Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Bridal Prep

just be natural and I try to get the bride as relaxed as possible because sometimes you know like I said before they're not models and they're not trained actresses or anything like that and sometimes they just don't know what you want them to do on camera so I just I just let them know that it's it's okay just be themselves and I had a conversation with her earlier what I just said I just want you to be relaxed be normal on whatever happens happens I don't need you to do anything special for the camera because I don't want anything contrived or or anything that looks fake so she's looking good I probably I probably jump in here and I grab a group a couple good shots then and I'm and I'm checking focus before he'd shot and I have a good movement there and that these shots remember once you once you have your shot and I can introduce the movement here soon I just created a second shot so once I have like a static shot I can come back here and then I can I can introduce some movement jus...

t had interests of the shot okay and then up and then I'm basically just gonna move around and I'm gonna look for little three to five second shots of the bride and I'm gonna look for some things like this that have some foreground hey I got a quick question you were checking focus there did I notice you zoomed in really far to check your focus and then zoom back out to make your shot exactly okay awesome think exactly so I don't especially when you're that close you definitely want to make sure that her risers tax sharpened focus you know these cameras were great and they look great as long as the subjects and focus and here I've just completed like a two shot sequence very easily now I can't even switch friends is if you can keep going with I shot is just a little but I'll get it a lot of times when we're shooting we're anticipating shots and sometimes we're wasting so much time because the shots not happening but we're kind of like staying in one position if it gets to the point where you're just waiting for too long for that one shot that you need to complete your sequence just has to make up artist you know so you know can you dab your brochure you whatever you're looking for just ask for because all that time that you're wasting your missing other live shots that you can actually get so don't get too caught up and waiting for that one shot and here all I'll change I'll change lenses and in a typical bride perhaps you have you're in the room for about an hour and a half which is a long time in this process right here it's like thirty or forty minutes of really creative interesting shots that you should be able to achieve in that in that amount of time so here here I'm just kind of looking for anything that might look interesting um and just any you know there were and you can always introduce movement you can you can really start building up the content if you have like a static shot and you hold it for three or four seconds and then you you introduce a shot with movie you just created a second shot and here I'm gonna wait till the makeup artist comes back up and you can almost time it I can come from here to the point where uh make a part of starts applying the makeup here on right there and that's it and really just just anything that looks interesting here we don't the window that way we have here is up high so you don't really have a situation where you can shoot silhouettes unfortunately with the bride but it was like a regular glass window or door I could probably get some silhouettes you have a bride like this you know beautiful green eyes blue eyes you can really exploit that it was just really gonna look good and evil even when you're this close um always always check focus and the thieves were great looking shots and and you're just looking for a man as you could get but you don't want overkill just as soon as I've got a handful of shots because these aren't even the final the final stage shots just watch your exposure and sometimes you just wait because you're anticipating the shot on there you go and then you can you can move while she's still applying try to move quick and and and re establish another shot because that just became part of the first night you were taken very fast you just moved so like I tell you three to five seconds three to five seconds and move don't get stuck there because I would've been stuck there for twenty seconds I just lose I end up losing all these other shots now at some point don't forget the makeup bars because as a viewer you want to kind of know the whole story so you want to know oh my god who's applying make up to her so I'll show a shot of the makeup are shit just so the viewer knows make bars like no uh just so the viewer knows where the hands air coming from uh things like that and you get interesting with this you know you can you're not to show you not to show her whole face just kind of play around with a little bit of four around and you can even do transitions and like I said you can't even introduce moment well when she comes on us huh you got to rack focuses on you know you go from the bride where she's actually could you play that ray how many of your shots have a transition like do you recommend that for every shot assed faras transitions can you talk a little bit more as to how their percentage of shots that you recommend having a transition isn't all shots that have have a transition or can you talk a little bit about not all the shots what I try to do is get a static shot so that counts is one shot and then I'll do