Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Groom Prep

so here we are back in the hotel room sometimes your bridegroom are getting ready in the same hotel sometimes they're getting ready to different parts of the city all right we've seen it all or sometimes the bride will get ready at a hotel room in the boardroom has get ready at the church basement yeah that's how it goes we get screwed on that so but that's okay here we are we're still back in the room what is our mindset here so now and the reason I keep trying to frame this up for you guys because I want you to understand everything I'm talking about is how I train our shooter's this is how I train taylor now this is how we train our all our shooters that work with us what's your mind set when you walked in the room well even before we walk in the room I like to take a picture of the room number right outside the door because I know that makes a really cool background in our client's albums where we fade that out and then layer pictures on top of that so we'll get details like that a...

nd then I know I've got to get the details as usual and then him putting everything on and then maybe a few shots of him with his buddies just hanging out or shot of him by himself right maybe there having some beer together right so again we're looking for the the staged shots and then of course we're looking for the creative shots as well right and of course we're gonna stick to our formula and make sure that we're producing what we need for the album we're thinking about the album the entire day we want to make sure we produce those images so without being said you know now as we walk in the room let's say the bride and groom are staying at the same hotel would I know how I handle this when we walk into the room we're looking for different because the room's gonna look identical on when we walk into that room we want to make it look not identical right different textures different backgrounds like this autumn and we didn't use that before I wouldn't want to use the black leather chair for a detail again uh so you definitely want to mix it up to give them diversity for sure just press the point why are you doing that why are we putting his details on something different than we put hers on because the people want us much diversity is possible and it comes back to the album yeah actually album too right because when they're when we're laying these images out on the album I don't want as they go from page to page it looks identical we want to add that diversity where looks lazy that way I think yeah we've got the same background like all the details in one place and I love the point you made about the the number that's part of our formulas well and and I forgot about that mostly because you know we can't bring the cameras into the hallway and all that so we definitely want to get the picture of the room number it goes to part of telling the story so uh the groom let's talk about his details here the groom not his money not as many that's normal but we want we want if we still want to make him look look good look sharp I love we've got some texture here of the background so why don't you work the shot stage it up show people what you're seeing and talk through it okay uh on dh shooting whatever whatever you want I'll get camera ready here what lens are you looking to use uh let's do sixteen thirty five hours looking for a sixteen thirty five so again I love the contrast of the white and the black think that'll really make it pop and so first I want to get a shot of all the details together and then we'll isolate each one of them and do you girls understand I hope everybody out there understands yeah we want to get the master shot of everything together but do we understand why we want to isolate each detail is well okay really shaking their heads yes that's a good thing all right so so I'm trying teo utilize this circle thank you stand on this guy you want to look educate us on your high end camera technique what you were doing that was killed right there I've got the focus point in the center and basically I want to get that whole circle I think that's a really cool element we've got a circle and then two circles on the side of the line going in between so I'm playing off uh the geometric shapes here and so I just think that something different yeah bring up image fifty seven uh I think that that's a cool shot if you edit that in black and white I think that could look really cool bump up the contrast absolutely and so so that's taylor's view view of the world they're now what I'm going to do right that would be our wide shot possibly what I want to do is I love showcasing depth of field so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put on my macro here and I'm working with the light right so the light's coming in here I don't like shooting against the light unless that's what I'm going for on let's move this chair out of the way so you guys can see what we're doing what I wanna do is I want to work with this light I'm all about layers okay and I'm probably gonna lose the tie okay roll it up right sometimes you know this is great because we've got a real tie but as you know sometimes when they're renting the ties there clip on ties on what you don't want to show is the rental tab behind and you don't want to show the clips we want to make it look as high end as possible and so what I'm taking here is I'm just rolling this tie up and if there is a name brand right uh gucci louis vuitton a product any of those name brands that means they spent money on it and they care about brands so they want to show off their brands exactly photograph the label they want to see that because they spent money on so now I'm just