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Shoot: Wedding Party

Lesson 8 from: Wedding Photography Problems and Solutions

Roberto Valenzuela

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Lesson Info

8. Shoot: Wedding Party

Lesson Info

Shoot: Wedding Party

I had over forty to fifty questions problems um about the wedding party how to photograph a wedding party everything from how do you get them to interact how do you get them when they're not cooperating how do you photograph the bride and one of the bridesmaids or all of them together so they look their best so this course should have been called a thousand and one problems on their solution because we've gone through a lot more than one hundred through the teaching part of this I have good news for you and good news for you guys watching online post post in the wedding party and making it look really natural it's exactly the same as making one person look natural doesn't change anything at all so when people get worried about the wedding party I think it's no big deal you know you have to have a sense ofthe composition on a sense of balance that's the only thing that really well you have to have the two for just a single person but when you have multiple people you really want to plac...

e him in the right place so it looks harmonious so whatever you want to call it so he looks beautiful um we have three new people coming to help us out and we want to thank them for their time kika kimberly on dh sierra and sierra so thank you for them and of course we have alana parana right. Continuing to help us out. Um, let's. Go ahead and get started. I have very little time toe wrap this up. So let's, get going. I'm gonna first switch my lands here to my fifty. What would actually work well for this? No, no, my eighty five. Okay, eighty five and that's. Not the other. Is it? Okay, dokey. Beautiful. Before we start, people are people. They all have two legs. They'll have arms, they'll have wastes their faces. So and they all get embarrassed if you have a look at the face. Very close up some accents. Um, would you sierra? Would you? Look, would you get closer to kimberly, like, ten times closer? Would you just stare in? Her eyes were quick, awkward, awkward, very awkward, very awkward. No matter what you do, once you invade somebody's personal space it's over, you're going to get him to laugh. So it's actually quite simple. When people ask me, how do you get him to react? Just embarrass them a little bit. It's a wedding? They're all having fun anyway. Okay, then we go ahead and start by going through bright made andi andi the bride by herself so we do a portrait of each there isn't one we do that it's, because we want to make sure that we wantto keep adding pages to our wedding albums, okay, you want to keep fighting pages of the wedding if you only photograph the bride with her bridesmaids and you think one cool shot of that, you're going to sell one lay out, but if you also take individual portrait of each, it takes space right there. You have to put him somewhere, so you're adding layers to it. Okay, now, if we look around the room and we think about where would be a good place to photograph them, I will say that those pictures right there, those little artwork, they have a reflective glass on the reflective glass can be very distracting in the background, so we probably don't want to do that, but you could do something kind of creative butt out the way later, so for now we're going to move these chairs. I don't know see joy that could you help me with this? We're gonna move these chairs out of the way. It is. Move on over there. No shame in moving furniture, that's what we do now, I'm going to put the bride. I'm gonna put the bride here actually closer to that, so hold on a second. I wanted to be close to the light, but I'm not going to put her up against the light, right? I'm not gonna put her in front of the window because it's too broad it's gonna brought in her face a little too much but there is a plant in the background that's goingto mess me up. We do not want that little plant there. So when we talk about solutions to problems, take a look before you post people and see if you find anything distracting remove it. Don't worry about it. I put this here. Okay, stand right here for me. Stand right here for me. Yeah, whoever they are, let me see something so we still have our distracting while they're very nice. Someone removed this a little bit here. All right, let's see what we got when we look at the light. So remember the beginning ofthe this segment we talked about the how the light falls off rather quickly it's falling off on the bride very quickly here, she's looking good she's looking darker because so I'm going to grab this light source I'm goingto turning you towards the light just a tad more right there good enough now just quite a lot better, okay let's put them together first, like robots, don't worry about it, just robots don't even legs straight. Face me. This is like the foundation off the worst possible posts in the world. Ok, now, let's, start to fix it little by little. We don't have to worry about being posting masters. We just have to worry about those twenty one points we talked about. So start with this. Shift your body weights toe one leg. The glad closest to the camera. So let's, bring that leg. Cross it over. Bring your opposite like and cross it over. So you create a frame. You see what I mean? Now we have a v and that we have two lines going this way. Okay, go ahead and get closer together. Put one aren't put your armour on turn now you have creepy fingers and you don't see the origin of that. This is good. This is good. Because this is how we do it. Now you have creepy fingers coming out. You don't know what those fingers come from. They come from somewhere so you have no idea from where dropped the fingers. Put your hand around her waist. Put your chicks together, separate your cheek, separate your face and angle at the opposite up the other way because that's a higher shoulder. Grab your fate some grab your face you don't grab your face let me see your face and let me see that looks quite nice move your whole upper body not sure not your whole body just moved it an inch forward that's it bring your men forward that creepy hand bring it back so you don't see it but it over her back and down so it's out of the way okay and let's start alright let's see no distracting backgrounds get your cheeks together good I'm gonna ask you for a big favor let's see cheeks together closer closer klaus okay again beautiful strain your back helena give me bend the elbow just a ten good down a little bit too much arm down dear on dh good take a look at my friends here in the eyeball real quick look at her eyeball locate her eyeball looking me quickly look at her eyeball good cake closer to get a rival keep looking at that eyeball keep looking at that eyeball okay stop right there okay let's look at some of the photos real quick um take a look at the interaction between the bra between the bride and her bridesmaids it's let's start out let's start out with a boring post quickly go ahead and stand next to