Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Engagement Session (Alley, Available Light)

so here we are in the alley and you might be thinking oh my goodness why are we taking engagement pictures uh in an alley so the ultimate goal here I want you to understand first and foremost what I'm seeing when I walk on to a location and what my mind today so for me when I'm going on an engagement session I want two different locations two different outfits uh that is my ultimate goal for the engagement couple and you know we send our clients out an email that has what we're what we tell them toe where so we're telling them what to where we want to different outfits something casual don't make your client stress in uh you know a suit if that's not them that's the worst thing you can do also don't give your not give your client's guidance if they just show up wearing whatever theywant aware you run the risk of having your clients and you know what I'm talking about show up in like you know go cards t shirt well guess what you're not going to sell wall art in your home if they're show...

ing up like that so we control uh the wardrobe and that's very very important the next thing is my style of photography is very much urban I love the urban architecture the elements and yes I'm gonna take tight pictures of decline beautiful pictures of client but I try to give them diversity so maybe we're going to go to a park maybe we're going to go to an alley but we definitely always do two locations and of course um two different outfits that is going to give them the best amount the most amount of diversity now how many pictures will I take from a typical engagement session I will photograph anywhere from three hundred to five hundred images from a typical engagement session and what you guys will find out there if you follow me on my senior program my methodology if you will the method to my madness is tight middle wide so I am photographing today I'll tell you a little bit about my gear I'm using account in one d x all right that's what I'm using I shoot raw I'm not shooting j pack that's ridiculous I don't have that conversation at this point time but you should be shooting raw there's no reason for all of you not to be shooting raw at this point I'm using a seventy two hundred two point eight lens doesn't matter if your cannon or nikon shooter but seventy two hundred is my favorite lenz I'm using that eighty ninety percent of the time I will switch lenses during the shoot once or twice but mostly this is what I'm working with and remember what I said before we went to break I am thinking mentally about the sale so I'm thinking about selling prince I'm not just walking out here in an alley and wondering like who should I shoot here should I shoot there because what's gonna happen is you're gonna lose confidence with your client so your clients aren't gonna they're gonna think you're not in charge you're not in control and so what I'm looking to do is control the situation and think about the sale that being said I'm going to photograph it seventy millimeters one hundred thirty one hundred twenty millimeters two hundred meters I'm going to shoot both vertical and then I'm gonna shoot horizontally right so I'm going to go tight mental wide I'm also going to instruct the client so you guys out there this is what you should pay attention to because I know a lot of photographers have trouble directing the client right how do I pose him what do I say to them how do I make them look because we could make our clients like that if you don't post correctly if you've ever struggled with posing pay attention to this segment because I'm gonna show you how easily control the client there's also different looks I'm looking for I want the girls I want that sassy look right you know what I'm talking about this girl you got that size right you all have it right and then I want them smiling of course and then from the guys I don't want them being sassy right I want what I call their mean monk right that's their badass look that's what I'm looking for and then of course I want to smile so not only am I giving them diversity in the vertical horizontal in the tight middle wide okay I'm giving them diversity in their expression that's very important so think about it I can have them looking at each other kissing looking at the camera looking away from camera that's four different exposures right there I can shoot each one of those four at seventy millimeters one hundred twenty millimeters two hundred millimeters so now those air twelve frames that all look somewhat different now multiply that by both vertical and horizontal so very quickly just on a simple wall I can capture twenty four very unique and distinctive images you might think right I don't want to shoot everything tight if I shoot it real tied at two hundred millimeters no one's gonna put a thirty by forty campus on their wall or acrylic of a giant head shot no matter how beautiful they are so I have to think about the sale if you want to shoot sell big prints you've gotta shoot to sell and that's the key concept here so that being said let's take a look at what's in the back because that's the next magical question I always get so this is my bag I didn't prep a special bag to come to creative lives this is what I travel with so I shoot all over the country all over the world and this is what I carry everything in this is a low pro x two hundred so they make an x three hundred which is a bigger bag but the x two hundred what I love most about it is it fits in the overhead compartment so I'm not gonna have to check this back and as we get down into it a zip this up for a second uh the one thing I want you to notice about the bag it's gotta kicks in right who doesn't love a bag with the kicks then so this allows me to work um right at a level where I'm not bending all the way down to the ground but this in my opinion is