Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Japanese Model (Akari)

have a seat there akari it was actually pretty easy for me to remember their names because I kept thinking I tried to associate a name with something like their name and so with a car it was very easy atari the games and simi hey sim city it's another video game so it makes it easier for me to remember their names so I tried it very much so akari talk to me for a second hang on I need a chair because I want to get a little bit lo ok I have like one of those chairs it's really important to me to try to keep a little bit lower angle when I'm communicating with the subject because if I can get a lower camp a lower angle myself on them then I'm going to be able to get a better picture and you know uncle john we might even dio we might even use video light on her swell but this might actually this is gonna work nice okay now so akari tell me first of all is that your real name my middle name oh really ok great and tell me about a little bit about yourself I'm currently finishing my master's...

thie diversity of washington and what does your master is going to be in social work oh wow you're a boy that's awesome so if you will for the future what would be your dream job be licensed clinical social worker in japan working on a naval base with soldiers holy cow okay what did she tell me already she's giving me volumes of information about her first of all we have a high achiever right here don't we I mean I mean social work she has her entire life is planned out she's got it she knows where she's going I think that's really really beneficial so if you were to define like your personal style what would you like to say you know japanese street fashion oh really yes s so let me see so s so are you would you go do you do the thing with the girls in japan would you do like and how they have the what are they called yeah not that hard core think casual street fashion do you know when I was in japan a couple years ago I had to drag me off the street because I was photographing those the yeah there you know whatever e I can't say that right but it was beautiful well that sounds really good so are you married a single um actually boyfriend oh good for you that's great so what is the one thing about having your portrait taken that you absolutely you know what your concerns um mainly when photographers I don't know when they get the angle's wrong and it just doesn't look is good okay and what would you say would be a wrong angle for you I definitely favor like this side of my face okay that's I think that's fair yeah so let me see that saudi very stern you face this way look at me yeah I think you're right on that girl is really beautiful okay terrific and like what do you like to do for fun I like to cook I like to the japanese comic books and radio video games okay this girl likes japanese comic books oh my goodness that would be absolutely a blast yes for you that's great all right well let's get started we're gonna go and we're gonna have some fun with you and I want to try a couple of different things so okay let's get rid of the mike and I'm gonna first thing I'm going to do with her as I want to see lucy she favors the side of her face so what does that tell me how about if I'm gonna photograph her over here would I shoot over here not if I'm going to use natural light because they will be shooting into the light source which means we would be the other side of her face so I'm since she likes this side of her face if we use natural light then I need to have her in this direction does that make sense to you do you understand what I just said okay so but just for fun the first thing I want to do is move that brown couch out of the way let's move that out of the way I think we might have some fun with you right in here so I want you to get cozy in there put your like you're going to tuck one of your feet up underneath you um and flip your feet the other way come in nice and cozy and that just like slouch into that chair right there let me see how that's working I don't want to make sure the light is where it needs to be oh hello where did little akari come from I'm like and you already this is good okay all right let's see what you got here girlie hang on a second here let me just pull your hair over on this I'm going to shoot from a higher camera angle and I think that could be really nice uncle john I'm not sure if I'm going to use reflector yet on her I might even have to use the black side of the reflector on her let's see what it looks like you actually I really like this angle you know what I need to do though I want to neutralize the background a bit because it's a little dark behind her head and I'd like to make it a lighter tone can we grab that big plaques that white thing right there and just lay it on the floor behind her because what will happen is it'll take that dark floor and instead of making it a dark floor behind her it'll make the floor light intern ality do you understand why because see if I photograph from here now before you do that let me just take a picture I want you guys to see why I'm going to do it this way let's see how this works okay okay now when you look through the camera and you see the exposure you'll see you see how the on the side of the chair we'll see the dark gray floor and then you'll see like there's like a gray line behind her head well let's see if we can get rid of that see how that it's a little bit of a distraction and that would mean a lot of retouching and I don't want to definitely don't want to do a lot of retouching actually hang