each other no expression no what nobody cares nothing okay we start out with that so picture number five to three five you can if you have quite a boring picture nothing shows up right now I started out taking a clean clean shot right off them so let's take a look at photo number five to three to five to three two you see how the progression gets better and better and better write look at five through wind up right sees that photo twenty years from now is going to bring a big smile to her face but when you see the one that's robotic it will just be a fort of what they look like when you do it this way it creates a relationship you see what I'm saying so let's take a look at that beautiful look at that combination of the two photos right there one is just a picture of what they look like I want built a relationship okay so that's what you would do for each one you would see how their collarbones are towards each other creating a v so do that again you're quick creates a v right now let's add more bright mr this so let's go over and stand here like in front of this on ladies please join the other beautiful ladies now we have two purple dresses so we need to have color balance in the photograph so we're not going to put them together so we're gonna put you over here and we're gonna move this so you don't have to do that now for those of you that asked me about the problem of how do you deal with difficult wedding parties people who don't want to cooperate if you tell people to smile and they don't want to cooperate they wants my right but if you tell him to look at their teeth they will react okay, so you're like why why did I come so let me go ahead and grab my fifty millimeter lens here and it's not theirs right over here drifting millimeter okay let's stand let's start with robotic post everybody stand robotic this is born ing you guys are not cooperating you're not doing anything terrible there's a there's a bed in front of us that middle line of the bed must be in the center ofthe off too. These are the details that makes a picture go from good to great if I'm judging a wedding photograph a wedding competition and I see that thing coming out of somebody's head and it's not in the middle it's a huge oversight. Okay, so move it, ladies. Move this way good. Go ahead and take a seat. So keep your spinal cord's nice and straight relax your bodies. Bring uh go ahead and take a seat on that if you can find yours there thinking they're so squeezed a lot tighter than squeezed a lot tighter to each other there you go there you go can you sit on that sucker actually jump up and sit uh natural sitting what did I say about creating a pattern and we have to break the pattern right so in wedding party see if everyone was doing the same thing boring so let's have the bride stand let's have you stand cross your legs give her a big hug from behind yeah they say now we have mirroring arms can you get me the arms in there look this arm is doing the exact same thing as there's arm we talked about that in the twenty one point see how simple this is so all you have to do is move this out hug her and then put this higher up bring this right over here bring this down over here bring this over here bring your elbow down so we don't get the elbow when we should that picture that little invisible planes and hit the elbow bring the elbow down come over here stand up I'm sorry turn around turn around face that way a good leader but you're back against her bring your head towards her come this way on dh let me see that looks quite beautiful now we have you your collarbones are facing that way yourself facing this way so we have a backwards v regular v that means you are going to go forward towards her okay, there's people online probably thinking why did I do that? Because we have this kind of be with them. The first two, then with the bride and her bridesmaids it's an open v the open parties facing the camera if I would have her do the same thing she's doing it looks too posi. Now you see a pattern, it goes vey close we open, be close to be we don't want to do that. So we're gonna have close to be open. Be open, vee okay, this is how you get that sentiment off naturalness in the photograph. Okay, go ahead and give her a hug. But when you give her a hug, cross that leg overto cross your leg over more so I can see more of your beautiful side. I didn't mean that in a weird way. I just totally said that. Bring us. Bring your some junior. There you go, tepito. You see, when the tepito happened, the shot that the five shows up a lot better going down to tepito. It flattened the leg and he took away her waistline. Make sense, you know, drop your body weight on your back foot. Give her the big so you've ever given her that's the biggest hunk you've ever given her that means you've never hugged you all right now you can all stand there and this is a problem here can anybody tell me what's happening can you tell me what's happening with her here remember twenty one points everything has to the way the twenty one points her has not doing anything so let's fix that um can you try let me try something grab your dress and give it a little lift on the other side the other side that one and it can just just keep it clean soft in your fingers like that there you go okay that looks good now put that hand in the back of her back the other hand keep that hand rested on the bed till that hand is doing something now this put this hand behind here and they say we can get you see bring you guys are way too far away from each other much tighter bring this over here right there soft in your fingers separate your elbow so you you don't squeeze your arm into your body beautiful there's some cable and you can do anything about that you see a stranger spinal chord when you change this way all right beautiful good good all right chin down got ladies chin down okay and when I think the first shot real quickly here one two three very nice okay and sometimes if you look at them kind of just kind of very creeping quite so that you get a reaction okay, now when I tell you when to three I want you to look at her look at her nose look at her nose and you look at her nose okay? Just her nose then and when you look at her all the way over here take a look at her eyes are sorry no her eyes her eyebrow okay her eyebrows so you're gonna do this first turned to her look at her nose try that then after you do that that's where the awkward right then you're gonna turn around and look and look you're gonna look at her eyebrow okay when she looks at her eyebrow you look back on her eyeballs okay? So can we do that? Okay well as you do that all of you have to breathe in okay? Why don't we go go, go, go, go go okay, very good straight again seriousness closer closer now do it take a look at her that they think you look at the other one good, good, good perfect for a fake look at me real quick onda again went to three fam wait a second. Okay, let's, take a look at this picture number five two for one real quick five two for one let's try something a little now, actually let's go to the room and get get the groom's this an example of just creating a little bit more