Lessons

Lesson Info

Posing the Couple Part 2

Touch foreheads to create space if couple is equal height and so that's why you're getting that triangle in there? See that triangle in between them that space there okay, so let's move on to the head and shoulder creating romance using the team method when a couple is face to face and this is very popular when you have a couple face to face and you want them to use the head on the shoulder type of feel right and so it's the same thing where they're coming together, who my featuring here the bride right and she's putting their head on his shoulder they happen to be the same height and you don't see him but this photo still works to me because I'm still trying to feature her on lee if you get confused and you want to do this type of thing and you're trying to feature both people, you're gonna have a problem because it's just not gonna work, so you have to make a choice. Okay, so I've chose to feature her if all I see is his ear. Oh, well that's okay? Because I'll maybe do another pose f...

eaturing him okay, so they're coming in right? Their heads are forming a t aren't they? His head is going this way her head is going this way she's leaning on him I have a close your eyes instead of them shoulders shorter maybe I open her up a little bit so you could see listen let's try it come on in here let's try this right so I'm gonna have joe you're gonna be leaning in this way like this looking this way ok he's going to be the rock so you're goingto yeah right handed you're gonna come around this way and you're gonna be like this and so you're gonna kind of know well actually here you're gonna want to rest your head on his shoulder right there and he's looking at you gotta look you gotta look this way a little bit more I'm sorry, joe, right? And you come in right there, okay? They're about the same height there um possibly but that pose will work it's the same concept. Okay. All right, great. Thanks. And so let's look at different things to do here that's exactly just did that right there now they're they have a greater height difference there so that's a different height so I can actually see his profile a little bit more defined uh but sometimes you can't depends on how tall they are but you can shed you can use stairs if you happen to be by stairs right so you can create hype differences if you want or she's really short, you can get her up on something right hear that her head is well it's not quite what it be leaning on his uh chest right area right and then his just chain is on her forehead but they're face to face um and so you could but there's a height difference there so it tends to work ok sometimes if there's not a height difference it's not gonna work so you can't do it s so that's why the back to back what the one where he's doing the back that'll work for everybody that one not necessarily all the time they have to be a certain high level now I love this pose here right and it works because there's ah height difference okay oh yes you do you see his profile? Yes do you see her profile whom I featuring hear her right? And so they're face to face he's leaning down and then I've got that tea right he's his head is this way and her head is this way so it's creating a t there even though they're parallel there I just kind of love that field where he's just holding her you know, looking after the side but this will not work so this is the key this is the problem that we have when we look through all the pictures and we try to get ideas and we go all that's awesome I'm going to try that well, if they're the same height your couple it won't work it will sort of work because maybe you'll see half of his face or you just see his eyes um and you'll see her so a lot of times these poses that you see in magazines they only work for certain body types or certain types of of physical dimensions that you have there was a very I was doing this one wedding and I had this assistant okay, I'm doing my say and she is just bugging me election said she well this a sense this is just bugging me saying like scott I want to try something I want to do this I was like I saw this thing in the magazine and I really want to do that okay she'll let me get my shots first and then I give you a shot at it right some going through getting some shots I wasn't quite finished and she goes I want to try something okay? I let her try right she saw this ad in the magazine and she had this this lady doing you know, the bride doing this arm thing and her arms were really long and it didn't work at all and so what happens is is that you can invest in yourself into a lot of poses but if you don't know that they work you're gonna waste time and if you have one minute to do it don't try it because you've got to make sure you hit the single first. So that's why a lot of the poses the earlier poses that I told you they work every situation and you can start there. Then you can start doing the head, shoulder stuff and things like that of that nature and get more aggressive with your posing as the time goes on. Okay, this is another pose here. And this what happens is is you see how the bodies create the tea this time. Okay, so in this case, the bodies create the tea instead of the head's. Ok? And I use this all the time. So in this particular case, I like this because generally they were about the same height. So what I did was I put him towards the camera first. So he's gonna be appeared be larger, right? Women love that. They always love to feel like they're smaller, right? I don't know that's just in their make up or whatever. So then this then if I put her here and if I have her lean down she's going to become shorter, is that not correct? And so there's gonna be a height difference there when there is none, but I use this tea a lot see that right there their bodies are creating a t so if you're not having the head so if they're face to face or prom pose you have their heads create the tea but then in this case you can have the bodies create the t same thing