're doing great um and could I have you come over here and just kind of stand right behind your mom great um and you look awesome let's have you come over here and there we're gonna get you right in between the two of them um so this's his other wife I want some attitude from you so I want you to stick your hip out there you go come over here perfect and there you go I like I like the hands pretend like you guys love each other um and how about you then you know you have a mike on no I don't okay unplugged oh here. Okay um can I get your hand in the pocket? Yeah, I like that um and it's just make sure it's not too loose it looks great and can you actually with the other hand lean in on the charter and kind of lean in towards your mom a little bit and same thing with you and actually can I have you rotate also come over here with your feet perfect and lean in and just push out with your chest a little bit because I want you guys all kind of getting in together on the same plane so just do that actually no hold on, you're too low there. Ugo was really glad you found that cause I was thinking ok, I'm looking up there and I know that there way above me so what are you going to do to fix that? Um well I can have you what could you do to fix that? Okay tonight and or hey there you go what I would do if you have if you have people that are similar in head heights there's a couple of things you can do let me have this cheerless get rid of this okay um let me put the bride and groom and put together in the middle because if they are a couple I don't want to separate them turn your feet towards each other kids a little bit more and put this hand right on her waist right there turn your feet towards her though to see the energy needs to flow together okay I'm gonna bring this hand right up in here and turn your shoulders out a little bit right here q t come right in here good job I want you to back up with your feet that way a little bit you put that hand right here and now you're gonna lean towards me beautiful here's mom she's going to come on this side right here this is her son now I might do this is this is like firing squad style but there's a difference now look at us see because now I'm like leaning into my boy right here my hand goes right up here so I can hide my double chin I didn't see that double chin I know but that's because I was sitting down and you are from a higher camera and which is the only way to photograph women my age ok and I'll tell you right now if you got up on a higher camera angle, can I have a cute camera guy number one? Can we get you up on a chair or something? Cause I want them to see how good this looks from the higher camera position or even that will stool daddio hey, uncle john. There you go. Be careful. Don't fall down now, look at how much better all of us lean this way to see how much better and more engaged we look this way. We look good, my children's. Go give me some beautiful grandbabies or tweet, ok? And then on a count of three kids, I want you all to just squeeze towards the middle of let's. Give each other love. Okay. Ready, guys? One, two, three and oh, yes. See, this could really work beautifully. In fact, I got to tell you, even from that angle would be absolutely pretty. See how much better I looked from that camera angle. This is really a good angle, so okay, um okay, you can hop down now, ok, so what if we have more than that? Can we do our group people standing without, you know that having to do the firing squad style there's a couple of things that you can do um there's a number of things that you can do with groups of people one of my favorite things to do let me have you come forward emily to me about right here I would I love doing imagery where where I have a main subject and then people that are out of focus in the background so that it is so that it really creates kind of an interesting energy so what I'm gonna do is I like where brad is that right back your brad stand back this way just a little bit focus would be on emily maybe emily is going to turn your feet this way, missy beautiful and I want you just kind of playing with your hearing and you just kind of like your eyes are going to be down oh, I like this actually this a brad pitt trans in your pants pocket lovett chin down a little bit and then look how this looks from this camera angle them aren't there is beautiful very very nice right about there but then we could also read turn your feet towards me right here in your q t good job and you're gonna lean in this shoulder right here on what you darling you're going to come towards me this way maybe he's talking to you know, there's three people maybe this is mom come out here love coming right about there for me and then maybe there's like I'm gonna have me right about here and the u s a look we're gonna look at each other like we're just having a chat you're looking him and we're going to look at this guy's right here so now camera position is somewhere over and there and now I'm on a counselor I want you to look at me or you're going to look at him and look at me and we're just gonna laugh you're ready guys want to three go that's the biggest job I've ever seen in my whole life so you know but we become supports this is the camera position over here you're we're out of focus in the