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Posing Recap

Lesson 20 from: Unique Posing for Weddings

Doug Gordon

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Lesson Info

20. Posing Recap

Next Lesson: Recap and Review

Lesson Info

Posing Recap

come on over for my beautiful bride and handsome group now obviously I'm very partial to indian women because I'm married to an indian woman so the thing is when I look at an indian woman I see so much beauty and color and her sari and everything and when they're actually having no wedding they get a beautiful design called a hannah dunne so the henna is one of the most beautiful things you could see between all of the color of the bracelets on the little details when doing any type of indian ceremony whether it be a hindu or muslim whatever maybe you want to take advantage of the various details the hannah is not done just on the hands the henner has done on the feet and it's done for many people it is not just for the bride I remember when my daughter was kind of a flower girl sing the hannah on her and she loved it these are all beautiful hand drawn designs that you want to take advantage of their special things depending on what type of indian ceremony there is the man will sometim...

es where and what is the correct term for it he wears a beautiful okay yup and it's a beautiful it's like a hat but it's got beautiful things on it's absolutely gorgeous these are all important details the more details you know about the different ethnicities and different backgrounds from or you're going to be able to spread your wings and fly mohr indian weddings are a tremendous event not only are they beautiful but they are very very good for profit and the reason why he's indian weddings on multiple days you can go two to three days sometimes they go is long as a week it's a gigantic party that never ends on what's wonderful about indian wedding since it gives you exposure beyond belief I told my wife all wedding was like a baseball game I said you invited to people there's fourteen from that family what happened they just keep coming in this tons of people there on average indian wedding is much higher than any other wedding and what happens is there's such close in that beautiful family groups that you have potential for extra business out of it but since we only have about ten minutes with them let's focus on something too you go away nobody's interested in your you come right over here beautiful I want you to take a look so looking at the details in her sorry it's a matter of bringing the hand pushed put your hand here hand on the hip and now I want you to bring your sorry up to your head just a little bit bring it up into your neck no you could hold the two can you get it up that excellent thank you bring enhancer and relax we're gonna pull a hair out of her eye okay looking down gorgeous stay right there this is a detail lips hands these air all exquisite details that we want to be able to cover when photographing in everything we do is based on details so take a look just from her standing there we could record many details now she's considered a light skin person of color so we would have to adjust our exposure compensation roughly a a third of a stop look at how beautiful that looks now what's happening has turned your head just a little bit to the right beautiful looking down turn your head now let's take a look again details and a focus on her face and look at how I'm able to pick up her lips her eye and are sorry okay works really well because I'm getting extreme detail out of it look at the depth because that's all the detailed look at the curve of her hand it's the side of her hand can I have her handsome husband and for a second do I change anything that I do for this couple that I do for every other couple power because that's not why they came to me I want you to come right in here bring your hand in and I want you in here sorry I haven't seen my indian wife in two days I'm a mess come forward a little bit you come for polar hand into you bring your hand up and now bring your hands bring your lips store hand you tilt your head beautiful just a little bit eyes down push ahead against get up higher just like that looking at stretching out beautiful stretch your chin out handsome chin out now but your eyes down with one thing is you see the hair going into the eye sweep it out a little bit beautiful just like that lean forward stretcher chin out beautiful I won't call you beautiful over there big land its highs down no smile take a look now these are all poses that you saw before that's a nice image is telling them isn't it but everything we do is about creating something different so here's an image he did not say can I ask you to come right over here and kneel down in front of her can you put your right leg down actually switch your other right like good you're going to come right here doesn't every bride one an image of her husband lifting her up they saw dirty dancing and think that's the magic israel but can every guy lift up his woman not possible he could have a bad back she might be a little bit heavier whatever it may be but can we take it of course we can you're going to turn towards him and I want you to put your hands on her waist like you're going to lift her up and you're going to put your hands here I want you to kick your left like in between his hands you left again between his legs beautiful chicken was just like this and I want you to push in and bring your head back all the way now what do you think makes this work could I do this inside this room it's not ideal but I want to show you the post I'd want to do it outside so that I could shoot up into the sky you're looking up at heart your head is back push into him more beautiful little bit more little bit more just like that lean in closer to him you got to get your body in close that him gorgeous but a bit more head back accent dinner up now the idea is by shooting up it's not going to be obvious that he's not whips what happened can anybody tell me I hit the background right thought it