on kids like that is going to work great yes what you're going to be who I like it already and a curry I'll tell you what I don't care what they say girl you're way better looking than they said you were lovett beautiful drop your chin a little bit and tilt your head that way oh sweetie that is gorgeous bring your chin up just a little bit oh hello akari yeah baby you are looking good I look I want you to shake your head just a little bit and I want your face your hair a little bit in your face almost in your eyes but not twice like right it just barely like they love it love it love it love it hey dad can you come over here and just give me a little bit of light on the lights on the side of her face and akari bring this elbow this way and I want you to know you're going to lead with your chest towards me right here and I want you to turn your oh yeah that's it oh john that's gorgeous turn your face that way a little bit but john don't like her to straight into the face gorgeous right in their love because I want that shadow on her face oh that it's nice to drop your chin hair akari beautiful love it beautiful you have any pets you have three with three what oh shut the front door you have to to all of us and you know it's funny you don't look like a chihuahua no you know what no you know how people look like their pets right don't people look like their pets they d'oh beautiful music hey john ditched come over that way a bit more honey I wantto barely have you that's all that's right that john that's beautiful oh akari that's beautiful that's really pretty right in their love it hang on a minute I got a little carried away let me see how that's looking through your exposure wise I think I'm a little over exposing you let's see what that's looking like actually I really like it when your lips are parted like that tilt your head ends up just a little bit really love it honey stunning I'll tell you wow that's pretty for you okay now akari turn your body this way a little bit beautiful and then turn your face back towards me and let's put love your hair in the back here on this side right here I want to just get rid of it I mean I want to have like kings up on your shoulder and bring it over on this shoulder right here and with your chest now lean towards me right here good don't pull your shoulder forward put back I love it and then look at that ugly dude right over here nice right here with your eyes love it gorgeous honey that is beautiful hanging on to come down a little lower I think you could be very easy to photograph from this angle to hey you know what a car you drop your feet down on the floor right there and I want you to oh you know what actually this conviction be very interesting for you let me have you just do your knees like this for me and I'm gonna have you push your butt back and then you're gonna lean forward on your legs right there and just kind of go like this for me nice oh really pretty akari hey uncle john can you just come right here and just put a whisper of light on the front of her face right here I like very much where I'm seeing her her face actually you know what uncle john come over here on that side you notice I don't use left her right whoa that's way too close to my face I'm going right now whoa that was very close to much ah that might be a little bit too much let me see what looks like here beautiful hang on I'm gonna drop my exposure down just a little tiny bit perfect beautiful beautiful beautiful let's see how this working a curry oh I like that drop your chin down just a hair awesome very very good now the only turn your face this way a little bit missy more more right there love it and I'm going to come in and I think I'm just going oh yeah like that nice nice the only thing that I need right now love it done hehe corey hang on a second I'll make sure my exposure's right on your face beautiful would you say your boyfriend's name was uh love it drop your changes a little bit and I want you to smile with your eyes no big small I once you relax your mouth don't you think about something that makes you happy nice relax your eyebrows just a little bit hon beautiful love it very good hunt chin up a tiny bit gorgeous now you'll notice that with her I'm also cropping and very tight on her face I like I think she's got a really interesting face and I could do some dissecting I would go in post production and I'd cleaned up because I want their line right by the nose there you go I'll tell you right now that I like very very much I think it works really good for her let me try something a bit different with you though a kori you know I'd like to do can we take that couch and let's put it up on its end because I think I want to use that as a background for her and let's get rid of the white of the white background because one of the things I'm noticing I like this okay with the light hair I mean the light wall in the background but I think it could be a bit more interesting if I had the background to be a bit darker let's see what it looks like it if I could make it work quick question for you bambi huh um amy adams is asking are you using manual focus or auto focus do you have a thought about using one over the other great question I use also focus all the time and the reason for it is that the camera's got better eyes than I do and I'm finding that the older I get the more difficult it is for me to grab a folk yes I do but I do believe that the way that you set your camera the focus on your camera is important I generally like to use in the canon system it has like you could do forty five points for for me during