a movement shot without without moving my placement I could get like two or three different shots without ever moving or changing lenses or anything so if I have one shot I'll do that same shop introducing movement now and now I have basically the same shot but shot differently so looks differently in the film so I could introduce maybe that shot like in highlights and then the other shop which was essentially the same thing and in a film and ah you you think you're looking at two entirely different things but you wanted it was basically the same shot just executed differently and remember when you have the bride here there's going to be so many other things going on like right now we're in a training environment and it's just me the bride in the makeup artist but generally speaking you're gonna have so many other characters here you're going to have you know bridesmaids maids of honor is the pay parents little nieces you know so there's a lot of things going on and you really need teo beyond this like like right now I would probably I would probably stop this portion and start looking for the dress the shoes hearings the rings and I would start shooting details because right now I've got a handful of shots that'll cover me and it's it's not all the makeup shots that I wanted but it's kind of it's kind of enough if I didn't have any makeup shots because then we're going to get into the bright actually getting into her dress I think we have a couple questions in our studio uh can you tell us the flame like that you're using and why you chose that um I'm shooting at twenty three point nine eight was basically twenty four frames which is which is the frame rate of film and you know we're always kind of looking for to achieve the film look um so that's why shoot without look you know the thirty and it's really something that you have to get your eyes and just because there was a time where my eyes couldn't even distinguish between thirty p m twenty four p so I think it's something that you you've got a kind of train your eyes to recognize I don't think brides would ever for the most part be able to distinguish between twenty four p m thirty p I think that's just something that's within us you know we want this ultimate film look and I think they they definitely appreciate it because they're seeing it but they're not really understanding how that look is being achieved this this this look of film but they're certainly not going to call you up and say hey where you shouldn't have thirty frames and not twenty for things like that you know they're they're eyes definitely aren't trained to see it in my eyes weren't trained to see it for a long time but then now if I see thirty p I just you know I definitely want to shoot in that moment you know it's more of like a video it's time for uh look you know where we're always kind of trying achieve this this look of film that's been kind of the goal for a long long time yeah you were saying that you don't have a lot of conversation with the bride about what she should be doing but in your pre meetings you see anything about don't look in the camera or any basic other things that bride shouldn't do while you're filming her I don't do it in the pre meeting sometimes I'll do it on the shoot itself like if I find them uh you know looking at the camera you know just you know you have the look of a man just pretend we're not here I'll just tell him that I think that's kind of like a common phrase that we tell brats just pretending we're not here because you're always looking for for natural emotions so that's the only thing that we do in regards to that and and sometimes they do look at the camera and I tell you the fact that we shoot with these de solares ah lot of people think that we're shooting photos so they'll look at the camera the pose and they'll give you you know they give you smiles for the camera so you're going to run into that if you're shooting dslr especially like it receptions or ceremonies you're pointing this camera people actually think you're still photographer which which in a way is a good thing because usually with video the kind of like they hide from the camera but from the photographer they kind of like they open up and they pose so ah lot of times they going too good because you get people to open up and show their actual natural emotions and things like that on don't shy away from the cameras much so I definitely think it's a very advantageous to shoot this camera so so we're back we shot the dress and the shoes on and we're checking out the bride she's looking great and here I could just um always check focus I check focus for every shot remember it's okay to to film hands and not the face all the time because if every every clip that you have is just bright face bread face bread face bread face you know with the same composition it's just it's like it's like a jump cut you know it's very visually disruptive to the film so if you go from like hands to phase two maybe a wide shot uh two maybe the makeup artist to maybe uh makeup artist stabbing the makeup you know it just it is the film flows a lot better and it's not so it's not so disruptive you know if you if you have the same compositions back to back in the film it's it's literally just like like a jump cut it's very uh it's very disruptive and distracting so she's looking good and like I said just just kind of look around see if you can you find anything interesting to shoot question came up from j d dell's deleon who wanted to know about reflectors I know you told you told us earlier way that you like to shoot almost