Lessons

Lesson Info

Marcus Bell: Location Shoot: Landscapes

So what we're thinking is location, we're going to be talking about, like, the broad and green just really what I'm going to be doing, you can see that was shitting outside, so we're gonna have planes going overhead, so I'll just keep on going through already. So what we've got is just like like, I got my camera already I'm going again be using mainly the twenty four to seventy, but we'll be swapping lenses, you know, in the next session when we're doing more of an urban setting. So one of the things that I've also got is just a pocket with the just in case, I'm going to do some off camera lighting a cz well, now, I probably only do that, you know, maybe one fifty one every five weddings, but it's there, if I need it's having these tools available to us, do you know just that we and knowing that knowledge, if we've got bad lighting or we want to do something a little bit more creative, a little different, we can do that, so I just want to just go back to yesterday and, you know, when y...

ou get a chance, go back to what we talked about, what makes a great photo. And so this is a ll ties in with all the rest of the, you know, the topics we've been talking about, not only do we have to connect with the couple and the people and really feel what they're feeling and give a piece of us to them, but we're gonna be thinking about a cake composition, you know, that emotion and impact in the image, the lighting and so forth, and just so keep those in the back of your mind as you're shooting and were able to then build upon on dh create something really great for our clients, everything is preparation, you know, is that I've come out, I've looked around this magnificent location and, you know, and sometimes we can come to a location like this and be a little bit overwhelmed, you know? We can sort of think about, you know, that it's two grains or, you know, it's this too much visually, and sometimes you just gotta break that down and, you know, and put it into smaller chunks about where you're gonna work, what you going to do and think about where you're going to go and give yourself options? So the more options that you've got, it means that you're going to stay, relax, you're going to become and you're going to be able to think about you know exactly the next steps you're going to hit go to a cz well and I'll give you some chips of what you can do when you need like a little bit of a break and you need to be thinking about something as well so we'll make sure we do that okay? So let's sound let's get started I want to just sort of show you the location that we've got so we've got this the beautiful landmark building behind us and what we can be thinking about as I was saying yesterday about thinking with composition in layers so we can start thinking about where we want the couple to roughly be and one of the things that you're going to see is that, um one of the things that you know like a chinese problem you know about the journey it's not always the destination that matters it's the journey along the way and that's what I think about you know with my photography sometimes is you know is thinking about the couple on dh their journey and how we can get them to you know, progress you know through from one area to another and sometimes you know it's photographers we think okay that's the time the check to the cup or you know you know it's not time to shoot but you know what sometimes that's the best moments that you capture on our wedding day because they relaxed they're really just going in step on dh going through and you'll see that happen today firsthand get straight into it we've got amazing couple and so we're gonna just jump on over through here you'll see me so go all over the place and the camera is going to try to keep up with me so I'm going to stay low key how's it going fantastic it was amazing is amazing so all right and morning very good excellent it's so balmy today you know what it's the sun's out now let's just take the gloves off you know we don't lie it's it's so I want all right let's let's go on over all right so I just um come on up you know what we're going I just thought like you know like you guys have chosen this place for a particular reason so robin and go off side I just thought let's stay here and just get some really beautiful shots eh so I'm gonna just you guys can just do what you're doing and all occasionally just come over and make some changes and tell you things but so what we're going to do you know see that like that little alcove just there I just thought like in a sick then I might just get you to walk over there you can just hang out together so that the great perfect all right so we'll be all right I just got home I just gotta get my tethering table cable, okay, so I've got my camera all ready to go so that's really important be thinking about that about you know what we're doing, where we're going and so forth, you know, I've normally on don't know if I mentioned this chest there like I don't normally have an assistant, but if I'm doing lighting, then I need something to help me on dh their role is just to concentrate on the lights and so forth so all director but, you know, straight off the bat we you know, we're gonna have, like, a shot just here as well, so I'm going to just do what, you know what I mean, I'm going to go really want and I'm gonna just just might explode exposure now I'm looking at like, you know, composition like the leading line, so I'm gonna move over here so an occasion, what I would have done is I would have paused in there because it just looks so nice, but I didn't want teo, you know, hold their momentum so att the moment, I'm just letting them just tow to relax. Now I visually saw a shot, a czar walking through, and if adam was on the other side and leading, you know, came like this, then, like it would be just a beautiful shot and he'd probably turning turning back so they're already getting into it, but I just wanted to explain the