probably the best feature of any bag I've ever seen let's say you're traveling you're working okay and now you are if you're like me I uh bring too much stuff or I buy too many souvenirs and then what I need is extra storage space so this bag converts to a backpack and now a suitcase right that's amazing so this when I saw this in this bag this sold me so I'm really big on making the investment in products that are going to make it easier for me so for example I was just shooting a beach wedding uh you know about a month ago well guess what you're not rolling through the sand in this so my team just immediately unzipped it put it on their back and now we're walking with a backpack so very very practical and I'm listen I'm not gonna attempt to zip that back up so it's come back into the bag right so in the bag this is everything I travel with so what I've got here this is my sixteen thirty five if your wedding photographer or want to be this is this is the equipment I think you have to have you have to have a seventy two hundred two point eight you need fast allies I think you need a twenty four seventy two point eight you need a sixteen thirty five that's how you're gonna get those wide angles two point eight and then the next must have is a fifty millimeter one point two and that is an expensive piece of glass nikon I think I don't think they make a one two for an icon I think they make a one point four which is still a good piece of glass you need fast glass as you'll see tomorrow I don't want a photograph everything with flash I want to be able to go into a church and photograph with no flash I don't like the way it looks that's how we do it so again seventy two hundred two point eight twenty four seventy two point eight sixteen thirty five two point eight and a fifty millimeter uh at one four right I wouldn't go any slower than that so you want us fast as possible one for one two for you then the next thing I have eyes a macro lens this isn't a must have I don't think he's a wedding photographer but definitely is you start adding to your equipment you're gonna want this macro lens to take pictures of the details and we'll cover that tomorrow during the wedding coverage we're shooting details uh next thing I have my bags a flashlight seems ridiculous but we work in dark corners all the time right when we're shooting weddings and things like that so this is like a five ten dollar purchase from you don't target walmart wherever you go next thing I have always extra batteries that's common sense there um I used these battery packs so for off camera flash right this is what I have noticed we're not running around with strollers and all that other madness way have off camera flash here I powered with this cyclone bolt so this is a bolt battery pack it's available of being h that's where I get it from and this powers right my my speed lights so again doesn't matter ifyou're canada an icon ah your speed lights you need some off camera you need battery power the four double a's that are in this are not gonna allow you to recycle quick enough so if your photographer and this is the thing you're struggling which where it's like flash fires rise like pop wait wait wait pop wait wait I don't want to wait I got to keep moving quicker you need this battery pack so I have two of those in my bag for speed lights I used the kanan six hundred speed lights these are brand new and what I love most about him is they have radio triggers in him so no more fumbling around with triggering from a third party the triggering devices air now built into the six hundreds were going to do something with off camera flash later and that's about it so I've got some other stuff in my bag some white modifiers from rogue I don't know if anybody's using road but I love robe grids and light modifiers and we might use some of that at the reception tomorrow and that's about it so what I want to do now is I want actually start shooting so that's what's in my bag this is what I carry around with me ninety nine percent of the time I'm not carrying studio strobes and all that other madness I'm riel uh efficient I don't have a small footprint but have as much in my bag as I possibly can to accomplish what I what I need to do so not being sad elissa I will let you have fun with this is it back up all right and what I want to let's get these guys back out here you guys ready all right let's rock this out so remember we've met them already for the consultation we've probably had a phone call with them to discuss some creative ideas we definitely want to have that conversation with them being here creative live we don't have too many operate options around here so you're stuck with my idea of creative pictures so we're gonna do this alley and I'm going to give them some coaching instruction so pay attention to how I'm guiding the client because they're not professional models most of our brides grooms if you go to my website you look at my work and you look at our couples they all look beautiful right not because they're naturally get in front of the camera they're superstars but because I've coached them every step of the way that's the key and what I notice when I go to your web sites we all we all do this have you ever seen those pictures come here be my model for this right where you have the bridegroom hold hands ryan they stand like this and you're shooting from this way look at her right she doesn't look comfortable right there's no there's no connection that's on us thank you for being my model that's on us to make them comfortable and that's the difference so that's the difference between them looking like two disinterested parties and looking like they're in love if you can convey that message of passion and love through your imagery you are going to sell pictures and that's on you is the photographer and what I call the creative director I don't see myself as a photographer I see myself