Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Black Tule Dress (Mackenzie)

so we have mckinsey here and as you can see now she's wearing our beautiful designer gown this is this is one of my newest collections is the two thousand twelve collection so mackenzie would you like to do a quick runway walk this way for the audience so that they can see your lovely designer gown you too can own a piece of baby control if you would like to purchase this lovely gown uh it was e don't get crazy there girl so uh for me when I'm designing things I try to keep it very loose we've just taken basically it's just about twenty five yards of black tulle and safety pins and maybe some black gaffer's tape or duck tape this is gaffer's tape about huh and now you see how much better the matte black tape looks I mean it looks like a bill it looks really good and you know there's just not a thing in the world that doesn't work better than gaffer's tape for just about everything and so now I chose this for mackenzie because I felt she has this very liv tyler ish kind of look about he...

r that's very very sophisticated and elegant and then I thought let's try to use just a bit of hot light and I know you are really warm up there archie group so we'll do a few pictures of you up in this area and then we'll move you to another location but I loved it I loved that light and a look that quality of light the light will fit the subject it's going to fit the environment that she's in because it's a dramatic lighting her gown is very dramatic she has this beautiful dramatic look about herself that is going to be just very very elegant so let's do a few pictures of her right here I like using a clean white wall I think there's just not a lot better than that at times because it just is like it's just pure its purity and I love a pure look so mckinsey the first thing I want to do your arm on the left hand side just tuck it back it's imp that one right there you tuck it back behind you just a little bit because I need to get the light off of it oh see how much better that looks already and now ben this knee a bunch on this side right here and in with that shoulder lean into the wall a little bit love it turn your face a little bit this direction just about half of that and then bring your chin down slightly gorgeous now I like the lighting to be a bit more dramatic on her I don't need it to be perfect three two one lighting because I think it'll actually almost looks better if it's just a little bit more dramatic tilt your head a little bit more now the cool thing about it that you see is we get that beautiful video light on the left hand side and then we're getting a nice kicker from the window so we're able to highlight a bit of her her arm on the right hand side as well which is going to be very very nice now mckenzie with this shoulder over here I want you to roll it forward a little bit yeah see how that for her she's one of those people who can roll that shoulder forward and it'll give her a bit more attitude with your chest lean towards me a little bit this way core just love it see how that just kind of know what you tilt your head up a little bit gorgeous and in turn your face that way a little bit more don't look at me love innit oh honey holly I am here to tell you girl I know the look on that as awesome that big smile lovett look at me a second right here with your eyes tilt your head this way beautiful and ship I want almost a defiant lovett stunning dear stunning this arm on this side I want you to keep your shoulders dropped on this side right here but take this arm right here and just kind of bringing your hand right appear to your hair like this that one that's you're leaning on can you do that and like hang on oh and you know the kind of fun this arm let go of it on your hip right there and just kind of bring it like this I love it but your hand keep it on the back side of your face real important like bring it more like this and you're gonna been bending the wrist is really important bend your wrist the other way like that the other hand see how klong like that looks now bend it the other way see how much softer that looks it looks very soft the only thing I want to do is just stretch out one figure a little bit like this and kind of like that gorgeous absolutely beautiful bring that hand back a little bit behind your face love and it beautiful I need a beautiful soft sophisticated look oh my lord I'm telling you chin up a little bit beautiful and then tilt your head lean into this shoulder a little bit and then turn your face that way just a tad perfect now in the kinsey take this hand right here just actually you know what actually that could actually work for you I think I'm gonna like that wrap this arm around your waist um no don't do that because that's going to draw too much weight on that arm turn your body this way a little bit more good and bring both of your elbows back lovely let me see how that's working for you can you bring both of your arms behind your back a little bit and then switch your feet I need your front knee to be bent right there love it bring that foot towards me a little bit good and I want you to lean towards me with this chest right here on let's get a beautiful profile on you and you turn your face towards that light love it more chin up a little bit beautiful mackenzie look at me a second right here thiss arm right over