shot because and this is a really important rule because there's something happened great already and you might have missed it or something like that is that it's so important to say our stop do that again or you know, don't go ahead and just sort of like, um, you know, be just be patient, like if something's already happened even more goingto happen. All right, look, see what happen already they've turned around it's going to take these glasses off so immediately when I'm thinking is four grand, obviously what I'd normally be doing is having my seventy two, two hundred and I'm shooting here at f four see, like the now the natural hands of kim's just came down there, you know, so and then head moving forward, moving back, laughing him, looking away. I mean, these are all really beautiful moments, especially like that one there, and what I would do is now I just want to change my position just a little bit and notice how far away I am I could actually be with the seventy two, two hundred I think that's one of the like to get in nice and close and it's one of the things it's about like, you know, if you're getting too close too quickly, you know, on don't get them, give them a chance just to relax and just become then, like, they're going to be sort of feel feel awkward, no. Now, one of the things I just observed was when they were moving is, is the light the light just coming through her veil between the two of them? Now I'm going, teo, just be adjusting the exposure side of things. They're going to be getting really tricky now because I want that sun flare coming in and I'm shooting into the sun and I'm mixing, and so I do need to check my camera where I'm gonna probably under expose this now. United said they're really quite docked, but we're going to be out abroad in that up in the shop. I'm really conscious of this tree on the right hand side, because I want that in my framing and I might even come down and if I want to just get like a little bit more is that I just get this full ground as well and see how I'm like constantly thinking about it and see how they're so I don't even have to worry about the couple here, they're just doing their own thing, and we haven't playing this way haven't spoken about at all, um but what I'm trying to show is and you'll notice that the images are quite dark and that's on purpose is because, like, I've got this very bright highlight with the sun coming through the clouds and I could bring that detail back if I'm doing the right exposure and it's a bad like, really constantly trying to think about everything that's happening all right? We're under no, I'm so you get a general gift or an idea of doing that I'm gonna make my way up to them some situation where the sun's popped out and because, like, talking to myself there ignoring me and that's what you want, you know, I mean, I just went back into doing what they are doing, so if you sort of like, thinking or looking like that, they're going to just sort of I realize that you don't want to engage with them and then just goingto engage with each other because they're in love and they just got married and they're excited, okay? So I've got this, like now and I'm gonna have to just check my exposure and you gotta decide, like now if you want, like, uh, if you want the this probably shut all miss here only because I want to make sure, like exposures of right as well, the composition and look att the hands and watching all right so what I'm gonna do it like you normally would just let this role on you but I gotta get back and then you can get if you want to like you just goto try you know like with the sun coming through and obviously we didn't play for the sun to come out it was cloudy before so you gotta really be adaptive you've got to really change so so I'm in that situation with the sun and the you know with the vaio and everything like that I have to really be just checking my exposure when I mean aperture priority mind on dh I just will make the adjustments using like the exposure compensation continually monitoring but doing it really quickly at the moment you'll see I'm a little bit slow down because of the tethering just sort of delays that image coming back on the camera and so that's why that's happening otherwise this is like all split second stuff so you know what kim you know, I just this beautiful lied you know what do you want to just sort of put the flowers down or just give them toe adam and I just want youto yeah like tio and then you know what? I'm just do you wantto just lean back up against that war so and you could be there watching came in it you're just looking off that way you know and and and and just do that this is unusual for me I'm watching the steam out of my mouth come on my lands all right so I'm going to check that you keep doing that that's gorgeous all right and you know and um and it just even look over to the sand like that water yet and again how much has changed cameras he normally and and look through and but see it's all about the line you know it's like you know not so much he will get this grand location but I just sort of came in really nice and close composition you know what the background is and maybe just looking back over that way and you know and just sort of turned around backwards okay yeah like that that's it and do that one more so now I'm gonna be focusing on adam and in back kim and them back onto adam and then just trying different things that so I want to go back to that shot now so come on over came in adam is what I would love you to do is just walk across three down this part way I just want you out like two, three, three feet and I'm gonna get you on the other side and then what I'll do is like you could be looking back and just you know just look wherever you want yeah, but going that way yeah say yes so you're on the far side and let me just get in position and then you're going to be like a big favor like you but still holding hands like all right, so so again, you know, remember one of the very first shots I