Lessons

Lesson Info

Demo: Individual Photoshoot

So, what I would do now is I would just say "All right guys, great, awesome work" I would have you come and line up over here. Actually we're gonna' be comin', line up right here by the camera and they would come over. Now, for our High School stuff they would still have their order forms. They would've come down with their order forms. They would've of had them. I'd just say put them, tuck them in the back of your pants, put them in pockets, sit on them, hide them. So now this would be the time that we're going to do individual photos. So let's grab some of the, can someone grab me the bats, someone grab me the ball. (audience mumbles) So, the secret... To individual photographs being super consistent and easy... This paper foot cut-out covered in clear packing tape. It's like six bucks for 50 of these in Amazon. Get one of them, tape it down because we have all of our individual pictures we want the kids facing this way and they're gonna' turn back. We do that because of how our pack...

age A is set up. We want them turned into the frame. So I would come here, put it down. We have experimented in the past where we'll actually put two feet down, like a left and a right, and it's a bad idea. Because as the ages and the size of people change people will actually like, if they're really big they try to get their feet like this still. So it looks weird or they stand awkward. So we just say put your... (foot snapping) Put your foot on the foot. Boom, done, easy. Can I see that bat real quick? Outside photos we shoot outside. Photos with sports like Basketball, Soccer, Baseball, all of those we do use something from the sport. But there are things that you need to look out for when you're posing with them. So, for example with a bat. Coming out of the head. It's not a good look. So what we have to do with the bat it's we, like, kids always gonna' get in like, they're in for the hit. They're ready to go. It's not a real batting stance. So what we do is we just relax. Put the bat here, turn your shoulders. Then you won't have that bat growing out the back. Okay? And sometimes kids, they'll go like that. (audience chuckles) It's not an action shot bud'. Just stand up tall, turn your shoulders. (finger snap) Done. For the ball sports, Can you grab me that. Thank you. I'm not a huge fan of, like I'll see some people with Soccer where they go like this. I don't like that shot. It's just too much person. Specially when they're buying a 4x I don't want a full body shot. I want to see... Them. So we would bring it up. Ball on hip, turn the shoulders. Things you have to watch out for this is which way the logo is pointing. Okay? The logo has to be the way that we could read it. Which obviously doesn't matter on this. But that is something that I would be observant of. The other things that we have to be aware of when we're picking the balls that we use for these sports is, one year we went and we shot Soccer and we were doing all the green screen shots and half-way through the day I realized that they were using a green ball. (audience moans) On one of the stations. So that sucked. (audience chuckles) That was not a fun day in Photoshop. It took way more time than it should. It kinda' goes against the efficiency stuff that we're talking about. So just be aware of these things. And if you are the one who is in charge of bringing the balls there one of the best things you can do is just... (ball bounces) Bring a deflated one. Because I don't want them dribbling it. I don't want them throwing it around. I don't want any of that. So what we would do if it was Basketball. I'd have the ball here. He'd come up. I'd say "Can I get your order form?" Boom, if they don't have an order form Okay, that's cool. Walk on over there and put your foot on the foot. Go. And then, go ahead and pick that ball up. And put that ball on your right hip. Awesome. Now I want you to get really tall, like I'm poking you in the back. I'm gonna' have you turn your shoulders this way to me. Awesome, hold it, hold it, hold it. (instructor laughs) So the camera height is going to be right at chin level or slightly above. Okay? I'm gonna' have you put your hand straight down on that. Perfect. And... (camera beeps) Awesome, right here, big cheesy smile. Right here, one, two, three. (camera clicks) Got it. All right, if you guys have taken my High School Senior class. If you guys know a little bit about how I shoot. I'm big on one shot. (tongue and finger snap) So I would look at that. Boom, all right. Looks good but I'm gonna' do one more because you kinda' got your head going like this. I want you to bring your head this way. See you're like this. Tilt it this way. And then chin down just a hair. Awesome, right here. (audience chuckles) One, two, three. (camera clicks) You're good. All right, go to the end of the line. Make sure you let me know when you're back up. Okay, done. That's how we would do that kid. And I would take on that order form that number 10 envelope and I would write his frame number on it. So the frame number from that last shot was 4159-60. That's what we would reference when we got back to the studio and we started processing the files. Makes sense? If they didn't have an order form we would give them a card. It's just a business card that says it's not too late to order. Here's your image number. (tongue snap) Have your mom call or go to the website. Okay? Come on up. Go put your foot on the foot. All right perfect. So I'm gonna' have you turn your, bring your right toe, yeah, just like that. Perfect. Tall, tall, tall. (camera beeps) Big cheesy smile. (camera clicks) There it is, one more. (instructor laughs) Hold it. (camera clicks) Got it. Perfect, beautiful I love it. Go to the end of the line. All right, come on up. We'll do baseball with this guy. (audience chuckles) So with Baseball, remember what we were talking about We want, yeah let's see ya'. I'm gonna' come on and go hands on with you though. So the bat is gonna' go like this. And with kids, the problem we see with little kids is sometimes they'll hold the bat like that. It looks dumb. So you gotta' make sure that you go shove down on the bat. Awesome. Other things that we have found over the years. Stuff that I didn't even think about. Was, we did a Softball league one year. The same day that we did a Baseball league. And I didn't think about different bats. Big deal. To be sport specific. I didn't think about it. I was like "Oh, it's a bat". Well they use a bat. Turns out, it was a big deal. All right. (camera beeps) Right here, right here. You're going tough guy huh? There it is. (camera clicks) Got it. (audience laughs) All right. You're good. 4163, go ahead. Awesome, right there. And put that ball right there. Cool, turn your shoulders towards me. Perfect, right here. One, two, that is the worst fake smile I've ever seen... (audience laughs) In my whole entire life. (instructor laughs) Right here. (camera clicks) Got it, see? All right. So... (instructor chuckles) I say that line probably 400 times a week. "That is the worst fake smile I've ever seen" and everybody freakin' cracks up afterwards. (audience laughs) End of the line. Come on up. All right perfect, right there. (camera beeps) Turn your shoulders towards me. Beautiful, one, two, three. (camera clicks) You're good. So, 4166 is what we'd write. Come on up. So I'm gonna' lower the camera for her. Because you're not as tall... (audience laughs) As our last guy. Don't feel bad. Right here. Awesome, now turn your shoulders towards me. Perfect, right there. (camera clicks) Awesome, chin up just a little bit. Awesome, right there. One, two, three. (camera clicks) Oh, you blinked on me. One, two, three. (camera clicks) Good, all right go to the end of the line. So, take as many as you need to get a good shot. Take as many as you need. But I guaranteed you. I'm gonna' be embarrassed if you didn't. Did you not blink on it? I thought you blinked on me on that second one. Oh well, we got it. Hop on up. Perfect, right there. (camera beeps) Awesome. Right here, I'm gonna' have you tilt your head just a little bit this way. Awesome, chin down just a little bit. Too far. There it is. (audience laughs) One, two, three. It is kinda' fun to mess with people. Because I'm like higher, lower, higher, lower, Am I the best photographer you know? Higher, lower, higher, yes I am. All right, right here. (camera clicks) Got it, cool. All right, slide on back. All right. Perfect, right here. One, two, (instructor laughs) three. (audience laughs) So, right here. Okay, so actually, hold on. (camera clicks) Okay. (audience laughs) (instructor laughs) All right, so... Let's talk about this. Because this actually does happen a ton, when I'm shooting sports. You'll have a kid that comes up and he is bound and determined to do the game face. And they're looking at you and they wanna' look really tough. I always say we can decide as a team if we wanna' do game face for the team photo or if we're smiling for the team photo. I think you do have to pick. We all smiled for ours. We did the yays, we did the yipee. But if you're going, because if you don't address that you'll have like one guy in the team picture who looks angry. And everyone else is happy and smiling and it's weird. What we always say "Okay, we do game face for the team photo or you can do game face for the banner" but I'm gonna' have you smile for this one because your mom doesn't want you looking mad. Right here. One, two, three, (camera clicks) Got it. (audience chuckles) Or I'll also tell them "Okay we'll do it two ways. I'll do serious one and smiling" and then