kind of layering things here and the watch is a really cool thing the photograph for the album because if I get the date time that really becomes right that time stamp for the day and then what I'm doing here is I'm taking the ring on putting it on top of that so I'm gonna do a couple of things here and just because I'm setting it up like this in camera doesn't mean I'm gonna like the way it photographs but right now I'm kind of digging it so here I am a two eight losing a little bit of light emma to eight I so um thousand one one hundredth of a second right so that would be kind of my detail shot and I'll just keep moving things around here to really showcase things maybe I'll get the watch just by itself all right come up here maybe and I'ma put it in thirds because I'm thinking about this with this look cool as a background in the album and so that's you're seeing these pop up on your screen and you understanding what I'm going for right look at this little acts pattern here I don't know if this is gonna look good but I'm thinking about it okay this might be something cool to do if I could get it to work and I try not to spend too much time on a given shot oh I think I got you taylor but I know suz not gonna vote for me no matter what she's already she's already said that she's like I don't care what the image looks like a bone for taylor I love you so I think that's pretty cool uh a shot like that bring up image sixty two that's very cool all right so I like stuff like that now I'm gonna try and turn this because I thought there's a shadow there that might might be I might be able to show well that's pretty cool all right so let's go with this and that's gonna be really cool for something in the something in the album maybe they've got and notice how I'm putting that in the third and the reason I'm putting that in the third is because I don't want this to be everything bull's eye focus right anything's off to the side and we always hear about thirds thirds but I'm also thinking about that for the album because if I've got that off in the third I can use that now has a background in the album news layered pictures on the right side exactly and so this will be the last one I take the ring a little tighter okay and those are the kind of shots that I would go for so I think I gave you a plethora of shots just on the details that we had toe add some diversity there and guys be creative walk around the room look for details in the room look for glass surfaces I think that's something that a lot of people miss it is not uncommon you asked me about pictures earlier ah but it is not uncommon I think we should do it it is not uncommon for me to take mirrors off the wall take pictures right mirror's off the wall and use that reflective surface for that everybody's looking at me like it's going to take that mirror off the wall look amanda yeah I'm twitching I want to but it doesn't matter you get to just use the elements in the room to your advantage if you're using a glass reflective surface wipe that reflective surface down we don't want dust don't be lazy and make sure you're not in the reflection yes make sure you're not in the reflection which is not always possible uh it just you're saving yourself time in post production work so without further ado let's bring linen and we're gonna have him and his groomsmen get ready here what's going on buddy you ready all right let's do this right and so what I will do is I'll introduce myself to the groomsmen I'll walk in the room my groom already knows me right now I'll introduce myself I'll be like how's it going man you excited about today we're excited how you doing man what's your name erin nice to meet you and now you're the best man today very cool so aaron what I need you to do is just help me help lin get ready today right so just have fun with each other if you see him getting real tight loosen them up keep them happy and other than that let's have a good time with each other and that is my direction to them so I'm immediately establishing myself as being in control without being bossy I'm not looking for you to be bossy I'm not looking for you to get out of your comfort zone just introduce yourself and tell them what you expect from them and things will go a lot smoother so without being said let's move this taylor and then when I'm gonna have you do is come over here uh get ready and when I want you to his land I want you right here you're gonna stand right here my man you're just gonna look out that window so it's back you up a little bit perfect aaron I want you to come on in here and help lin and aaron you're gonna be right here now listen here's the challenge I don't know if you can do it you gotta put on your tie without looking in a mirror and a lens like no worries alright but aaron you're going to keep him going straight making sure he doesn't look horrible okay with that being said don't start yet okay what I'm doing now guys is I'm going with a fifty millimeter lands here ah probably shooting it about so eight hundred okay and let him back you up right there perfect and aaron you're going back up right there because I'm looking for this angle I want you in my shot okay so all I want you doing same instruction that I would give my bride lin you're looking out the window no funny faces having fun putting on your tie you love putting on your time right brother let's do this keep straight on will be afraid to get in there and help him I uh lynn I can see you thinking in your head how to do this already len I think you're failing at this this is not looking good getting there way last time hopefully you guys are seeing the layer goodland all right all right I want you getting in there helping him flip his collar down