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Posing Indoors and Outdoors

when it comes to posing. Like I said earlier, every senior girl that have ever photographed ever I don't care where they want to. Pounds of weigh £2.200 pounds. They want to look skinny. They want to look skinny. So to do that, what you have to do is you have to turn their body sideways. Now, the girl that you see on the screen right here very attractive, young lady. She is not. She is absolutely not the skinniest person on the planet. She's not okay. She is a typical average high school senior, but by noticed that I turned her body completely sideways. Toe where it's this. This is what you're looking at right here. Not this. Okay? I don't care who you are. Were all skinnier here. Then we are here. And that's the same thing with her. Noticed the two lines. If I was to Turner. What? You can't do that in the picture, but she would grow significantly over with where those two lines blue lines are. So that's one of the first things I do Whenever posing girls is I make sure it at all possib...

le. I teach the body turned sideways. Now somebody like Lexi. Somebody like Lexi. She is already a very slim person. And when they're already very, very slim, I mean, you can pose them literally straight onto the camera like this and get away with it. But if that girl is a little bit fluffy, do not do it now I will say this. There's been a many of senior girls that I've come in and bought a or just large and proud. They know that big girls, but they are happy with themselves when I get one of those in there the thought the concept of, Well, she's big and, you know, I need to make sure she's skinny and all that stuff always is there. But if I if she is posed, square on to the camera and she is looking good and proud of herself, well, boom, I will shoot it because she's comfortable with herself. So it all depends on that. We're gonna kind of show that I mean, if it's somebody Lexie you can tell right off the bat, you walked right on camera was cool with it, so she's not gonna be that kind of person. But there are some people when they you know, the body. The body language is this. Well, it's your job to build him up when they walk in, and they'll just, like, be fun. Well, you know, it's your job to work with that. So anyway, back to posing. The next thing I want you to understand is the to Z rule. A good buddy, my Ralph Rome Aguilera from New Orleans. Okay, who's probably photographed every senior in the New Orleans area. All right, is the one who first introduced me to the to Z rule. And the two z rule basically states this. If you have two of something on your body, make sure that they're never on the same plane. Okay? And to demonstrate that in this picture, notice what happens? She's got two eyes. She's got two hands. She's got two feet. See what I'm getting at. How those choose any time you have two of something, do not put them on the same plane Now I want Lexie comes eBay. So Lexi has his standing straight on to the camera. We're gonna go right to that camera straight on, okay? And we're gonna pose you write and put your feet together. You put your hands together. OK? We're gonna take our picture like that now, Is that boring or what? Ok, now watch what happens if all you do is shift the twos. So we're gonna first shift the knees, take your right knee bended towards the camera. Okay? We'll make you hips really poke out to the left. Okay, So all we did is now notice that the knees are not on the same plane that forced the hips to a different plane. No watch. Put your hands on your hips now. Okay, One high one low. They're so much more fun. That is the look at OK. And when you poke your hips out really, really hard, give me the feeling like you're trying to touch that shoulder. To you. To your hip. You'll never do it. But that's the feeling. Uh, so now do you see what happened with the shoulders? Different plane. Now, what I want to do is tip your head to me and roll your face over here to make just a little bit and chin down just a little bit. But look at the camera boot. Do you see how now she goes like this. Like this. Like this. You see it? Now go back to straight on which one's more interesting. Yes, that's the to Z rule, and it can happen anywhere. Okay, I want you to take it with your fingers in your hair. One hand higher than the other. Boom. See how much more fun that is. Okay, Now, I want you to put your hands straight on one across the other, see on boring. That is what I'm getting at. So always, if you got two of something, make sure those two things are always on different planes. Thank you, Lexi. Again, always on a different plane. Now, what that leads to is something that if you've studied posing at all, you know exactly what I'm about to talk about. And that is the s curve. Okay, there it iss. Do you see it now? So I put the big s on top of her with a to Z rule line. And that is what the two Z rule can do for you. It adds that nice s curve. Cool. We making sense. That's it when it comes. That's it. When it comes to girl posing, I can tell you the number of people who message me who send me emails who post on the pro forum and they go My God, Kirk, you're posing is so impeccable, man, I wish I could pose like you. Well, that's it. Now you get you know exactly what I'm always looking for. If