all mostly natural light maybe not in dark reception halls but do you ever use reflectors for video no never okay and we'll just wait here a lot times times just anticipating shots but this is pretty interesting and then like I said you can always introduce a movement and don't spend too much time there don't don't fall in love with your shots um just get your shot and move you know if you get a if you get a good position and and these were very fast you know just even if I have her hand there I'll try to get her hand and focus and then I can come back to the right there you go and then I can even come to the make up bars and then I could do a little subtle movement here and sometimes when you're when you're moving if you keep the same distance between uh one object as other you can kind of just transition from one to the next without having to manipulate focus you know the focus on here is very challenging because if you're not checking focus to do it on the fly it just gets kind of tricky and sometimes you just gotta get lucky that that lance tack sharp uh but sometimes just practice a couple times until you know the mark let's see what we got so probably tried changing lenses I'll get a few shots with fifty and then I'll generally just put the hundreds in there and try to get some rope of shots remember you're always looking for other things as well feeling for natural dialogue that might be happening around the room so if you hear some beautiful words being spoken kind of gravitate to that position we're looking good and I'm just I'm really just scouting this is this ah this environments literally all new to me so here we'll just see what you have and here you know here you can obviously you can do some rack focuses back and forth just really anything that's anything that's interesting there's a phone here this pretty cool in here so we'll just wait we'll wait for the makeup artist come on andreas faras makeup and there I can I can actually see the makeup artist and I can transition from there to the actual bride so sometimes you just you don't know what you're going to shoot but it's just kind of in the frame so is there any application of makeup that you would not include like you don't want to see someone putting in eyebrows you're mostly looking for mascara or eye shadow or lips is there anything that you absolutely will not any sort of makeup application yeah definitely you definitely have to use common sense when doing these shots because I could tell you if the bride doesn't like the way she looks in the film she's just not gonna like the film so there's certain times where they may be applying something and and you're seeing like the top of their eyeball or the bottom of their eyeball just something that's not flattering for the bride I would definitely uh maybe not shoot that or not included definitely in the film so if they're playing eyelashes generally I don't use any of those shots because they're sort of like manipulated my balls or she's looking straight up things like that I just won't include that so just just use common sense you know obviously if if the bride he's wiping her nose or you know doing something that's unflattering we're not looking for those types of shots so it's just it's really just shots where the bride's looking her best that's what we're looking for on and sometimes sometimes you're gonna be here and you're just you're literally just waiting because maybe you have all the shots that you need and you just have to wait till the kind of finish up so at this point once I have enough shots I'll really start to try to get into figured out you know they're going to be speeches is there any uh is there any valets writing is there a dress shoes rings I'll just go off and start shooting up because you want to kind of get the bride there space too you know like once you have enough shots kind of lay off a little bit you know you want to be so much of a presence where you know maybe the price just gets annoyed you know having you there all up close and personal and and you know there really is an art to being so close and intimate with the bride and having her still react naturally you know that that you could just goes to show that you have the ability to really mesh with the bride and make her feel comfortable even though you have this you know big old cameron you're right there up close and personal with her you're trying to get all these shots and she's still able just to relax and be herself so I think that's an art is is being able to being the bride's own without her really feeling like you're even in her space you know that type of thing so you don't wanna overdo it you don't want to just you know you don't want to push it so far yeah now you're really going to start to become annoying or anything like that so you know get in her zone get what you need and then just you know casually get out because they're still gonna be photography's for the photographer's gonna be in there you're going to be in there back and forth so it could get a little bit overwhelming for her you know especially it's her wedding day she stressed out and she has a million things on her mind on that's a question the studio yeah in the morning and one in case bride is really in the cart or something you know when some audio is important to using you and you love my extra innocents or just on camera like now just use on camera mike I have ah if I I generally don't shoot with a microphone on the camera but as soon as I start hearing that there's there's some natural audio that I want to record I will go ahead and throw on on on