was a little fast head back a little bit stay right there excellent think I'm still a little fast okay let's take a look now if that's outdoors can you tell he's not picking up think so relax one second so what taking him lifting him up by cutting everything else you're gonna hop up for a second handsome is your sorry pendant right now no can we bring it up and it is okay could you pull that out if you don't mind I want you because I want to wrap it up around your head if you can bring it around excellent wrong side messing it up I have not put on my sari and so long sorry a matter of fact yes bring it in now come here looking down from me turn your head over your shoulder and push him back so push your hip here and not turn your head over your shoulder here but bring it up over your head if you can excellent just fixed the tap good perfect you could side out one second you see we're setting up again a detail looking down take a look now look at what we say nice image turn your head to your right beautiful a little bit right there turn your head a little more no turn it towards you turn your head this way right there let's look what happens again pushing sorry out I like that image soft and easy stay where you are can you coming over here handsome good bring you know is right to her cheek no you're gonna bring your nose in coaster is it okay that he's in shadow no lean forward a little bit handsome to make excellent stay right there now what's gonna happen is he's going to overexpose because he hit her light dinner so I had to slow down on the fiftieth of a second take a look he's it's a nice image isn't it again playing with different tones and softness I know you guys got to go but thank you so much for coming I appreciate a great they are beautiful aren't they got good thank you so much nice meeting you okay now what questions do we have on what we did for today and I'm going to get to a couple other things but I want to see what questions we have anything from you guys yes tony question about when you're dealing with different ethnicities with the sorry she should act like if there's always afraid of like crossing some kind of well you got to research them you gotta researched um you know you got to know I know that if I'm walking into our house edict jewish wedding that number one I can't touch them in number two they can't touch each other the way that I'm used to wear the same thing with orthodox you learn what each kind it's all once how do you do it you could just look online at this point you can find out every piece of information that you need to know or want to know but he has the thing if you haven't picked it up yet you saw me shoot how many hundreds of images today I'm doing the same thing it's the same exact lighting pattern over and over and over again it's about simplicity things don't change it's always the same could I have a bridal veil if we have it please the reason I want a bridal veil is I just want to show you kind of the breakdown of how this works and I'm gonna show you how simple this is we've lost all our models but I want to show you because some people at home may be thinking for opposing is just for the bride alone grow malone bride and groom together it's not it's for every portion no blind over oh she took it with her oh I'm sorry I thought we have one okay now with that being said okay we don't have a bridal veil so let me give you a kind of an idea of what we do can I have you're gonna come up and you're gonna come up for a second one on you come on up way did excellent thank you so much sir you were awesome so let's bring it over here let's pretend that warren is the bride okay one of the things that have learned over time is that you need to almost be a seamstress okay so let's say she's gonna wear the veil over her face can I have you turned towards me beautiful you're going to come in and you're going to be dad for a second so I know and just about every faith that dad is going to come on this side of his daughter when walking down the aisle with the exception of a jewish wedding you're going to lock horns with him because it's probably you know you gonna hold hands or lock arms papa got a lot going on but if you're gonna lock haram or is she gonna lock your own like that right does that make a difference surprised and her dad is this a detail right here if you focus right on the hands huh okay that's a little detail isn't it now what about when dad gives her away do you ever get a great shot of dad giving away the bride you have people in the bathroom with people taking pitches to people all that sort of stuff nothing good I want the perfect shot so I pose this turned towards that you're going to look at each other good now where's the best shot is it right here no the best shot of this is going to be the angle that you could never ever in a million years get during the ceremony looking up dad good you turn your body and head to may excellent I got great light I'm shooting over his shoulder just like that and you're smiling it dad happy don't move watch how fast the mood changes shin down laura and looked down no smile oh my goodness dads she giving me away leaning closer dot close your eyes turn your head to your right warrant lauren eyes down look at how I changed the mood I went from her happy and smiling to dad giving her away in a second I changed the mood and nobody knows what happened I created a total emotion that works ten times better now what about the bride and her dad flo poising watch this we're going to take you dad come around this side of your beautiful daughter we're gonna bring him in here dad you're gonna put your arm around your daughter's shoulder now someone is going to make the comment of turn your body a little bit can you show yourself just a tad warm by opening you like some more dad lift up your feet because you're stepping on my tail and she's gonna get real crab dad brings his hand around the shoulder okay now we're going to bring her hand right on top does this look familiar she's going to open a hip up but the difference is when dad is with her we