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One Hour Photo - Scott Robert Lim

Hello. Welcome. Everybody to one hour photo. My name is John Gringo, and on this episode I'm gonna be interviewing Scot Robert Lim. He's a great portrait and wedding photographer who specializes in on location portrait's. He's brought in a collection of some great work. We're going to sit down, talk together, talk about his work and his career, and it's teaching and everything else that he does. And after that, well, we're gonna do is both of us are going to sit down and look at some of your photos that you've submitted to our classes. And I'll be honest with you. What I've done is I've Connick onto his classes where he has a lot of people doing portrait work, and we're gonna be taking a look at those images and reviewing them. We're gonna be doing this in light room and see if we like him. We don't like him and what sort of improvements and suggestions we have for all of you. But before we do any of that, I always like to answer some questions from all of you. So let's go ahead and ge...

t started with some of your questions. All right, let's get to our first question here. I want to get serious about taking close up flower pictures. What kind of camera should I buy to get good? Okay. And detailed creative shots. I'll be posting online only. And I'm a big hiker. So lightweight is important. Well, thank you, Allie, For that question, I think we have a lot of people who are in that category. Now, you could be shooting this with your phone, but if you do want to get really creative and you want that soft out of focus background, nice Brok, you're gonna need a camera with some sort of interchangeable lenses and a larger size sensor. And so I've gone through my class actually did a class here very recently on helping you choose your best camera. It's, ah, free class that you can get on revealing different cameras and let me show you a few of my favorite cameras for doing this type of work. 1st 1 is thief Fuji X T 20. This is a moralist camera that uses a 1.5 crop sensor. So it's a medium size sensor in my mind, and it's a very small, very lightweight camera. And Fuji has a couple of different macro lenses. This is they're less expensive, smaller, lighter weight lands. And this is going to allow you to shoot with some pretty shallow depth of field, allow you full manual control or full automatic. Either way, you can work with it as you wish, and this would be a really nice system. Another good system from Sony is the A 65. This is a real powerhouse of a little camera, a lot of different features on there. They have a very simple, basic macro lens. The 30 millimeter. I think they have another higher and one as well. But this is the small lightweight version, and then one more recommendation here is theologian pus and the the very long name Om D E M 10 mark three Great little camera. They have a couple of macro lenses. 30 is the smallest here, and so if you're doing a lot of general hiking and you want to do some general landscape shots as well, you'll probably want to bring a more general purpose wide angle to short telephoto zoom as well, along with this, so you might have a two or even a three lens system. But you could do so in a relatively small bag that should fit in the packed with everything else you have. And so there are many other good choices. But these are, I think, are three of the best that I can think of right now. All right, Next question. I don't always have my camera with me, and I don't like keeping batteries always on charge. So are there times there? So there are times when I miss out on unexpected photos due to flat batteries. What tips can you give for maintaining a charge battery for those unexpected moments? Thanks, Rob. All right, Rob. Good question here. A lot of us have become very aware of this. Back in the days of film, I used to like to shoot a Nikon FM two because it would still work without batteries. And in the days of digital, you have to have a charge battery or you are completely out of the water. And so you do have to kind of keep up on where your batteries air charged. If you don't use your camera's on a regular basis, that can be a little bit of an issue. So one of the first things that I recommended most all of my camera classes is always having a spare battery, and so that way you have that battery charge and then you kind of cycle through them. In fact, here's what I Here's what I have today. I brought my Little Fuji camera with me because I not expecting to take photos. But I just want a small camera, and what I do is I have a small little pack that I bring with me wherever I take a camera, and inside this pack is the absolute essentials. When you're shooting, Number one is a charged spare battery. When the battery in the camera wears out, I have this one. I also carry a memory card because not that I'm likely to run out of pictures while I'm out shooting. But there may be a communication problem with my camera, and the simplest thing is to take out that memory card. Put in a new memory card, perhaps format it, and that way you can consist in you to shoot photos. Now, if I shoot too many photos, it's a nice thing to have, And the third and final thing I'll keep in this just very tiny little bag is a little tiny lens cleaning cloth. If you have a battery, a memory card in a cleaning cloth, you can handle just about any situation. Slings. You have your camera there with you, but what I do is I usually have to batteries, and then I just cycle through those next up. When I placed my camera down on a flat surface, the lenses tilted down, putting pressure on the lens. Does this place pressure on the lens or the lens mount that may cause damage? Can the lens be left with the zoom extended without causing damage? And that's from Michelle. Thank you, Michelle. Well, cameras are kind of unusual electronic devices. They're not like TVs and microwaves and stereo components that are designed just to sit there on the shelf. Camera manufacturers know that cameras are going to be taken out into the real world and used in a variety of different places. And so the lens mount from the body to the lens is generally a very, very strong mounting system, with one possible little exception that I would talk about is that a number of low in lenses have plastic mounts, and they're not going to be quite a strong. And if they get bumped really hard, they're more likely to just break and snap off on a higher and camera. It's not likely to move it all now. I have seen some cases on the sidelines of football games where a football player has crashed into a photographer and they're 600 millimeter lens in their professional body have become separated and damaged beyond repair, most likely. And so, with a normal case of taking a normal lens and setting it down, it's perfectly fine. One of the things I would caution for anyone that has a rather big lands is setting in the lands straight down. So the lenses straight up in the cameras on the top because that tends to be a very tall device that can fall over. The other thing I would mention not directly addressed in this question is be careful with camera straps and tables or counters if you put your camera on a table or counter and you have this strap hanging down off the side. If somebody comes brushing by that, they may hit the strap and pull the camera off the table. So you do have to be careful when you're not using your cameras, Where you where you were putting them. And so I'm often trying to put them well out of the way so that people aren't going to trip over them or I'm not going to step on them and keeping them out of the way. But as far as generally setting your camera down, no, I think that's going to something that all the cameras are built well, toe handle. Next question. I'm going to Antarctica on Antarctica Cruise. What lens do you recommend for the Nikon D 7100 and D 500? That's from Tom Bailey. Thank you. All right, we're going to