you do this enough, I give you one year. If you do it consciously enough constantly, constantly. Within one year, it becomes subconscious. You do it without even thinking, because I'm gonna tell you right now. The girl that you see on the screen right now that was not done. I did not go. Okay, Now let me see. You gotta put that he'll hire because it's she's got two feet and one hand low. One hand, high note. Look now tipped her head this way. It just It just starts to happen after a while. Okay? Posing senior boys. Okay. Every senior boy, whether they are or are not masculine, wants to look masculine. It's a guy thing. So t encourage the masculinity of a boy. What you have to do is you have to make sure that his head is tilted towards the shoulder. That is the farthest from the camera. Okay, so if you're going to use me as an example, watch how this happens. So watch the shoulder. That is the farthest from the camera camera. Is this shoulder okay? So for me to look masculine, I'm gonna tip my head to this shoulder. Now watch what happens if I don't? Do you see in on the camera? How that makes me look feminine. Now what happens is this so often we photographers, we get so wrapped up in the lighting and Oh, Karp said, put the nose towards light. So you got the guy opposed right here. The lights over here, you bring in the light and we have all of us. All humans have this zone around us toe where it's it's a point of comfort here. I hear it isn't my zone of comfort When you cross into my zone of comfort, I would not even thinking about it. Step away from you. Well, with a senior boy, you've got him in his pose. You then bring in that big old soft box, okay? And you cross into his own of comfort. Well, you don't told him. Don't move. He's not moving. He's looking at the camera subconsciously, he tries to get away from the light and he's in a feminine pose. And so that is one of the absolute biggest, biggest mistakes. When photographers say Kirk and I show you my stuff and tell me what you think, yes, I'll be happy to look and I look in every guy is posed, feminine, feminine, feminine and so on. This particular guy noticed the blue line. It's slightly tipped in the direction of the Red Arrow, and the red arrow is pointing to the shoulder that is the farthest from the camera. So I suddenly switched to this direction. I want the head going this way in this direction. I want the head going this way. Makes sense and you can go too far and it looked retarded. So notice it's just a little bit just a little bit and just a little bit. The other way is too much. So be cautious. Be aware of that when posing boys. The two z world absolutely works on boys. Also, that's awesome. OK, here's how the two Z rule works when boys also notice he has two eyes. He has two shoulders. Notice that those two are not on the same plane again. If you must oppose him straight on, it gets weird. Cool. All right, Now is this always I mean, is it always know I just did us Ah, girl Just recently and she wanted one of those. I think it's the link home commercial A B was the 1st 1 I have seen it with. The hair is like this and all the shoulders air exposed. She has white, white, white, white makeup on and she's looking into the camera. Everything squared off. I mean, her head squared off her shoulders of squared off. She's dead center of the picture. And she's like this looking into the camera. No expression and man, he looked good. But imagine if you did the whole session like that, that would be horrible. So if you're gonna break the rules, it's okay. It's all right. That's that's called artistic expression. It's okay and it. But don't do it for the whole thing. Do it for maybe one shot and break and in that adds variety. So just I don't know, just play with that. So anyway, that tools easel do, it does work with guys. Two guys are usually taking senior portrait because their mom has forced them to do it. Least that's Mike. My experience. It's very, very rare. You know, if I photographed, say, 20 guys, maybe two of them or their because they really want to be there. The rest of them were there because Mom said No, you're going do these pictures. So make it fun for I can't tell you how many guys walk in like this, my mom and become alright, do. Let's take some pictures, man. What? What outfit? You got this one like? Oh, that this one would do a picture with the truck. Awesome. Like, let's do that. Now, I Where's your truck? Straight, you know, and then But time is over with the, like, high fiving me, and we're having a big dog time. And you know what? You doing way like best buddies? So that's what you gotta do. Make sure they have fun. And if you do, all that equals profit. All of it. Okay, So the reason I have this little thing about the pro form is because on the pro forum we have this bit. I have this movie I made. It's a two hour movie, just one posing. Okay? And I get I get this a lot. And so I went ahead and produce this two hour movie on the movie It I photographed a senior boy. Ah, photograph a senior girl on and I photographed an overweight girl, and all both of them were done inside and outside. And anyway, if anybody joins up for the pro form, I'll give you this movie for free. And anyway, just to show you a little snippet of that movie, this is a little snippet of that movie. All right, let me