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Shoot: Whole Family

Lesson 13 from: Family Portraits

Michele Celentano

Shoot: Whole Family

Lesson 13 from: Family Portraits

Michele Celentano

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Lesson Info

13. Shoot: Whole Family

Lesson Info

Shoot: Whole Family

one tip right we're working with a big group like this if you bring the entire group toe where you want to pose him it's gonna be chaos so bring right so you want to keep everybody off to the side and start puzzling the pieces together placing the first person the second person and add then add because if you're trying to juggle all of these people in one place at one time it's going to get crazy so start with who look at all the bodies look at everybody hey everybody who does what some girl oh no baby's getting tired okay so our kind of thinking well we'll start with the same everybody hey I'm christine hi I'm christine figure of hi guys I'm thinking ghost are way teo the group that the older kids did with mom and dad and then we're going to build off of that so the one where the most uncomfortable of the poses so my little ballerina right now come on down I saw that victoria I'm gonna have you come on down and then so I'm gonna have you go ahead and get back in the post where you wer...

e on your hip and legs out to your to the left here so I would really start with a seated pose for this okay and then um we're going to go ahead and since big sisters holding the baby uh kind of women in this situation I do have to yes tatiana I do have to ask how would you since some have to hold the baby what what would your kind of step be here and I would give the baby to mom right now put the baby on mom's lap right now so we don't deal with it yeah well have you come and we're actually going to hold every right infront she's going to sit up on your leg right here oh look at a baby okay support right there rabbit yeah I'm going to his matter of fact oh so then tatiana don't don't walk off I'm gonna have to sit to anywhere oh okay okay so we're not just a little higher I'll bring her like under your arm there you go and then I want to hold your baby and then bring your hand away from her belly like more under her there you go and lift her up just a little bit get her closer to your face uh and squeeze her in I see somebody come right over my shoulder who knows how to make that child laugh who makes you laugh the most who who makes you laugh the most right here lean in and she goes oh and all you need to do is look at me well who's she look okay if she's looking at you come over here yeah uh mama what you doing oh yeah oh you shut your big girl hi ya big girl oh yes you're free but o c and um if there was a dog here I'd have to be barking sure she's so cute okay continue okay first is it from the smallest to the largest or the largest to the smallest cause it just depends on where you're going if you want to go the front first build the front first then broke a deal the back clear what I'm going to do and I actually don't know your name I'm christine you get really nice to me so he come on up we're going to put your right on in and we're gonna have you copy your mom and you're going to sit right up in between her legs right here so you're gonna get really nice and close go ahead have a good direction she's in and we're gonna put this with the leg and you can actually sit it up like this you're going to cut us in on your back and then put your gonna have u turn just a little bit towards this direction there you go remember to put people where you want the book okay and then we'll refine later although don't sit on your mom's lap scoot forward for it okay a little bit more there you go and that that's just the spot you could be but sit all the way down yeah in your hip there you go okay so then I'm seeing that I would go on the site and I'm yeah okay so let's who I'm blanking here like no I'm like a wife he likes you you know pick somebody so tatianna tatianna I'm gonna have you come ah double hit your mom on the other side you're going to mirror her and you're gonna have your legs out this direction just like that and then we are going to bring the next little one I think is noodles it's your turn oh look oh here you can run right to your sister let's wait a last way about it do you want do you want to sit with him okay there you go I would ever sit right between them that you're going to sit right here with mama okay don't worry we'll go ahead and will not worry about her yeah so then let's to bring in I'm gonna have you come on in yeah yeah and then hide your tall enough you're gonna come right behind your sis right here you are building those group way talked about dinner I'm so proud of her right now because she's totally getting what we talked about yesterday come up nice thing and you'll be nice and close and this leg is going to go right out so you're going to kind of be we're gonna move a little faster and a lot of tired it's ok ready leg speak okay I've never leg up leg down leg down okay like shouldn't go this way separate your knees a little bit lean over your sister see how that happened okay whoa and then does oh do you want to come on with me ok ok let go let dad come and dad I'm going to put you right in the center of the family so we're gonna come right back okay no worries no working good and then we're gonna have andres and I see here come on hub and let's check this out for a second actually and your niece I'm gonna have you started half I'm gonna have you come right up here wait wait a second start your I'm gonna put her look at that your promise and this is going to take my call okay I'm cia I come up and copy your sister that destruction get gabby so you're going to do just like tatiana is doing to your leg out and then we're gonna have brother come right here and down on your in both knees right whatever you say foes girl and then it's not bad and I had you sit over here we don't want to miss you back here okay here brothers got it and you can even hold your daddy's hand right behind him does that work you see camera angle camera position so and you're gonna be oh so it's pretty good right we got a couple of minor adjustments today like I would move shorty anna um out to the outside huh so andrea's I'm gonna have you switch with jordi anna okay I know it hurts I know yeah okay so and I would okay so what we're gonna have you do is we're gonna have you look up at me and we'll get this done really fast and then you go play your game allene ford over it the back over the front and look over here guys right there hey noodles don't you laugh at me you left it was actually pretty good so let's change it up a couple of things right because the last time so we lost now here's the other thing I kind of want to hide that cast okay so I'm gonna have I'm sorry I'm gonna have you guys switch places so that when you sit you can actually hide that cast behind your arm we're gonna bring you're gonna put your tush right in here that's it bring your touch right in here so so this is what's gonna go right here and then I just want you to leave your hand down here right there so I don't see your hot pink cast right okay bring her right tio tierney's you put your knees right out here you teach goes back a little bit further push your tush back just a little somewhere no suit by mommy yeah right put our tish right in this little space right here and then feed on a cross over this way just a little there you go you're gonna push this leg up just a little higher you're gonna push back just a little more so push back toward your sister just little bit more keep going keep going keep going see how