don't want it to be intimate and some of you may be saying this to intimate it's not intimate it's his daughter he loves her he loves our turn your head beautiful just like that dangling and close looking at your daughter stretching out that good don't go in the year your dad your eyes out here beautiful tilt your head to dad turn your head to your right lean your body's forward eyes up you're looking at her dad your smile gorgeous look right over here lauren eyes up you're doing terrific stay there don't move yeah turn your head to me answer more when you're heading close to your daughter just like that stay there now tilt your heads together dad being a step forward just like that looking at me here lean your heads close together leaning forward looking out you're doing great smiling teeth dad you're faking it dad happy now give a hug wrap their arms around each other and squeeze your cheeks together looking up may come forward turn your head to your right warrant go just like that looking at me here chin down just a tad smile and happy dad you're faking it excellent don't move those air three images that are exactly the same as full posing with the bride and her dad dad you step out mom come over here and watch what we do here how could I create this watch the bride and her mom heads together come in nice and close we want to show off our beautiful bride's ring turn your bodies in a little bit good just like that we're going to bring the bail again is crucial so the best way to get it to stay in a staple it into her head can you push out your arm here now when you had forward mom a little bit you turn your head to your right on both of you lean forward turn your head to your right I'm showing off probably mom's ring on the bride's ring leaning forward ladies you're doing spectacular notice where I'm cropping into our and happy don't move so now what we're doing is now I want you both to look down at the ring heads down look at the ring take a look I'm bringing the bail over their head is that part of flow posing yes but I adapted it according to this situation looking down stay there hold it you are doing wonderful I'm tilting to warren because I want her to be higher groups got a bit excited there now look at each other not like you're dating leaning close teo they're happy hold it I wanna make sure that he got perfect light and now watch what happens because I missed my spot take a look way we're going to see it what do you think's gonna happen if I miss my spot it's going to start to under a little bit now take the veil off mom and to order give a hug squeeze your cheeks together this is change hugging arms together just like that won't bring your hand on the back ward and turn your head to your right good goran turn ahead to your right tilt the top you had to of lauren clean forward chin down one smile and nice and happy ladies eyes up excellent how long did that take me to do those poses with a bride mom and dad seconds and I've got multiple different ones thank you guys so you see it's the same thing you just have to adjust to the lighting ladies do we have some questions we absolutely dio have a very serious question for you this is from uh it hacker mike who says doug do you know any traditional indian dance moves can you break into a bollywood like dancers very serious question let's see it await no that's my that's my victor cruz the giants that was one working out hold on hollywood think molly would have any indian music no music no I don't got him down my wife and me don't do indian dance show he says I step on her feet but if you want I do have a private youtube video of me doing indian dances they are spectacular also in case you forgot let don't play don't play yes I was given opportunity play I was like trying to serve us not jumping through a window okay fair enough fair enough oh boy okay so um question is from what see from michael tolls photography about the indian couple who's in atlanta when shooting indian weddings and some other weddings that have specific traditions do you still focus on getting your album shots the traditional images for the family or both I'm always for both here's the thing that we haven't talked about yet and this is really really important I showed you god knows how many different bride alone grow malone and bridegroom portrait's today write what sells family I told you yesterday when I got married my grandfather died two weeks after the wedding on my mother thought about oh my goodness I wish I had a photo of my father and me together the problem was very very simple what was the problem the problem wass that we didn't have that so what we wanted to do was make sure as a photographer I've learned I want to take everything imaginable so always focusing on the family let me give you an idea of how deep I go let's say the bride has one grandma it's mom's mom it's the bride's mom's mom we understand the setup where most photographers they're going to do the bride and grandma and then maybe the bride and groom a grammar and programmer on one big family picture that's not what I'm going to jail I'm going to do the bride alone with grammar I'm going to do grandma with the bride and all of the other grandchildren I'm going to do the bride grandma and her mom three generations I'm gonna do graham r and all of her great grandchildren I'm going to do graham are with the bride and groom I'm going to do graham are with all of her children I'm going to do graham are with mom when was the last time you had an image of you and your parents in the older years of their life probably never so the fact is I'm doing all the images that I know that I but by the time I'm done do you think the bride's going to put all these images in her album why not do you think the bright smile might better chance on what about grandma grandpa passed away he left her a lot of money and he said when I go I want you to buy an album from dug for yourself that's exactly what he was thinking and here's the thing grandma cannot buy a small itty bitty album she needs to buy a big album because she's old and can't