let me flip this back. Let me do one more kind of tight head shot that you can do that's also quite handy. Keep that background, Have you what I want you to do this time lean just on this elbow towards me. Okay? Now what? That just did. I don't know if you see it, but notice how it took all of this. Which all of this right here from her from her boots up and into the shoulders is all pretty much the right proportion. Okay, Right there. Okay. And I'll tell you what. Since we Dad would fight in that hair. We will keep it. We'll get a like, a little bit of split like that. And what I want you do with your face let you face totally relaxed so much that you let's separate. Okay? Just like that. And then shoot that in real tight again. And watch how that takes. And slimmed right down. Perfect. Perfect. Right there. 123 Now, while I have you there while happy there, it made me think of something that I've done in the past. All right, Like I told you a lot of things that I will do. One thing reminds me another of another. All right, So why are you here? I'm Have you be a little taller, like to their I'm a pull this out. All right. The bank. See both eyes. Chin down a little bit more right there. Earth. Stay, stay. Stay like that, Then what I'm to do is I'm a crop so tight on a face that I actually cut off one I one. I watch this. Right. Let's try horizontal, cause I just did the last one vertical by doing this when horizontal, it makes it look completely different than the one before right there. Great. All right. And that is a cool look and is one of those ones, like I told you about earlier. Sit back up for me by by doing that like that, which you can. What happens is, but by doing that, it gives you a shot right after the shot. And she probably go by. She probably. But it's cool. It's like who? That's cool. And if you have some in there that are oh, that's cool, you go. We could go on with that for two hours. Couldn't. All right, so let's talk about posing and lighting a little bit in the show. You first of all on screen what I hopefully be able to pull off in the very next segment. That is this this delight. The main light is right over the camera. I'm have some sort of reflector underneath the subject, and we're gonna do nice flat lighting, okay? And it's going to look something like that, and that's really magazine. He looking all right. It makes for a really need headshot. Seniors love this kind of thing. What I like about it is that in this particular set up, You can go from one shot to another shot very quickly. Boom, Boom! So we did like the head shot that we put the hands on the face. We then maybe the arms over the head. OK, we then pull in, maybe hands across the side of the face. And another crazy thing I've been known to do is they wearing some kind of outfit that I don't particularly like. I'll take the background and wrap it around them, OK, and do something like that. So I mean, the background can literally become the outfit. And also all 12 of those images were all done exactly the same way. Light on light on top, low reflect on the bottom and shooting under the light. All right. From there, what I hopefully will do is have the main line on the left and then use the kicker light with strip light on the right. Now, if you notice that the main light the kick light is directly opposite the main light and the main light is directly opposite the kicker light. And so what that produces is this kind of effect. The light is going into the subject the nose is facing to the left. So the light of Maine light is on the left. But if you notice all down the right side on the right of her ear, up in her hair, you see that streak of light. That is what that stripped light will do for you. It produces that strip of light. Same thing with this shot is done. Look at her face. Her face on the left. The nose is going to the left. The main light is on the left. But the strip is stripping down that side, hitting a little bit into her cheek. Okay. The effect just wrote quick with the cell phone. The way it's done is just haven't holed up there. Felt cell phone and you Photoshopped that in later. Okay, Same thing here. Noticed down her arm that's in the dark shadows on the right hand side. Noticed that strip of light that's coming down her arm. That's again. Same type of in effect. This image to this is a full length noticed the strip of light down the edge of her face, chiseling out her face. That's what that strip light will do for you, then if we get a chance, we're gonna try to do some high key stuff just up against the brick wall and what I typically do with high key. As I have two strips in this case, only have one. So we're gonna use maybe a raw light and a strip will try to do it like that and point that at the background and shoot the light across the background and then used the main light on the subject and you get these types of effects. That's like a full length effect. That's a close up. And then you could do these kind of cool shoe things that I typically you. Every senior girl comes in like a Brazilian shoes, and they just love you. They think you walk on water if you do a picture of them and all that shit. All right, So then I thought, when it comes to following the nose, I just kind of wanted to throw this and really, really quick to show you that that's the case. That