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Shoot: Sasha & Jessica

Lesson 16 from: Children's Portrait Photography

Tamara Lackey

Shoot: Sasha & Jessica

Lesson 16 from: Children's Portrait Photography

Tamara Lackey

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Lesson Info

16. Shoot: Sasha & Jessica

Next Lesson: Shoot: Pepper

Lesson Info

Shoot: Sasha & Jessica

I think we could do two sisters especially when they look so who's next photographer wise whos next jim europe sure. Sasha and jessica you want to completely take over sasha and jessica are two of my favorite names okay, so one over you guys so I'm jim okay and you say jim jim no okay, how about this high here I'm gonna stand back over here so I have a question so my question is I'm kind of confused but I'm not sure which one is sasha and which one is it jessica is that right? Yes that's jessica and your sasha okay and I'm jim okay so we got that straight right sasha jim he just tossed me my how would you know it's right under my my uh my my favorite hat so this is my favorite hat to wear when I do taking pictures so I'm just gonna put it on because I like I like the hat how's it look does it look ok? What do you think? What do you think it is a good guy have you guys have your pictures taken before so already let's let's take a picture of all of us so we know what we're doing ready? Y...

ou want to go you want to take your picture you're right ready ready? Look at that who's that is that jessica did I get it right? Did I get right who's that is that jessica okay now tell me who this is who's that is that sasha does it look like sasha well it's kind of like kind of a weird angle, huh how about that who is that do you know that person all right um once you um sasha um I want to know some of your guys is favorite thanksgiving is thanksgiving coming up with turkey and are you guys off school so no school for thanksgiving right ok so that's good is it weird that there are lots of people around here looking around okay hey social once you put your arm around your sister and like get down on your knees and once you get sit down for a sec because like yeah let's just sit down when it's going your sister's lap just for a second you guys know do you guys do this at home? Uh yeah you guys like doing this at home because I mean that's I mean it's kind of fun right the idea like that well that's looking good I know is that a smile no no that's that's what it is that smile that's what a smile is it I don't think it's a smile it looked like it might have been a smile is that okay no don't smile no please okay no no one smile all right like what can we do? Can we do this joel are you sure sasha no smiling please okay, wait. Make funny faces. All right? So my funniest face that I can make. All right, jessica, check this out. Just would take one. Look at my take one. Look at my craziest, funny face. Alright. Are you ready for it? It's, my word it's one already. I do that sometimes. Or do this sometimes. But it is that you don't like that one, can you? Can you guys make funny? I know your sister behind you is making like twenty or thirty funny faith. Take a show. Show your sister besides, to show your sister years like your funniest crazy face. See that you get good let's so that so that real quick. Okay, first of all, I think she's about to when she was about to take off, reach up pulling out the tree was excellent. Timing was very good. I felt that it was a good success keeping it. Yeah, keeping her there. Keep it going. Keep it on the paper. On the paper. Yeah, it's, nice to have lofty goals. It's, you know it's. Very it's. Very easy. You got it like like check out that lineup there. What do you think about the shooting? Give me questions and you're going. So far into sort of does this remember we're not you're doing awesome job we're not testing it's more like do you see something now that you might have a question about as you're doing this I think that I like you know can you look up at that light and see what you think so is that is it to brian isn't bright enough what do you think maybe think about shooting that from that where they're looking weii look at like what does it look like like is it sort of a blue color what do you say what do you say what is it white what do you guys his favorite colors so when you guys were outside and you look up here yeah when you guys look when you guys look up here a bit the light you guys take a look jessica look on good good look at that light goes look up at the stars at night when you're outside no cats it's a little bit tricky for me by the way because I'm trying not to interrupt your game you know like I'm trying but I also wanted to say you hear the little adjustments we could be making you know so let me know if you feel comfortable with that absolutely please yeah on dh then I guess keep moving I'm moving too much not enough so here's a couple things about the kids because I feel like you know I'm doing a better job and they feel more comfortable getting into different position sort of quicker and let's try this let's try that yeah, well once I get him into a good spot it was like I was trying to just really yeah okay, so three things one when you're sitting on the ground and you have them look up I think we lost our angle because we're now we're looking up noses okay that's why I said what? You come up, come over here and shoot down a little bit and then when you're shooting, I said go lower the reason I'm saying that it's because I'm afraid that when we have this kind of shot it looks a little distorted we have very big heads and very small bodies so you could do something where you can kind of show that off just to show that you could do something where you get in much closer and and don't make it so like fish I looking right we're trying to avoid that way so we could still sort of do that. The other thing we can try is tio have them scooch up and maybe stand and let big sister hold little sisters so she feels a lot more taken care of on dh shoots straight on in a vertical kind of like right here and see if you can't forget that I have a feeling that if you do that and you've got them holding each other and they're looking at the camera we could even if she looks a little nervous and stuff it'll come across is really soft and sweet and cared for okay? Yep okay, you guys have another lens I've a fifty fifty you might try that with a fifty okay, jim shooting with the sixteen to thirty five which is great in a lot of situations but we're going to try for a vertical portrait switching to a fifty will probably give you a cleaner look of that great I love you's in the fifty okay, okay, right when you jump that up and then um we'll see if and how are we doing on time? Are we going to do a couple questions and acute days while we're doing this let's do some questions yes ok yes ok work but you're right that means you got one. Okay, jim doing a switch cameras real quick, okay what's the questions