is the creative director that's my job so listen up I'm gonna give them some coaching all right you ready all right so here's my guidance for you came to give you a couple of tips and trips tricks models know this already they know how to do this but here's what I want you to never push your hip into the common right so if you put your hip into the camera you're gonna get ten pounds on camera okay so we don't want that that would be bad right another thing we're gonna do is all people like to bend their necks here you see what happens to my chances soon as I bend it that way I start getting heavy okay good yeah we don't want that right so here's a little trick models not to do something I call it turtle so what you're gonna do is you're gonna push from here and push your chin out exactly it's gonna feel completely ridiculous by the way but he's going to make you look good okay so trust me on that it's gonna look good talk to me about your hair yeah do you wear it one side or the other half in half you don't know you don't care okay well let me see it can you push all your hair to one side yeah okay let me see yeah I don't like it let's go the other way that's not too bad that could be okay but I think your best look was with a clean split so half and half and I like the way that looks but what I want to do is when I ask you for a clean split is reach back and pull it all four because I don't want to see those crazies on your shoulder was making me crazy all right and then if you see me doing this to you that means you've got hair on your face or your eye should you sweep your bangs for me okay there you go that's perfect all right so you're you're good to go all right devin what I want from you is I don't want you I don't worry about your hips so much right you just be you but I am gonna why I am gonna want to looks out of you okay so if you don't want to smile right I love your smile you as well right so carmen you got beautiful smile let it happen if you start being cheesy I'm gonna call both of you out on it right I want riel smiles the next thing is out of you I want what I call a sassy look okay so you know what I'm talking about okay good don't cheese it up too much all right all right but I'll coach you on that right um and then for you I don't want to see I want to mean mug right does your badass look okay so yeah that's all right we'll work on it okay I just want you know what I'm looking for today and other than that guys this is about you have fun with it be silly witch with each other and just enjoy each other like some exactly on the airplanes all right so ladies before I start going what do you think about the way I coach them and talk to them this is the conversation I'm not having it through the chute I'm having it right now up front I'm prepping them because if I don't you know what you know what your couples do and they may not tell you this but they stand there and they're like well do we look and how do you know how do we look right I mean they don't know and so it's on us to tell them it doesn't mean we're insulting them by like I asked her about her hair she put it one side of me that doesn't look good don't do it right she does that make you trust me or angry at me she's saying she trust me so that's very very important to earn earn and build that trust alright questions about this way feel good all right because I know all of you have this conversation with your your couples all right so here's what I'm seeing down this alley yes there is a bunch of garbage here but our job is to move around it I love architectural elements so what I want to be able do it is utilize some of these architectural elements and remember my philosophy go tight middle wide I'm starting with my seventy two hundred and we're just using the available light at this point in time okay so it's an overcast day it's a great day for photographing right no hard shadows none of that stuff let's go this way here's what I want you to you to come with me we'll take off that jacket yeah you can hand that to eliza and everybody back home right in here what I want you guys use pay attention in my direction with the client okay and then you'll see on screen what I'm capturing so that you understand my methodology of tight middle wide so the two of you come on over here with me I'm gonna utilize this part right here I'm digging the architectural elements okay and here's what I want you to for the ladies come with come with me coming so for the ladies what I want you to do is look at her part I do not want to shoot look that way this way into her if I shoot this way into her I'm losing half her face she's not gonna like those pictures so wherever a woman is parting her hair she is telling you that's where she wants to be photographed right whether she realizes it or not so as we turn her this way now we can see more of her face and from a side profile I may have her pull his hair off so I can see more of her face you guys with me all right here we go you're here we're gonna switch it's carmen you're gonna be right here facing devon come on this way brother you're in this way we don't have to worry about parting your hair all right so look at each other okay let's get that off there but I want you to face each other holding all four hands yeah good good we gotta counter behind you perfect so this is exactly what I was talking about they do not look like they belong together okay she's not standing the right way he's not standing the right way they look awkward they feel awkward ninety nine percent of my couples do this as soon as they get into the pose that is my job as a photographer to correct this all right you two so here's what I want you to face each other square up yes you love each other get closer to each other pulling to get a little something there you go good now carmen I want to show you something here the way you're standing okay focus on this you stand