Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Engagement Session (Interior Location)

so let's let's recap just what went on outside you know it was kind of hectic you work in a live workshop you're dealing we're in an alley so I hope that the the madness going on around us didn't take away from the message right so we were working with available light the key message there was right tight middle wide that's our mantra we've gotta have his much diversity for recline as possible in the beginning we started off coaching the client I hope you get the message there don't be afraid to tell your clients they don't look good and of course we've got to deliver that in a tactful way right I don't want I'm not looking to insult them I'm looking to be the trusted advisor with him so I'm obsessing about their hair I'm obsessing about their hands their details there stands you've got to control that if you want to sell big print the other thing is we were talking about and this carried over into the break we're talking about focus recompose and everyone it's amazing I love you girls...

it was amazing to me to see how few of you really knew how to control your camera and move that focus point so guys you've got to get your manual out right now on start learning howto activate your focus points and move that red dot up and down left and right in your camera cause that is going to allow you to get some tacs are images now you know we're set up in a situation here where I'm going to photograph at one point two so I'm using my fifty millimeter lands one point to my depth of field is about as wide as my pinky so if I were to focus and recomposed the image it's going to be soft and we don't want that I've gotta have tak sharpe images and even if I put the red dot on their face at one point two I still run the risk of getting soft images that's how final line we're running but you know we're shooting we got this great natural light coming in behind us and I've got this great textured wall behind my couples so with that being said let's get going here let's photograph them now right we're in our second location it is very important for engagements that we do to locations to different outfits and we get some diversity for clients so all right back to us here's what I want to do two of you first I want to pull you off this wall can I pull you here for one second okay both you and here's what I'm seeing guys I'm thinking about selling I am thinking about their engagement album right now so I see this amazing textured wall and what I'm seeing I'm gonna take this photograph and let's show that on the screen this is the background for their album so now when we go to sell them an engagement album girls I don't know if you can see that what I'm showing them eyes a textured wall ok that I'm going to lay pictures over in the back there often write every day if this is meaningful because we're about to photograph them on it s so you want to think that way you don't want every image in the album to be on a black background a white background put some texture there on it becomes a little bit more meaningful so with that being said let's pull you guys here dead center all right right there is perfect I'm keeping them off the wall I want that back home to go really really soft all right let's do that pose where we were holding hands I'm gonna have the couple holding hands right devon let's work on you first turn yeah I love it put your hand in your pocket all right just let your stance relax for me a little bit yeah that looks comfortable do you feel more comfortable perfect good you look beautiful right there love the way you're holding hands I love your stands now what I need you to do because I want this to be dead center and I want you to show me this way all right perfect good all right so we're going to do now is let's just start off I'm going to take a test shot I want to make sure this looks the way I wanted to look so far back as I can I'm using a fifty millimeter I'm s o four hundred but I'm coming back down to two hundred I don't want introduce any noise and I might take a test shot okay so I really like the way that looks I'm zooming in carmen you're not making a good face on that photograph so you gotta be careful now I want you to come and bring your chin to me devon you're perfect chin down just a little carmen beautiful and soften that expression on for me a little not a smile don't see teeth there you go bring it in this way right there that's what I wanted in common beautiful so stay there one too one more good smiles wealthy in looking at each other smiling at each other and both you look in different directions so go off this way devon you're that way perfect carmen yeah chin down for me right they're beautiful and carmen what's happening is you're looking away I'm seeing too much of the whites of your eyes so let's look at this camera right here there you go perfect sassy mean mugging beautiful guys stay there with it awesome looking back at me again and let's do good smiles right at me perfectly all right now I'm gonna come in here now carmen I want you leaning back against that wall devon it's your time to shine okay so carmen you're just eye candy in the background like devon was in the alley okay let's get you set up first lean back on that go straight back for me yeah and give me this with your legs yeah kick it and put that heel up on that wall beautiful how about this you're holding your hands like this how about this I like that just little playful little dainty I love it okay devon you're out here baby good when I want you to stop right there across your arms up top cross there you go good let's see what we got here good I want you to open up your stance to me a little bit more you know that that foot go good and not right hand tuck in for me yes I like that and now haven't bring your chin to me perfect right there that's what I'm looking for all right let's get a test shot okay I hope everybody's noticing I'm constantly announcing a test shot so I'm educating my clients there's no way we're all guilty of this right we want to look at the back of our camera they don't know what to do when we're looking at the back of our cameras so what I do is someone you know test shot I'm trying to get dialed