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Shooting the Details

Lesson 21 from: Wedding Photography Problems and Solutions

Roberto Valenzuela

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Lesson Info

21. Shooting the Details

Lesson Info

Shooting the Details

Last segment we're going to go five minutes review of what I was talking about with flashes I'm going to simplify the situation but this time I actually want to focus on so then we don't do a lot is howto make reception details work for us in terms of our business I don't make them how don't light them in a way that makes wedding coordinators jumped off their seats and want to recommend you you know so there's ah lot off emphasis goes in tow are the portrait the portrait off our client's whether they're boudoir photos or whatever but if you're in the wedding industry we don't put hardly any emphasis on the fact that the coordinators put a lot of their time and effort here so if you help them sell their own services and you spend your own time selling what they do for them you're making their life easier and guess what happens when you make somebody's life easier they love you on when they love you they recommend you and they want to work with you more so don't spend don't ignore I'm so...

rry don't ignore the wedding party because this is not an accessory to the wedding this is a crucial part of your business crucial crucial part of your business just like I said on the first day taking beauty shots with the bride just straight on beauty shots for the makeup and hair person that takes care of that you want to be able to give her perfect photos with the bright eyes open closed side angles so you can make her job easier on for wedding coordinators this is where it's at what in reception details plating table settings so to make things very clear and easy I just wanted to say that although this is not a flash course and I never intended it to be I didn't want to speak for a few minutes about some basic flash setups on why I used those for my reception's so in flash setup in where this flash photography I have both flashers on channel one I do use all flashes there are exactly the same so I don't use five eighty excuse I don't combine them with four thirties and I sure as heck do not combine them with six hundreds you can but I find that with flashes and there's so much technology in those things that when you're mixing and matching mixing and matching you're just adding problems that you don't really need so if you can sail what you have on by either all four thirties because there are a lot cheaper or buy all six hundreds on make the deep go for the best you can find the best technology out there it will solve a lot of your problems because ofthe thinking issues with cameras and so forth of the solution to that is just to keep it all the same so on flash, I put the two flashes I put usually just two flashes, and I have one of my camera one flashes on channel one group a, the second flash on channel one groupie, the reason why we have both in channel one is because I want to able to fire both at the same time. Uh, you you could have one flashing channel one one flash and channel to and then when I when I push my shoulder, I'm only going to connect with one of them, whereas your second shooter can fire the other one in the other channel, which is why you would do that. But to keep things simple, I'm photographing in channel one my assistant's photographing in channel one on dh we're shooting away one is in group a oneness in group b one has more power than the other, so when you shoot and then he hits the people, it gives you more of a three dimensional log, a sort of a flat look when the bride and groom are doing their first dance when the father of the bride is dancing with her daughter over the father. I'm sorry the father of the bride is dancing with her daughter with his daughter or when the groom is doesn't with his mother, I zoomed the flash head towards the dance floor to about one hundred and eighty millimeters and others to give me that spotlight look on I know that when that light hits the floor it's going to bounce light into all the people watching around but if I basically don't zoom the flash head the flash is going to hit the dance floor and he's going to live it up all equally on day one of one of the things I said about twenty one posting points imposing evolution is tow try toe have subject emphasis to light so when the bride and groom are dancing doing their first dance even though you have no control over where they're standing you can still control your flash zoom the power of your flash the position of the flash the output of your flash and you can create beautiful photographs at the reception controlling it wirelessly from your camera settings so that's about as far as I want to go with flash on this non flash class okay all right let's talk about some of this some of these setups on we have right now uh somebody came up with who was it who can win it all this britt okay, well we want to thank him too for all of this work he even printed out little menus and little table little table gives and so forth which is pretty cool um so let's see you guys let me ask you something how do you guys go about shooting table settings so you just kind of flat lighted to you backlighted you do you do anything with flash what do you do and also julia can I have my reflect my diffuser please and my reflector as well okay go ahead anybody there's a microphone right there way don't have a lot of time so I don't use flash okay what do you do just use available I tried a backlight is but whatever that night what if it's inside I mean I don't know anybody video light or flash from two sides you do okay let's go ahead and let's go ahead and take some photos of this and