Antarctica is got to be one of the best trips that anyone of us could take. I've been lucky enough to go a couple of times, and there is a lot of shooting that you can do from the boats because you do spend ah lot of time on the boats. I know getting from the southern tip of South American Antarctica is a several day. It's like a three day cruise where you're on the water totally for three days. And as you get closer to Antarctica, there's gonna be lots of icebergs, land potentially penguins, whales and other animals that you'll be able to photograph out there. You're gonna need a fairly long lens when you're shooting from the deck of the ship I have found. It's rather rare that you get to use any sort of wide angle to normal lens. And so something in that 301 100 to 400 range is gonna be a great lens, because there's gonna be a lot of details that are fairly far off now the D 7100 and the D 500 our crop frame cameras. And so I think a 300 millimeter lens would be good enough. In most cases, if you have a 400 I imagine that you'll be able to make use of that as well. If you're going down to Antarctica, they see the animals and they let you onshore and you get on shore. That's when you're gonna also want your normal too short telephoto. Zoom your 24 to seventies to 105 Those could be really handy. The ultra wides will not be as useful. It depends on the location that you go to. But if you're gonna be getting close to the penguins in South Georgia, yet you can get down there with an ultra wide lens and get right up close to the penguins. But from the ship itself, I think heading up on deck with a 72 300 or 100 or is where you're gonna be doing most your shooting. Alright, what lens do you recommend for use for street shooting in the night time? So street photography has a number of characteristics on what's best for that. Now, of course, all of this is filtered by what you want to do in the style that you like to shoot him. But let me let me give you a little slight here on some of the best lenses that I think for this type of work. And so when you talk about night time, we're talking about it being dark, and so you need a lens that lets in a fair bit of light. And so all of these lenses are relatively fast lenses. Now, in many cases there are options for even faster lenses. But the problem is, is that street photographers don't wanna have. They don't want a big a big fuss of themselves. In most cases, they want a small, discreet camera with a small, basic lands that doesn't draw a lot of attention. So, for instance, with Cannon, they make the 35 14 That's an excellent Lands, but most street photographers would it be shooting at 1.4? That's a very shallow depth of field, and you would really have to be careful about getting focus right. A number of street photographers prefer just shooting at F eight and Zone, focusing on something that's about 8 to 12 feet away. And then they would just compose and shoot, and in that case, you don't need a superfast lands. But if you are shooting at night, you might be shooting at two or 28 And these were all some good choices for some of the more popular systems out there that are small lightweight. They let in a fair bit of light. You can manually focus or auto focus all of these, and so this is what I would choose if I was going to be going out doing some street photography at night. All right? Next up is my guess. Scott. Robert Lim. I'd like to bring out on State Scott. Great to have you here. Thanks a lot for being here. Thanks for having me. Let's let's grab a seat here. We're gonna look at your photos here in just a moment. Now you teach a number of classes here creativelive, don't you? Yeah. I started teaching here about four years ago, and I've done a lot of different types of, you know, different workshops on I'd love it. You know, I just have a passion for teaching. And, um, it's just when it's so rewarding. Teoh kind of bring those people wanting to get to the next level with their photography, and you help them in some way. Um, do that. It just feels so great to help somebody along with their photography journey. Well, one of things I've been watching, a number of your classes and one of the things I noticed about you got a lot of high energy. You are. You are pretty passionate about this. Where does that passion come from? That's a good question. I think in general, my very positive and very optimistic person. And I really, um it's weird, you know, that would be teaching a class, you know. And I think I would be a good do a great job on teaching a certain lighting aspect or whatever. And then people would come up to me and they went to say, You know, I just really love your passion. And I thought I just told him I had some great information about whatever I was teaching. And then so many people just come in about the passion. And then I realized that, you know, that's a key thing. Keeping people inspired, right? And I think when you when you're passionate about something, then they can buy into it. But if you go along and teach other whole home whatever, they don't get inspired from that right? And you're not passionate, Are they going todo doing that? They go, Wow, that he's really excited about that, and it gets them more in tune and like, Wow, yeah, you know what? I need that kind of energy. Um, and so it's kind of contagious. Only when you're somebody in a room and they're passionate and their high energy. You can't help but be high energy. Also in passion about something. Yeah. Now what? What type? There's some people out there that maybe don't know who you are. What do you like to shoot and why? I started out as a wedding photographer, you know, and I think that's a great training ground because you got to do everything I can. You got to do it all within seconds to and deal with the crazy mother long, whatever. Right? And so But then I tend to kind of grow out of that because I was locked into a specific situation and Holy getting two minutes to do something I got well, wouldn't it be great if I could go and kind of have a little bit longer to shoot something and, in part, some of more of my vision into what I shoot? And so I started teaching, which I really love, but I really just love shooting portrait's and exotic locations and travel locations, and I just love it like going somewhere you've never been there before. There's terrorists walking around everywhere but this iconic, you know, landscapes. And OK, we gotta get something now, right? And that challenge of going in there and finding something and getting a great shot with the lighting and the posing in the composition, um and then allowing others to do it is just a really great experience. Well, you know, I think that might be a good Segway just to start getting into some of your photographs. Because as I bring up our first photograph here, one of things I notice is I was kind of going through your website looking at your different photos. Is that location scouting? I think it seems to be a big part because you have some great locations. Tell me about scouting, finding these locations even before the shoot. Um, yeah. Sometimes you you're gonna never you know, the time that you get there. That's the first time you're going to be there. And so And if you're like going Teoh, like, really far away place, you can't go there beforehand to check it out. Now, unless you have a few $1000 a spare or whatever, but I search online a lot I'll put in that place or, you know, let's say I'm going to Central Park so I'll just type in Central Park and Google, hit the images, see what Come up Instagram hashtags. And you can actually find a lot online. Yeah, the research has been so much easier now that years ago. And so is this Central Park? Yes, because I think I think I've been there now. One of the questions that I'm sure people are gonna have as we go through more of your photographs is what do you do about all the other people there now? Are you going there at a particular time? A day when