background the goal in doing this is to create it to create interesting stories within stories do you understand that? Does that make sense to you? Oh it's absolutely editorial because it's set up I mean it's just it's it's contrived as possible on dh this also looks phenomenal from a higher camera angle. I would not focus on the back person and the reason why I'm not going to focus on the back people is that when you see somebody in front that's wearing all that white it's going to be a bit of distraction however, if she were with one caveat if she were if she returned to the side and you saw a bit of profile from her and you used her maybe this area of her to draw you towards those people in the background, then yes, you could possibly easily do that. Okay. All right. Okay, relax for a second, folks. Okay, we have just a few more minutes before we have to take a break. Let me bring brad over here again and thank you, darling. And I'm gonna put you on this side. Brad, back up just a little bit missing. Excellent. And let me just show you we're going to show you a few different kinds of poses that we can do with a couple my poses for couples. Really? I try to do a lot of very close up imagery. I really like that I'm going to do some full length shots, but I really like getting very intimate with them and and having some beautiful soft images of them. So the first thing I want to do is emily man, have you come in close with your feet towards him and you're gonna pressure tummy towards him but leaned back on your shoulders? Beautiful, very nice. This hand. I want to see the side of her hand, not the back of it so she could take her hand and put it underneath his lapel like this on and put your hand right on her waist. Many, many pictures do I see where they have the guy has his hand by aside it's like uh if you had a beautiful woman right here that just seems so wrong on so many levels click click click click click ok emily look right here at me right here and with this shoulder I want you to rule your shoulder out a little bit beautiful and now brad with your with your cheek on this side right here just give her a hug right here. Emily turn your face this way beautiful turn your face away from you. What from us? Want to see the back side of your face? I want to see your this cheek right here. Put it right there. Beautiful and emily put your backhand on it right in his hair right there. Beautiful chin up a little bit, missy and put your hand right in his hair a lot of beautiful all up in their chin up a little bit click click click like like emily let me have you and brad turn this way towards me more this way turn more with you you're just gonna rotate both of you this way ok good now do exactly what you were doing love and what beautiful look at that fabulous light on her face right there click click click ok now stay right about there I might move myself emily lean away from him right there here's another angle click click, click, click click. Excellent! Now emily, I want you to turn you know I want to see your backside so you guys are going to rotate this winless hebrides face right here with that shoulder lean and to him and put your backhand right up driving his hair right there. You will give him a hug with that cheek right there. Beautiful bride, turn your face towards me. No smile. Ok? You are too bad you don't even care. Love it. Lean towards me, brad. With your chest more. Why am I having them lean forward? Why did I have him lean forward? Lean back again, brad, you got it. Not only that, but you see right now, which is closer to the lens and into the to the light, her shoulder or her space. Now watch what happens. Lean forward, both of you lean forward more. Do you see how now by dropping the shoulder and from a higher camera angle is where I would shoot this? You see how now we've minimized that shoulder. Bring this arm down now and just bring your backhand right upon his around his neck right there, missy. Beautiful, both of you look over emily, you're gonna look over your shoulder towards me this way good, brad just could bring your face nice and close to her. Very almost touching gorgeous and just bring that shoulder upon this side towards a beautiful little soft hugs right there guys, lean towards me. One, two, three click click click lean towards me, both of you who haven't still fun. Okay, once you separate just a little bit. Good job, it's very go and then I might switch their places. The other thing that I might do is I want you to come in nice and close and just take both of her hands and hold them up to your chest. Beautiful. Very now bang! There you go on. And this time hey, emily, I want to turn your feet a hole, but this way and let go of his hand right there, but hold his hand with this one right here I want very, very relaxed hands really was soft right here. Excellent fairness and then bring that up to your to your chest right there. Nice. Emily, look right here at me. Dynamite that ok? Both of you lean towards me just a little bit beautiful. Very nice. Lean towards me just a bit more and right here with your eyes love it with your eyes right about here emily nice very, very nice, excellent can we give these kids a big hand? That was awesome. Excellent, excellent exit from there. I might go and you'll notice, by the