you're standing like a dude I don't want you look like a dude what I want to do is give me a little s curve to your body there you go right so naturally gives me that s curve in her body okay and I'm building trust every step of the way and what I will do is I'll spend five ten minutes a tte this stage of the game over correcting them to get them perfect this way when we start flying we can start taking just amazing pictures good let me see you two looking at each other yes and you are not gonna be able to see each other so don't try and focus your eyes you probably have been this close to him ever maybe maybe in that road trip that you were on I don't know all right and devon be careful because when you turn your head away I'm losing the entire side of your face so try and stay square to each other there you go and now let me see you looking each other perfect good and I apologise carmen if my hands were cold all right good good card what I want to do is maybe put that left hand around his neck I like that carmen and put your right hand on his chest beautiful there we go good good devon you liking these ancient down is like I'm digging pictures now yes all right so here we go let's see if I can do this I feel like I'm at the end of my court alright hey elissa just because of where we are probably like my uh you can give me that thirty five millimeter lens just because I'm so close to the couple I'm gonna switch lenses but I'm just still start off with my thirty five my seventy two hundred to start off with my seventy two hundred now listen I'm gonna start off with my seventy two hundred did you two just looking at each other smiling talking beautiful awesome guys having a good time and all I'm doing is letting them beat them and all I'm doing is while there while they're talking to each other being silly I have no idea what they're saying I would love to be a fly on the wall is I'm just shooting through this awesome and then when I've gotten enough of this okay what I want you to now get keep talking to each other you guys you're doing awesome okay carmen I want you looking at me just right that way clear that hair off your shoulder for me good let it hang yeah okay carmen bring your chin to may good down beautiful devon get in her ear lobe it she's talking or tell her how beautiful she looks and carmen you're just looking to me beautiful and devon you can whisper a little some nasty and here it's ok nice devon did you realize we had our miked up in her hair right there so everybody at home is laughing too okay here we go beautiful good stop wasting her here devon she can't even focus that's awesome all right but get back in there devon is good you get back in there tour good carmen I want you looking at me devon you're looking at her okay I don't care if you can see her put that hand around his neck around his neck sorry and then and then carmen you're looking right at me give me that little just soft little sassy look okay lips together soften it up just a little bit getting to a little bit of a smile that's how you got the giggles I love it there you go a little bit softer perfect softer carmen dot is the look I want out of your beautiful okay so notice I'm letting her get to that look I'm not I'm just talking to softer softer I'm talking her through it and what I'm looking for it's just a different angle okay now I'm going to switch you want to get a bit of devon so I'm gonna come over here notice they haven't moved I'm the one doing all the movement here okay and I'm in a very confined space right now I would love to have more room but I don't and so we can still make this work okay so devon you're going to be looking at me now okay carmen I want you I love how about you're looking right there yeah beautiful devon you're looking right at me beautiful and somebody do me a favor can we get that water bottle out of the background there thank you very much good and carmen you're doing you're doing great all right little nervous you're doing fine all right yeah normally during engagement pictures you wouldn't have this many people watching so you're doing awesome just checking out elissa right there good carmen you look good devon you're writing me bring her chin this way a little bit perfect dude and I love your expression push your hat away just a little bit you're losing some of her hair is hitting you in the eye good good now pulling a little closer to him carmen there you go perfect devon I love your expression buddy right here I'm horizontal now I'm going vertical good and devon gave me a good smile buddy I love it and I love that you're smiling too common perfect good good awesome let me see you two looking at each other good perfect guys now what I'm gonna do this just because I'm in a confined space I had to adapt to my shooting style so normally I would like to just stay with my seventy two hundred and move further back I don't have that luxury that doesn't mean we can't make it work we just switch our lands move our feet change our angles and I hope you're noticing back at home I'm shooting some vertical I'm shooting some horizontal and at this point actually I haven't even had them look at the camera yet so let's come back to that good so what I want you do there's going to be tight way shot okay carmen let's get that hair back over pull it forward on this side beautiful bring your chin to me just a little bit right there down you got a turtle and I love it all right and in carmen on this side of your face just sweep that bang form there you go in this way perfect good and devon just get a little closer to her because I feel like I feel like you look like this right I just want you to get comfortable shake it off buddy there you go good good awesome both you looking to make a lot of it you to stay there with it good smiles all right good job all right so I don't know what you guys are no hang tight you guys are doing good so they're a