okay here you go guys signed focusing on line here and uh aaron your name okay sorry getting air and blurry so I'm focusing on lenz expression here good good I like you do so you're looking good uh let's get you putting your watch on okay so I want to do is come right back to this right back here yeah he's put on just putting your watch on telling the time okay all right so here we go and this is pretty typical the only difference is lin doesn't have any cufflinks today typically another detail that might be involved would be cufflinks and then we have of course lin putting on those cufflinks were taken details uh off the cuff links as well so now what I want to do okay it's be ableto work if I've got time because this is going relatively quickly for for lynn so if I've got time right what I'm gonna have them do is I want the two of you guys coming up here and let me get your right you've got to think these guys are friends best man groomsmen they're friends with each other just get just get a picture of the two of you standing next to each other right here yeah so I hear you come over well whoever put your arms around you know just chilling with each other yeah alright open up to me then come this way there you go and I won't shoot really at them while cells doing stuff like this because they get confused on which camera to look at yes that's very important taylor s so if south doing that I might come to the side and get like the ties or if it's the bridesmaids give their bouquets going down the side but that way I'm not right by salin they're not confused as to which camera look at right your second shooter should not stand right here trying to get that secondary shot whenever I start doing them or what I would call traditional formal shots and he had this kind of stuff the last thing I don't need my second shooter get away from me second shooter so that they look at the right camera because you'll have one person looking at one camera one person looking at another camera so that being said the next thing I like to do is uh you could chill for a second sit down watch the game okay uh what I want you to do is I want you standing here and I'm a slide to your left lane right there good keep your hands in pockets turned sideways for me and then I want you looking profile right at that camera there okay so what I want to do is I want to try and make sure I'm doing masculine things with lynn right so hard shadows or okay um right silhouettes air okay I'm not looking for beauty on these shots ok and now what we do here is I'm gonna underexposed by maybe two and really try and start getting some ah little more silhouette and whilst alice doing that I've got a great angle on a three quarter up shot of the groom so we're able to get two things at the same time he's getting more creative stuff in them I'm getting something completely different so we're really utilizing the two different angles the second first shooter here yeah and then len can I have you uh looking right at that camera again and let me ask you a question about your glasses do you what do you want all your pictures with your glasses is a very important question to ask your uh your groom or anybody wearing glasses for that matter do you want your pictures with glasses the entire time you prefer to take it off I'm glad I asked so let's take those off I should have asked sooner right so this becomes very very important because now he might not like those images where he's got his glasses on so here he is telling me that he doesn't like them so I'm glad I asked okay so let's keep going I like that lynn looking off to your right you're not gonna smile perfect awesome win good now what I want you to do is I want you to um what I'd really like to see lin is um you do this in real time so I want you to do your time yeah take it off all right and here's how we're going to know I'm doing this because of the conversation we had in the room uh earlier about how quickly we move so we're kind of photographing and walking you through very very slowly how we would do things yeah take it take it all off you got don't do that not man hopefully like me khun strike twice there yeah under the under the bottom two all right because I'm going to start from scratch take that uh um watch off for me okay erin you're back in here and the reason I'm doing this is because I want you to see how we're working and shooting in real time how quickly and efficiently taylor are in understanding where each one of us is listen to how we're talking or not talking to get this going right so let's get started in our normal positions uh when we come back two settings I'm at one point eight right now all right and let me see make sure I got another memory card here tae switch cards I can shoot here all right so here we go when all I want to do is when you're putting on your tie the first time you were putting on you were thinking too much and you have your glasses on right I could see like you know the brain cells firing so I want you just having fun putting on your tie the good news is this is all photography so it doesn't matter if you don't get it the first time around we can always do it again so it's not video so it doesn't matter if you if you do it wrong right so lin let's rock and roll baby put that tie on have fun with it okay and lend the minute you feel yourself getting too serious you better just laugh for me all right brother come on aaron you're not doing a good job you're not not a very good best man yeah there's a priest a rabbi and no we can't tell those jokes wear we go all right hopefully everybody is seeing how we're moving and I'm switching directions I'm thinking about slide shows I'm getting hands you're almost there man it was