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Critique

Lesson 11 from: Posing and Lighting

Bambi Cantrell

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Lesson Info

11. Critique

Next Lesson: Q&A

Lesson Info

Critique

So we have some wonderful images for coach eking today and this image first of all, I absolutely love the warmth between this couple I think that the maker has done a very nice job of getting them to feel very comfortable I like the way that they've got the bride's sitting on her thigh I can tell that she's sitting on her thigh and that's really nice they've got a nice s curve created for her my problem it really relies in the fact that the groom is sitting behind her and I'd like to see him if he if he leaned around her shoulder just a little bit then I think that it would be a tad more believable the exposure looks a little bit it looks a little bit overexposed also by the way you'll find that if I find that if you had moved your camera position and had just the wooden slats of that that offense back there as the background the flowers are a bit of a distraction because there's lots of highlights back there and if you squint you start noticing them the trees the lights on the trees t...

here's a little bit of highlight highlighting going on there so it becomes a bit of a distraction to the subject and then the ground see how bright the cement is underneath them that starts pulling my eye away from their faces to me the picture the beautiful picture is right in their faces in her face tilted up towards him it looks believable to me that's the image and I think everything else is pulling in working against the photograph okay, um okay I love kicking little photographs like this you can tell that this little gal is having a great time. It looks kind of like a high school senior portrait, but there are a couple of little problems with it. First of all, I can tell that the maker has flash build it when you're using flash photography in your flash filling outdoors specifically in order for that flash not to look flashy you want to turn your flash one stop below ambient light so whatever the ambient light reading is outside let's say it's a five point six at a sixteenth of a second then your flash should be set it for because basically all you want that flash to do is just too whisk across that face and just put a little bit of a catch like in the eyes you don't want that light overpowering the subject and in this case the flash is stronger than the ambient light which makes it very flashy looking and so it looks a bit amateurish it's not looking as good as it could be is it could look the other thing is is that this arm that's between her legs it looks a little bit awkward I like the thing that you're doing with having the gals having her separate her feet and bring her knees together. But maybe if she had taken that arm instead of bringing it straight down, if she had just sat it on the knee, see, now it looks a little bit more. It looks right. Relax. And rheal as it is, because she's, wearing a dark shirt and her hand this light her hand just seems to come out of nowhere and it's a little bit awkward looking. But still he get an a plus for an effort and there's also expression and your subject has a really cute little expression. So work on those few things. I'd love you to send me a file. Sent it to bambi. It can troll portrait dot com. And I want you to practice this thing where you use your flash and dial it one stop under ambien. Oh, my goodness. That's absolutely adorable. Now, this photograph seems a bit overexposed, but why does it work? Yeah, it's, absolutely. Editorial. This is the perfect example. In my opinion of editorial photography, see how the general rules of photography if they don't quite fit, they don't have to be perfect because it would almost work against the expression if the fur was all perfectly illuminated I think it might draw away from those eyes so as it is r r I goes right to the eyes of this little kitten that is absolutely adorable. I wish I'd taken the that in fact I think this is so cute this would make an amazing greeting card when she say this is just a skewed as it can be and it's got to be very difficult photographing cats anyway and you know getting this little kid eating to me out like that I just think that's just absolutely durable big light source right in those eyes really really cute good job very sweet picture love the soft light on the subject's face it's absolutely beautifully exposed I love the expression I think it's just lovely lovely lovely there are a couple of things issues with this photograph that could it could be improved upon number one I want a bit of light in that background a little bit of light bounced into that back room would have separated her hair from the background but the real thing that's keeps bugging me that case come pulling my eye away as you see the hair that's right below her chin it's going out of her chin and it looks like she's kind of got it looks it's an optical illusion but it's a little bit awkward looking it looks a bit like a beard so I probably would pay attention to that detail and then tuck that hair back behind her but still beautiful beautiful expression and nicely composed I love the cropping I think it's a very nice image yes sir I have a question come up multiple times you like to illuminate the background a little bit and use that want to separate and give the