forty five points for focus or you could get it down to like nine points on the inner circle and that's where I want I want my focus I use the center square only for my focus I don't use the back wheel on the camera for grabbing you know for changing my my my settings and I don't use the back button either give me one button I just want one button one little square and then all press down the shutter halfway and then grabbed my focus and then recompose it's just what I've become comfortable with doing it's just I know a lot of people used the back button for focus and then they use the the shutter to release it and so forth I just think it's like why would I need two fingers just give me one figure one thing to do one thing to think about andi I find it's easier I do photograph in manual meter mode and I think that it's really important especially if you're photographing different skin types that you need to think about that like semi skin is not eighteen percent gray akari skin probably is close to eighteen percent grade and so it sze various boy I really like that portrait of you akari I think that's really nice of you I think that looks really good um also if you look at the anatomy of semi mean of akari space turn your face to straight towards us right I pull your hair back so we can see the shape of your face akari has a fairly round face so by using a directional light on her we could take and we can sculpt that she's got beautiful cheekbones and I want to see those cheekbones so by using a direction like this kind of light pattern is ideal for her I like it very much because because it really does sculpting the cheekbones and eye like photographing on the shadow side of the face with her as well ok so let's move this chair that akari is sitting on and let me see what it looks like a curry would you be comfortable honey if I had you sit on that on the arm of the chair right there would you would you be uncomfortable for that actually that works for you I think that's gonna work that actually might work really well can I have you scoot your bottom away is close to death as you can beautiful and now what I want you to do is you're gonna bring your arm this way almost off the cushion I love it I think you've done this before let's see and akari turn your face this way a bunch when you get a lovely head shot and I'm going to see what it looks like to photograph into the cushion this way the only thing about this cushion that's bothering me is at that line guess what that line if the cushion is ah horizontal line and guess what's going right through her head so I'm not feeling I don't know that I'm gonna like you know what I need to do is I need to get her up higher so give me one of these little boxes and let's not have it to too close to the background about right there would do fine but I want it can you turn it up on its side yeah there you go let's see what that looks for her and I don't want her to high up but let's see if that does a job um turn it up on the other side I need to flip it up one more time let's try that okay now and you know what scooter by straddle it you know put put your leg on both sides and the reason I'll have her straddle it there's a couple of things I might do with her that would make it really worked for now you notice that she's facing the other direction but she said that her favorite that her best side is what on this side right here so if I'm going to use natural light I want to make it work for her let's just for fun let's try a couple of different things so I'm going to move myself around and see what is going to look better for her I really actually like this for you this is cute I think I'm gonna like this a bunch huh okay now hey simi can you turn your little box this way a little bit more oh and you don't bring me that little stool for her foot for one foot that's what I hope that you're going to learn from this little segment you're gonna put that other arm up what I hope you learn from it is that you can use anything at all as a background it doesn't matter what it doesn't matter what really is in real life it's how you use it and obviously want to be careful not to shoot up her dress or photograph of her dress uncle john can you give me a tiny bit of light on her and you know what curry move your booty that way on this thing and I want you to bring your actually don't bring your arms like right here on the fabric right there you go just like that and actually bring your arms your hands right down there in the middle so you could hold your skirt down right there and actually like what you're doing right there turn your face this way missy wow just beautiful three three your mouth a little bit and go who dolling here relax his shoulder down a little bit though that's it nice nice nice nice oh yeah love it nice turn your shoulders a little bit this way nice oh akari don't move wow that's beautiful bring it shut down a tiny bit I love it but I need a little bit of that cess innis on your beautiful niece you are my exposure is she's looking good huh yeah I'm liking her and I like this background hey you know what the thing is I feel like I want a touch of light on that background to hear dad's got the video light now here's the really tricky part you're gonna love this part okay uncle john what you're gonna do can you light her face with one hand can you be multitasking or do I need to give that somebody else love it love it love it just shake your head just a little bit missy beautiful and I want you to turn your shoulders this way a little bit love it actually like that bring that and like where you had it