see well so we need to shoot for our market we need to shoot images that cell themselves let me give you an example here we talked about my online service do you think what I'm going through image quicks the reason I'm making money with them is because I'm just the services great service is great but do you think I'm selling lots of writing group pictures toe all the guest the answer's no you go on a cruise you get the worst picture of you ever taken in your entire life but you dressed up do you buy it yes you do why because you don't have a good picture of you so why aren't you doing that events you know what we do we put a little card on the table with an engagement picture the bridegroom that says on behalf of the bride and groom we want to thank you so much for coming to today's wedding please go up tio come up to us we'd love to take a picture of you your family your spouse or anybody near and dear to you and you can visit this and see this at www packing photographer dot com the event name is by the passwords bob la onda then they go and buy it because they're looking for a picture of themselves and tomorrow I'm going to tell you how to sell it but the fact is family sells always always always always always never short of family do as many individual families as you can and when we're talking to business I'm going to tell you things tomorrow that's going to make your headaches below if it's not already exploding reposing ideas wait till we talk business and photoshopped come on jesse so matter you're here with the people at home I'm just getting just talk to me because you know you're my favorite guy are you going to show us like a sample of that card that you table are no because then you might use it and then you get more business something I look I don't usually do a powerpoint presentation during the business portion but it's pretty easy I could show you how to design it or something I may happen that we could put it's literally about a wallet size card simple it's not a business card it's not about promoting I want to make sure that I get them do it that's why I put the picture on it okay but we're going to talk about that a lot tomorrow quite a few questions one from michael tolls one from marco eighty seven talking about including hair and makeup in your boudoir packages do you always include hair and makeup and what about talking to them beforehand about what they're gonna wear do you ever get involved at all I do not get involved with those conversations I tell them I want you to wear something that makes you feel sexy I want you to wear something that makes you feel glamorous I want you to do the makeup the way you want it done why don't I bring a makeup artist and because I've been doing it long enough to know most makeup artists make people look the way they think looks good rather than the way that they feel looks good I've seen it long enough do you know how many mornings I've been to weddings where I had to wait because the bride was changing her hair or makeup that she didn't like the way it was done why would I want to get involved with that nightmare I'm a photographer I own a photography and a videography company and that's what I'm best at so that's what I deal with cool are we gonna get into video at all tomorrow we'll talk about it of course because I'm sure people we do almost eight hundred video jobs a year again the thing that makes my studio really special unique is that we're completely self contained everything we do is inside I'm a control freak were our own we do everything there all of the photographers of full time employees or people have trained under me and all of the videographers of full time employees and we have our own video editing suite with everything that's why that weeklong class is so valuable because when people come in if they say I want to learn how to design albums were going to teach them I want to design a toe print photos were going to teach them I want to learn video I want to learn to shoot it I want to learn to edit it we're going to teach them we're always looking for people like you said it's very difficult for me to hire people just don't hire strangers the best person is the person who believes in what I'm doing that's why have this many people we just did something it was incredible I wanted to try it it was the first time we did it we put out to have interns come in and I wanted to make it kind of like survivor on the idea of it wass I never expected what happened to happen wait over six hundred fifty people apply for an internship ah free internship people from all over the world because they wanted to come in and work and I happen to have now I have a problem because I originally wanted to take three I bought in ten because there was so many good people now I need to make a decision how do I hire a ll ten so it's kind of like survivor in a sense I gotta pick from that crop but these are people who are working hard they're a great group of kids and adults I have someone in there who's an airline mechanic I have someone who's an accountant I have other kids in college over massage therapist this is the best group of people ever on you're all fighting for a job so what I've decided to do it since I have all these free interns coming in is gonna give you the best advice to operate a business I'm going to fire my entire staff to save money and I'm going to bring in free in terms for the entire year in ten week period is to replace that you are not all right it was a good thought how many employees do you have now I have over thirty two thirty two thirty two full time employees what other questions way have more questions doug question from leah s is I get a two page list from the family with all the poses that the family wants and it's overwhelming while I try to do my best have you ever been in the situation and how do you handle the press stir well here's the thing if they're giving you a list you're probably not telling them exactly what you're going to dio they're giving a list because you've never ever expressed properly what you're going to dio I don't