is the light again is on the left just following the nose. Another thing is she is really close to the background in this case. So this is basically Onley lit with just that one light. The main light is acting as a background light and the fill in the whole bit the one on the floor. That's multiple lights, but notice on the floor nose is slightly going upward. But notice the shadow on the bottom side of her nose. That tells you that if the subject is laying on the floor, then the light is coming from kind of above her. In that little video, you saw that all my lights hang off of rails. So moving a light around is very easy in this scenario, today is gonna be a little bit difficult cause we're on stands, but we're going to still make it work. And then finally, this is another one laying on the floor and the light again notice the right side of her nose that the closer to the bottom has a little more shadow on it in the top. So for that reason, it again the light follows the nose. All right. Whenever we photographed outside, I do use a little bit of a reflector Pop follow asked me about that. Just a second ago. Yes. In this case, the reflector is being is on top of the subject, blocking the light coming straight down. This was harsh. Sun Militant Day. Mom is holding the reflector out on top of the subject and then my flashes providing a little bit of light into the face. This one, the little overhang that you see over the subject, is providing the light direction. It keeps the life from coming down. I'm laying on the ground 16 to 35 lens shooting up now all of the effects that you see in this image, for example, the son that was added in in photo shop. That's not really there. The the flair that you see coming across the image again added in photo shopped. This image was shot exactly the way flash on camera, a little bit of a reflector, That's it. And all the other effects were added in later in Photoshopped to create that look. This image, same thing, noticed her hair. Where is the main? Where's the sun? Behind her? Lighting up her hair, a little bit of reflector pounds and light back into the face. Flash on camera. Boom done. But another reason why this slide is up. There is you see the butterfly Totally fake. But a butterfly flew by right as I was about to take the picture and she goes, Oh, my God. Oh, my gold. Did you get that? Did you get that shot? I go. I asked. Absolutely. Why was the big oil? My grandmother died two weeks ago, and she just loved qualifies. Oh, look, I heard the in, and I was the Internet going. Oh, yeah, Yeah. So you know, I bought a butterfly image. Boom. Popped it right in. How you like that kind of fun. And she thought, Man, this guy is good. Oh, yeah, he's good. All right, dude, on a boat in the middle of the Gulf literally middle of Gulf of Mexico. We probably like 10 minutes from Cuba right here. I'm kidding. Way was way out there, and he had this big monster fishing boat, and he was He did all kinds of fancy stuff in the gulf and he wanted to do images in the Gulf. He literally I got to be literally in the gulf when we do it. No problem. It's all done exactly the same way. A little bit of flash on camera. Little Mom's holding the reflector. I'm taking the picture like this. You know, I am on a tripod, you know, And same same set up so amount of the scenario, no matter where I'm at, it's all exactly like I said in the pool. This is above water. I'm not in the water, obviously. Well, I'm in the water, but not under the water. I'm using the same camera system. I'm using the same flash. Mom is holding a little bit of a reflector on this image and the sun is coming in across her hair. You can see it, the reflectors popping light into the face. And that's how that's done. I mean, it's the same. Same set up over and over and over again. Cool. Deal. Now is the time for questions. Follow? Yes. When you're showing inside a studio the diagram. We have one light or two lights. Just a question, cause I didn't see diagram. You said that you always have your few lights on on that case, even a diagram doesn't show. The few lights were on right? The diagram did not show the film lights on because of the fact that the sea there was a couple of those images that were actually done in classes. And there was a couple of those that they were done without fill lights. But for the most part, Yes, yes, my lights. Lights always on. I do have on my feel, like easy access to a flip switch. I will not have that easy access here where I can flip a switch and it goes from approximately F five on my fell to about F four so as to give me a little bit deeper shadow so I can have a deep shadow Are not so deep shadow. Okay, Are you getting any part When you talk about your lights, How is the Okay? My few lights are normally set up. If I'm sure they in in your studio 56 my back like I feel like to be deals. My main like to be there to my right to do that to the best of my ability, but it's a little bit. It's a little bit awkward to do that in this scenario. I do know that in this scenario I tested it last night where the field lights are gonna be an F five. The main lights gonna be at F eight. I can tell you that much. I know that the kicker light is gonna be approximately 556 So I know that much. Okay, I can tell you that Internet world has a question. All right, so one