little nervous right just with everybody watching everything going on so what I'm trying to do and we're gonna all have couples like this we're all gonna have couples to get super super nervous assumes the cameras put on them right so what I like to do is just let them get rid of all those giggles let them get rid of all that nervous energy on then come back and start getting a little more heavy handed in the posing because if you over post somebody in the beginning there they're gonna lose their confidence they don't know that you know she feels like all my look good I'm not looking good so she's super super nervous right now I can see that s o I'm just gonna let her get that nervous energy up and now I want to start doing something a little bit bigger so now I'm gonna put a thirty five millimeter lens on actually um I want everybody to pay attention hopefully this camera's hot uh how we switch equipments is elissa she works with me she's my studio manager and you've seen me if you've watched me on seniors how we switch equipment and everybody seems to be pretty amazed at how we do it so when I'm working with a couple or client the last thing I want to do is start fumbling around with my equipment and so all my team members have been trained on how to hand me equipment so she's handing me a lens with the red dot up okay because what she's gonna do is I'm gonna push my camera in front of her she's gonna grab that lens I'm gonna come in grab this lens I'm not even making eye contact well I should have looked and now I'm switching my lines so let's do it again right so red dot up real time she's gonna come in grab go like done and that's how I want to be able to switch equipment so but I do need my thirty five millimeters so you can't disappear that go take it done right so it should come right in and switch so that's the key you want to be able to I don't want to start fumbling around my gear and some weird case or those pants that have room for lens is what the hell all right I just want I just want to work with my uh my lens my equipment but mostly I want to stay with my couple I don't want the equipment to get in the way of the shot right the equipment's just there to give you a great shot so keep that in mind especially when we're talking about lighting off camera flash things I got I don't want to spend all that time there so let's come back to these two now I'm with my thirty five millimeter I'm using a thirty five millimeter one point four right it's a prime when I want to do is pull you two off this wall right about there I want you to look at back at each other so I want you go backto holding all four hands okay get close to each other good good and when I want you to know you got it there's your leg you're rocking it all right get that hair off your shoulder for me just on this side one more got more chunk good but look at look at them yeah because I still want this back here I probably wanted all off let's take it all off yeah just push it all back I like that good awesome all right hold on I'll put that arm around his neck yeah there we go I really like that good good yeah devane grab her by the waist and what I want you to do you slide this way just a little good right there okay good all right here we go guys so what I'm looking for you to dio is looking at each other is gonna be a test shot so hang with me beautiful guys just looking at each other smiling at each other giving each other a kiss beautiful alright carmen I want you looking at me yeah chin down meaning into devon right they're beautiful and give me that little sassy playful look yeah I don't pop those eyebrows good both of you looking at me now there you go perfect kick that leg for me gorgeous good smiles both it sassy mean mug in both you she's got the sassy down bring your chin this way a little bit more good right there guys beautiful okay now I'm gonna come back and we take the same shot I want to go back to my seventy two hundred okay so let's go back to that all right stay there both you looking to me both you smiling all some both you looking at each other in any case guys I hope everybody is paying attention to that rhythm that I'm going through that progression that's what I call it tied middle wide and yes I have to switch my lens just because of the compact space of what I'm doing but then I'm going vertical horizontal and I'm taking them through a look progression looking at each other kissing each other looking away looking a camera okay so I'm getting multiple looks uh that I'm sure some are popping up on the screen uh now from that perspective what I want to do now okay is I want to be able to shoot I want to use some off camera flash uh for this but the first thing I want to do forget don't worry about the flash right now I've got a silver grating door so I want to give them another uh said I want to create is much diversity just in this alley as I possibly can so I'm gonna take them to the silver door it's all we have to work with in the alley so I'm using architectural elements and now I want to isolate each one of them so I'm doing this I'm thinking about their nightstand right devon I'll probably want a picture of carmen for his nightstand for work or something like that and she may want something for her office desk uh work something like that so I've gotten them together and now I want to get them separated from that perspective and again we're just shooting natural available light we're going to switch to off camera flash here in about ten minutes okay let's go this way I love photographing in this spot because when the client sees the images they're going to say that ali did not look like that when we walk down it and again that's the magic on our part so let's go here right devin what I want you doing as I want you leaning back on that wall guy you just leaning back yeah cross at the ankles beautiful dumped in the pockets I love ya you're just