there's just less people? Um, you know what? Innovation. Okay, this is the best time to go on location somewhere when it's raining. That's a nice clowns off. Well, those are added it. But, you know, um, that's true. I've been there when there's thousands of people walking around, and so you have to learn how to. Yes, Although it's busy, let me walk around the corner here. Let me take a different perspective of that iconic location and find a little nook where you can shoot, but it still has the flavor of the place. But there's not as many people walking around and that's a skill in itself. Yeah, because you a lot of people are drawn to that most iconic location. Okay, I gotta be right here, front and center, Right? And they could move themselves back a little that just to get to that, You know, the Spanish steps in Italy? Yes. Thousands of people, right? It's always crowded. Yeah. Decides to do a workshop. And I said, Hey, guys, do you think if we go to Spanish steps at 1 a.m. In the morning and they're like, uh, yeah, sure. Let's go. Because that and it was empty. Rose Empty. How beautiful. Yes. So it's just, like kind of, Ah, landscape photographer getting that sunset. Yeah. Sometimes you got to go out of the way, Teoh. You know, just get the shot that you want. And that's where that passion really carries you. Yeah, more like I'm crazy enough to do that. Now, Was this a shot that you were setting up eyes this for the couple or what happened? What was this for? Yeah, So I was in class actually demonstrating, um, shooting with couples and using a landscape and, um, just creating some different posing. Beautiful love that. I love that. Now, where are we? Okay, wait. Here we are. You know, we're at an iconic location, but we're not front in Central Were a little little corner. Just a hint. It's something. Right? So I rented this huge five bedroom flat for the workshop. Yeah, and so the balcony was really, really long. But the reason why I chose it because it had a view of the Eiffel dead, like I know I can get some sort of shot there. Well, you know, I could see how a lot of people would rent this room. They'd go. Oh, well, you can see the Eiffel Tower. It's It's kind of down there. It's like front and center. It's not like we're right next to it. You're You're probably half a mile away, if not more. Right? And so yet to pull out your long lenses. I think I was shooting within 85 here, you know, bringing compress it to bring the background closer. Now, obviously you're adding in some external lighting here. Yeah, natural. This is not the natural light that they have on the porch. No, I had a guy pressed in the corner there with a flash and an umbrella firing some light down on top of her. So? So if you were gonna go traveling to do this sort of work, whether it's for a workshop or you're just gonna go do it on location for a client, how big is your lighting back? Um, you don't need very much at all. That's what I really love. Teaching is going out with a couple manual flashes in a video light, an umbrella. Good to go when you say manual flashes you're talking about, like on camera flashes. You that? Yeah. Ah, wireless system where you can control the lighting off camera. Um, and you could just use a basic triggering system. Or you can get sophisticate and do whatever you want, but, yeah, it doesn't when you kind of get out there and, um, have a little experience doing it. You don't really need a lot if you have the knowledge. How many lights do you like to work with? You can You can deal with zero. What do you think? About 1 to 3 lights? Yeah. You know, um, and I use the sun as a light source to so if you're using the sun as your life slips. And even if you just had one, then you can add a rim, light or back light on top of that or whatever natural lights given to you. So I feel, you know, in general, couple flashes will do it, because when you're shooting in bright sunlight, you might need to put them together to overpower the sun. And then also, you can split them up so you can have a main in a rim light or something. So 2 to 3 usually don't go past three, cause you don't have the time. Yeah, you know, it gets it gets complicated. Yeah, thereof in Paris. And even if I'm setting up a backlight, that could be somebody walking around and kicking it or whatever. So you don't tend toe, have time to set up four lights and a location where the bunch of tourists are and everything. So, how big of soft box will you bring with you? Um, yeah. I just use the sheet through umbrella through bribery. Three inches, Holds up, Holds up. Damn protected from the rain to I can't tell you how many times that came in handy. like it's raining and you're all good. Excellent. All right, let's check out this next one here. So, whereabouts was this one. This was in Australia. Actually had a museum that we shot around. Um, and so, uh, that's a really fun shoot. And, um, I'm just using ah, popping. There's a great rim light in the back there, and I metered for that rim light. And then I just added a little bit of flash. And so a lot of times, people meter for the background, wanting the background all nice, but when I'm shooting a portrait, it's really hard to recreate a rim light in photo shoot. I don't know, baby. If you could create a after a program that can do that and filter that you be like a millionaire So, uh, even at the expense of blowing out some background, which I know I'm doing. No. I love to just get that rim light, even if it's suddenly there to keep that there to preserve. Well, it's a nice separation between. Yeah, Picked in the background. It really said yes. Now, when I look at her and I look at her dress and I looked her makeup you're working with. Other people hear that air helping set this up? No. I mean, yeah, I mean, the makeup and the dress. But when you're on on this on the location, it's all me, the photographer, directing and telling with the duty track of everything. There is a lot of things. I mean, just beyond the photography, there's organizing people and making sure every detail. And I can't tell you how many portrait's I've shot and then realized, Oh, this is turned over and this is in the wrong position. It's hard. It's really hard. I think you'll go through a stringer shots and go, Oh, shoot her hands right there. Why didn't I get that? You're you know, you're killing yourself, and I think that's just when shooting a lot and doing it, um well, you know, just in ah workshop that I taught if you don't have some of the fundamentals down, let's say you don't have your lighting down. Your mind is concentrated on how'm I gonna like this. Is this gonna work? You can't notice all the other small details that are there, right? Yeah. Just consumed by that one thing that you're worried that. Yeah. So what? You kind of have a handle on the lighting, the composition, the portraiture, I mean, the opposing. And then you don't really have to think about that because you know what you're doing now? A You can see the little detail. Oh, can you remove that bag back there? Then what's more important? If you don't have to worry about those fundamentals, you can be more creative. And that's the thing that is going to separate you from everybody else getting to that creative side of yourself. But if you're bogged down just trying to understand the technology, you know that they don't know their camera. They think it's like I said, It's going down. What do I do? Right. So you have to have those fundamentals allowing creativity to shine. Nice. Nice. Let's go into the next one Here. Interesting location. Whereabouts is this This was in another museum in Australia. Yeah. And you know, it was great there. Ah, because it was in congre, which is near Sydney, and they let you do anything in their in their museum. I mean, like, shoot if that was in Los Angeles, that we have security guards all over permissions. You sure we could shoot on your Oh, yeah, We do it all the time. And I was having a ball cause and they had these. This was like a wave struck, sir. Metal waiver concrete wave, you know? And so I just used that as a backdrop and we had a beautiful sense that going and and had some light coming in that edge light where it was, a couple flashes from behind her just to give That s o on this piece in particular or in general, in the other work. How much of it is your vision ahead of time. You know what the backdrop is? You know what the shot is versus you get on location and you start going. Oh, this is gonna work. And you start changing in moving, right? I would say, you know, you get done location because you don't know what the weather is gonna be like, either. Yeah, So you could look online and, you know, all the shots are like, you know, in brights are nice sunset or whatever. Then you get there and it's rating. Oh, shoot. You know, So I kind of liked I don't do that a lot because I don't want my expected expectations so high because you might get there. It's a completely different situations. So I'd say, you know, 95% of the time, it's like, Okay, let's go there and see what we can come up with. That's the challenge that I love. Well, you have a skill set that were that works because you've been in enough situations where you can assess by around lighting and all of them. That's what I love to teach is like, Okay, you're in this situation. Let's break it down into small, digestible things that I could do. And so when I teach about composition and I'm telling them to look for a like a shape and just put your subject in there, um and so, you know, a few little tools that they could have going into places like that can make a huge difference. Yeah. Nice. Okay. I think we're in the studio now. No, really. I got interesting story about okay. Lets you OK, so I'm in China doing this workshop, okay. And the whole week, you know, we're taking a bunch of great pictures, and, um, these air, actually, else the students in the class. And then it's kind of like, uh hey, we've been taking pictures of all these, You know, other people. I want some pictures of art, you know, of ourselves, all dressed up in everything. So the last day, I mean, I think this was shot at, like, I don't know, 12 midnight. Or is it like that? And so they get all dressed down. Go. Okay, fine. You guys get all dressed. So we love to shoot you guys. So they got all dolled up and dressed up, and then we just had a great time, you know, shooting. And this was happened to be the room that they were in had an interesting, um, wallpaper that that's just the wall. That wallpaper. I was like, almost sure that was like, a special backdrop you brought. No, it was the wallpaper. And it was actually gray. Wow. Because it looks I thought it was almost illuminated from the rear because it's got it is I put, like, flashes down there and to use, like, for small little flashes. Okay. And then we kind of together kind of thought of this little Ah, getting because that's what they were doing. You know, they were getting each other ready before the shot. And it's actually, you know, kind of one of my iconic shots that I've taken. Yeah, very, very distinctive. Shocked for sure. Yeah. Let that. Okay, so tell me about getting in a location like this, Um, because you don't just walk in. No, you don't. I I was doing a workshop in Kansas, and they had access to this place. Hey, Scott, you want to shoot at this theater? Yeah, and but you know what? Getting access to police. Ah, lot of times you just have to talk to you. Don't realize how many of your friends have a contact of a contact of a contact that can get you into places. But you just have to throw your dream out there. It's like if, oh, I wish one day I could shoot a Dodger Stadium or whatever. Throw it out there. And eventually people know some people that know some people. And you're there, right? Let me tell you a story. It's like one of my dreams. I'm I'm a huge like Oakland Raiders fan. Whatever. Right? And so it turns out that, uh, you know, my cousin works for Marshawn Lynch was big, so Yeah, and so, you know, I just kind of threw that a It's my dream one day toe like shoot at a Raider game there and he goes, and then he set it up for me. So, like, you know, the last game, I think it's December 31st that watch me, I'll be on that side, throw it out there, you know, location. You see, like, you just keep throwing out there might not be, you know, the next month or the next year. Whatever. But you will get in there for assistance. You persistence. So on a shot like this, you're setting up some lighting, and I'm kind of interesting is somewhere topic we've talked a little bit about is once you have that lighting set up and you're thinking OK, well, I can try a few more poses like this, or I could move the lighting over to another location, But you have that moving the lighting. Yeah, Okay. Down here. I reset back up, and it's gonna be 15 minutes before you start shooting again, right? How do you kind of balance off. Let me get more poses in this location. Versus Okay, We got to scrap this location and move on. Um, yeah, Well, the first rule that I say, is if you feel that it's not working out right in the beginning, cut it short. And so even I'll do that. I'll be shooting whatever. Go. You know what? This is terrible. Lets you geo start busting up. They know I'm human, and and that's the first thing because it's kind of like you get in there. You're trying to polish a turd and that Listen, that idea that you had just doesn't work and it happens to everybody you know, s so I think that's the first thing you've got to feel excited about, what you're doing And it feels like, Hey, it's coming together. But if not, don't work at the death. Just go to the better location. It's kind of like when you take a whole string of photos, that event, you know, the ones that are good and you can just see it right there. And the other ones are not so good. But then if you try, keep working, getting Photoshopped forever. You're still It's not gonna be a great shot. You just got to move on to the good shot. And that's the same thing with locations or the idea that you have. Uh, it's going to just come to us. Oh, okay. This is magic right here. So find the magic places and just go to them. And if you don't feel there's any magic there in the beginning, just cut it. Just move it, Move on. Yeah, that makes sense. Makes sense. All right. So I threw this one here cause this little different multiple exposure or later, I depending on how you want to do it, tell me a little bit about this one. Uh, I just edit. Did this one in my phone? Actually, you're killing me. Okay, over. Then I took it in tow. I then I took it into Photoshopped and smooth the skin out a little bit more. But it just did a double exposure of my phone. Um, and so I just, um I wanted to kind of I had a lot of great shots, but then I didn't want to make people look at a whole string of them. So I go, I kind of like these two shots here, let me just see if I can find put him together. And I had some empty space from the other side. And so, like, tried that. It was kind of experimentation. Yeah, And I think that's what you gotta do sometimes is to experiment. And it might, uh, give you an idea about going down a particular style to develop more. Right? So currently, you've been shooting for decades. It sounds like Ah, yeah, about 15 15 years. Now. What's your current challenge? What are you working on right now? Oh, man, Um, I think it always comes down to, um, for me teaching and creating programs for people. And so, like, for me, photography wise, I love it. And so what I'm trying to do is take my photography knowledge and create parole, take take a person through a program where they could finish at a certain level and make a certain amount of income. And so my mind a lot of time is although I love the photography in my mind is actually more on the people and getting them to the next level because that's what really makes me tick. Is saying Damn, And so that's what I'm trying to do, is is create something in the industry where they could go through a certain program and then, hey, make X amount of dollars at the end. Just like any kind of profession of being an engineer or a doctor or whatever. I don't feel that they're yet for photography. It's just scattered. Although it is, it is, you know, in the universities have done a terrible job doing that because you just come out of their UN prepared to make any kind of money, you know? And so anyways, that's a little bit different than you know, my photography. But that's really that's perfectly fine. I mean, it has me thinking. So you you lied a number of workshops yourself. Yeah, And when somebody comes onto your workshop, what is your hope that they already know they already have down? Because they you're not starting at. Okay, this is the shutters. You you need to have them to have a certain amount of skill level. What are those? Basically and I'll need to be addressing. All I say is like, if you can shoot your camera in manual mode, then you're good to go. Yeah, that's all I require that when I say change your I s so they know what that means. You don't have to come around to figure that out. Yeah, because that's on life. Suit is in manual, and I'm not a guy that knows every feature like you. I know my five network for May and yeah, yeah. Good. You know, that's like most people are. You get the few figured out and then that you can go. All right. Another interesting location here. Now, where is this? This is one of the most iconic places to shoot in Los Angeles museum. And they don't let you bring a lot of lighting, equipment, gear. Anything that you can hold in your hand is a little. But once you put it on the ground, here come the security guard. Get up, Get up. You're from Los Angeles. Los Angeles has got obviously the huge movie industry. Yeah, but there's a lot of still photographers down there as well, and it seems like every couple weeks on some photography block I see about some location. You now have to get more prayer. I know it's terrible. Yeah, you know, go to Australian seated Spain is pretty wide open to I loved it Well, there's a lot of countries that you can travel Teoh not have the rules and regulations that we have here in the US, you know, it's just getting terrible. Can't do it, Can't you do anything? Can't even shoot in a restaurant and more, You know, it's like, Oh, gosh, talk to me about working with models or everyday people in how much time you have with him how you direct them. You're making things easy on them. So you get the memorize them. So usually you know, the people that you see on my website like for here They're just friends, actually, you know, and so I like working with people who are not like trained is being models, cause it's better teaching examples. So you you don't have a lot of time at all. You just have a few minutes. So you really have to practice, um, knowing how to direct efficiently somebody to get a shot off. It's nice. And, um, you know, for me, I find that if you let a ah person just do whatever it usually is not very good. They need your direction and you need to find Tune it. Because a lot, you know, even some trained models, a lot of times they don't their hands or not is finished or whatever. So you need to know your craft and then executed Don't have that expectation on the model. It's because it's all about us. Good advice. Good advice. There. Now, I wanted to show this one here, cause this just seems a little bit different. Yeah, some of your street photography or way we're doing on a eso. Uh, we were shooting this model here, which happens to my cousin. And so, uh, we're just walking by. And I saw these guys taking a cigarette. Break a goose. Stan, do you mind if she's standing that that doorway there? So then we put her up there, and they all started walking away, going todo No, no, no, no. Stay there. Just do what you're doing. And just damn clicked a few shots. And I loved it. And that's the type of thing that you don't plan for. No. I mean, you could hire everyone, but you can get it Just if you're quick, rise your quick and you talk to him, right? You can make things happen. That's literally, like a 32nd shot. Nice. That's it. Taking advantage of the situation. Yeah, perfect. Perfect. And I think this is our last vote of years to look at another great location. Talked to me about this one. Yeah. You know, every year that I go to Paris, I run out this huge chateau. It's actually the place where they started horse racing. So it's built in the 14th century, and I rent the entire place out for our class, and we always get some amazing shots in there. And I always kind of do, Ah, one of my things, his nose towards the light, right s. So that's what she's doing and just taking a wide angle of it. And sometimes you have to learn how to shoot tight and wide. And so this is more about exercise of trying to kind of show the kind of, uh, the majestic, you know, the huge the grandiose place that you're at, right? Is this all natural? Yeah. Yeah, that's your lower shop in there to give it that pink tone. Give it, give it a little color. Yes. Well, beautiful. Great collection of images. I you have so many great ones. I like Oh, boy, is that really awesome to be able to choose from all these different ones. So thanks a lot for bringing those in. Let's see, we might want toe let people know where they confined your other classes. Here. Creativelive tell the folks at home a little about these three different classes here. You know what? I'm really proud about this. Ah, portrait photography fundamentals. Because that was kind of the class where I felt like I could put everything together in a short amount of time. So if I if you know of a student came to me and said like, Hey, I only got, like, a couple of days. Can you teach me everything? Oh, OK, that would be that class. And hiring you for a couple days would probably be a little more expensive. Yeah, just a little bit more on. So that's one where I put everything together and then the other classes, Um Ah, we're on photo week, right? And I kind of get more specific and detailed about things. The natural light is great. It's like a give you several different ways to shoot in natural light with bright light and all that kind of stuff. And then the third workshop. I really love to that. That's when I kind of get into business and life skills were talk about. It's just not knowing your camera to be successful, to earn a living. You still have to have these business and people and some life skills. These are things that are important. And so it's just a really short workshop, given you overview of because I've been an entrepreneur for 25 years, and so I'm able to take all that knowledge and put it into a really short condensed class. That sounds like a great class. So, folks, if you want to check those classes out there all available at Creative Life and there were more classes as well, wait, you don't overwhelm you with classes around himself. There's those of three to take a look at right now. And if people want to keep in touch or follow you, yeah, actually, on Facebook I go by Scott Robert Limo together like that, But there's also another business page, but I'm really I'm more involved in my personal page. So just follow me on my personal page there, and then Instagram, of course, that's got Rebellin. Excellent. So I'm gonna go ahead and switch over to the light room that I have set up. We're getting a little out of my You're not going behind these images, most likely in my book. So my first thought is Okay. Obviously, that's a pretty impressive place to go get a photo. So somebody had to be ready and somebody was thinking ahead, or this is a ramp on the back side of the rock. You have the ladder on the other side. Who does? Yeah, but I love it. I mean, that rock is kind of like, uh when you get on top of something, it's kind of like putting them on a pedestal, right? They look like