here just like this with your dress just bend the elbow back down a little bit though love it no just tuck it towards you love it love it love it not shown up a little bit lovely till the top your head this way towards me good god it okay good let's move her can somebody help her down and let me grab this little step stool right here let's bring you down oh my god perfect I love it that's awesome hang on we're gonna play a little more I just my next model I'm sorry I'm having I'm going crazy over here um and you know what I still want to use that video light on her I think that's such a cool tool for her can we just take that video light and move that light I'd like to use this wall I think let's try this wall with her with mckinsey bambi a question for you okay yeah questions uh when when someone is just starting out this is from eggman megan which is a palindrome anyhow um where would someone start start out finding models do use your friends or other resource is that's a great question I like using my friends I mean I like having I mean I just like making friends period so I will just call up people if I just think they're cute on dh this is what I would do if I didn't know many people or let's say I was older and I didn't have like you know young kids it's my friends I'd go to the shopping mall if you're a man take your wife have her look really cute and sophisticated and come with you and let her do the talking and shut up and let it happen because if I were if a man approached my daughter at the mall I would be creeped out so don't do that but I would like to see you have be ableto have you know you could you know approach people make sure you're if you're dressed sophisticated and make sure you have professional business cards on dh by the way whenever you photograph someone in my opinion if you're if you're a guy have a female assistant with you at all times we always have I have I have someone there with me all the time no matter what kind of shooting I'm doing in boudoir I always have an assistant with me because it just it just makes things better if you're photographing children mother and daddy are in that room I don't want to do it even though they're a pain in the neck sometimes I want them right there with their children because those aren't my kids over theirs and their their responsibility and so what we do is if I if I have a problem with the parent is getting out of out of line I hand in my video my my cell phone and let him take videos and that shuts them right up because they just get involved in the video and they'll they'll they'll behave actually this could work out really nice I'm liking leslie endlessly that stool there I think we might even use that stool let's well before we do let's try this way okay let's see what we got here okay so um okay mackenzie back up to the wall right there and let me see what it looks like mckinsey to scoot you back this way a little bit just a tiny tiny bit because I'm almost thinking that I will use that I like both of those so park your butt up against that wall right there beautiful very good scoot over this way just a hair perfect and turn your feet away from the light source right here turn more beautiful and stretch this foot out towards me right here and I want you to push your butt towards the window the window the doorway right there bring that elbow back a whole bunch this way love it love it love it and then bring this hand down like this I need to have your shoulder back good girl turn your face back this way a tad let's see how we're doing here daddio how's it looking oh and you know what I think I decide hopes hang on a second um we'll try it like this relax that hand just a little bit scooter beautiful love it love it love it love it god may see how this is working now I'm choosing to incorporate some of that that the thie grid work on the left hands on the right hand side turn your face this way missy and take this hand right here and just tuck it back on but like yeah like that but tuck your elbow back just a little bit perfect right there and this hand over here I want you to kind of bring it like right on your neck right here like that lovett and but straighten out your legs and this front leg point your toe towards me right here towards me right here beautiful bring it you know what actually don't uncross your legs and just write stand side by side now just bend that knee that's a little too heavy daddio I like where you're going though I like that very much bounce it off the wall yeah it's still too bright and mackenzie turn your face this way a whole bunch with your shoulders a little bit and we see how that works right there I actually like this for your face a bunch look at me bring your chin down a little bit um I'm not feeling it's just you have to wait to static for you you know what let's move that bench over there I think this might work better with a bench um or stool let's use this chair yeah and I'll bring that light down just a little bit said it right in the middle of the yeah move it over a bit uncle john right there john and then let's back that light up and bring it down just a hair have a seat right there but you're going to sit on the very edge of the chair and what I want you to do you sit right on the edge beautiful keep your back tall stretch out this toe towards me right here love it love it love it good job excellent me see how that works