energy there isn't what I said to look at the ice and stuff because it makes it awkward if you tell him to look at their eyes it's normal if you said to look at the eyebrow it's a more it's a more awkward request if you tell him to look at the hair's the peach fuss over there over there lip it's really weird okay, you can keep choosing things that people are so self conscious about I nailed them there don't forget these are weddings people are young and they're having fun and they're drinking anyway so don't worry about it um let's see ladies, can we call to the other rumor quick this pretend uh we have a girl and you be the groom for a second. Come ride over here. You're the winner. Okay? Can I have far? Somebody kind of close this window for me. Maybe one of you ladies. Yeah, thank you. Just open that's just opened like that for now. All right, guys really quickly we'll do this more tomorrow, but if you're doing groom shots it's okay to do this plate lighting in their face coming sense it's ok to do it you're not listening to me that it's okay, she'll do you our number so it's okay to explain that in the face go ahead and go back a little and rest your shoulders on that guy right there just really relaxed let me see something real quick we have an awful lot right there let's bring your arm and rested on this chair and separate yourself from that better I mean we'll get a little more this way now do it seen all right let's move a little this way a little more right that good um let me see actually make move this chair out and you even move you out of there okay there is no way I'm putting this chair closest to the light source is because I want to get that light fall off to happen faster so that's why this is happening here all right go ahead and take a seat on the edge of the chair not all the way to the back just in the edge. All right. Very nice. Um can I get my eighty five millimeter lenses that big fat one it's I think it's left it by the bed all right, go ahead and bring your body forward towards me and bring one leg and switch it so its one leg it's further back than the other there you go like that exactly like that? Well that does not go anywhere no it's all right it's all right, I'm going to go eighty five millimeter toe basically reduce all of the distractions in the background okay, go ahead and drop the curtain now the light's, a little more a little more concentrated on his face, were gonna drop this one. We do anymore in that. Now we're gonna do this one. And now we're went just a little crease off light hitting him. So right now we're going to do just like that. So his eyes are still bright by the light closer right then and he looks has more of a godfather. Mysterious look, we have light fall upon the cheek really clearly the light's falling off completely. And we have great light over here. Go ahead and put your arm your body weight on one side of your body, like rested on that side. So you feel comfortable, they embody for what? A little bit. When you change them, let me see. Good. Bring your chin down this way. Here you go. Let me see here with your hands. Go ahead and close your jacket. We'll keep the same position and as you do that I'm gonna take a picture where you do that. So when I tell you, when I tell you, go ahead and close it lets you tray with one hand. Try the one with one hand, only one hand. I know that that's the que es a cool way many when you do that is like when you snapped up never mind keep your buying you get me giving advice train until tilt I want you to look at this little what do you call these things? French. I want you to think of these fringes as the funniest fringes you've ever seen as your closure jacket. So open up your jacket let me see body towards the light towards me bring your body for where they don't want it's seeing strain your body just a tad there the way and now we see missy try both arms turn down on for inches at what is called okay smile at that beautiful french. You like the french? Very nice french. Take a train down. Keep looking at that french. Mmm mmm mmm mmm nice frenchman going and lean your body towards the french. You want to get a little closer to that french good, then your head towards the french again. Good body. More towards the french button. Your jacket with both hands. Uh, now look at julius lips. Mmm mmm. Good. Chin down. Give julius lives a little look again for the look actually it's like, oh, my god, good. Keep looking at them lips e c very nice after you look at her lives really awkwardly look at her eyes ready look at her legs were the awkwardly now look at her I straighten her eyes very nice and I seen a look at the camera chin down look at the camera just with your eyes but with both hands right there chin down both hands again good look there you go beautiful go ahead and get straight all the way straight no no no tilt of direction till your body towards me you're totally straight totally straight had straight everything it's tilting that way straight outta here you go bring your body towards me all the way with your arms over your niece like that both equally very nice and they could look at the camera quick went to three look to your left out the window and you see at the tree there take a look at that tree bring your chin down look at the tree nice tree keep looking at that chin down sit down and that grabs the lapel of your jackie and adjusting this I yep yeah now keep doing that chin down keep adjusting keep adjusting keep adjusting keep looking at that tree chin down very nice okay go ahead and stand up for me let me stand right there I'm right here I'm just gonna do a spill of flight come this way forward a little more right there now look at the camera when you see good I just your cufflinks have you had any keep looking outside as you do it strain your head strain it now look outside keep it just in your cufflinks just a nice couplings very nice keep doing that when two three good on one more time and then I'm done one, two three very nice very nice thank you go ahead and let's do something here we have three guys right for I don't have any girls for very nice all right ladies can I have the monsieur let me put you here but you're right there in the middle and go in and take a seat on go ahead and bring your niece this direction and then your body in that direction uh let's make thank you the groom again come over here and sit down next to her let's put you right there on bring your niece towards me or cross your legs well, you can sit right there let's see? Can I have your right there? No. Can I have you right there since his knees are facing this way you want yours all the way that way all the way keep going, keep going there you go and then see come this way a little bit and you go lean against him a little bit keep your spinal cord straight, bring the foot down, cross this leg over can you like not like a little more all the way through let's see can I have you over here and drop your body weight and lean against that and they bring your body this way I'll have you stand right over there very nicely I'll have you stand over here and you can stand over here on this thing lean against