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What I Wish I'd Known 10 Years Ago

I would love to and introduce my friend incredible instructor roberto valenzuela he is an international wedding photographer award winning and incredible person and this segment is called what I wish I'd known ten years ago so come on up roberto great to have you here all right, fellows who thin always a pleasure to going back incredible incredible family member here my force is it yes going by fast so if there is a roberto valenzuela catalog you look into all right. Well, you're short on time so take it away. Okay, thank you. Susan hello, internets hello, everyone out there and thank you for joining me today and joining all the other amazing structures that creative life has brought I have personally been watching a lot of these structures is me as I can and I'm impressed by the level of education that's here that creative like brought especially enterprise that they're bringing it to so that's really fun I wanted to create a different type our presentation than what I'm used to. Um I...

've always start if I could go back to my beginning of my career I used to be in tucson, arizona if I could go back to the beginning of my career what what would I do differently if I had the knowledge I have now I have a little bit more knowledge now just a tiny little bit of it about photography when I was in tucson I didn't even own a camera when I became a photographer I was a high school economics teacher I was a marketing teacher but the president of the united states george bush jr he gave people money high school high school's teachers money uh grant so we could use that money and give it to the students and then the students could use that to create a business of their own and they would have a marketing department of finance department on accounting department on dh they decided to do digital photography so I didn't even own a camera so that was my first introduction to photography I was like you're going to do what did you do? What did you do with that? Okay, cool do we have any cameras here? No, so I had to order cameras around and had to do research long story short that summer I quit my job as a teacher and I decided to go full time as a photographer even though had just gotten married and my wife really enjoyed the health insurance. She was really enjoying that health insurance and I thought, um who needs that? We're young and strong we can manage without me for twenty years all right? So I told her, look, don't worry about it just like I worked so hard on my retired to become a professional classical guitarist I can do I can use the same input, the same practice regiment, the same work ethic that I bring to the table from the guitar background into the photography background, but I was nervous at that time your life, I didn't know who the photographers where I didn't know how it brights were going to be weddings on dumb. I went to my first bridal fair, I shot him, I shot my first wedding on dh, everything that could have gone wrong really did on, he kept happening, it just kept on going. I just didn't know what I was doing, but I was taking my chances on this presentation. I wanted to basically shine some light, shed some light into what I know now and how you could have changed my career back then, the information that I mean, we're going to give you it could even be permanent to people who have been shooting for five to six or seven years, you know, they're just little things that I wish I would've known ten years ago before I got myself into this crazy industry. So one of things I want to start doing is during my weddings, I'm going to start twittering and instagramming life video feed off me, shooting the weddings, no, not like forever, I'm going to stop my wedding and instagram tell a bright hold on a second girlfriend let me just like instagram you right now you know I mean we're not gonna do that, but I am going to start twittering it I am going to start instagramming videos now that there's video on instagram I thought he would people to implement it almost gonna start taking photos of my camera to see what the final product looks like off the video so I really suggest if you're watching try to follow it's for twitter is roberto photo for instagram is roberto underscore photo so that's roberto photo for instagram was taken by some guy who doesn't even use instagram he's got one picture of a squirrel on then every time I go in there people are like I love your work and like no dude it's a squirrel like that's the wrong roberto photo that's minus roberto underscore for though anyway and that guy has like five followers they think I'm like lame or something I wanted to thank everyone out there across the world before I start on the support they have given me on my first book called picture perfect practice this book was launched a w e p I two years ago you guys know about his book using it and it has not slowed down in sales since it was launched on I never thinking the opportunity to thank everyone out there there's a facebook group called picture perfect practice by roberta violence well and everyone goes in there and starts posting the practice images from the book and so forth and there's a whole community being based on this book and I wanted to really thank everyone has I bought the book either on my books or amazon or hopefully you put in a barnes and noble so they don't go out of business so thank you for that I'm also currently writing picture perfect posting right now so that should be really fun not fun for me writing it fun for everyone reading it it's a lot of work um this is the I'm a seven page and I just want to thank everyone that has given me one hundred twenty nine reviews and I still have a five star rating that's pretty cool because I don't ask for a five star hotel people give me the rating that you want that reading that you feel it's fair but people feel that they feel whatever and they post whatever but I want to think that people take the time to write a review without his reviews the book wouldn't do a swell so the people who take the time I think them for it okay, I want to tell you a few stories nightmares more like it really bad stuff that happened to me which is what triggered this person vision in the first place the first one that I want I'm gonna get right to it because of time but the first one is, um a bride came to me on dh she met with me I'm like albright she asked me for a discount on dh I didn't understand why that kept going from the beginning of my career to the very end of my life till the very top of my career people keep asking for that on I will talk to you about it more later but I have a way off approaching that turns out she wasn't very happy that I didn't give her that this can she asked for but she didn't tell me that so I basically said I'm sorry this is what this is I don't feel like over she's coming back she's like we're goingto we want you to send us all this stuff to see if you're still worth it I'm like oh okay wow so I started sending her stuff she's like yeah, we want more maur wedding we went more stuff to show to see we still want to hire he was like, you know what? I'm going to send you off to another photographer friend of mine he will love you yeah, I didn't like the photographer just get hugo, but I look a sight kind of the wedding, you know? I mean, so he doesn't know so the bride I told her I will not shoot your wedding this is not a good match and she flipped out it was like I'm paying you five digits to shoot my wedding I'm have a check and you're going to deny it like yes, you know that sign outside of restaurants, no shoes, no shirt, no service it's kind of like that except you're not very nice I didn't tell you that, so I learned I cheated, ok let's push the reset button and let me pay you the full rate I was like I was trying to not laugh on the phone like trying to keep it chilled like ok, yeah, yeah, but I wasn't oh, you have beat you like that kind of thing, but I think the price because when I went to her wedding, she started asking me to photograph all the photos from all the other photographer she liked and we can copy them I don't know how to do that, especially my picture school over the place if imagine, you know, so I didn't do it, I said, why don't you do what you want? But I don't have my own style she's like okay, sure, whatever, so she got all mad and whatever so I dealt with it turns out later on she decided to use that against me all over the internet and started trashing me about how horrible the person I wass on I knew I shouldn't have taken that wedding the money got to me I needed the money like everyone else and I did the wedding because of it and here I am in this situation it is it really hurt me actually so it was bad I mean hurt me emotionally it didn't really hurt me this business wise so well, it could have well done it so um so is very dangerous to accept weddings that are not your client, you know? And I know that people out there including myself, we want as much business as possible, but we have to say no, we have to say that we have to read that client carefully if you see any signs of red flags it's timeto maybe pulled pulled the trigger and say no, you know, it's not worth it. Um another one I had surgery on my left foot. I've had multiple surgeries on this foot from my nonsense activities on uh I'm not very careful with myself, but I've had surgeries to fix things and I had a wedding on the wedding I was just about to recover from the surgery and the wedding was coming up and I was traveling so like like a match of whatever I pull out, I'm getting out of the truck from the bus that takes you to the heir to the parking for the airport on I'm just coming back from a trip or whatever, and I pull the bags on my foot fell between the bus and the sidewalk right through with all the weight of the backs on all that surgery that he I had just been done just got ripped apart, you know? I mean, I call the bride with my foot like this and screaming, and I told her your wedding is it was after that that day, after that day, I was like, I have to cancel. I cannot do it and I didn't