thing that really makes you stand out and that people love about your work is your underwater photography. Second segment for Okay, then all Wait. Okay. Thanks. Question. I doing housings on the show. A bunch of images on dime explained the best I can the entire process. I will give you a teaser. It ain't easy. Okay? It just it ain't easy. All right, How about a question, then? The next one I had it lined up is from Gardner Lake Gear said whenever that you said, wherever the news goes of us goes the light in reference to the studio letting to the same hold. True for your outdoor portrait's. Yes, the answer is yes. Most of the time again. If, for example, that the subject is posed like this outside, I'm and I need It's like there it seems to be a little darkness. Maybe a little too much shadow underneath the eyes, or I'm not getting a good direction because of things like that. I will then use the reflector here to bounce light towards the nose so the reflector will then become my main light. And yes, so the answer Simple answer is yes, followed a nose and they talked about this a little bit yesterday. But could you review What are your studio dimensions again? Okay, this dance studio with the studio is 14 feet. It's 25 feet from the door that enters the changing room to the back to the wall where the full length backgrounds are. That's 25 feet, and I can open that door that leads into the changing room and actually get five more feet and shoot through the door. So I have a full 30 feet to walk. Work with the with a few areas where I have, like the Coke machine, that 10 wall in the lockers and things like that. It's 14 feet, so if I back up against it, the wall right at 14 feet, which some most of time is limiting. But I have a door that opens up into the studio right there that I can open up and I can pull off again, about five more feet shooting through so I can get about 24 25 feet, roughly to the lockers into the to my wall, where the Coke machine and all that stuff is. So far the most part, 25 seems to be a good round length number. 30 is better. 10 foot ceilings minimum. I've tried less than 10 foot, and I find it extremely difficult to pull off with. Less than 10 foot ceilings can be done but extremely difficult, and 14 15 feet wide is nice. But 30 would be great 30 by 30 square room Dream Dream studio todo question the rails that you use in your studio. Can you talk about those? It's It's an old rail system. If I remember from a 1,000,000 years ago I bought him from Cal. You met. You know, I assume they still sell them. I really don't know. There are a Brazilian rail companies out there. You have to find again. The one that's best comfort, your dollars and all that good stuff. Yeah, it's just rails. I mean, it's a very simple concept. There's two rails that go the full length of the room, and there's cross rails that mount to that with a little thing like this. Okay, so that it can twist and move and left and right. And then off of those cross rails hangs what they call scissor drops. And then those scissor drops have like a counterbalance system on it, which is like a spring, and you can tighten the spring or loose in the spring. And so when you drop the light right here, it stays right there. When you lifted up the right here, it stays right there, and that's it. That's that's how the thing works. And it's awesome because it's fast. Were you kind of saw it in the video. I went from one side to another and just kind of dropped it right there. And that's that's why I was asking about that. Because I have these ridiculously large light stands in the way they do, trying to find a way of improving that I find like stands so frustrating and you're gonna see it today. I'm trying not to express my frustration, but it is very, very difficult for me to photograph studio stuff outside of my own little comfort world. But I'm gonna We're gonna give it the all right Hagen in. Casey says, how are you getting the beautiful sky in the images? Is that photo shop or a filter? That image that you saw the boy down low was actually another image, and I just dropped that son in. But there is a technique, and right now we have son. Hopefully, at one o'clock issued this afternoon, we'll still have it. And I'm going to show I hope the sun comes out. That would be my preference, because cheating is when they have clouds in Seattle. I know it's a lot of clouds, so you guys here get cheat a lot, and anybody take a good picture when the clouds air out. Okay. But when that sun is bright sun, it becomes quite difficult. But basically the concept, really a shortness suite is we can make it. Is this the You have to sort of overpower the sun, and you have to put the same amount of light that the sun is touching the blue sky. All right, how much light is touching the sky? You can do that with you. Meet her. That's how much light you have to put on the subject. And I do that with that pro photo acute 600 or whatever light so but I'll demonstrate it. Hopefully, great. Wait. A question about what kind of bracket used on the tripods that you can swivel the camera that was on my tripod, not in the studio. I'll explain that next, but on location inside the tripod that I have here, This is the This is a bogan pistol grip. I think they call it Just call Robert, but anyway, the Bogan pistol grip allows me to