Lessons

Lesson Info

More Posing With Natural Light

Okay, well, we are waiting for our model. She should be ready in just a minute. Do you have a couple of questions for me? Oh, do we have questions for you? Okay, good. All right, we'll start with the editorial question what? Oh that's a great question. What is editorial photography? Editorial photography my definition anyway are the kind of photographs that you see in a fashion magazine in other words, it's pictures of people where they look like they're engaging with one another they're laughing or giggling or or maybe they're sitting in a cafe and they're joking with one another it's a kind of ad that you might see for a to advertise liquor of some sort you know or or you know, some sort of garment or something like that and editorial means that another was it kind of tells a story it's not photojournalism because it's not an image that was captured all unnatural in other words, it's not a photograph that is, that is un contrived it's absolutely as contrived as they come. In other wo...

rds, it's set up in its stage it just has a more relaxed, fun feel and with the editorial image the normal rules don't apply in other words, you're not a strictly adhere to so in other words, you know, like the photographing that the two thirds profile of the face or or doing a profile of somebody where the eyelashes is supposed to cross the nose or supposed to cross the nose but you're not supposed to see the eyeball you know silly rules like that in editorial photography all the rules are more relaxed so they can be more in perfect but it's you air on the side of expression and the more animated the picture is though if it's real fun and more animated then it's going to be an image that we tend not to pay any attention to the fact that there may be a light socket over in the corner or there may be the door knob on the door that we're seeing but we we ignore it we don't even see it because there's so much fun going on in the picture with the couple or with that person that we don't even notice the picture we don't even notice that those elements are there that's my definition of editorial okay thank you very much all right we have our fantastic model oh I love this this is so fun and I first of all I want to talk a little bit about what christine is wearing you know folks you do not need to have to spend thousands of dollars on on a process and on gadgetry and on wardrobe all you need is a couple of pieces of fabric and you are literally home free maybe a couple of furnishings but if you look at what christine is wearing she's wearing nothing more than a piece of fabric we just draped it on her body and then pinned it she's took the fabric we wrapped it around her waist or her chest in the back and then brought it around the front you can see what we've grabbed and we just we just twisted and twisted it, twisted it and then penned it and then put a belt on on this outfit and the cool thing about doing these kinds of a garment is that they depending on who the person is that's the way the fabric fall so no two people are the same and it's kind of like snow place, you know they're never the same and then the other thing I like about working with fabrics is that it is you can change, you can change it up depending on who you're working with, we could take a photograph of a person make it real sassy and sexy with this young lady, we could take the same piece of fabric on someone and wrap it around her waist as they put a big bow on her back using that same piece of fabric so you have a lot of flexibility when you're working with fabrics that in my opinion that kind of you're kind of limited when you're working with with like actual garments and especially in the boudoir around I'd like to be able to change it up in a boudoir session. I want to do some things, some pictures that are going to be a bit more animated and mme or maybe more elegant, more like, like in formal attire, and then I want to change it up and put pepper and some lingerie, and then I might do some some tasteful nude, so it just depends, but all of those things are designed to give us a great deal of variety on dh the client when they see the pictures that they start seeing a variety of applications for that image, like one of our clients may not where she may not put one of those pictures of her in her lingerie on her facebook page, but she would absolutely she could feel very comfortable about wearing that and not feel like she's like, you know, you know, showing too much. And so by giving your clients a lot of variety, you're not only making the experience a lot more fun for the subject, but you're also creating a lot more potential for sales for you in the future, and that's I'll take the bottom line is, is that this is our profession, it's, not our religion and let's make it a good profession, be well paid for our craft in our talent. So also I want you to pay attention to the makeup that's been put placed on her the makeup is in keeping with the style of her garment it all works in tandem if you don't usually work with a makeup artist, get somebody to work with you especially going to do both a good war or glamour that kind of thing hire qualified makeup artist to work with you it's so much fun one of the things that I d'oh about every eight weeks or so I have a hair salon in northern california called wild orcas and wild orchids the salon is owned by this absolutely insane woman she is she has no fear of anything and she likes to try new hairstyles and new on drily shake it up with the hair and makeup and and so she'll call me she'll say baby let's do hair wars and basically what we'll do is I will do all the photographer for free she brings in the she does all the hair and then she provides a makeup artist and then we bring in models to come in and photograph and we just do put this game what if what if I rapture in barbed wire? What if we used you know the windows as our background? What if we did this or that and the idea is this that we we create all kinds of fun experiences using our subjects and this isn't maybe necessarily literal photography mean when you reckon somebody and barb where it's a little bit on the weird side it's not like I'm ever going to have a client who's going to actually say could you read me in bar bar it's kind of like weird like that but the what the way that I use that is because the experience is so much fun for both of us ask for me as a photographer I may be photographing a wedding the next weekend and maybe there's a piece of texture on her gown that reminds me of the barbed wire maybe a little texture on that barbed wire is something and then it leads me to a creative thought and that's how you learn to be creative I'm not in the least bit creative I mean I never have been I'm not one of those people that I would sit there and work really hard hard hard trying to become creative but I have found that the more that you expose your brain two color to imagery of any kind to textures and teo teo a variety of different kinds of experiences photographically that they put little lines in your brain and then they pop up in the one you just don't even think about you may be out doing landscapes and something you know a creative thought pops into your head based upon a fashion shoot that you did you know the month before. And all of these things are designed just to give you an excuse to play for the day and I think it's really important for us as photographers to designate one day every so often that's just ours to play and you don't have to worry about impressing people you know you could make all kinds of mistakes and at the end of the day folks we don't learn from the things we do right we learned from the things we that we make mistakes on doing and I love mistakes I think they're my very best friend because I learned what I'm not going to do again maybe you take me a couple of tries but me and you learn so much from the things you do wrong so let's go see all the things I'm gonna do wrong now that you could learn from okay okay come on q t okay we're going