I'll just pick the smiling one. And I don't care what they want. (audience laughs) And no one ever complains. All right, end of the line, you're good. So that would be, you're back up? This is my first guy, okay. That would be it for how we shoot the teams. That's team and individual. Now if we're really going. (finger snaps) I should have this done in under 10 minutes. From start to finish. Like that should be easily under 10 minutes. Any questions on that? We do have a question here in the front row. We'll start there. That's my copy. So the... So an assistant is collecting the order forms, writing the number. They're like, got a clipboard, put in the order forms where? Yeah, when I was saying 4166, that's just somebody writing that. And where the assistant on the shoot would be... If I had someone they would literally be like, right here. So they would take the order form right here. Have a clipboard, come on up, stand right here. And they can help if there's posing issues. Because they're just right there. They make sure the bat doesn't go anywhere. They make sure the ball doesn't go anywhere. They're able to direct it pretty easily. The hard thing with High School sports is keeping the attention of the group. Because as soon as you start to lose it it's rough. And that can happen really easily in the line. And so that's why we like, if I have an assistant, that's where they would be though. It's to get them to pay attention and bring them up to that spot. A team like this. A job like this. If I was doing like three teams this size, 10, 12, 15 people. I'd probably would just go by myself. And I'd just bring the order forms. I'd write the number and toss them on the floor. Pick them up at the end. I wouldn't even bring someone. Because this is, it's just not that big of a job. It's really easy. And with the way that we set it up, with the lights over here, the light is positioned. I didn't talk about this but I should. We don't want the light directly behind the camera. We go a little bit over. Give it more of a portrait look. But like I said, you don't want to get too aggressive with that. Because parents tend to favor more flat lighting for this. But we don't just go super flat. But yeah, that would be the assistant's job. Would be to write the numbers. Help set up the gear, help me measure everything out. And pick up at the end. So a question had come in from Stephanie McKendrick who was saying, do you prefer a lot of those shot, the ball was being held to the side. Mhm. But is there any consideration in terms of size of something? Holding the ball forward versus back? So that would be something we would do for the banner shots. We can talk about that. Okay. That would be, kinda' we would vary that pose. But for this, that's almost how we do it all the time. And the thing that you gotta' watch for with that. That we didn't have any egregious problems with where the ball is. Sometimes I'll say put the ball in your hip and you'll have kids that go like this. (audience chuckles) Or you'll have kids that go like this. And so you have to kinda' just make sure like "No, just hold it like this" and we watch which direction the logo is pointing. But no, we don't do too much of like, this would be a banner shot. Okay. This would be a banner shot. Okay. For the team and individual stuff it's really, really consistently done with one pose just because we don't have, it's exactly what the league wants for the programs. Everyone looks exactly the same in the literature that they're printing. Which is... The selling feature. Yeah. Okay? Yeah. And a question from Old Ted, what about a left handed person? Do you take that into consideration? If they wanna' hold the bat left, yeah it's fine. We just flip it. And the lighting it's a little bit different. And it looks a little bit different. But we wouldn't make them hold it right handed if they aren't. Cool. So, that's a good question. But that doesn't like, most of the time kids just walk up and they go "I'm a lefty". Okay, hold the bat. It's fine, just do the same thing. Just point your toes the other way. When you're composing this, and you got that long arm hanging down. It just doesn't even matter to chop off fingers. Yeah. No one cares? Just do it every time? No, because, well you have to remember too we're shooting on a 2:3 ratio so what you're seeing too it's a 4:6 and it's gonna' become a 4:5... [Woman on White Shirt] Okay. Ratio for the 8:10, we're gonna' lose 20% on the long end. And I shoot tighter than a lot of my contract guys. I shoot pretty close in on what we do. One of the things that we do to help with cropping issues when we have contract people come in and work is I will only shoot with prime lenses. So I don't want them to even be able to zoom. I want, that's, the tripod is here, the lens is this distance. It's