move all around, just grab it, and when you let it go, it's there. It's there, OK, and there's a little tensions setting the where can make it more tense or less tense, and you can go all over the place. You can then even move to vertical and all that kind stuff, and that's that now in the studio, I still have this grip, but it's on what is called Ah Amano stand the one I have you can't even buy anymore. It's that old, but they still make him. It's a big ARN thing on the ground with a single pole that comes up and floating on that pole on a spring is a platform. And on that platform is your camera, so that if you want to be low, you grab this thing and you drop down and you shoot. You wanna be high, You grab this thing and you shoot up here and then the thing is on wheels so I could move. Laugh mover, right, move up, move down and is much, much faster. But that's not something you can take on location because it's armed and it's huge and it's massive and it's heavy. And but on location on the topic of tripods, what do you think about mono pods? And that's coming from Ryan lost. I like. Yes, if if I had the choice between a mono pod or nothing, it would be a mono pod because it gives you just that little bit of stability. And that's how a lot of times I've graduated people to a tripod is I'll say, Okay, would you at least put your camera on the mono pod? Okay. Would you at least do this? That what? You have something here And then you can You can go here and take and you can go here and take and you lease, get a little bit more sub stability instead of just being freehand and they will go. Okay. Okay. Kirka! Yeah, I got a mono pod. I'm going to start doing it that way. And then they get the images skyrocket. So much better that they didn't go. Who may be. Kirk's got something, and they go to this. Okay? And while we're on that subject, I got just a minute. I will mention this. So imagine the camera is on the tripod. In the subject is the Internet world. And I'm going to take your picture. And I looked through the camera. I get everything, all focus and I get you posed. Tip your head. Everybody's look. Did you see that? The whole Internet world tip their head that way? Anyway, I get everything all set up now I'm about to take the picture. I got my finger on the button because everything said and not moving. I can do this. I can move from the camera. I can focus on the subject and wait for that moment, and then boom. I got it. Now, how is that different than when you're looking through the camera? Hand held when you got one eye closed and you looking through this camera? Hand held. All right. You look at the subject and you click. The shutter goes black the day blank. I don't know if they blank it was black. So your only choice. Take another one and take another one and take another 10 take another one and take another one and you end up with this. Clear. Clear. Cook it till you cook it. They took it to break stuff. Where is with a truck pod? It eliminates that you can then be more with and into the moment with your subject, making sure it's right and getting better images. That's my opinion. More questions. We dio We have a couple questions. One from Paul would What are your thoughts on using a passport color checker for color setting? I think anything that you do along those lines is forest color will make your image is better. Now may. Personally, there is a thing called at the lab. A lipstick test. So get with your lab, have your lab give you the lipstick tests to find out your ability to see color because we all see color differently. Women see different color than men. Typically, women are better at seeing color than men. Okay, there are certain people when you say red red with anger. That is because of the blood in your in your system that's goes into you and you're literally looking through red blood. And so you tend to adjust Ray. So if you're it's an angry day, your color checking and ability is not gonna be is good. Well, the lipstick test will literally show you and your ability to see color. I took the lipstick to slip stick test, and after I finished, the lab said, You want a job? So apparently I did good, all right, so I do perceive color better according to them than the average Joe. And if you find out that you do not perceive color very well, it may be a good idea for you to eat a harsh someone that does, or do things like you said the passport and the little grey cards And yeah, all those things. Yeah, I don't do that mainly because of my ability to perceive color. Okay. All right. So Hey, I think that's how we feeling about how are we feeling? Let's do Can we do some scratching way? We're gonna kind of some of these things we'll do a couple of times. But I did explain my off camera outside. I did tell you all of my camera settings. I'm not gonna go do that. I did a little bit posing. We'll talk about that. I showed you my outdoor set up. We're gonna talk about that. We talk about that underwater. Wouldn't talk about that. Lenses cameras on a budget. I did tell you that what camp would lends to buy specifically. Um, alright, they were alright. That's at least gets us a couple of things. Guys, stuff. We're gonna go mawr detailed into several of those things. That's what always happens on Camera Day is that you tend to, you know, you do things multiple times