I want to work with this our little red chair again and the reason is is that I think the color tones of what she's wearing are going to work very very nicely with this so let me just see how I want to use this how I want to use this environment with you um the first thing I think I want to do is let me try let me have you can have you stand in that chair for second can you do that in your heels ok, I'm not going to want you to have your heels on in this so let's take your shoes off and just I want them to drop on the floor because we may use this is a prop and so I wanted to show and so they may we're just gonna let him fall this way I wanted to kind of fall like something like that so it looks pretty random um ok are you ok that we know you're not going? You're not going to get crazy on me and you know what use you're gonna back up in the chair because I kind of want your butt kind of pressed up against the doorway can you do that? Can you get back there enough to where your butts on the kind of right there just like that offend you need a little bit beautiful. See, I knew this was gonna work for you. Now put your hands on your hips right there love it. Do you see how this is really working for you know we don't have any light on the front of her face so I have two choices like in turner face back towards the light source over here to turn your faces when mrs oh, I love that boy does that work for her hello? Okay man let's, grab a camera here and let's play a little bit so let's see how little christina looks here let's see if I can get an exposure here correct? Here okay let me see how that's going to look from here um how's that looking daddio hey christina with your eyes that's why I want your eyes to be so turn your face that way a little bit more that we really more chin up a little bit beautiful oh that's awesome with your eyes right here missy beautiful love it gave me a little bit of animation can I have you bring your hands over your head and do this for me just like this and kind of record hand around your arm right there love and then turn your face this way towards love it oh that's beautiful hey john john can I have a little bit of reflector on her on that left hand side right there ah some let me so let's not get crazy now, lud awesome perfect record eyes downward love it ah working for me, charlie and that's beautiful, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect. You are doing so good. Ah, a lot. Bring this back arm down and I want you to kind of hug yourself of this side right here wrapping around you right here and bring your yeah, I like that turn your face again towards that window right there lovely chin up a bunch eyes down right there lovette awesome right they're beautiful they bring that arm away from your shoulder right there this one right here that's on your head right there just bring it down and wrap both arms around you right tight like this now usually we can't get away with this kind of look we don't I want those arms tight around the body you see how that's looking see how it's added ball to her and we don't care for that let me have you hop off that chair for a second scooter okay, now I'm gonna have you sit down in the chair again this time but this time what I want you to do is I'm gonna have you sit I want you turning your body this way and you're going to sit on lee on this thigh right? You're so screwed a whole bunch almost I want you almost fallen off that chair right there good actually scoot in the church is a little bit more right there. Good job now let's say you cross this leg over this one and if you want to put your shoes on that's fine missy we don't want to get crazy here and see if your skirt so let me back up a little bit and see if I can get how this is gonna work for you shot like that beautiful very nice don't you lean into this shoulder right here beautiful, but this this arm across bringing across your leg, you this lean into that arm right there love it and then shoot up a bunch. Nice. Awesome. Now I'm not too concerned. This is a bit more editorial for her. Love it. Okay. Turn your feet towards me. A whole bunch now. Stern, turn, turn, turn! Turn up to be careful. We don't wantto get crazy here. You know what I think I'm gonna have? You do. Can I have you let's? Get the john. I want to bring her up there on that on that blah, blah, blah. By the way, you'll find I used the word blah, blah, blah quite often. When I can't think of what it is I'm trying to say it happens to women my age. We can't remember what we said. Five minutes that's because you haven't mastered that. The thie bambini jha. Oh, there you go. Okay, q t we're going, john, you're gonna help her up there. I had this I love love love these kinds of windows. I think there's so much fun to work with. And what I want to do is I want to do a couple of images of her you can for your shoes on scooter. Excellent now q t come over this way john john you're gonna move your butt out of the way right there good job and what I want to do is I want to do a couple of images of her these air not hi, mom pictures in other words she's not gonna look at us, I want to do a couple of images of her that are going to show that are going to be more of a silhouette so I don't want that straight vertical line coming out of her head so scoot this way just a tad missing about half of that right there good job now what I want you to do is turn all the way around on me so your backside very, very good excellent and member high cell told you showed you to separate your feet about shoulder's length and then push your hip one way or the other toa once love it, bring your hands up on your hips right there lovely chin up a bunch of can you move your hair off that shoulder a little bit? Yeah, because I don't know the reason I'm moving her hair off her shoulder there is that I don't want those that hair growing out of her chin and if the hairs on that shoulder is going to make it look like she doesn't have a beard it's not very attractive bring your knees closer together baby you will see how much better that's going to look for her when you we don't want that leg too far out. Because it's gonna make her look appear heavier with your I want to lean in the shoulder. That's closer to john. Lean towards on that shoulder, lovette, chin up a bunch. Oh, yeah. That's. Fantastic it. Oh, that looks awesome. Awesome! Awesome! Awesome. Beautiful, gorgeous. Hanging right? You're beautiful loving it. Oh, this is really cool. Okay, scooter pie. Do this for me. Beautiful not don't look at me. Just look straight ahead. But turn your face towards me a little bit. Love it now I'm moving myself so I can get that vertical line from growing out of her head too much. I don't want to be right in the middle of her head. Love it. Awesome. Right there. Good. Right there. Perfect. Perfect. Good job. Excellent. Ok, mister, can I have you do this for me? Take both of your heart here, john. Can you hold that for just a second? Can you just bring your hands over your head like this? Not. But you're gonna face away from me and push your hip right there's pushing in the other direction this time. Beautiful very nice and look at me a second and I want to lean back into that shoulder a little bit right there love it beautiful all that's nice and can I have you just kind of stretch your arms up like you're stretching love it love it love it right there good job perfect yes like what that pose like do you care about both of her heels being kind of pointed at you good question actually in yes I would care about that so what I would like to have her do is I want you to bend that that front me can you just spend a little bit towards the other leg and misty did this just do this for me with your foot like that but bring your foot a little closer to your the leg beautiful very, very nice and I bring your arms down and just stand up nice and tall for me good job excellent and keep that hit pushed to the to the left I love it see how much that's going to really look that could be a very cool look for her to not turn your face a little bit to the right you know did you hear me? I just said the word r I g h t and left and you guys should have busted me on that and you didn't love it chin down a little bit messy asked. I'm very, very nice let's take her now and I'm gonna move her over to the wall and let's just do a couple more images I'm gonna shoot from the floor this time, bambi, the internets noticing you're not using any flash, haven't I don't know, no lights? I mean, you're just naturally want to use lights in this in any of the stuff that we're doing right now. I prefer to use a soft light, which is that the light coming through windows? Why would I bother? Can we kill these lights? By the way? Um, I would there's no need for us to use flash or anything because we have a very beautiful quality of light falling on her face naturally and it's been my experience that sometimes when you start introducing flash photography, it gets so flashy that people it's like, oh my god, I'm getting my picture taken, and when they start realizing that they're having their picture taken, it loses the fun of having your picture taken. I don't know why, but I just find it for me. I like I find that this is just a little bit more comfortable for my subjects on, but also we have a lot more, we have tons of freedom, I mean. Why would I bother look at the light on her face it's just gorgeous ok, so I'm missing I want you to can I move that loud? That lamp right here and you're gonna I'm gonna have you push your hip this way can I have you crawl issue it looks like if you cross your legs okay uncross your legs and now I want you to bend the opposite me this one on this side right? You're beautiful look at how much difference that is except that was your point your toe just you're going to rule your toe like more bring it on bring your knee close to the other leg beautiful and now let me have you just bend your elbows a little bit kind of talking behind your waist love it love it bring this one hand down on this side right here love it oh my lord does that work for her that's actually quite beautiful that's very nice let me just bring this down a little bit right here right there, gorgeous really see how we're exposure wise I need increased my exposure a little bit love that reagan dynamite absolutely so that's so that's looking nice hey missy turn you that's all I wish you the slightest turn of her faith right there and you turn your face towards me a little bit beautiful and look at me right here beautiful I need some south out of you it's more like like we're bad we don't even it's like oh yeah like you think you're going to mess with me you talking to me bring your chapel whole bunch like lovett dollars oh that's it awesome but yeah I love it shut up a little bit more gorgeous love that she's adorable but notice what's happening with her shape just stand a flatfoot and now and now see how it's it just creates this real static line on her by when we have when we have too much where she's just too flatfooted I also think let me try something else I'm gonna have you walk close to the window this time not a back up and I'm gonna put you back that way right about there but I don't want that vertical line growing out of her head right there someone have use leaning against the white wall right there beautiful right there good can I have you bring your hand upon that on the window sill right there but bring your elbow like this more towards you excellent and you're going to cross that leg this way beautiful lead with your shoulder into the window right there yeah and with your show I want that shoulder up this time nice but turn your face that way love it love it love it in fact I think I want to use the window a bit eyes downwards, missy I want to have that window a bit, and I want that as part of my scene, so I know I like to move myself around, even though the window is going to be highlighting the sale this is working actually, I'm starting to feel this this is looking better for me your hand that's on this side right here just can you just put it down, bring it like a nice but roll your shoulder back away. That's not just the opposite, which you just did. Roll it this way good and not turn your face towards the window a little bit love it, chin down a little bit beautiful. Look at me with your eyes. Excellent. Now stand up straight for me and I'm gonna bring you down here again. Let's, get the ladder and I really liked I like random piece is one of the things that I've really that I find a lot that's very entertaining and fun for me is if I walk into a room and say, ok, this is what I have to work with, and I can't change anything. I'm not allowed to change anything. So what am I going to do with it the way it is, don't you just changed it, you told me you were going to something nobody actually, those air those two chairs right there are important they belong with this there's three chairs and so I like random pieces, I think it's just really fun. So one of the games that I play with myself all the time is I just tried toe I find random things, and I don't know if they're going to work or not, but the reason that you want to use this as an exercise is that it starts to train you to be prepared always so that when somebody says, well, you know, my wedding's going to be a such a such a location and you've never photographed there that you don't need to go there ahead of time to check out the environment because, you know, buildings or buildings, the inside of a building see inside of a building, this could be the inside of many churches what's the difference so you see, you start training yourself in concepts, and then no matter what happens, you're always prepared and it starts really giving you a challenge to yourself because photography can get boring if you're not if you don't pay attention, it can get boring just like any other job can, and so you want to keep your mind sharp, so okay, here he come out of here for a second, and I think I'm going to try you I want you to stay out right between these three chairs and you can put your shoes on missing poop and can I have, um let's see, john, I'm gonna start with this lens for second and then we'll go to will go to a different that's ok, see, this is going to be really pretty for her. Yes. Oh, no surprise. How about now on my okay? Okay, thank you. Wardrobe, please. Uh, ok, so now what? What's wrong with this scene right here. Um come here, kitty. Coming post are you just want me the poster? Yes. So flat footed miss just just you're a nerd, okay, try to be all right for me. Yeah, there you go. Can you move this like further like that? Just lift it up. Put it down. Okay turn. You are into this way. Okay, wait hang on a second, ok? What's he doing wrong? Sorry. Come on, you don't find ok hang on a second which way do you want her to go? I want her to face to their life ok, so if you want her to face the light where do you have to start? We start with what body part they start with the feet that's, right, so her feet facing the light or no no okay so no this is important for you to pay attention to see if he's got her feet facing this direction and now turn your shoulders this way see how the energy is kind of it doesn't it start to get a little bit awkward and because your delight the light is on this inside of the thigh right here it's heavier it's gonna make her look bigger here so let me see where you okay I'm gonna shut up down let you refine this all right first of all I mean I need to come up with a concept right so I remember basic concepts come up with how I want to look and they have ah only one light source ok can you turn towards me turn with what turn what do you want? What turns the body feet now the reason I'm being a pain in the neck about this and this is really important when you are working with clients especially on days when their logic is not reining us king and they're totally crazy you can say to somebody if you say to them the normal person you say turn this way this is what they will do promising mother knows feet stay put because you didn't tell the turn their feet towards you so you want to learn to become very specific if you wanted to turn this way tell her to turn her feet that way because if you don't I promise you on a day when you're when you have a real nervous client they're going to do that thing and then you're gonna have to work it out and you see how it takes more time to go away but now you got again not tell him another thing against you know with your feet you see if you can get it right on the first time get the art of communication down because that is absolutely the one of the most important things you got to do okay dad so the next one is the feet so can you just leave this feat relax and put it down like that? Okay. That's that's america rise your no no hang on that okay, where do we go? Come right in front of her come right front her okay, you could see from here and I know I'm being a pain in the neck but I'm honored you tell you see if he stands here you can't tell if she's done it right? Yeah if you stand there and you say pushing up towards my hand okay, now you can tell exactly whether she's done it right? Correct. Yeah, ok. You say yes is that yes or no? Okay, can you put this hand up that can you put this hand the other hand like that, okay and this is when we need to evoke emotions right? Next step. Okay, first, just start with with a straight face. Can you move your head a little bit more? Okay. Okay. Don't smile. Um, yeah, not bad. The bones right? Working that's adorable now is very cute. I'm going to play that for you, you know? And you know, each person has developed there you have it all develop your own little report language that makes things work for you. And but that's absolutely cute. See what you have in here. That's going to be your best tool is your cute accent. I'm not kidding you you could still get away with doing the old baby. You look amazing. You know? Blood look, look, I couldn't do that. I can't get away with that. I mean it. I can do it, but it's gonna sound ridiculous, but where he did it, it's like, ok, you know, she might she could actually go for one other thing that you want to do. You did a really nice job, there's a couple little refining things. You'll find that if you just have her, if you tell her separator feet and then push her hip used to just have a lift your foot up that's a guy thing you want to be really want a woman to push your hip because see with women we can push our hip from one side to the other and it's going to get that's what gives our body shape not for a guy before a girl and then one of the thing that you might want to do to create some attitude in her is with your chest just lean towards me a little bit beautiful see how we're creating an attitude in her it gives her more attitude not tilt your head that way love it cnn now you she's got serious attitude going on with your elbow push it away from you more like behind you so you know that really made so much better why is that better put you all back the way you got it folks why is this wise is not good what's wrong with this just to get by okay shut your eyes and swim you see that's what you start seeing now just push it behind you a little bit that way you see how now we start to see her face first and it's very very flattering okay make sense ok very good very very fine job can we give him a hand? Excellent ok let's let's take these random chairs and let's see we can't use this entire scene now to create a photograph some have you backup q t just a little bit and I'm gonna have you put let me have you turn your feet this way good excellent bring this but towards mine right here do you notice how what if I want her to put her foot forward I always point my toe exactly where I wanted to go and that makes it just really fast we can get exactly where we need to go this hand right here just put it right there and now with your chest you're gonna lean towards me beautiful and that's kind of where I want you to go in fact that maybe take that front foot instead of bringing in front tuck it behind you like that much better but turn your hips this way a little bit more turn your hips towards me this way see even bambi gets it wrong at times uncross your legs and now I want you to bend that back leg and bring it back like that beautiful that's much better I think that works better however and I could see her hips she's ok like that cause she's a tiny girl but I think I want to shoot from a low camera angle just for fun I need my twenty four to seventy uncle john can you can ask you a quick question yes benji would like to know why you till your camera and not have it perfectly horizontal or vertical what does the tilden shot do or emphasize that is a great question camera tilled is going to add it adds a bit of it makes things less predictable also when you have lots of vertical lines vertical lines are extremely masculine and in order to break that that masculinity you have two camera till because when you camera till it vertical lines may cut things in half they really literally split the picture into whereas you find that if you do some camera killed that it softens those lines and they don't look so masculine anymore and when we have all of these horizontal brick lines going here I really want to soften that I don't want to be too literal the other thing too is that when you do some camera tilt like that it's really great you have to worry about trying to make the lines absolutely perfect horizontal and absolutely vertical so there's many, many reasons to add a bit a camera till don't get crazy on the camera tilts camera till works for editorial images in other words, images that you're their bit fashionable like this like what she has on dictates that camera tilt works when we were photographing our little couple earlier and we have a bride he's wearing this beautiful perfect ball gown or this perfect you know little tiara something that's just rolls thrill more precious and more bride like camera to look stupid it doesn't work with that particular couple with that person because it doesn't fit the tone of the of this photo shoot of that session so camera till has its place but the images that work well to put t camera children images that have more playfulness to him so I think that's where we're going to go with this little girl right here let me just get down on the ground um we might need to use that boom to get my fat butt off the ground but oh, I love this all right, I'll tell you right now this is gonna look great all right precious you said you were going to give it up to me and give me something different I love it shut up a little bit la donna yeah, awesome tilt your head that way chin up though really play for that life for you so this is going to be fun I'm liking this see this makes it this take something like silly like chairs and just use it a little bit more of a fun look, okay? Q t I want you to park your booty against this chair right here and turn this way right here oh, I love it already I like it but I want to tie in these two chairs over here so take your foot and put it up in the back of the chair right there this right here a beautiful election I like that tall with your back and you're gonna lean towards and, you know, take your hand on this side right here and just pull your skirt a little bit like you're actually, but I want you to pull it like that way excellent. Just like that. And grab your other hand and grab your skirt with that too beautiful and this hand right here. Bring it down like below, like on your thigh, right there. Like more on the bottom part. Yeah, right there like that. And bend your elbow right there. Beautiful. Very, very nice. Look down your skirt. Right there. Beautiful love and dolling. Excellent. Right here. One, two, three. Start laughing for me. I need some left or going on. Awesome. There you go. See, you know, she just has no personality whatsoever. It all a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful dead is just adorable. Gorgeous. Okay, qd now I'm gonna have you come and I want you to sit in front of the chairs and I want to do a couple of things with her. So the first