they're on wedding cake. Yeah, and so I love that. And I love how they created that, you know, sky there. And they found that space there and put them right in the middle of that. Um and ah. And then they, you know, put him up there. And I think that's great. Um, when I'm looking at it, Ah, you know, I would kind of like this, and I see that's very typical where you just get up there and kiss and whatever, cause that's a very natural thing to do. But me in particular, I'm not. When you kiss, you kind of like distort two faces, right? And so this is one type of picture. But if let's say I was doing that, that wouldn't be my first choice to do that. I would do something a little bit more posed and when you're taking it, Ah, wider angle shot. Um, sometimes, ah, I like to create a little bit of separation so I can see both their profiles. And so that's one thing that I think would go good and it would create more of a silhouette to you could see them both of their profiles a little bit so you could do the same thing. But maybe just open up a little bit. You don't you know you they have to be kissing to know that they're together, right? And then another thing is, whenever I do this post, I have the bride Archer, back, back. What does that do? You And so what? It does is that, um you have kind of the solid strength straight up and down of the guy. And then you have a little bit of a bend for the female, and it just doesn't look like two parallel lines. Okay. And so you want to break that up a bit, And it just has more of a flow to the opposing just those little time, Simple things like that. And so I kind of understand that another thing is, I don't think they brought any lighting there. And so if you squint your eyes there, you know, you don't really see their faces. It's kind of bright over here, So maybe you could tone down the, um, highlights a bit. Um, and there's a little bit I would crop. It may be a little bit different, cause there was a little bit more space on the left hand side of the rock. Right. And I'm not sure of pulling it down a bit more wood. Kind of focus on them a bit more, but I could see how you're trying to get the sky in there. Yeah, but you know, in this case, the sky is not super Van tastic. So maybe just focusing on them a little bit more might work. Or maybe they got caught in between. If they just did a pure silhouette of it, maybe that would be powerful to Ah, but it's kind of a tweener. So you're seeing them. But it's also kind of a silhouette to, so it's a little bit caught in the middle right there. One thing I'm noticing is it looks like they've lightened the rock up. And there's this kind of glow around the edge of the rock where they've like, Oh, yeah, and I think that could be tidied up a little bit. Right? Little better technique on that? Definitely. You see that halo? Darryl? Yeah. Little halo heart. And so this comes from John Lamb. It's excellent boat. Excellent picture Has amazing potential. I want to go there. Where is that job? So John did mention in his little comment on his own photograph. Didn't bring the ladder. That was part of the plan there. So? So thank you, John, for that photograph. Our next one here is from L J. Denham. And we're going on location. I don't know if you know this. Look. Oh, I know exactly where that's just That's in Los Angeles. Another iconic shot to take pictures. Um okay. Um, did you want to say anything about what you want me? Well, um okay, since you probably have a lot more Teoh. My first observation is I think I would like to see a little bit more of the reflection in the left hand side, and his face kind of got cut off with exactly where they positioned. And it might also see both of their faces rather than having him in the crease. Okay, that's it. I'm, uh, okay. Um, I think this has some good potential to it. And I think what draws your eye away also from that couple, is that the ground is kind of a brighter then them and because there wasn't any lighting on on them, so you could reduce the ambient light to make the background darker. Then I think in Photoshopped you had a kind of tone that down, um, or does maybe looked like there's some off camera lighting, but because it looks like it's directly at them and not mawr higher. You don't see any shadows on their on their body And it's so I think that takes away from the drama when you just have straight light shooting at them. It looks like maybe on camera flash or something, there's no shadows to contour their body. And so that takes away from the story to, um, not only, uh because that light doesn't look natural. So I always like to say is like if you're gonna do lighting, make it look like if there was a lamppost there up high, and that light was just coming down on top of them and you just happened to catch them making out. So I think with a few things, you know, I like the composition in the reflection and everything but with, you know, mawr, dramatic lighting and more dramatic post processing, I think it could really sing. Yeah, because you got Remember your eyes drawn to the brightest elements and it pulls away from other, more important elements. Yeah, photograph. And so let's first give credit on this one. So this is a 2nd 1 by LJ denim on here. Usually I don't let people get killing it. Let it let him come in here. Eso This reminds me because I do a bit more in the landscape world. And so I'm thinking new split neutral density filters here. They're darkening the sky. They might have done it in posts. They might have done it with an actual filter out there. But I think they've think is done. Impose it could be done opposed. I think they left that there's a middle strip of sky that's still too bright. That will see. That's what happens when you do impose when they don't know how to blend. That in. Is that you dragged a Grady int filter there? Yeah. And so that's why you don't you see it faded out there because they don't want to deal with blending it there. Yeah, because normally I think what probably would have happened if I did it in Post is I would drag it down and then say, I don't want to go on top of their heads because I don't want a dark in their heads. So I stop it up there. It darkens the top part of the sky, but not the direct horizon. Yeah, so I kind of feel like that. So I love the idea of adding that sky I think it's just it needs to be a little bit more believable. And a lot of times when you're not sure about that, if you probably reduced the a pass ity of that by 50% um, then you get a little bit of in there, but it's blended a little bit more without a lot of work, right? But yeah, it's a great idea, though, to enhance that. And so, you know, let's just let's just play for a moment, okay? So I'm gonna go into a dangerous hey, what do you think? I'm just gonna dark in this kind of middle area. I'm going over darken it first, so don't freak out everybody. So you gotta pretending like how you just brought it in. And so this is where it waas, and I think having it down here, uh, let's see. That's too far. Somewhere down here would be good. Now, I think you may need to go in and do another. Let's see, with close Alexi faster way days, and you could go back in and then lighten up a little bit on them themselves. That might be not perfect. I mean, this is quick and dirty And so I talked about this in in one of my classes in post processing the fundamentals One. How you When you're adding a sky, you have to blend them to make it look believable on what I do is I create a yell. Ah, yellow layer and photo shop. Andi, I used the multiply mode so it creates all the highlights that color. And then I take another blue and I select screen and it makes all the shadows that color. So it blends the highlights in the shadows the same. And then you can adjust the capacity of each layer, and then it really blends it together. So everything looks like it's the same tone because this guy will produce this light on on the ground. And so if that light is not