Lessons

Lesson Info

General Q&A

so just love me petey said are there specific color gels on the video life that make you able to shoot an auto white balance or do you use shells and all you can always you no matter what kind of light source you have you can always shoot auto white balance the bottom line is if you're shooting raw you can always fix it in post production not that I'm advocating not to get it right on camera but by the same token that's not where I want to spend a bunch of my time is get fixing something in camera that I know I'm going to do that is going to be handled in postproduction so as long as I'm aware of what the white balance is should be personally meet I'm okay so yes let's go back to the video lines there's video lights that are tungsten bounce there's video light set of fluorescent there's video lights that you could put gels on him and then of course that our daylight bounds so you've got to think about where are you shooting what kind of light sources are you're using and just pick up t...

hose you know whatever you need trying to think rogue produces gels for the flashes and things like that that you could easily just tape over the light source to get that but for me I care about then I don't want them to be orange I want to be able to fix them in postproduction and get them to look the way I want so that's how we do it all right jen rice is asking how do you meet her for backlighting flare etcetera if a v mode is using if you're in a b mode using exposure compensation and value to me during right so evaluative meet oring is basically looking at the entire scene and if your subject's small in that scene they are absolutely going to be underexposed theirs very rarely will the camera get it right it's going to get tricked out mostly because they're being backlit when being backlit ok like if I were to take a picture this way I got a bank of windows behind me guaranteed actually let's do this let's just do it for a test purpose you two move while we're here why don't you could stay there unless I don't care so let's do this I'm in evaluative metering it doesn't matter just get into each other we're just mostly showing what the camera can do right now I'm in evaluative meeting okay I know just knowing my equipment I know what's gonna happen because of this bank of windows the camera's gonna get tricked out and they're going to go black and there it is have let's have that image up on the screen so what's happening right now is the camera's exposing for the entire scene because it's got that bank of windows that's what what it's doing but I know enough about my equipment to know that that's probably a to stop differential right just by looking at the back of my cameras and now what I'm going to do an aperture prime already if you're following along is I'm going I'm going to go exposure compensation plus two and so I'm immediately gonna go two plus two on my settings okay and now just putting it on them I'm just gonna take the shot and now you can see is there any way to toggle or show both images on the screen at the same time so just by showing that all I did was plus two and I'm probably a little too hot it plus two I could probably go like plus one and three quarters so that's how I'm using apple exposure compensation and that first image they were underexposed and just guessing and knowing enough about my equipment I knew I was a stop and a half to two stops under exposed I just spun the dial and I got my shot in manual mode I highly doubt you would have gotten that in two frames emanuel moan you divide to keep bossing around your equipment all the while your client like what in the hell is going on and so if you notice my whole methodology here right there's a couple of monsters here tight middle wide get as much diversity as possible for the client give him a different expressions looking at each other looking away you never know what they're going to like and so it's not enough to me to walk up to a scene have them smile take a picture move on or look at the camera take a picture move on mom might like one set of images the kids might like a different set of images grand parents might like a different set of images so when I get a scene I want to take his many different frames different angles as I possibly can to ensure that we're getting what I need for everybody to be happy it's a good question hopefully we show them through that before and after what it's gonna look like way have a question from jenna michelle photography and from dana lin seventy eight you use the thirty five millimeter prime a lot when the fifteen eighty five lenses or talked about more for portrait's can you please explain why say that again thirty we used thirty five millimeter line there saying use that you're using the thirty five a lot and eighty five and fifty are typically used for portrait sor so people are told can you explain why you're using the thirty yeah I'm being put in a challenging situation right now this is I would say I'm pretty much out of my element I would not normally walk into an environment like this and see this is a place I'd want to shoot I usedto having a lot more room toe work with well with that room right I can have different focal lengths and I'm usually using my seventy two hundred if I were to put on an eighty five millimeter lens I was had been outside in the street to get that shot of them against the door there's no way it would have happened same in that alley the alley was very very narrow so I've got to use the right tool for the job not necessarily my favorite tool my favorite tool would be my seventy two hundred but listen we're professionals we still have to be able to perform in adverse conditions so me personally I'm happy with what I was seeing myself get on the back of camera and knowing that I've got the images that taylor is going to be able to sell tomorrow as large wall portrait to these guys that's very very