see if we can create a beautiful photograph off this looks off this table settings the first we're going to do is photographic flat and they were gonna add some shadows into it there was the one you want shadows typical shadows creates creates texture okay so I have reflected on the ice lights too if you can okay let's start with photographing a little bit of the food here we have some who knows what he says actually uh well photographed this first well we have to do it away it's at some dimension to it so we're just gonna photograph it really clearly on let me show you the wrong way of doing it first then we'll fix it okay so if I grabbed my camera and I just take a picture of it it looks like photo number zero zero for eight which is quite the terrible photograph and you can see that yeah there you go exciting or what? Yeah awesome right so this is probably not going to excite your wedding coordinators one thing you can do is have the main object in focus and then let it go out of focus on then at the end on another element of the table setting so maybe at the beginning of the cake or the beginning of the champaign bottles or something so whatever's going out of focus add an element of interest to that okay, I'm going to go ahead and do that now so let's bring the ice light over quick andi we went directional light on we want shadows remember that so are we gonna do? I don't know if the camera can show this but if you like him this way they look flat if you live on this way they get a lot of texture so it's pretty simple so we're gonna actually keep the light this way to get the shadow going you can really see the difference there mr if you can increase the power of this okay all right I'm also going to make sure that that little ribbon of the cake shows nicely through the background on where it will be out of focus will be out of focus then okay? We're going to move all of this okay, I'm going to bring the light to bring the light closer. I'm gonna turn off my flash when I put this after to my aperture at three point five to get just a little bit of that ribbon in focus there. Ok, see, we can show that picture number zero zero four nine okay, can you, uh can you guys back there show the photo I took before zero zero four, nine and can put the two together. Okay, so you can see this pretty big difference between the two on one looks just a lot nicer than the other. This one looks flat like this. Just there. This one looks like it's got a life on its own and you want to eat them? Okay, this one also shows a little hint of the cake on the ribbon off the cake. This one just goes into oblivion. There's nothing showing in this one. So this is not crazy rocket science. We're just adding texture by adding shadows. And then you're thinking about what's in the background. Okay, let's, do another one they see for the champaign bottles. Let's, do something cool with that let's. Go ahead and add a light to it. Someone in common bring this light thank you when you're shooting reception details tried to get a little creative on the background they appreciate those little hints so take a look at what's in the stable and ask yourself what could be used as a background to the champaign bottles on looking around you have a little cake with powder sugar probably not the best right you can have a cucumber way some sauce probably not the best choice for the background or about a photo of them right so let's grab this we'll put this photo right there we'll bring the champaign bottles right here that's just a few inches away from each other, right yeah, but what I'm doing here is I'm gonna put the champaign the glass is right there on then in the background out of focus you'll see a little hint of the bride and groom doesn't make sense just a little hint of it but we're going to make it cool. We're going to put a flash we're gonna back light so actually you know what you're there could you just could we just take this off? Okay, this is very simple. I'm gonna put this on channel one group a that's it general one group a now I'm going to grab my camera I'm gonna put this on channel one group a but I will not let this flash fire I'm only gonna let a directional light illuminate the the bottle okay, so when I go ahead and go to a master and I'm gonna turn off this flash from firing on dh in addition, I'm going to change my lens to the macro lens so take this off, all right, you're there. Would you help me out with this let's put the flash right here. Forty five degree angle kind of more behind the bar right there. Okay. All right. Lance cap comes off solution to the first one hundred and two problem, right? Can it? Ah, there's no way I turned it away is because I wanted to show a hint of it. I don't want to be too obvious. Okay? All right. Now I'm gonna go ahead and take my shot here and this is blocking the brand names we're gonna move it across on let's, see if we can me too. This one more time here I'm gonna put a little more power in that flash. Let me see actually, I'm gonna do it here. I'm gonna go to s o three twenty okay, can we please show photo number ciro ciro five one do you see the couple in the background? You see, this is late really nicely. You have the couple in the background so that's a lot ofthe depth to it now let's completely messed this up in this pretend we don't know what we're doing in details let me turn this off and I'm just gonna put this back where it wass let's, put this back where iwas this was here. I don't know how this was actually it was something like that. And now let's, take a picture. A little shooting flat e okay, let's, think about let's, not think about it too much. And let's, take a shot. Okay, can we please display for the number zero zero five to and the previous photo I just took. Okay, it sounds ridiculous, but you