for you I just need to get light in her eyes let me see actually that looks really pretty can you point your toe just a little bit let me just get an exposure shot turn your face that way a little bit mckinsey yeah I love it right there let me see how that looks okay I like the exposure now mckinsey can you guess you have really great legs girl you know what bring your hands on the chair right there and I want you to kind of lean towards me let's get a little bit fun I need to get some sass out of you living here I need that arm to tuck back there the one that's this way right here put it tuck it underneath the fabric right there and you're just going to move it back you know what hey here you going to see you here standing for a second and now I want your face your booty that way good now have a seat there you go you got it okay and I want this foot forward to me right there just like that love it love it love it really roll into that shoulder love it oh that's nice mckinsey that's gorgeous for you honey that is really beautiful just drop your head a whole bunch stunning god now you know you look like to me now now you look like a really beautiful amy winehouse I know uh turn your face that way a little bit love it just part your lips a little bit gorgeous oh my god here we go here we go now we have no idea okay okay where's my tool give me the black tulle now I'm ready to cover our faces will do some headshots okay yeah yeah yeah okay let me see how you look here oh can I have your camera guys come close I want to show the audience look what happens when you have when you are photographing with the light in the right spot see what the catch lights are there in the ten o'clock position in her eye look at how iridescent look right here look at how iridescent her brown eyes look see how it makes the eyes glow it really makes a difference it just that light skims across the iris and it's absolutely beautiful I mean and if she were pretty this would be amazing but I'm just getting you of course you know that okay so let's just I want to just try this I don't know if I'm gonna like it or not but you know if you don't try stuff and you never know whether you're gonna love it or not and I want to get just a little bit actually you know what that could be really beautiful oh josh I like this for you already I need a stepladder for me I think I'm going to shoot I got to shoot through this for her sure let me see how this works just drop your chin a little bit I am nuts nuts nuts nuts nuts that's not nuts about this yeah yeah camera camera camera okay yeah I like that I like that a whole bunch I don't know that I need that are let's see how that looks from here oh my god I love this beautiful hang on I want to see how it's oh I need to open a un exposure just a little bit more oh my god I love this holy stinkin cow all I want you to do is to turn your face to tiny bit this way I love it and you know what can I have somebody I need somebody to help me with the tool I want to bring it up so that her lips are sharp I mean I want to say I don't want it covering her lips oh my lord yeah hello you are seriously off the charts seriously guards is I'm not kidding him chin down a little bit beautiful like that and I want your lips like with your chin pull it and now the only thing that's missing in this is I need you to I want you to think a secret something that's like just like that not a big smell I want to think it with your eyes like like something that just yeah just like that you're doing great and now hang on a second let's take that veiling and I want to bring it up so I just have it I want to see her nose and her eyes actually hang on before you do that let me just see what happens if I lower my camera angle move it back just a whisper love it love it love it there like that drop your chin just a little bit horribly all gosh that's gorgeous gorgeous really nice and now missy turn your face this way a little bit and look right bring your eyes up and look straight ahead right there oh god I'm telling you but the only thing that's missing is we have no magic going on this eyes right there beautiful look at me right here one two three look back at me chin down a whole bunch but don't tuck your chin bring your chin forward to me beautiful very very nice it's right there is beautiful god ok now hang on a second I'm not quite done with this I'm I'm liking where I'm going no I'm really feeling the music I'm telling you right now just like that gorgeous right there and I'm going to focus in on that forward the back I bring your champa hair cause I want almost love it oh god beautiful yeah I'm telling you what okay hold on a second and now let me get up higher I need somebody help the old lady up here huh and I think I might want this like that which means I need I'm gonna shoot really tight oh god you just gave me an idea I see it I see it I see it don't move I want somebody to stand right here I'm gonna photograph from over here because look at this camera guys come over here I want you to see this see how nice that looks right in here this way thank you perfect levi you know you know whatever they say I'm telling you whoever said that you weren't you weren't a team player there you don't move yeah oh I know that was probably not a good thing to do from cameras to complain to the microphone I know they're going great thanks fam that's where you get banned from