here right where he's kind of moved over to the side and it's what I should do it should do that same thing hip thing right? But instead of him behind her he's just slightly in front of her a little bit okay that's creating the tea here is this classic case of the tea here another thing that's important is that you must have the couple match the same emotions because it doesn't make sense of one person smiling and laughing the other one's just straight faced you can't really buy into the photo so you have to match so if she's smiling, he has to be smiling if if they're both not smiling and closing their eyes than having both closing their eyes or whatever but it really the expression less match so this had even he's he has a slight smile there and she has that kind of expression who's being featured here first bam she is you know who I'm tryingto suit creates impact her body is at a slight angle he's taller than her so hey you know what his clad is closest to her forehead so that's where it goes I don't strain his neck or his body to tryto get to kiss her or whatever is just just kiss or whatever whatever is right next to you go for it that's where it is make it look natural same thing here now having both look away they can look at me say there's a whole variety here you know she can look at me by himself, right? They could both look away he could look down she could look down close your eyes he could look down, close your eyes and create that cross so you could just live within this little area then you can shoot it you can change their direction of their heads and shoot it wide then switch back to let's say I shoot that wide and then I should get closer I turned his head down this way and have heard looking down this way so their eyes eyes cross and they're both closing their eyes and I shoot it tight I got that too all in one posts it's just generally pulls them switched the emotion shades the head position and you've got a variety of looks just within one post. Another thing I like to do is steps because when they're sitting down I can make the groom taller then the bride so if he's sitting up this hat these weren't steps these were like rocks we were in san diego somewhere and he was higher than her ah, but it's the same thing isn't the body see the body it's creating this tea right here who's being featured here sir bride that one she's actually looking okay now lookit you could always do this with two chairs. Okay, so for example, if if if they're taller at the couple's taller than you can I actually use a couple chairs somebody so what you khun due here is what you can do is you can have you could do something like this right? So if I could have you come up here joe if you could just kind of straddle this chair this way like this okay and hand if I can only it's gonna be difficult for you to sit struck sorta so go ahead straddle that chair first all right? And just go ahead and we're gonna try to do that when you're sitting down there good perfect yet and so she's looking this way here right? And you're creating a t in your head is coming now what we're going to do it sits now she had appears that that she's a little bit taller so if you can stand up a little bit straighter talk no no keeping this year but what would you need to do is she needs to push her booty all the way to the edge of that chair if she can't so she can get lower you see how that works right? And well actually I did this bad because her open area is this way here so I should have him coming this way but in general if we moved her hair out of the way right and I create the tea here like this and these chairs already give this to me so if I have you looking off this way right and I can move that they're getting a little bit closer put your nose right by where her genius right there she's looking at me there and it's kind of like she's giving her cheek to him a bit and I take it and I'd shoot it now would be perfect right there so I don't know if my camera's tethered right, but I can actually do that helped me see what it looks like. I have no idea what these things are, so we're going to see what the story is five six okay, so go ahead on and it's like you're giving him your cheek there this way and just kind of come in and right there yeah, okay both close your eyes there getting cold, sir, they're they're not married, so if you can kind of just lean in a bit and sell it a little bit more for me right there perfect now with your eyes look at me right there look down that way and then give me a smile ha ha ha ha ha! Both of you you don't look at me they'll give me a little bit more smile jail give you something, ariel right there now with your eyes like a day that's very all right so you can get all that kind of within their thank you very much but you've already created the tea with the chairs and guess what? I'm shooting down on them they're taller than me that's just got two chairs that's it but you got some nice light and said bam look at that looks like they're happy couple you because I'm a good looking couple you know? All right can we switch back to the er all right used to chairs that's a great way to do that here's two chairs again you got a table you see this all the time do you see the tea that's creating with her head in his head and the body's there right there right their heads air facing where their bodies are but what's creating that tease their body position is creating the tea same thing here but they're on the bed this time this was another case she was taller then he wass what is the case when she's taller than him get them down sitting something like that and so I got them on the bed and then I you know howto look towards the light and it created a tea with their heads and put his nose right there by his forehead so her legs were going this way his legs were going that way same thing here okay she's doing the rollover her legs are going this way his legs are going this way he's just coming in for the kill right there bam looks beautiful this was this mansion you guys