this with your hands right there lean against that guy listen over this a little bit and you can put your hands just relax like that exactly. All right, let me see you guys are so serious why are you so serious you john payne will get the champaign after the segment trust me so we're good we're good you don't have to worry about none you're insane if you take a look at the positions off off where they're at there's a few good things and a few problems you definitely want to have the distance between those two guys toby similar between these two guys so they're actually a little bit further away on dh so when I put you a little farther from her there you go right there I want each and one of you to look as comfortable as possible so keep dropping your body away so you feel relaxed it should be no tension in your body at all keep every spinal cord nice and straight so that's totally straight beautiful um you look uncomfortable are you so bring your body forward and put your niece acquit your arms over your over your upper thighs could open your legs more so it's more like yeah like that like what's up little more I just go like this man kind of like this you want to grab your chair and you want to when I bring one foot in a different position in the other so they're not mirroring each other I'm just gonna go like that that's it relaxed let me try something put your left arm does he reaching over that armrest it's the natural way since when with your arm on him rest on him could lean your bag against him put your hand right there that's actually especially fine that's good keep your arm ripped up you put your hand over her right over here get a little bender yeah that's actually quite nice in your body towards me a little bit very nice stuff right there on dh you can just look at the camera like you don't care. You're like a honey badger okay, you are the honey badger of the group. Yeah, let me see this real quick so everyone is doing something a little bit different it's everyone looking pretty relaxed bring your left hand and put it around her good all right, let me do something with you bring your shoulder you had dropped your shoulder of it a bit bring your face towards me just her face bring your chin this way I'll bring your eyes back towards me very nice you're looking sexier and sex here man you're rocking it right now you my friend to rolling rolling let me try this request way see window here all right no smiles right you're very mad men style just don't worry about nothing I'm goingto move this out of the way no smiles and one two three and that was really cool because that light is illuminating you guys beautifully and one more time no smiles bring your chin what's your name my friend there you go when you change this way tilt your head ever so slightly towards him that's it right there right there okay one two three let's see no smiles keep it straight when was this all right guys looking very nice so when I think this picture I want people are looking at this online I want you to remember one thing nobody here everybody he's there doing something slightly different and that's what we want okay that next was a little more candid so I need a little more energy from you you're tired you went the champaign or whatever tequila shots right so let's do this you my friend what's your name oh that's sexy right there and I say what is it again that man just keep making my iphone recording for my ring tone then it's all right let me see that is um you're going to be the honey badger off the group you're the one that doesn't care see what I'm saying you're like a sexy cool I don't care you are going you're going to look back at your husband okay you are not going to look at her you actually you're going to look at his right knee but you're going to look at her eyebrow like that you're going to keep looking at that knee okay, relax it looks very contrived like relax everything keep looking at that knee uh this is all uh uh uh name again alana this is not gonna happen in one second don't do it yet. Okay so when I tell you go straight to the knee okay? You're the honey badger of the group you don't care about nothing, okay? Just a tequila shots afterwards you are gonna look uh her so you're gonna go when I say one one two three look at her okay, you are going teo let me see look at him up quick. No, we're going to make you into another honey badger you do not care about not okay you're gonna stare step stare at the camera you're going to look at her eyebrow you're gonna look at the nih just remember your positions okay and see what's your name because they go ahead and take a seat on that I'm rest and look at sierra no look at him over there what's your name again look it's god yeah you look you're going to look at scott on you you're gonna do not look at nobody you're looking at that door frame over there okay you just stare that doorframe number one s a one two three everybody just jumped into that position and you start laughing hysterically and we do that there's only one hundred fifty thousand people watching you right now so when I say one two three you guys jump into position on you'll laugh at whatever point you're laughing his knee you look at her eyebrow you left at nobody you are laughing at her eyebrow you are going to laugh at that eyebrow all day long okay all day long you're gonna look at nobody you looked straight out that door frame okay alright ready guys I want you to actually laugh out loud it will make you more embarrassed okay so I want to hear some noise don't worry there's on ly people from all over the world watching so please make some noise keep looking at your positions and do not separate your eyes from that position ready juan too got a lot of regular let's see oh my god you guys are an excellent way that was really serious history let's do it for real this time ready want teo go that was beautiful that was beautiful now when you look at her eyebrow put your forehead against her eyebrows and they laugh at her shoulder so when I went to three go you are going to tilt your head towards her like that and you're gonna laugh but that color born right there just stared that bone in just laughed okay you keep staring at his name because it's still funny okay so let's try it really just a quick look at the camera now look at the color bone much better and when I do it laugh really good this's really funny is like the funny bone but in the wrong place okay that shot of the day already make it really strong keep honey by during this honey by joining your looking straight at the camera you are looking straight at the wall you're looking straight at what did I say at him over there ok okay I was ready last year I went to a go oh my gosh, that was super perfect okay, thank you so much. Guys let me give you a high five found found found now why don't we look at the photo outside? There is the one we do this stupid like look at the eyebrow know that because if I tell you to look at each other it's just awkward on we want it to be awkward but we want to be super awkward so eyebrows and teeth unease is a little more fun to play with, because no one's ever asked you to do that.