dimensionality so what do you think about when the bag completely dark and you use a headlight two separate that's fine because that hair light you don't have to light the background but you want to separate the subject from the background and so yes you can use a harrah light to do so you want some sort of light or something to create that separation from from that in the back and see as it is there's no hair alight to separate the subject from the background so just kind of fades into nothingness and if there is a black background and black backgrounds could be really beautiful then you want something some sort of kicker or harrah light or something teo teo to separate that subject in the background that's excellent thank you very much adorable expression love, love love the I mean this is just absolute precious of this baby the light is flat this is a pretty much a flat look portrait wouldn't you agree? But the cropping is very pleasing on dh the clothing does not bother me a lot of people would say, oh my goodness, the clothing is and this you hear a lot of a lot of flak about clothing that babies when things where people will wear if we were judging competition judges would probably have a problem with the clothing because the clothing is so bright that I bounces back from the clothing to the baby space and so it can be a bit of a distraction I don't really have a problem with that because in my mind I'm thinking this is a baby portrait for a family and what mother would not absolutely love that picture of their little child? I think it's just very, very nicely done I like the makers timing I would like to see it cropped I think either crop it tighter to the head or to the eyebrows I think because there's so much space between the eyebrows in the top of the print it almost pulls my eye away from the picture so I'm in my mind I'm thinking if we cropped it a little bit tighter around the top of the like over the eyebrows it might I think it might be a stronger picture but as it is it's great you get a great shot for expression and nice little picture and if you have a comment to make feel free to because you are certainly qualified to do so does it bother you? The the skin off the baby? I mean, the skin is much more darker than the background and the clothes and also when I see a yellow cost, yeah, but I'm that doesn't bother me and there's a number of reasons why, first of all, we're looking at on a monitor. We're not looking at this photograph in the makers calibrated the space that they created a picture, so I don't know that you know that this is perfectly calibrated, so I can't really fault the maker on the skin tones on the picture or whether they're there to pangkor to read or whatever because we're looking at it in an imperfectly medium. I mean, we're not looking at it on a calibrated monitor, so so for that reason, I don't want to I would not address it in this picture. Okay. Thank you. Uh, ok, I first of all, I just absolutely love these kinds of photographs. The light, though, is coming in from the left hand side and it's just a bit. I think it's a bit too harsh. It's almost split light because the light right down the center of her nose seems so much brighter, I think that this image needed a bit of a reflector on the right hand side to balance that light a little bit more because it seems a bit tio too much of a contrast between the highlighted side to the dark side. I think that this could have benefited by a different a little bit of a different camera angle. The whites of the eyes showing so much at the bottom bother me just a little bit. Um, but other than that, I think it's a very striking picture and certainly man alive. What a beautiful, beautiful bride beautiful young lady, do you have any comments? Have a question. So in order to get reflected light onto the right hand side of her face since she's got that drape right over that side acting essentially as a black reflector, how would you go about doing that? I would bring the reflector a bit more like right here. I wouldn't put it right straight on the side here. I'd want to wrap it around a little bit more or a better yet I would move our main light and flat light it light it just a bit more flat because it is it's it's illuminated sits the lights way over here and actually, if you just move the light a little bit more, in fact, clamshell lighting would be beautiful for this picture. Clamshell lighting is when you have a light like let's say this this right here is the light source, and then you use a reflector underneath to balance to bounce the light and basically you create a clam shell. The overhead, like the main light, is just over camera over the eye just above the camera itself. And then you have a reflector here and it's a really pretty light it's a flat light source, but if you're doing glamor portrait of somebody, if you're doing a glamour shot of someone or photographing mature women, flat light is very flattering, so there are occasions when we don't we don't want a lot of shadows on a face, and this is just another type of light that you can use clamshell lighting up, I'll demonstrate that to marcus it's, a really, really wonderful, wonderful type of light source to use, especially if you're doing glamor portrait of someone on basically said main lights just above your camera right here the phil is a reflector just below right here, and it creates this clamshell effect on the face and it just fills in every