we've had so many questions about continuous lighting versus strobes and says do you find continuous lighting to less disturbing to the kids and the flow of the shoot as opposed to strokes? Okay, I have two sets of lighting in my studio I have these two t five continuous light source and I've got I've got some strobes lights there, hansel lights strobes and for the hansel's, I've got them with the pocket wizards and I've got one trigger in the other and I shot like that for the first up until about a year ago, I shot with that most way, and then I started recognizing that one of the issues I have when shooting kids in the studio with strobes is that I'll take a shot and I'll I love that shot, and then a half second later, they'll do something amazing and I look up, I want to see that again, but my lights haven't recharged, so my first shot is perfectly well, it and my second shot is too dark, so by switching to a continuous light source it's kind of like what you see is what you get so I know that I could do a bunch of rapid fire shooting I want, and I don't lose my exposure on my second shot that makes perfect sense. Okay, um, I like how you validate my response because they're so validate a ble. So how do you make a kid smile when they just won't? How do you make a kid smile when you, uh yeah, I mean, we did some of that on the video tape, we saw that they weren't doing that in this instance here looks like jim's getting something done. I see some smiles um in this instance here when you have one child who's here and she's a little bit shy but she's she's up for it and they have another child who's just like whoa packed room crazy what is going on I'm going to cry that that's not an abnormal response at all to a high amount of stress that just jumps on you so in that sort of situation I would say let's take it down that's slow I mean this is an odd situation literally there jumping in we're throwing a photographer on we're like shoot shoot shoot and let the world watch you like that's crazy you know that's not the norman that's not homo shoots are going to go so in a situation where a child won't smile I will take the time to slow down and talk with them and play with them and that even tease a little bit if I feel like we'll take it as funny as opposed to hurtful and and while I'm in that mode like if you saw in the videotape when I give a little jacks with the cookie not play with him for a little while and it's funny six times in the seven time it's not funny at all on dh then just watch that watch for the expressions and watch what they're telling you nonverbally and that funny versus hurtful is just intuition your intuition we're going but their face changes you see their face change right away and you're watching really closely their face um funny is like like a little bit and hurtful is like look at me I'm making faces but that really is what it is it's like these little movements one way or the other it's like we're watching the videotape and we saw when we called for I think it was jackson's mom to come over we saw that little flicker of a smile is like well thank god she's kind of like how you used the term micro expression yeah that's all we're going for so we only microseconds to get micro expressions on because it's a photography it's still we don't need them laughing the whole time right? Okay let's see what you're doing when you're getting jim it's a temple there's no card I've just been I've just shoot because it's live it's live five tethered great okay so one of the first things I would ask is how come so many shots in a row bad bad photographer no you know I was having a little issue with the focus and I was it was not catching I was not getting because it's not my camera so that you see it but it was what the focus wasn't catching so okay so two things first of all there's no such thing as a bad photographer it's just not enough experience yet I'm serious I'm totally serious about that I think the more you get experience in, the more you feel comfortable in a more practice, you get in, the more you start, you know, locking out stuff down and you're not no one's a bad photographer there, just figuring it all out, you know? I know you're joking a little bit, yeah, how you self deprecating, right? So, yeah, I do overshoot and it's something that I really want to stop doing, right? Okay, seymour patient I used to be more patient when I was playing, you know, seven dollars, a roll for film? Yeah, I remember those days that its film and I'm paying for each each exposure cost money, right, bill? Well, there's a couple reasons I would advocate for shooting a little more carefully and a little more selectively. One of the reasons is because if you have strobes, what I was just answering this question, a v of strobes in your studio, you're if you're shooting that fast, many of the shots or not, I'd be well exposed. So that's one thing for a lot of people who do have strobes and are going to run out and get different light sources number two it's the same thing with on camera flash or off camera flash applied to your camera you need a recycle time for the power to come back and see if you're shooting really fast you're gonna miss some of that three other thing is if you find that you some the focus isn't catching I would slow down right you know slow down lock in your focus if you feel like it might be a camera issue than switch to manual focus and do that but I would slow down make sure I hear it click make sure everything's done make sure my aperture is deep enough that I'm getting everything in focus if I feel like there's a focus issue you know, a lot of times we get nervous we move faster were you like their make up for it by doing things really quickly a little bit of that yeah and instead mostly you know, because I had I felt like I had last time I felt like there was pressure there and there is there's a ton of pressure on you yeah yeah that's right look at this beautiful girl and where's my camera hold on don't miss everything you've worked for no it's okay it's good then I'd do it again no it's all right, that was good. I was adorable. Adorable I love the hand the pants that's hysterical um okay, so but yeah, the only thing I'm seeing because you've got this great moment I would love to see again less headroom this is the reason this is common with a lot of shots. This kind of look where the faces in the eyes or this far down is because people are focusing and staying right. You know, think about what your focus usually isn't, depending on what your focus point is. It's not uncommon to have this much headroom, so focus and then recomposed. Think about, like, let me get my focus. Let me tell my camera back to this being a good, strong composition, and I'm funny that that's really gonna help slow down, because I need to fully go back. You're going for to that top to that center focus, because that's, what I like is well, and then recompose again, yes, and then just wait for it. Yeah.