way, that I'm not doing a lot of moving of them. I'm not going to move them a whole bunch. And this kind of a sequence takes me literally three and a half minutes to do now in my and here, in this scenario, in this room with trying to do education, I'm talking a lot more than I would. I would be very quick and getting it literally it's, about three and a half minutes to get those done. And the quicker that you can get that sequencing done, the more that you keep the energy flowing of your subject. If I am gonna have them do some walking or some movement, brad, I want you. I just want you to see how this is done. Emily, step over this way for just a second, honey, step back that way, brad and I want you on a count of three. You're just gonna walk towards us. You're ready? One put your hands in your pants pockets. Ok, right there. And I walked towards me. Okay, he's just walking just kind of straight with his legs now wants you back again, we're gonna have you do it again. But this time, I want you to just cross one leg in front, the other just kind of kick him out a little bit like that, nice and slow, and I want you to see the difference in the way that his legs, the way that his body looks, when he just kicks one leg in front of the other and walks you ready, excellent see how it just kind of makes the energy flows like in a v and it's a very attractive the other thing that we can do to emily come up here for sex this time I'm gonna have the two of you walk this way, you're going to walk, they're going to walk together, you know? You always see people going like they'll go, ok, and they're looking at each other like this love it, but the problem is, is that our energy is flowing straight towards the camera and yet our faces, they're going like that, and it doesn't work. So instead of doing that, I'm gonna have them do this. Brad, you're going to stand right there. M come are here, missy, and this time you guys were gonna walk this direction, but emily, I want you to pull away, you're going to create a bit of tension between the two of you. And put this hand in your pants pocket right there and instead of walking straight next to him you're going to stay where you're at and you're gonna walk like this okay? Both if you're going to do that because I want you looking at her and I want some flirting going on right now okay? Can you do that and emily but it's important that you pull away from him a little bit don't make it there you go that's what we're looking for see look at that ok ready missy one two, three go nice love it beautiful awesome doesn't that look fantastic? It looks believable, doesn't it? It looks very believable, you see then because their energy is flowing towards one another you get this beautiful fun emotional experience that doesn't look static just walk side by side this way walk that way just walk straight that way see? See if they just walk side by side we can't see her face we can't see the emotion and that cute sassy look come back you're going to do that one more time and this time emily, I'm gonna have you hold your skirt rule casually on this side right here and you're just going to pick it up and just kind of get a little florida is your skirt yeah love it they grabbed his hand right there and this time don't we're gonna want you to walk with one foot like this because I want her energy flowing towards him but I want some serious flirting going on. Okay, ready one two, three go! They love a dollar. Excellent. Lovett beautiful that's so cute. So now we've given her a recent to hold her skirt a bit. We could even get a little bit crazier with that and get her to just pull it up like this and this so much let's do that one more time. Okay, ready? And this time I'm gonna have emily hold your skirt. How she gonna hold it? A few speakers hold it with not with these things were here, so grab and look at how much prettier that looks great. Hold with that one and these hands see how? Look, look at that dust in her hand, see how pretty that is. Hey, but this time when you hold it only I want to see some sassiness in this hand and in noted it's okay. Okay. You ready, missy? There you go. Right there. In fact, you know, just stay right there for just a second. And now, emily, I want you to be I just love it right there, love and all, like excellent, huh is accusing one and adorable one, two, three goats beautiful awesome very nice excellent cute cute cute cute cute excellent very good ok can we have a big hand for them? I think that we are a time for us to take some questions a question and answer are we doing a break first or no break we're doing it we're going to do to questions okay? We get a break family maybe maybe after break a lot of people in the chat room are they want to see you not in teacher mode maybe like a couple of minutes of you just in oh, ok other mood ok got it ok, that would be awesome so I have a question from beer notto and he says I have a wedding coming up and one of the bridesmaids the bride's sister is in a wheelchair the bride requested to make this a little bit less noticeable is possible in the group shots so she doesn't feel bad how would you handle this and they're easy. There was another question on william ayers as well a deck I'll tell you right now here's our wheelchair oh that's right you do have a