crack on the face. It's very beautiful, okay, let's, go the next picture. Oh, terrific. Maybe one of the questions that came up in the chat room from maeve was how would you avoid getting so much white of the eye while still having the model retain that angle of gays? Requesting would you squint? Would you have them squint a little bit? I don't think that I would have them squint because when you the act of squinting causes a little a little crow's, feet in the corner of the eyes, I think that it's a matter of moving the the face up slightly, so if I were looking up in this direction of this light source right here, I could look up in it like this, and I'm going to see you're going to see a lot of the whites of my eyes because I'm looking up with my eyeballs instead of my face, whereas if I just slightly rotated my chin upwards a little bit, I can still keep my gaze up above without having without looking up so far with my eyes. So I think that it takes just a bit of practice where you just look at the way that a person is when they're gazing up at somebody and just have them look up a bit more with the face but just slightly just just a tiny, tiny movement of the chin up or down can make a huge difference in the way that a photograph looks when I'm photographing sometimes my asian clients their eyes with the very eyes that are very slanted or you know, sometimes people have smaller eyes just a slight drop of that should not a deep drop but a tiny tiny drop of the chin will open those eyes up a little bit more without showing like so much of the whites of the bottom of the eyes now especially with that little gal the thie gal that we photograph or the gal that was indian gallery just saw for a beautiful woman like that that has large eyes to begin with we might see a tad more of the under the whites underneath the I've and then someone was smaller eyes like myself I mean I would have to really look down with my face and look up with my eyes for you to see the whites of the under part of my eye so it really depends on the person and that's why I really recommend studying facial anatomy taking pictures without a camera I cannot tell you how good that is is to study faces without having a camera in your hand and take newer crumbs because if you really study anatomy people's faces and you start looking at well is there face longer? Is it narrow? Is it round and then think to yourself you start rehearsing in your mind well, what would I do with that kind of a face? What do you know michael spaces that rounders that oval? Is it heart shaped and so then it kind of helps you a little bit to be more you're not shooting from the hip basically when you're actually having a camera in your hand, you're not shooting from the hip, you just happen to have the tools at that moment, a different tool then you would if you were taking europe rounds with your nerd prom's, you're taking pictures with your brain and with your eyes with your camera that's a tool that you're using to capture because you see this camera is just an extension of what's going on in your soul it's an extension that's all it is is just a tool that is used by your soul to capture your imagery. It's not it's, not the secret to the success. The secret to the success starts in here and in your in your brain and in your creative thought process, and you have been, in my opinion, rehearsing in your mind the what ifs help you so that when that camera, when you actually have that silly tool in your hand, it's really just second nature, you're just going ok, click and you get the shot because you've rehearsed in your mind, that kind of concept and that's why I try to teach concepts not like posed number one post number two for brides pose number one imposed a retreat for brewed war because all of these things are concepts, and if you learn a concept, then a concept you can apply it's like a foundation every building has a foundation every building has a certain way that that foundation is laid maybe there's a certain universal code that you have to follow to get it right well, that's what we're basically doing is we're laying a foundation so that whatever the scenario is that we're going to come up against that we will know how to handle that because in our mind we already rehearsed it okay? Um oh my goodness! What a beautiful expression on her face absolutely lovely! I love the way this shoulder is round a little bit I would love to have seen whose image is this very, very pretty look at how pretty that light is crossing her cheek it's very, very nice I love where the catch lights are in her eyes I think that it's a very pretty soft light source the only thing I would love to have seen you do is they just want to see you turned her shoulders just a little bit more but still I'm pulling here off the back of a dog and she did a very nice job. The other thing that we want to be careful of in this case it's not it's not like oh my god I'll die is be careful of lines that run through someone's head now there are ways in this case it's absolute forgivable because because my I still goes to her face first and it z and you tilted your camera bit which takes that horizontal line and it drops it so that it's no longer cutting the picture in half so if you have horizontal or vertical line and they're cutting through your picture that's when you want to apply camera tilt because camera chilled can take that photograph and it cuts the edge off of that