Lessons

Lesson Info

Mentorship: Shooting & Post Production

so month to I do not have a single spreadsheet for you. You literally don't have to write a thing. And you don't need your calculator so month to we're gonna get out there and we're gonna start shooting right on. We're going to start off with my personal baby and favorite macro work, right? So if you hate macro work, if you're like Oh, my God, I hate shooting rings And my clients don't even like that. Anyhow, don't do it. Pop into the next section where it's meaningful for you Or try this right, Like it's a helpful tool to have in your arsenal in case somebody does want it and the things that we're going to cover. Ah, lot of these shooting assignments with month one. You're gonna kind of have something that you need to dio almost every single day. With month two, you're gonna have time to sit with them, right? Like we're not gonna do macro one day and shoot a bride getting ready the next day, I want you to be able to practice and practice again before you have images that you can turn ...

in and again if you don't have a single wedding to shoot, grab a piece of your own jewelry and go to town. It doesn't have to be a clients thing. We're gonna talk about your Lin selection. We're gonna talk about the f stop that you're choosing. We're gonna talk about being creative, so sort of everything that goes into taking a macro shot, we're gonna cover it for you. And for those who have watched, you know, shooting details on 30 days, you're gonna kind of come in with a bit more oven inside of how I do things. But if you've never watched 30 days, if you have no clue at all who I am if you're considering this as your very first creative life purchase, I'm gonna tell you all of these things You're not going to be left out. So for some of you, it will be a course review for some of you. It will be brand new information, but we're gonna look at all of your work, not my work. We're gonna look at your work and help you make these decisions for yourself with your macro photography. We're gonna shoot. Getting ready. We're gonna talk about the lenses that you bring to this part of the day. We're gonna talk about how you want to use light. And if you want to use light in a completely different way than I dio, I'm gonna help you with that too. I had a few people email me and be like, Listen, my style is a little more like like Jose via a little more Elizabeth Messina. Are you gonna try to make me shoot like you? God, No. I'm not going to shoot like me. You don't have to shoot. I actually hope you don't try to copy what I'm doing. Like especially those of you in Philadelphia and New York. Do something else. I'm not gonna try to make you a clone. You should never be that You should be your own self. So if you want to shoot light in a different way whatsoever, I'm gonna help you make that the best way to shoot light of all time for you. So I don't just know how to shoot in one style. If you want to be in the shade all day long, I'm gonna help you make that best shade picture ever. Right? But we're gonna We're gonna determine for each of you how you want to use light. We're gonna talk about how you want to instruct your subjects during the getting ready part of the day. How much input do you want to give them? How little input do you want to give them? How are you being creative in that part of the day? Or are you? Do you just want to be very straightforward? We're gonna shoot portrait of the bride. And if it's not a bride, we're gonna shoot a Barbie doll or a teddy bear or your kid. We're gonna shoot a picture of one person at a time. And again the same kind of concepts. Linda's light instruction and staying creative. A lot of these will be very repetitive for every single section. We still want to revisit what Lindsay's you're using. We want to talk about the like that you're using and how and why and where it's coming from and how you're making it or finding it. We're gonna talk about how you're gonna instruct all of your subjects, and we're gonna talk about being creative, so just very quickly, go through the shooting portrait port portrait portion. We're gonna shoot portrait of two people and we're gonna answer all of the same questions, right? Issues and family formals or an arsenal of teddy bears. I care not. Lindsay is How are you making light here? How are you posing people? And how are you keeping cool when that army of teddy bears will not stay in one location and somebody went to smoke and someone were to go to the bathroom? We're gonna shoot the ceremony. And if it's not a ceremony, we're gonna hypothetically talk about how you would shoot a ceremony if you've never shot one before or if you don't have a wedding during those periods of times. But you've shot weddings before. Show me what you've done. This is the only one where it would have kind of helped if you've shot a wedding at some point in time. But if you've never done it, you will also learn from seeing what everyone else is doing. Talk about again. Linda's like a Sephora's. The ceremony is concerned all shooting of the weddings. They could do the teddy bears like you talked about earlier. A zoo homework is concerned if you passed wedding, you know teddy bears Or if you've never shot a wedding and you're like, I got this hype that I got future weddings coming up and I'm concerned about these things. Those are going to be the same concerns that people who are actively shooting weddings are going to have. So this is the only part that is, would be sort of more difficult to recreate on your own. But if you've never done it before, you will learn from everyone like the critics were doing of everyone else. And again light. How are you staying? Unobtrusive. How are you getting all the angles? We're not about cocktail hour, which is epically boring. You can go to a party and shoot these pictures, go to the club in shoot your friends. I've ever been to the club. I don't know what that entails. What lenses do you favor? Like I'm super freaking boring and I always happen. What exactly are you shooting? What about timing issues? What do you do if you have any family formal during then what do you do if caught? Hello? Early sucks like what do you dio? What if you shoot alone and you're shooting the portrait and they also want cocktail hour. Like we're gonna talk about some logistics. We're gonna shoot the reception room lenses. What exactly are you shooting? What about timing issues? What, you don't have any time to get in there and do it. And again, what if you shoot alone? We're gonna kind of delve into the reception. We're gonna start with introductions and toasts, Linda, lighting off camera flash and then troubleshooting issues. You know, we're gonna have a lot of trouble shooting to dio. We're gonna shoot some dancing first dances and parent dances. And again, we're talking about lenses and lighting and back off the off camera flash. And they were to troubleshoot your problems. We're gonna talk about cheating the party, the actual party itself, when everyone is drunk and will not get off the dance floor. Linda's lighting off camera flash and troubleshooting Nighttime portrait's winds is lighting posing. And where in God's name do you go to actually take these pictures at night anyhow, right? So what epic? About month three when we're talking about post wedding workflow and client care Some of you those of you who've watched 30 days you saw my beautiful friend Jennifer from sidecar post, who is still beautiful. And my dear friend, she is going to actually be here for that live day of critique for workflow because it would be very disingenuous for me to teach you work flow when I have a team that does it for me. Right? And she will be in the Facebook group helping answer your questions for that month. I hope I told you, Jen, that you have to be in the Facebook group answering questions, but I will see her tomorrow, so I should probably let her know that. But they're so good at what they do. And they've helped so many people with workflow that they're gonna actually come here and break it down even further for you and critique your own unique workflow. Because if you do 100 weddings a year or you do five weddings a year, you're gonna have slightly different needs. And everyone is struggling on a different level with their workflow. So we're gonna help you with that. We're going to first talk about getting organized. We're gonna define your project folder set up, which I find super interesting. How are you going to name everything. You're naming conventions for the events that you're shooting folders for your workflow step. And why is this important? Like, why is this? Why does this matter now? Sidecar has done a one day creativelive workshop on their own. It's out there if you want to get it. It is ludicrously cheap. And she came and helped me with 30 days. But people are still workflow, I've realized is something that is very hard to actually implement yourself. So I feel like that's a very important thing to have them here saying Okay, you're getting stuck aware. Now, let me help you get past that. We're gonna prepare your workspace. I'm really bad about that. We're gonna set your deadlines. How long is it gonna take you to get things out? How much time do you need to budget to get everything done in your workflow? Gonna check your gear? We're gonna make sure everything is calibrated. We're going. Make sure everything looks the way it should Look. You're gonna calibrate your screen. Yeah, have fun back up some long term storage plans, not just this month, but this year, but 10 years from now, your plan for the future kind of an important thing. We're gonna check out your software, which is so boring we're gonna learn and see. This is why outsource. Because this part is literally making me go. God, I hate this, but it's important, right? Like I can do 46 weddings a year because I give them my files. But if I did them myself, I know that there is always something that I can do to get faster. We're gonna learn about automating things, which I like automating. Gonna make some presets, talk about making some actions that will help you out, saving yourself from repetition. How to create automated things that help you do the things that you do over and over and over again, faster. And how you're in a back up everything critique, review and reflect. This is one of my favorite things. You know, every time you shoot a wedding, general come to me and she'll be like, Dude, seriously, you cannot shoot it. I s 0 250,000 over and over and over again. That does not look good. It helps to have a feedback loop. Reviewing your work, right? Reviewing your editing style that's