let my clients give me a list I say I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do for you here's a list of everything that we d'oh these are the standard shots that we're going to get every time if there's anything outside the box that you think we need to know or relatives gonna do it I'm going to go over things and full details let me give you an example although nobody likes to deal with divorce and work with it is a wedding photographer dis divorce excitement at a wedding if both the bride's parents in the groom's parents are divorced is it a good thing from me strictly on a business sense it is because I'm smart this is the way I'm going to do the family pictures okay I need the bridegroom with the bride's mom mom you going to stay right there mom great two pitches bam got it done dad you're going to go in on the other side of your handsome new sun and more perfect stay there just like that okay one two three smile smile and happy mom you step out that's new white step in looking right here let's say the brothers and sisters okay now didn't step right step out mom stepped back in akita doing it over and over and over and breaking into three groups which means I sell how many more images from that standpoint but it's a matter of knowing who's who when I do family pitches on much like an auctioneer let's go with move along chop chop chop chop let's go let's go let's go do you think I get a list nobody gives me a list because I tell them all the time when you hire me you can be confident that I am going to do everything you want and then some trust me I pride myself on ness over thirty six hundred weddings over the last twenty two years I've never ever ever ever had someone complained ever never because I go sushi was such extraneous detail to shoot everything you know what the real reason they don't complain besides my explicit detail they like me I'm your friend you don't complain in her your friend there been days of course has been days where haven't been as good as I want to bay but the point is I go and leave it all out there that is a job that you can't call in sector a photographer is a job can't call in sick to people have waited their whole life for what you're going to do that day that moment their whole life that's what mattis I remember the day I had to bury my grandfather I was at the bride's house two hours later I shot one of the best jobs of my entire life because I focused now is it something that I probably should have done no realistically I probably should have been with my family but that was my outlet and I thought to myself grandpa passed away there's nothing I can do for him now I was here I did what I had to do but what purpose of my serving if I'm not going to be there for this bride who planned her whole life for what I do this day so you have to take what you do serious there are no bad days there's bad moments but not bad days not when you do what you do that's why would cbs marketwatch and our photographer was an overpaid thing I can't call in sick I can't miss an event when was the last time you went to a family barbecue well that's exciting that you get the missile those things but the fact is it's not about that it's about putting in the effort question from ace and spade who is glenn alexander from indonesia um since you since boudoir is an intimate type of photography would you suggest using music to amplify the mood would you combine it well with your type of euros whenever I'm shooting I try to play music now it depends on what you're into always ask the subject what type of music they like but most times believe it or not in my case because of my personality and the energy that I kind of put out I used the music that I like which is usually like I'll play line over it because I like to get all down all night long yeah yeah you know just getting lionel richie I'll play tunes that I like that motivate me to do what I have to do but music is always a relaxing always we have we have a chat host one of our off screen chat hosts his name is bob makes that wonderful banana bread in case it baba objects to the referral of uncle bob so we're just going to ask this question and subject it with uncle george question is from by dawn's light from texas how do you doug handle uncle george and everyone else that wants to take pictures of group formals when you're trying to rush through them okay here's the thing if I stop blocking them and getting involved with them I'm not doing my job number one my perfect can I make mistakes so when you make a mistake is it a bad thing if they have a backup right there for you so why fight him and then when something goes on and on the backup and here's the other thing when I do my job and do it right I shouldn't have to worry about uncle george should I because it's all about making sure that I do it right on you see how fast I shoot do you think there's anybody who can keep up with me it's about control I say just don't get in front of me and all that stuff and if someone does get in front of me I'll probably kind of tease them a little bit embarrassed this way they know not to cross that line again but why fight it why fight it it's not a matter I can't worry about what uncle giorgio he is the new hot thing do you know all the djs now who were doing zap it's and sending someone out with their camera whose unprofessional shooting all these things at weddings that's what they do where I'm from do I worry about the djs during zap it's no because I need to do my job my job is to create perfect portrait and sell them that's why I do what I do I don't worry about what other people deal I get asked all the time people call me well don't you worry about which competitors you know because if I worry about what my competitors doing that means I'm not doing my due diligence to make myself better thie only competition I have it is may the only person who could make me fear inferior is may I need to do what I have to do this way I make sure that I'm always on top if I'm paying attention to what he's doing I can't possibly be expanding myself or my knowledge

