Skip to main content

Shoot: Family Group Two Part 2

Lesson 21 from: Pose It, Light It, Love It

Clay Blackmore

Shoot: Family Group Two Part 2

Lesson 21 from: Pose It, Light It, Love It

Clay Blackmore

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

21. Shoot: Family Group Two Part 2

Lesson Info

Shoot: Family Group Two Part 2

Come on in, marcel and come again out alison alison why don't you stand right in the middle and marcel right here watch what happened anthony was like this I always say sit up and relax your shoulders that's huge that happens all the time where people shrugged their shoulders and I want to relax him all right, here we go love it guys you almost done turn around to me a little bit right here alexis your shoulders good. How about accessorized? How about catherine come in here, please. You see this? Uh yeah. What are they called? They look cool now I feel like marcel little low maybe we should give him a little block or you know what are you in hell no, you're fine just spread your feet there we go. There we go we're there all right, I love it now I think I'm going to slide you this way a little bit can you come up a little bit? All right, good, good, good. Marcel, you come out this way a little but we can get rid of the reflector. I think just bring it back a little because this fill lig...

hts in place and then I can get the plants in the picture I really I like what's happening let's do it real quick and I might change it your elbow let me go live I think I could go live you and you show you guys as I refined this picture. Okay let's go there we go here's the picture all right what I'm looking at is a avoid right on anthony's left me tap your knee anthony your left knee I need but I feel like we build our foundations from the ground up and I feel like this one's kind of an inverted pyramid do you see that? I see that we could we could put allison over there and and we could put the women in the front of the men in the back I think that would be better. Let me just take this picture and then we'll compare everyone look at me marcel you come out a little bit come out a little more good tony's very square to the cameras any anthony anthony turn your shoulders to the right keep turning drop your shoulder and lean over to your sister a little bit good now alexis, turn your nose to the right. Gosh, I can't believe on it is so good. Did you guys promise her a present she's going to get a surprise, isn't she marceline right into the picture, marcel yeah, pretend like you're happy to be in the family here we go look at me everybody look at that smile from anthony anthony's left arm see how static it is your elbow out anthony your left elbow out yet and you're hand in on your thigh up higher you see that's helping lean in a little martha anneke look at me on it could be real tall sit up tall yes, right there, right there alexis leaning a little bit and you need a chin down a little bit from anthony anthony good, good right there now that's no flash and that's ok, because I'm going to make this picture better. I like the composition. I don't love it if you could just have another child would be okay but here's what I'm thinking what if we let allison take your seat? Okay, so you switch that's gonna put mom right in the middle and this is how you have to do it. You have to be on these sessions and shoot it, look at it and say, how can I make this better who's not going to like it who doesn't look good in that last picture? I saw some problems now I'm thinking of another face right here from anthony you're going to come over here, let's, get the other post in stool it's right here somewhere you may see a stool was I sitting on it posing stool there too in here? Yeah there's two in here so bring me all the handsome block because this is another testament to how great his product is you can just stack them up and make a supposing stole out of it you guys feeling okay good you're feeling good you're looking good you're looking perfect all right we're just gonna stack him up here just give me one and starts throwing them down here you get five blocks all different sizes they weigh nothing and they're impervious to high heels and I think this sets about three fifty I think I think they can go in different ranges you can get a smaller set too as well they might be a little more I hate to quote him look at that that might even be a little tall sit right here, buddy. All right, all right, I got it. I'm gonna push you in a little tighter stand up all right, guys, after this is time for ice cream allison turned to me a little bit she's gonna be in a basic pose tip your head to the right good. So for me right now the most important thing in this picture is that the mother looks good that's the most important thing the second most important thing in this picture is that the mother looks good the third thing is the man has to pay so he has to look good that's straight from hanson fung and he's such a brilliant educator your right knee behind your wife well your mother yeah there you go he's like what? My wife you guys ready good on your mark get set your need this way of the anthony lean into your mother a little bit be taller turned to me yeah put that knee over a little bit kind of hide the blocks your foot over a little I'm loving it turn your face this way dash you are awesome I wonder if that's the best place for you I think so right there. All right, here we go guys I know I'm probably unplugging go with um flash as well so this will be one with no flash and I feel like anthony just need to kind of come into the group a little bit more come on, pretend like you're happy to be in the family yet can you throw down the block under him let's raise him up yeah we're gonna get you up with your father set up just like that beautiful, beautiful beautiful your shoulder to your mother a little bit more cells spread your feet a little so you're a little lower a little lower right there that keeps his back tall that's it when a nice family group right here one and a half two and marceline over to