have no idea how much wedding coordinators are just praying that somebody gives them quality detail shots, quantity, detail shots. This photograph on the right. I took it this way because I see this. I see this all the time where ninety teach workshops. I asked my students to bring me detail shots of the reception's on dh. A lot of the times. Not always. They look like the picture on the right. And then I asked him, what are you photographing? They're like the details of the table. Which one? Like are you photographing the flowers outside? Are you photographing the tablecloth? Which one on I can assure you this? This took a lot of thinking, right? And to switch to my macro lens I had to back I had to back backlighting with a wireless flash so it's worth developing an eye for two things where the shadows falling what am I showing in this photograph on what's in the background what's the detail out of background this idol focus if you can remember those three things when it comes to details shots wedding coordinator they're gonna love you you know just absolutely love you let's take a look at the let's look at the cake and this backlight to take us well so I'm gonna could you grab the little light stand that goes with this one right here okay okay let's photograph the cake here you have the cake one two three on dh there this let's display the cake shot please ma'am do you see the cake there no you don't because you also see everything else right terrible now so you actually can you come up here for a second sorry why would be one cool where you could fix this if this picture after the three things I said where the shadows what are you photographing on what's in the background okay so don't worry about it just relax can we get like a nicely maybe light it from behind to create some shadows in front. Okay that's so let's do that? What about what angle you want photographed this from and why I would probably photograph it from lower to make it look larger you probably don't want to do that because you don't want it a tall pieces like a person you probably one of the stories you wanted to look contracted, so you actually want to do the opposite? You're gonna wanna shimada? Yeah, I would switch to your seventy two hundred because it's the lens that contracts the most, I will shoot it from far away. Zoom in to two hundred millimeters and then the skirt is a distraction, isn't it? So what do we do with it? We put it in the other side of the cake and that's a little piece of elegance so they take now so you see what I mean? So you're going to balance in other words, if I want to take the picture from here and I take it this way right now let's do that let's, take this picture now let's just photographed in a terrible way and you see how you don't see the cake when we show that photo, please let you see how you don't see the cake at all. How does that look to you? Not like a connex, puny and small, right? Or you don't want to go under you want to make you look big either you don't want to look like it's, this crazy thing list let's do that let's do that let's see if that looks kind of lessons that looks good, you won't display that photo as well those other cool to you probably not. Now, let's, totally wrap it around. So let's, get the seventy, two hundred let's. Get the flash shadow. We're going to do two flashes this time. Uh, move this over here. Let's. Get the second flash, please. I want to put one flash here in the back. Now, what I'm gonna do here is very simple. I'm putting two flashes behind the cake. One flash will be in a one flash. Well, being be on one flesh will be much weaker than the other way, but I have to have the strength. The reason is I'm looking for shadows, right? So when the first light hits the cake, the cycle is going to hit the cake at a weaker level and it's going to create shadows. I'm just gonna look really cool that I'm going to use the curtain. I'm gonna add a little bit of a current on the right just to kind of guide your eye towards the cake. Okay, so let's do that real quick. Flash number two is right here. Is juliet was the best. Okay, very quickly. When the change does to channel toe channel one group b and I'm gonna put this at fifty percent power, another thing I want to make sure the audience sees. I'm not giving the camera for flash I'm going to put us at a forty five degree angle and I'm gonna pull the white card out in order to get some of the light toe hit the cake and some of the light to hit the roof and feel the k from the top defense this way the light will go up come down illuminate the cake nice me but this will hit the can't directly this is out of fifty witnesses at minus two that's a regular to t l a zero exposure compensation okay so let's do it this do that and now I'm goingto illuminate I'm going to change the cake and little bitches in the moving to that side would you like a cucumber would you like one of the cucumbers yes yes question mark question mark she gets what I'm doing I'm putting this on the right the nice flowers they're going to be on the left point it is flash at the cake by the way this is crawling remember what I said about direct reflections if you match if the angle of your life source is hitting that is hearing this and you you match that angle to where your camera is you're going to get a full blast awful off the light on the chrome or they have to do is change the angle on then you no longer matching angles and you can get rid of that okay now seventy two hundred the reason why I'm juicing this lance it's simply to contract the scene and make you look more attractive take the lens cap off which is pollution number one hundred and two I'm going to go as far away as possible and then I'm going teo zoom in as much as I can gonna shoot this in the middle layer so I don't make it