right here nice can you get john take that light and I want you to almost put it on her hair give me a little separation between her hair turn your face that we just a test oh love it oh yeah look atyou chin down a hair lovett excellent very nice on account of I want you to bust out laughing for no reason whatsoever not fake a smile I ever saw was love it no big smile and I just and you know john can you bring that behind your almost I want to get almost rim light her hair oh this is really pretty for you drop your chin just a little bit gorgeous john stunning very very beautiful beautiful very very nice I'll tell you right now that's awesome for you very very good okay do we have any questions from the audience can you turn your feet this way yeah daddio for color or texture I mean are you getting texture in the back ground unit's got a little bit of a pattern to the material excellent excellent call what I'm first looking for I wanted light is always everything to me the way that you light a portrait that timmy comes first then you can't see it on the screen but it's actually got a nice rich tone in the background it'll be a nice rich brown tone because I pulled her a little bit away from the background it's going to it's going to neutralize it so you're not gonna be able to see the texture I don't want that background to be as focused as her face I want this to be about her on about her face I'm really you know that is it's kind of where I'm going first of all so the the couch up on its side like that is more of just a neutral environment a neutral environment to give me an interesting um or interesting are a more neutral background I find that sometimes you'll find a location where you have beautiful light to work with but the background super busy it's super busy stay right here for a second and now let's just move that couch out of the way and I want you to notice with her dark hair to meet will start competing with her face and you start having to find her face a little more and just move it out of the way right there and let's bring that little stool in the front for her and bring both of your feet up there missy can you wrap your fate your arms around your legs like that and then take your hair and flip it over on the other side let's see how that works I think I might have to have some banks like that nice very very nice drop your changes to hear chin back up a little bit love it okay now I'm just going to show you just what it looks like c I'm not feeling this is much because my eye starts moving towards away from her face towards the background I find that it's a bit of a distraction for me I'm not it's not quite as pretty as I liked azi otherway for fun let me bring you over here missy and let me have you just come right up here cobra come right over there for a second let me look at you actually this could work beautiful for her I'm actually really liking the idea of this and I think what I'm going to do because this is her best side this this right hand side of her face I think I want to do something that's just a bit more static she's by the way there are few people in the world who defied the normal rules of like you know turn the body this way push your hip one way or the other this is a gal who could be photographed straight into the camera because she's she's a very small girl but what what is the criteria what's the exception wise what's the caviar it's the fact that the light is coming from over here see when the lights skims across her itsy and we had that little shadow right there so we still are going to give her she's still gonna have some shape but I think we could really create something that's very almost doll like on her and give her a very almost a very you know just a very very formal but inform I don't really know the words the right words to say with it let's see what it looks like from a camera position I'm not going to use any light I want that strong difference between the highlights and shadows so the only I want you to do is I'm gonna have you just do have pockets in your in your little jacket oh I like that even better good look at me for a second I want to go boom nice let's see how that works she you know she reminds me of mona lisa I will tell you what girl you look awesome and you know what take your hero that's on this side and bring it down in front of your face too I want both sides beautiful love it oh very nice in fact I like that just like that beautiful hunt can you put your hand back with your hair stunning lovett I want a bit of a secret in your eyes nice beautiful very very pretty honey looking really good kiddo you're doing great stay right there and I want almost you to turn away a little bit this well not a lot half of that that's nice good and notice with her arms what we need to do even um and I wanted um I think this will be actually good thing put your I'm just flat against your body now this isn't a horrible thing to do with her because she's tiny enough that it that it's that it's not going to make her look horrible but I want you to notice look at how much it makes her look bigger from the waist down even that right there notice what the next picture when it comes up you'll see see it just go static everything goes very static with her so now for fun let me have you push your hip this way and ben journey and then like and go like this with your knee good girl can you uh put your hands back in your pants pockets but this time I want to have you do this you're hold this john I'm just going to do one thing with her um can I have you just take this and go like this don't take it off oh