telling you I love it good carmen you're gonna stand right here yeah so now this is all about you carmen okay devon just eye candy in the background okay I want you to square up to me there you go spread your stance a little bit hands on the hips popped out hit boom you own this alley I love it okay clean up your hair right there and I see your bra strap on this side which is like a halter going around the top yeah we'll just talk it will pay attention to it yeah that looks good all right that's two hands on the hips I love it good okay so what I'm doing now is I'm picking an angle where right carmen's my focus devon's in the background right so I guess I could just shoot carmen by herself and that might make sense but how much more interesting is the photograph if I've got these layers I'm all about layers we want to create layers in the photograph so let me get a test shot I always announce this to my client uh and for those of you back home actually gonna pause for a second uh I am photographing uh girls can you come up here I want to talk to you I am photographing are you miked up any of you miked up okay I'm photographing in aperture priority how do you photograph manual mode manual but I'm toying around with a v okay way just talked about this I want full around it as well I'm photographing an aperture priority and the reason I do it is not because I'm not a good photographer not because I don't understand manual mode and how all the settings worked with each other is because I want to spend less time goofing around with my camera and equipment and more time interacting with my couple that's where I want to spend my time and energy and if all my time and energy is messing around with test shots and manual adjustments and all that other stuff it's a nightmare so what I do because I use my camera and at what I call a hybrid mode so I'm shooting an aperture priority but then no matter what cameron you're using and I don't know if you guys can see this no matter what camera you're using by spinning the dial here you can go plus one minus one plus two minus two and what that is is exposure compensation so I'm using aperture priority I'm taking a test shot so let's do this for everybody in home cam and take a little test shot here and I'm gonna look at my screen what looks pretty good okay so I don't have to really make any adjustments now we're getting away with that because we're shooting on an overcast day there's no complex lighting conditions really here but what if it was a bright sunny day behind them she would be dark and shadow while I write the background would be blown out or something to that effect that's where aperture priority comes in the place so now if I were to take that first photographing well you know what it's underexposed I'm going to go plus one and I'm not sure if are we showing my exposure settings when I popped that do we have the image popping up things I command I or something so when I take this photograph I went to plus one now and now the exposure which it is over exposed is plus one so I don't know if you can see that on your screen but I just by spending and dial plus one I'm making that uh that exposure compensation that is my hybrid manual mode something else I'm doing that I don't know if you're catching on to what I'm I'm taking my shot and I'm composing in camera what I'm not doing is focusing re composing you guys know what I'm talking about that is the worst thing you can do as a photographer if you're photographing and composing and focusing re composing your pictures are going to be soft there's no doubt about it because you're fighting physics the very nature of the lens right is curved there's no way around it if I get you in focus especially if I'm shooting it like one too two point oh and I move that lens just a little bit that's all they're gonna get blurry and if you want to blow up a picture to fifteen by thirty twenty by thirty and larger you're not gonna do it selling soft images yeah if you put it in it's this big and your album you might get away with it so it stopped doing that that is not how you become a good photographer so keep that in mind those are all my settings while I'm photographing so what I want to do is take you through my rhythm here because I've been kind of going slow and I don't know if it home you feel like I'm going slow but I'm going slow for me so I'm gonna try and push the limits here as faras pace goes all right so here we go you ready spread your stance you're looking beautiful let's start off with that sassy look beautiful I love it ok let's stay there we'll pull back a little bit sorry about that beautiful give me a little giggle now awesome stay there with it looking down the alley for me a little giggle it's funny shit going on down in there you go looking back a devon having given how you doing you doing good I don't want I don't want to know how you're doing give it to her there you go good comeback and me awesome give me a little giggle beautiful that's what I'm looking for right there okay so now what I want you to do is just well you're looking at me just be a little playful with your bangs and give me a little giggle I love that you looking away that is the best wrecked car over there you've ever looked at beautiful that's what I'm looking for okay so that's the kind of stuff I'm looking at and notice I'm changing my aspect ratio tightening a wide vertical horizontal I'm changing the expression do you see how quickly I'm trying to move for the client and you'll find that if you talk to my clients they love the pace that we move out no one's ever going to complain that we move too slow so we really like to move without pace questions for me yes c'mon you're you're starting at two point eight right always two point eight that is my right style I loved shallow depth of field the other thing I'm doing is in order to really accentuate the shallow depth of field I'm