I'm pushing the bodies back so I'm getting the more on the same plane right and so here just this hand will be here this hand could be here okay so uh george nana when I say it right okay lean over your sister georgiana mam's totally screwing up okay taso come to the side right here a little bit closer to your mom clean this way just a bit right there perfect hang on to her your good buddy you got dad's hand are you five trees you're almost turning six on friday is your birthday I'm my own man you know set on going to the movies you're gonna go to the movies to see what um the cruise the cruise it's crude the crew oh yeah yeah I saw that are you married yet no no I'm wearin e I found a girl so you found a girl that's awesome is she cute what baby phoebe uh gotta grounding phoebe he's gonna marry her does everybody approve of phoebe and I gave you hunter dude ladies man all right right cause tassel was having a little problem warming up so we get in there we start talking too tall so how you doing taso we're telling him that this is gonna open and close and he's gonna get a see it it isthe I think so all right so okay I need you would always like noodles back a little further so bring noodles back a little further there we go see how we're working to get anybody on the same plane beautiful guys in the back you gonna lift up lean over taso ladies man dude lean in not lean over your sister hold under any back there can you hold your sister's me right there put your hand on her knee that's it leaning squeezed together whoa okay uh try toe try to put your arm under her so that it's not all arm but I see more baby than arm there you go okay lean go this way just a little bit sweetie so I can see your sister and niece si ana ok I can't say right how do I say honey cia sulley what you but what do you prefer giulio you just tell me that so slowly move this way just a little bit more there you go perfect and then try to hide that beautiful pink cast relax little bit I want you to lean back toward your mom lean back lean back toward her mom a little bit relax out front shoulder go ahead that's it relax in front shoulder bring the baby this way just a little bit so we can see her yeah so what's up I love your name dude I ever is gonna look this way on happy happy happy new does don't you giggle don't do it everybody keeps my all anybody over the age of twelve keep smiling at me okay there we go oh oh oh but did you see no you keep making noodles don't you dare giggle stop it right now noodles don't don't do it oh I don't know baby okay uh silly go back toward your mom just little bit more turned to me just a little bit more so your slump in a little bit honey I want you to sit up bring the baby a little bit closer to me that's it okay I don't you smile at me don't do it I know I'll be so mad if you smile me nana your sister's arm right hold onto her arm right there squeeze into her every leaning together squeeze tighter taso lean in ladies man come on leaning toward your brother squeeze it does is it almost time for lunch keep looking at me keep looking at me ueno oh busy busy busy I love that all right here we go we're gonna go all their pierre really squeezing tighter leo more time squeeze together is everybody done yet who's done who's john well you're done okay tassel ian lee and phoebe's husband that you go look at me right here okay one more time everybody squeeze together she done baby's done all right break you got you know why you did a great job getting started beautiful job and that's that that's the whole point of learning to puzzle those pieces together so what she did was awesome based on all the things we learned yesterday creating those triangles keeping the nose on the same plane when and they were made some minor adjustments of pushing the kids back because ten kids tend to move forward a little bit so moving them back and really squishing them into the scene so we get as many of those nose on the same plane we put the bigger guys in the back we lean them over so they get closer mom mom is hidden by all her children all we can see is her beautiful phase right she's surrounded by this like this baseball team she created it's awesome isn't it why do we have any questions from online viewers we have a ton of questions but first the internet is shouting out loved to the students because they said she was wrong she did rocket tio tio and for you were omar is wondering if you usually shoot higher than I level when you are when they're on the ground yes ok you never get down with them no I always like to be a little bit above eye level because it's more thinning um whenever I'm shooting portrait unless you were like full length camera height should be at about your subjects waist level so if you're shooting a full length you come down to about where your subjects are going to shoot um you know a group sitting on the ground I prefer to come up a little bit higher because what does it do when you come up a little bit higher it brings the chins up has people looking up at you it thins out the body so I tend to shoot from a little bit higher up just you know it's my style plus I like west ground and more people in there so yes yeah thank you I'm gonna sue you here a few people have asking how do you suggest men showing women how to pose um like when you were showing the girls how to pose with their dad how do you how do you recommend men doing that that's a good question pretty much the same way I mean I obviously can't squeeze it and hug people as much as I can but you can definitely jump in there and show what you want to do as long as it's inappropriate tasteful manner um you don't want to be like over hugging people cute girls like me can get away with that but if your big hairy dude it's probably not gonna work sorry I'm on fire today this is what happens when you get a full night's sleep people no fire drills last night but yeah as long as you if you had here's the thing we talked about this yesterday you need to be comfortable posing if you are comfortable posing your own body then you can jump in there and show your subjects exactly what you want them to dio once you've done the majority of your basic posing that's when we stepped back home back to the camera and do all the fine tuning from there fine tuning meaning bringing your arms around each other lifting up tilting the head in coming forward to the camera so you can do the basics and show anybody what to dio it is easy just do it to it jumpin have funds they're people gear question from here you guys laughing behind me has totally cracking me up question about your gear from the internet over and over and over people are wondering what tripod and tripod head you are using okay this is brand new for me but it's me photo and I just actually found this at the w p p I convention and I'm absolutely in love with this tripod I used to have like the grip head but this is all built into one so um everything moves right on here there's a little ah dialled for tension which allows me to just move this ball had pretty easily I also have my tripod mounted to my lens so that I can work the collar of the lens so when I want to shoot vertical it's easy for me to just shoot shoot vertical but this has all kinds of great tension features on it so it will rotate uh left to right so you could move it easily there's attention on here and you could make it so that you can still move your camera and then tighten it if you wantto tilt the camera for any particular angle super light it folds down super tiny and that's one of the reasons why absolutely fell in love with it it does come in all kinds of crazy fun colors have a purple one two like purple all the way up here