have a plan. I did not have a plan b another thing I should have known. It's have a freaking plan. In case this happens to you. She started going ballistic. She went very. She was really angry with me on she should have but what can I do? It's called life. I didn't mean to get hurt. I was just pulling my back's out. But this happens now. I do things very differently. I pre speak to a photographer in the area where I'm going to shoot the wedding on I have him on stand or her on standby. Like most likely want I won't need him or her but I call someone say when I should have wedding in malibu just want to let you know and now they call me I'm shooting a wedding in your area just living you know and now they're in the middle of the wedding and they get hurt I can I can step in I'm kind of on standby it's like kind of like a code of honor we do to each other you know we help each other out so that's another thing you know that that was really bad they should shut their engagement photos and they loved him and the bright cried on the phone it was awful this one could have got me sewage for every penny I got sandbags for lights you know how we always put light stands on the receptions and the ceremony and all the stuff well I decided to put life stance in the in the ceremony for the first time it was an outdoor ceremony there was a lot of harsh light and shadows on whatever so I decided to put two lights like I would do a reception before the ceremony outdoors every morning and the brand I don't know that the wind in the middle of the ceremony the wind blew a little bit no sandbags it hit the grandma's arm rest with three flashes on it had it moved to interest to the left it would have hit the ground my right on the head you know what I mean and I'm like okay note to self you know day average or something stupid like that again so I decided I'm never going to do that again and they're going to put lights on ceremony it just is what it is it's not worth it and second if I do would put lights at the reception I think the time to bring those crazies handbags and put them down and if you're listening to this trust me few polite stands out you need to put some sandbags at least buy a couple they cost like ten dollars each buy a couple that could save you especially with all the kids running around if those lights hit a person it's going to be on you if we decide to pursue it and you're gonna lose so oh my gosh I'm just remembering as I look at these flashing speed over exposure I'm shooting the wedding my one of my first boston weddings high end I had just moved to boston I'm having I always get nervous before weddings do you guys get nervous before shoots I still get nervous before shoots I mean boston it's at a beautiful high end place I'm totally excited totally nervous I start shooting the ceremony everything's going fine I decided to turn on the flash to give it a little bit of extra light to the the so the whatever and the press it was okay and I normally don't do that but I decided to do it this time they were so much window light coming in that I thought it would blend in so I did it I never done it when I did that the flashing went down to two hundred of a second so um so the exposure went from like fifteen hundred shutter speed tow two hundred shutter speed it was an outdoor ceremony I'm sorry and everything I didn't check the screens I was too cool for school and I was also worried about the wedding and capturing moments like fifty percent of the ceremony it was just white on my screen because the stupid flash when you turn it on flashing goes up to fifty two hundred doesn't even tell you they're just I was just shooting away and I'm like I look at it and I was just like oh my gosh like you know when you feel totally them you just feel like what did I do? My second shooter took a few photos they saved it had some close calls it's been bad the kiss picture you know with a kiss when they say you may kiss the bride another high and when he happens to get every big wedding I have to shoot doesn't happen with a regular smaller weddings happens with the really big ones with the really big wedding coordinators you know I go out I put myself ready to go for the kiss they say you may kiss the bride I'm ready to go the shutter gets stuck that you got a chick I like I'm seeing them kiss we missed everything I had to apologize it's a disaster now had I known that before now I tell my second shooter I assistant whatever to come behind me I get lower tissues over me or he gets lower I should over him and we think the exact same shot just if my camera fails hiss will work if his works mind felt whatever so I am here and he's here and we're just taking the same exact picture on we did that for key moments we cannot miss like rings and so forth so and I already talked about saying no to the wrong client I mean do you guys feel bad saying no to a person with they want to hire you you gotta own it as a business person all I had to say to you and to everyone watching online you gotta own it it's okay for you guys to say no to people if it's not the right client for you it's not worth it uh putting a limit to the changes in the album how many times have you got have you had an album send out to the bribe and they're tryingto they start making changes for you next thing you know, they have a round of twenty changes and then you make them all and then she goes, oh my gosh kind of like the way you had it before except for these two pictures so it's like also eighteen photos that I spent two hours doing it was a waste of time oh yeah, I'm so sorry so you go back and you re do the whole thing then she asks, you know what? I make a change and we can we make this changes now too and he keeps going one of them happened for over one hundred changes I was about to get mad, but I knew that if I get mad she would go online and trash me, so I couldn't so now is very clear on the contract that you get a very, very generous twenty changes for the wedding album it's a lot on if you want to go past those twenty change is gonna cost you twenty dollars for change that puts a stop to it really fast, you know? So just little things. I wanted to put this this this one because I just feel like I teach you all over the place, as you know, people always tell me that they don't want to charge that they have no money, they're not, so they're charging twenty five hundred bucks for a wedding and I'm like, you have to own your prices, man, I mean, you have to just be such a price according to what you think you're worth on own it don't go out there feeling shy about charging it, you have to be confident when you're charging your money, I charge no money, I I keep it, and somebody asked for this country keep it, I keep my ground, I make exceptions for very few things on otherwise it's just you have to be confident, and I'm not talking about talking to women, talking about feeling confident because they will smell right through you. It would smell like you're not confident that you're you're feeling bad about how much you're charging, and you know, some of you charge according to what you can afford, and some of us charge higher than we can afford. But either way, you have to be confident about how much you're charging to your plane, because if you're in a client meeting on, they start seeing your face and you start looking shy, you look, you don't look like a very experienced photographer or artist, so I wish I would have known that my education would far away my equipment. At the beginning of my career, I spent my first year I shot the most amount of weddings have ever shot a shot about eighty something weddings on in the first year? Yeah, there were all cheap weddings that's why I was charging like I was not charging cheat, but I was so on this wedding when you loved me for some reason on they kept sending me friday, thursday, friday, saturday and sunday, wedding's almost every week, and I was just like I was buying equipment and buying equipment and buying equipment until that vanya stops recommending me because my pictures never improved, they were terrible, they like it because I was nice to them, but my photos were never great because I wasn't good, I haven't worked I had him work on my craft yet, you know? So I wish if I could go back, I would've bought two lenses, something simple, and I would have really focused on what I can do with those with us with those flashes with those lances with cameras. I've done this for a long time now, and I'm still very much working hard on how to improve my flash techniques and camera techniques still, imagine if I would if I would have had that mentality back in the day, which is why it's great that you guys are sitting here, you're trying to learn and people are watching online and they're trying to learn because education will far outweigh your your equipment. You know you could give me our rebel camera or a cheap nikon camera chiefs only whatever and I will probably do really well with it yes because its light is life locations are locations but most of us spent so much time on the latest light or this or the latest camera the latest lands or sony has a muralist camera and I was like oh my god forget education let's buy that you know that's not good so I hope people remember that focus focus your energy on educating yourself on becoming a great photographer instead of just buying all these gear all the time I wish I know I would have known how to deal with difficult issues that client meetings what happens when they were you showing them photos and they're not liking what they're saying oh accord you know what I mean like it happened to me just three weeks ago other way the groom was looking at my photos and they're like I really don't like your work I was like you on the bread hire me by the way they ended up hiring me for the wedding and I was just like what you like about it like I don't like this and this I was like perfect because those photos the bright asked me to shoot them and they did see alice planes to it's more important to me to have the bright happy than for me to be um bumpus artist that doesn't listen to their bride because I feel like I know better I don't know