horizontal or vertical line and it makes it softer it just takes it makes it much softer do we have any questions that go along with this uh not yet for that particular you know where there's a delay it'll take a minute okay when you have questions though he just popped right up and asking what we will okay, so let's go forward um now I love the angle on this picture I love the low camera angle but what is tell me what what's the problem okay, true but what else? Children true um but what's what's really the big big thing that's going on here? Look where the light is in her eyes and now I love the camera angle I really do I think the camera angle is very interesting you just needed to move your light you need some of your light to a different spot because her hand you're showing the back of her hand which is lighter in town on her face love, love, love, love love the camera angle that you shot this I think it's a really good angle it's a very strong angle your pose doesn't bother me I would have wanted to see you turn the wrist a little bit the big issue here is not suppose it's the light where you had the light facing because it's right on that hand um and her and it's above her head see where her eyes are see how she's got darkness underneath here the light was a little bit too high up with this kind of an image when you're doing these glamour kinds of photographs you want to light the front of the face this could easily this could work beautifully with flat light flat light would be very flattered so taking that reflector or not the reflector but your your your octo octo blah blah blah they think the satellite dish what's it called dad dr bink thank you october I don't know why I can't remember that, you know taking that octo bank and bring it around a little bit more to the right I think on bringing it down a little bit lower I would have benefited you but I really like very much your camera position I think it's a very, very interesting angle on dh you're doing a good job, they come forward let's go for it bambi someone in the o r audrey just asked where would you put the light and you just answered it. Ok, so thank you. Okay, very good. Thank you. Okay, I love your camera position. I like the drop of her shoulder again. We're photographing her straight into her chest. So you have this is what you've got going on. You've got her going like this. It's a ruse ever. This is ok, so you see how you're kind of photographing her straight into her chest? Um I'd like if you had dropped her chin this would not bother me. I would like to have seen her chin dropped a little bit to give it just a tad more attitude or at her lean forward a little bit more, I think would have benefited that a little bit more as it is. I think that I still think it's very, very cute. I like the look on her face I'd like to see have seen her eyes back towards us, but you see how we're getting of the lights getting down better a little bit prettier spot in her eyes now very nice baby, would you say that would be kind of further should go on the gaze of showing how much white there is? Absolutely yes, like that's acceptable I mean, that would be still and there are doing that there are occasions when you can really go hard core like that when you can really pull those eyes really in a hard core way. I got to say, michael, you have got the best questions. You are so good for me because you make me you make me quantify conversations, that stuff, and I'm really I really like your questions are excellent as a general rule, we don't want the eyes too far off where you see so much white, see how my eyes are all you see, all of the white in my eyes, it looks really unpleasant. However, there is a certain way, like since, for instance, if I went like this on you, see how I like click tick, tilting my head and going, oh, brother, you know, just and you kind of get picky about it, then, yes, you're seeing a lot of the whites of the eyes, but it works, or sometimes you'll see this happens in editorial photography all the time. You see this a lot in fashion and editorial would look like they just got a lower their eyes and they looked down like that. We know kind of out of the corner of their eye, so you don't want to generally see too much whites of the eyes like that. But if you are going to but if you do want to do something that's a bit more kicky it's the way that you do you get away with it is the whole feeling of the picture has to be you know, kind of kicking and kind of sassy almost and then it becomes believable so there's a fine line that's why they're I don't like to call things rules I like to call them you know a softer word I don't know what it is guidelines hyung guidelines I think it's that that's what is their guidelines but they're not hard fast rules because there's always an exception there are certain out times when when what looks bad in one picture you look at the next photograph you go well they're doing the same thing with the eyes but it works well why it's? Because their whole fund kinkiness of the picture dictates that that is the response does that make sense exactly exactly ok, I am crazy about this picture I really really love this picture I love how soft it is and I don't know whether it is over exposed on the highlights. I can't tell because you know sometimes we have to cut some slack here because these air right out of the can pictures and I don't know whether whether this highlight on her forward