thing I want you to do is you're going to sit on this thigh so your legs are going to go this direction. Um, you got to stay on the ground, can you see the one you might sitting down? Okay, scooter legs over this way. Beautiful. And now roll onto this thigh right here. And the first thing I want you to notice. Oh, hello. This is going to so seriously work for you in loving it. Okay, the first thing I want you to just lay your knees right on top of one another. Now, I want you to look at her legs and notice how that that has done nothing but add weight to her. You see how it adds bulk? Because one leg is sitting right on top of the other leg. The next thing I don't want to do is I don't want to put a lot of weight on this shoulder. So the first thing I'd like you to do is to take your bottom leg. Put it underneath your top leg. Beautiful. And now this top me. Bend it more and then drop it down to the floor. Beautiful. Look at the difference in the way her shape is laying. Now, do you see? Look at how beautiful and graceful that looks. See now we've taken her body and we've given her skirt your whole body this way a little bit. Good job and skip back that way a tad oh hello this is going to look amazing from a really high camera angela's well, I love this this is a really nice way to give your subject a lot of shape and a lot of kerr you see bring your like right on top of the other one see how that's just taking her making her look bigger now ben that top leg and then drop it down you see now we go from here teo here and then we have this waistline here and then we have hip and then it goes down the legs so it's very, very much more flattering yes, I mean, what if you wanted that look, but would you like ever do that and ask her not toe put weight kind of work her leg and actually hold it up so it's not squishing another one if you wanted something more symmetrical like that well, I'm sure you could do that usually don't you like that? I really I just want I see I say that if there's well that's not what I say but in the rules photography if there's a joint that you bend it and hey, just put your legs straight one on top of the other let's see, I think I'm a diver that's just doesn't really look all that great, you know I didn't mean like straight straight but kind of like that you know not that would bend your knee a little bit more a little well that wouldn't work fine but still look what it's doing to her thighs see how it's because one defies basically on top of the other if she had really tiny skinny little bird legs and she was like almost anorexic then this might actually be a good thing cause that it could make her book her up a little bit but you know if she if she wants to have a little bit more curb in that need just a little bit more and you don't have to drop it all the way to the floor but even with that their separation between those two legs and we get this shadow right here which is actually very very flattering us well now the great thing about this is that we don't really have we have nothing this is not any fancy background that yet it's got a really interesting appeal to it let me just see I might move you actually this is about where I would shoot this from this somewhere in this realm can I have my letter dad because because why you why I like it right there thank you michael that's excellency you're keeping me on cue your pal there is this why I'm going to shoot from a higher camera angle I want to be I want I don't want these lines growing out of her head you see if it's horizontal line like to see how close it is to the same line of the head so if I'm shooting from the floor then there's going to be this is going to be competing with their head and I'm not going to be feeling good about it you see these to me these random chairs are interesting because of this it goes these two chairs point to my subject and then we have this chair right here that kind of cleans it up finishes it off so it kind of goes almost into a semi circle I just find it interesting on but me so it looks like appeared this may look like crap but if you were doing family portrait's and those were the people right yeah exactly you know what that is? You know what I'll tell you michael that's exactly right if it were we could be doing family fortunes and it doesn't really matter what the subject is because you want to have random you want to put the people and stagger them a little bit it just looks more fun yes, I would not want all that weight on her arm but hang on a second katie tall with your back beautiful and you're gonna put the weight more on your butt ok? Beautiful very writes scoot this way a little bit missing beautiful see now if we just change that center of gravity a little bit right there lovely that's much better for me turn your face a little bit towards the window I love it with your eyes right here, missy beautiful very very nice I think this is really just a little bit interesting I'm liking this a lot very, very good let's see how we're doing here? Could one of the other reasons I liked this higher camera angle on her is because I don't I'm not worried about the angle that's the horizontal lines across the back which could be a bit of a distraction for her hey, do me a favor, dad, can I get you to just move those chairs out of the way now let's just shoot her just the way she is nice hey, scooter pie right about here for me turn your face this way a little bit. Okay, very nice. Okay. Watching with your chin to lean towards me a little bit beautiful gorgeous gorgeous, gorgeous stunning I want more of like it like like huh? Just really your soft chin up a little bit you're gonna look at me with your your whole face not just arrived this seed that is beautiful to see what happened with her face when she lifted her chin like that I'm hanging on to just increase my eyes so a little bit here beautiful very very nice this hand right over here just kind of put it through the back of your hair like this love it awesome that's nice good girl chin up a little bit more and don't put a lot of weight on that shoulder for me better what a gorgeous angle that is on your face love it actually I need some laughing once you three laugh out loud for no reason though but like this excellent there ugo awesome! Perfect right? You're good good job beautiful so there's so many things that we could do with her the cool thing about this kind of an environment right here can you give me the one thirty five on here is that this background is just is so nothing to me I don't even care about it's so cool because I have that really pretty light on her face um and the thing that's great about the background is it's not overpowering her it's not a lot lighter atonality than her face is in her hair sometimes if you have really light carpet you're somebody with really dark hair that white carpet starts pulling my eye away from the face and in just about one minute I'm going to get let's see who hasn't had a chance to photograph yet okay, good okay, right turn your face this way a little bit missing beautiful love that right there good job turn your face that way just eleven more chin up a little bit excellent very, very nice right in there is awesome beautiful love it, darling whoa that is quite a small on your face now no big toothy small this time sit up tall for me just like that but turn your face just a little bit nice excellency I lose it if I don't get it right and if I don't get her that I need the emotion on her face and I was starting to lose it there hanging him in here I'm gonna come down then we can ask you a question yeah photo nater had asked what are the differences between photographing a professional model and an average person person and is there a difference in the way direct them great question there's absolutely no difference in the way that I direct him first of all, I very I can't I very seldom work with a professional model I mean very, very self maybe once a year most people that I work with are just average joes. In fact, you turned I'm gonna do one more picture for and that I'm gonna grab in