important that's all I care about by the way yeah it's not maybe my ideal shoot but I needed that thirty five millimeter lens so that I could step back a little bit more and for the record the eighty five millimeter lens from canon I do not I cannot stand at all that lens anybody using it it takes it's gorgeous when it's focused but if you're chasing a moving subject or anything like that that camera that lens little bit anybody have that takes forever to focus that is not a lens that I can use even though I have it's great if I'm just doing headshots but it's not really good for anything that's got any kind of action associating with you specifically talking about the one point two yeah specifically talking to one point two it's gorgeous when you're nobody's moving and you got plenty of time but it's horrible if you're trying to shoot a moving subject coming down the aisle anything like that it doesn't move quick enough so it's not it's just not focuses the focusing system isn't good enough not for me so question is from hell inca how do you connect the seema lights sure let's bring those senior lights up great question they come with uh hot shoe bottoms so what you'll see here which camera on right here is what you'll see is the bottom here these air hot shoe capable so they stack on each other really just simply snap together and then they screwed down in the cool part about this is out of reception uh sometimes I don't even put flash on the camera I take one of these put it on the top of my camera turn it on and I start roaming around the dance for photographing it like one point two oh my god we'll do this not tomorrow but thursday I'll focus start photographing with this on at one point too and I cannot explain to you how gorgeous that indian light in the room look so I love these things okay um there was a question here from jamie photographer who would like to know if you show clients the shots on the back of the camera ever and they find that people clients are constantly asking to see yeah that's a great question by the way I make sure that I get I get them in their rhythm first so if everybody noticed in the beginning I spent a lot of time working with the client to get them comfortable in front of cameras some of you may feel like I was even being a little too heavy handed with him in the beginning but you know what I find that my client's love all that direction up front and then I try to just let the session flow anyway it is but if I've got a client who I've got to keep telling bring it down bring it down bring it down I'm going to tell them that I've got clients all the time I don't know what it is but they'll do this a lot they live that channel right it's the flying chennai calling you got girls are nodding your head I don't know if when they're in the mirror at home they look in there like I look good right you do look good but not on camera okay so I gotta teach you to bring that chin down but at the risk I'd rather be heavy handed you get great images and then go I don't like the way I look right because my chins up in the air so um anyway I don't even know if I answer that question I don't even know what the question question was do you let people look at the back camera way any coffee so yes the short answer is yes I absolutely will always show them something in the back of the camera that's where I was going with this in the beginning of very heavy handed I don't show them anything because they're still getting comfortable in front of camera then I wait till about the mid midway through the session when I know I got a good shot that's the one I showed them in the back of the camera so sorry for the long and you show me just once or twice you're not showing them yeah not every scene like what do you think what do you think you think it starts looking like witches need approval yeah I don't need approval from him because ultimately I'm showing them an unfinished image so they clients don't have vision they don't know that this is gonna look good in black and white you know especially that alley shot I took earlier I know what it looked like in camera camera which may not be the best looking image I also know what I'm capable of doing in post production and what I'm going to make that look like and so I rather surprised the client with that first time going oh it's an alley they don't get it right so we're going to make it look good for him all right I have a question for you from wesley deby who has been asking this question over and over and so my question really is does this matter because your shooting in raw and he's asking what picture style and a f most mode is the best for photography eso it matters picture style to a certain extent doesn't matter if you're shooting raw because ultimately it's raw that whole picture style is going to be lost when you bring it in is a raw file it helps in the back of camera look good but that's ultimately it now as far as a shooting mode I'm in one shot so I'm not shooting you know when we go into mode here or a half dr I'm not in high wow we don't need that is way too many images so you know I'm not a sports photographer so when I'm going to have dr I'm in low low and then as faras focusing I mean one shot right I'm not following follow focusing or any of that other stuff I find that I get a lot of blurry images when I when I use that even for the bride coming down the aisle by the way so I mean one shot focus fire focus fire focus fire so sam we would like to know about the video lights you spoke of stands that used for the lights so how and when do you use this fans do you always have an assistant I guess for people that don't would you recommend carrying those lights around yeah those nano stands I was telling you about by manfredo those air great stands toe have for even stuff like this but I try to have an extra set of hands but when you can't just get those stands there perfect because they have a hot shoe a