whether there's detail or not so you'd want to be careful about that but I think it adds mystery to have that strong of a contrast between the highlights and the shadow side of the face because there is a there's a substantial number of f stops between those highlights in the shadows. However, I think that the makeup that the girl is wearing the context of this kind of imagery allows for that to happen. It's ok it's not going doesn't like oh my gosh, I'll die it doesn't kill the picture there's a number of elements in this photograph that I am crazy about that I think are very well done number one this is the brick wall behind her but look at how soft and out of focus that brick wall is because of two reasons number one the maker has chosen to move the subject away from that background substantially number two using a very shallow depth of field remember what you just feel that with your f stop was is two point eight okay, so you have a very shallow depth of field. But the other thing I like about this picture is the fact you see that little bit of a high light back there that's what you really want so we want pictures where we have highlights on the face of highlights and shadows and then another highlight there we have shadow areas and then there's another highlight there in the background and then over here even though there's a highlight here we have a subtle highlight in the background so it all balances out and it makes for a creating a very, very lovely image that has a lovely bit of grace to it this is straight from the can so she's done no retouching on the picture um and so you know, I would say I'm going and you clean up into retouching us I'm sure you would if I were re touching this picture I would do very little except for just sweet just a get out of the bumps on her forehead soften her skin just a little bit but not get too crazy with over retouching. Okay, michael um I just had ah ha moment because I know you much in this yesterday but you know something? I just thought of this when you said that um without that background you would notice the forehead by itself so much more but because that you have another layer of gradual light it's not as extreme that's exactly right that's absolutely right and that's why we know when you're looking at creating pictures that's why you want to think about not only where the main light is and you're light on your subject but also look at what is in the background a z mentioned last night when we were at dinner we were looking our eyes were wandering around this little bar restaurant we went to and they had these beautiful red drapes on the walls against the windows with with lamps and light fixtures that highlighted them so I'm always wherever I'm at I could be sitting in arrest I can go anywhere and the minute I walk into a room I start looking well where are the highlights on the walls? It just is a habit I've gotten into it I mean no matter where I am now I just start middle I rocking them I see where the lights are because you never know when that's going to save your neck when you're gonna have an opportunity for creating something absolutely amazing you know and you have something silly to work with hey uncle john, can you bring me that the lamp with a big ball thing on it whenever you have a second I'm not in a hurry now but whenever you have a minute I need john to get my life um let's go forward love the expression that's absolutely lovely expression who shot this very, very fine love love love the expression it's a little bit flatly lit though it's a little flatly lit and now I'm going to just tell you one thing about doing a profile first of all this is wonderful in the in the context and I love the fact that you caught the decisive moment love it's very very nice however, when you do a profile um whenever whenever you do a profile this is what judges like to see in photographic competition they want to see the back cheek does not cross the face and it doesn't see how you can see it's underneath the eye right there they want to see the eyelash but not the eyeball is that silly or what? So if you're doing a silhouette of somebody and let's say that you're saying they don't want to see this part right under the exactly you want to see the eyelash so a really true profile is this okay? You see how you see my side of my face? You want to see this eyelash on this side right here but not this see how you can see my eyeball this way right here you could see it so a true profile it oh, great can you plug that in for me? Dad I'm just some place here anyplace that over here's fine s o but so from out from the standpoint of what approach a real profile is that's what I would recommend doing let's go forward okay I love love love the kinkiness of this this is absolutely adorable cigna and this is what I mean this is not technically absolutely perfect, but I'm glad that you practice this concept see how you can get some fun with that that that curtain and start moving it around I love playing little games with myself, where I start one of the day of the themes from my day, I told you have little games, I play it all the events I do, um, one of the themes that I'll have for the day is movement and so on any given wedding day, I might say, ok, the theme for this day is movement in, so I find appropriate moments to practice that. So maybe the bride is dressing in an upstairs room and she's got to go down a staircase to go to where the ceremony