in while the exposure everything's looking the way I want write in camera so now I could just fire away and move around so watch me take him through the progression okay devon chin down just a little down there you go good pull that look for me I love a big smile for me devon laugh aloud lovett devon looking off to your left yeah funny shit going on over there good go serious for me over there there you go devon your face is perfect bring your eyes right at this camera yes right they're beautiful and I'm trying to change my right I'm going vertical I'm going horizontal devon looking right at me love it carmen you're looking away you can't be bothered there you go devon stay there chin down for me devon beautiful good all right so here's we go carmen and I have you bump out for a second actually carmen stay there I'm so sorry I like you there you did good good yeah and now devon go back to your post cross your arms for me good chin this way just a little yep perfect I love that car and stay there with it looking right at me carmen very place will give me a little q t giggle love it good job all right here's what I want you you stay there devil carmen what I want you to do now is come up to devon and put your arms right over his shoulder yeah show me what feels comfortable I like that a lot okay so now let's tweak this because you're too far behind him so I want you to slide around there you go and let's fix this good put them in their good yeah just grabbing onto him now let's move that hand over to this shoulder I feel a little more natural perfect and notice I'm constantly working with them I don't want to over pose them when I don't have to I want to see what they do naturally because if you let them do something naturally it tends to work a lot better right out of the camera and sometimes clients will tell you I don't know what to do what do you want me to do well let's tweak it will work with some basic poses but ultimately I want them to get into each other so here's what I want you to carmen I need you to pull forward just a little bit more good and you may not understand why I'm doing this I'm photographing at one point too so if she's just six inches behind him no matter what she's going to be a little soft but I don't want it to be too soft okay because then they're not going away on this photograph it's going to be all about devon so I'm gonna probably go to about two point oh okay give me a little bit more focus back and coming a little bit culture and then lean into devon a little bit yeah and an open those shoulders just a little bit to me there you go I like that you put those shoulders back beautiful don't you move get that hair there let's kick this leg here beautiful don't move your hair and if you have an assistant with you who can obsess about that that's great but if not it's on you to make sure you're making all this stuff look right so I'm gonna stay up here first all right I want you to devon shin down this way just a dench perfect and carmen bring it tells your head this way chin down and push it this way there you go it's gonna feel awkward I know it but it's gonna look good here we go one to make sure I like it a lot but you to stay there with it stay there keep your expression you're doing great good good smiles looking at each other looking right at each other look at her there you go devon take that right hand put it around her waist now you got it yeah and put that left hand and your thumb in your pocket I like that yet get comfortable with him carmen get right in there snuggle up good good beautiful good looking right good dav id remember I'm losing that chin so slide her this way beautiful guys I love it ten slow carmen's giving him an intense look right there there we go good smiles at each other getting their forecast pullman carmen beautiful grab that right hand carmen pull him in just looking at each other looking at each other don't give it to him carmen it's a serious stuff here there it is that's what I wanted good carmen looking at may just bring your chin to me chin down right there good love it drop that pull that hand down just a little bit keep going keep going right that beautiful looking right at her devon carmen give me that little sassy look beautiful having getting her here a little bit love it good job stay there good good okay let's do something I want to put you guys in the third here because I'm thinking of a panel now so I'm thinking of a big wide skinny picture right here so here's what I want to do I'm going to move them over to the third here I'm gonna slide them this way a little bit so what I want to do let's bring you here right here turn around this way you're gonna be here good and what I want you to do is you're gonna put your arm around her waist I want you over his shoulder like this yes love it good kick that leg back you know it that's your pot's good and let's let your hand hang out I like it it looks good feels comfortable good loosen this up just a little bit yeah hank good kick that leg back for me I like it I like it this doesn't look natural so shake it off and go it felt I look natural right in there yes okay bring it in to me down beautiful awesome having you looking good all right here we go let's see I might switch lenses here too my thirty five millimeter to give me a little bit more uh I don't need it okay let's get a test shot here make sure I like it and I do devon I don't like that left hand let's put the thumb in the pocket awesome you guys looking looking right at me sassy mean mugging looking at each other and kiss lobby guys look in two different directions you know I like that you did a perfect carmen looking off that way you got all hollywood on me great looking right at this tv screen good devon looking right at that tv screen beautiful here we go guys chin down carmen good job perfect and also if you're taking three shots like that I've here you go boom boom boom are you are you are you trying to get that because that's a focusing thing none of them will be in focus I want I don't want to just take one frame and run I've done it way too many times shooting at one to one four I take that shot I get home it's soft because it's just the nature of the beast shooting wide open like that but I also the pros of