it was it was a tie for ah hi challenge person all right I don't know you always gotta be right down your belt line and I understand all too well okay notices I'm talking a lynn taylor we're still shooting pictures azam goofing around with the guys were moving keep going right changing my angles adding is much perspective is possible actually I'd love to do live let me have you face this way iron face right into him helping buddy get close to me don't yeah you and erin powell's going we'll make a bite that's making by dinner awesome whatever I think of the pace we're moving out lane what did you think of the pace we're moving on uh really I was just yeah that's good I just wanna make sure oh sorry yeah we need it mike for me nobody can hear you but I just I was just focused on my tie just make sure that they're good you know for the wedding yeah so did you feel like we're disrupting you know you guys you guys they're giving enough space sock me and erin could move freely so it was not even a brother and you feel like the direction was too heavy to light now is just stride on just write off perfect something our clients say is after they see the slide show and they see all the pictures we got like you guys were like ninjas you're everywhere but we didn't even know you were there that's exactly what we want do we want to get you just like just like saying the word ninja uh that's important because you don't want to be so disruptive on their day controlling everything and always you know there and in their face so it's important to know how to get shots like a second shooter uh from all over the place and so you want them to feel like you were ninja yeah what what about um you know way set up the shot we told where to be I want I want questions for my girls here where we probably get them the microphone back what did you notice right you got your girls all shoot weddings what are your thoughts about the communication between taylor and myself I think it's just it's good that you you have that open communication to be able to say like the whole saying each other's names to get out of the way instead of saying what do you need our questioning something you just automatically move and that's amazing because that it does he lose precious time you're losing a picture because of somebody questioning all what do you want no it can't get out of my way so that that that's great so I appreciate that any house girls I like that it was unspoken communication so taylor I saw you as soon as sal moved around you moved your stuff taking a photo in the mirror and you moved to right out of the way you knew you'd be in the reflection but you are still the same time getting a great shot while he was getting something else you're complimenting him there's the word complimentary the second shooter's job is to compliment the primary on dh start thinking about what am I doing and I don't know uh so you're right taylor isn't just looking at what I'm doing she's looking howto enhance what I'm doing and vice versa if I'm second shooting I'm looking to enhance what she's doing I'm looking never second chute I'm saying in theory yeah salad has to be in control so the second shop for me once I never I don't establish that I was a horrible second shooter my job second shooting like south saying that's your opportunity to get something creative we have that freedom a second cheaters you know he's got all the pressure on him and so this is your chance to get something different and unique and I would rather second shoot every day of the week primary there's no pressure a second shooter you can come off do whatever you want and if you miss it you know the primary shooters the one getting that shot to that point I don't know if any everybody at home is following this and watching my technique how I'm photographing I took one test shot when we started to make sure my exposure was right I didn't even announce it I just looked in the back of my camera wants and the rest of the time that I was photographing this camera did not come away from my face I just kept moving getting down up and down on one knee moving my focus point and photographing the entire way I don't want to keep you've got to stop chipping looking at the back your camera I'm paying attention what's going on there here's your client here's the on ly reason you are here it's the document their day we can enjoy the images later get your lighting situation set up take a test shot and then it's time to move on and just shoot that's what were therefore that's the beauty of digital and so think about the days of film when we were photographing and film I came I shot my first wedding at seventeen I was on film we don't have the luxury of looking at the back of our camera right we had to trust the media ring systems everything going on same thing here so now you have that luxury but it becomes a distraction more than an enhancement so we've got to be careful with that I seen you two ladies step off so I'm assuming we've got questions we always have questions okay see ana says how cool is this workshop thank you um they would like to know how do you deal with cold stone brides and grooms people who don't want to smile or give any expression maybe sometimes on the bride and groom don't have a good dynamic or the mother in law or how how are you guys coaching people that are just not I know the two of us were fact handle this completely no no no you go first um it really sucks to be in that scenario um you you just you can't force him to be something they're not so if they're not a smiling happy person that's okay the last wedding I shot a week ago they actually had amazing serious looks where they looked pleasant but they don't they didn't do a whole lot