one of my people here I'm going to show you what I would do if that I would do anything different okay in fact is where's our producer at so let's I don't want to photograph her whole day long turn your face this women see on your face that way a little bit love turn your face that well gosh that's gorgeous for you shut up one more time right but I need a little bit of smart almost a smart beautiful gorgeous that's my girl beautiful that was a keeper I'll tell you right now kiddo that was awesome I'm loving turn your face that way love it more baby love and daughter yeah ok good okay, now you're out of here for a second can you please put your pony tail back on you looks ok okay now I just have a real quick question are you a professional model okay you're not a professional model right I know well hey that's the whole idea okay so I figure if I have to be looking this way you do too okay so come on over here let me get you sit down on the ground for me excellent do we practice it all don't you screwed over this way a little bit what I'm looking for when I'm photographing anybody it is the first thing I want to do is I want to find out a little bit about them as I'm photographing I'm paying attention to their face I'm looking at their their the anatomy of their face in her case I'm going to shoot into the part like I like I did cristina, I'm going to turn your face this way a little bit more right there. Let me see how that works with your chin lean towards me good with your shoulder on this I'd love it love it love it love over she's adorable excellent. What a hottie I'm telling you right now. Awesome. Perfect right there. No big to the small. Whatever you do do not small like a were so bad we don't even care I think funny party is this awesome? Perfect. Yeah, there you go. Awesome. Actually, no, I like that. Put cover. You're going like that here. I want you here in your face. Nice. Oh, actually, hang on. We almost had to kill all of these crazy things just getting them to relax a little bit. You can create so much fun thank so much fun with them. Turn your face this way a little bit more beautiful and that's exactly what I want a really nice big guy. So drop your chin a little bit. Oh, that's adorable for you love it right there. Good job. Look right here, missy want you three? No, small, real quiet. Very nice. Don't you think about that so awesome, you know, now I'm just burning up frames I'm getting I'm getting I'm getting in her comfort zone I'm going to turn myself this way a little bit. Haley turner, come towards me this way. A little bit right there. Turn your feet the other way. I want to see the other side of your face. Come around. Come towards me. Little bit. This way. Beautiful chi wanted a bit of hair in your face right there. You just like that. And I want almost covering that eye right there. Yeah, love it. Oh, yeah. That's, my girl. Very nice. Chin down a little bit. Turn your face this way a little bit. Right there. Beautiful. Chin up a tad perfect right there. What's your boyfriend's name. I forget none of it. That's. Exactly how I'm gonna photograph anybody. You see it to me, it's. Not a matter who, whether they're a model or whether who they are. It's. Two things. Number one, find your pretty light source. Find your pretty lights are saying, oh, my god, pirate want to shoot you from up here? And then once you have got your pretty light source, then you I want you to get comfortable with your per subject. I'd like you hear a little in your face right there love what you're doing right there I wanted almost covering that I nice right about there beautiful love it chin up a little bit more and turn your face that way gorgeous tilt your head a little bit nice parts her lips just a tad no eyes that's adorable doll like you're doing so great maybe turn your legs a whole bunch that way more and then turn your face back towards me I tilt your head that way love it nice very, very nice gorgeous chin up a little bit see it's important that I get a little bit more I've got to get her I want to have her um um I need to get down a little bit lower on her right there. Don't move that well that's awesome for you really good. You know you're doing great right about there look at me a second right here. Beautiful got it, got it and got a good job. Okay, the whole and of course, sometimes we're gonna get a few blanks in there, but the idea being is that it's about give you could get your subject comfortable, play with him a little bit and I mean, I'm not I may get cracked the first ten frames might be not not be what I'm looking for, but the most important thing to me is to get them comfortable once they're comfortable and they have and you have their trust then they will do anything that you want. Christine, come here for a second and I think it is let's. See? Let's. See who hasn't had a chance to photograph yet yet, terry. Come on, terry it's, your turn missing. Ok, what I want you to do, terry, is, uh, that's a really cute picture for she looks precious. And she, um one of the thing I want to mention before we move on is I want you to see one of the dimensionality concepts that I want you to pay attention to. Is that our main lives come from here? We have a one. This is a single light source we're working with today. Just a single light source. If we wanted to have two lights that we might bring in a reflector to fill in her face a little bit here. But even with a single light source, you can still create dimensionality because you want to look for something in the background that has a highlight on it. Naturally. And if you look at our wall right here, would you agree with me that there's a highlight here? So I would not photograph towards that wall right here, this one right here, why not, why would I not shoot in this direction at all? You mean like if you're standing there? Yeah, why would I not besides the fact that there's a lot of stuff over here, but why would I not use this environment that doesn't reply? Because there's nothing in the background that gives me any dimensionality, there's nothing at all back to see if those dead right behind me, my I'm like person and the dead behind him, you see that goes however, here would you agree that there's a highlight on this wall right here? So you see there's a highlight on my face, and then we have a bit of a highlight in the background to separate the hair from the background that becomes especially important when you're working with somebody that's got dark hair, dark hair like either of you two girls, you would want to have some sort of something that also is a bit of a highlight in the background. It doesn't have to be real bright, but it just needs to be a little something if we wanted to add a bit of of light to our background. Is this bad boy plugged in? Um, just just plug it in really fast, just like just so we can show that this might look like, but you don't have to have samarra lights or anything, you don't have to have anything fancy all you need is something to illuminate your background, so I generally try to walk around the room and find natural highlights in my background and this is a really important thing to train yourself on especially if you're a photojournalist and you're shooting weddings because it's not just the act of taking pictures of people you know, running down the street or interacting with one another that makes a good p j image what makes a good photo journalistic image is an image that is still composed it is still there's good compositional elements there's beautiful lighting, innit? And you do not have to engage with your subject to get that beautiful like you just have to know where you need to stand in relation to the light source and that's subject to get that to give you an example if the two of us were engaging in talking let's say that this is the bride and I'm her mom and were just like, oh my god it's blah blah blah blah law where would you want to stand in relation to us to get this photograph now you could easily stand here ok? You could stand in that direction, right? Where is another maybe