doctor and you can just put those on there and then allows you to move really really quickly a question from louie's murder who says last time I tried to use the seam as at a reception I had a lot of complaints from guests that the light was too bright and bothering them has have you ever had that issue yes we have and if you get that complaint just back off s o go back to using flash what you want to do is you don't want to run right up to the client and get you know especially if it's a dark room and you show up with with that seem like they're going to be squinting they're not the pictures you want if the djs got lights on his on his booth it's very easy to use the seema lights because there's already light in the room and their pupils are right open and you're gonna be fine and so you're not going to blinding them so to speak we're doing good we're doing good are you had to you ready to go I'm ready to go that's wrong no no I'm done you're not I know about you is you go now you're not going anywhere you're not going anywhere okay let's ask a few more questions what I would like to do is I feel like you know from the bridal show maybe there was a ton of questions I know we didn't get to and then maybe from anything we're doing in the alley off camera flash is there any questions around that we can take those but any questions people have fair game bring it on okay there was a question from bosnia photo did you ask about the female client okay good bosnia photo asked how do your female clients feel about you touching them are moving their hair their legs or their body yeah I don't know I never I've never had anybody say anything to me I'm not weird about it I'm just very matter of fact about it so for me I'm just gonna move their leg on and stick it where I want I want to put it I'm going to move their hair but I'll coach them to move their hair if need be so what I don't want to do is just keep saying move in here move in here move your hair because in the case of right here she just she was focused on her moment had the giggle so I let her do her thing and I just got her hair the way I needed so I've never had a client complaint but as men touching women we have to be conscious of that and his females touching men we also have to be conscious of that so I think you just have to read your client okay I have a question from jesse dog who said how do you choose your locations how much input input does the couple have on the locations ever that's actually a great question a cz faras everything we've been doing today the couple has very little impact on to our location so what I like to do for locations I will ask my couple are you looking for urban are you looking for park like setting that's about as much input is I'm looking for out of the client if they say they're looking for urban the rest is on me to find those locations if they say they're looking for a park like a park is a park s so we're just gonna find greenery anywhere we can but remember most of the clients my brides that have found me are looking for something a little bit more urban a little bit more grungy out of their session typically like to shoot at the golden hour we're early in the morning or you shooting in the middle part of the day you don't care when you're shooting do you have a preference three to four hundred photo shoots a year I'm typically shooting from ten a m till seven or eight pm as light will allow so I do not have the luxury of the the golden hour or any of that other madness where professional photographers we have to deal with whatever lighting conditions are thrown our way so rarely am I shooting you know do I have the luxury of doing that so I will typically shoot during course season you know april through october we're shooting three to six sessions a day five days a week just trying to get everybody through the studio so we just deal with what we get mean a day like today it's just overcast day I can't make it be sunny I can't make it be warmer than it is outside I just got to deal with it I gotta deal with the conditions for my clients that being said though if it gets below fifty degrees we will typically cancel all shoots because today I don't know how cold it was outside right but poor carmen was freezing to death so it makes it tougher to be enjoyable for your client if that's the case the same is true on the other side if it gets over a hundred degrees which in st louis in the summer the heat index is typically between one hundred five hundred fifteen so when it gets over one hundred degrees we will cancel all shoots for the same reason women your makeups melting you're sweating your face is red you're closer sticking to you so it's not a very good experience so we're dealing with the weather also I recently have been trying out the neutral density filter do you recommend those for those bright sunny days to help being able to shoot wide open with the neutral density filter on your lenses because I purchased it for my studio right and have it used it outside I don't use it it all I you know obviously I know you know what andy filter is what it does but I don't use those at all instead you know I'm never gonna put my client in direct sunlight I'm looking for open shade wherever I can find it if I am going to put them in direct sunlight it's typically going to be at the golden hour right where it's a warm lower light on the horizon and they can tolerate it or they're being backlit in which case it doesn't matter either as if they're being backlit you khun totally photograph them wide open on just blow out that sky toe look the way you want so look for open shade thie andy filter is not something I use it all I don't even own one just to give you perspective yeah now we're getting into goods good questions here typical engagement session is I always tell people if I like you we're gonna shoot for about an hour and a half if I don't like you will be done in forty minutes it's