look bigger or smaller I'm just gonna keep it that on a beautiful okay uh see my flash reading should be accurate my flash probably turned on now the windows on the right the flowers on the left I am dead on on the cake okay let's go ahead and show that a little bit and then we're gonna improve on it. Okay it's cool but it could be better so you can see the problem here with putting the flash directly not lifting the card a forty five degree angle so now let's do that let's turn this at a forty five degree angle I'm gonna turn this down and I'm going to change the angle of it to about there I am not going to put the cake forward so that make sure that the flashes are further in the back and they don't dominate the side of the cake they dominate the back of the cake okay? All right ah okay I like that much better take a look at that real quick it's time to look better but we're still having a little bit of burn so I'm going to grab this flash lower the power and actually put it right behind the can I get my diffuser please okay and I think that looks a lot better you're starting to really improve on it um I'm gonna actually brand up the cake just a tad from the front and that's the pretty much the winner right there and how are you brining that I oh yeah I slow down the shutter speak because in flash photography the shutter speed increases the ambient light or changes the ambient light the aperture increases or decreases the amount of light from the flash getting into your camera thank you that is much fighter than the original now this photograph this is a problem for a lot of people let's go far away were those flashes from there just for people who can't so I was basically problem solving the the cake we were getting burning take on the left burnt take on the right so I decided to fix a problem putting the flash right behind the cake and that will give it a beautiful room life and then this became kind of like a background kicker like anything on that light is just kind of getting the cake a little bit on the left okay? You know that's the big us the small diffuser no it's okay okay, four settings like this what is this? Kimberly in the back and table settings go to your local camera store and buy yourself a small the few, sir? Just a small one. Somebody something like this that this big I just didn't bring my we'll use this so let's, try this. So we're going to photograph the table settings here, but we're not gonna photographer with direct light were going actually put the flash we're gonna shoot it through that defusing panel, so all we're doing is basically putting a big soft box into here. Okay, now let's, try that. What? Really, quickly? Now, if you're photographing and there's details like this, I recommend to go ahead and shoot. The details are not your appetite shouldn't be too shallow should be probably around four point oh, that allows us to be in focus. It will be in focus all the way through and then slowly will drop out of focus you you're dealing with very expensive details you want increase it to f eight or eleven and you want to get more of them in focus. Okay? Um, you probably don't want to shoot them directly down that looks flat, you wantto shoot them out of forty five degree angle, I'd like to create shadows on make sure they're most of them are in focus whence the focus drops it should be a little at the last part of the detail so let's put this here let's get that flash and we'll put the diffuser over it so here you go so that south park is going to be from is gonna be here and then maybe one more person here julie can you come over here and hold this uh huh I'm gonna put the power the power wasa minus two on two thirds I'm going to go toe minus one because I need more power because I'm going to shoot it through a diffusion panel okay, so point this flash directly and when I bring this card with the flash right there in the middle of that thing now ah yeah that won't work so I'm going to change the lens from a seventy two hundred to my macro lens again there are only recent william switching lance's from the seventy two hundred to the macro it's simply because of the look I know this land's very well I know what kind of locum going to get on the seventy two hundred look it's not what I wanted was a little bit to compress for me so I'm gonna know compress it as much. You gotta see these flowers here they are a little bit too far away for the photograph so I'm gonna go ahead and add ah so all I'm doing is something a lot of people may not do which is organized the background ofthe detail that's it. Okay again, this flashes not firing on ly that one. I want to see the heart I want to see I'm gonna change my aperture to five point six my eyes all will be one thousand my image stabilizer will be on yeah, and less please show that photograph that's a lot of work for a picture. You'd be surprised how many weddings I get from shooting details really, really properly. You re surprised wedding coordinators are like we work with people all the time. You're the only one that gives us work that we really want to be proud to show it's not just flat details, it's like you're taking it to the next level. Look how soft thatl itis so I started with a super super small light source, and I made it into a huge light source. The reason why I did this defusing panels because I'm photographing forks and spoons. And what did I say about chrome and metal? Right? You wanted to be what you want to make. The lights are so big that it covers the entire fork. Let's, do something a little more complicated. This is straight up the worst, most complicated thing to photograph, right, it's totally reflective, so if we take a picture with this on we just take your flat you basically get it what is that flashing in going and hit it right here watch these