said I didn't go and this is where I think it's really point is that I didn't go straight to it straight away because I just knew I needed to give them time to relax and so forth and now we've got some really cool I coming through and happening so we're going to quickly do this shot all right? Just just that my exposure what let's um let's just do that one more time and, um and then just sort of like a little bit slower and a little bit more free and flowing and things like that so you could be like occasionally look back occasionally look around and if you want you know you can stop and then like just sort of take off again, okay, perfect just before you do, I just get a time out of sight. Okay? So it's important to like, listen to what I just said in those instances now I'm guarding now I've actually taken control ofthe the scene in the setting and it's really probably bordering on from a creative editorial teo you know more of creating sort of a portrait sort of sense because now there's a degree of direction and everything like that if we could probably just zoom straight onto the couple again like and if you look at them now like how they're holding hands it's cold and so then just naturally just sort of like into each other so can you see like like a recurring theme is that as soon as we stop directing they know what to do just because I just know what to do like with themselves and people know what to do with themselves so the more we tell them sometimes I guess the favor away sometimes that we're getting away from who they are as people so it's so it's important teo teo to think about that all right guys this guy through all right that's great that's perfect. So then on that second time round everything came together there was really was really natural and conceit again like they just really just you know, like a tte first the first time I did it's natural that they're gonna have a bit like a russia blood to the head and and then because and I'm going to do it all really quickly and then you can say to them you know we're in no rush let's just relax that's you know, sort of calm down and everything like that all right? So let's some comeback on over teo just the other side and I'm just gonna slip into here all right so we're gonna move all the way over now to the other side sir all right, so what I'm thinking here is like it would be a lot more seamless wth an then what we've just done it but is that always saying you know what? Why don't we go down around and along this path here and I'll say to them what in you go up that way and I'll just nip along over here and again all of a sudden they're starting teo stay journey you know I mean coming down this sort of pathway there like and I'm down here they're going to actually just naturally start talking to each other and I'll start you know, photographing them as well. So so what kim and adam do you want to just walk down towards me? Okay, so one of the things like I would be thinking about here is like composition we actually got sort of these nice lines so I just sort of take a photo like, you know why they just sort of getting ready they're just sort of getting runned up it's really called like like seriously sick old and then she's just in a like a normal wedding dress so here we go like so now you notice now like what I was able to do by taking that shot first before they came in and now I just need my focusing point down as well. So I can just sort of get a couple shots and just waiting for that mind, and now I'm actually changing my composition completely, and I'm working the shot, and we're gonna talk about that in the next session, like the six shot rule and how we can actually, you know, train, and I'm gonna just zoom in here and like, this is what I'm talking about look at that like that expression, and so that expression is like, just so natural onda often you find out when they're walking and not directing all I I told them to do it was just, like, walked down this way and everything like that is so cold, let some, you know, in a minute, I'm gonna get you both to do that again. They'll be great, but you know what? I'm like it should be walking out in front just a little bit like, you know, what we did over there that we fabulous are already see, now I'll just let them before, I mean, so what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna be going to a shot that, like I pre conceived and thought about now you're going to see certain things in here like the broadcast van and probably everything else when we go ahead and do that shot, but, um so remember to like don't limit yourself like you can always remove an element that's distracting and that's one of the things that I hope opened up your mind yesterday we're talking about like we fight a shop in you know what you know painters bringing and so forth is that you can remove a distracting element so often like you know and I'm the same is that I'll see something in front of me and go what a shame about that I can't shoot here I've always that would be the perfect location you know why not shoot it and just know that you're going to remove it and also tell the couple there's often that like I'll find like a beautiful location and like a beautiful location and you know and it's like an exit sign or something like that and I'll just you know, this is amazing to the couple when you see the proofs you'll probably see this exercise just now when we do the final prints that be gone, you know, and it's just like a little comment that we can do all right? All right, so let's say I'm going to go for a bit of a walk and he you know, like as I'm walking away from them, the couple were actually just enjoying themselves and because I've given that information to them that they're allowed to do then I just working at my lead won't be too long, but I just what we're just working out my life because I want to actually try to go even further is I'm gonna just take a shot and just to show you what we're looking at now, you see all the people on everyone, and