should come to me we're going to go to paris in june and going to do some amazing photos actually we have access to shoot in first sight you know where that is? Yeah way have permission to shoot in there I was going to be great. I can't wait okay anyways okay look at this it's that tea and I'm what I'm doing is body away from the what light face towards the light this is what you do when you have extreme this was like ok, this was in vancouver so the sun doesn't set until like eleven pm at night or whatever right and so it's got this is a situation that happened to you guys in the summer right? The sun stays out forever what do you do it's bright light you're going out somewhere I what I told her it was like make sure you let you feel the sun on your face so that's what she would do she's like turning it right and feeling it until she had that sun on her face and then I've kind of moved him in position once she kind of felt that son on her face and that creates that tea there she's being picture he doesn't he feel like I am a pillar of strength lied on me don't worry babe I'm going to take care of you knows towards the light feel the sun on your face this is opposite now okay this is where you're doing ah uh it's the same t but I'm steady I'm using the back so I'm using the shoulder back here versace the the angle here so this is the tea like this here? Okay? All right. So tips proposing couples um create a t either with the heads of the bodies that simply it where's the teas and that you're doing the prom style that make the heads do the tea if you're doing you know if you're doing or you could make the bodies do the tea either way but you've got to create a t some way create different emotions with it okay just don't set him up there just like how we did hear they're looking down I made him smile, it took a few shots that's literally love one minute right there got some great shots, match emotions limit couples looking into the camera I mostly do shots with them not looking in the camera and then a few of them looking into the camera to make a couple look natural, make them lean or something sit on something if you're having a hard time and they're just stiff, get them sitting or leaning on something, that easiest thing that you could do is like, put her right here, do this thing right here like this and bring him in right there it's a winner every single time you can't lose plus it's so easy for a person to lean, they're going to get the post right see now, if I'm leaning here, I can exaggerate that sucker, man, I could make that hit pop because I'm leaning against something so you could really bring out that figure, doing it this way and then just bring him in this way, leaning towards her and leaning forward like this and, um, easy, okay, what you want to do with the couple also is you want to take a wide angle landscape with them, okay? And what I mean by this here's, the technique you frame a beautiful landscape as if they weren't in the picture, so you look and you find something as if you're a travel photographer and you don't have anybody and you take a picture and you go, hey, this looks beautiful okay just by itself then when you bring in a beautiful couple is gonna even look better on top of that so you shoot the landscape first and then you bring somebody in and you see you look at it you see you know would be great if I had the couple right here okay place couple to compliment landscape create action through the landscape so what you could do is frame the landscape and then have them hold hands and walk through it a run through it or whatever and that's very easy thing to do and that's actually one of the very very popular trends now day is to take a beautiful landscape and make the couple about that small okay so that in these particular photos really the landscape is the main feature you here on a couples and just kind of accenting that so it's complete opposite so let's look at this so I completely set this up but they are fake walking there just leaning I directed every single aspect of that photo but because you know it's so so I'm leading her I'm having him lean on one foot looking out over there and then she's told and don't look down and I told her to look down but I picked the place first I went into my camera I said this is great I like that backlight coming through here okay? You guys stand right over here so I did the landscape and then I throw them in same thing here I picked out the landscape will hey this would be great threw them in there and the one thing is when you make your subject's small like this you've got to create more space between them or else you're not going to see them what happens if you had them posing close together? They be like one person there so therefore when the farther away you are you have to separate the couple mohr also not going to distinguish between the groom and the bride that's the same thing there this I had him go close and then I had them step away from mercy how she's feeling the sun on her face he's looking at her uh it's a wide angle shot here's a wide angle shot if you ok if you took them out of the picture when this still looked like a great shot even if you took them out so adding it in it's gonna be something even more special where's their face pointed towards the light right? So their faces their point towards life here this is not vegas this is a real thing that eiffel tower er I've got that in my view fight well lookit look at their faces they're doing the face to face but don't I create a t with them? I featuring her there that's that show I took a bunch of serious but they start I started with this shot first I went back and got all that beautiful um landscape and I love those windows that what there I made them stand up on top of that thing so like you can you stand up on top of that table on the whole theory with that is is you're kind of putting your subject on a pedestal like a statue or something like that so that's the field that I wanted and it was like kind of like the perfect