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Prop Shoot

Lesson 27 from: The Boudoir Workshop

Christa Meola

Prop Shoot

Lesson 27 from: The Boudoir Workshop

Christa Meola

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Lesson Info

27. Prop Shoot

Next Lesson: Post-Production

Lessons

Class Trailer

Day 1

1

Introduction

07:36
2

Let’s Get this Party Started Right!

20:35
3

Redefining Boudoir: YOUR Brand & Style

29:59
4

Working with Women

20:01
5

Creating Relaxed Clients

17:49
6

Posing and Anti-Posing

12:05
7

Flattering All Body Types

21:13

Lesson Info

Prop Shoot

I'm going to just shoot one prop shot with you can we reset the light back to where it was sorry for moving the light that's already um let's take the gloves off for a second and you might have to squat little because I'm so much your many um and this is the kind of we're going to show this side and so you're gonna kind of be like there's a couple of yeah text I'm taking my glove with my foot okay, this should be good to go um sure, nana why I'll just have her squat down for a second and so I only have the fifty and it is busy course hold on one second to my camera catches up and let me just make sure this uh but you don't have to oh yeah thanks, john. Okay, let's do it. Okay let's do it more flattering. Okay, perfect. Take a half a step this way. Yeah. Thanks. Okay, okay. Um what's that may be but cover your eyes yeah, that was cute. Wait, hold that one second. Um do a little bit more like you like you didn't make any right and you could pick up at yeah, yeah, I like that that was cut...

e like tell that one hand wass do that the others were yeah that way yeah, that is cute and you can be shy about it. Kind of like you down a little bit. Okay, wait, let me get another one. I just realized something. Yes, well, let's hope this thing. Can we just bring these down to here and free me from here, up in the hole like you're naked so I can hold it here. So yeah. Krista, could you tell us what the card says? Absolutely. Who'll tell us a little bit about your cards again. Sure. Uh, these are my business cards of five business cards in over eight years without him. Um and they say different sayings like some say, shut up and take off your clothes this one says let's get naked and take pictures, huh? Okay, so I'm gonna you just check the light on that a little hot um, back that up so she doesn't have to move you just quiet down a little bit. Thanks. Hold and then bring it up a little bit more. Yeah, perfect. Hold on one second and then we'd have to jump around and do something for, like, five minutes just like jumper and have fun. Yeah, blow that hair. Can you bring it above your mouth so, yeah, exactly smile with your eyes, okay, we're done, we're done with that wow, it wasn't firing for a while there shoot hold on one sec just a lot of radio just hold it right there, okay? I just wanted to get that one part your lips for a second. Okay that's perfect alright, let u turn and get a little dressed um we're gonna break for lunch in about five minutes so I'm just gonna, um I'm gonna have to jump around a little bit and then we'll just sto take a question in there too already why don't you guys let me know when there's a like a few minutes left to take a couple questions someone's running if you could demo the shutter drag hair twirl spin technique the shutter dr harris been twirl technique okay, I'm not gonna do it on the shoot but I will definitely chemical thing um all right let's get active. I'm going to shoot you from ana meant well, yeah, perfect. Can we have the families? Is this going off? Yeah, I love that I want to do like I'm kind of wide so we could do big arching movements I know that kid adorable have fun keep just keep moving and john make sure your honor with the fan keep moving that's beautiful I love profile that's great, but hands both up if they are up don't go too far because then I'm off the seamless and by the way I know I'm shooting off the seamless right now but it's an easy fix and voters up I'm composing kind of how I want I prefer keep going keep going awesome keep gone we think you could do some of your men forward but don't go too low because the play is right here I wonder if we can have you like and then jump go ahead john what do you know I was just listening to you moved no no we're good I want to get some air you want a bigger fan yes I want to see if I can yeah just go for it and have fun but yeah keep your hands exactly like that keep him in sight I don't have much play yes cute I love the smile that was adorable you need to take a step back perfect look that way that when you jump with a awesome perfect now just move your hair around play with it cute cost her legs though for me sorry about that cross your legs and then we don't need a fan and she's gonna play with your head so just toss your hair around a little but I'm not doing the shutter drug but go for it play with it perfect he's going cute can you like penned it over like this back want to uh wasn't ready one two three studio again one two three one more time pulled on me check one that was freaking cute you have such good expression keep going well auntie three of his last letter promise okay um adorable okay I think we're done I think we're good you were amazing um I think we have a couple minutes for questions now. Okay great. You're amazing. Thank you so much. You're so awesome okay uh like the height weight around talk about yeah sure if it's right even with her like like to have a a bit above the eye line and the front is kind of universally flattering um when I'm going for something more dramatic or more fashion is more high angle and if I'm shooting like nude high contrast black and white I'll put it more to the side because it creates more shadow more curve and uh yes there was another question that I deferred teo just remind me of that long do you spend more or less oh about thirty minutes on the great backdrop go ahead. Negative space negatives there's any rules about negative space when to use it? Sure you think of the rule of thirds and I like to incorporate new stays pretty much always unless there's a point to being right dead center like if it's something like direct um or using symmetry or it's a frame within a frame or some other compositional reason why um to send her something but in general I like um putting my woman my subject in one third on the intersecting points and always like kind of the action or the story is generally in the negative space if I'm framing it like this you know I want her like looking that way I don't want the energy going this way like towards the frame of the image so that's how you use it? Yeah, good. Are you shooting with any kind of like custom functions in your camera? It's just all neutral. Okay has totally neutral it's just neither it's nothing's better or worse, it's just kind of what I'm used to shooting so I get to know exactly what what my eye sees and what what it's gonna look like so if you wanted to cut, do some custom functions that's totally awesome! You should get a little saving time question from g c g could you explain what you mean by cheap when you're using the term to me? I know she's. So this doesn't even mean anything and I'm not even using it correctly, but I just I'm saying, make sure you like, if I say your head to the light, that just means move it toward the light um, but I still kind of want your head at your eyes at me and like your face to the light chief faces uh the eye direction like I'm looking at you for that camera's going to see the white so I can turn my eyes this way let a little bit and you're going to see the virus and the people here, but I'm still faking that I'm looking at you, but I'm really looking at you, so just cheating eyes a little this way so it's not just all white and it's called a cheat, I guess and like us, I don't always use it like properly use it often when I have a woman look down her body, I often say, can you cheat it though? So when I'm doing this, I'm not I can't actually see my body I'm looking at the carpet because it was actually look at my body was like, who you like? I'm all up in here and that's not attractive, so you want to look, you know, keep our chin out and like down like this or like dan, my ass looks good, you know, I can't even see my ass just imagining it because it's more flattering to, like cheat it great thank you ain't name is wondering about how far below the knees you prefer to shoot in cropping so right, I never actually shoot below the knee I was just doing that right now knowing that I would crop her uh I like to shoot right here it's either full leg or a kind of crop here I don't like crop and just below the knee it's kind of weird to me okay question about full figured women would you use this dramatic lighting set up for a full figured woman? Yes, absolutely I love this lighting set up for full figured women when we put the light over here or we turn it away from the model which maybe we'll do that with the nude model I condemn over now that she's figured but you'll get what I'm saying because it works with all all figures it kind of will drop off into shadow you can see the image right now um right here on screen see how kind of drops off into shadow on the left now let's say someone was conscious of their bum so I would turn their bum that way and then you know, it just kind of jobs off until black and we don't really see where she falls off but also enhances curves so seen as curves and then just shadow right more questions in the audience questions we'll finish up out of the question we were talking about how the lord works we didn't set it up on camera so I could deconstruct it here so that's a great idea it's really super simple but you gotta know that mike here's. What? It looks like your side. I'm just gonna take that out. So it's, like an umbrella that you put poke through the hole on the on the head. There it is, just so for really weighs less than a pound. Store it under my bed, you get back. So sweet, thank you.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Christa Meola Day 1.pdf
Christa Meola Day 2.pdf
Christa Meola Day 3.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