Class Materials

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Michele Celentano.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

Beckie Sibley
 

Michele is a true artist in every sense of the word. While her photography skills are exceptional, it is her ability to work with families that absolutely had me mesmerized. She is a natural with people of all ages. Her teaching style is second to none. I especially appreciate that she had the CreativeLIve attendees jump in to pose the first family. With many of these courses, I find myself feeling completely inadequate because the instructors make it look super easy. When the student photographers worked with the family, they represented ME. This was such an encouragement. I also was thrilled that the second family was more of a challenge as it showcased Michele's talents perfectly. The business section was insightful and inspirational. I cannot say enough wonderful things about this course. It was a deal at $129. Thank you CreativeLive! And thank YOU, Michele. You are the best of the best.

Beckie Sibley
 

Michele is a true artist in every sense of the word. While her photography skills are exceptional, it is her ability to connect with families that absolutely had me mesmerized. She is a natural with people of all ages. Her teaching style is second to none. I especially appreciate that she had the CreativeLIve attendees the first family. With many of these courses, I find myself feeling completely inadequate because the instructors make it look super easy. When the student photographers worked with the family, they represented ME. This was such an encouragement. I also was thrilled that the second family was more of a challenge as it showcased Michele's talents perfectly. The business section was insightful and inspirational. I cannot say enough wonderful things about this course. It was a deal at $129. Thank you CreativeLive! And thank YOU, Michele. You are the best of the best.

Courtney Zito
 

I love this class! I am transitioning from film & television to photography, specifically children and families, and this class is wonderful! I am only on Day 1, class 6 (The art of posing) and I have learned so much that I have already applied to my own photography. If you're like me, you have come across other's photos and thought "meh", and then you come across some and you are like "wow!". What is the difference? Well there are many factors that make a great portrait, but one aspect I hadn't spent as much time thinking about was posing. You don't think about how important posing is until you see it in action here. I am looking forward to the rest of this series and soaking up all of her experience and knowledge. She's cute and quirky, and very organized in her teaching. Thank you Michele, great class!

Student Work

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