I'm looking at my exposure as well, and it was actually I may even do this, like, before I get the couple tow walk down anyways, just so I know what I want to get before I get here, so you're not going to make it to this path, even he is just fine, and I just sort of what I'm going to do just sort of say time is that normally, like, I would shoot it here and then, you know, like, because, like, if I think there is a really good shot to be had, and, you know, and I'm going to show you here, is that what I need to really sees that pathway? And we don't really, really see that anyway att the moment, and so I'm just gonna grab that that ladder, and so what I want to do is I want to just get up a little bit higher, and I would just generally look for somewhere I can do, like, you know, you could park a car here and jump on the tire or you know have like a little ladder in your car just to get that little bit higher this is like the littlest ladder that I could find so it's not like really I would travel with something like this but yeah it should be this is gonna be interesting you know I probably went out the other way all right you know and what's great is that like is now I can actually see this pathway okay so you'll see the difference on dad just gonna come out a little bit higher in from the shot if they showed you that before now to this now obviously don't worry about the van or the people and we can then we can think about these great clouds of in front of us and then we can look at the composition is this way or this way you know we've got the choice and when they're coming down I might just shoot it both ways and often it's just going to be later that I'm going to see that which way that I prefer so what I might do if I could just get everyone teo just try to go that way so I can just like in front of the van I'll be great all right so I might even like you all right you guys if you wanna come on down I think it's a signal to them you know that can walk and and obviously we took a little bit more time than we knew this would be always just fluid and it would just be going from one location to another and another and and I just sort of show you like, you know, like I might even see like another shot as we going you know, and thinking about that but then I don't like that composition because the leading line just goes out of the frame so I need teo you know, change that there's little things in the shot like, you know, like that sign and like, I know I can remove later I would have moved it before the shot now I'm just going to go teo hers on all mode and go to the shot that I want and it's just really nice that they used in some ways like they're remembering just from what I previously told him so now that I don't have to tell them again what's happening yeah, who so cool? All right, I'll just take one more shot now I'm on my settings at the moment I'm probably shitting around six forty eight of a second at full and and then um now averages a good good question here is like, you know, like I probably shoot like these sort of scenes what we're doing and what this location stuff around for teo, you know, five point six that gives me just a little leeway and to be honest, it's not going to really make any difference, you know, in the overall scheme of things like, if I did shoot t point, if it was low light, I would be happy to shoot it like t point eight, and so it wouldn't be a problem. One of the things that's, just what I'm observing is that this's actually everyone's homework, you know, if you're listening is they like, go out, just observe, you know, and try to go to another wedding where this you're going, like, sort of as a guest, or just a zone observer of through the day, and and what happens is that you will see how this natural interaction with people in these moments just happened and you can start training you're ryan and that's what you really, really wanted did I mention how cold it wasn't? I think my hands going toe alright, godlike none and it's like I think, like everyone at home, we're going just hard enough, you know? Yeah, let's just reset, just like they have to go to the other side of that, that yeah, I thinking in australia, we have this saying, like, you know, eat a bit of concrete and hard enough so it's crazy like on the other side of the country, he liked having super blizzards so have everyone's ok on that side of the world so you know, on the other side of the u s all right again like, you know, when you like seeing these images forget about the van, forget about the people, obviously that wouldn't be there normally, you know, I was shitting just really, really wide tio do it, but you will notice that I'll bring a second camera over and shoot shoot that to get in a nice close shot as well, hey, guys, if you won't see what happened like a soon as I went to say something like, I went to have a kiss, you know? And so again, it's just sort of like, thinking about my composition, it is nice these clouds, you know, that that line, you know, you got to think about the tree on the right hand side, you know, if they do stop like that, and if you got one shot then just sort of like, you know, c mean and then go to think about, like, the rule of thirds, you know, like not leaving them in the center of interest, especially when they're walking, you probably haven't run that side of the frame, so they've got room to me and you know what? Just back up just a little bit and just stop there, stop there. Yeah, that's it that's great. I should come back just a little bit and I just want to show you one so shot and forget about the middle poll and, you know what? Just sort of come and sort of stain side beside a little bit like, but still nice and close, yeah, that's it and now, like, you know, you can just sort of get in a shot and see how they're friends between those two trees and then we got those other the trees on the other end and I'm just going to check my exposure, make sure that's because it's a little bit more critical when where