I know oh my lord goodness turn your face that way just a little bit love it and you know I'm we've kind of lost her lips now so I need you to lift up that fabric right there um I need to be able to have it up above her face right there beautiful that's perfect right there nice thanks ash okay now drop your I want you to look down with your eyes look straight ahead with your eyes and look down look here look down with your eyes down more like I want to see a little of it nice okay now hang on to this for me move that this fabric this way right here and I need to have it I missing her eyes right in there stretch your jaw that way good love and look turn your face towards me now stunning darling and now just look down like this like you right about here love it nice gorgeous let me just switch my camera position for a second I don't know that I liked that position as much as I thought I was gonna like it roll your shoulder this way darling hang on and I want this like that perfect don't move him we're home free yeah baby and we got another model coming into second that's when we get the really pretty model huh ha ha ha ha turn your face is a tad mckinsey lovett drop your chin a little bit man I'm telling you sweetie gosh you just look amazing chin down a little bit more gorgeous just beautiful absolutely amazing state right there let me just see what happens if I moved myself this way okay no oh I'm there is my shot of the day that's my shot of the day I'm here to tell you we're gonna like that we're gonna like that a whole bunch and oh you know what hang on can you feel that second qd you got it hang on a second here okay okay now you're going to hold it right here just hold you from the bottom because I wanted puffed up right here and this is a really tight face so I'm not worried about and all I want you this is going to actually work really good just like that and I want a really good job yeah you got that you got that down pat I'm not kidding you man you absolutely pass for liv tyler sister she's that means steven tyler be your daddy you know actually I like your hand I wasn't gonna include it but turn your risk this way more or just the opposite of what you're doing like that just like that not so much half of that beautiful actually that work beautiful gorgeous right there love it and now lean towards me with your lips and turn your face this way a little bit love darling oh and now drop your changes to ten more more more more I want to like lift your eyebrow now little bit gorgeous okay on the count of three I want you to bust out laughing for no reason whatsoever one two three laugh no that's a fake a smile in the universe hello you gotta laugh out loud I want to hear it all the way to idaho okay is that right there one two three right now look oh god it that's what I was looking for beautiful can I give this get off there's e could kid off awesome yeah ok you're done can we give her a beautiful hand okay and last but not least we have our beautiful beautiful model who's gonna be wearing our peach out that I think I want to use this wall to photograph her against but I know we have some questions do you maybe hear you I think we're gonna use this hay que t we'll use this wall go ahead I'm sorry question from lose is question from loses how do you edit the photo with a tool on her face what would you do to that photo oh I'm not gonna do a lot I mean I there to me that that's just pretty much the way I want the only thing I might do is soften the skin of hair but she has a pretty good skin to begin with so on dh what you see on the screen is not necessarily what it actually is gonna look like this would make an amazing black and white image so I don't really start editing goes I'm not really thinking that there's going to be a lot of editing that has to be done I will tell you we're gonna have I guess some of these pictures will end up in the videos when people purchase the downloads they'll get the pictures will come are gonna be on there somewhere the new pictures sure well we'll find out about that for you I know that somehow they'll be able to see the photographs which is going to be great so I hope that we'll be able to get first everyone love seeing you in your element they love seeing you so excited taking these pictures but question from oh uh l writes is how do you deal with uh jane the dramatic makeup if you don't have a makeup artist what do you do to give that extra yeah hi yura make apart I'm sorry you know it's that this is this is the part that and I really appreciate the maker they're you know they're wanting to do it one way but you know what again it takes effort to do things right and if you don't have the makeup done correctly then it's not going to fit the mood to get them to give you an example here we have test test is one of our students in the class and I am so delighted I was looking at her all week long and I knew this this is you kiddo you could walk home with this outfit this right now is the look that you could pull off but look at how the makeup is in key and in harmony and it works with this amazing camp couture gown that me I made so isn't it fun and it fits her I mean it just I could not have picked up something better for you holy cow that works great so you know there are times when I think it's important for us to just bite the bullet and just don't be cheap don't be cheap on things that are important