of happy you know big smiles they don't show their teeth a lot but that was them and that looks amazing on them and so we run with it and of course I want to give them diversity so I'm like hey just damn your favorite laugh out loud say something uh tell her something funny tell her a joke what you're not funny come on and so you know just get him to relax and have fun make a joke and just be ready for their reaction and getting that reaction to your joke I think is the best way to get into federation left yeah exactly back to anticipation so once again the only way I know how to teach is through true stories and so we had a I had a wedding not too long ago where my bride her sister I don't want to use the word to describe her but she was not a nice person on dh her sister was supposed to be helping her get into the dress and her sister refused to change out of her sweat pants while her sister was getting an address and the bride came up to me and I said I said to her who's who's helping you get in your drive she's like well and she whispered to me she said well my sister is helping me get in the dress but she doesn't want to change me cheese she's not being real nice to me this is what my bride said she said she's not being real nice to me and this fried was the sweetest bride in the world and she just had no voice she didn't want to speak up but she's like I don't want to inconvenience her like dude this is your wedding day your were gonna inconvenience her and so I went into the other room because we're talking about what do you do when you have a difficult couple well this case had a difficult maid of honor I went into the room and I said can I inconvenience you and ask you to get dressed and she said why do I need to get a very nasty to me why don't I need to get dressed we're not we don't have to be at the church for another two hours sir well that is true we don't have to be at the church for two hours but I'm here now photographing your sister getting her address and since it's her day not your day I would really appreciate it if you could help me help your sister and get the best images possible and I became the voice for my bride so I truly believe in my heart that it is our job to control our own destiny I don't want to go home and say I have horrible pictures because my bride didn't smile because my groom wouldn't smile because the maid of honor decided to wear sweatpants well this is a great point that you're bringing up because we take direction from the couple on lee and so if a bridesmaid a sister a mother whoever is giving us direction that's different from what the bride that from what we've gone over with the bride we won't do it the bride is our client and we listen to whatever she says right yeah you know I'm just laughing because I I think everybody out there can relate to this we see all the girls not on their head back there we walk into a room and there's always that one there's that one bridesmaid right who her you know boyfriend got her a camera from a box store and now she's a photographer on as you walk in the room wants to tell you what you should be doing I have that that shot that I got that almost every other wedding she's like well you know what you what I was thinking is you could shoot the dress over here I like I'm in the room four minutes you could shoot the dress over here and then you could do stuff like this and I just stop and I know me and taylor handled this differently what you do yeah I'm like I just stop I look at her and I go and I handed my camera like well well what what do you want me to do with that I thought you were photographing today you're not photographing today okay because I'm photographing today I love your opinions thank you so much but you gotta let me do my job I promise you I know what I'm doing and I smile and the bridesmaids laugh but most importantly my bride laughs because she knows how bossy this bridesmaid is being so I'm not expecting all of you out there to do this because I would never of course you've got to be within your personality but the control stops the minute I do that because I'm establishing that I'm running the creative part of this day so I don't expect all you guys to go out there and do that but so sal don't leave us hanging what happened to the girl in the sweats the girl in the sweats decided she did not want to help her sister get ready and she left the room she actually wasn't in any of the group pictures that day because she was not in the family pictures it's family drama going on so she was not in any of the family pictures and she left and but I'll tell you what you know who was appreciative my bride my bride she had no voice and she appreciated that I became her voice she actually put rave reviews about sell online and how amazing it was to work with him and how he was focused on her and her day so it really went a long ways with the bride and to taylor's point our clients are the only two we're accountable to I only answer to my bride and my groom because at the end of the day they're the ones paying the bill and when they come in and look at their wedding pictures or look at their engagement pictures I don't care trust me I want everybody to be happy that would be ideal but there's only two people I care about and that's my bridegroom and if they're happy everybody a ce far as I'm concerned nobody else matters you guys got to take that to heart you really got to understand who your client is and it has to be the bridegroom the people paying the bill cool thanks for sharing the story yeah all of our jobs were dropped back here when it really it really happens wow all right so another question sal is you talked about the bossy girl with the camera what about how do you do