guys I'm gonna match the angle okay the angle from here to here it's going to be the same as my camera's gonna be the same angle makes sense when I do that is going to create a direct reflection it's going to be really bad looking so that's what would just start with that? Okay ready all right let's show that picture real quick you see how that's not attractive whatsoever this whole thing here it's just not gonna work for if you shoot working with hyeon coordinators that's not gonna work if the fork or the knife have the names inscribed in tow in tow the fork and the knife this is going to ruin your photograph you look like an amateur basically so now this face this grab this this vendor in have to create double diffusion let's hold it right there. Sorry right there let's put the flash right through it now very carefully you're still going to get a highlight? Okay, but the highlight should be big enough that it should encompass the whole thing all right uh let's back up a little more actually the window lights going to get in my show here this's not shooting it okay, go ahead and put the flash through that no, take a look at that photograph. Compare that so that americans you can clearly see the name and so forth this little piece of this little piece right there that you see that's illuminating with a direct highlight is because that side actually hit my camera at the same exact angle so all I have to do toe get see how we get rid of this all I have to do to get rid of this one is changed my camera angle just that that too ghetto not much three angles anymore so let's try that again so once again roberto when this is a really wedding scenario because you're teaching us as you're going along you're doing this very quickly but you are doing this you're bringing the lights you're having your diffuser with its a small month one or whatever but this is really it yeah that's actually a good question so if you're watching online you're thinking does he really do this? Yes of course but I do it really fast like right now I'm just trying to instruct and teach and explain the mentality behind it but if you want to do the real scenario I show up to the reception I do it's quick scout off the off where the best lightest it was like a window near it then I just think what are my photographing a migrant photographing the plate that the detail like the little dick or a little bit the core my photographing the menu what's the point or my photograph in the whole setting I always add of coming for post a photo off the table setting that it took please I don't have two flashers on me one day wanting be the same setup I used for these is the same set of values for the whole reception I do bring a diffuse a diffuser but for details are you are you use when this about a quarter of the size and I just put the flash through it my assistant wholesome picture move on picture move on with a cake I backlighted then I give it a really give it ah I kicked her light which is another flash picture move on and you just keep doing I do the whole reception in about ten to fifteen minutes so that's what you gotta do yeah you're okay moving stuff around some people are asking in the chat room like those flowers he moved you move it you make it back you're moving in with her back you don't worry about it the coordinators are not gonna tell you please do not take a great photograph of my details in my work please please take a horrible picture you know but um actually go ahead and take a look at this photograph on more time then you think a wedding corrine will love that that is gorgeous now let's not remember if I don't think about it this is what we see sometimes people do you get to you can't you come over here on there's your detail can we please display the to confer compares and purposes? Okay there's one look how nice it is to look together right let's big the yet that one this is why you go through the extra effort you think the extra steps to learn your lights learn your flashes learned what? What? What the diffuser is due to make the light bigger where the shadows fall this is what you take care of that if you give this to a high end wedding coordinator the picture on the right you are pretty much done with that person even if you photograph everything else beautifully the bride and groom fortress and all of that you were pretty much done this one show love you forever even if you totally mess up the breading room per citizen care she don't care I won't say it how would say it he doesn't care any questions guys on some of these items roberto I have won. Why the flash instead of the ice light? The flash is bigger because the flash hasn't a future that's huge and it's often sit the ice I would work well too let's try the ice a little quick on this photograph yeah hold everything we see that's nowhere that okay guys um what I'm doing right now is some position in the ice light not at the top of the detail I'm gonna photograph a menu now I don't want them any two b flat lit if you're watching online flat flat lighting, the menu isn't doesn't make an exciting menu, so I'm lower in the light so I can create some texture into the paper that's all I'm doing somebody I'm gonna go back to my macro lens now what I'm going to basically focus on is there's some initials for the bride and groom at the top you see someone actually focus on that and the date and then I'm going to be basically give the viewer a hint of what was being served so my average will be f eleven because I'm using a macro lens if I was using the seventy two hundred, you could do a five point six because it's a macro I'm going to go all the way around eleven, which is probably why I should use a flash because the flash would be ableto think with that also because I'm photographing the details I mean the menu I'm