your wife a little bit now watch this refinement marcel your nose to the right you see how I turned his face to the light alexis your chin down a little in your nose to the right you see how I turned her now watch this refinement alexis your elbow in front of your daddy's tummy marcellus marcellus then keep going all the way up he's thin most of my clients I can't say that and I'm always hiding bodies it's called body blocking so watch this alexis lean and more lean and pull the right shoulder back yeah, and put your hand your right hand on your thigh when you're on your on your lap and bring your elbow out more more, more, more did you guys see that refinement? That's what I'm doing is building the base now we're going to the same with anthony your left elbow up anthony yes, anthony your shoulder behind your mother turn more, turn more, anthony, you slide out, slide out and turn to me. Turn to me yes that's good. Alright leaned your mother an inch, anthony. We're done anthony's chin down a little and if monica just smiles a little we gotta make right there. And all right, that's no flash. I'm gonna unplug for a second. I know I'm going tio take it off videos all have to do and I'm gonna shoot away here we go, I love it and I'm looking right down the middle here and I want I want alison to turn to me a dash just a little right there drop the shoulder and tip your head right there good smiles everybody teeth teeth and you're done hey let's get your shoulder up there a little bit more anthony your right shoulder turn to me turn into me relax it yeah you're just turning you're turning there go right there beautiful can the back four people the back for lean lean over your daughter a little that's came to keeping everybody and focus keep your head this way a little more self right there you guys did it it wasn't me it's you big smile come on make sure they're nice and sharp because I'm on manual focus and how about this time can everybody just hug your mother hug allison just getting close we got the picture right there know what you look at me that's good can you come up higher on it could come up with a high on your knees get a letter sit on the arm of the chair right up there in that little opening yeah that's all hug annika look at that oh, I love it we did it we did it we did it we get get in there tony get in there. Turn your nose to the right alice uh alexis you knows a little more little more right there now let me zoom in on inca don't you laugh at me arnica don't laugh come on ana got wounded it pose it light and love it we did it right there. Oh you hear that? All right let's have another one you guys wait let's let's talk about this a lot of things just happen you guys can go eat ice cream from the big you guys were great really great. Thank you. Give me a hand shake, buddy. Thank you. Make sure they give you some chocolate. Thank you, it's nice. Thank you. Waste five um okay, a lot of things happened real fast there and it was fun it was really fun. Wow. Look how pretty these guys look, this is going to be fun and look at the sofa. Can somebody just pan your camera over here and look at him over there just sitting on the sofa that's awesome they're just ready to go. I think what we'll do is just put that sofa over here and just shoot on it and you know these rust walls I'm looking at how the brown goes with the green um we might they're kind of hard to move. I think we could use to change the brick wall on dh I can talk to you guys about what we're doing they're not hard to move I'm just thinking out loud if we have to but the green sofa against the brown is awesome I also have a painted background from david mayhew but I talked to today about that that I only want to use that when its way out of focus if I put five people in front of a background it's hard to shoot one point two good point one point for and I don't want to do that so I want to shoot about five six on the families and the background would be too busy on that shot I think unless I could really get it way out in front of it all right, so two things happen in that session that were critical one it was this it was this shoulders up but I've seen that a lot of portfolios and so relax that was good and you're learning a lot of my good one liners you know pretend like you're happy to be in the family that's great you have a visa master charge that's just funny I mean I wouldn't do that with a client but I do that in class is because I'm not really thinking about anything other than trying to keep these guys relaxed over there so I can't wait to meet everybody how did we find you guys? Huh? Craigslist alright family on cat that's kind of cool yes, I'm listening can we ask you a couple of questions before we bring that way are changing the set for questioning and we're going to go I think we should do those rest of all is one of the four of you can they move over yeah you guys move out of the way and uh why don't I just stand here and I'll answer your questions all right great. The first one from the chat rooms is how do you meet her? Your camera for different skin tones how do I meet her my camera for different skin tones I basically and all my family groups I've had those people on a plane I mean let's look at this right here there the difference between the front nose which is anneke and the back nose might be this far. Okay, so what's my problem here nothing I have no problem I would have a problem if marcel was too far back now they're saying maybe hey we've got darker skin lighter skin you know that's just going to be an area where I'm going to deal with it in post and I'm not gonna worry about it right now I think their skins all blend beautifully together I don't think it's much of an issue I hope I answered that properly I think I've had a bride once who is very light and a groom who is very dark and that was a challenge you know that was a real challenge hostesses coming in there they go we're changing the set so this is it let's go for a baby so when I had the light in the dark I try to continue over lighting the groom so I