site is. So then I'm thinking in my mind, okay, movement, then that's going to be my moment to practice that concept. So what I'm going to do when she gets ready to walk down the down the staircase, I want to make sure I have a slow shutter speed I want a fifteenth of a second, a fifteenth of a second is slow enough to stop the act to slow enoughto to capture the movement, but not so slow that you can't tell what the entity is. Does that make sense? So in other words, we want to see the movement now I could do that in photo shop and an ad motion blur. I like to do it the old fashioned way and do it in the camera I just think it's more interesting and more fun and again it's just one of those things that I might think to do so I think to myself ok when the bride is getting ready to walk down that staircase what do I need to be prepared for what do I need tell me the steps I need t to produce a good picture what I need right what else besides me tearing what else do I have to besides meeting what else? What I need to do the source of the light in the direction of the line okay the direction of the light what else how about fundamentals what lens what I want on the camera right you have to think about those things ahead of time so in my mind I have to think ok which lens is going to the best lens that she walks down that staircase so I want to show aa lot of the staircase and maybe the door so that it gives context to where she's going to yeah well I might want a bit of a of a shorter focal length let's I might want that twenty four to seventy millimeter lens on okay in my mind that step number one okay, I got have the right lens on the camera okay step number two what if stopping what shutter speed what I might want to do. So at that time, I might say, ok, well, I want about a fifteenth of a second, so hey, michael, my associate photographer, can you run down those stairs for a second? And I want to just take a shot of you as you go down the stairs. I want to see how it's gonna look so I might just say run down those stairs for me. Not super fast, no kill yourself, but just so I can kind of get an idea. I want to get in the ballpark. You see in my mind, I'm rehearsing where I'm going to go now, these days, I don't usually have to rehearse because I kind of know when I give it any of unseen. I can kind of depict in my mind what the f stop is and what shutter speeds are just cause I've done this for a long time and I know I know, but if you need to rehearse it, then get your assistant and make sure you have an assistant. I love having an assistant cause they help me to be more creative. They really do. They help you to be able to have excuse me, to have the freedom, to be able to practice all these crazy, wacky things without having so much stress. So I would just say, hey, can you run down there? And then I would go, and I would follow that person with the camera and get the focus on them or focus on a point in that staircase, when I know is the point that they need to cross to get sort of a focus on them, so I would say, ok, there's, my focus could run down the stairs fifteenth of a second click, did I get it? Hey, that looks it looks pretty good, right? Or let me try that one more time, and I'm going to reduce my shutter speed one more, one more step, so that could get a little bit more blur. Okay, so that you can kind of stacked the deck in your behalf, and then you're kind of prepared so that when that person actually runs down those stairs, you kind of know what you're going to get. You don't have to be guessing at what focusing mode would you use? Great question, I generally never taken off one shot. I really don't I just I don't like a I serve, oh, I just bothers me, I can't stand that is, you know, we're it's irritating to me and is just a personal thing is something you should probably get over, but you know, I just I'm going old lady, okay? I just I'm sorry. I just I just I don't like loud noises anymore. I'm just kidding but you know, I just I just don't like to have all that nonsense, so I have just become comfortable with one shot. I get a focus on a point in the in that room and then I say go run for another fantastic way to use this concept works fantastic and so good is when you're photographing children in my studio building we have beautiful archways in my hallways and so every time I photographed children one of the last things we do we take the kids to the beginning of the hallway and we say, ok, kids, on a count of three we want you to run and haul tail it down the hallway there's a dorothee end so it's a bright hallway at the end and so I what I do is I generally focus on one of the the arches that's about three quarters down the hallway. So to give an example, if this let's say that this was that third third archway right here, see the highlights right there, every hallway, every building, every kind of edge there's some sort of highlight there, okay, well, that's, what I'm going to focus on, so as those little kids start running down the hallway I don't have to focus on them. I focus on that point and then as soon as they get their guess what? Click there going to be there's going to be some semblance of focus and I've got my composure like I mean my composition set and slow down my shutter speed so I get the movement I don't really want them to be sharp. I want movement in them. I just don't want that to be so blurry that you can't tell that it's little kids running down