matching this light down lower and it's not gonna work together, gives you a lot more control. Yeah, So if you were shooting in this location, what sort of posing would you think about? Um, yeah, that's not bad. I mean, this is like the most typical thing. Like just go over there and kiss each other. It's like the most natural thing there. I don't you know it? It's rather romantic. Ah, and I like it. But again, if you're going to do this post, Jeff, you just arched her back a little bit more and you separated so you could see each of their profile individually. I think that would just make up, you know, when Just a little bit of space. Just a little bit of space. Yeah. Okay. Well, good. Very good. Thank you for that image. Next up. This one is from Chris Bergstrom. And so now we're dealing with some Ah, some off camera lighting. And I mean, this looks pretty good to me. Yeah, I think, uh, they post processed it well, and, um, actually, the post is pretty sexy. It's just Ah, the location and the post to me or no, really, that matching, because there's nothing to put her legs up. There s Oh, I like the post. Um, but I'm just not sure if that pose works in that particular location. That she's okay. But, you know, I love the diagonal, and I love the dark background. Ah, that and I'm thinking darkened it. It looks like he dark and it and it pops off and she looks nice. And I love the post and everything, but I just, you know, I'm not totally buying into the post with that particular background. All right, let's see how good you are. Can you reverse engineer the lighting on this? What did they do to like this? Well, it looks like there's a little backlight coming from there. I see a little hot spot behind them. Rights? Yeah, there's I would have to see there. Some cash lights. There's you can see the shadow, right? Right. So, you know, So there's some light coming from the back, and her right foot has a big highlight on that. Right? Right, Right. Right over there. Right. And so it looks like there's maybe two light sources going on because there's not a lot of shadow Ah, on her body. So I think there's just basically some front line and some back life coming coming in. All right, well, thank you for that image. Our next image comes from my shell Jones and very shallow depth of field. Yeah, and so we're Do you like, Okay? I love it. Yeah, I do. And so this kind of looks like a senior portrait. Okay? Yeah, that's my dad. That sounds right. And so I guess my first thought is the window, right? What? We're all thinking that started down. Out. So, do you like the angle? Um, to this. How would you How would you? Okay, shoot this. Right? Um, yeah. I think that windows a bit distracting. So I'm glad that they shot at shallow depth of field because that takes that element away from that, Um and yeah, it's straightening out the window for sure, because that bothers the heck out of me. But are you talking about leveling the horizon, leveling that her eyes in a bit? How do you feel about exactly level versus a little bit off versus Very okay. Yeah. I feel like you got to get it right on or way off. They know, you know, it's intentional, right? Right. And then it's it's close enough here where you're Maybe they meant Thio was will straighten it out. Um you know, uh, I just feel like if there was more like, it's kind of got a little bit of raccoon eyes where the light was not into. Those lightened up the catch light in the eyes says so much about a portrait, especially if you're shooting waist up. To me, those eyes have got to be there. Bam, that's like essential to get a great portrait. And so you kind of see that shadow on her eyes. They're that kind of means that there was not enough light put in there to bring those eyes out. And so I think if that was added, I think that would make a big deal. And if they had a cleaner background, I think that would really hop. Now this seems like it's a really tough place to get a catch later. And rice, because there looks like there on the top of a garage or balcony. And so you're gonna need a new assistant with, like, a boom pull with a light pointing back Anders. So are opposed them differently. Okay, so if you kind of pose them where she's looking off to her left right, or to the right side of the frame, then you can have lighting over there, right and just right. Yeah, that's a good idea. That's why you don't have to work together. You know the pose in the lighting and That's hard. All right, so, uh, it's raining, so they don't have many people out there. Um, okay. I think we're getting back to that level horizon issue. Yeah. Yeah, Well, that river, right, um, is yeah, it is a little bit crooked on there. I mean, I like the concept. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just kind of feeling maybe the photo shop was a bit overdone or not executed because I can see how they made them brighter. Yeah, but then the trees behind them are brighter, too. And that wasn't like either. A very powerful flash. 400 feet across the way. Or like, I just feel like it was, um, just nuts. Photo show. I love the idea and the concept and everything. Plus, that horizon is going right through their heads, and so that's a bit distracting. So they're not in a clean spot too, right? And then the post processing is feels like it could be refined a bit more. Uh, but I love the idea, the backlight through the rain and things like that. I have a feeling that this somehow through the steps may have got cropped more than they intended cause we're missing just that top little nubbin of the umbrella and her dress is just getting cut off. Yet it awkward spot right there. And I have a feeling that there's more on the raw file. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe they were trying to straight it out, and then that's all the room they had, something like. So what about shooting tight versus loose? Do you vary that up a little bit? So the young for crop. So when I go on location and shoot, I have 85 millimeter one of my holsters in a 16 to 35 on the other, so I can quickly I don't have to worry about changing lenses or just go and shoot. And I try to shoot everything both tight and would to give me a variety of things nice so you can have lots of options to work with. And this was from MG photo vision. Thank you for submitting that image. Our next one is from Dale and Calvin. That offer there, and so looks like we're at a wedding. And the processing looks kind of interest me on this. We got a black and white image. Do you do? Black black. Yeah, Yeah, yeah. Well, especially when you're trying to show some emotion with it or you have a great, like silhouette. Um, and so I think it tends to work in this case. I really like this image a lot. However, I don't know if it could be more powerful. Just cropped. I know they're trying to get the dresses in there, but it's like when I look at it, I am merely to go. I want to see the expression on their face. Do you want a crop off the top? Let's because let's just do it right now like maybe Z chiefs go right below the hips maybe and maybe do it a little bit more square. I didn't mean, you see, so below the hips and you can kind of keep it wide and square and then just let me let's get along. Maybe that Yeah, you know how to work White Room. I'll let you dio my doing work here. Great. Thanks for making me work here, So let's Well, yeah, I kind of like the way you did it, but in my initially, um, you want the top of that? Okay. there, but see how you can get to get the emotion a little bit more despite how ya on this. Yeah, but let's go back to what you did where you kind of had it like this. Right? Well, I was just bringing it in real quick, but oh, uh, what do you think? Something? Well, I think I'm gonna have a different version than you. Let's see your version. So I don't know. I think, Yeah, so I think it's less distracting. And I kind of like it where I can see what they're doing a little and see their facial. Yeah, because that's