better maybe I do, but the bride being happy with her wedding and her experience with me, it's more important than me getting my artistic pictures of some accents. So what the fuck's the pictures he didn't like are sure enough a force that didn't make sense in the album and you saw the photos that the brother asked me to shoot. I hated them. I don't do photos like that, so this one is one of the bigger ones I want to go over today's the timeline and taking a leadership role on the timeline. How many of you guys work with wedding coordinators? The us have any wedding coordinators where you guys from there's? Not a lot of women cording anderson there's tons, there's weddings here I'm mostly I I mostly associate shoot, so I don't necessarily get that contact until a week before usually, but I always try to get a schedule and and look at it and talk with the coordinator because it just makes life so much easier if you have the schedule for some recent wedding coordinators don't really talk to photographers, but when they're putting the talent together and I wish I had known back in the day to put my foot down very politely. Fix it, okay? Because that wedding timeline thing can ruin your whole career. You don't do a good job with that timeline. You have no time, and you fail every time every single wedding things can happen that you didn't foresee that you had no cushion to go from point a to point b. So, um, this is one of another one that I think it's really important whether the sets that people are looking for. When I was shooting ten years ago, I remember shooting whatever I could find the bride, grandma sitting in the chair, whatever like, just the groom I remember. I was just like whatever like, I'll just shoot whatever's happening. I had no clear set in my head and now I go to a wedding. I don't know, I have to get emotion. I have to make people cry. I have to make people laugh. I have to make people feel something I have to make people. I have tohave images that evoke emotion on more importantly to me, I need tohave photos where the family and the love of that family is very much present in the pictures. Whatever it takes, I also have to have a set where the bride looks absolutely beautiful, like almost like an actress head shots of her I also have full body shots of her because she bought her dress and she will be managing if you don't photograph the whole dress I also know what's the best lighting for full body versus cropped I mean between the face um dealing with bryce that are small, medium, larger curve you who cares posting there were really changes and that's been the one true thank you about photography if you know you're posing doesn't matter if you have a person that waste ninety five pounds or one hundred and eighty pounds, it doesn't really matter if the technical pretty much stay there's a few little things you cannot do with curve your people, but you can do other things with them that you cannot deal with this kenny people so it all balances out. So, um and what happens when you have issues during the shoot? How do you handle those things? Like my wedding tow weeks ago, where the bride was actually getting angry in the car because that where we have scheduled to shoot they wouldn't allow is there in the day of the wedding there like you can come in here? We have some event happening and she was like, but we had scared we had looked at this for the shooters like I'm sorry I have to go somewhere well to go somewhere else there was three hundred people driving their cars and a little dirt road in malibu and that we couldn't get out so we're stuck in traffic we only have twenty minutes to do the entire ship I was stuck in traffic for fifteen of them on the bryce saved up so much money to hire me so she was just like with her hands in her face about to lose it and I was just like, okay, I need to like I need to do what I'm teaching right now it's like really bring it home so I I said stop the car I told my wife to stop the car we got out of the car on wherever the heck I wasin the middle of the freeway is where I took all her photos and it turned out amazing you would never know I was very happy that I invested in my education I was very happy that I saw every branch in the desert in the malibu hills every branch, every hill, every color off scent as an opportunity for a photograph even the color off the scent impacted the way I thought about the pictures, so I was just like, oh man, like I thought I should write the photos she couldn't believe he was in there really just office freeway, you know, so I got a client experience far awaits the caliber of your photographs who believes in that looking just raise your hand if you believe in that you don't believe in that I do agree with you that their experience is very important of course it is but I also don't think you should sacrifice yourself as an artist it's a good point on you do what you need to do you do what you do what you need to do if you schedule a meeting properly if you spoke about your work and how you work you shouldn't have a lot of problems but sometimes bryce turn it around on you at the wedding day let me tell you when you fight them it doesn't pay out on the end of the day you really took all the most have photos no one's going to complain about nice traditional pictures they might complain about about going far away to do a special shot that I really want to take they might tell you what to do like can we take a picture here? Can you take a picture there if you say no it's probably not gonna pan out too well for you I know from experience I used to be like no that's not a good you know there's the fountain oh that's not that's a great found with the lighting socks like we can go there and she's like but I really want a picture if you just fight them you gonna know paying the price and I think of the day I'll go over there I'll take a picture in front of the stupid fountain I know move on and she'll be happy that I did it and it's just like now can I have five minutes to do what I need to do? She goes, yes, but can we take this one picture? Yes, but now that I took down and give me five minutes for my picture and then we'll take that one I mean she's like, okay, cool, but I'll be sure you're doing it, you're not sacrificing you just kind of like negotiating, okay? I don't want to get too much into this because this is not lighting week, but, um, I've had probably the biggest mistakes I've ever made has been on these things lance's speed lights reflected on diffusers I will say the last five years of my life have dedicated them toe in very intensely learning this one's this guy's right there just needed to make sure that the twenty four to seventy is very different twenty four to one or five depending on the bone structure of the girl that I'm shooting, I can choose a different lens what happens at the very edge is get to know your stuff, my speed lights I never was able to fiddle around with one hundred speed light setups it was I never have time for that. So what is, like the one, two or three things I need to know about speed lights that I can really just bring it home? When? When? When it's crucial? Um, and then the reflectors I've seen people grab the reflector and just blast the person with the life is like with life, and you're just like, wow, I now that light doesn't look anything like the background just looks cheap, you know? So it's like, how do you fix all that stuff? Can I have a discount? That is the typical question that will come up on every single meeting and here's an option for you to deal with that? If I would have known this ten years ago, I wouldn't have cut my prices by fifty percent for eighty percent of the winnings, right? When the bride asked for a discount she's going to try to play the card that she has met with other photographers that are given her at this counts, she's also done her research on you, which is probably ask someone if they give you give them a discount shift to keep all that in mind. If you say yes, you better be prepared to offer it to every bride that asks for it. Although as you looked weird and she will wonder why you're giving them but not not her or him so what I do I play the artistic card and I play the fairness card I say ana play the negotiation card in my prices I charge five hundred dollars per hour for extra hours off coverage but my packages don't cover a lot of hours so most of the brights have to hire me for the package plus like five extra hours which gets expensive or whatever or six so I used the time as a negotiation tool so I don't drop my prizes I keep on I'm going to say you know what for me to cover your wedding properly I'm gonna have to choose for eleven hours or ten you're paying me for eight I would rather do a good job for your wedding I'll give you those two hours you don't have to worry about them that you can get your wedding cover properly okay on that saves you a thousand dollars and she's like okay and save your thousand dollars all the words are there she wants to know that she got a deal on if the groom is negotiating with you he doesn't wanna look like like he just lost a negotiation a duel because their pride gets hurts and for another fiancee men don't like to lose negotiations they like to be the man and oh yeah I totally talked him down you know, I mean, it's not true, so you have to make sure you're careful with that. If the groom is doing it, be more like, okay, I can save you this. I'm going to do this for you because I wanna make sure that you and your fans are doing there having the best coverage possible if they if that doesn't work, say it's not fair for the clients who have paid me, they're full price, not to mention that this is the part that I say sometimes not to mention I put my price is best based on I value my work on the problem is if I go to your wedding and I've invested all this money and time in education and energy for your wedding, which takes a lot out of me to photograph your wedding, I don't want to go in there with a negative attitude that I didn't get you don't value me even if I go there with eighty percent of my enthusiasm, you don't want that, I'll give you eighty percent off mine toothy, asm and you pay me eighty percent of my feet are you? Okey, I'll give you fifty percent of my talent if you give me fifty percent of my feet, nobody wants that, so I just say it's like I personally don't feel I wouldn't feel too inspired, you know, because when I feel valued, you went into a better job for you, but when you feel like you were just another negotiation, you were just another guy there's just negotiated with and you don't really value what I do on my effort it's hard for me to do my very best to you do you want my very best? Or you want my mediocre best and then they're like no, no, no, we want the past, we're good, we'll pay you see what I mean? It works out well to do it that way. I found conversation about this with many photographers, and they say like, I'm sorry, I don't give discounts. Well, you sound like a jackass like if you do that, I don't give this council isn't sound very nice. You want to be flexible, so have a negotiation token in your packages that you can play with to negotiate with the bride and groom, but don't do it unlike the albums and stuff, because that cost you money don't be like, oh, let me give you ten more albums and then you're out all your profit margin goes out the window I wish I would've known toe to try to cater to the groom my client meetings instead of catering to the bride if you get her to the bride, every photographer has done that if you cater to the groom, if you cater to the groom at the client meetings the bride, if the groom likes you, that bride will want to go with the groom's choice because he finally got involved in the wedding planning the groom finally shows any kind of interest on the wedding planning. What is the brave thing to do? She's been wanting him to get involved? She wants to feel like it's a partnership and it's like a group activity together think I finally becomes part of that group and she's going to shut him down? No, I find I have had the greatest success booking when I'm dealing with the bride and groom, but I have little cool things laying around my house to trigger the groom's interests, for example, I fly remote control helicopters, big ones, not the small ones it wouldn't even fit in that table. Okay, I I have got, like in my house when you walk in my studio there's like a little case on in the case, there is like this super expensive high performance helicopters and there's six of them and the groom walks inside what don't fricking her there like that is the coolest thing ever, and I'm like, oh, that's, what were you noticed? Let me show you you know it's truly works I also have my guitar kind of like understand why don't you play? Oh my gosh that's so cool us ous a matter of fact I do what do you play? I can play whatever and then you you show the helicopter the groom is already eating out of your hand and you haven't even started the photos buddy, before I did that before I didn't know this before so before the bride and groom would come hi, how are you? How was your drive? All the small talk everyone does it was grey house traffic only got horrible. Okay great how's the weather great you come back let me show you my images here may I won't share my prices I hope I really had a fun time meeting you even though you know it's a total lie and they know it's a lot you had no fun meeting them because you wanted to do other stuff like hang out with your wife you don't want me meeting with clients all day you know I need to go home they go in their car and to go away and there like he was good but that's it but when the groom is like that I also like the photos were good but the helicopter is really cool I'm just saying you have to you're playing with a psyche off off what the bride needs. The bride needs the groom to be involved. You can do your presentation to the groom. The groom doesn't want to be that he doesn't care about most guys don't really I'm like I'm on emotional so I care about the photo since I'm the one crying at the photography meetings, you know, but my bride is like soup. My wife is like super cold hearted and she was like like a stone, so I'm like, oh my god, I was like, please get over it, you know, but that's why I'm a wedding photographer. I know it's true she's like a stone, not just a great stone. She opened up to me. Remember this guy's, when you have a client coming to your house? I wish I would've known toe predetermine their fears before they came before I thirty. My client meeting. What is the main fear? What is the main fear that they have when they're choosing a photographer too? What do you think it is? Their main fears that you do she's gonna be a part of the same stories that her bright her friends hide about their photographers and she doesn't want it to happen to her because most people will say my photographer was great, but then at the wedding, everything went to hell and the pages were sucky, and I don't know what the heck and I don't know what happened is terrible and he didn't capture anything and hate it hate it all. So the brothers went that so because the friends had a new experience first a good experience with a photographer at the meeting and then everything went down, they don't they know that you having a meeting with them that's positive, just say anything because you could go crazy to ask the photographer, so they want to know like, oh my gosh, my photographer, it started raining and and all of a sudden my photographer didn't know what to do or it was one hundred twenty degrees and my father didn't know what to do so there's all these fears that they have here, some of the most popular ones are you normal because photographers are artists were freaky shows we're like hard personalities, you know, sometimes I'm not I'm a softie, but a lot of people are hard, you don't mean it like this, and I'm a photographer and I have to have it this way are you normal? I'm gonna be what can you grab that mic you might leave you without a bride you're hiring me for your wedding or you're thinking about it I'm gonna be with you more than you're gonna be with any other person at your wedding do you want me in your room when you're just dressed like most girls would say yes to that but just get me oh can't you see I'm just joking described that scratch that ok most people would be like oh I want this guy in my room the whole day so I want him in the ceremony don't want him the reception do I want him in front of my bridesmaids its second look is gonna dress right like you're taking a look are you normal it's a serious question the next one is can you produce the level of work at any location that you're showing me in your computer in the presentation no matter where I'm at can you can you manage the same level of work issue were consistent from wedding to wedding whether it's in the fields or it's in the middle of the city show me your work show me what you can really do is the style consistent right weapon of experience would you provide that's the big one somebody can say my foot over high grade images but he ruined my wedding because he just he thought the wedding was a photo shoot on some photographers think the wedding is more of a photo shoot for them like a play like a playground and it's, not a playground for you you have a responsibility on. You have to do it within your style, but you don't take over, you know you don't think over them. How do you capture a full wedding? No, joe, some samples I know you're going to show your best work at the meetings. Show me the family photos. Show me that getting ready. Show me the photos that didn't come out great, but then you didn't have in nine beautiful man it's like I want to see everything you know they want, and if you can predetermine their fears, you can say something like experience could be reviews about you that people have written if they don't want to write them, you write them and they sign you don't mean how do you capture for wedding? Show them a full wedding, show them several couple of them is your work in system from wedding to wedding show and discuss your style as you are showing the wedding, don't let them guess you guide them like I am a romantic wedding photographer with images that have a little bit of hot sauce on them it's always like that. My images are romantic with hot sauce it's always visually cool, but it's also romantic because my style, if you want super fashion photos at your wedding, hire somebody else if you want photos where you're gonna look amazing and it's also gonna be toned down and you're going to yourself but it's gonna be beautiful and make you cry, laugh and all that I'm probably your guy. So I mean, when you were looking at the obvious, they see that consistency. Oh yeah, I see that this is a big one. What are you not telling them? I tell them everything so they realize that even the bad stuff yes, I might break my leg. Ligature wedding? You have a backup? Yes, I have three cameras in case the two of them break like, no, I'm not going to charge you're tryingto upset are you without your knowledge? I will shoot the heck out of yur wedding and I'm going to produce an album is going to be the best what I think and you welcome to buy it or not, you can decrease the pages, but I'm only going to sign the album based on what I think is the best for your wedding and they're like, okay, so to make it clear when you're waiting it's over, I'm going to sign your book with the number of layouts that I think will be best for your wedding on you can decide yes or no and if you say no, I'm going to drop it and that's it no bright lights to be off sold like, you know, you really spend ten grand and it has been fifteen morning. If it doesn't work, take a look at some examples here some of my examples of our wedding that I show clients this's my typical work romantic with a little bit of hot sauce. Do you see it? Not the hot sauce. Just the hottest is like an imaginary thing. Um, I'm gonna go through this quickly, but just look at the way this look. They look like a true romantic lighting on norman and she just looks at you like a movie. Steal that glancing out she's not trying to be anybody. She's not ok or this one. It's, just clean. See, these are different weddings, and