a more interesting camera angle for you to stand and get the photograph to get a better picture of us engaging all this's your big day? Oh, I'm so excited how about, like behind thank you that's exactly right? Yes, you could go behind me but not just behind me where specifically michael, would you want to go in relation to our highlights in our background? See, we couldn't just shoot anywhere we wouldn't want to shoot just this way because look see it's dead back there see how did the light is back there but this direction see how there's that that natural highlight back there we could use this kind of area because then there's a bit of that highlight that kind of breaks it up the picture of it does that make sense? So you want to walk around? You're seeing a little bit and I have to tell you, if it were me photographing her that's where I would probably somewhere in that realm and I would use mom as a support she would be my support person it would not be necessarily about the two of them would be about the bride's face as her in her mom interact with one another also when I'm doing p j images, I love getting up a higher camera angle because and my little ladder goes everywhere that I go it's so so important for me to have it because you'd be surprised how much more interesting images look when you change your perspective and you photograph from higher camera angle one of the things that you minimize are distracting elements. For instance, if you're photographing people dancing on the dance floor you see that door jamb over there see if I were only five foot one if I were photographing people dancing that door jim might be cutting right through their hands. If I were photographing terry, it certainly would. But if I got a higher camera angle and stood upon my ladder, I could get an amazing image of people dancing without having those horizontal lines coming right through their heads. Does that make sense to you? Ok, so miss terry, go ahead. I'm sorry, linda, how do you go about taking a lot or through the wedding as you're shooting? Do you just spray it with you? Great question, linda. What I do and what a wedding. Unusually we bring our ladder in the room and then wherever the deejay is that's where my ladder goes and I just tuck it behind where the deejay standard the band is somewhere out of sight and then when they have their first dance my assistant just brings it out to the edge of the dance floor and he knows that I want to photograph where there's some sort of highlights in the background so maybe for me, if the band is right here my lighter is not going to be here it's going to be over here, why because I would want some sort of context as to what I'm photographing what is what is this happening and I want to be able to see that there's ban people up there and there's also lighting on those individuals general if it's a deejay stand I might be a little bit more off to one side because I don't really care about seeing the deejay but if it's a live band I definitely would want that I want to see some of that highlight in the background to illuminate my subject you know, to just give them a little bit of context as to what's going on um otherwise if it's a deejay stand that my my ladder is gonna be somewhere like that that's the deejay area somewhere in this periphery somewhere in this area I want some sort of highlights in the background so I want to be shooting generally somewhere like this direction I probably wouldn't do so much so much natural light shooting in that direction I would probably do a little bit more photographing in this right this direction because I want that background highlight does that make sense? Yeah ok so miss terry okay it's your turn to missy can I use a chair? You can use whatever you'd like to this is your picture I think and I'm going to get that background see ok she turn your body towards me making this hard on myself, aren't I you do a great terry already. I like where you're going. Can you take this arm although on the chair there lean your shoulder back towards me and I want you to take this leg cross it over here. Take yes that's perfect but you just over your knee now lean towards may with your shit this shoulder perfect. Tilt your head back. It's looking pretty. Cam, please see you lean your shoulder towards me just a little bit more nice uh, hand looks funky that's not working actually had a better the way you just had it with that and doing just that hair but more can you turn your hand like this? No, actually that's better let your fingers just fall naturally. Can you point your toe down? Well, sassy, more lean towards me with your chest. There you go. I like your face just like that. That's perfect, beautiful checker light don't you tilt your face up towards me? Just a little bit? Okay. Here's, your center focus center. I always use the center focus, but the center focusing point is the most accurate. And so I always just tend to use the center focusing point cause it is the most accurate within our kate now and then once you take this, I want to just I wanted to sit refine it a live it oh can I I want to take your put your left here on your leg disputable go down toward your on your knee a little bit more perfect now when you use the letter sir don't you that's beautiful just beautiful turn your face just a little bit more chin up just a hair perfect they look through the lens huge grand it's pretty no give me one of those uncontrollable lapse that bambi makes you d'oh there you go, gorgeous gorgeous beautiful how would you change it? Would I change it? No, I just want you to come and I want you to look at a couple of different things. First of all, um the first thing I want to do is let's try one thing here uncross your leg cross the other leg reason I started her legs because the energy, the energy when you have the other leg I would probably want to see a little bit more knee, but only because I mean I don't want to show way up on her thigh, but but this is a head thicker part of the leg yeah and it's going to make her legs look heavy if its currency that right there makes your legs look fat make sure likes a heavier whereas if we just bring it up to the knee just a little bit above the knee it just slender ized her legs but now uncross your legs for a second and that cross this one back see when you create see how the muscle right here's a cadillac it's making the catholic bigger because the weights on it so bite and it also is kind of a contrast to the way her body your positions here and then you're kind of talking it's like you see how it's kind of the energy slowing back that way so if you across the lake now and then start and then cross this one right here or another negative okay, now let's try malicious refined this a little bit differently. Okay? Flip onto your hip here and I'm crushing likes beautiful flip your hip a bit more good see now you consider you could have that front like just like that and it looks fine stretch off this back leg and then brit bend your front me a little bit more and bring your knees closer together beautiful okay, so there's a lot of you can do a lot of variety and in the way did you post her? But one of the thing I wanted you to watch is to notice is I want you to look at even from this camera angle I photographed her and for some reason my camera didn't take it okay, well, that would help the only good picture I've taken all day long I totally lost it. That was a really good when people okay, but the thing I want you to notice is that if you turn your face this way missy look at the nice rim light we have on her face here. It's absolutely gorgeous here and then look at this beautiful high light we have back here on the wall this modeling right here move this little piece right here. This is a little bit of highlight right here. This is what I'm talking about. We get this nice little highlight this built in highlight back here and it's a very, very flattering, flattering angle on on her and then we get a bit of separation and I'm not showing the window behind your turn your face that way scooter just