This is meant to be a HELPFUL review for those that are wondering if they should purchase this workshop. About 75% of what I took away from this workshop was posing, composition for boudoir and the importance of eye lines and capturing movement. I had two boudoir sessions a week after this workshop and my images significantly improved. I was able to coach my clients through poses better, direct them on where to look for better eye lines, I was more aware of their posture and how to fix it, I think I sounded more professional and felt more confidant with getting awesome poses, stand out expressions and adding movement to my images. I put a fan on my client the way Christa does.. and she is right! The instant I put the fan on my client, her expression changed and you could tell she was really "feeling it". She told me she felt like a real supermodel right after I turned on the fan. If you are looking for inspiration on how to coach women and pose for boudoir then Christa is the girl for you. I think the most worthwhile thing I learned watching this is something that will help me in the years to come... with my brand, my website, my workflow and my business goals. I learned how to "keep it simple" which is Christa's tag line. For example Christa brings a roll of gray background paper and uses gaffer tape to hang it from the wall of the hotel (instead of bringing a 12ft background stand). I know this seems simple but this will change my life! I hate dragging equipment back and forth. There are some negative reviews on here about Christa's technical skills, but I think these people may have missed the whole point. If you provide an awesome product and an awesome experience for your client, they will buy it. And guess what.. your client will never know if you used your camera in auto or manual and they won't care if you used one light instead of two. As someone who has been in business for 3 years doing boudoir exclusively I learned a lot. I see a lot of value in learning from someone who doesn't spend a lot of money on fancy equipment, yet charges her clients over $3,000 for sessions. I'm a huge fan of her keep it simple philosophy and I'm glad Christa is willing to be honest about her workflow and how she best utilizes her time. Your not going to agree with or use everything Christa talks about, you take the parts that you like and are most helpful to you and work them into building a stronger business.

a Creativelive Student
 

AWESOME DEAL on Christa's course. I just sent an email to my husband to tell him thanks for "gifting" me this course. I told him just the ONE CLASS about pricing was worth the full $129 price of the course. And there are over 50 classes?! That is a crazy stupid good deal. You can learn something good from every class you take, every book you read, and just apply the stuff that works for you. There are a lot of people out there who seem to just enjoy giving crappy reviews, and to me it's almost like bullying. How someone could not find $129 worth of value in this course is beyond me. In my opinion this course is worth over a thousand bucks, because it can help you make SO much more money. I hate when I see people whining about things that are not 100 percent perfect, and they get annoyed if the person isn't catering to their exact needs. It's like the Yelper generation, with a disturbing sense of entitlement. I would love to see those people try teaching a class about boudoir and see if they could do any better. It also seems like, the more popular a person gets, the more other people feel the need to tear them down. I'm grateful that Christa even offered this course at ALL. Thanks Christa for all you do to help those of us who really need to know this stuff. You rock.

a Creativelive Student
 

I never thought I would shoot boudoir. I am a shy and private person. I started entertaining the idea when I first saw Christa's work and saw how beautiful and tasteful it can be. I love her lighting and all that she uses from historic painters and sculptors. I watched all three days live and learned a ton. I have a lot of lighting education, but it was nice to freshen up my skills. I loved the posing tips and the three typical situations she uses for one shoot. I loved learning about how she shoots in hotels and also using things like an outdoor situation. I have now shot my first boudoir session and it was a total hit. I am thrilled to show my client her images. This was fantastic! Thank you, Christa!

Student Work

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