going to use this little gift and I'm gonna put it underneath, so pop it up, you see what I mean? So you bring it over that's going to help you with your aperture on is going to help you where that drop off happens because I went to give a hint off what's being served but it's not like everyone is to no salad is today chicken is what's for dinner you know went so let's do that real quick let's get some texture into it right they're beautiful that's the right angle for it eleven okay that's why? I mean the one more when I go to f thirteen let me do one more morning christmas I so to two thousand I mean change the light to lowered angle and this will be the final and then we can show you know where the lights don't work no in the light okay waken show that last one a little bit and you can see how this gives you a hint is toward a focus but the focus point is kind of more in this part and I didn't worry about the frames in the borders because that would add a strong line and that would ruin the picture let me show you what I mean with the light back up you pushed this one for three seconds so this is if you introduce those lines it's not as effective go ahead and take a look at that one cigar that's kind of distracting it's not the attention is not on the nations of the bride and groom is not on the on the details you're gonna want focus your viewer's attention into something so uh let's see let's photograph the whole table setting shall we like the whole section right here? I'm gonna put this back it's turned this off on for this I'm gonna use two flashes so one has put the other one actually can you hand hold the other one out of forty five degree angle? If you do not have a diffuser, you might be able to find a napkin and then you can put the flash and put a napkin over it and it achieves the same thing. Okay, so, uh that's dangerous doing that so we're gonna put this in front of it remember? You're photographing with a small light source into something small as a lot of layers so the shadows would be incredibly distracting if we don't increase the relative size off the flash. Okay, uh, bring that down a little bit. So it's pointed towards it and what is the power on that minus one? Okay, I'm gonna increase my angle so I can get this at a forty five degree angle. I want to make my aperture three point five to get a nice actually four point out to get this nice out of focus in the end I want to change my eyes so two, eight hundred they're flash fire give me one second please and flashes not firing one too three and I'm not going to take the picture because this it's not in the right this is a little bit to out off any organized a every little detail of it just make sure you take care of those little details. Now go ahead with that, right? All right, let's, go ahead and show that one and that's taking hori santoni show one more and that one. So can we put to one that they're both on the screen? Please? Okay. What do you guys think of the way they set up? Looks with the tooth with the flashes and so forth but they look nice to you. Looks nice. Imagine the practicing this with the shoes. Imagine practicing this with the rings. Imagine practicing this things with all the little details. You know the photograph of the wedding if you give all these details natural light or I'm sorry light from a direction direction alight you're going to be compensated greatly because your details will have life. Your details we'll say something. Basically, guys, if you're watching online, do not try not to be lazy with your details. Try to take it to the next step. Practice a few things at your house practice with your flash remember to add a diffuser if you don't have a diffuser put a napkin on you can change the relative size of the light, make sure that everything is nicely organized on keep keep in mind where the aperture fall off, where the out of focus fall off it's goingto happen on what's going to happen in the background. Can we display the photo of that champagne bottle with the bread and grooming the background? One more thing, please? Yep. And can we also show the last picture of the cake I took? And can we put in addition, the last photo I took of the day I'm sorry not allowed the second to last photo I took of the table setting the vertical picture, how don't those details look is really cool, right? That's going to get your business that's going to get you and that's just straight out of the camera? If you do any editing sound, look even better if you went toe, but I don't teach about editing and teach about getting a read on camera, so I hope this whole, uh, detail section helped you out a little bit, especially about how to photograph the chrome, the chrome forth and the chrome knives with inscriptions remember that don't match the angle. If the light's coming from this direction, grab this angle and change it, lower it or make it higher and make the relative size of the light three to four times bigger they want you're photographing, so if you're photographing this grab the diffuser is about three times bigger than this and then you can hear it and it will be beautiful it will look super nice if you photograph it with a straight flash you're going to get the red reflection is gonna look cheap okay some roberto well I think what's so cool about that is that we're seeing you do the same things as before where you're going to the table going to the details and you're seeing what the gifts are there just like outside what gives here what can I do with the late so we're just seeing all the same thing so your subject exactly so we just have a little bit less than ten minutes to go so I was running I know you're going to talk a little bit about the methodology and philosophy defined what to do with all of this learning that we now have two practice it