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Lesson Info

Group Photography

gorgeous groups let's talk about group photography because it really does you could create a really beautiful warm picture in the way that you pose your groups and the cool thing is this is this afternoon we're gonna have a ball and we're going to photograph family groups and we're going to do some amazing amazing pictures with with a bridal parties as well but if you look at this particular photograph notice how this young lady is in the middle between her mother and dad and where camera position is we're going to talk about this later on maurin extensively this week this weekend on saturday about where my camera angle it needs to be I'm higher up on the subject why is that because if I'm photographing this mother I do not want her this part of her body at camera view why because if it is it's going to make this look more prominent and that most of us women as we get older we do not want to see this part of our our fate is not good so if you change your perspective and you photograph ...

from a higher camera angle you're going to see a much much more pleasing photograph notice how she has her chin drop down on her daughter's shoulder it gives intimacy she's tucked away tucked behind her daughter as well as the dad so the daughter has the prominence there are times when I want to have a bit of space when I'm photographing an environment like if I have a beautiful environment to work with I don't want to crowd people too close together I want a tiny bit a little bit of breathing room so that I have like clusters I have a cluster here and then a cluster here and we also are looking to create pyramid shapes a little slight pyramid here and with these beautiful pyramid shapes I also it's really important to have that person regardless whether you can see their feet or not we want to have them then the one of the knees it really makes a huge difference but after that I want to bring them in close to get some cozy cozy pictures which of these two photographs do you like better this one or this one I don't think there's a comparison between the two this definitely feels much warmer and he knows how that there's this wonderful warmth and strength look at the mom how beautiful she looks and there and and there's no retouching on this yet I haven't done any retouch and look at how beautiful mom looks she looks gorgeous let's talk a bit about the way that I let these photographs these were lit using just a single reflector a single reflector the main light is actually coming from over on this side right here the sunlight and then I have an assistant over about in this area bouncing the light back into the subject's face the good thing for that it's a flat light source which was really critical for mom because it already will fill in on that face and it makes her look absolutely beautiful stuff means that my retouching after the fact is minimized I don't have to do so much retouching because I did a lot of it in camera and that really makes a huge difference questions yes your reflector for that big groups excellent question about a sixty inch reflectors what I like we'll have one and it's just a five and one reflector I'll show it to you when we get doing our portrait because it really doesn't make a difference that nice big light source will give this a beautiful soft pretty light and it really separates your subjects in the background which which cover did you use this right I use the silver side for that particular group but I I didn't either used the silver sight or the white side depending on the group when I shot this family when I took this a photograph of this bride with her daughters are the bride with her mom and her two sisters um my assistant is actually standing out in the street and using the silver side of the reflector but look at how large catch lights are in the eyes it's a really pretty light source a very pretty soft light source notice where mother is placed in relation her girls she slightly behind her girls and then leaning forward and dropping her chin down it means again no retouching I don't have to do a lot so it means I can get it right ahead of time and there's a little bit it's not quite flatly lit you see that because there's a limit of shadow area here and here and then on the faces why could I get away with because that mom didn't have a lot of facial wrinkles to begin with she had a pretty fair skin was pretty smooth if I had a mother who is a little bit more mature woman like myself I might come in and be and use that reflector a bit more flatly it means like closer to the face like this then I would for a group like this does that make sense okay um when I posed groups of people together like this girl these two girls together I don't always posed in the same way because it depends on what they're wearing and who they are these girls were true cheerleaders so they were just that little sorority girl kind of mentality they were very cute huggy and kissy and that was that that was important so I wanted to keep the tone of the photography in key with the way that these individuals worse that I could make it all work together so by having them come in cozy kind of lean towards each other it could really create a beautiful picture of the two of them now what about this young lady and her bridesmaids would you say that she's the same type of girl as the other lady we just saw no she's much more formal muchmore her bryce was a real long formal black gowns so I chose to pose her differently with her girls of course I'm going to continue to do pictures of each of those bridesmaids with a bride and so forth but notice this right here that's really critical notice the pose and where I'm standing again in relation to the light source bringing this arm behind her but bending that elbow so we can see a context of waste is important as well as the way the light skims across her body and then bending this knee this forward me really just make a huge difference because that shadow makes her body go boom like this it makes it look beautiful and shapely and narrow and then to give a bit more interest in the background I placed the young lady's ah bit farther behind her and then allowed that natural light from from behind to skim across them and have them interact with one another because you would not want those girls in the background looking towards the camera why because if they were if they look towards you you expect to see their eyes sharp you want to see them attack sharp and there weren't going to be they would start competing for attention so in this way by having two girls interacting with one another we start interpreting the picture it's more about this forward girl our eye goes right to her she is the main focus of the subject she's a main character in the story rather and then the other girls behind her are a bit of a support does that make sense do you have any other questions for you move on okay same young lady again just notice how I've created this time again notice the way that their post is a bitch a bit matmour it's a bit more formal in the way that I posed them triangular shape composition knows there's a triangle here there's another triangle there this girl in the front she's sitting on the front of her thigh she's sitting on the front of her thigh the girl that's the larger of the three girls is standing in the back but notice that she's not standing facing straight into the camera why is that because any of us looked bigger facing straight forward than we do facing one side or the other so that's important and then I have her lean forward slightly so you have to admit I mean I look thinner looking this way now then I would straight like this so turn your subjects that's really critical and then bend that front knee now with our little sorority girl in her girls notice how they're doing that each of them are posed a bit differently but noticed their legs are like see they got a knee bent there there ben one knee is always always been and you see whether you post somebody like this like this like this like this like this do you realize that's the same post it just is the way that you turn the body in relation to the other person and I don't like firing squads which means everybody turning and facing into the crowd I prefer to make it a bit more random I think it looks a bit more interesting to randomize it a little bit same exact light source we're using just a simple reflector outside and on the silver side the good thing about the silver side the reflector is it gives these dresses a bit it shows the iridescence in the dress is a little bit more it makes them just look it's very much vanessa's them it looks really really good is that a small reflector also just there's this simple the simple sixty inch reflector yet it's only when I have a question about the reflector from the internet um uh do you ever use the gold side no never used the gold side I find that the gold side is a bit too orangey looking for me I'm sure they're so there's a reason for it but I just haven't found it yet it's just not my favorite itjust looks I think it makes people look a little bit too artificial like they got a fake town they've got a spray tan and it was not a good one so did you have to be you have that really far back no you don't have to have a too far back generally I like to have the reflector maybe this far from my subjects but you can't be farther you don't have to be that yeah it but it's it's the way that you turn the reflected that dictates how much of that scene is going to be eliminated so it depends on not necessarily much of how big your oppa's but where you know where you are in relation I don't want them super far from the reflector from the group but maybe this this is about you know something that's a comfortable distance the other thing about the reflector really good question brooke that you brought up that you made me think about is the other thing about using reflector that's really important is that a reflector should be used high you want to try to keep the reflector you don't want it down low because it's going to illuminate the bottoms of the eyes and it looks like ghoul light it's not real flattering light source so you want that light nice and high because you want the light to kind of mimic what you would get if you were working with the direct sun okay so let's go forward as we are I know we're running a bit late on time and I want to make sure I get this all covered same exact concept imposing for our group again notice how the girls are positioned you notice how that there it's very casual almost well why would I choose a casual way to pose them we'll look at the girls are wearing short dresses it's not a formal event I wanted to feel more warm and cozy so the first thing I do when I'm posing as I say okay what are they wearing and how can I how can I use that tool with what they're wearing to make a better picture and so I will not ever posed a group the same way I try to keep it very simple