like that a beautiful love it perfect right there. Gorgeous. Turn your face towards me a little bit and look at that ugly dude right over there. Beautiful. Bring your chin down a little bit right there. Actually, you know what? Your arm that's on the chair can you just tuck it behind the chair like, good drop it down you don't turn your face that way and this is a real tight shot of her face, so I'm not worried about her arms or anything chin down a little bit and just look down right there excellent we see how much but gosh, that looks really felt doing nice see how that's really gives you just a little bit of a highlight and so it's a really great and I'll tell you what now would look better actually now that I see it especially this is a perfect example of when you want to have camera tilt turn your face away for me just a little bit missy and now do you see why you'd want to get a camera tilt your chin lean forward a little bit messy good and that with your eyes just look straight ahead beautiful chin up a little bit beautiful and I want with your chin to lean forward jump a little bit lovely chin up a bit more and I want you look up with your eyes a little more turn your face towards me just a tad love it love and look at that ugly dude right there learn and awesome I need some like give me a second missy tilt your head this way a little bit and now look over their lovely turn your face away from you just a tad more work right? Right excellent um because we have all those horizontal lines this is why how you got to soften it so by having that were not really screwed that one up that night but by the way you want to get rid of those horizontal lines that's when you have those lines they they start making this picture look a lot more masculine and we don't want that so we want to make it really really relaxed and very casual ok last but not least I want somebody else to let's see relax for a second missy um let's go I want to do let's get rid of this and I want to know linda I want you to come into a seated pose on the floor with her no I need you to be you need to take this and pressure just a little bit forward actually try putting your knee up the one that's on top yeah okay okay why don't you take this picture and then when you talk about it down a little bit look straight into camera chin down a little bit more beautiful and a little bit ellis weigh on your okay all right and relax you bring this put on front of the other leg okay now bring your knee up yeah one of the reasons that you had her crossing her leg bringing up a little bit more let's see how that works and pointed to see now we can actually see that she has an ankle I think that might be a little bit more flattering for her but flip your weight and let's have you just lean bring this like down and now bring your other leg up beautiful but and then bring your knees a little closer together this one right here beautiful there's a variety of things you can do with the knees and the likes to make them have a little bit more so a softer look you just have to be careful if you shut your eyes and squint I'll tell you right now the brightest part of her body is right there and we don't want just the nose to be bright because then when she that's all she's going to see that she's going to see that first so you want to make sure you refined it a bit and turn the body towards the light source or use a reflector toe to bring the light back in does that make sense okay great all right would you consider pushing her legs back to instead of straight across absolutely yes I would actually john why don't you pose that for her okay work its job yeah so I'm getting back here and now we go forward into the shot here and it just drives the legs that's exactly right job now on this leak so we we start working with very good do you see how that took in that softened it up well there's a variety of things you could do with the arms well yes she does have a little bit of weight on her arms but now in her case she can handle that way. She doesn't have large arms to begin with. So it's not a real it's? Not like oh my god, I'll die because she is a little late. What you could do though, is if you just change the center of gravity, put your weight on your but not on your arm you wanna be ableto have that very, very relaxed on that arm, so put it like your weight is gonna go down so you could just you could move your hand if you wanted to bring it back behind you a little bit that way. Excellent. So see now she's got a bit of her muscles showing what would help a bit is if he turned her body a little bit more towards the light, then we're not going to see so much of the back of this arm. See, we're seeing a bit too much of the back of this arm, which is why I'm making big. You see if we turned your to skirt venezuela but more scooter see how well we don't we don't see that that part of the muscles quite so much, but then we, you know we're kind of losing with yes, it can also bring in a pillow in there or something lean on instead of putting the weight all the way to the floor bring in a pillow or something in their bolster underneath to put some armor on. So it's not hyper extended out exactly very good. Ok, can we give cristina hand? I think we're gonna critiques, right? Guys, do we have questions before we go to critiques? I think way can't great, we always have questions family always, always, always, um, prototype wanted to know when directing a model, do you have a syriza poses that you work with already? Preplanned? No, I never have anything pre planned with a client, but that's, because I don't do my shoots, I don't have a canned way of approaching on any kind of vote photo session, because it's very much based upon who that subject is at the time, there are some subjects that I'm going to be much more playful and much more interactive with. There are some subjects that you can't put in the same kind of pose because it doesn't work for them just because they're their bodies, don't, you know, we're all unique, people are just unique, and so I don't like to have a canned approach to my photo sessions. I do have concepts that I know that I want to do, I want some beautiful, tight faces, I want some beautiful curves, so I know that I'm going to do I'm gonna do posing of the body where I have them, you know, turned like with shoulders turned away from the camera. But then this same pose. For example, if I posed my subject, I could do I could have proposed like this. I could go like this. I could go like this and like that it's the same pose, just turning him a different way. So it really depends on who the subject is and what the purpose of the portrait is. I tend to be for families a bit, much more interactive in other words, much more animated with the families of such. For instance, when we photographed children, um, with little kids won. The first things that they are allowed to do is I give him a start by just having him jump on the couch. It's okay, guys, guess what? First thing I want you to, you're gonna get to jump on the couch, and I want to see how high they can jump. So we buy by doing that, they immediately go. Oh, my gosh. This is fun where we're going to have a good time with our photo session today. So we'll do that, and then we'll move over to our white wall and we'll we'll throw the ball to them. We play games where we just pitch the ball back and forth. I have to throw it back to us, just lots of interactive experiences with them. If I'm working with a mature woman, I know from mature women, I can say right now, my butt's gonna be on a ladder, it's going to be on a ladder. When I'm photographing a more mature woman, I might have first sit in the chair like you see in that orange chair over there, and then I would do a series of photographs from a higher camera angle on her because it's going to be a very flattering way to photograph or so basically that's, how I just don't have a can way of approaching things. I try a variety of different poses based upon the light source that really dig dictates to me what I'm working for. Thank you