if it comes to making a picture I would this is what I wouldn't spend money on I would not spend money on lots of lenses and lots of expensive gear I wouldn't spend lots of money on that what I would do is I'd buy one good body rent another if I needed a second one for something and then a couple of good lenses that's what b might like it if I needed lighting first thing I'd do is I'd buy one good light or if you need to start with your little video light and and then you know move on to something thing else you can always use a window you can't shoot without a camera so you gotta have a camera but you can get by if you need to without without extensive lighting equipment but then you saw like with these gowns I'm not kidding you if I have fifty dollars in this outfit it's more than I can spend this is just one of those spanx slips I bought it from j t j maxx it was twelve dollars it was twelve bucks and this tool right here was again I bought it joanne's fabrics it was eighty nine cents a yard I bought thirty yards so do the math it was less than thirty bucks a forty five dollars for the entire outfit so you don't have to spend a lot of money on that so that gives you time to be able to spend on working with people that are other professionals however here's another way that you can work as I told you we do our play date that we have in our studio where about every eight weeks if we work with local hairdressers and local makeup artist well nobody gets paid on that day I'm not paying anybody to work they're not paying me to take pictures I give them whatever they want if they want all my files that I shot the day of that model they can have them because that's part of our bargain they do for me I do for them and then so that's a good way to get somebody to do some work for you pro bono make friends with people you know it's so funny how people will do things for us there are friends I think it's real important to try to not that we use them because you have to be willing to give if you're going to get and but I like to make a collaborative effort on any new project I want to make it a fun experience because let's face it first of all I mean did lindsay have fun doing this hey limbs uh she had a ball doing this okay so it's not like work for her it's not worked for me I can tell you right now this is a lot of fun so this kind of an experience can be a win win for both of you on it oh yes can we just come here cute I just have to show you off okay this is the hair sauce and makeup artists of the stars meeting one of them and you did an amazing job on what's amazing is that you interpret each one these girls exactly I couldn't have even I could not have asked for more and I am nuts about her eye makeup I hope that she taught you how to do that I mean like you need it but I'm not kidding it is so perfectly interpreted for the god the garment I'd almost took my breath away and I mean liv tyler over there excuse me mackenzie just amazing and jennifer as well it was beautiful you know a nice sort of monochromatic I wanted something monochromatic with this one so not so not quite as heavy as the other looks that we've done this weekend just beautiful very very nice thank you so good thank you very much honey just lost something else ok s o okay so one more question yes let's see a question from steven was we're going through lots of models how do you break the ice when there is no warm up time that's a great question well I have to tell you I did not have warm up time with these people what you see us doing is me shooting there is no warmup time but and I think that we you and I have to come to terms with the fact that just put it in your mind that it's about people so in the course of the session the first couple of frames aircraft for me I know they're not they're going to suck and it's really hard for me to do it here because I know you're going to see stuff that I would be mortified for anyone to speak but learn to take a personal interest in people and watch their faces you'll watch what's going on on their face and you'll see if they just start if they're like do it going grocery shopping in their head you'll know it it's not in you and if you start seeing that that's happening get him to walk it out walk it out and then change your scene change it up so that they that they will you know the loosen up and you'll get something different so I think it's really important for us to really just become people people even if you're a shy person that doesn't mean that you don't want to take a personal interest in someone you know a lot of actors are naturally very shy people you know that's what I've heard from a lot of people is that you know many of the actors that we see on tv that are so exuberant are really in real life quite shy so you know maybe that sounds like a lucky it's phony to you but I don't think that's phony I think it's called taking a personal interest in someone and I want the best experience for them and again I'm going to my my enthusiasm goes a long way and I'm going to mirror who they are the way that there that the way that they're going to look so I want to keep that energy flowing and I find that if you keep the energy flowing to them they can't help but read off of it but if I get too quiet it's like okay wake me when it's over you know I mean seriously because it's going to be ah boring experience and we don't want that so