not simple I can get what I need because I moved so quick very quickly so I'm not gonna sit out there and you know just torture you torture me if nobody's having a good time and we've had those situations where the group unfortunately it's just being really difficult to work with he doesn't want to smile he doesn't want to focus he doesn't want to have fun what am I doing I can't make you have fun and that now as we've gotten more establishing our career not my client right so we flush those out but early on in my career those kind of clients would sneak in and you all know what I'm talking about we have those clients where you're like you don't know what to do anymore and so hopefully as you get more establishing your career you'll get away from those and you'll learn how to pinpoint your clients okay I have a question here um let's see can't find out oh here it is cook esquire would you let a couple bring props if they were interested in using them and has that happened does it happen often yeah doesn't happen too often because that's mostly not my style that kind of do it yourself park like all that other good stuff it's it's it's really I mean that's cool cool it's whimsical but that's not my brand so I don't tend to attract those kinds of clients but when they do bring props absolutely incorporate them into the shoot but I will I will share one of my horror stories this is a true story unfortunately we had a client on dh this was cool because I had at two people in from new york training with us so they came in from new york there training with us we go to a park and they bring their dogs to the to the photoshoots have you ever had an engagement couple bring their dogs with them guys is a true story so dirty laundry way get up and I say hey here's what I want to do I said to your dogs listen and she's like wow she goes he doesn't really listen when you call him I said well then I don't want to do this because I want to put him off the leash she's like it'll be okay he'll be fine so I'm like okay let's do it so we have the parents there okay we're in forest park in st louis and the people everybody's behind me the parents are holding the dogs right next to me I'm laying on the ground and I have the couple about twenty five yards out away from me and what I wanted was his great picture of the dogs running towards the couple on them hugging them and wrestling with them right so they let go the dogs and dogs go running up to him okay and it's just the one dog that doesn't listen the dog gets there he stops like three feet from them looks at them looks back at me as if like you dumb men you just let this happen runs back to the camera right stops like three feet from me gone he takes off okay they start chasing him you here five seconds later dog gets hit by a car this is this is a real story so I look at taylor I'm like she's like she's just looking at me from like fifty yards away she's going not good right so they run everybody goes running off over there it's okay the dog lived don't worry about it she's crying right now she's like a dog so the dog I'm like oh my god I'm so sorry I'm like if I had ever known that you told me you know he would he would do it just like yeah I should've price said something he likes to chase cars are you freaking kidding me your dog chases cars and you didn't think that would be an important piece of information so the dog comes back right and in the fat of his leg you know that part of the leg with the dogs it was just caught open no blood by the way it was such a deep cut he wasn't bleeding at all a little gash on his forehead and he's being carried like a baby and he's just looking around like what happened which is topping and so we got them okay we apologize to them of course and we got the dog a giant dog cake on that was the only thing apparently that he would eat for the entire week while he was sick and laid up in bed so it's it's all good everybody relax out there in here there crying dog lend its okay okay he's okay and so I forget his name his name was baron on dh eso barons okay but baron apparently likes to chase cars so that's a true horror story okay can we can we end today on a happy story that bad with you let's talk about let's talk about the best thing about butterflies yeah let's talk about the best the best story the best shoot that you had like crazy out of there but awesome crazy out there awesome and that is a gun today yeah it's too big I like thinking about the harsh stores they think they're gonna write our book of our stories all right so I do have a you have a good one this one got me choked up we were out way were at a wedding and my bride was a plus size bride my groom was a plus size groom in you know what tends to happen with a plus size couples is they don't like the way they look in photography and you know I took that as a personal challenge because she was she was beautiful in her heart right inside and out she was just a beautiful person he was a beautiful person right but it was like a self esteem issue and so I took it as a personal mission I want until I give them the most amazing photography experience I possibly could and we do this thing where we do a slide show at the wedding when we show pictures from the day and so we set up the slide show we play it and I always have the bridegroom sitting out in the middle of the dance floor and I always sit behind them just to kind of maybe catch what they're saying to each other or what they're thinking and the slideshow plays and picture after picture I see her reaching up and wiping a tear from her eye and I'm like oh boy this is either really going bad or really going good and I finally see her lean in to her husband and she says I am beautiful she goes I am so beautiful and I'm getting choked up just saying it right now it gave me the chills on my new mission accomplished because that is our job is to make our couples look beautiful both inside and out