wheelchair I think this would work just as well though okay, so we have she's gonna brides made in a wheelchair right? Correct it's the bride's sister okay, great so we need somebody to come play brought it to play the sister who is going to be in the wheelchair ok right there access so here she is right here the key in this is we're going to hide this wheelchair now we're going to have emily is amazon points is really comfortable by the way I am I want you to come and you're going to kind of park your butt your little duke's they're going to fall right through the middle of this and you're going to come in but I want you because this is your sister I want you to get nice and cozy with her right there beautiful very nice here's mom mother is going to come may be right in here brad can I have you come close to your beautiful bride right here on this side and you're going to come and just turn your feet towards your lovely wife and just take her hand right there excellent right about there I might start here now can you barely see that wheelchair could you barely see it right the other thing I could do to is the standard for second stand for a second missy hey bambi yes your foot was you could almost like put your foot that's exactly what she could do now have a seat let me just see how this looks I think this might even look better now park your butt right here lovely turn your feet that way towards your husband beautiful and now coming close to your beautiful bride right there. Excellent. How about this? See, now we do see how we turned the wheel chair that we would turn it a bit, um, if there were small children that we're going to be in the group, I can promise you I'd have one of them standing right here. So basically, we're just creating groups of people around that chair and then, like for mom, I'm gonna have mother just leaning into the chair a little bit. Maybe she could just hold her daughter's arm like that, see how I'm kind of leaning forward a little bit right in here so we can create nice groups on dh that way we bake virtually hide the chair as much as we can without without, you know, you know, making it seriously obvious, okay, that we're a larger group that you were photographing and you didn't necessarily want to put the sister in the center. Would you just would you then sort of have this be one of the vignettes? Yes, I could easily put it off to the side if we had a big group to work with. I would absolutely have people, though, sitting right in front of the wheelchair, not in front of the legs. But maybe just right here, I'm very, very comfortable at having people move around and having them sit on the floor. I I have no problem with just asking, can you mind sitting on the floor? If I were sitting here, would you be able to see this leg of the wheelchair? No, you couldn't see it on dso, as I said, my caveat for that is it depends on who the people are. If they're small children, they're going to stand in front of the wheelchair on one side or the other. If there are, they're just adults that I'm going to have some women, smaller women are going to sit on the arms of that chair like tiny girls. I wouldn't have a heavier woman sitting on the arm of the chair, and then I'm going to have people leaning over that chair and if I need to, I'll cropping out. We don't need to take every family picture and show this part right here. We could easily do a group photograph, depending on how on how they how I positioned them now, as you can see my head height this quite a bit above her, but notice how my feet are behind her now because my legs and my feet are behind her come here, katie, brad, come right behind. Talk your feet underneath your wife's gown right there. Actually, and I'm gonna have you miss you put your arm behind, sissy right here. Lean towards her with your cheek right there. And now, with this shoulder lean towards your wife, my photograph would be right in here, okay? And I wouldn't even show the bottom of the wheelchair. In fact, even right here, when you look at this scenario, I would easily add another group of people. I need some more bodies. Come here. I just need more bodies right here. How much time did this personal thing take me to do? Right here. Stand a little bit right behind me, right here. And with this shoulder gonna lean over my shoulder and you're going to take your hand right there and we're gonna hold hands cause you're my baby girl right there. I need someone who's taller. Um terry, come right here. You would be coming right here for me and turn your feet that way with his shoulder lean over their shoulders towards us here. Now let me ask you this with all of us we have. How many, too? For six people in this shot right here. We don't need to see the legs on the count of three let's, give each other hugs. And I'll tell you right now this is exactly what I would do absolutely this kind of grouping I would crop it from like the waist up or the hips up I would not show the bottom of the wheelchair and do you see how by by grouping people together like that we can create some really beautiful silhouettes is that you know not every picture has to show the bottom of the dress not every picture has to show the bottom but giving people in clusters like that onda also I really like chairs with arms like this