it looks consistent. Okay? There's a consistency. Look at this one. Look at the way they're laughing. Look at the way they're interacting. Looked the background. The expression looks riel, they doesn't look fake like you're faking everything. You know, the groom looks into it. The bride looks into way. The hands are gentle. Everything is well composed. Here's a little bit more of a off a conceptual picture, I got their heads off on that keep brings your attention to the dress into the tuxedo and the best part of it all I bring your attention to the contrast between the pink and damn install it really shows who they are without you being distracted by the expression on when you're a bride listening to this you're like oh yeah cool but for groom's I wanted to something like this you know you're playing with shadows this's the hot sauce the heart is like this little shadows and how I play with this guy and the shadow there he's kind of like getting the though he looks like a butt you know you can change that or the bride like look at the way she's just handling her hands on dh just the beauty of it all could the lighting would you say this is pretty consistent like the photos have that consistent on their tone romantic undertone but they're also fun like this one but they're not like jumping in the air and the wind turning crazy like they're just having a lot of fun and I'm capturing that you know everyone has a story you can tell a little bit about about their personality by just the way they're they're standing on the way there holding their feet it's fun you know everyone is having a great time look at this guy's obviously the frat boy you know this guy probably doesn't have a girlfriend this girl's had too much to drink already you see you can cannot tell a little bit of a story this wedding was about a month this is in new york city this when it was about a month ago in palm springs this is one of the my first wedding a shot with my hostler camera the digital hasn't left that I can on duh it's got it's got my typical roberto elements it's got the crazy organization ofthe elements with them balancing the elements typical me you always have some like the picture of the groom with us with the shadow of the palm tree and then it's always thinks to balance the picture so if they were not if this wasn't here it would just be them with nothing else it would be like a regular photo but I roberto photo always has to have something cool on the left on the right up for them there has to be something if people people look at my photos and they look for it like I know somewhere there I don't they see it you know I mean that's kind of what I like to do take a look this one is where I'm using the elements in the location toe balance them on this one I'm using the elements in the location toh framed them so these polls are framing the couple whereas the other photo they were balancing the couple this one was in switzerland on dh she's not trying to be just as beautiful posture it's just romantic. It looks like a painting but it's just a picture with the bishop with a very expensive camera but I'm actually that's the way could they kind of look out of the camera? It's the craziest thing I love it. Look at this one. Feel that underthrown feel that one same thing you can almost call the photographer here. You know you can kind of guess it. Here's the hot sauce here. More hot sauce. Does that give you an idea of what? Bright's? Kind of c on how you talk about it and how when they go back in their car and they drive away, they will know that we want roberto, what do you get with roberta? Romantic hot us also, the two words romantic balanced hot sauce. What do you get with somebody else? Castelli, this person wild, crazy, jumpy. This one fashion e you need to make it very clear so they can choose for you. I don't. I don't claim anything explained what you can do but also prove it show waiting sly shows but sometimes I don't show weddings night shows if you're gonna show wedding slice shows, um, I would put my experience is more emotional photos trump more artistic photos for them to hire you but at the wedding they want the artistic stuff but when they're thinking about you they wanna make sure you can capture the emotional pictures too. Okay um yes ambulance in the lounge says romantic balanced hot sauce yeah romantic balance balance like valenzuela thank you. Um show complete weddings from show complete wedding albums ah, when I deal with a wedding album with a bride I always use my poor mama graphics to your books. I put him in the table and I wear white gloves to deal with them photography gloves it makes it look more like fine art if you grab it from the floor and you slap it on and you just throw it on the table no one's going to pay for your meals. I noticed that when you pull your album and what it makes a difference when you treat the album with respect and you hold and you put it gently than on the table makes a difference before I just pull him put him in my lap and just going to show them around okay, that did not work. When you explain photos and you're talking to the bride's you can explain and talk about it the way I spoke about my photos there okay, you show the same thing this is a big one have sample albums based on challenges so for example in my in my studio I have several albums based on challenges this other challenges I have fifteen minutes for the bride and groom thirty minutes with the bread and groom on our for the brennan groom bride and groom before the ceremony they saw each other bridegroom they not see each other before the ceremony we did other photos after um I have a wedding album for rainy day have a wedding album for one hundred ten degree weather I have a wedding album for urban weddings very busy landscape like cityscape in more and I have another wedding album with everything like in a winery and very rural and stuff like that when a bride doesn't know you're gonna be ableto handle her wedding you pull out those albums graphics studio has always been good at sending me albums I purchased albums from them based on challenges not based on just four weddings that's one huge thing that has made it different people hiring me people hiring other people do you have can you give them peace of mind? Can you prove it? A lot of photographers can say yeah I can shoot in the rain well show me because once you say it and then you prove it to them makes a big difference okay so the many books so in my studio I have these many books I gave the bride and groom about ten of these after their wedding okay and you can get you can go to a box company and have a box made for your books and he becomes your business card these air just a business card for me when they go to their friends and say I met with these photographers check out this this photographer I met with and they show them this little guy's bryce is going to be bridesmaids or friends are gonna be like oh that's pretty cool and it's little so it's cute and you can see the photos and you have information about yourself at the beginning and so far it's what I do and these things have made a lot of this is because the bride may be on the fence about hiring you but then when she shows her friends and her parents these people are like I really like this photographer and then they come back and hire me so this is one way of doing it um harold just shut your appointment so any questions in this little guy's on how to use them? They're just little many tiny little books they're so cute and funny people just left you know? Yeah graphic studio mason also for my graphics studio albums I have such a variety on the covers because you don't want to show the same cover for all the challenges be careful with that it is to show like look like a whole different thing I wanted to put this right away because graphic students they knew that I was going to say this and I wanted to they're going to have a huge promotion for you guys right now for everyone watching online if you are not a member if you're not occurring customer of this okay very carefully if you're not a current customer of this, you can go to this link graphic story dot com slash see l p w again see lp ws in creative life for the weak you click on there you have ah form you fill it out you're going to get over twelve hundred dollars worth of albums with your image is sent to you for free okay over twelve hundred dollars off album small albums, big albums, media albums every album you can have and they will be with your images for free if you are a current customer of graphic story, you're really wondering what about me you guys get for every order you give in after feeling out this you get a box of these with thirty many albums for every wedding you send them for free thirty of them okay, so that's pretty cool thank you to unwrap it for that uh, wedding coordinators, wedding coordinators and you need to work together if they don't call you you call them you talk about the timeline before they even start making it although what you're going to have problems and another thing this is a little bit off a sneaky thing but coordinators responsive photographers who are thoughtful on they appreciate the business they sent you by thoughtful I mean a nordstrom gift certificate for a thousand dollars thought for symptoms since you appreciate their business but I don't want to say here's a bribe just get you want to say oh I'm so thankful for your business whatever here's a five five hundred dollar gift certificate to north strong enjoy go do whatever you go crazy break a leg or whatever on that has been a good response you never talk about it you never discuss it it just happens you know I mean any works look at this I want you to ignore these arrows ok ignore the arrows for me for a second just on this page here is a typical time then sent to me by my our wedding coordinator take a look at this the ceremony's at six o'clock right on the photographer you see it's a force have six o'clock right the certain the reception's at seven o'clock they want me to shoot photos of the bridal party the family the bride and groom photos everything between like six thirty six and seven