with guests shooting with their cameras or their phones well well you're posing and working I love that I'm so glad we got that question you might think based on what I told you with the girl with the camera that I would probably start elbowing guests in the head to get out of the way but it's actually quite the opposite so let's let's stages for a second I'm gonna let who's got an iphone with him everyone so whoever's got one come on in here star urine so this happens at the reception this happens at the ceremony this happens when the groom is getting ready so sarah come on back here let's say for whatever reason sara is lin's sister okay they look alike on let's say it could happen right anything's possible okay but let's say she's his sister she's gonna be in the room ok while he's getting ready and guess what she's gonna be doing as I'm taking pictures she's gonna be standing behind me driving me bonkers taking pictures but she is gonna get she's gonna realize she's in my way because of my movement so we'll start happening is alright never stand behind so you now want to stand behind me it's not intentional right so then you're gonna be right here just awesome with your tight little bit try and take a picture lin ok so here uh there we go okay my camera's frozen again I don't know why good good all right here we go sorry you ok but your phone's down when you get that you want a picture on them let me look let me get this for you okay hang tight okay so here we go let go ahead look out that window there we go brit beautiful dude all right one two boom there you go all right thanks sarah we'll see you later okay all right so that's exactly how I would handle that on dh that I'm glad you dropped your phone because not he's typically what starts happening and I will grab the camera okay and take that photograph for them I don't care for at the church I don't care for a tte the reception I will actually take pictures for the guests with their phone or we'll step out of the way be like you guys just give us one minute let us get the shot will step out your way and let you get a picture yeah we definitely try to be guest friendly with that so saying like four paragraphs in between being guess friendly and actually saying what you're saying way have about twenty minutes before four o'clock would you like to do I'm gonna end up I don't know but I think we need to get a really cool shot of lin by himself because we've got one of chris sure I was going to and I was going a little early and take more questions but why don't we do that I'll let you want you directed and pulls us let's get your watch on wind and we'll go that direction what do you do you feel this I want to use this wall behind him okay and uh get him looking out the window I think okay so let's move this and my camera can we fix this it's locked up again I'm turning it on and off right lens so what I'm gonna have you do is stand right here with theory hands in your pockets to spring your thumbs out we want to shack facing out that window jacket with yeah yeah let's grab that taylor do you want this lamp on um makes you know from behind yeah stays on a baby what I just I just keep my foot here down the corner yeah it's going like a fire in here in about two seconds what's going through your head right now can you go ahead and get right here so what I'm gonna do is get a test shot of south before I put my groom in here so this is something we dio with our second shooters will actually set everything up get our lighting settings everything right so that when we have our client come in everything's ready to go and we're not filming with our settings he's not standing there waiting on us so this really keeps the flow of the day and it keeps him happy too so look out that window for me put your thumbs out of your pocket hands out of my pocket no thumbs out of your pocket perfect yeah so let's go ahead and get you in there it's going to be right about there all right let's get your hands in your pockets put your thumbs out though they're out looking good and angle a little bit more towards me yeah and looking right out that window again paying attention to details on pulling lint off my groom pulling his suit tied I wanted to look good bring your face a little more left yeah exactly and a smile and looking right at me give me more that serious look like you had before that was perfect yes little happier perfect all right so we like with taylor got we're going to the online competition again it's game on baby all right lin let's get you out here actually let's do this and I'll take his chair where's erin you got a suit jacket and let's get that on we're going mafia style right now sixteen thirty five uh let's do the twenty four millimeter all right so clean I want you here just don it'd up man you're just right here you're like the godfather right now okay so I want you here aaron I want you let's get one of you for by yourself first open up that jacket yeah and what I want to do is I want we want to pay attention to the pant legs as best we can when the groom sits down we don't want to see his socks or anything like that so I need to try and cover this as much as possible so I may have you stand up it's for your pants down just a little bit loosen him yeah now go to sit down here you go good cross that leg up anyone spotting a nice just that top button okay if you go the other way with your legs way go good you have that right hand come over your sock yeah just something like that yeah I like what you're doing where you're leaning in with your hand yeah maybe maybe maybe uh maybe your hands use leaning over the right there get comfortable with it it was better there we go brother it's always better when you get comfortable uh I think I'm gonna go fifty millimeter taylor because I'm getting a bad in this shot let's turn off that light behind him to please yeah I like that much better all right looking out that window forming them test shot I am a little hot here from that window light coming in okay I'm seeing this immediately right looking at me now chin down I immediately thinking of this and I'm thinking of this in a black and white okay and of course we'll want to mix this up maybe with a um tight shot as well nothing wrong with that okay so let's have you looking out that window again and groceries out there for me yeah chin down just a little what I want you to lose maybe looking right here yeah I'm looking right at me now yeah right there I like that chin down just a little good job aaron I want you in here for one shot all right what I want you doing it exactly I want you standing right behind him and I may have you like this right behind him and I definitely want to keep his bed out of the shot as best I can um or I may have to crop in in post so let's go I'm switching to my thirty five millimeter uh pride want to push this to about two eight right uh aaron put that left hand in your pocket for me and scooting this way just a little bit and what I would normally do let's get this shot yeah here's what I want both you guys looking out the window switch my eyes so to sixteen hundred okay both of you looking at me okay and one more time out the window I'm immediately thinking of this in a black and white perfect gentleman actually the turn that light on for me eric we try that see what happens of course it worked for you one shot let's go both hands in the pockets perfect I like that both you looking out the window don't think I'm gonna like it because in the mix light and I don't so let's turn it off and I'm done so I knew I wanted I'm not going to spend a lot of time at a couple extra minutes I just wanted something of the groom alone in the chair masculine looking out the window okay so the majority of the shoot was candidate just having him getting ready and then I went so fast through that I now have a few extra minutes toe work with him on something and then I'm out of here I'm going into church out of his hair how we doing I'm good to go all right questions any kind of questions you want hit us up with him right now anything we talked all day because I know we had to cut early from this morning and I know there was where a tonic questions always attend a question sal blandly of ten more minutes okay let's do it ten minutes it's like the power around all right power first thank you nice job nice job so let's just ask this question we've talked about it before that you guys are casual but so many people including julia wonderful life they noticed you took your shoes off they want to know how you guys dress for these occasions last again yeah so this is not how you address on an actual wedding day on an actual wedding day I would be in a pair of black dress slacks on probably a toned down shirt I don't want to be in a wedding with a pink shirt on a baby blue shirt on but I'm also not in all black I don't particularly care for that I'll take particularly be black slacks and a gray charcoal gray shirt or gray shirt something to that effect I would be in pretty much the same thing except dressing flats I'm wearing those shoes because I forgot my flats at home and I'm not gonna wear hell somebody shoot it was impossible to shoot in here much respect to you ladies for unable to do that but dressy flat so like patent leather shiny not sneakers great great thank you question from fia forever and I could see this happening easily what if the bridegroom are constantly on their phones doing emails texts calls while you're trying to photograph them does that happen yeah of course now we'll just be like hey I need to get these pictures of you and then you get back to whatever you're doing you mind just holding off for a couple seconds right so again you've gotta ask for it right you gotta take control and that starts when I walk in the room when I walk in the room where introducing ourselves and we're telling our clients what we're here for and what we need it's you've got over communicate with your clients there's nothing wrong with that don't be afraid to communicate that's normal okay okay so a question from generals how do you ask for testimonials from people after the wedding we do it after they see their wedding pictures and if they love him will say hey we'd love to feature your wedding on the site and get a testimonial from you if you could go check out the site you can see we like to feature whenever best images and then just have you talk about your experience with the studio and most of time like yeah so we'll just follow up follow up with them uh an email saying hey if you have time just send me a quick testimonial here's a link to send samples right we only ask once it's really important we don't want to nag reclines for testimonials if they really want to give him to us they'll they'll get them to us but we mention it after they've coming on lee after they've coming to see their pictures hey guys we had a great time with you I hope you had a great time with us if you did we'd love to get a testimonial from you and then we follow up with one email so we've had plenty of clients that have had an amazing experience and never got us a testimonial life gets in the way it's unfortunate but this is part of our process so we're always asking for new testimonials great thank you so couple of people have asked about other uh lighting sources in here light modifiers do you ever bring in a reflector do you ever use I'm not a flash not here it's not in this room I'm using available light as muchas uh uh possible um I mean I know we talked about these darling come on over here closes for me and why not why not using reflectors and just takes you on yeah just takes too long it's too big a footprint people are looking at you like you're out of your mind and I want to move as quickly as I possibly can through a scene to shoot it I don't want to spend a whole lot of time uh working with light modifiers and find flash in the room I personally love the way natural light looks so where's this's almost a joke aaron come here and like this again uh here we go so all I want to do is I just want to show you hopefully my camera's firing again I just want to give you perspective of using this one light source uh toe light her so here we are gonna put you right here okay and I just want to show you using this single light source this bulb I could like her and everything going on so if my bride were getting ready and it was january december five o'clock at night it's late at night there's no natural light coming in through the window uh this is where it's important have fast glass I'm setting up is a one thousand one point two and I have no idea if that's the right setting so let's take a test shot and it is so I'm gonna come down eyes oh eight hundred you bear smile darlene and so that's being used let's get the right white balance here okay and I'm using this like that's coming right from there and that's how I'm I'm lighting her up she's still a little warm for me this is a good um it's you're wrong side you said I was a little broccoli but it's okay um so what I can do here is now I'm going into calvin on my camera so I'm changing my white balance to calvin if you don't know what's going on here and grab your camera that's not what that's what that k stands for and I'm dialing the temperature to about twenty nine hundred I want to cool this off a little and I maybe I've cooled it off two months right and I do like the way that look so I don't know if you could show those side by side but one's raw right and one's just cooled off they're both wrong I'm sorry one's auto white balance one's tungsten and then one I went right to calvin but she's being lit by this single light bulb there is no other light source in the room hitting her so we can still be done you've got to get creative with light sources uh so I hope that answers that question so a couple people have asked this so I'll just ask you a j white thing was asking how about if someone else is paying for the wedding instead of the couple like the parents of the friends when you talked about taking instruction on lee from the brighter of groom then are you has that happened and are forced to a situation where you have to listen the person that's paying tell him about the military would not the horror story just talking about you pay for it okay uh so we shot this wedding with out of control bridal party including the bride and groom they were just wasted the whole day and uh dad paid for the wedding and um so the groom we showed up to photograph him getting ready I want a little sorry for him and he wasn't let's say he wasn't ready all right he was not awake yet and so we can't leave them hanging with this okay here's the story because they're like what is going on what is the project story we show up for the groom to get ready three groomsmen open the door everybody is completely naked in the room groomsmen not girls it would be great if it was girls for me but it wasn't great it was a bunch of dudes sausage fast not fun we open the door and the groomsmen he's like six feet for his junk is right there I look up at him I looked down at his junk I look up in him I'm like is this really happening right now taylor's like what the hell is going on she standing there so is a true story you walk into the room my groom is passed out on the bed they did not pay for their wedding dad paid for the wedding dad was probably one of the top attorneys works for one of the number one law firms in st louis he paid for this wedding so he obviously cared more about the photography thing the kids did so our job all day was to try and corral the madness that was the kids so we were being accountable to dad and you had to tell dad I'm so sorry but he wasn't awake whenever we went to go to those pictures and I had to go to the bride so unfortunately we don't have anything of him getting ready we're so sorry we had no pictures of the groom getting ready so to that question who am I who am I accountable to at that point in time I felt I was accountable to dad who was paying all this money forced to be there of course I'm going to balance that with the pictures I'm not letting dad dictate what pictures we take the kids air dictating that but I'm still accountable to dad since he's the one paying the bills hopefully that makes sense we need to write a book at some point on like crazy wedding stories yeah so on that note yes that's a good I just want to say the name the segment that like online that naked grooms wins no no I just want to say I love hearing your stories and the fact you guys incorporate these great stories in the learning that's just so incredible so I really appreciate it I just want everybody out there to know they're not alone with having like these insane moments and there's times now and I like during the day I'm texting coward like you're not gonna believe this right way just do we just got to keep a really and roll with the punches I think when I tell everybody he's a wedding photographer what I love about being what it is over it's it's it's crisis management all day all day za siri's of little mini emergency love that I do I get off on the eyes here in new york I guess we love the chaos so so there you have it