yeah I like that better yeah why did like it works that's good let it you know you need come out of your shell a little bit you're just so shy hush okay let's see what we're doing here kiddo love it ooh that's beautiful loving it right there perfect beautiful no smile what you leaned towards me a little bit with your beautiful really nice do you see what that did for her how gorgeous is that loving it perfect bring your chin down a tiny bit love and I want you to look over here with your eyes only at this ugly dude right there love and at eleven eleven but I need you to like give him that look of death like so don't even be messing with me bring your chin down a little tiny bit gorgeous want you three look at me beautiful drop that chin a little tiny bit and you know relax his shoulder a tiny bit good I want to really stretch that shoulder lovely honey in fact I love that you're doing right there drop the shoulder and then just turn your face up like this but turn it tad towards you not quite so much and then tilt your head back a little bit now and I want you to notice why I changed that hang on stay right there for a second qd um noticed the cord in her neck do that rolls drastically see how that court starts pulling out and it's really unattractive so we don't want to do that so you want to pay attention to those little tiny nuances push your hair back off your lips just tiny but good relax that push that hip that way a little bit love it good just like that and then love it not a lot half of that beautiful very very nice very very nice I could it darling you you love it done perfect drop your head this way just a little bit good and then we should lean towards me a bunch beautiful perfect ex and now look like I look almost over your shoulder like you saw like you saw a butterfly gorgeous but I need you to have some magic in your eyes you get a lot of love beautiful one two three got it perfect good job excellent okay this last image I really tilted the camera a bit and I will probably have I would probably go in and just extend that wall just a tiny bit so we're going to probably turn and turn it over to the girl sending you have at least one question for me before we go on we most certainly do let's get over there for a second any questions in the audience okay there's gotta yeah there's quite a few ok working with an assistant and a lot of people don't have an assistant yet how would you approach going about working in this manner without an assistant and any tips on ghost yeah I can address both of those eye for weddings per specifically I don't work without an assistant I absolutely have to have somebody working with me not that they don't need them for photography even though my associate photographer michael works with me on most most of my weddings but here's the benefit of having an assistant you have somebody who's got a second pair of eyes that can help you with your gear to make sure that it gets where and it doesn't walk off and leave you your assistant can help you to move quicker they khun b absolutely helping you to move to the next level my assistant photographer michael does a lot of my like if I'm working with the broad he'll work with the groom in the groomsmen so he really helps me to move in a more efficient manner um absolutely my right hand I would say if you're looking for an assistant find somebody who has a personality find someone who is good like work working with kids there is nobody in the universe it's better with children and interacting with children that my associate photographer michael vinayak and he is absolutely the pied piper when it comes to kids hey taught me everything I know about photographing children he's just brilliant with it so I would say find somebody that is great with children but I would say the most important quality that your assistant needs to have they need to have a humble spirit humility over ability is my most the most important mantra that I live by and that that is the most important quality to me that someone has to have because you could teach a humble person anything you could teach them to do anything you want but if they already think they know it all I'm sorry you can't teach him anything and they're not worth anything every year I get people coming from many of the school's like brooks and hallmark and you name all the big schools and sometimes some of those folks when they come they think well you know I graduated from some big glove loblaw school you know and they start thinking wu then I know it all and the thing that you that you learn from someone who's in the businesses you learn the shortcuts and that humble spirit when they come into my studio I don't need him I don't need them I don't care if they're going to you know they need to do what I want them to do and that if that means parking the car that's what I need him to do and the great thing about that using that is in the secret to that is the fact that if that person comes in and they make themselves so valuable to you you cannot see your life without them and you will keep them and you will do whatever you could possibly do to afford them my the guy who is like my guru in the studio calling patterson came to me from from hallmark and had a great deal of education of course first thing we had him doing was cleaning up studio and the great thing I love about colin is that he is a forward thinker I don't have to tell him every stupid little thing to do he thinks to himself assis well what would what would I what can I do that would make this easier for bambi you can you know I don't have to say oh colin could you got