the hall and when I have little children running down the hall, I want their arms flailing and running, you know, and totally wild. We have invite them to bring their pets with them and it's such a cool photograph. I mean it's almost a universal seller to have these little kids running down the hallway a low camera angle. So you have the top of the arches, these little kids running down the hallway towards the light source and had their dog running after them. It's just amazing. We even get them to bring their bicycles or their scooters and stuff, and we haven't skateboarding down the hallway, it's just really a fun thing yes, terry, would you do the same type of thing with the bride and groom hollywood back down the aisle? Absolutely absolutely when they are walking back up the aisle quite often my assistant will be up on the balcony. It's really pretty by the way, if you get somebody up on the balcony and when the bride and groom were walking back up the aisle, use about a fifteenth of a second as they walked back up. So you get that beautiful motion blur. The cool thing is, is that they almost always open the doors to the church in the back, which means guess what? You get this really cool highlight that these folks are walking towards, and it was a momentarily stopped the action on their bodies, so you get kind of a sense of sharpness, but the rest of the movement of them is blurry. So it's really pretty it's a wonderful interpretive moment, and I believe that in any wedding day in any story, whether you're photographing families, their kids or weddings or whatever that we have wonderful moments that are one plus one equals two. In other words, hi moms oh, isn't that cute smile out of my child looking in the camera, you know, very straightforward, no nonsense photography, and then there are moments that are those sweet interpretive moments like the kids running down the hallway with the dog running after them that's where the kids are not sharp, the archways are tax sharp that part of the room that part of the entity needs to be sharp, but then to show that movement creates a bit of interest and makes for a more interpretive moment and interpretive photographs, whether they be wedding pictures or whatever are very powerful because they are emotion invoking, they really invoke emotion, and so they're really powerful. Have you had a question? I thought, yes, when you're when you're shooting the say, the bride coming down the stairwell, the stairway, and, uh, do you have heard do the eyes make a difference when you're do have her not look at you? Because you know what? They're going to be blurred. Great question. Well, first of all, she's running down the stairs, where am I going to be at the moment? I'm gonna be at the top of those stairs? Yeah, I don't want her looking at me. No, no, no, no, no. You do not want that subject ever looking at you because they're going to be out of focus. And if your subject is looking at you, if their eyes and your eyes are connecting, those eyes have got to be sharp. Otherwise we go, you that's out of focus that's blurry, whereas that's where artsy fartsy pictures and really life of formal pictures come in, and people that see motion blur when they're running away, it's understood, even for people who are not photographers, they get it. They understand that, oh, that's, a cute kicking motion, you know, emotional in motion picture, whereas if they're looking you in the eye and they're out of focus, it's wrong, and they feel icky, so for me, when people are running down the stairs, I want to be behind her. I don't want anyone under you off a little bit, so I want a diagonal, so I'm going to be, if she's going to run down those stairs, I'm not gonna be standing at the top of the stairs, shooting straight down. I'm going to try to boot, move to the left to the right, so that my my focus and my the image runs from the top left hand corner to the bottom right hand corner. Does that make sense? Okay.

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to lean from this course. This is such a fantastic value. Thank you, Bambi, for your time and talent. Thanks to Creative Live for making this resource available to us. I'm very, very thankful.

a Creativelive Student
 

I discovered CreativeLIVE this weekend. I am so glad that I did. This workshop was fabulous! I watched as much of the live broadcasts as I could. Then I kept my computer on throught the night so I could watch the rebroadcasts. I was compelled by all that I learned to purchase the course. Bambi is an incredible, down to earth, informative and funny woman. Her insights will have already helped me shape my future as a professional photographer. Thanks for a fine, influential weekend.

user-dae64a
 

WOW BAMBI!!! Thanks so much for your generosity and love in the abundant information you gave us during this posing and lighting course. I have had dozens of aha moments throughout the course and your practical tips have changed my photography forever. I see the direction of light and know exactly where to place myself and my subject confidently and swiftly. I still have a ton of practicing to do but this class gave me a great start . I plan on re-watching the classes and give myself some mini exercises to practice what you taught....Oh...and i wish I can remarry my husband of 15 and a half years so you can be my wedding photographer :)

Student Work

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