shooting I got to me outweigh the you know the cons I mean I know I'm going to get some soft frames and all that now if I'm shooting the bride coming down the aisle or any of those must have shots I do not want to be shooting at one too I don't feel confident enough in the equipment to be able to produce uh that level but sometimes we have no choice as we'll see tomorrow during some of the ceremony shooting shooting but this was my goal here was to get something artistic and soften up that background as much as possible do you find more about them define when you take three that one of them is always a focus yes because what I'm doing is let's be clear on what I'm doing I'm not just pushing my finger down pop pop pop I focused pop focus pop focus pop that I'm sure I'm gonna get one that's in focus but if I just use like you know the lightning round get it in focus and then just pop pop pop pop pop no they're all the same focus which is wrong so you're gonna have one there they're all gonna be soft great folks are asking again about white balance and know what you're using here in this situation not you're seeing what's coming up on screen on it's you know just looking in the back of my camera back of these one the exes are almost it's not fair because they're so clarity on this is amazing but what they're seeing is auto white balance so ninety percent of the time I'm photographing auto white bounce because I'm shooting raw so it's going to come out right especially when you're in these kind of life ignitions but when we were in the church when we're in mixed lighting conditions I will absolutely set my white balance so that I don't try my post production team not and when I do that ninety percent of the time I'm setting it in calvin so I'm not using right the lightning bolt or any of that other stuff I'm usually using kelvin teo get it dialed in where I wanted and we'll see how the ceremony looks on thursday if we have to go to calvin but I'll walk you through that in here with available light cameras usually pretty good at setting that auto white pounds but looking in the back of my camera things were pretty cool not warm so I'll probably go warm it up in post ladies have any questions good all right so the next thing I'm gonna do in here is I love this panel of lights that are behind you so now I want to pull out some video like and use that and light behind you so let's get you guys here we're going to use this location we'll clear everybody out on the first thing I want to do is let's get you here by yourself let's get those video lights I'm gonna start with my fifty elissa and of course as usual I gotta take a test shot let's pull you off here by yourself is good a test shot let's light her up with video light good so test shot one too so that frame that just came up I'm going because we're gonna have them show this you probably smile in this one so lighter up here we go hold that one too good so this frame that just came up that should be up on the screen that last frame she's being let giving these video lights with seema video lights these are probably about thirty bucks a pop I always have about four of them three or four of them in my bag at any given moment in time a cz you can see there's simple on off switch and that's how we're lighting her up so the picture you're seeing she's being lit with these video lights you should always have thes in your bag when papa so you can kind of get a sense for what kind of light that's going to produce a verse no light all right so that's really a simple way of creating some fill light and we will do this in hotel lobbies on the dance floor at night outside so these things are thirty bucks a pop seema ess I am a on guy always have three or four of these in my bag this has helped us I can't even tell you countless times where we don't have time to be messing around with flash and off camera flash and we just need what you see is what you get and that's really what I love about this so if I want hard directional light I'll have my assistant hold it off to the side hard directional line if I want even kind of butterfly lighting right they can hold it up above right if we want hard movie spooky right we can do that but ultimately you can do whatever you want with these what you see is what you get and there's tons of products on the market from a video like perspective these are just the most compact for me like I said twenty nine bucks a pop and I always have about four of them in my bag so honestly for one hundred twenty bucks eyes a light source it can't be beat so that's where we're using the light her up so let's go with this all right let's have some fun with it here so I'm going to just kind of way stop for you so let's curve that those hips the way I showed you love what you're doing right now with your hands good and stay there with it stay there beautiful soften up that expression for me there you go a little more playful get into a small smile there it is it's getting a little giggle I love what you're doing make it real though common yet there you go turn those shoulders this way yes beautiful how about looking to your right yeah how about going to your left I don't like it all right david let's get you in here I'm always honest all right so devlin when I want to do it again I want I want to use this lighting tow our advantage so devon I want to slide you all the way this way perfect good carmen I want you to get into how about you get into devon more sideways like you're leaning into him with your shoulder so face me yeah and then and then leaning into him now keep your eye on forward I think yeah here we go and now I don't like it let's go go underneath yeah always feel comfortable that's the key get back to that stance there beautiful devon put your arms around her good and don't reach guys let's pause here we live here hot here devon was devon was moving his hand and reaching around like this so I want to pause here for a second this comes back to corrective posing if you're working with curvy couples heavy couples it doesn't matter we've got to understand corrective posing and by devon reaching around here like this he's he's making her look heavy even if she's not so I never want them reaching like that okay so I'm going to make him