they're really fun to work with because you can get people to sit on this arms ok, we have another question absolutely holland would like to know when taking a group photo during wedding how do you know who should be in the shot? Oh how do you know this? You should be in the photograph I mean that's something you want to know ahead of time I make it my business to know who is going to be in those photographs I make sure that I know who all the players are about the week before the wedding I call the bride and I say I'd like to know you know the names of your parents first names are they married to each other if not who were they married too so I know not to get him all huggy kissy if there are divorced and I want to know if their amicable or if they hate each other's guts because they really don't like each other, I will not put them in a single photograph together. I'll make sure that I put them in photographs where each of them has their own space with their family. Then I want to know who the siblings are. The brothers and sisters are they married if they have spouses, if they have children, because those people need to be in that intimate family grouping. S o I make it my business to know who the special people are. And then when I posed by groups, I posed them all, um, I assembled them all in groups all say I'd like to have the bride's family, please mom, dad, grand parents, brothers and sisters, and this is one of the things that I discussed with them the week ahead of time, so that when they have their rehearsal that they can rehearse, not on ly getting married, walking down the aisle and getting married, but they can also make it part of their rehearsal to walk back up the aisle and assemble like little little chickens right down front so that when we're so that right after that ceremony, we're ready to rock and roll and do those pictures immediately. And I tell the bride's family hey guess what you're going to be first so you want to make sure that you're coming to here down there right away because I know you need to get to that reception to greet guests wouldn't you like to get out of that church really fast or get to the venue neck and they go oh yes so it gives them an incentive it makes him want to do it because it's in their best interest it's not for my benefit oops sorry it's for their best interest so assembling in family groups communicating with your subjects ahead of time so you know who the players are is really important just a follow up you don't collect the people yourself if uncle bob is in the photo you just take the photo and that's up to the wedding planner or that's up to the family that you make it my business to make sure everybody is there but this is that's a really good question but I don't wait on people so in other words, if there is if there's a family grouping and let's say that dad's wandered off somewhere I'm not ever going to stand around waiting I would never do that I'm thinking in my mind ok who do I have right here and what grouping is coming up next that I do can do so for instance if the bride's fathers wandered off and so I don't have I can't do that family group okay groom's family while we're waiting on the bryce's family are they all here? Okay? They're not here either okay we have all the brides made so let's get our bride of over bridesmaids and so I'm photographing while those people are being rounded up so that we're not wasting a moment of time I don't want to waste one minute because every time you stand around do and you're just standing there you are wasting precious time and guess what if you if it takes you longer to get those family groupings done because you're waiting on people then guess who's the bad guy you're the one at the end of the day that people get mad and they go well that photographer took an hour and a half and we're excuse me here's a small little technicality we were waiting on your butt you know? So so I always just I like to stack the deck in my behalf and whatever is next to my mind okay, so we have the dad now for the bride's family ok and then my assistant say ok, the groom's family is not here find him while I'm doing this other grouping I have someone who's designated is going to go get those people and bring them up front and that way we should keep moving on if if the brides if the bridal party is not there that ok? Well, let's, good. We'll do the bride and groom whoever I have that I have not photographed yet that I know I need to to get done. I just moved down that list of things, and I know I have to accomplish and I got to do it really, really fast. Does that make sense? Okay, absolutely fabulous. So I think it's time for a break now, okay. And just wanted tio remind everyone that we've got a little community project going of the worldwide classroom. We would like tio everyone to take a photo of where you are right now watching bambi oh, that's great and then tweet it to creative life. Ah, and include the hash tag bambi life. And then we're going to see where you all are joining us from so not only that, but if they'll do that, yeah, if they'll kind of take a picture of their environment where they're at, that could really give me some very live hands on ideas for them and what I would do if I were photographing in their environment, very cool, even better.