what's drawing me to the image. And I think that's the thing. When you look at an image, I know it's photographers over trying to catch everything. The dress in this, but sometimes less is more right. Create that impact, right? So personally, I mean, I like where they shot in and everything, but I just think a different cropping situation. Why don't you give it a whack and going? I mean, I like their dresses down here, but I don't know that we need the whole window of Yeah, yeah, So maybe we can just bring a hint to that window in right here. Yeah. The one other thing is oftentimes on black and whites. You need a really good black. And I don't know if they have enough black, and so I might have just a little bit more black ops that a little bit. And so get that in the one thing about though, when you're adding that in there too is thes highlights. That kind of distracting to me. Yeah, that is true. If you do bring it up, you just have this nice, clean, dark, edgy. I'm down. But then, yeah, So there's some given takes on the right. Right? Right. So I don't know, actually. Well, to my two stands. Who? Dale and Calvin. Thank you very much. That's very good image there. Next up, Anna Gabrielle Delgado. And I'm thinking we're we've got another budding portrait photographer here. Right. Um, first thing for me is that big old host in the background, right? Definitely. That needs to be taken off their I think what's happening? His is right away. When you look at it, you go. Okay. That's artificial light there. It's because what they're trying to do his. They're creating some highlight that, you know, to off camera lights. But then look at the sky. It has absolutely no contrast in it, right? And so, uh, it's not believable at that time. So part of creating your life, it has to be believable to the situation. And in this case, it just looks, Ah, very artificial there, um and, you know, refined a bit. Or if you do that, then you're gonna drop in a different sky to match the lighting on the on. The and I talked about that in my fundamentals glass as I do that a lot. And I'm giving a flat situation. Ah, pops and flash on my subject and then add a similar sky that has some highlight and shadow. And then it all matches. And it's about being believable, right? Yeah. Certain realm that you have to be right, actually. Good. Good tip on that. And this one looks. This is this is a very impressive image here. Also, they've got a great location dress. Good model in there. Where the heck is that? I'm not sure. It looks too nice to be here in the way security guards like everywhere we can't even take pictures of it. It's It's it's dark. I'm not sure how much we want to play with the lightness on it, the sky maybe little overdone for my taste. It's It's It's impact. Yeah, I'll give it very impactful, right? But that's my first thought on it. Yeah, You know, I think they're trying to go for, ah, you know, surreal type of field. Teoh. And yeah, I think it's a tad dark there, and it looks it doesn't look natural. You know what I mean when it's like that. So I think just blending that element in there, Uh, and, um, you know, it depends on its use on what it's intended for us to, you know, is that sky to dramatic? You know, if you're just trying to make a statement, it's fine. If yeah, this is for a particular eye. I could see where it be too much for a lot of things. But for other things, let me talk about some of the thing I really know. Do you think that is that in the the posing? Yeah, And so you can see how she has her arm on one side. So that poses waited there. And I talked about this in the fundamentals classes where you have to have Yang and Yang. So it looks like there's a lot of young with that arm, and there's nothing to balance it off on the other side. So if he would have just had her bring her arm up on the other side. So her right hand around her front? Yeah. So she like, Yeah. So her right hand come around and just kind of like, right here. Okay. Then it would feel more balanced there in that pose, because right now she has one arm. She has one arm, right? And it just feels which is okay if it's balanced and some people have one arm, and then they had the hair on the other side to balance it. But you need an element over there. And then she didn't place her in a space where it was clean. See that? That that post coming right above her hair? Yeah. Yeah, right. He could have pit placed there in a little area where maybe this dark spot right over here just a little bit right there. Yeah. Excellent. OK, that's that's some great straight. It's great shot. Yeah, Yeah. Paco Van Wellen Gators job. Very go. And this is our final emerge Or Miklos Tasci? Yeah, and so this very reminiscent of I don't like this could be 100 years ago. Always, Except for you can tell the image quality is very good. Yeah. Um, I Okay, I think maybe one is maybe cropped a little bit more center. And you usually use split lighting on guys, which is nice, and so has a very moody feel to it. But what? One thing that bothers me about the ying and the yang is the young. That's kind of sticking out is that year. You know, when you look at it, you go Bam. Your eye goes to that year. So I would maybe take that down and to balance that out, maybe open up the right side a little bit mawr to have a little bit more balanced there, Especially if that here is so hot. And then also on the color on the shirt. Um, that's a little bit of a hot spot that I would reduce on that side. Also s o I. I love the concept. It's a great shot. It just feels like a little unbalanced with the lighting. And then with that year so hot, it just feels, you know, a little bit pulling that way. But if maybe you put some mawr exposure on the right here and open that side up, then it would feel slightly balanced a bit more. That makes sense. It makes us all right. Well, I'd like to thank everybody who submitted images to have any final thoughts on the question of you know what? These were a great collection of images to go through, and I think there's a lot of potential there for those photographers, and I want to just encourage them to Hey, keep moving for it. Looks great. Um, you know Ah, and keep learning and developing your craft, and you know, you'll be surprised how good you'll get If you just concentrate and say, maybe you want to work on one thing that year like, say, you know what? I want to work on my couples posing and you're just focused on that. And that's what I say to people. Just take one thing where you feel uncomfortable with and just work on that and don't try toe like, do everything at once. And then once you start putting all the pieces together, you're gonna find that you're gonna go very, very far by just focusing and concentrating on just one skill at a time. Excellent. Good advice. Well, I want to thank all the students for submitting their work. Continue to submit your work. So I want to take a look at it and we want to help you out. That's why we're here, a creative live. We want to help make you better photographers. So keep keep those images coming in. For those of you who are interested, if you're interested in some of my classes, I just put out a free class called the Camera Buyer's Guide. And this is where I take you through all the modern cameras and tell you what's what and what to look for. And some of my best picks for different types of photographers out there, of course, have the fast start classes on different cameras. If you have a camera with interchangeable lens, I probably have a class on it, and then my fundamentals of photography is an in depth course on learning shutter speeds apertures, composition, lighting and everything Every photographer needs to know. If you want to connect with me, you can check out my website, which is john gringo dot com. I'm on Facebook. I'd love to connect up with you there and on Instagram on posting on both of these sites on a regular basis and would love to be in the conversation there with you.