always say put the light on the same side as the woman like the woman like the woman and let the guy lean into the picture on that wedding I kept the light on the guy aside because otherwise he was disappearing but now that's an easy fix and post you know if you want to lighten somebody okay next all right so we have the models that we are working with today but we have a lot of questions that are coming in about the what if it was this person what if it was that person we don't necessarily have them but maybe you could just talk a little bit tio a question from mom's photo and lisa larue also wanted this question how would you pose and light someone that's in a wheelchair with little mobility most of these poses are seeing I'm requiring flexibility of the client and then the second question in terms of things that is what about heavier set models are ok no problem you guys take off come on through here I'm going to tell you I have worked with a lot of wheelchairs in a wheelchair is not a bad thing at all in fact I couldn't even do a mock wheelchair you know right here right now and it's basically you put your hands on the wheelchair and you lean into the picture and then maybe you throw your arms like this and if you see a little bit of the handle, I always have black fabric with me always do I could cover the handles so I bring the people into the wheelchair so the wheelchair is not a problem the the next thing would be heavier set people again what I'm doing there, I'm keeping the body forty five I'm keeping that camera above eye level and even maybe a little higher above eye level to minimize the body and draw the attention to the face. I do that with slim people I'm telling you it's so funny to see someone who's so gorgeous and so slim and beautiful and I do their picture without a stool or low camera and they're like, oh, I'm so fat and I'm looking at her like you are not fat you are beautiful and but that's people's perception so we need to stay in on the faces I think that's my rules there's kind of draw the attention to the face that's what I like to do okay, great. Next question is from los same uh this course is gorgeous I noticed that he crops joins such as fingers and hands is that okay as a rule? And if so, how far can I go? Thank you, uh I'm one who does I don't really love to crop off an arm or hand so I don't know when I did that so I'm sorry and usually I've been pretty loose with my cropping lately because my new files are so gorgeous I mean I'm going to just give a shout out to my buddies at cannes in this new mark three camera five mark three at whatever the price point twenty eight hundred is is there's more technology in this camera than the space shuttle don't quote me on that but it is awesome so I shoot a little looser these days and a crop in light room and a crop in so I don't want to cut off legs and hands and a lot of times that a problem for me is to get a picture into an eight by ten because I'm shooting so much full frame, which is seven by ten I'm sure at home you can relate to that you cut a c you know what I mean? You got an eight by ten and you got all kinds of cropping problems, so what I do is I celebrate the seven by ten I sell seven by tens and I film we'll have to professionally professionally work them as faras framing and madden okay, but I hate to cut some pictures to eight ten eleven by fourteen because now we've gone to the longer form at I loved the square I hate to say that I don't hate to say it I mean I'm a roll of flex night I have seven role of flex cameras and you'll see me out on the location people look, what do you do with that? Sometimes the dad comes out and sees me with a twin lens rowley and it's just a conversation piece and I always say I'm going to make a few pictures with my rolling and I always do and always make it happen and the digital just smokes it and there's no real reason to use film it does look a little different, but I've got a lot of heroes in this business my heroes were cecil beaten and you know I love the work of abadan they both did all their work on twin lens rolley's they had big cameras and they have little cameras and they were probably saying, you know, I like the twin linds roly you know it's so sharp it's so edge to edge beautiful and I could take a picture from a roly and blow it up is because that window and you know has a black the same way um so I'm a fan of film and I'm never going to change it I've got all my hassle blacks and the value is nothing, so I'm gonna keep him and shoot with him time to time

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Clay Blackmore Top 10.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Clay Blackmore is the real deal in portrait photography. The guy is a bundle of creative energy and technical mastery. I took portraiture with Monte Zucker, and am glad to have Clay now as his successor. This concepts in this course are the rudiments. They'll never change, regardless of trends and fads. Clay is also very likable and fun to watch work. Keep your ears peeled for every word. When Clay points out those many little details, they all count. Love the course, and have a ton of respect for Clay. He's a portrait master, and a great guy. What else could any portrait student hope for?

Rosina Ortwein
 

This a wonderful class. Clay has worked w/Montey and brings a supreme knowledge to photographers who want to learn more. His skills are creative and insightful with a modest personality. This is an amazing class that comes with a great price.

Tom Lokos
 

Of all the courses I have purchased without exception this is the best. Clay is an excellent teacher. When he speaks he is saying something and not just talking. He explains his lighting techniques in great detail while demonstrating them . He is clear, concise and fun to listen to. You will learn how to pose individuals all the way to large groups, while learning the correct way to light them. All this while being entertained by one of America's great portrait photographers.

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES