Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Laura Jean and her two dogs "Faith" and "Codi"

How are you? Good. Come on in America, Largely. Nice to meet you. Do you go by lower genes that Would you prefer? Okay, um, I actually made little post its because I don't know everybody but what I actually do in my studio. Because when people come in, sometimes I've done a consultation. But there's like husband, wife, the kids, three dogs, a cat like I'm not going to memorize all their names. I'm just not I don't want to call them by like, Oh, can you grab the cat? So today, tell me these babies, neighbors, duties on state Cody and phase. Okay, Someone write it down. So I know. And Cody is our boy, and he's a bigger one. Hey. Okay. You can actually just have a seat for a second. Keep him on a leash, And if you want to just have a seat. So high bib. How are you? How old are they? Cody is to faith. Is four k so pretty? I love that. I love how they're going. Completely different colors. All right, so let's switch this up. Let's do, um actually, I want to do in autumn and want to show you...

guys so large. And if you could switch over to this couch, Um, the ottoman is like my go to thing. If I could only choose one piece of furniture ever in studio pet photography, it would be to have an ottoman. So thank you, Creativelive. I made them search everywhere on Craigslist to get this 40 by 40 ottoman for me. But the thing with an ottoman when you're photographing dogs in the couch, if we were to put these guys on the couch, there's so much bigger they would either have to sit or they would have to go. But this way, head here. But this way, head here. That's the only way they're gonna fit because the couch isn't wide enough. If you use in autumn and like this, they can both lay straight on it. Um, and we can throw backgrounds and do all kinds of stuff over this. So let's get Ali. If you want to just help me, I'm usually doing this alone. But just for time, don't run my camera over. Let's get this out of there and then leveraging. Do you have a preference on background or can I just kind of get creative with what I think. Let's get whatever hate it for us. So again, if I'm doing a consultation with the client, we're talking about colors in your home. I'm not gonna wing it in a situation like this. Like it's good weekend wing it. But for clients who are buying while portrait's and doing sessions with you, I want to know what colors do you have in your home? Where you displaying this piece with this vintage couch? Match your style, or maybe with something more clean cut. Match your style. So I want to know those things when I'm shooting. But these babies, they're gonna look really good. Can we lower the background a little bit? It's a little bit high. So what? I'm gonna do it. We will do this blue here, and I'm gonna do the white blanket over that. So let's go sideways like this. So super easy. These backgrounds air from White House and they're like wrinkle free when they say they're wrinkle free like their seriously wrinkle free. Have you guys ever bought like a wrinkle free background and then, like it just doesn't work, and then you're traveling and you take it somewhere. And like thes air like the 1st 1 we were shooting with the green one. I brought that with me from Vegas. It's a White House background, too wadded up in my suitcase, and it's wrinkle free. So they're like, for real wrinkle free. They're great. So let's lower just a little bit Alley. So this is all the way to the ground. And then, uh, you found my toll money, Ibid. Hi. Can I have? Thank you. All right, so I dropped that and no big deal. I just don't want him to hear that noise too much. And I want that even Lower Alley. I don't want a gap there, just a lot of it. And it's okay if it's like hanging too low on the ground. But that's when. So this is also a good idea for, um, I'm good. Thank you for like, doing background yourself. A home backgrounds. Expensive, Right? So one of things you can do if you have an ottoman like this and you a bunch of different blankets, you can actually get just fabric in the back. I love White House because they have so many different options and they're wrinkle free. But you can just get a bunch of fabrics like this as opposed to going. I have to get a 10 foot by 15 foot muslin to drape. Um, that's my background. Hey, thanks, face. And this is my base that I'm shooting them on. So if you want to put what we're doing, that actually works really? Well, um, my ottoman that I have at the studio is like a regular kind of gripping material, So when you throw the blanket on it, it kind of grips. This is a really, really slick leather couch. So when you throw a blanket on like, they're gonna jump on it like we like, slip off. So alleys just putting Don't you like, line your cabinets with that or something like hundreds grippy stuff. So it's not slipping. That's perfect. Are you a quick question? Yeah. Please. A lot of people are asking about apertures. Yeah, I'm wondering if you what your normal aperture is, and if it changes depending on the breed or how big the dog is generally in the studio. I'm shooting 5. f 81 of those to like, kind of in that range 6.3. Like anywhere in that rain just fine with me. I don't shoot like 2.8. Like I want their entire face to be in focus. The only time I was shoot like a little late f or something is if I have a really wrinkle background that's not from White House, and I'm trying to blur it a little bit, but usually 5.6 F eight. Thank you. So I moved my, um, piece of furniture so I have to move my lights. Makes sense. They leave my lights where they are. My exposure is going to be wrong, but I kind of have a joke when I'm moving lights like this cause I move my couch that much, Unlike same exporters aiming sort of same exposure. Good. That's about how much I move. My ottoman. Probably gonna be pretty good. All right, so we have Cody and face. All right. So are you okay being in some of the portrait's Okay. We're going to start with them alone, though, so I love your necklace. Pretty. It's a little whale tail. All right. So coming up, we're gonna call them both up here of a get them all the way up, and you're just gonna stand right where you are. It happened. There you go. I don't hold on to his leash for a second. You want to get her up and see how they're smelling? Obviously, we're not ready. But if I was ready, this is not the time to make noises because they're preoccupied smelling. Okay, so we're gonna get their bottoms down. What? He said you're so good. All right, Perfect. We're gonna slide their collars off if you can reach a hand all the way across. Yeah, just so we're petting both of them at the same time. So they just get a bath. They feel so good. E love that fairly damp. Still. Keep your hands on them. So what you're gonna do, hunt and put the leash down just so you don't have it. So do you see how he's laying? He's relaxed. His legs were going out to the side. She's still in the pounds position. See it? I don't want to get her nervous because I don't know her personality yet, so I'm just gonna shoot it. If I fix that, it might get her all too much, so just get the shot first. So keep heading them home. What you're gonna do, Just keep your legs out as much as you can. Here we go. Keep your hands there, and I'm gonna make some noises to get their attention. This is just a test shot. Keep your hands. They're still. Yeah. If they look at me, you're just gonna slide your hands out. And I'm just gonna give him a second, cause he's still smelling ready all time. Thank you, baby. Stay there late. Did you guys see how he wasn't reacting? Cause he was smelling okay? Perfect everything. Do we have that one untether? All right, so I like their expressions. I don't love their body, but now that I at least got one, I'm going to kind of fix them a little bit. So just keep heading here. What we wanted. I know he's, like, taken up the whole couch. Yes. You're hogging the whole couch. Screwed his booty over just a little bit. You okay? What? Someone Thing that you want? That's perfect. She just did it. One thing that you want to do when you're handling animals like this again, I don't know their personality, but don't sit in front of their face when you're tugging on their legs or the owners doing that. Um, you just don't want to get bit. I'm not assuming they're gonna bite me, But just for safety, there's no reason to. So just stay on the side like this and see how his legs air all the way out. If you can pull her leg underneath all the way out. Perfect. I don't. If you guys can see that, keep your hands on there so they don't jump up, but both of the legs or kicked out Now, that's much more relaxed than when they were in the pounds position. Go ahead. Perfect. Easy. Okay. And if you can even their paws out and just get his pause a little bit more together and get her a little closer to him. Yeah. Stay there. You're so funny. Uh huh. It is perfect. Okay, Allergy. Right where you are. Keep your legs out of it. But if you can call them, I don't want them to get down. I just want them looking at you. If you could just call them number time, get her eyes all the way up. Say they've been one more time on him. We're going to be a little more aggressive with calling them. I wanted both looking perfect. All right, that's the shot I was talking about. That one's gonna sell every single time. And again, it's just emotion because the owner knows. Oh, they were looking at me. It's so cute. You're looking up. So you said that that shot always sell cells every time. Really? Yeah. Even though the owners not in it. Um, yeah. Just cause the people know, like, always so cute. They were looking at me. Shoot that one. All right. I'm gonna have you sit on. He has more room on his side, and this is actually a fantastic background for her shirt. So see how his body's curving. I know you all the way up here. I want her bottom in between that curve. Give me two legs. Yes, a scoot all the way in. Perfect. And you're gonna lean all the way over and I want her hands on both of them. If she would have put her arms just on him, she's being excluded. So we need to kind of include everybody Yeah. All right. Hon had just lean just a little bit. They're super calm. So I'm actually going to use a squeaky toy because the noises that I'm making to get their attention, they're not crazy dogs. And he's, like, a little bit bored with me right now, so I think it's okay to use a squeaky toy. Oh, sweetie. Hi. Ready? Okay, Stay there. Perfect. That was just to get his head up. Perfect on. Give me a smile. Perfect. And it's not good. Perfect. Easy. And then let's do looking at you shot. So you're gonna look at them, Not at me. And it's OK again. Wait one second. One second. This is example of if we were outdoors. That's not the right time to make a noise. Because if you guys both see them, they saw something happening. Don't try and compete with that. Whatever is happening, just let it happen. I know you guys can't see it on camera, but there's just some movement happening, and the dog's attention went right over there, So just wait in the second what I want to do. You're gonna look at them for one shot, but don't do it just that you're gonna blow on them. And it's a cute shot. They're gonna both look up at you when you blow it. Them such a smile at them when they look up. So go ahead whenever you're ready. Just blowing them. Oh, he is so calm. There you go. Big smiles. Perfect. And try and get her attention to Perfect. Okay, I'm good with that. I want to actually do a quick individual, each of them. So if we could throw her collar on and let's keep him up there. So he's the type of dog I know. I've only, like been with him a few minutes. Are you okay with someone else holding them on a leash? Okay. I'm just gonna whoever if someone wants to come over, if you want to come over there six weeks And I'm not like trying to be over Very what I was saying earlier with where you're standing, I'm standing in front of them, but I don't have my face in his face. So you want to just have a seat on the couch that you match your family down? If you wasn't noticing what's happening that we separated them and he went, Whoa, where you gone? So when you're doing individual shots, always try and keep this dog in the room. Don't have them leave if that type of thing happens. So I assume there together all the time, and he's concerned about her. So I just want to do individuals and what I'm gonna do. We did a full length shot of them together and what you can do when you're shooting there Individual portrait's shoot full length of both of them or shoot headshots able to them or both. But don't do a full length of him and a head shot of her, because then you can't sell anything if I do head shots of old of them or full length of both of them. I have options for collages, so he's super calm. I would love to get it like head all the way down shot. It's hard to get sometimes in the studio, but I'm gonna get perky first. You're so handsome. You're so handsome he stay there, but he just has, like, such a soulful face. All right, stay there. There's a smile. Perfect. That's like my favorite. All right here, where he put his head down on command. He's just super mellow. He's one of the dogs, like some people come in to keep petting him, see if he'll do it. But people come in sometimes, and they're like I would just love like a head down shot and their dogs like crazy. And I'm like, Of course, you on a head down shot or you have like a dog who comes in who's like blind and deaf and the owners like, I would just love them like kissing me and smiling and jumping, and I'm like, Okay, so if he doesn't, he likes that lobster toys that were down here down. And if I were shooting this in a session, I know I could get the shot out of him. It would probably take 10 minutes, but what I would do is literally just sit here and just hang because he's going to get where his head's kind of going lower. He's going to get bored. So which is tell the owner, Don't give him a bunch of attention. I'm just gonna hang, and if he does, it just kind of turned and don't be like, Oh, you're doing it now and shoot just kind of like, Okay, you're gonna do it. Click. Or maybe annoys. You can make in that situation cause you don't want to do a big noise cause they're gonna pop their head all the way back up is just And that actually really doing it, Casey, huh? Okay. I'm just going bigger and bigger with the noises cause he's not parking his years all the way that I want. Today's perfect. I'm good with that. Perfect good job, baby. Okay, so let's switch dogs. That's put his leash on. And I shot all of those as head shots. So I want to make sure when I do her portrait that I'm doing all of hers, His head shots as well. Thank you for holding. Yeah, that switch dogs Really about I put that up. There you go. Perfect. So I know we're really quiet, but this is really what my sessions air like. They're not crazy, and I'm capturing their personality. I mean, they're super calm dogs, so I'm not worried about getting that big, expressive, crazy look. I mean, that had down shot. That's a wall portrait. She's gonna be thrilled with that portrait. I give her a second. Just keep petting her in this situation. I'm going for a head shot. So I'm actually okay if her legs don't look perfect. I don't like her legs right now. Do you guys see what I'm talking about? But I'm going for a head shot, so I'm not as worried about it. And that's so cute. Do that again with her. Kiss her, Do you perfect. Love it and get smile hand when they when she looks at you a tendency what owners have a tendency to do? Yeah, she's good. What owners have a tendency to do sometimes is pucker their lips and pucker their lips Never sells smiling, Always sell. So it's like weird because your dog starts licking your teeth and you're like, What do you doing? But it does look better when the dogs they're looking at the owners or kissing if they're smiling and not puckering their lips. So stay there. Been They're so sweet. Oh, there's the years. What? I'm gonna dio We shot his portrait getting an angle this way. So I'm going to get many girl perfect and one looking at the camera. Uh huh. Thank you, sweetie. Ok, she's perfect. They're good. But what I was doing was just getting that 45 degree angle this way. So when you're selling again instead of they're already looking straight at the camera for the group shot. So we're doing a collage or something. It's like another head shot. They're looking. They're looking. So if you're going to switch it up a little bit, you have one looking this way. One looking this way as opposed to both of them looking in the same direction. Good. Yea, it's so good. You're so good. They're so sweet. You can tell he's so concerned about her. I love it. Thank you so much. Perfect. You're so good. All right, kiddos, you're good to go. Thanks. So, what do you need to know now is excited. Totally nice to meet you. So this is like See, I was getting excited when you're doing sessions. Don't feel like you have to do everything at once because sometimes I do consultations and people were like I'm not sure where they want cause he does this. But then he shakes. But then he puts his head down. But then you don't have to get it all in one session you want to create lifetime clients, so that was their personality. But if he's kind of like, Oh my gosh, we're going somewhere. Maybe the next time I photographed them and be a good outdoor session, and that would kind of capture that side of their personality and that when they come into the studio again or back to see you not studio literally, but come back to you for photography. They're not just like, oh, it just kind of looks the same, but the backgrounds red instead of blue. So that's a way to get your clients to do repeat sessions and switch it up, and they're totally different. So R. J M s. Is there any animal that you will not photograph? No. If it fits in my studio, if it fits to the doors of its A horse in the midst of the doors, they can come into my studio. No, I mean that he's probably asking like aggressive, I'm assuming are a number of questions about Have you ever met an aggressive animal that you will not photograph? I will never turn animal away for that reason on, there's because I've been bit before bit, probably 45 times. Every time I've gotten bit. It's something that I could have avoided. I got bit because it was my fault. I was fixing the owners hair. Maybe they're holding their little dog and I went in to fix their hair. They're not trying to hurt me. They're trying to protect their owner eso every time or like pulling on a dog's leg. Like how I didn't like how they were laying in a couple of shots. And sometimes I'm like, I'm just gonna talk. Of course, I'm asking the owners can I kind of took on their legs and their like, nip it you cause they're like I don't touch me So any time I've gotten bit, it's been something that I could control, and it's always something that I could have avoided, so I'll never There's no reason. So not do a portrait session with an animal because I'll have the owners to a lot of the handling. So you kind of saw in that session. I don't really play with them a whole lot. I wasn't super hands on. I mean, I kept my hands on them to keep them in their spot But if you have animals that are aggressive, just have the owners handle them. If I'm ignoring them, there's no reason for that dog to come after me. Exactly. And also, it goes to one of your original points of Don't give into the craziness. So just keeping that center. So I know that was really quiet. Are we good with, like, how those sessions went and everyone's like, so quiet? Okay, Yeah. Another quick question was, how How long do your sessions normally last? Great question. So the question is, how long to my sessions last? And typically I tell clients expect to be at the studio for about an hour, and we're gonna be shooting for about 15 to 20 minutes of that time. The reason I say that specifically with everyone is if you tell people all the sessions about an hour, if you get the shot in 10 15 20 minutes, they're like, kind of so cheated. She only hung out with me for 20 minutes, so expect to be at the studio for an hour. We're gonna be shooting for about 15 or 20 minutes. So that way, once I kind of past that time limit. They're like, Oh, cool, She's bonus. She's spending extra time with me. So we do have different types of sessions, which I'll be talking about today on. We do many sessions, which are short, quick, 10 minute sessions in and out. You're still getting the photography experience, but it's not the long hour long session, but typically clients at the studio for an hour. Animals don't last a whole lot longer than that unless you switch him up and go outside or something. Okay, Yeah. Okay. I have a question from Samantha Shutterbug who says when shooting people catch lights are important is their emphasis on a lining lighting to capture catch lights and pet photography as well. I'm not picky about catch lights. I've gotten into, um, competition lately, and one of the feedback that I got from one of the judges was with animals there. Their eyes air so rounded that the catch lights instead of, like people the catch lights or hear in here and with dogs. The catch lights end up here in here. So he actually said Photoshopped one of the catch lights, so they look more like people. So they're both on the same side, not going out on two sides, but for competition once a year. Maybe I'll do it. I'm not doing my clients. Do not notice it. Not of my clients. Whoever like Oh, look at the size of the catch light. No one's ever mentioned that. Um I shoot with square rectangle soft boxes. I know a lot of photographers shoot with round soft boxes just so they have that shape that's more natural in like the sun. But I'm not picky about catch lights. I just I care more about the light on the animals and light on the people. Yeah, okay. All right. Let's take another question. Other. Any questions in the studio audience? Okay. Great. With that first dog near the end. He put his head down on the on the coach, and it was super, super cute, And I would have taken photos of that before I tried to get it up, but you went straight to the head up. Is there a reason or were you just trying to show us the head of the owner in the shot? The cuddling? Yes. Yeah, not gonna sell okay, because the owners bodies in it and not that it's not going to sell, but if the heads down, maybe I'll shoot it just to be like, Oh, look how cute. But it's not a typical shot that people are gonna buy because there's so much other things going on with their hair behind them and their hands are on them and you see, and you don't see the client's face. And I wouldn't shoot it with the clients face in it because their heads are way too far apart. And that's just the wrong energy, because the clients like a smiling in the dogs head down. Okay, so maybe if you wanted to shoot that shot and not get his head up, you would have the owner, like, really cuddle down and lay her head like that shot or something where you get the head all the way down. But the energy wouldn't match if the dog's head was down and I wouldn't like it cropped in with the owner behind them. Okay, thanks. Yeah, we're gonna have a question from precious love photography. Who asked, Do you balance light for the set or for the dog? What if you have multiple dogs of different colors do you adjust for the lightest colored animal, as most people do for people? Got it. Great question. I generally under exposed if I had to pick one or the other under exposer overexposed to under expose a little bit on, and I brighten the darker dogs in photo shop, so usually do, like shadow highlight, and I brighten them a little bit. So I'm usually if there's multiple dogs like that. I don't want to blow out the light dog. So in camera, the white dogs and look perfectly balanced. The darker dogs and I look a little bit dark, and then I would do, like, shadow highlights or put a hike even yet, or something on him. Toe Pop that for out. You just need to make sure if you do that trick because, like people, we have our skin tone that can pop out with animals. All they have is there for So if you are doing a brightening trick like that, if an owner's in the shot, whatever is happening to the dogs for is gonna happen to the owners hair. So sometimes with like black animals when you're brightening, then they start to turn that kind of grayish color brighten up. You don't want the owners hair to look like that, so just make sure if you do that with the owner and the shop, that you undo their hair so their hair's natural. But the dog was brighter that answer the question call. So don't blow out the lighter dog. And we had a question from our L. Tony. Do you have any specific insurance for pets? I've had a few people asked me that and asked about contracts. And what if you get bit and things I don't for pets. I'm very, very careful because if anything were to happen, so if something happens to me, I don't care, because I know like I said, I know I could avoid it. I'm not worried about something happening to me. If something happens to animals in my care, that's a really, really big deal. So we have, like four doors in our studio. There's our front door. There's the door to the playroom. There's the half wall that separates the playroom and the studio area. Son pets come from the playroom area into the studio. All of those doors were closed, so if something were to happen if they were to kind of stick out or something. It's not like they could just run out into the street, cause I'm gonna go run after the dog and I'm gonna get hit by a car because I do not want something happens that animal. But I don't have specific insurance for working with animals, okay? And you have another sort of related question is Do how close to space your appointment so that the other animals don't interact with each other. Usually we book about an hour and 1/2 apart because I tend to book 3 to 4 sessions a day. If I were only booking, if you're only booking one or two sessions and book him further apart but trying to fit three or four sessions into a day, I do an hour and 1/2 apart. So, like I said, I tell people Expecto be here for about an hour. That gives me 1/2 hour to clean the studio. I mop the whole thing, and again, I don't want animals crossing paths. I don't want the dogs seeing each other, so if it's ah, it's a session with like $ to 3 cats, like booking in a longer times thought, but a normal session, hour and 1/