and so how to best use this course had what do we do now I'm going to spend the last ten minutes on bringing it all back to the core of what I love to teach which is I want to leave you with something to be able to do at your own home please try to operate in the learning sewn don't try to keep operating in your comfort zone if you feel like you're not even thinking on your portrait's anymore then you're not pushing yourself enough if you come up with exercises that are too complicated for you you are now operating in the panic sown and that's not going to help you at all so if you're not used to flashes for multiple flash setups don't go by ten flashes and be like do it abc the channel three because you're not going to get anyway let your brain develop the learning little by little little by little operating the learning song that means you're comfortable but you're just a very verge where you're just starting to not know what's going to happen okay and you're going to just push yourself creatively just a tat here's some ways to operate there when you at home get your practice sessions and say what is the goal of this practice session what am I trying to achieve one practiced it could be I wanted photographic table setting with a really symbolic background that's slightly out of focus so go around your house pick up something that sentimental put it in the back and photographic try one light if you don't know how to use flashes try the video lights if you don't know how to use a video light try the window if you don't have a window you sure iphone light there's always a way the next one be specific on half constraints to your practice sessions so for example one practices in khun b I'm going to photograph the bride and the groom together where the bride is hugging the groom from the back the entire time and you're going to create five variations off that post you're gonna have the bride hugging the groom from the back and you're gonna have five variations of that post how do you do that? You can change one arm you can change the way it could be shifted differently you could change the waist where she's looking or you can change what her had its or what her chin is on make little changes and study what happened in those changes that didn't look good or did you started messing? They just started to mess it up if you push yourself on posting like that, you're going to get a headache very quickly because you're pushing yourself so hard so the third point is be repetitive once you do the exercise, grab your photos, look at the bad ones, figure out what happened and then do it again two days later or one day later don't wait six months because you're going to forget what happened on the first practice session, so just give yourself give your head, give your head twenty four hours and then go back to it and do it again grab your bride and groom or your friends put the bride behind the groom I now post with knowledge of what did not work the first time around, okay the next one is get feedback? Ask someone you can ask someone like me like, hey, what am I doing wrong here? Can you give us some feedback? You know, if it was that's, what happens at workshops you can you can look at that if you don't have a workshop? Asked a friend who knows quite a bit more than you about something that can be taken give you some area of expertise if you do not get feedback, you may not know if you're doing something really wacky, so that feedback really works well on the fifth one you have to be committed on dh I just want to say like commitment means dedication and hard work, you're not going to develop all of the skills. Like you said overnight, you had a problem with a small room. Your practice session should be creating great project great portrait in the small room with one single person. The next exercise could be creating great portrait with one single person in a small room on one flash. Your next project will be two flashes the third project khun b two flashes with a gel on orange jail or a blue jail. One exercise could be I'm going to transform the entire room into different colors using flash jails, but the person that I'm photographing will not be caught the color cast will not be on them and do that and it's fun and you have a great time and you better download your photos, look at them and write down why wen right, what went wrong? If you don't do this, if you just take the picture, you think you can memorize it, but he will go away in about three to four days. You will be gone so gravelly don't know book and just write it down, you know this is what I did, this is what happened, it takes you about five minutes, ten minutes, maybe keep the kept a practice session super short, super sweet on dh go home and watch the football game or whatever, but you'll have that learning. I think we always to our clients to be experts at what we do. I think we're going to charge money for what we do. It should be a performance, not a practice session when we go to our jobs were performing on our client should be the recipient of the musical, the reciprocate their recipients over efforts not offer guessing on hoping that we got good photos, we don't, we cannot keep doing this to ourselves into the industry, so next time you do a job you should remember this is now a performance, this is no longer our gassing and hoping, and I hope it turns out because then we're going to not bring the industry up. We have to bring the industry of together so let's, do it. Thank you a million times for being here cannisters. And I love you guys to pieces. And that concludes my session.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

21 Point Posing Framework.pdf

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!

Student Work

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