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Ratings and Reviews

Sean
 

Roberto is a great photographer and a great teacher. Roberto took me a little bit to get used to because rather than just memorizing, Roberto teachers you how to think like a great photographer. Roberto studies the best of the best photographers and painters and he incorporates it in his photography business and his teaching courses. Over and over, I have heard other top photographers referring to Roberto. Cudos to Roberto, for being the go to Pros,' Pro. Roberto is a great teacher and a great photographer that takes beautiful pictures with mastery of beautiful light, posing and composition.

Nadine
 

Roberto is a photography mastermind. I'm very grateful for his CL courses that are available. He shares so much during these courses, I cannot help but making many, many, many notes and I'm sure if I rewatch it, I'll still learn new stuff. This course is not only for the wedding photographer, but the information he shares is applicable for all kinds of photography. If you want to learn how to make use of the gifts of any location (while throwing some very helpful posing advice in the mix), this course is for you. I'd also highly recommend his course "Location, posing, execution", which I saw before buying this one. And besides his very inspiring teaching style, he's also very funny! This course is a joy to watch.

ogonzilla
 

Absolutely amazing. Roberto's background as a classroom teacher (and crazy OCD perfectionist) is a true gift to us, the students. He has analyzed, practiced, and tried/failed his techniques countless times and it shows in this course. I have become so much more aware of an environment's "gifts" after taking this course. I myself was a science teacher (and am also a goofball) so his style of teaching resonates with me. While some workshops are amazing at making us feel inspired and fantastic, these are short lived emotions. Roberto's preaching of get out there and practice is a no-brainer!! Best course to get me started on my wedding photography career! Thank you Roberto!

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