pulling them off the wall it makes it does you no good to shoot a two point eight and have them flat against the wall because the wall is gonna be too much and focus I don't want it to be sought in focus I wanted to be soft so I'm gonna pull them off the wall to make that wall to make that wall go soft does that make sense can I ask another question about when you are rolling down and up a stop and down a stop that's what I've played around with it before and I I feel like I'm rolling rolling rolling and I'm not saying it's all in your camera though yeah so are you looking in the camera to see what you're doing I have I've looked in the camera I've tried both I looked turn the camera and then I'm looking down and trying to see it move I'm just trying to figure out how to make it move to stop above our stop below so it's going to be right on your exposure but you may have your lock not unlocked right so that might just be a camera thing but all the cameras allow you to do that canon nikon doesn't matter you go plus one minus one guarantee it's just something on your camera on this bottom button so each dialled control around other questions here yeah what is your great question meeting my meat oring is evaluative meter right so that's good always I don't mess with that uh because what's gonna do it's gonna look at the whole scene and that's ultimately what I'm looking for and what I'm looking for that when I'm looking at the whole scene what I'm trying to have what I'm trying to figure out his um remember the couple is gonna be small in all this so if the cuppers couple super small and my focus point is on them more than likely they're gonna be underexposed uh from the whole thing I have a question yes so so many people were really um confused about the focusing and re composing I think it's a lot of us it's our go to yeah can you talk about using the focusing points or just yeah let's do that help yeah so guys I teach where's my hot camera we hear so what's happening is when I photograph on I'm teaching a workshop or something like that I always look at my students and I see them doing this because we're always taught to composing camera which is a good practice by the way there's nothing wrong with that but if you're using a five d or a lower end nikon or some like that some of the cameras only have like nine focus points where is the camera like this has like sixty one focus points so I can move my focus point exactly over the subject so what you tend to do because you've been hammered over the head to focus recompose okay are not to focus on a most to composing camera what you're doing is you're getting focus or using your back focus button and then moving them into the third or something like that right what's happening though is when you do that okay they're moving around the curve of the lanes so the way to get around that all of you every single camera out there has the ability to move get your camera out right now okay and you're gonna have a way to get your manual I know the manual is the last thing any of us want to read get your manual out and there's a way for you to move that red dot everywhere and so I was doing this while we were shooting but you didn't notice because the camera as I'm working notice my right hand activates my focus points and then my my thumb is moving it up and down and my fingers moving it left and right so even while I was photographing the couple I never said pulled on a minute look at my camera hold on a minute look in that camera also while I was photographing notice I didn't look back in my camera all the only time I really looked back at my cameras I said test shot I took one shot right make sure the exposure looks right you know what I like the way that looks now we rock and roll right what I don't want to do is my equipment let my equipment get in the way so this whole focus re composing you're gonna take soft images one hundred percent guaranteed move your red dot and that's pretty much what I do you focus recompose well I have and that's why I get soft pictures but I swear I am that person that looks down the way I gotta change my focus I'm like flo you know you've got you've got to get good if you saw me working you didn't even notice I was moving my focus point and I am the whole time and you just got to get really good it takes a little practice there's no doubt you will immediately see an improvement in the image quality coming off your camera uh no not tip alone is worth it you know what I mean so a couple of questions out there yeah absolutely we took care a lot of those questions but in terms of posing kathleen joe photo asked for wide shots are there any tips for guys who hunt over to try to get their head down lower to the girl if you the guys followed to the girl yeah I haven't spread their stance a little bit now will immediately shortened them but you know if the guy's six foot four and she's five foot six it is what it is we're never gonna make him look the same height a zhar you could have him sit down and things like that but if they're standing up there's always going to be ah height difference of some sort and I'm pretty sure they're aware of it so I don't think they were looking at it like I can't believe you thought much taller than me like they know this when they're looking at their pictures yeah you've explained her on this turtle ing I tried it incorporate that with some of my sessions but I and I never heard you say anything when I was and I was paying attention to our neck do you ever have to repeat like that I have we all have those clients when they laugh their chin disappears you know what I'm talking about we're all guilty of that some of us are alright just arbil their chin disappears so I have to coach my clients and let them know like okay here's something annoys me about you when you laugh your chain gets sucked in and my brides will they don't get insulted by that because