the model releases and as the people come in for a photo shoot can you going to have a son I don't have to tell him every stupid thing he thinks ahead of me and has figured out all of these little things to do that make my job such a breeze that I mean at the end of the day I'm thinking oh my lord I cannot even think of having a life without him because he's really made himself such an integral part of my success so humility absolutely over ability because you could teach a humble person anything and I'm living proof of that because that's exactly what I did the gentlemen who hired me the first year I worked for him I work for free I said look just just let me I want to learn and if he asked me to park the car or clean the toilets in the bathroom I said how much what do you want me to do I am going to do it and I looked for things to do to make myself invaluable so that you know he came in the morning and he didn't have to ask for a cup of coffee it was it was in his hand I knew what he wanted and I wanted to give it to him and it's not about you know I don't want people to think that that's about having something like your little hired slave but it's about when you it's just human nature that if people do nice things for us we like them and we want to be around them and then it's it's kind of like your mom you know she's you know she takes care of you and you just love having her to do things and and you would do anything for her and that's my philosophy on having assistance and stuff I I have lots of people always ask me if they could come in in turn and they can come and work for us we don't do that we don't usually take interns in fact colin is a good example of that because I don't take interns he literally hounded me every week for three months he he literally hounded me and hounded me until I finally just gave in because I don't like doing entrance does it takes me out of my sink in my routine when you have a crew that knows what you're doing and they're very fluid I don't even have to ask for the reflector I said hey give me the blood blah blah and they know exactly what I mean they know bamba knees they know that they know the code where somebody new you have to like use more words and they don't know how you flow so it's from the standpoint of the pro it's it's a really it's really a hard thing for them to sometimes take intern so you know that that's the end of that story so excellent excellent advice thank you very much for sharing that okay we're gonna take a forty five minute lunch break if you are considering purchasing this course now is the time to buy the on ly way creative live can continue to bring you the best educators like bambi cantrell to tens of thousands of people around the world is by your support so today is our make or break day so take this opportunity while we're on our lunch break to go grab bambi can trial for your photography tool kit great and bambi folks are already telling us who have purchased the course or telling us online why they have and so we wanted to read a couple of those out dorian beatty says I'm loving bambi's class because our information is not just theory but based on ten years of experience and the cost of purchasing is is well worth it to me because I'll be able to go back and refresh my memory every once in a while to get through the material until it's ingrained in me um connie cleveland says this course has something in it for every level of photographer it's a real class to real world portrait photography talking about how you talk in layman's terms uh go micah bree says I want to say thank you creative life for these workshops I recently signed up a decent art school in california for a lighting class for five hundred dollars after attending one class I asked for my money back was so disappointing it's really great to learn from working photographers just found you guys a few weeks ago and I'm building my photography library yep you know I think that's really to me the way one of the main things that I love about creative live is the fact that you have these in your library it's like collecting music cds or collecting you know books that you refer to back and forth except to me this is way better than any book because you actually see it and photographers are very visual people we need to see it I mean I can't learn anything from book and it's really ironic because now I've written three books of course I had an amazing writer because I I mean I barely know how to spell so but to me that's one of the benefits that to me is the coolest thing is be able to see somebody actually do it and then you can really I think it makes the learning curves so much faster and the other thing I like about it is the fact that the comment about taking a course sometimes people who have taken classes from from instructors and they spent thousands of dollars to do it and then they get found then oh my god this is not a very good cause just because someone's a good photographer doesn't mean that they'll be a good instructor and that is really important so the great thing to me about creative lives that you can go in and watch all these instructors and then if you decide that you want to to visit them live and participate in a workshop that's live where you're there then you to me are in a better position because it's kind of like you got to see the movie now you seem in real person you know and and I don't think that there's they're the same thing but at the same time it sure gives you a chance to see a lot of folks who are really good and then and learn from from that I think some of the best in the world