but the ceremony ended at six fifteen six twenty then everybody goes house and starts talking to themselves and then at six forty and then you're like oh my gosh and you tried to shoot the family photos on everyone's talking and drinking and who knows where they went and they're looking for uncle whatever and now six fifty on at seven you have to go to the you have the photographer has to move to the reception to shoot details on dh it's seven o'clock you're losing all the light in the world to shoot your bride and groom portrait so now you have family pictures in darkness bride and groom portrait in darkness everything's in darkness on you only have fifteen minutes in darkness that they call you this is what I call the timeline disaster prevention hotline this is what you call and you're like sister I don't know what you were thinking but this is not gonna work you know this is just not gonna work look at this one photographer star's photographer starts at two o'clock okay the first look is a two thirty I'm supposed to forget about the bride, the groom, the bridesmaids, the groomsmen, the families all this stuff in the room so I have five minutes for the bride five minutes for the groom then I have to drive tow then we have to meet for that for where they're going to see jim but then you walk in the room when you open your bank it's already been five minutes timeline disaster prevention hotline read your timeline I read it this is not gonna work I call the coordinator and I say we need to move this toe eleven a m then I have time to shoot the bride and groom properly because they don't understand that five minutes it's not cool because you're dealing with this kind of scenario it's like half on everybody yeah okay for talking for half onion five minutes here's the bride on the makeup artists not even finished with her yet. Okay before I forget I know I know I have a lot of stuff to go through and I have they're here I want to make sure that I get through all this but before I forget this uh this is the first time I do this susan I'm doing I'm doing for for a week I'm doing for wedding evolution and posting evolution have you guys heard of that before? Wedding evolution is a four hour video off me shooting a wedding and I actually show you what I did on what elements I looked for how I did it why did why sure here why shot there. Why did not shoot here all the challenges in lighting and everything is covered from the very beginning of the wedding till the very end of the reception and it's four hours and it's usually actually doing for one forty nine I usually a creative lives and the way for ninety nine dollars before for a week open toe thursday at noon I'm going to the way for fifty bucks for the entire wedding evolution on posting evolution so if you get posing evolution or winning evolution they'll be fifty dollars and you can get a picture perfect practice dot com which is the beginning of the title of my book so if you just type picture perfect practice dot com abel this will show up and you can go in there and take advantage of that fifty dollar deal for for a week these are three key points that I keep in mind that I wish I would've known three years ten years ago whenever I'm shooting and I'm nervous about the shot so I'm nervous about the wedding I just remember keep it simple everytime I should teach a workshop photographers come to me there like I'm so nervous on my wedding next week when I'm going to do we have this we have that I'm like girlfriend just keep it simple don't try to do things you're not ready to do just keep it simple and that's what I always remember just keep it simple you know keep it within my style keep it simple goodpasture instead of becoming up you want to become a posting master policy you freak out and you forget everything you know about posing then just do one thing keep the posture right as long as you have that you're you have a good structure but if you have this, you have a bad structure. You may not be opposing master, but if you can at least keep the posture right you're ninety years seventy percent there. Okay. Whether she's sitting or standing can I borrow you for a second? This is terra, everybody. He was very, very friendly. And let me, you know, spending her condition so bad posture just can you imagine? Just hang out and this is like your nervous and this which you will now watch this quiet and strain your back, arch to the bottom of your back. Put put one arm higher than the other put one like across the other and breathing look at that it's like becomes becomes like a statue, right, it's like a sculpture. Now, now bring your chin this way and look, look at her. Look at her over there with her eyes bam! Some accents. Now print your your fingers very carefully up to your lips and just gonna point at him on a pound or just going to put him down and kind of caressed and just just posture. Just do it nice and clean. You don't have to freak out, just posture, so go back to flat again now bring it over that's it posture is that complicated? It's just against the wall pasture again let's go to that wall over there just too bad you're photographing a lot of photographers shoot in front of the wall you're like okay there's the wall and you're shooting her take a look at that just stand on equal footing how does that look you mean seriously and this happens because people get nervous how would you fix this? Put your shoulders back and arch your back morgan's long archer back because you bring sexy back right brings the race that chest the chest cajun yep that's when you ask the bride to breathe in okay, now you also shift her body weight to one foot and you cross her leg, right? But which lake? The leg that that's close to the camera needs to be curved so if I'm shooting for from here that's the leg that should be curved if I'm shooting her from here that's the leg that should be curved. Okay, so just one basic stuff. All right, um I remember this light is more important in the beauty of the location oh my gosh. Everyone wants the fountain in the park and the lake and whatever prioritize light I used to shoot these eighty eight weddings in my first year I shot him in this in this room that had was dark was crappy but it was a cool room so I just kept photographing there and I never took the time to realize I need to think lighting instead of location I'm a lighting person I'm supposed to be a photographer like lighting is my tool so you can't just be like I can be drawn by the beauty of the room if you can incorporate it fantastic but don't let that be your priority lighting should be your priority okay um so let me propose to you something that might help you quite a bit this is what I tell wedding coordinators and brice if you're going to give me a timeline, let me give you to anchor points the first anchor point this let's pretend the time then it's a five for our purposes okay, that means let's pretend that the bread and groom will be seeing each other before the wedding and they will because when I showed him the graphic studio albums that they've been seeing each other and nothing each other is quite drastic and I do that on purpose I wanted to see each other before the wedding, so I persuade him that way. So if the ceremony's at five o'clock this is the way it looks like for a groomsman for I show up five hours before to photograph the groom, so that means twelve o'clock I'm at the groom's room that's the timeline twelve, twelve thirty max okay, I'm gonna do the sets groom getting ready groomsmen portrait's groom with family and groom alone portrait once like a past does I always look for these elements all grown men should be ready so when I show up at twelve o'clock the groom's you should all be fully tuxedoed okay none of this like boxer stuff because you don't have a lot of time they're going to see each other before the wedding you want at least an hour and a half to two hours before so all girls should be ready grossman the groom has to be put on his jacket cobbling shoes and all of that on camera so you tell him put on your pants put on your undershirt but don't put on your jacket is calling for your watch or anything I'll take care of that in the camera father and mother of the groom should be presents that you can create emotional photos and make them cry which means more layouts to sell no one's gonna take mom out of the life out of the album okay, so this in members who want to be there you need to say well, you know these pictures are really important and they are and I'll treasure them you know in years to come so I do push for the mountain be there I mean the father or the mother this is a difficult request but I do request it choose a hotel room to get ready where the windows facing is facing the sun so if the sun is here and you have four choices for hotel room off hotel walls choose the one that the sun is going to be coming through and they're like what the hell so you they call the hotel in your room that the sun is heading the main window and that has been amazing for me because now we're not fighting with a ship with a shadow side of of the hotel I'm shooting with entire sun told me to play with okay on keep clutter away from window area so whenever I see the main window with some coming in the first thing I do is clear out that entire area and this will be clean of stuff so that's it here some of the stuff so clean photo right there just simple just some examples the parents getting involved the groomsmen ready and ready to go the groom is the only one with the tuxedo jacket so you can differentiate him from the other ones here you have the groom putting on his bowtie and so forth and you can see the groomsmen framing him and his dad doing it so it's all strategic these guys are framing the moment when him and the dad adjusting his type that's much more powerful than just a guy adjusting his tie when you framed I mean becomes a fuller picture and then, of course, they had trouble with the both ice, and this is what happened. I just took this picture for fun, they had to pull out the ipad and they had to try to figure it out because nobody could figure it out. So I didn't give him the special because