exactly the same for every single one. Ms. Simms who says, can you go over the position of the feet again? Just sorta', you got the blue foot over there. Yeah. But, is there something that people often aren't putting their feet right that you have to correct? Well, yeah it's gotta' be a natural athletic stance. And so if they're coming and they're standing like that. It just looks weird. Like if you turn like this it's not gonna' look right in the picture. So we just want them to stand close. But also if they stand super rigid, that looks weird. It's just a natural stance. And so we angle this off to the side knowing that we're gonna' turn the shoulders back. So the foot is at this angle. So we just put one down and it's a natural stance. Yeah. Great, people are-- I don't mean not to have an answer that's not an answer. But, just make it look good. Like seriously if it looks unnatural, if it looks weird it's not gonna' photograph better than it looks as you're sitting there. So look at your pictures as they're coming out and if it's, if the feet are too close, have them separate them. Cool, all right, we've got great questions coming in so you have to keep going. Yeah, yeah, keep them coming. I'm ready. Okay, so this is from Yolanda. Who's in North Carolina. She says, do you offer to pick a pose options? Okay. For people to pick a pose. And then secondly, can you talk just a little bit about the distance from the subject to your camera? Just 'cause it can be hard to tell. Yeah, I think-- And then we've got those lighting diagrams that are part of the-- Yeah, it's got the diagram. Can you go and hold it. Bonus materials. 11 feet. 11 feet. So, and that's just a good distance. That's what we measure it up at. That's where we like our light. And that's, easy. How I did this, today also, is I shot this for the team at 320 ISO and I know we're gonna' move it for the banner and the poster stuff and it's just gonna' be a brighter light source because we're using a different modifier and it's coming closer. So all I'm gonna' do is adjust my ISO down to 100 for that. But that's all metered in and done ahead of time. And it's easier for me to just change my ISO and noise isn't a problem at 300 on the new cameras. Or on any camera. I don't think noise was ever an issue at 300. And then for the pick a pose stuff, we'll go over that for the banner stuff. We'll talk about that. But not for this stuff. Again, most of my leagues what they do, like our Soccer stuff. All of these go, all of the rec leagues go into the program for the Soccer. The program they hand out at games for the High School. They want it all the same. So we don't get into that unless it's the banner stuff. Great. And we would if a team, if a league was like "We wanna' offer a variety of poses" Cool, great, yeah, wonderful. It's not wrong to do it that way. It's just not how we work. If you're posing a swim team, would you do that differently? Yes, so swim teams, gymnastic teams, things like that, they all get done. They all vary, depending on location there are certain things that make us do it differently. One of the swim teams that we do we would photograph three rows sitting, kneeling, standing and then we'd do another row sitting on the edge of the diving board and then another row standing behind them. So we'll do multiple rows that way and we'll build it around. One of our synchronized teams, what they like to do is they actually go into the water. Come over here. And they get in a big line and everybody gets the same distance apart and they look... (audience chuckles) Like this, in there, and then there's all the rows. So we do that. They want to be in the pool so there's like a shallow section where they always go waist up. There's variations through that stuff of course. But this is, Baseball, Basketball, Softball, Volleyball, all of those sports this is how we're gonna' do it. So the bast majority of our work it's going to be done this way. Do you ever have them kick out a knee in a pose? Oh yeah. Yeah we can do, yeah. Sometimes one of the people that come up, and I actually will fix it. You gotta' be careful when you're posing. Because you always say "Bend the leg closet to the camera" It takes five pounds off of ya'. But it's gender specific. Like, this isn't a good look for me. (audience chuckles) So, you have to be aware of some of that stuff. But you can totally do that for girl's sports. It's okay when you're posing women for sports to have them look a little bit, to have it be a little bit more masculine. We don't wanna' make them look really masculine but they don't need to be as soft and as feminine in a sports photograph as we would in a traditional portrait. So we're less worried about that. We can still do it. It's not bad, it's just not as big of a concern as it would be with a High School Portrait.