doing a pose like this and that's really good, even though it's under, I'll be able to just sort of dodge that area, but I've got to bring that duck in that area down the top s so this is the framing where like, I don't think that works as well. I mean, it's nice, but I just prefer prefer this and again, like because I wasn't asking them to look at me, they went back and did their own thing and that's, one of the things that I want you to just learn is just let them be themselves you know, still do exactly what you're doing with a ce faras you know, the posing and all the sort of stars that you do now we just add this to it you know, just if you're not doing it already, you know, so so perfect let's let's just go come on down and we're going to just sort of do a little bit of flash so occasionally like, you know, sometimes people say that this light is so flat but you know what I think it's just beautiful like, you know, it's just like a giant soft box you know it's pretty pretty incredible so one thing that you could do and I'm just gonna leave them just here is that we can d'oh well, flash lucky is a bit of flash and things like that so I'm going to change my camera sitting there going now to manual andi turned my order ice off and now I had my daughter I so set then it I say four hundred as a minimum on dh minimum shutter speed it up five hundredth of a second because I might as well do it just going to need the flash and then but I went to maximum sensitivity of twelve thousand one hundred let's just have a quick look and it was probably shooting about like the shed it was about a thousand of ah um I saw it for so so it's fine all right so what we need to do now is understanding that I saw in those those what we just had so I'm going to bring it down to let's just go to make it easy one hundred I'm just going to take a shot at one twenty feet at five point six okay, now what I can do here is that's just my base rating I wanting to under expos like the background on dh then I'm going to bring in a little bit of flash to this shot so I might just bring it up to two hundred so let's uh let's get the pro photo pack so so this is uh you all right? Thank you go so that what I would do this is um um gary are human lining assistant and so and this is where like I went put anything on the stand. So, no, the most important thing about what we've just done is that we've done so much movement we've gone from place to place so when I started whenever I used to think about lighting is that you had to be in one place but you don't you just need to have an assistant that knows exactly how you work and you were so if we were going walking along this path way than what I would do is that I would put gary just in front even probably about this distance away or a little bit further, and he'd be just walking in front of them, but on an angle because what I'd be getting is that sort of rembrandt, you know, sort of star lighting so it's not gonna be flat on and and I mean, but that's could be another thing you could try like, you know, the lighting down here, one of the things you got to try to do is just angle that the lights up a little bit so it's not getting the ground too much, you know what? This huge, you know, wash of light in front of them, so you want to try to keep it natural? The one thing I do like about lighting is that it means that it's more polished out of the camera, we have a lot of those shots like to get the real magic, I've got to go into the shop and really created, but he would be able to do it, so what I'm going to do, I'm just going to try a setting, and so this is a you know, I just grabbed this off, and this is just like the profile acute be pack that I have exactly the same one it's home, and I love it because it's, you know, it has plenty of power plenty of recycle time and all that so you just gotta learn to use the dial so you got like I'm going to use just like a negative too to start with and about energy nick negative one that's all set so uh let's just some come over here gary so just come in here just about there but they are and it's just like bring that up a bit higher yep see far in the ground but it's just going to be nice now this just goes on your shoulder have you ever done the lighting are perfect so if you've never tried it I just want to sort of show you how easy it can be you know what I mean? So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to just make sure my flashes on and it's going to do a test just wait turn that one off toby gray make sure that's on on make sure this is on just turn it on and off and then just a test so could you just hold hold it just there? So I'm just now I wouldn't normally do this like, you know, we've like the bear life but I just wanted to sort of show you and so I'm going to take a shot now often what I'm doing is I got all this prepared and I'm just going to see the the output and it looks like a got a pretty good already. So so what I've got it said that it is two hundred speed former shutter five point six as the aperture I've got that on manual on the flash is that quarter pound quota palace everything's manual so then I can just adjust it and what's really important about that is then when we've got the lighting ratio perfect, then I can have the assistant and these guys just walking down the pathway, the lighting insistent exactly where I want them and everything just sort of comes together, so but yeah, let me just sort of like what? We can do it now if we want like she with a lower aye, but what we just need to do is, like, just go through and just adjust our setting. So by doing that is that I would just bring the ice so down I'd be able to bring the shutter up a little bit and it would also allow me to bring the opportunity and I can also then even bring the flash power up and down as well. So there's, so many levels that we can do. So let me just get one sort of shot there, so because I just got this framing behind with the trees, can you give me just looking towards each other?