naturally pull his hand back here and you've got to keep that in mind when you're working with your couples the other thing is her hip remember I taught her I never want her hip coming this way always going teacher to slide it away and thin out and so let's kick this leg back good good yeah and let's have it let's have a little have a little fun do whatever you guys want right so you guys were best when you're being selling with each other and so when we got in that alley and you had the case of the giggles you were doing absolutely great all right so I'm gonna pull you forward just a little good and when I'm looking for you to do is just be a little silly with each other right so looking at each other put your hand on his chest there you go carmen I'm before you do that and go ahead looking at him keep track of that hair for you alright good devon have a fish face or something no fish faced having the world's going to see and you're gonna be in trouble blackmail huh how about go forehead to forehead forehead before him there you go on close your eyes beautiful guys hold that for me one too I really like that guys and give each other a kiss beautiful okay hold that and I'm not going to tell you how to kiss but this is a good pausing moment alright so we never want to tell you you kiss bad okay here's what you're doing when you're kissing your when you're kissing you are totally going sideways all right you know it feels good feels right right but what I want you to do just this is because of the photograph right I don't want to shoot underneath your chin what I'm looking for you to do is just softly going there and pick a little angle okay that's the last of my kissing coaching okay we're gonna have a three day workshop on kissing I guess right I can only imagine the quotes that air coming in right now okay kiss ally showing my kids I like his face okay and we got here we go looking at each other I love the way you're reaching in there guys don't kiss each other yet close your eyes and just slowly reaching for each other almost like you're about to beautiful guys awesome now gimme a kiss hold that beautiful love you guys that is absolutely stunning ok what I want to do now is get something a little bit more dramatic let's go to my uh thirty five millimeter lens you still cold I still want yes when you're using that video light are you still in the auto white bound I mean oughta wipe down when you've got the two different types of light going yeah but the camera's picking up for them so when we get into post who knows what it's going to do and because it's raw we're obviously gonna color balance for them and that's ultimately what we want to do I care what they look like those lights come goes oranges they want to me it's just gonna add drama to to the final photograph yeah I let's see I don't think I think I went to two point oh or something I did I went to two point oh on that so I wanted a little bit more sharpness around them and so now met with my thirty five millimetre and I've got five frames left on this card so I'm gonna make all five frames count want to try and get five different poses out of them and then hopefully we can work with that in post so what I want to do now is I photograph straight on well now what I want to use is truly use depth the field so I'm going to rotate around here okay now once you guys opening up to me okay and what I want you to do is how about carmen uh devon how about you turn this way totally face this way you go go hands in the pockets and carmen how about you come up and underneath yeah yeah put your arms there lovett carmen good good fix those legs for me good elissa we're going to have you over here fire and light back into him and carmen the trick here is is I don't want you reaching up onto him you're gonna look uncomfortable I want your chin coming down right there is where I want it good all right so here we go good chin down just a little and lean into him let me see come this way watch that shot on her chin you seeing that so you have to come up higher you go devon I want you looking off that way yeah we're just really using you for your body right now good take that see if I like the way that's looking beautiful chin down just a little actually delete that and alissa you're gonna hate me but I want my fifty millimeter again all right this is what I like now good perfect all right all right chin down for me and just soften up that expression like just a small smile right you're in between like looking like you want to kill me and looking very happy so let's find that middle ground perfect going to chin down lives together beautiful that's what I want tony chin down just a little bit more okay I got you in a blink here we go beautiful okay now just give me a little giggle hug and make it real yes that's what I want beautiful good all right so now what I want to do final few frames but I want to have you guys face each other okay yeah let's go let's make this a little bit more mom and dad friendly where you're both looking at the camera okay good hand on the hit for me I like it kick that leg back thumb in the pocket good let's get that light up up over the top of me eliza yeah good here I am guys now because I definitely want both of them and focus I'm going to two point eight test shot okay good smiles I love the way you were looking at him go for it kate you're looking at me devon no devon you're me chin this way good carmen look at him like you love him no here you go good and now looking at me again both of you good smile both you giggle loosen up there you go and last one there you go good job all right so here's what I want to do last frame I want to shoot this way can I get my seventy two hundred come all the way out to here guys perfect right there okay but I want to do is looking at each other okay totally face each other there you go uh arms around him at the neck yes love that will loosen this up kick that leg back you know the drill good good yeah it's just looking at each other fix your hair love that good guys awesome I think I'm gonna stay with this okay very indecisive yes definitely light and here we go guys good smiles at each other and love each other one too get in there for a kiss last one switch sides you go awesome guys all right