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Ratings and Reviews

Amy
 

I cannot thank creativeLIVE enough for the opportunity to learn from Tamara in such depth. Not only did we have the chance to see Tamara at work, but she also shared a ton of great business tips as well. I think it is amazing that CreativeLIVE offers photographers such a great opportunity to learn from the best without breaking the bank to do it. Not only is Tamara an inspiring photographer, teacher and businesswoman..she is also an exceptional human being. Her positive energy shines through in everything she does. She reminded me of everything I love about photography and also of how to keep contact with that part of myself. That is a gift that I could not ever put a price on. Thank you so much, creativeLIVE, for the awesome workshop. I am really looking forward to future ones. I highly recommend creativeLIVE!

a Creativelive Student
 

AWESOME! I would (and have already) recommend CreativeLIVE's Tamara Lackey workshop to anyone and everyone. CreativeLIVE has put together a game-changing channel for business owners - the Tamara Lackey workshop not only was fantastic for anyone looking to improve their photography skills - it was a huge eye opener for anyone who is or is considering becoming an entrepreneur. The live audience format was perfect and it was great to have the CreativeLIVE visionaries engaged in the workshop as well. Kudos and thank you!

a Creativelive Student
 

This was a fun, entertaining, insightful, and - no less - highly educational workshop. I really like Tamara's photographic work and was mostly curious to see how she gets to her results. This expectation was fully met by both the on-location and studio sections included in the course. In addition, Tamara is a very good instructor and made the videos a thoroughly enjoyable experience. She is very open and answered honestly and personably to all questions asked. Although I am an amateur photographer, I was intrigued by the business section and could imagine a professional would like to see a deeper dive into the subject. If I were to mention improvements to the course, I think the scope was a bit too wide or, the other way around, the duration was too short: the business section, live shoots, work-life balance part could all have been more in-depth. But they could also be added as stand-alone topics, in my opinion. Overall, I loved this video format and Tamara's presentation. I surely learned a lot and had a good time watching this! Really, really great job!

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