Class Materials

bonus material

Day 1 Slides
Flow Posing Guide
Bonus Video: Workflow: Doug Gordon Photoshop A
Bonus Video: Workflow: Doug Gordon Photoshop B
Bonus Video: Workflow: Doug Gordon Photoshop C
Bonus Video: Workflow: Doug Gordon Photoshop D

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

I loved every minute of it! I watched and re-watched the Live show 3 times and now have the video version to burn into my mind. I don't get sick of watching it, I learn something new with each viewing. I have notes upon notes, inspirational quotes and I was truly inspired. I saw you live at your workshop and I wish we would of covered the business section a bit more in depthly because after watching you here on creativeLive I was floored! I can't wait to attend another one of your workshops because you are a wealth of knowledge, energetic and you inspire me to be better! I'm so glad I wasn't afraid to try even though I was terrified at first. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being such an amazing mentor!

a Creativelive Student
 

Doug is AMAZING! The way he teaches makes it fun and easy to understand. The way he poses his couples are so fast and easy to learn, I have taken my photography from mediocre, to world-class. I would love to meet him and thank him personally one day. Thank you Creativelive for introducing me to Doug, and thank you, Doug, for introducing me to CreativeLive! The best community for learning!!!

Adrian Farr
 

Doug has so much enthusiasm, it is beyond measurable. He is truly a fantastic motivator. He helps you understand the best ways to work with the light you have and shows you some very simple yet effective posing techniques. I highly recommend watching and buying this course if you want some great advice on improving your photography.

Student Work

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