of the distortion. Obviously it was just more for fun because when the brag when the coordinator gives you twenty minutes to shoot the groom on this happens, it's going to be twenty minutes just to figure out how to put on the bow tie. So I mean, look at this one here this is the picture I gave them it's like super clean fun. Here's another one. This is a week ago, same thing that the groom is right here. We're going to figure it out so that guy pulls out the ipad. I mean, the iphone he stitches showing him on the best man and all that is in the in the reflections that is a cool picture that is to me what wedding photography is all about is when you can create multi layered photos on the spot quickly on how do I get this lighting and all of this? By requesting a son facing window by being there a twelve see how they're still smiling because they're not all stressed out had I done the two o'clock time and that the coordinator gave me everybody would be screaming, trying to get out of the room. This all matters. Here is the groomsmen photos just for fun he sitting, standing, here's one where I differentiate him by putting him the brightest and he's the only one in focus. Really okay with bright braddock getting ready one o'clock. So at twelve toe one on with the groom from one to two thirty I'm with a bright and this is what I do with a bride bride getting ready, bridesmaid, individual and together with bright fortress. So if you're the price, may I put you with the bride? And I photographed the bride with a bridesmaid every time the way I hate doing it? Absolutely, but you just take it in five minutes and you're done okay? The father of the bride first view sort of things is it's a segment? Not a lot of photographers take get a father to show up. Planet is like the first view of the bride, but with a father because he's going to sail layouts on dh even if you don't do it for the financial reasons is going to be beautiful, and to me, I'm a softie. I love the beauty of that moment and yes, I do like the extra cash when they find my layouts it's beautiful that's more beautiful in the moment, okay, just getting, um, bride alone and when you do bride alone, I'm talking, sitting, standing and laying down, sitting, sit down post, sit down to all your settings that would stand up to it all over with window. And then I lay her down on the bed and I do another segment. When you have those three combinations, you have a beautiful layout, okay, sometimes price don't wanna lay down, so wait, don't do it here, some elements to look out for, um, same thing the bride and the bridesmaids hair makeup should be done when I show up if I show up at one should be done if the makeup artist still doing the hair and the makeup no you need to be is to be done in five minutes because you they're going to take up all your time, you know, limited time anyone in the room with the bride should be fully dressed and ready the mom cannot be with yesterday still made a stain on the shirt she could not be wearing her pajamas because then she's helping her daughter with her veil and she's looking like you just woke up and they'll hit your photos and they don't want any of them in the album on you lose sales and you lose everything so you tell the mom I know it's early for you to get ready but you want to look your best brashly wearing a simple and cute white dress for pj photo so before the bride puts on her wedding dress I ask her to go to like a department store whatever and get a cute white dress something that she just looks cute ng without patterns and stuff so I can do for the journalistic photos and then when she's picking up her dress is so cute she's not wearing like boxes from the university of oklahoma or something like that it's weird you know uh window should be facing the sun on mother of the bride and father of the bride should be in the room completely ready by the time I show up I hear some examples of her getting ready you see her white dress that's not by accident that's because I'm telling them at the meeting you want to do this you went to go buy yourself a cute little dress I should all these porches a two point oh aperture it was more romantic that way every time to point out if I'm if I want to frame the bride with bright mates two point. Oh, but if bryce mates are part of the portrait four point oh, okay, this one, I'm only I'm only concerned with the bride. So my aperture is two point. Oh, every single time, the bread and the money together, I only care about the mom. Two point. Oh, I mean the bride. Two point. Oh, aperture, the way looks, the doors frame her. The mom is delicately putting her veil their armies, not covering her face. Is that by accident? No, they're always going like this. And you're shooting them from here. And you see this arm it's, one of those things I wish I would have known. When you tell the mother to help her with the veil, they always cover their face. So now you go like that. Now do it so you lower their elbow there you take some artistic shots with reflections. And so for just to give a variety here. The photos with the bride on her bridesmaids. Just quick. Look at the lighting on the photographs. Just clean and simple. Simple picture. I'm actually showing you this all these photos were straight out of the camera there's no editing on these this's away this if I was to edit them in photo shop, I would I would to remove my freaking camera strapped for one right? I would do stuff I want to show you what it comes out of the camera right? Look at this one presents and no other balance these girls balanced them she's there they're the ones they're so it'll frames the bride beautifully so when you're telling these girls can I open up my presents? No, you cannot please sit there please sit there, stand here and then you put the bread in the middle and they all frame her some make sense. So that's what you do look at the pictures of the father and the bright they're not just standing I force emotion in it but then I also take a clean picture so you think a normal shot and then you take this people will love you for it, you know this is what he takes had I known this ten years ago, I would have done a lot better in my career and it wouldn't have taken me seven years to realize this stuff. You know to get this one the mon the brad look at the way they're looking look at the usage of the arms this is a precious photo for the bride and if that's not this one definitely is and you pushed for this this is the father of the bride. Seen the bride for the first time and look at his expression. It's beautiful, the mirrors there and that's junk and whatever but that's where it happened, you just take it. And then you have this. Look at that expression. I don't know. I tell people. I wish I knew. Tell the father ten years ago to show up at the bride's room at a specific time so I can calculate this moment so I can photograph it. Okay, since beautiful. Look at this it's. Gorgeous. So you you do it with the father alone. You do it with the mother alone, you do it with both of them. Here's an example of when I say prioritize light where the presidential suite of hotel bel air the brightest rented the most expensive room hotel earlier on, I tell you, we're going to photograph her getting ready inside the closet. Oh, my gosh. Why? Because the light is coming from the window and it's bouncing against white doors and it's creating a perfect studio like a perfect lighting sensitive situation. And the photos came out beautifully because of it. Two seconds after I started, she forgot that she was in the closet, so back to my ten years ago, I wish I would I would stop looking at the location as my main source for photos now I look at the lighting as my main source for photos not the location itself you just like the lighting on sunday night on this this is straight out of the camera and this is what you want to get same thing with this look at the way they're hugging and the emotion okay bridesmaids together one cool thing ten years ago I used to photograph them they all line up with their arms at ninety degree angles like robots now I don't let them everybody's doing something different okay so here's the mom and her father are photos the brides in the veil so all kinds of fun stuff can I borrow you for a second there? I want to get through this quickly because I think it's so important and if people are watching online this is going to be big for them when you have a beautiful bride or whatever divide the upper body the chin and the eyes in three different segments okay if this if each if any segment that I just mentioned is facing the camera it will strengthen it. If any segment is facing away from the camera it will weaken it or make it more sneaky or more romantic or more like there's a secret so makes sense is that you will add a sense of mystery which is goingto addison's off not weakness but it will weaken the strength of the post or something more glamorous explain if you guys are the photographer and you're looking at her completely her color bones her collar bones are facing you her nose is facing you mean her chin is facing you and her eyes are facing you so I'm standing there where you are and I'm photographing her so if I'm standing photographing you're here let me grab grab this for a second let's say when you stand right there I want a strong image full strength I grab I bent her elbows a little bit so they have a little more glamour to them but our hands have to be doing something so I tell her to pick up her dress just a tiny bit just give it a pinch but she has to pinch her with her middle finger on her thumb not like this here grab the whole thing not like that's what happens ten years ago I used to be like, can you hold the dress and that's? What happened now it's like, can you gently hold the pinch that dress and bend your elbow just a little bit? You know? So it's not straight okay then I'm facing her this way I'm her collar bones her chin in her ire face me one hundred percent is a very strong image didn't think they're real quick well whatever the screen this is a pretty strong images just in your face now watch this then your body for abi to justin engineer now breathing fitschen towards me and the ice and everything towards me now breathing okay uh I'm not tethered but the first picture which is not breathing in she looks more like casual and chilled but the one when she's breathing in has more often massaged with that hot sauce and I talked about it's including when you puff up your chest now watch this I'm gonna tell her to turn your color bones in that direction now turn your chin and now let's have you change phase me on your ice faze me now I weakened her body to the camera but but I kept the chin and the ice strong some accents now much bring your chain keep the collar bones there bring the change this way I'll bring the ice back to me now I weakened the body the chin and the eyes are strong only the eyes are strong so I think a picture like this it looks sneaky there's a secret I like you but I don't want to tell you there's a little bit of that roman's going on now turn your collarbones this way your chin this way and your eyes away from me this way and that has a totally different feel and if the windows right here you're gonna have a knockout picture so you decide you want fully strong for us to show the beauty of the bride in her full glory? Or do you want to show some sneaky photos for the groom to kind of go through and enjoy too? So if she's looking this way and afterwards I'll show you the photos and you'll see how the energy really changes. The next thing is about the arms and the hands how many of you have problems about what do I do with the arms? And what do we do with the hands it's, like the worst problem in the world so very simple can get into it too much but I want you to think of the arms as half a frame see the frame imagined you put. This is like you see that if you do this this and this and this and create a frame a full frame so if you want to frame her face this issue as a face as beautiful as she does as a photographer, you should say I need to bring attention to her face how do you bring attention? You use a frame, a frame brings your attention to her right? What part do you want? Emphasize her face her her up, her body, her legs, her chest what do you want to emphasize let's, see her face, grab her hands on dh she can create a frame around her face go ahead and just wasn't like t he create a frame around her face now the fingers are going to tell the viewer where you went that exact attention to go because the fingers are like pointing devices you can point a people which this was your game right? Right if I go like this would you look at my shit? Would you look about where I'm pointing? What if I go like this but you look so why not on a bribe if I bright house listen she's got lives beautiful lips like that you put her fingers gently pointing in the direction of her lips the frame is still going on in her face but her lips are being pointed at by the fingers and he looked freaking awesome you're telling the viewer I'm framing the face so you gonna narrow your vision to me throw my face on then I want to use my fingers to just gently guide your vision toe laser precision on the lips that makes any sense let's say she's got a super cute she obviously stomach right like body you can grab her fingers and you can you can celebrate it framing with one hand so you frame it thiss elbows were frames the body on the fingers could just be gently caressing hurt her her body I'm now the attention goes from here to more here remember, the face will always win, so if you friend a phase, you're double double double betting on the face you're basically you're using double whammy on the face, but if you use if you frame the body, you're balancing the power of the face with the body, okay? And if she was laying down and she uses her arms and they're just like slapped across her body, you're not framing anything but it's just laying down on a couch on her arms are like this. They're framing her face again on where the fingers end up is where the viewer's attention will end up. So, um, you can create some pretty often guard looks something super strong, like grab your finger fingers and just points right to your eyes. I just look and just do a type crop with really cool lighting miss business, maybe more for a fashion shoot already for a bribe, but you can do it for a bright too if you really want to go in that direction. But remember, the arms could be used us frame so wherever this elbow it, whatever the elbows are pointing is what you're framing simple enough right on wherever the finger point the fingers are pointing to will guide the viewer's attention to that area key thing to remember the finger should always be curved the way you make a fist and then you let it go that's how you should curved fingers not like this or anything were you make a fist make it strong then release the tension on that curvature with that spacing in that gap should be what you're used to point any questions on that okay we're going to um final thoughts for bird final thoughts thank you thank you I thought this is a now and I have segment obviously I can't get through everything but I wanted to give you the main points about the timeline on about the segments about what to tell bryce about showing them samples about challenges not just samples with weddings taking a stance when people ask you about the discounts negotiate with them otherwise you look like a jerk but don't cheapen yourself uh when it comes to hands and arms I have seen I have all these workshops have been teaching I asked students what are you doing with her hands like they're pointing their framing the wrong part of the body like you gotta think the arms are nothing but a framing device and the fingers are pointing icing people frame posing with the fingers like this on the bride you're turning your fingers are to the crotch like doesn't work unless you want to go in that direction, you know um I'm I'm writing a book on post in right now called picture perfect posing and I wrote the forty page chapter on the hands and arms but in this I just wanted to give you an idea off the power off how the hands khun frame different parts of the body especially because when a bride on a bridesmaid or a bride and a groom are stunning together or a fashion shoot even usually the bride and the bridesmaids locked their arms in front of the camera and they create a barrier from the camera to you it splits the body between the upper body on dh whatever's below the arms you need to lower that toe frame the area but don't block it you see what I'm saying when they hold each other like this happens every time um this about what I wish you would've known ten years ago and there's one thing I do know and I still know when any all along I am very proud to be a wedding photographer uh my dad died three weeks before my wedding so I'm very cautious about photographing parents on photographing krampus and grandma's on photographing family when my wife's an engineer so when they always say me oh my gosh, your weapon engineer how amazing what do you do? Oh, I'm a wedding photographer there was do down on me it's like oh what happened to you was your marriage like a charity case or something like was it like what's that tv show where they do it like a major remodel in the house like it was that like a chauffeur you to like him I'm very proud to be a photographer and I'm very proud to be a wedding photographer specialist I feel like with experiences that I've had with my bride's experiencing all kinds of problems in their marriage like diseases and stuff like that I remember that I created an heirloom for them and I took it seriously and I respect the art of wedding photography photography at a wedding is seriously an art form you need to be a specialist unit to be scaled you need to be able to foresee you need to be able to foresee things for c issues understand relationships and capturing them it's not easy at all you have to wear like fifty hats in one wedding toby able to capture a full wedding properly so important I'm mom I'm watching the people watching online and it tell him you know if you decide to do this the way to wait right though I don't think that take the time to practice your skill lots of photographers want to learn but they never do anything about it they just left their camera on their backs and then they take it out when it's a paid job if you want to learn do something about it if you want to be skilled, do something about it, get up and do something about it you know don't just wish you were good become good, you know I was terrible but that's when I started let me take some questions from the audience on dh actually roberta, we don't really have time for questions, okay? I have one question and this from jules gray and I'm going to rephrase it, jule says roberto how is it that you're so awesome and I learned so much in only five minutes of watching only went five minutes not maybe they just tuned in I'm not sure I did re phrase that a little bit, so I thought that was funny so roberto, I do have a question let's talk about the bonus materials that are included with this course I know you had a pdf that you were going to include and can you just talk a little bit about that for just a second? If you buy this course, you're gonna get a pdf with a chart with all the combinations that you can create with with what I did with a torch the color bones, the chin and the eye direction so what the pdf will include will include a chart off all of those combinations on what the result will be now there's not that many combinations so it's easier to memorize them and it's just kind of know what you want. So next time you're posting someone, you can be like, okay, she's, totally directly facing me. That's, a super strong photo, that's, triple strength. But I can weaken her body by turning it to the side, and then make her eyes and change strong as a whole different. Look on, if I want that sneaky, flirtatious look turned her chin this way, her collarbone seas were hurting this when her eyes this way looks like a, you know, I mean, so. This is just a very small example of something you should have in your head when you're posting someone. This worship men and women, not just with women.