also super important, asking for feedback, which is a really hard thing for creative personalities to dio. And why is all of this important? Um, we're also in Month three going to also talk about album design. I left kind of the last part of month three a little loose because I want to be able to determine your problem points as we're going through these first few months so that I will. No, While most people are doing shooting burns and not as many people are doing albums, maybe we concentrate a little bit less on that. So that's where the needs of the group will really help. Sort of formulate that last review period of the third month. So we've got about 12 minutes that I can answer anything, even if you've just tuned in. If you still have no freaking idea what I'm talking about, any questions that you have about anything at all that I have mentioned, Please let me help you Internet. All right, let's start with the ladies and they must have questions, ladies, about how it's gonna work. All of all the nodding at me, mainly I my question is, I'm about selling product or you're gonna go over that. You mean, like in a package or like a post wedding sales, Like post wedding sales, sitting down with a client? Yes. So, yeah, absolutely. I am awful at that. I'm much better helping people do it. That I am it doing it myself. And I will admit the areas which I sort of fall down. I am terrible after wedding sales, not because I don't know how to do it, but because I literally cannot sell it like I lack that thing in me. And I'm always trying to get better at it. But yes, I can Absolutely. I've been taught how to do it. I can do it, but I still can't help but feel like I'm selling used cars every single time I do it. Okay. You ready for yes? Ways you and I want You were just chatting way. Just got a great question in the Internet. I don't know the answer to it, but I think the answer is he asked. It was Is the Facebook Group going to stay alive after the course is over? Yes, definitely. That was something that was very important to me. that after the three months that we also have each other. Great. So that was really And I think that was from Eddie Wards. Curtis? Yes. What good would it be right? Like if we shut it down and then just throw you all out into the real world? Like what I wanted after this whole thing is over. For everyone to feel a very strong sense of family and community, right? And that should continue, which is fantastic with Facebook is right. Someone creativelive is either going. Yeah, are going way have to go make a change. But yes, I would like that Facebook group to live on forever. Great. Like I told you, the rest of your life isn't worth 419. So Sarah, 54 says I've shot a few weddings for friends. But I would love to have a wedding photography business if I don't currently have a business. It's more of a hobby at the moment. A lot of people out there like that. Would this class be beneficial for someone wanting to get into the photography business? Great. Or is it for preset businesses? I mean, if you if you have no business at all, and you're trying to do this. This might feel very overwhelming, right? Like, because it's going from zero to all the way at the top. But the great thing about this, too, is as you go through this with me, you'll own this class like this is you'll have it so you can do it. And then if you're like okay, I want to do it again. When I'm done, go back and do all your homework assignments again and go back and do them all again. And as you keep strengthening yourself, this will always you always be there for you. So I think that, honestly, I wish that something like this had existed. We've talked about this. Is bridging the gap between the regular creative life class, which you just watched but can't interact with, and a personal one on one live like three day workshops like the one my husband gets. This is your in between. This is where it's kind of in a middle price point. It's a lot of personal attention, but you don't have to get on a plane and fly somewhere. I would have been all over this if something like this had existed in my first save meal. A lot of Okay, so our photo wants to know One of the main concerns I have is that my winnings on a much smaller scale than the grand weddings of New York, both in size and budget. How this course where they're going, right? First of all, I have to stop you because if you guys think that I'm in New York like a the plaza every single weekend, like drinking Dom and eating caviar with my friends, I'm not like those are not the weddings that I shoot. And a lot of people have turned in images for the critique that are like, I mean, I don't shoot very nice, then you dude, I don't either. Like I don't. I'm in backyards and in catering halls. I'm in horrible hotel ballrooms in the winter. Like if you think that I can't help you because all I shoot or these grand weddings, that is not It's not true. If you think I shoot grand weddings, it's because I have done a good job making them look grand. I am all over the place. So if you're shooting at the V F W Hall every single weekend. Sometimes I'd rather be at the V. F. W Hall right then and some of some of these, Honestly, I'd rather be a the V F W hall with awesome clients. Then at the plaza shooting a $3 million wedding with someone who the dark seriously.