post that that happened with that field going wide actually um I didn't actually take this picture but my assistant did but my assistant's knows to do opposite of what I'm doing so I set up the pose I you know did everything there and I'm shooting more tight but then if so if your second photographer you go ok you don't want that photographer's got the tight I'm going to go back and so then you get a wife friday if things here here's how you create an action through a frame so I just you know shot this and then I'm having them walk through the frame and take the shot same thing here uh where I saw this road and I was above and it took a little bit of doing but oh man that'd be great if they're holding hands walking through this way and so like you know, so I'm setting up this shot and then I sent my assistant down there it's like, hey, dude, don't let any cars come through so somebody was holding back the cars while they were walking through here but it's that same concept you take a wide angle shot and then you you're welcome through I don't know if you guys seen this anybody familiar with w p p I and then they have their awards they used to make these really beautiful uh, books that had all the award winning shots they don't do it anymore but this was actually on the back cover of the last time they did that album I think it was like two thousand ten so if you happen to see that album that's the back cover of that picture of this pictures of that cover ok here's another thing where you're setting up a scene but you're creating action through that scene there doing something here again, I do it even more pronounced where I set it up and they're walking through that scene well actually fake walk it just placed him in the position and I told him to lean and whatever look back but I'm shooting this like this because I have my live you because I wanted to go away above so when I'm shooting them I've got this turn down and I'm actually shooting it doesn't it look like I'm like twenty feet tall there and let him shooting it like this? So I love the new technology nowadays with the tilt screens and stuff like that you could take advantage of it so walking through here write a scene he's coming up had this idea oh climbed this mountain to get to her right? So that's that feeling that I had this is opposite where there was something moving behind them instead of them so there's movement here but it was opposite it was like the train so it just opened up my shutter and create that you know, wind and hair flying around always suggests romance so wind hair flying romance choose a high angle okay, I have them running here they're running through through a scene if you make a couple run they're on ly response is to laugh this is great with asian couples because sometimes we're a little bit way don't well, I'm different I showed a lot of emotion, but a lot of the times if you shoot asian weddings, you'll find that the couple it's hard to get the most out of him just make him run they can't they can only if you start running holy hand you're gonna laugh you're gonna smile right there's no way out of it same here where I wanted to shoot a shooting up in this case because there's thousands of people walking around cause we're in venice, italy here and so I was going oh, I got it I got to just shoot up because there's people all around me here and I want to get rid of them so I had him run towards me and I literally was shooting this with wide angle lens okay action through uh this is a workshop I didn't have ah guy and a girl so I just had them hold hands and just run across a scene laughing running, creating this emotion going through that scene this one is in hawaii just had him dance to erling around everybody a lot of people do that, but you've gotta have a variety of emotion there here, here I'm separating them so create a few shots where you're separating the couple to to create variety here's one where I'm separating them okay, this this kind of works it's that kind of like two trains would it two ships passing in the night feel to it and its lure it can have a romantic feel to it if you kind of create that I don't know if I really actually did it here but that's kind of like the feeling like we're almost we belong together but we're just missing each other type of feeling okay, okay here's your shot list for a couple get at least one of the following tight shots waist up different emotions waste up to shoot right within here then you need a wide angle shot to incorporate the landscape that it you're in that location why did they choose this area for you to shoot at or why did they choose this venue what's the key feature of this venue let's get it in the shot action shots then you've got to create some sort of action running, dancing or whatever then you've got to create some shots that you have separation between them and you got about five minutes to do this ok in your mind it's like I got to kind of do all this stuff by five or ten minutes that's what you need to prepare your mind for, ok? And if you think that way you're going to practice better and when you get into that situation, you're going to be more prepared because I'm going to tell you that's what's gonna happen that's what you're going to be given so you get okay, how would you like that it's like you get paid ten thousand dollars for a wedding and then you lose time and you're shooting the couple and they only give you ten or five minutes that's happened to me a lot just five minutes sit seriously, woody you how you're gonna feel you feel that you can produce ten thousand dollar quality when given five minutes right. So when you ask for a lot, they're going to expect a lot. You have to be ready, because you can't make a mistake that point. Okay, all right. So there you got the riding most shots. Couple should not be looking into the camera, and then, if you are and that's that field that's, that five k that's, that luxury feel the luxury feel is a photo journalistic feel. Not two people looking into the camera.