camera mike I notice that looks like you're using just your standard photography lenses have you tried to need the sinister ill because you're a razor thin kind of depth of field I didn't know if you find that having the extra focus between that zero in infinite was any help or if it's a hindrance or how it works for your workflow no I just I literally just run and gun with this camera and I try to ah I try toe just practice my focus points but other than that I don't have any any other type of assistance uh for the groom's preps and serious second shooter shoots it mostly um I should the groom spread mostly and it is the same lenses that jessica uses or different yeah different lenses like she's using ah uh I know she uses the car lt's ice fifty lens and I'm using a cannon fifty lens and then on her end I think she has ah a cannon one thirty five two point oh that she uses on di use the carl zeiss hundred macro I don't have another's iceland so she can't have that you know so she stuck with one thirty five lines so she kind of makes you the groom perhaps is really yeah the groom perhaps is really so minimal right it's so minimal I could shoot a groom prep in ten minutes max I'll finish a growing problem where is with the bride it's literally like an hour hour and a half process because you just have so many things going on with a bright and it really it really is all about the bride not so much about the girl he's a character and he's there but it really is all about all about the bride so it definitely takes its a lot more involved with bright whereas a groom and you know the groom's kind of like they just want to be grooms they want to be cool they want to go hang with friends I want to drink and you don't want to kind of you don't invade that too much don't want to get the groom out of a good mood things like that because the groom's most grooms are just kind of going with the flow you know like tell me what time to be there I'll show up you know that type of attitude whereas with the bride this is her dream you know like like most women have dreamt about having this gorgeous wedding whereas most guys you know have cringed things like that so for the groom it's just like you know yeah I'll show up you know just tell me where to show up where is right it's a lot more important for the bright and that's why it's a lot more involved you know as far as a makeup in the dress and looking beautiful and everything's perfect but that stuff takes time to document so that's why it definitely takes a lot longer now I like the fact that diana um shoots your groom perhaps because you know jessica she shoots the groom preps and I'm at such an advantage because if you have a female shooting groom perhaps for the most part if you're a guy and you're going to a groom groom prop and none of those guys know you the they're not so receptive you know the response that you get is generally like who's this guy and he's invading our space and we can't act normal the way that we normally act goofing around amongst each other because now we got this guy who's like a stranger kind of like in our zone but guys for the most part they love to show off in front of women so when the girl shows up they have no problem inviting girls you know went into their space so what do you get it you just get their natural side which is I think it's a huge advantage I get so much great footage from jessica because they just they really open up and they want to show off and I want to be funny and they want to do all this stuff and really for the film that's it just comes across really really great you know because it just shows that they're having a really good time and they were comfortable there were relaxed they don't have to go out of their zone things like that so it's really an advantage that alex is here as you probably know she probably gets some really good players now sometimes jessica gets you know too good of footage sometimes you're almost too relaxed and comfortable having her you know in the room oh I'm gonna take a shower now you want to come on in and document this you know so it's sometimes they're almost too relaxed s o but it is a great situation just because they really open up they don't feel like they're zones being invaded so if you have a situation where you know you could have a female shooter maybe do your grandpa it would be great yeah and ray I wanted to ask you another technical questions before we get started again because I know you you had talked about ok ahead we talked we covered frames we've covered france for second a lot of people in the chapel are talking about having your shutter speed always set toe one fiftieth one fifty one one fifty one o one fiftieth can we talk a little bit about one fifty first one sixtieth or what you do so in a perfect world with these cameras you want to shoot at out of fifty of the second or with some cameras at forty eighth because you want to double whatever your frame rate as with your shutter speed you know toe really achieve like the look of film but that's like in a perfect world but unfortunately we're not functioning in a perfect world now I have a camera at home which is the candidacy three hundred which has built in andy filters so aiken aiken typically stay at the native eso and at a forty eighth of a shutter the whole day there's no matter how bright the lights are on but with these cameras you don't have the luxury of having the built in and de filters so you're really forced unless you just one over you know over expose shots at forty eighth of a shutter you're really forced to use high shutters