I'm not the first person to take a picture of them they see themselves in their pictures on their iphones and the friends they know this is something they do so by me bring to their attention they're they're going ok he's looking out for me and so I'm telling them about this I'm like look I want you to smile and laugh but be conscious of it when you laugh keep that chin out so I'm constantly coaching them there's nothing wrong with that why the one dx over like a mark three one dx over mark three um the one d acts over the five d the five he's got some issues where when you go over four or five six all the focus points are not active right so some of them become deactivated that just like the old one off and so much for me in that one yes yeah so not a lot of people don't know that if you're on the five mark three when you go over four or five six I don't know which one it is because I don't use that camera uh all your focus points are not active anymore so that's a problem no that's that that's the difference they deactivated so it does you no good I need all my focus points that one reason alone you guys see my images they're tack sharp that it's not photoshopped making them talk sharp so if you're gonna shoot a two point eight wide open basically you want tax sharpe images but when I've got people a tte the altar family pictures or I am shooting at five six and eleven I still want my cub couple to be tack sharp I need to be able get that focus point exactly where it needs to be that is now I mean now we're talking shooting skills you've got your equipment cannot get in the way of making a good photograph can't happen so what price tags you put on that trust me I know how expensive these cameras are but I also know how much money I make off selling great images large images for sure so we're good all right let's keep going so poor carmen she's freezing all right let's do some a little bit different here sorry about that um what I want to do now let's close this okay so here's what I want to have you do I want to someone a little more a little more attitude right so I want you sitting down on the ground okay can you do that for me okay you get all the way back to the wall on this one yeah and then now carmen pay attention to this guy's cause we've gotta make her sit and not look ah bad on this right so what we never want to do is have our girls sitting like this this is not good okay is not good at all so instead what I want her to do is get on her side okay so I'm immediately gonna put her on her side and yes I will sit down and show my bride how to sit I'm totally cool with that so what I want you to do because I want you to get in here on your head what's going on buddy okay and I want you just get in here I don't know exactly I want you I want you to get comfortable first and foremost um and if you can lean into him and you khun supporter that'd be great we'll work with it and see what it does I'm probably switched my thirty five good good I like that guys I like that a lot but devon here's what I'm seeing um what I would like from you is I don't know let's can we curl that right leg under yeah let it let it relax I like that a lot mean you feel more comfortable and what I want you to scoop back this way you're sitting up straight come on pull down your sweater a little bit good notice I'm paying attention all the details here it is on me to make them look good I'm paying attention to details the sweater the neckline because they may not pay attention to it now when we get back home and they're looking at their images they're going to notice they look dishevelled they look sloppy they looked uncomfortable okay love it love it good what I want to do now is can I get you more on that hip no not closer to him yes what I want you to almost pull away from you let your body go this way but booty this way yeah and now lean in maurin that hip there you go and what I want to do is curved curl your legs yeah even more let's exaggerate this beautiful ok and now that right hand we've got to do some with that so what if you put your left arm over his shoulder yes now maybe on this one yeah and then maybe this hand's coming over you're grabbing onto his arm yeah comfortable now get a little closer to her devon yeah you get closer to her scoot in closer but move this way way lost in translation yes loving good all right there we go all right you two get cozy with each other and it's not uncommon for me to get in there and just manhandled people move their feet move their bodies right I want the shot all right you two just talking to each other let's go through the progression I'm taking a test shot I'm announcing to my client okay what I wanna do is I want to shoot this wide open so I'm going at one point for dropping my eye isoda one hundred looking at each other smiling good job you two get in for a kiss don't kiss you had pulled back making more for it there you go now get in there for a test beautiful stay there with it keep kissing both you looking at me carmen how about you lean on a shoulder can you do that comfortably yeah I don't know put your put your left arm around his arm through his arm yeah yeah I really like that car does that feel comfortable that's the most important thing right so now lay on his shoulder let me see what that's looking like you know like your head on the shoulder I love that guy's good yes carmen gave me a cute little smile ah some devon I love your head being down car me close your eyes for me beautiful now let's go back through the progression looking at each other yeah you too I love that and let's get one more here one more with the kiss beautiful now I'm going to switch to my seventy two hundred good notice how quick that was awesome you too can you both go backto looking at me on the shoulder yeah I love that guy's beautiful lay on their car and sell me on it beautiful close your eyes both here beautiful guys awesome